Terrorism Report Spins

Christ all mighty, that the statistics in the well-respected State Department report on Global Terrorist got spun by the Sec of State to show progress against terror when in fact terrorism increased because of the current Admin policy, is, gee I donno, and egregious abuse of power, by Colin no less.

To his credit, he expressed anger at the mistakes, only after a few Profs blew the whistle.

Here are three grafs to raise your hair for an article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer by Elizabeth Sullivan.

"Somewhere within the nexus of intelligence agencies and a new Terrorist Threat Integration Center that compile the data, and counterterrorism experts at the State Department who are supposed to measure the stats against our diplomats' on-the-ground observations, things went very wrong.
The Patterns of Global Terrorism report says terrorist incidents last year hit their lowest level in 34 years.
The truth is that serious attacks were at a 20-year high, according to a separate Congressional Research Service analysis."

A 20-year high! Are they just going to fuck with everything!!!!

Articles:
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/elizabeth_sullivan/index.ssf?/base/opinion/108746469747451.xml

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FF16Df03.html

Learning to Lie Better

The news today is that Cheney is outraged at news coverage that Irag had no connection with OBL.

This is the example of the admin has going on the offensive against the 911 commission by saying that Sadam was involved with OBL and by extension involved with 911.

In a word, what took them so long to learn to a good lie?

As the line from a recent Spongebob goes, "Hey buddy, you just blow in from stupid town?"

I have been asking all along why did B/C hang their Iraqi war hat on provable WMD, which proved not to exist when the more vague and unprovable ties to OBL excuse was at their finger tips?

Somebody should get kicked off the second term bus for that miscalculation.

Finally. they are changing their tune and moving toward links to Al Quida, Iraqi Secret Police, 911 plots. These can't be proven one way or another and are very pliable excuses.

The Bush Admin should take some lessons from my kids about telling lies. Any kid knows you tell a lie that is partially true and completely ambiguous.

Goin Machiavelli, Sir

I was afraid of Bush going Machiavelli, but he has by firing Tenent, and now I'm not sure we can beat him in November.

When a prez goes Mach Velli on you, nobody is safe except the closed advisors and even they have to watch their backs. Cheney, Rummy, Powell, Rice, all could go if deemed necessary to win.

And there in lies the insidious change. Bush will now do what it takes to win and you can bet his legendary loyalty is the first thing to go.

Low polls numbers will do that to ya.

The beauty of Tenent firing and the possibility that others may follow, is they all take the blame, and Bush walks.

That kills me. I hate that. But that is the way it works, just ask the Prince.

And the RNC machine does the leg work. I'm sure grandma will claim next Wednesday that Tenet was responsible for it all, just like Michael Reagan says.

Hummmmmmmmmm goes the machine into Machiavelli drive.

http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96may/machiavelli.html

On the other hand, four more years of Bush and the country will be ready for a democrat.

Stages of the Bush Presidency:

What, Me as the President stage- Bush was DITH (deer in the headlights) for the first 9 months. Remember the saying, "at least he has intelligent people around him?"

9/11 stage-despite some funky details about what he was doing when told (reading to kids, which he kept doing for some reason), I thought Bush immerged into a leader in response to 911. He cleaned up the Trade Center, led the country in mourning, then kicked some ass in Afghanistan. He never got Osama but was successful at flexing muscle.

Bravado Stage- intoxicated by his 911 success, Bush wants to kick some more ass. So under completely false pretenses, he rolls into Baghdad and declares Mission Accomplished with his jump suit too tight.

Shit Hits the Fan Stage- From Kay, to Clarke, to O'Neil, to prisoner abuse, to plame, to the mess of Iraq, Bush has been beaten down over the last nine months. This naturally leads to next stage.

Machiavelli Stage- Election is nearing and the shit keeps rolling in, so Bush finally cuts bait. Consults a lawyers, cans Tenent, and circles the wagons. It's everyman for himself now. The Presidential ship of state will not sink any further (in the polls) and will win in November, no matter what.

Final Stage (Oct 1st)- all out political warfare both with Kerry, and his enemies inside the beltway. He'll divide the country against itself, raise the specter of more terror, and slam Kerry anyway he can.

Big boy politics is not for the faint of heart.