Katrina: The Spin Never Stops
Every time the Bush administration gets caught in another embarrassing lie, I think “they can’t possibly spin their way out of this one.” But so far they always have, and there’re always enough slow-witted voters that keep getting sucked in by Bush’s PR scam of the week.
As you probably know, a newly released video shows that Bush was fully warned about the impact of Hurricane Katrina before the storm struck. Breached levees, flooding, death and destruction — Bush was told about all of this. He didn’t ask a single question. And he sure as Hell wasn’t gonna let some hurricane interfere with his vacation in Crawford.
“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees” — nice try, lying sack of shit.
But like the Downing Street Memos, Plamegate, Spygate, our Iraqi quagmire — Bush / Cheney / Rove will always find a way to squirm, slither and spin their way out of every lie they get caught in.
And sure enough, the White House has issued a point-by-point press release, denying everything that's clearly shown in the video.
Harry Reid said this video “confirms what we have suspected all along, that this administration did anything they can to hide what really happened.” He said the administration “systematically misled the American people.”
Integrity, humility, admission of mistakes — these are all things we won’t be seeing as long as this spoiled pathetic little pusbag is still in the White House.
posted by Tom Harper @ 12:18 AM
10 Comments:
Go wipe your nose, you keep whining and whining...you wonder why you can't win elections? Quit spinning the truth and whining..cry baby
Hi... I will check out yor site in more depth. I am new to the "blog explosion" community and look forward to exploring it in full. any advice would be much appreciated. You can visit my blog here... http://apoeticjustice.blogspot.com/
Thank you,
Mark
Jeezus Tom
Haven't we learned anything from Rodney King? A video itself is open to a lot of interpretation. Many right wingers see exactley the opposite.
Erik
Anonymous: "Go wipe your nose, you keep whining and whining...you wonder why you can't win elections? Quit spinning the truth and whining..cry baby......Look Mommy, I was playing on one of them Internets and I left a dumb comment at somebody's site, and then I snuck away with my tail between my legs. Teeheeheeheeheeheehee"
Poetry Man: Thanks. Your site looks interesting.
Erik: Yeah, isn't it amazing that you can see something spelled out on a video, and conservatives will still say "hmmm, this doesn't tell us anything. We need to keep looking."
I don't necessarily blame Dubya & his handlers on this one. Yes, it's obvious that Bush's statement 4 days after the hurricane was a lot of bunk, but it's political suicide these days to admit to any kind of error or misjudgment.
If the shrub admits he screwed up, then he will be lambasted for it. If he doesn't admit he screwed up, he gets lambasted for not admitting the obvious.
Since he will be lambasted either way, it actually makes "political" sense to choose the latter -- he can paint himself (as he has done) as the victim of a partisan attack and a certain portion of the public will believe him.
Hi Tom,
it's amazing how many people still support and defend King Bush.
I have been hearing things like "the tape proves Bush was right, Brownie did a heckuva job!"
How much clearer can it be that the levees breaching were anticipated and that the president was well aprised of the situation?
Why do people still refuse to see the truth?
It's mind numbing. I guess the only way people will come to understand is if their own home is destroyed in a natural disaster while Bush keeps on vacationing and Condi goes shopping for farragamo shoes...Maybe then they will get it.
Who feels it knows it.
Too many right wingers don't know the horros of war, poverty, and crony capitalism run amok.
They will know all too well when our economy collapses due to Republican Mismanagment, oursourcing of jobs, and wage decreases. They will know it when they lose their job to India.
What will they say then?
Rambling Taoist: As far as blaming Bush, I think perception is important. Bush (and the rest of his administration) might not have been actually able to do anything different, but their aloof reaction was disgraceful. Bush continued his vacation in Crawford, Cheney kept on hunting in Wyoming, Rice continued her shopping trip in New York, etc.
I can't think of any other country where a king or tinpot dictator wouldn't at least make an appearance and try to act concerned. I think Bush's callus disregard for the rest of the population was revealed, more than he ever intended.
PoliShifter: Yeah, I think that's what it'll take. Every area is prone to some type of natural disaster. Maybe Bush would react faster if a portion of the Bible Belt got devastated by a hurricane or tornado.
The continued outsourcing should start changing people's minds. Practically nobody's job is safe any more. Conservatives used to say that "a conservative is a liberal who's just been mugged." Maybe the new version will be "a liberal is a conservative whose job just got outsourced to India."
I continue to be encouraged by BushCo.'s sliding poll numbers. What would be the lower limit of his "popularity", that is, the level at which only the truest of the true believers are left on his side? 28%? 25%? Even less than that? I think his popularity is getting down there, into that kind of territory. By contrast, Clinton had relatively high popularity numbers even during the time he was being impeached.
I don't expect Dubya's approval numbers to rise a whole lot during the last couple of years of his sad administration. Bush has basically poisoned his own well by demonstrating incompetence, incuriousity, and obvious flip-flops on major issues. I think that just about anything he does or says nowadays will be greeted with skepticism, even from people within his own party (that is, by those who still have the capacity to think outside the Bush box.)
It hasn't even been a "liberal media" that has planted seeds of doubt in the minds of the public. What the president does is news, and what he doesn't do is also news... the corporate media has reported these things without bias. Bush and his friends have done this to themselves. They'll do something stupid, the corporate media will push it to the back burner for them, and will even give the Bush/Rove/Cheney spin equal time... but this process has been repeated so many times that Americans can't help but notice something is dreadfully wrong.
Dubya is heading for rock bottom, and it's like a long toboggan ride down a steep incline. It would make me happy, except that the more he screws up, the more it screws up our country, and ultimately the world. I hope we make it through the rest of his administration (and beyond, whoever's in charge then0 without major disasters.
One way he could increase his poll numbers would be to dump Cheney. The same poll that had Bush at 34% had Cheney with an approval rating of 18%. 18%! That's obscenely low... only about 1 out of 6 people polled had a favorable opinion of Cheney! One of Bush's worst errors of judgment has been to give Cheney so much power... Cheney has become an albatross to the party. If there was some way to keep Cheney in check and Bush decided not to get rid of him, I'd love to see the guy stay on. However, I'm not sure Bush has any real control over Cheney. That is a frightening thought.
Why look at opinion polls? Because, give or take a few points either way, they are representative of the feelings of Americans. When Bush says he doesn't pay much attention to polls, he disregards what average Americans are thinking. He doesn't give a crap about anyone but himself and his inner circle, and don't let anyone convince you otherwise.
Snave: I think 34% (the latest number I've heard) is probably as low as Bush can go. His hardcore base -- Big Business and the Religious Right -- probably make up about that percentage of the population. I don't think he could possibly do anything to alienate those people.
Bush has definitely poisoned his own well and cried "Wolf!" too many times. Swiftboating, Karl Rove's smokescreens and bogus issues -- it's been done too many times and more people are seeing through it.
Cheney definitely has more power than Bush, but I don't even think Cheney is that high up the chain. I'm guessing some shadowy groups (PNAC among others) are pulling the strings behind the scenes. Sometime in the late '90s they decided Bush would be the perfect cardboard cutout for them to hide behind.
And Bush is very attuned to the polls (or at least his handlers are). Everything Rove does is designed to manipulate public opinion.
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