Sutton Impact comments on the Downing Street Memo

Click Here: village voice > Sutton Impact by Ward Sutton:

"Could it be that the sideshow distractions to the Iraq War are at last
IN THEIR FINAL THROES?"

This cartoon does a great job of putting all the flag burning and other administration distractions (and the willing blindness of the media) in perspective and into one panel.

The hottest products on CafePress on 6/28/05? Downing Street Memo products

Here's their copy on today's CafePress.com Wire:

"The recent expose of the Downing Street Memo brought into question at what point President Bush decided to go to war with Iraq. For the most part, all is quiet in the media on this issue, but a hand-delivered petition of 560,000 U.S. citizens signatures demanding answers from Bush on the validity of the memo is a unified voice that is hard ignore. Also, pro-Bush and anti-Bush citizens are keeping the issue alive, expressing all viewpoints on blogs, web sites and now on products for all Americans, especially the families with loved ones killed in Iraq and those still stationed there who deserve answers."

Start spreading the word about September in Washington DC

Here are my new sidebar decorations:

Please click on the image for more information from United for Peace and Justice, and think about doing what you can to get there on September 24-26 and/or spreading the word to others.

Can the Downing Street Memo catch the Runaway Bride® before the end of June??

Anyone who has visited True Blue Liberal in the month of June knows that I have been tracking three search terms on news.google.com. The first check was just to document the point that the MSM were totally ignoring the DSM, but the trend has been surprisingly positive lately.
Here are the results from 9:00 am edt on 6/29/05 compared to my first check at 8:15 am edt on 6/2/05:

"Downing Street Memo" -- 2,220 hits (UP almost 1,000% and rising consistently from 288 hits on June 2nd).
"Runaway Bride" -- 2,840 hits (DOWN from 5,260 hits on 6/2, and at least a few of of the new stories are about generic runaway brides in Kenya and the Carribean, not our celebrity and soon-to-be-trademarked Runaway Bride®).
"Michael Jackson" -- 30,900 hits (UP from 21,400 hits on 6/2, but trending downward from a high close to 50,000 right after his trial) .

Hey Kids!Have Fun! Keep checking the links. The Downing Street Memo will never get as much coverage as the former lead singer from The Jackson Five even if it does lead to Bush's impeachment, but the Runaway Bride® only has a 600 hit lead! Will her fifteen minutes expire before the DSM loses its head of steam? We should do everything we can to keep the pressure on.

True Blue Liberal

No. The rumors are not true that True Blue Liberal now has a job writing speeches for the White House!

I may not be putting words into his mouth.
However, the similarities are eerie between my
prediction from yesterday and the speech itself.

My prediction:

"Good Evening My Fellow Merkins" "I'm Honored to Be Here at Fort Bragg in Front of this Uniformed Uniform Audience of Non-Liberals" "The World Changed On 9/11" "They Attacked Us" "It's Hard Work" "Salute the Brave Soldiers and Soldierettes" "We're Fighting Terrists Over There so We Don't Have to Fight Them Over Here in the Heimat ... uh, Homeland" "Support Our Troops" "July Fourth This Weekend" "Blessings of Liberty" "Flag Flag Flag" "God Bless America and No One Else" "Goodnight"

He hit every one of my bullet points. And here's an excerpt from the pep rally . . . uh, I mean speech itself. I was especially proud to have predicted this fourth of July/flag reference (from whitehouse.gov):

" ... The American people are behind you. Next week, our nation has an opportunity to make sure that support is felt by every soldier, sailor, airman, Coast Guardsman, and Marine at every outpost across the world. This Fourth of July, I ask you to find a way to thank the men and women defending our freedom -- by flying the flag ... "

Any guesses about what symbol Karl Rove is going to use as the centerpiece of his attack ads in the 2006 midterm elections? I'll give you a hint. It's red, white, and blue, and Congress is trying to pass a Constitutional Amendment about it.
Number of references to "weapons of mass destruction" or "WMD" in last night's Iraq Justification & Continuation speech? Zero.
Number of references to "September 11th, 2001" as a reason for our invasion of, and permanent presence in, Iraq? Five.
Big lies require constant repetition and staying resolutely "on message", which is why it's not very hard to predict what this guy is going to say whenever the teleprompter (or the electronic box under his suit jacket) is turned on. The networks should be ashamed to give him air time.

True Blue Liberal

Here's one reason the mainstream media might be a little shy about digging too deeply into the darker corners of the Bush White House. Jail anyone?

Reporters sans frontières - 27 June 2005
"Reporters without Borders denounces a "retrograde and freedom-curtailing decision"*:

Reporters without Borders is very concerned about the decision by the Supreme Court of the United States on June 27, 2005, not to hear the cases of Judith Miller, of The New York Times, and Matthew Cooper, of Time magazine, each sentenced by a federal court to 18 months in prison for refusing to reveal their information sources. The two journalists have no further judicial recourse and are now facing actual incarceration.

[ . . . ]

Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper had refused to reveal their information sources to a special chamber charged with investigating the information leaks that led to publication in the press of the identity of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame. In this case, the White House was suspected of having released Mrs. Plame's name in retaliation against her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who had publicly opposed President Bush's arguments in favor of the war in Iraq.

Judith Miller had investigated this matter on behalf of the New York Times, but had finally decided not to devote an article on it. In Time magazine's July 17, 2003 issue, Matthew Cooper had merely mentioned that "some government agents" had given Mrs. Plame's name to the press.

