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CrimQuips 7/17/03 Thursday, July 17, 2003

Commentary by Barry Crimmins

http://www.barrycrimmins.com   I was planning to take the week off but the phone kept ringing and people kept asking me if I had heard or seen the latest about the court-appointed Bush regime's deterioration. My friends coaxed me away from my leisure and soon I fired up the old Mac to make a few points that seem to have been overlooked. Such as : * A (court-appointed or otherwise) president's speeches should not be subject to editing by the CIA. Here is how it is supposed to work: the CIA gives the prez info and he then weighs that info and uses it as he sees fit.

* It is absurd and obscene that no one is questioning why we're being asked to so much as consider the idea that the CIA has the final word on any presidential address. *The CIA should be known as the Department of Lying --disinforming is what they do in Langley. It's comical to suggest the name of this organization in a search for the truth.

*In fact, to suggest that the CIA has the final word on the State of the Union Address indicates that the court- appointed president is guilty of extreme dereliction of duty.We are being asked to believe that the entire court-appointed Bush administration, noted for treating almost all inquiries as impertinent assaults on its patriarchal infallibility, was suddenly incapable of sussing out the freely available truth about an explosive allegation. This demonstrates that they are either responsible or irresponsible concerning the life and death matter of war. Either way, they are unfit to lead this country.

We're being asked to believe that Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, Don Rumsfeld never learned until recently that this Niger/Iraq nuke connection was a complete fabrication? OK, then what else didn't they know? (Suggested listening "Presidential Rag" by Arlo Guthrie)

The bottom line: BUSH TOLD THE LIE. BUSH IS RESPONSIBLE.

***

I'll say this much: you really have to give Ari Fleischer credit for knowing when to get the hell out of town.

Bush has full confidence in George Tenet-- as a fall guy!

Of course Tenet didn't agree to take the blame for Bush's pathological lies without first receiving assurances that the court-appointed prez would stand behind him. Last summer when the FBI took the hit for the administration's 9/11 negligence, no heads rolled there, either. The old rule applies-- if you take the fall for George W. Bush, you land somewhere soft. (I, by the way, wrote that rule)

**** Media organizations, reporters, columnists and talking heads that once blindly supported the assault on Iraq are finally asking some pertinent questions. For this they are celebrated for possessing much more credibility than all the peace activists they castigated during the buildup to the quagmire in Iraq. They premise remarks with, "Hey, I supported this war, but…." And then they ask a timid question or two. Their motives for finally doing their jobs are suspect. By suddenly expressing some indignation and skepticism they are at least partly demonstrating the exact same type of buck-passing cowardice that is on display at the White House. The corporate media helped start this madness with its fawning devotion to George W. Bush and his war machine. While I enthusiastically endorse its shift to a more aggressive stance towards the liars at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, I suggest that many media-types need to make amends of their own before they regain any sort of credibility with the American public. Particularly since that American public continues to lose its sons and daughters in Iraq.

Anyone who joined a peace rally last winter is light years ahead of the corporate media on Iraq. We are owed copious apologies for all of the shoddy motives ascribed to us in print and on the air whenever we stood against this now extremely discredited war. Well, we're waiting.

*****

Next case ….

Can the Republicans do anything more to demonstrate its absolute disdain for the will of the people? They spent the waning years of the previous millennium attempting to banish a popular president over a blowjob. Bush then lost the election to replace the departing leader. No matter-- the R's just stampeded him into power through court-appointment. So what if the wrong court decided the Florida matter? The states rights-loving Republicans made a federal case out of the election because they could rig the fed decision but were powerless to fix the Fla. Court. A pattern was developing.

Next, electronic voting was offered as a solution to polling place difficulties like the ones that helped Bush illicitly (and literally) take office. Electronic balloting was used in several places where Republicans won big in races that were either supposed to have been close or safe for Democrats. Later we learned that Senator Chuck Hagel (Cro-Magnon- Nebraska) has a stake in the firm that supplied the equipment, software and, in all likelihood, results in many of these races. When will the corporate media decide to investigate this HUGE SCANDAL? So far all it has done is comply with this growing hoax by abandoning exit polling, because it suddenly didn't jibe with results at the polls. Of course the reason they abandoned exit polls was because of Florida, where the exit polls correctly declared Al Gore the winner in 2000. Are you beginning to feel like you did a hit of bad acid in the middle of an Escher print?

