Robert Dreyfuss and Diana Duarte on the Media’s Role in Iraq War view post on FAIR.org MP3 Link This week on CounterSpin: Corporate media’s role in the lead up to and the ongoing aftermath of the war on Iraq. The US attack on Iraq. Many in media were critical of Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for George W. Bush, who used the March anniversary of the  2003 US invasion of Iraq, based on what Americans were told was the imminent threat of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, as an opportunity to launch a Twitter tirade to say, “It’s a myth that Bush lied.” He and Bush “faithfully and accurately reported” intelligence community assessments, Fleischer maintained. Media seemed concerned that Fleischer was insufficiently respectful of the toll of the Iraq War, including what the Washington Post modestly estimated as “thousands of dead Iraqis”—researchers would put that number at, minimally, half a million. But Fleischer’s revision isn’t just wrong in emphasis or in sentiment. And we didn’t have to wait 16 years to know that. In February 2004, CounterSpin spoke with investigative journalist Robert Dreyfuss about that pre-war intelligence on Iraq, and the role of a secret and largely unaccountable organization inside the Pentagon in manufacturing and publicizing it. We’ll hear that interview today. MP3 Link The US military pulls down Saddam Hussein statue. Also on the show: There is the way elite media gin the US public up for war, ofttimes against countries most Americans couldn’t find on a map, like Venezuela. That involves cartoonish demonization of leaders and feigned outrage at human rights concerns that are not of interest in other places. With the Iraq War, elite media were, after the fact, willing to say “mistakes were made” around evidence of weapons, but as we discussed with Diana Duarte at the war’s 10th anniversary in March 2013, there’s little ongoing curiosity about the other justifications media endorsed, including that toppling Saddam Hussein would advance human rights in Iraq, and especially the rights of women. We’ll hear that conversation again today. MP3 Link Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look back at recent press, including the New Zealand mosque massacre and Fox News vs. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. MP3 Link

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A Collage of Ignorance!

Liberals Are Cool

Payback.

The Platzner Post

Georgia governor Nathan Deal is trying to block Obamacare, so....

Tell North Carolina Republicans: "No, you can't overturn the 1st Amendment"

Left Action

This one falls in the category of, "oh my God, I can't believe we even have to have an action for this."

Send a message to North Carolina Republicans today, and tell them, "No, you can't overturn the 1st Amendment."

Click for details, but they're basically trying to say they can establish a state religion... regardless of what the Constitution says.

Send a message, fight the stupidity, and... share, share, share!

http://www.leftaction.com/action/tell-north-carolina-republicans-no-you-cant-overturn-1st-amendment

 

Amendments:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_amendments_to_the_United_States_Constitution

 

 

The First Amendment is one of my favorites:

 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

 

Route 44 Toyota threatened by Free Speech Rights with a SLAPP Suit -

Route 44 Toyota Threatens SLAPP Suit! explained SLAPP --

Strategic lawsuit against public participation

A strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) is a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.^[1]

SLAPP and the First Amendment

Dilly, Dally Dan

The Costs of SLAPP Suits

Bush Lying About WMDs Is a Conspiracy Theory?!?

—By Kate Sheppard

| Wed Apr. 3, 2013

 

People believe crazy things.The lunar landing was faked; a secret band of "lizard people" controls our society. New survey data from Public Policy Polling released on Tuesday shows notable percentages of Americans embrace a wide variety of conspiracy theories, from Bigfoot to the CIA creating the crack epidemic.
PPP found that:

• 37 percent of voters believe global warming is a hoax
• 6 percent of voters don't believe that Osama bin Laden is dead
• 28 percent of voters believe "secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an authoritarian world government, or New World Order"
• 7 percent of voters think man did not actually walk on the moon
• 13 percent of voters think President Obama is the anti-Christ
• 14 percent of voters believe in Bigfoot
• 44 percent believe George W. Bush intentionally misled the US about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq

Screeeeech. Stop the crazy train. What? Bush did lie about WMDs. That's not a wacky conspiracy theory; it is quite well documented at this point. That's a topic for another poll.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/04/bush-lying-about-wmds-conspiracy-theory

 

Iraq WMD debate

Interesting ......

Decade After Iraq WMD Speech at U.N., Ex-Powell Aide Lawrence Wilkerson Debates Author Norman Solomon

Ten years ago this week, a defining moment occurred in the Bush administration's push to invade Iraq. On Feb. 5, 2003, then-Secretary of State General Colin Powell addressed the United Nations Security Council. His message was clear: Iraq possessed extremely dangerous weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein was systematically trying to deceive U.N. inspectors by hiding prohibited weapons. A decade later, we host a debate between Powell's former aide, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson -- who prepared the U.N. speech, only to later renounce it -- and media critic Norman Solomon, author of War Made Easy. Watch/Listen/Read

Following the Chicken Hawks

Political pundits believe that the attention span and memory of voters is short.

That's seems of doubtful accuracy.

When the drums were beat to invade the Middle East and create the chaos which we have caused, those who spoke against it were vilified, called 'Unpatriotic,' marginalized. Faux News told you all about the Weapons of Mass Destruction [WMD] and Yellow Cake even as those reports was discredited in international media.

Not one of the 'NeoCons' beating the drums has ever served in the military, has ever been under fire or subjected to military combat. They're called 'Chicken Hawks.'

Check this out for a more complete list:

Chickenhawk Hall of Shame
...a chickenhawk: choosing to “support” war, while also choosing not to serve in the military. His motto becomes: “Let’s you and him go fight; I’ll hold your coat.”

Now that we've squandered our budget surplus fighting oil wars without reason and tax cuts for the wealthy, the NeoCons slink out of the woodwork to oppose Senator Hagel's nomination for Secretary of Defense.

There may be reasons to oppose Chuck Hagel, but when the NeoCons villify him, just maybe he's the right guy.

The Neocons vs. Chuck Hagel

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

If the neocons in the GOP who brought us the Iraqi war and conjured up “weapons of mass destruction” to justify it are against Chuck Hagel for Defense Secretary, Hagel gets bonus points in my book.

They’re the hawkish, bellicose bunch in the Republican Party — William Kristol, Richard Perle, and Ellott Abrams — who shaped DIck Cheney’s and Don Rumsfeld’s disastrous foreign policy.

These are also the people who have supported Israel’s rightward lurch in recent years. They don’t want a two-state solution. They eschew any possibility of talks with Hamas or Iran. They favor building more settlements in the West Bank.

Yes, it was dumb for Hagel to use the term “Jewish lobby” instead of “Israel lobby,” but that alone shouldn’t disqualify him. Everyone in official Washington knows how much power is wielded in that city by the Sheldon Adelsons of American politics who think Israel can do no wrong.

The problem is Washington pays too little attention to the large number of Americans — Jewish and non-Jewish — who think Israel is doing a lot that’s wrong, and worry that the path it’s on threatens its long-term survival.

The real question is what Hagel believes about the appropriate use of American power.

That the neocons hate him is the best sign yet that Chuck Hagel may be the right person for the job.

http://robertreich.org/post/40610140843

When It Comes to War, Bush is an Inaction Figure