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Senator. I got this in your email, yesterday. Signed, and rec'd.
John McCain is a big liar.
by Lisa Lockwood on Tue May 06, 2008 at 08:18:53 AM PDT
[ Parent ]
I can't recall any more brazen attempt at propaganda directed at Americans by its government. This is so serious that the media is desperately trying to bury it. That says something.
Everyone needs to keep hammering on the SPINCOM story.
Thanks Senator Kerry.
Get Your John McCain - NOPE T-Shirts & Stickers
by KingOneEye on Tue May 06, 2008 at 08:39:42 AM PDT
"Don't be a janitor on the Death Star!" - Grey Lady Bast (change @ for AT to email)
by bellatrys on Tue May 06, 2008 at 08:55:53 AM PDT
DIGG HERE
http://digg.com/...
"Invest In America, Instead of Iraq. Vote Democratic"
by manumit on Tue May 06, 2008 at 09:17:58 AM PDT
http://reddit.com/...
Healthcare for ALL! NOW! & OneCare at MySpace
by SarahLee on Tue May 06, 2008 at 09:32:04 AM PDT
http://www.stumbleupon.com/...
by SarahLee on Tue May 06, 2008 at 09:50:28 AM PDT
START IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS NOW!!
We don't need any more of these investigations. The president has admitted to admitted to committing a felony with FISA many moons ago. The rest will follow.
THANK YOU FOR NOT IMPEACHING THE WAR CRIMINALS AND TERRORIST ENABLERS. Next Stop: Iran. You're on a roll, Congress! -- FUCK, YEAH!!
by STOP George on Wed May 07, 2008 at 08:19:07 AM PDT
Senators can't start the formal impeachment process. But at least you can start advocating it.
by STOP George on Wed May 07, 2008 at 08:20:51 AM PDT
I don't know if anyone took note of this Freudian slip (Howard Kurtz sure didn't) on Reliable Sources the weekend before last.
KURTZ: Shepperd told me this week that while he consulted with Pentagon officials, he has always been independent. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SHEPPERD: I feel no pressure whatsoever to do anything other than prevent my honest opinions about what's going on. I certainly did not feel compelled to carry any message to anybody. (END VIDEO CLIP) KURTZ: In our "Talk Back" segment this morning, a chance to hear the other side. I spoke earlier with Lawrence Di Rita, the former Pentagon spokesman under Secretary Don Rumsfeld, and retired Colonel Ken Allard, a former military analyst for NBC and author of the book "Warheads: Cable News and the Fog of War."
KURTZ: Shepperd told me this week that while he consulted with Pentagon officials, he has always been independent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHEPPERD: I feel no pressure whatsoever to do anything other than prevent my honest opinions about what's going on. I certainly did not feel compelled to carry any message to anybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: In our "Talk Back" segment this morning, a chance to hear the other side. I spoke earlier with Lawrence Di Rita, the former Pentagon spokesman under Secretary Don Rumsfeld, and retired Colonel Ken Allard, a former military analyst for NBC and author of the book "Warheads: Cable News and the Fog of War."
Fascinating that he not only failed to pick up the irony of the slip, but that his program chose to include such a balanced and unbiased panel to discuss the topic. For those who missed it, ret. Colonel Allard was more critical of the left-leaning media than the conflict of interest inherent in the collaboration between the media and the military. He failed to take issue with the Pentagon executing a wide-scale psi-ops program on the American public.
Since we can't depend on CNN or other networks to come clean, I'm happy to know that my own Senator is not lost in the fog.
Weapons of Mass Destruction Related Program Activities
by wmdrpa on Tue May 06, 2008 at 09:36:12 AM PDT
or Sinister Peckerhead Infiltration Network Command
or Sinister Pundit Information Network
or ......
Obama'08, anti-war, anti-McSame static cling window decals & stickers @ gotta-yell-it.com!
by netguyct on Tue May 06, 2008 at 09:07:05 AM PDT
Please take the time to follow these links: This is the way the Pentagon wants us to view IRAN. This is a view of IRAN they would like to keep from us.
Please take the time to follow these links:
This is the way the Pentagon wants us to view IRAN.
This is a view of IRAN they would like to keep from us.
"The question isn't 'Is America ready for Barack Obama;' the question is, 'Is America ready for a smart President." John Lovitz
by Kdoug on Tue May 06, 2008 at 09:12:56 AM PDT
There is nothing, nothing more important that we could do than to STOP the war whores from striking Iran.
PLEASE, no more killing and death in my name. The horror of Iraq is near to breaking my heart and belief in my country.