Now the Gluttonous Old Party is trying to recall Governor Gray Davis of California (a prison-industrial complex advocate of whom I have never been enamored but nevertheless…) Davis stomped the Republican candidate Dim Dan Simon fair and square last fall. Now that California economy has continued to tailspin (in large part due to the long-term ramifications brought on by manipulation of energy prices by Bush's cronies at Enron) the Republicans have decided it is time to once again reverse the electoral will of the people. They especially want Davis out because the only chance Bush would have of "winning" California in '04 is if he has his own fixer sitting in the governor's mansion in Sacramento. Enough is enough.

Recent events dictate that it is time for the Republicans to put their defensive team on the field -- for at least the next 16 months. This will cut back on the resources available to them to further undermine democratic elections in the United States. The R's were the ones who set the illicit blowjob as the threshold of malfeasance at which impeachment proceedings should be initiated. Bill Clinton stained a dress and lied about it. George W. Bush has soiled our entire nation. Thousands have died because of his prevarications. It is time that his corrupt regime get taken apart piece by scummy piece. After W's inner circle has unraveled, the little fraud will be left standing alone, attempting to think on his feet at impeachment proceedings. I'll gladly order the pay-per-view for that spectacle! At the trial, our representatives will be given a chance to ask George W. Bush just what he recalls about all of the lies and deceit he has employed to strangle our nation since he stole his way into power in 2001. OK, I feel better now. *****

Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, CIA Director George Tenet revealed that the blatant lie about an Iraq/Niger nuke deal in Dubyahoo's 2003 State of the Union Address was included because of insistence by a senor White House official whom Tenet would only identify as "Spiro." Last January White House lackeys lionized Bush's State of the Union Address as "unforgettable." Thank goodness they were finally right about something.

So long as the possibilities are limited to members of the Court-appointed Bush Administration, there is no wrong answer to the question "Who lied?"

Who lied?? Who didn't???

Congress better be careful about how it questions Donald Rumsfeld because he is definitely showing signs of being just the kind of suspect who will "lawyer-up" very quickly.

You have to give Rumsfeld credit for even attempting to suggest that we have to move past questions about the false information used to foment war. It's the equivalent of Charles Manson telling Vincent Bugliosi that inquiries about the Tate/LaBianca murders were growing tedious. General John P. Abizaid, (who replaced General Tommy Franks when Franks stepped down to return to his full-time duties of throwing out first pitches for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays) has stated that no uniformed member of the armed service has any right to question George W. Bush or Donald Rumsfeld. After all, what have they done that would give them any right to comment on the situation in Iraq?

It's funny how the soldiers who are constantly celebrated for "defending our freedom" have no legal standing to exercise their own. Veterans For Peace will soon honor Bush for all the recruiting he has done for the group.

Tony Blair and George Bush have become such steadfast allies that they have begun exchanging gifts. For Bush's birthday earlier this month, Blair gave W a political casket that is an exact replica of the one he will soon be occupying in London.

ESPN has added Rush Limbaugh to its roster of NFL commentators. After the Monday Night Football debacle of a few years back, Disney has decided to play it safe and hire someone more moderate than Dennis Miller.

Update: The Pentagon now plans to assign soldiers to one-year tours of duty in Iraq. The cost of this deployment is now doubling to 3.9 billion dollars per month. More American soldiers have died there than in the previous Gulf War but IT IS NOT a quagmire -- because we have Donald Rumsfeld's assurance on it.

How long before Bush's wonderful allies in Afghanistan begin to assist US troops throughout the Middle East by funneling them some of the massive amounts of Afghan heroin once again flooding the market?

Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld are still claiming that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger. Apparently they have calculated how long it took the media to refute their original bogus assertions on this matter. They understand that it will be well over a year before their updated bogus assertions are questioned. When those lies are refuted they will simply make new bogus assertions and thereby buy themselves even more time. It's the liar's equivalent of check-kiting.

Senator Trent Lott (KKK- Mississippi) says of the fallacious nuke story, " I still believe the claims. Them Nigers will sell you just about anything."

Click to hear Barry's call Bartcop

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