Salon/Huffington: America's final wakeup call --- MUST READ!!!

[Raster]

If you aren't a Salon member, get a day pass or whatever it takes, BUT READ THIS COLUMN!!! Huffington absolutely nails it!

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's damning book may finally clue Americans in to the deadly consequences of being governed by a disengaged dolt in the hands of a fanatical cabal.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Jan. 14, 2004 | Struggling to reconcile the ever-widening gulf between what the Bush administration claims to be true and what is actually true is getting harder by the day. Scientists at M.I.T. have apparently been having some success using string theory and particle accelerators, but where does that leave the rest of us? Fortunately, Paul O'Neill has a timely, if disturbing, diagnosis, backed up by some 19,000 pages of lab results: The White House is being run by a band of out-and-out fanatics.

On the administration's two defining issues, Iraq and taxes, the former treasury secretary paints a scathing portrait of a cabal of closed-minded zealots steadfastly refusing to allow anything as piddling as fact, evidence or truth to get in the way of its unshakable beliefs and forgone conclusions.

According to O'Neill, invading Iraq was a Bush goal before he had even learned where the office supply closet was. Day 9, to be precise. "It was all about finding a way to do it," he says. "That was the tone of it. The president saying 'Go find me a way to do this.'"

Of course, All the President's Men (and Condi, too!) did just that, gathering a collection of dubious facts, half-truths, quarter-truths, and -- what's become the house specialty -- no-truths, to match the desired outcome. Nigerian yellowcake, anyone?

<snip>

http://www.salon.com/opinion/huffington/2004/01/14/oneill/index.html

[cthrumatrix]

1. the fact that salon must run this vs mainstream media is ALL that

needs to be said.

Gov Arnie is a disgrace and the media lost thier voice...funny. Total 180 in what he said vs reality

[lovedems]

3. According to one article, * and Card dismiss the media

as a "filter" and "nonrepresentative". Where in the hell is the backlash????????? That SHOULD be offensive to the likes of CNN, MSNBC, et al.

[lovedems]

2. WOW! Those are great articles! I was sitting on the edge of my seat

screaming "FINALLY!". It is making me sooooo happy that this administrations credibility is finally under a microscope!

[PATRICK]

4. full circle for me

The force of events kept pushing the credibility of Bush actually being a president who both understood and directed the destiny of his agenda. We were forced to forget(and thus grow ourselves a different Bush) our first accurate and proven assessments. For all the machinations Bush is a vague thinking, strong on prejudice guy who thinks everything he takes on faith and delegates will be OK- with a good does of heavy handed influence and devilish ruthlessness in dark places. An unhealthy Cheney surrounded by past discredited crazies, a conflicted and hapless Powell and other assorted insufficient leaders and advisors are all without the clothes of real command. We have been living out the jokes and fantasies because of the immense power and naif acceptance we put at their disposal.

To see Bush for what he is every day is unbearable because it reflects very badly on us. Denial ups the ante and makes it worse and worse each day. He has the brains of an aristocratic brat gangster or less and barely shows better to the public stage.
The real fear that we deflect to Osama, the flu, etc. is Bush. In essence the sum of all fears. He is not even the worthy enemy, the great evil genius that would ennoble our resistance. It is just a bottomless shame. we seem to have no country because we have no American President in nearly any real sense of the word. We haven't since we let him steal the chair.

[tom_paine]

5. Nice article...but can her whisper be heard over the cacophonous din

of the Party-Loyal Right-Wing Sub-Media and Corproate TV Pravda?

I maintain hope, but dimly fading...

[priller]

6. I think this is key

The most alarming thing that emerges from O'Neill's revelations is the total lack of leadership on the president's part. At the very moment that Rove and the Bush reelection team are gearing up to sell us on the image of the president as the macho, heroic cowboy from Crawford who is going to keep us all safe from terrorists, despots and Mad Cow meat, here comes O'Neill with his devastating assessment of Bush as "a blind man in a roomful of deaf people."

And I think that is absolutely devastating to the Bush image. Again, most voters out there are not up on policy, they are swayed mostly by the images pushed at them by the media and spin-meisters. What we need to get out there is the REAL picture of Bush -- an easily manipulated, disengaged, delusional little fool.