Dave Lindorff: A Government of Liars Must Be Brought Down

A Government of Liars Must Be Brought Down
Wed, 01/23/2008 - 19:04 — dlindorff


When journalists are caught lying outright, they can be fired, and can even find their careers terminated. Take Janet Cooke, the Washington Post reporter who made up a story about a young drug user. A decade after her firing, she was earning $6/hour as a Liz Claiborne clerk in a department store. Or consider Stephen Glass, who famously made up stories at the New Republic. He landed on his feet as a fiction writer, but his journalism days are over. And don't forget poor Dan Rather, who was pushed out of his anchor job for reporting the truth about George Bush's AWOL in the Air National Guard, but simply cited a questionable document.

So what to do about George Bush and his gang of fabulists, who now, thanks to a study by the Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism, stand shown to have lied to Congress and the American people 935 times in what the two organizations say was “part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."

Clearly we’ve come a long way from that first President named George who, at least in popular mythology, “couldn’t tell a lie.”

And while it is a given in American political life that “politicians lie,” we’re talking here about some whoppers that weren’t just about self-promotion, like Hillary Clinton’s claims that she was involved in all of the major decisions in Bill Clinton’s White House, or Obama’s claim that he has always opposed the war in Iraq, or John McCain’s claim that he is a “straight talker.” We’re talking about lies that led to the US violating international law by invading a country that posed no imminent threat, lies that have led to the needless and pointless deaths of some 4000 American military personnel and to the maiming of nearly 80,000 others, lies that have left a nation of 34 million in ruins, with 4 million refugees, 1 million dead, and political chaos that is perhaps irremediable. We’re talking about lies that have cost the US upwards of $2 trillion in actual military outlays and future debt payments. Lies that have cast the US in the role of pariah nation and terrorist state in the eyes of the rest of the world.

The idea that Americans would be willing to impeach a president for lying about a sexual act, or that they would reject a candidate for plagiarizing part of a speech, but that they would then simply shrug at hard evidence that a president, along with his vice president, secretary of state, defense secretary and national security adviser had all lied in a conscious, coordinated conspiracy to trick them into a disastrous war is hard to believe. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/?q=node/100

because that is the intent of these liars, is to create an environment where they can lie and steal and murder with impunity.

care much about this.

it's no big deal, apparently. :grr: Or, at least, so says the government. :argh:

In face-to-face life, I know about four people who are up in arms about all of this.

No one else gives a shit.

How can we take back our government if most Americans don't even want to?