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womzillaWhen Michael Kinsley gets his entire back into the swing, he really knocks them out of the park. This is from the introduction to his rebuttal of an article in the Washington Post which was a rebuttal to a piece Kinsley had written earlier. What it's about isn't nearly as important as this:
Speaking of which: Woody "Rutherford" Bush tried to claim that it wasn't responsible for the "Mission Accomplished" banner on the USS Abraham Lincoln which was prominently displayed above head while he played dress-up like an aviator and tried to claim that we had finished the War in Iraq. And this wasn't a small, out-of-the-way little claim; he made it during a televised press conference:
The White House, in the form of Professional Liar Scott McClellan, has clarified that, well, yes, the Navy put it up, but the White House had it printed.
Woody Bush was hoping that somehow the people who believe that, in the middle of a photo op so carefully constructed that the Lincoln was held at sea for 24 hours and rotated to provide a better background view for Bush, a banner which hung over Bush's head just sort of got there because the Navy wanted it, not because the White House did.
Pull the other one, it's got bells on.
Rambling for a second, I am thankful that I still have both legs. Apparently, a disproportionate number of the non-fatal casualties coming home from Iraq are soldiers who have lost one or both legs because the side armor on the HumVees isn't very good. Or so says someone who actually visited soldiers at Walter Reed Army Hospital. (Hint: This person is not a member of the administration.)
The distinguishing feature of modern Washington dishonesty is that it is almost transparent, barely intended to deceive. It uses true-ish factoids to construct an implied assertion about reality that is not just false but preposterous. Modern Washington dishonesty is more like an elaborate, stylized ritual than a realistic Western-style performance. The goal is not to persuade but merely to create an impression that there are two sides to the question without actually having to supply one of them.
Speaking of which: Woody "Rutherford" Bush tried to claim that it wasn't responsible for the "Mission Accomplished" banner on the USS Abraham Lincoln which was prominently displayed above head while he played dress-up like an aviator and tried to claim that we had finished the War in Iraq. And this wasn't a small, out-of-the-way little claim; he made it during a televised press conference:
The "Mission Accomplished" sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed some how to some ingenious advance man from my staff -- they weren't that ingenious, by the way.
The White House, in the form of Professional Liar Scott McClellan, has clarified that, well, yes, the Navy put it up, but the White House had it printed.
Woody Bush was hoping that somehow the people who believe that, in the middle of a photo op so carefully constructed that the Lincoln was held at sea for 24 hours and rotated to provide a better background view for Bush, a banner which hung over Bush's head just sort of got there because the Navy wanted it, not because the White House did.
Pull the other one, it's got bells on.
Rambling for a second, I am thankful that I still have both legs. Apparently, a disproportionate number of the non-fatal casualties coming home from Iraq are soldiers who have lost one or both legs because the side armor on the HumVees isn't very good. Or so says someone who actually visited soldiers at Walter Reed Army Hospital. (Hint: This person is not a member of the administration.)
