Liar!

Oopsie!

Dubya's been caught lying again. "So?" you ask, "what's new? We all know he's a pathological liar - we figured that one out years ago."

I know, I know - this is about the six gazillionth lie he's told the American people (and the rest of the world) - but this one is so bold-faced, so egregious, and so conveniently timed - we are only 12 days out from an election, after all - that I think it deserves special mention.

And in a small voice I ask, "...but doesn't it disgust you that he's a liar? He's supposed to be your President! He's not supposed to lie!" Well, it certainly disgusts the Democratic Party. They've made an ad all about it.

Because when Bush said "we will stay the course in Iraq" he didn't actually mean "we will stay the course in Iraq" - in fact, according to the man himself, "...we've never been 'stay the course'."

Yeah, right George. And Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia. What a f*cking liar. Take a look....



Let's rewind for a second here. You wanna see more of the bit in his interview last Sunday on ABC with George Stephanopoulos where Bush denies he's ever been "stay the course"? Here it is again - complete with transcript at Think Progress:

Watch the video

So a couple of days later, after two-thirds of America had picked itself off the floor and stopped the hysterical and disbelieving laughter, Bush's press secretary Tony "Snowjob" Snow (you know, the one who used to work for Faux News) gets on Teevy and starts trying to spin Bush's comments about NOT staying the course in relation to Bush's previous comments ABOUT staying the course... Here he is, again at Think Progress, again with transcript. According to Snow, Bush has only ever said "stay the course" eight times...

Watch the video

"Hang on," I hear you say, "I'm sure Bush has said "Stay the course" in speeches, press conferences and interviews more than eight times... hasn't he?"

Well, dear reader, of course you're right. In fact according to Think Progress he's said it at least 30 times - that's 30 times that are documented on The White House website. I'm sure there are many more examples out there on the internets.

In fact, a quick search on The White House website actually brings up 157 results for the phrase "stay the course" - all from either Bush or his cohorts repeating the party line. A search on 'The Google' gives you 2,100,000 results for 'bush "stay the course"'.

Here are the most recent ten from the WH website - Think Progress has a whole bunch more:

BUSH: We will stay the course, we will help this young Iraqi democracy succeed, and victory in Iraq will be a major ideological triumph in the struggle of the 21st century. [8/30/06]

BUSH: Stay the course also means don't leave before the job is done. And that's - we're going to get the job done in Iraq. [8/11/06]

BUSH: As a matter of fact, we will win in Iraq so long as we stay the course. [7/11/06]

BUSH: And I saw people wondering whether the United States would have the nerve to stay the course and help them succeed. [6/19/06]

BUSH: If we don't lose our nerve, if we stay the course, someday down the road, an American President will be working with democratically-elected leaders in the broader Middle East at the table to keep the peace. [3/24/06]

BUSH: Some critics continue to assert that we have no plan in Iraq except to, "stay the course." If by "stay the course," they mean we will not allow the terrorists to break our will, they are right. If by "stay the course," they mean we will not permit al Qaeda to turn Iraq into what Afghanistan was under the Taliban - a safe haven for terrorism and a launching pad for attacks on America - they are right, as well. If by "stay the course" they mean that we're not learning from our experiences, or adjusting our tactics to meet the challenges on the ground, then they're flat wrong. [11/30/05]

BUSH: We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq. [8/4/05]

BUSH: And so the United States of America will stay the course and we will complete the task. We'll help Iraq develop a democracy and the world will be better off for it. [11/21/04]

BUSH: My message is that - is that we will stay the course and stand with these people so that they become free. [9/23/04]

BUSH: We will stay the course so that they can develop an army and police force of their own so they can defend themselves. [9/13/04]

My man Keith Olbermann has a most excellent (and very funny) summary of this whole bag of lies, obfuscations and spinspinspin - with a special on-screen counter for those who have difficulty with c-o-u-n-t-i-n-g. (That would be Bush and Snow, apparently).



Bush's continual attempts to rewrite history remind me so much of George Orwell's 1984, in which Winston Smith's job is to "rectify errors" by rewriting the text of speeches, news reports, books - every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance:

Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct, nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.

Well, maybe it's not quite that bad yet. Hooray for 'The Google', I say! Hmmmm. Maybe some of Bush's other history rewrites might make a juicy subject for a future blog.

But remember, kids - in George Bush's America, just as in George Orwell's 1984:

War is peace
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is strength

Interesting links

• Bush Declares His Spin on Iraq Inoperative
• Bush drops 'stay the course' slogan as political mood sours
• Bush has decided to cut and run from 'staying the course'
• Never on Sunday
  
• Spin the course
• Trying to Contain the Iraq Disaster

Technorati tags: Keith Olbermann, Countdown, George Bush, stay the course, lies, lying, liar, Tony Snow, Crooks and Liars, Think Progress, George Orwell, 1984, American politics.