I really am begging you to do anything and everything in your power to stop cold the attack on Iran using your good offices.
Now, I'll get busy assisting you regarding the subject of your diary.
Thank you for everything. You're a good dude.
You can't always tell the truth because you don't always know the truth - but you can ALWAYS be honest.
by mattman on Tue May 06, 2008 at 10:50:21 AM PDT
Evidence that contradicts the ruling belief system is held to extraordinary standards, while evidence that entrenches it is uncritically accepted. -Carl Sagan
by RF on Tue May 06, 2008 at 06:55:13 PM PDT
In the 1970s, when the House committee led by Otis Pike joined the Church committee in investigating the CIA's domestic activities, they were appalled to find at least 400 reporters at major news organizations were also working for the CIA.
The Pike report was never released, in part due to this issue. A draft was leaked (supposedly by Daniel Schorr) and portions were published in the Village Voice. A full draft was published in the UK. But most Americans have never read the report, and the rather upsetting findings within.
Then in 1977, Carl Bernstein (yes, of Watergate fame) wrote an amazing essay in Rolling Stone called "The CIA and the Media." The full article is finally online at Bernstein's site, and is a must read.
Our media is highly controlled. And until we realize that, we'll keep making decisions like going to war in Iraq based on that false data.
Yes. We should definitely investigate the Pentagon Pundits. But then we need to take REAL measures to try to insure an independent and honest press.
by BetterTogether on Tue May 06, 2008 at 09:17:16 AM PDT
Because Woodward sucks up to the bushies and others in power, he writes his millionaire books rather than actually reporting.
And of course who were the real heros of Watergate? Not Woodward and Bernstein, they were just copy boys for Mark Felt- and their editors were the ones who were invested in democracy enough to risk the wrath of the nixon criminal gang.
by MD patriot on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:02:31 AM PDT
The link you included in your comment, is that the entire draft (you mentioned it was published in the UK) or only the portions that were published in the VV?
Thanks for the link to Bernstein's essay. Wow. ( I thought I knew half of that stuff already, but I'm printing it out to read on my flight tomorrow).
by Lisa Lockwood on Tue May 06, 2008 at 03:03:31 PM PDT
I found a copy at the library. That's about the only place you could hope to find it.
by BetterTogether on Tue May 06, 2008 at 07:49:18 PM PDT
the home folks is nothing new. Back in those days it was referred to as "The Mighty Wurlitzer". Why would it be any different in our times? Just think about all of the other distorted "news" from FoxNews, ABC, AP and plenty of other sources.
Wisner created the first "information superhighway." But this was the age of vacuum tubes, not computers, so he called it his "Mighty Wurlitzer." The CIA's global network funded the Italian elections in 1948, sent paramilitary teams into Albania, trained Nationalist Chinese on Taiwan, and pumped money into the Congress for Cultural Freedom, the National Student Association, and the Center for International Studies at MIT. Key leaders and labor unions in western Europe received subsidies, and Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were launched. The Wurlitzer, an organ designed for film productions, could imitate sounds such as rain, thunder, or an auto horn. Wisner and Dulles were at the keyboard, directing history... Psywar was also used with success during the 1950s by Edward Lansdale, first in the Philippines and then in South Vietnam. In Guatemala, the Dulles brothers worked with their friends at United Fruit, in particular the "father of public relations," Edward Bernays, who for years had been lobbying the press on behalf of United. When CIA puppets finally took over in 1954, only applause was heard from the media, commencing forty years of CIA-approved horrors in that unlucky country. Bernays' achievement apparently impressed Allen Dulles, who immediately began using U.S. public relations experts and front groups to promote the image of Ngo Dinh Diem as South Vietnam's savior.
Wisner created the first "information superhighway." But this was the age of vacuum tubes, not computers, so he called it his "Mighty Wurlitzer." The CIA's global network funded the Italian elections in 1948, sent paramilitary teams into Albania, trained Nationalist Chinese on Taiwan, and pumped money into the Congress for Cultural Freedom, the National Student Association, and the Center for International Studies at MIT. Key leaders and labor unions in western Europe received subsidies, and Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were launched. The Wurlitzer, an organ designed for film productions, could imitate sounds such as rain, thunder, or an auto horn. Wisner and Dulles were at the keyboard, directing history...
Psywar was also used with success during the 1950s by Edward Lansdale, first in the Philippines and then in South Vietnam. In Guatemala, the Dulles brothers worked with their friends at United Fruit, in particular the "father of public relations," Edward Bernays, who for years had been lobbying the press on behalf of United. When CIA puppets finally took over in 1954, only applause was heard from the media, commencing forty years of CIA-approved horrors in that unlucky country. Bernays' achievement apparently impressed Allen Dulles, who immediately began using U.S. public relations experts and front groups to promote the image of Ngo Dinh Diem as South Vietnam's savior.
"Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control people..." Henry Kissinger
by truong son traveler on Tue May 06, 2008 at 05:52:50 PM PDT
since the beginnig of the CIA. The good thing is that the internet has pretty much neutralised the effect that these paid mouthpieces have.
You must be the change you want to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi
by fetalposition on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:46:37 AM PDT
This story is very important, for sure, but I'll put the sanctioning of torture by the white house at #1.
by doktarr on Tue May 06, 2008 at 09:18:55 AM PDT
What about the sale of faked "news" videos to local TV stations, showing government employees pretending to be journalists "reporting" on administration policies?
The Bush administration is larded top to bottom with propagandistic programs. Take the Office of Global Communications, for example:
The Office of Global Communications, under Tucker Eskew, a deputy assistant to the president and a longtime Republican communications consultant, touted a similar mission [to the mission of the DoD's Information Operations Task Force]. A government organizational chart, dated July 2003, places this office at the nexus of the government’s strategic communications apparatus. But Daniel Kuehl, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who directs the Information Strategies Concentration Program at the National Defense University, believes the global communications office never lived up to its mandate. Nor, perhaps, did it ever intend to. “In my opinion, the global issue wasn’t the reason why they were created,” he told me. “They clearly had a completely domestic focus. They were part of the effort to re-elect the president . . . . I’m going to be real pejorative here: Their goal was psychological operations on the American voting public. That was part of the political arm doing that.” He added, “You’ll notice that not long after the election, the Office of Global Communications no longer existed.” (Technically, it still exists, though it has been without a director for more than a year. No new content has been posted on its Web site, once updated regularly, since March 2005.)
The Office of Global Communications, under Tucker Eskew, a deputy assistant to the president and a longtime Republican communications consultant, touted a similar mission [to the mission of the DoD's Information Operations Task Force]. A government organizational chart, dated July 2003, places this office at the nexus of the government’s strategic communications apparatus. But Daniel Kuehl, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who directs the Information Strategies Concentration Program at the National Defense University, believes the global communications office never lived up to its mandate.
Nor, perhaps, did it ever intend to. “In my opinion, the global issue wasn’t the reason why they were created,” he told me. “They clearly had a completely domestic focus. They were part of the effort to re-elect the president . . . . I’m going to be real pejorative here: Their goal was psychological operations on the American voting public. That was part of the political arm doing that.” He added, “You’ll notice that not long after the election, the Office of Global Communications no longer existed.” (Technically, it still exists, though it has been without a director for more than a year. No new content has been posted on its Web site, once updated regularly, since March 2005.)
Let's not forget the well-documented government contracts with the Lincoln Group and the Rendon Group to spread propaganda world-wide. There's an epidemic of propaganda coming from the Bush administration.
"Our programs are as lawful as they are valuable." -Michael Hayden
by smintheus on Tue May 06, 2008 at 09:24:10 AM PDT
Did any of these monies, which amounted to $300 million, bleed directly into US message production. I just responded to Kerry's tip jar with links to Michael Kelley's USA today articles from 12/05...
Show of hands... who would join Kucinich's effort to impeach VP Cheney?
by Mogolori on Tue May 06, 2008 at 09:33:35 AM PDT
if anyone's interested...
http://www.usatoday.com/...
by Mogolori on Tue May 06, 2008 at 10:04:54 AM PDT
I am aware of the "Video Press Releases" distributed mostly by the HHS and Education Depts. and I have written about them at length. I would never minimize the harm they produce, but the scale of those programs pale in comparison to SPINCOM.
I am also aware of the Lincoln Group's activities, mostly in paying Iraqi newspapers to publish rosy stories written by American PR. That was directed primarily at Iraqis, although US media often picked up the stories and republished them domestically.
I didn't say there wasn't ANY other propaganda. There's loads of it. I said that I think this is the worst (most brazen) directed specifically at Americans. An agency with the scope of the Pentagon, partnering with the communications muscle of the media, is far worse than any of the other PR atrocities committed by this administration.
by KingOneEye on Tue May 06, 2008 at 10:49:30 AM PDT
In order to win the election, you just had to set up and fund your own "John Kerry is the Coolest" office in the Dept of Homeland Security and call it something like "Office of Thermal Data." Don't worry, you can use MONEY FROM MY PAYCHECK to fund it. Apparently its done all the time.
I'm not bitter, though. Nope.
