Bush is always right, the facts be damned

[Cuban_Liberal]

The Bush administration continued its policy of hiding any information that may hamper its efforts to hijack another election this week by refusing to release to the Senate Intelligence Committee a document that explained to President Bush, in words he could understand, what the intelligence community thought of claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. The October 2002 document, a one-page summary of a 90-page National Intelligence Estimate, was apparently prepared so as to not overly tax Bush's attention span while Condoleezza Rice read it to him.

In refusing to release the document, administration officials say the president is not required to do so because of executive privilege. Is one of the privileges of the office the right to lead the nation to war based upon selective, unconfirmed and false information? The Bush administration certainly seems to think so.

As recently as this week, Bush tried to justify the deaths of nearly 1,000 American troops in Iraq, even though the two primary reasons he cited before the war (WMDs and cooperation between Iraq and al-Qaida) have been shown to be blatantly false. "Although we haven't found the stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, we were right to go into Iraq," Bush said in a campaign speech Wednesday. So in Bush's view, it doesn't matter if he told the truth because "we were right." Likewise, the Senate doesn't need to see what Bush was told before the war, because he is always right and anyone who disagrees is always wrong. You're either with him or with the terrorists.

Of course, this latest bit of secrecy is by no means a surprise, but rather the latest in a pattern of hiding information from Congress and the American public when its release would paint the administration in an unfavorable light. It took a lawsuit filed by media organizations to get the administration to acknowledge that it did not release all of the records concerning Bush's "service" in the Air National Guard. In fact, the only way we now know that the White House did not release pay stubs that may have shown when Bush actually reported for duty is that the Pentagon announced last week that it "inadvertently destroyed" these records. Karl Rove must be enraged at the incompetence of the Pentagon.

These were the records, after all, that would conclusively show that Bush fulfilled his duty and did not, as some say, desert his country at a time of war. Weren't they? Luckily, Texas law requires that all personnel records of Texas Air National Guard members be stored at the Texas archives. According to the Guard, these records are controlled by the federal government, so all Bush has to do to silence his critics is order the archives to release these documents.

Don't count on that, though. Even when it is within his power to release documents that might shed light on controversial decisions he has made, he has refused to do so.

For the bulk of their reign, Bush and Vice President Dick "F-bomb" Cheney have done everything they could to prevent the release of memos from Cheney's energy task force, which shaped the country's policy to the liking of the recently indicted "Kenny Boy" Lay. The same Supreme Court that selected Bush as president and previously ruled that the various fruitless investigations into President Bill Clinton did not hamper his efforts as president, ruled that the administration need not release the documents because it would interfere with the administration's ability to perform its duties (lowering taxes on millionaires and killing Muslims).

Showing that the administration is non-partisan when it comes to hiding information, Bush took advantage of fellow Republicans by refusing to reveal the true cost of its Medicare reform bill until it was able to twist enough Republican arms to push the bill through the Senate. After the bill was passed, the administration promptly revealed the real cost, which would have lead to certain defeat if congressmen knew how much it would really cost when they voted. But, if Bush had been honest, it would have lead to the bill's certain defeat, so you can see why he had to lie to congressmen from his own party. It doesn't matter if he lied, giving the insurance companies millions of dollars of taxpayer money was the right thing to do.

Bush has said he intends to bring an open democracy to Iraq, but if Iraq's government is modeled on Bush's, Iraqis may soon learn that 'open' doesn't always mean 'honest', or 'transparent'.

[Cuban_Liberal]

1. Kick

:dem:

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. So far Iraqis are in the boat of

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss".

[Cuban_Liberal]

5. Sad, but true.

And he's a former terrorist, to boot. Oh well, at least he's our terrorist, huh?

:eyes:

[JI7]

3. it's really disgusting

the things they are hiding has nothing to do with national security and it's very obvious the purpose of hiding the info is to protect bush for political reasons.

[Padraig18]

6. It *is* obvious.

Unfortunately, far too few people are seeing that.

[Festivito]

9. But, again, it is *NOT* obvious to the swinging voter.

The swinging voter hangs by threads of newsy sound-bites. The last they'll remember is that

president Bush's NG records were lost,

in a real back-slapper of bureaucratic bungling that fits the view that government is incompetent. The idea of other copies, still out there, will somehow not be reported in the same broadcast that denotes a recognized loss of records. At least not reported by a media whose excess ad profits depend on non-landslide polls prior to election day. And, not reported by a pundit who realizes that the next raise can be much bigger to who remains... quiet.., er, ah, uncomplex in reporting only one part of any given story right now. <>Yeah right!</end excessive sarcasm>

[gratuitous]

4. It's the new meme

We had no reason to invade Iraq, but were right to do so nevertheless. You will see Goldberg Variations on this one for the next couple of weeks.

I'd like to see the one page summary that sent Lil George marching off to war. I'm guessing it's a crude red crayon drawing of Saddam looking like Satan with planes with stars on the tails (the kind we all drew in grade school) flying over him dropping bombs.

[Padraig18]

7. Congratulations on making the front page!

:bounce:

[Zorra]

8. That's basically what he says here:

"Sometimes the American people like the decisions I make, sometimes they don't. But they need to know I'll make tough decisions based upon what I think is right," G. W. Bu$h

And the facts be damned. That's what really scares us.

(BTW, the above statement by Bu$h was in reference to his personal decision to invade Iraq)

[TA]

10. Document Bush could understand????

...."refusing to release to the Senate Intelligence Committee a document that explained to President Bush, in words he could understand"

I can see it now. Keep it simple. No to many big words.

SADDAM BAD, MUST KILL.