Here's my question. Why are Time and the New York Times, bastions of the so-called liberal media, the scapegoats in this government attempt to silence future Deep Throats? Why isn't Robert Novak, the man who published Valerie Plame's name and knows well which White House source gave him that information, being asked this question and convicted of contempt for not answering? I probably missed something important somewhere along the line, but why is he off the hook? It couldn't have anything to do with him being a useful and loyal rightwing crackpot, could it?

Just asking,
True Blue Liberal

------------------------------
* The awkward "retrograde and freedom-curtailing decision" sounds much more elegant in the French title: ". . . une décision « rétrograde et liberticide » ". Liberticide should become an English word in these times, used in a sentence such as: "George W. Bush, you are accused by this Congress of liberticide, and are hereby impeached."

The Washington Post does a good job today of putting the Downing Street Memo into context

Click Here: "From Memos, Insights Into Ally's Doubts On Iraq War"
Washington Post 28 June 2005.

There's no point in summarizing this article here except to say that it makes the point that the now-famous July 23, 2003 Downing Street Memo written by Matthew Rycroft was preceded by high level British and Anglo-American meetings and Downing Street Memos going back to January 2003 at which Bush's desire for an invasion of Iraq (using WMDs and UN resolutions as a fig leaf of legality) was discussed.

This article seems well-researched, well-sourced (after all, the Post, as the owner of Newsweek, has to be more aware than most that there are rightwingnut bloggers out there searching for the next "Rathergate" of a misplaced comma that's going to collapse the whole liberal media conspiracy against their God-Anointed President), andwell-timed, with the Bush speech on Iraq coming up tonight (Here's the TBL preview of the speech highlights, so you can avoid the pain of listening to the drawling Social Security privatization pitchman on the idiot box tonight : "Good Evening My Fellow Merkins" "I'm Honored to Be Here at Fort Bragg in Front of this Uniformed Uniform Audience of Non-Liberals" "The World Changed On 9/11" "They Attacked Us" "It's Hard Work" "Salute the Brave Soldiers and Soldierettes" "We're Fighting Terrists Over There so We Don't Have to Fight Them Over Here in the Heimat ... uh, Homeland" "Support Our Troops" "July Fourth This Weekend" "Blessings of Liberty" "Flag Flag Flag" "God Bless America and No One Else" "Goodnight").

Now go read the article and forward it to someone,
True Blue Liberal

"Rove is a red herring. Keep your eye on the big fish." --- EXACTLY!

Washingtonpost.com 24 June 2005
"Achenblog: Daily Humor and Observations from Joel Achenbach":

... as part of some double-secret triple-backloop political strategy, Rove realized he needed to cause a distraction. He informed the president that the poll numbers were looking bad, or that Social Security privatization is about as likely as the resurgence of alchemy. The president said, "Karl, go out there and say something really dumb." By now you should know that nothing happens in the White House political shop except for very calculated reasons. Rove is a red herring. Keep your eye on the big fish.

Let the short pasty porcine Rasputin spew all he wants. Personally, I'm glad that he's made it clear that Republicans and Conservatives are the Party of War and Blood and Holy Vengeance and High-Tech Death from Above and that Liberals are the Party of Peace and Law and Justice. Given that choice, I have to assume that most people would rather be liberals. Wouldn't they?

Just one question Karl: How do you reconcile being The Official Party of War® with The Culture of Life®? Or does The Culture of Life® only extend to American embryos and vegetables?

Just asking,
True Blue LIBERAL

Please read Paul Krugman today -- Now that Bush has been beaten on Social Security, PK is going to beat him over the head with the Downing Street Memo

"The War President" by Paul Krugman
- The New York Times / 24 June 2004:

It begins like this:

. . . after 9/11 President Bush, with obvious relish, declared himself a "war president." And he kept the nation focused on martial matters by morphing the pursuit of Al Qaeda into a war against Saddam Hussein.

In November 2002, Helen Thomas, the veteran White House correspondent, told an audience, "I have never covered a president who actually wanted to go to war" - but she made it clear that Mr. Bush was the exception. And she was right.

It ends like this:

We need to deprive these people of their ability to mislead and intimidate. And the best way to do that is to make it clear that the people who led us to war on false pretenses have no credibility, and no right to lecture the rest of us about patriotism.

The good news is that the public seems ready to hear that message - readier than the media are to deliver it. Major media organizations still act as if only a small, left-wing fringe believes that we were misled into war, but that 'fringe' now comprises much if not most of the population.

In a Gallup poll taken in early April - that is, before the release of the Downing Street Memo - 50 percent of those polled agreed with the proposition that the administration 'deliberately misled the American public' about Iraq's W.M.D. In a new Rasmussen poll, 49 percent said that Mr. Bush was more responsible for the war than Saddam Hussein, versus 44 percent who blamed Saddam.

Once the media catch up with the public, we'll be able to start talking seriously about how to get out of Iraq.

But please read the whole thing at the Times site before you have to pay for it.

Operation Yellow Elephant - Attention Young Republicans! Come on all of you big strong men (& women) / Uncle Sam needs your help again . . .

... he's got himself in a terrible jam / way off yonder in Vietna ... um ... IRAQ!

Attention young college GOPPERS, please click on the picture of the Yellow Elephant to sign up...... and enjoy your convention in Virginia this week before you head off for basic training. Enjoy that keynote address from Tom DeLay tomorrow; I think he proudly served in the Armed Services of the country too!


Love,
TBL