"YOPP!" --Horton Hears a Who
by Reepicheep on Tue May 06, 2008 at 06:47:48 PM PDT
Torture being planned in the WH by the VP and AG and others thing....
That's pretty scandalous imho.
Any thoughts Senator?
Yell Louder!!! @ Docudharma
by buhdydharma on Tue May 06, 2008 at 10:21:25 AM PDT
...that paints the President out of the torture picture.
The only way that the "deliberations" of that "group of high level officials" could become US policy was if the president specifically signed a document making it policy.
Rice may have chaired the meetings, but Bush is the chair of the NSC.
The President himself didn't simply "approve of the meetings," as is so widely reported, in order for the recommended tortures to become US policy, Bush legally would have had to sign a document approving those tortures. That's his job as the chair of the NSC. Period.
That's the elephant in the room that everyone is dancing around, trying not to get too close.
We're extremely tired of ineffectual "strong statements," investigations that lead nowhere (like that bridge in Alaska), and ongoing lies of omission on all sides. It's time to stop.
Give us some credit for not being as stupid as Fox would have you believe.
Please launch investigations into whether impeachment is required, thereby making it impossible for these miscreants to ignore subpoenas.
Anything less is pointless and not worth another moment of our time.
Thanks.
Dump Steny Hoyer
by mataliandy on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:23:28 AM PDT
I agree with your sentiments, but under the Constitution impeachment can only be carried out by the House. After impeachment, the role of the Senate is to conduct the trial. So please direct your comments to Speaker Pelosi, not to Sen. Kerry.
by quake on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:15:54 AM PDT
... and probably have way more influence than I ever could.
Also, you're assuming I haven't contacted Pelosi and others. It would be an incorrect assumption.
by mataliandy on Wed May 07, 2008 at 10:05:36 AM PDT
by hopeward bound on Tue May 06, 2008 at 10:27:12 AM PDT
All these stories are but symptoms.
Turn 'em off.
May your entire existence be one sensuous, frolic-filled experience lived in defiance of care.
by Fonsia on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:42:36 AM PDT
It's good for us to know how they lie, and what we need to do is shine light on them so that the people who they've been fooling will (maybe) wake up. They need to be shamed into doing their jobs.
"we must make the rescue of the environment the central organizing principle for civilization" - Al Gore
by racerx on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:45:08 AM PDT
Can we ask them to come explain to the public (under oath, on live TV) why they haven't said a fucking word about their role in selling us a disaster?
by racerx on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:43:12 AM PDT
still uses their phony, paid for by the Penatagon, General for military "expertise".
...but then again, that's not really a "news" outlet anyway.
by Jeff Y on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:33:11 AM PDT
arm patch of the Executive Branch.
Si, se puede cambiar~~Yes, we can change~~Obama '08
by Angie in WA State on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:15:40 PM PDT
I still vote (I still get to do that though my state doesn't count) for the surveillance activities as being the absolute worst action taken by this government in contravention of the law. Granted, this is another outrage, but "scandal of the year"? Not imho.
by ColoTim on Tue May 06, 2008 at 01:16:50 PM PDT
play or squashing or pushing a story to win access.
Goebbels would be so jealous.
"I will fight for my country, but I will not lie for her. " -- Zora Neale Hurston
by blueintheface on Tue May 06, 2008 at 01:34:04 PM PDT
Sometimes the swamp is so miasmic it's hard to tell exactly where the stench eminates from. An embarresment of riches on the scandal front. Why is it that Republicans have to be such conspicuos overindulgers? Opulent in their corruption.
it tastes like burning...
by eastvan on Tue May 06, 2008 at 04:49:01 PM PDT
Because PEOPLE ARE STILL DYING! Thousands of Americans, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. The least we can do is shine a spotlight on greed and our corrupted government!
Thank you for taking charge. Who knows, maybe you'll shame the media into giving this the coverage it deserves.
Can't we PLEASE elect someone who can govern?
by LarisaW on Tue May 06, 2008 at 05:29:28 PM PDT
needs to be kept in the public eye.
everyone is focusing on IN and NC today but we have to find a way to keep bringing attention back to this scandal because I'm sure it will be a factor in political coverage all summer.
thank you, Senator Kerry.
TrueBlueMajority, resident of Brighton, MA
Politics is like driving. To go backward, put it in R. To go forward, put it in D. 76 days until the '08 elections. Let's paint the country BLUE!
by TrueBlueMajority on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:27:59 AM PDT
and will look for more places to write and reach out and request answers to keep this most serious beach of the law in the public eye.
by IngeniousGirl on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:55:04 PM PDT
wide narrow
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