SOTU (Some Obvious Truckling Untruths)

If you are like me, listening to the cretin in chief makes your flesh crawl, and even in print his lies are sickmaking. IOW, no, I didn't subject myself to the SOTU.

I did go read WaPo on the subject, which is puzzling. While the newsroom did a fact check, which is excellent, the editorial board took the low road.

THE FINAL State of the Union address of a presidency always has an unavoidable undertone of wistfulness. No matter how convincingly the president pledges to work until the last hour of the last day, the end is already visible on the horizon; most of his achievements and failures have been etched for history's judgment. President Bush's speech last night was necessarily tailored to fit that reality: There were no major new initiatives. Still, the president's advisers said he had decided to offer a forward-looking program, not a reflective valedictory -- a wise choice, because an honest assessment of the past seven years would have been a tale of opportunities lost and enterprises bungled.
(snip)
Justifiably promoting the improvement in security in Iraq, he reiterated the administration's plan to "return on success," withdrawing troops this year while trying to preserve and extend the fragile stability that has been achieved. He also restated his hope to help Israelis and Palestinians reach a peace settlement by the end of the year. Curiously, however, the president did not mention North Korea -- though there, too, the administration has hoped to complete a landmark deal on disarmament in the coming months.

The vast whitewash over facts is mindboggling, so let's give you some of the comments, which do bother to point out reality. Of course, I couldn't let the lies go unanswered.

My comment:
jocabel wrote:
Characterizing the disaster that has been the occupied White House's record as 'missed opportunities' is nothing short of false. No opportunity to betray the public interest has been missed. No opportunity to serve corporate interests at the expense of public well-being and safety has been lost.

This has been an unashamedly crony serving administration, and its policies have gone a long way toward destroying the nation it has betrayed.

Now a few others;

cpwash wrote:
"Return on Success (in Iraq)"

You've got to be kidding. He'll leave the place a mess. Kirkuck is still simmering. The Sunni are now well armed for the upcoming civil war. And, the Turks are still conducting cross border raids into Iraq. Down South, there are two Shiite tribes, each with their own street armies. Womens rights have been propelled back 1000 years. Christians are now persecuted in-country. There are still over two million refugees that have fled the country. Killings, assassinations, and kidnappings occur daily.

Need I go on?


daniel3715 wrote:
The biggest disaster in the history of our country speaks, and the Wa Po acts as though he was just an ordinary guy.

Shame, shame, shame.

If it was a Democrat, you would be calling for his scalp.

GeorgeSimian wrote:
President Bush has spent more time out of his office than any president before him. He obviously hates his job. And he sucks at it.

We can expect more of the same for his last year. Filling as many appointed positions as possible with loyal Bushies who aren't good at whatever they're supposed to do. More blaming Democrats for the mess that he got us into. More lies. More telling us that we're winning in Iraq and that everything looks great and that the American people just don't understand that reality isn't what really happens.

cdierd1944 wrote:
You fail to mention, as is noted elsewhere in the WAPO, that the President told numerous lies again. How can we have confidence in a man who has no concern for truth. He starts with his desired outcome and then tailors the facts to fit the outcome he wants. What a disasterous 7 years we have endured.

Speranza wrote:
This is what you have to say about a man who has trashed the reputation of the US and destroyed its values? You don't mention the 100,000 plus dead Iraqis and the several million people who have led lives of fear and desperation because - yes because of -- Bush's lies, aggression and stupidity. This editorial is a pathetic free-pass for a man who means pratically none of what he says and hates to think. Do you think this should go un-noted. Where's the context? And shame upon shame, you've fallen for his spin on Iraq. Well, we get what we deserve and so long as you can forget the murderous impact Bush has had on US interests, we may as wel be living in Soviet Russia, or Pol Pot's Cambodia. Imagine if Bush were President of China and China had just done what Bush had done. What would you be saying then? The WAPO's indulgence and glossing over of this man's evil acts reflects badly on a newspaper of record.

While there are others worth reading, this would get really too long if I put up all of them. So many of the internet WaPo readers are worth the time to read, it belies reason that the editor in chief is so trivial and so constantly wrong.

Apologies to all of you who think that WaPo revels in the mere numbers of those who read it online, and uses those numbers to attract advertising. There is something to that view, but I am delighted there are enough of us taking the time to stick pins in those balloons Fred Hiatt keeps sending up for his corporate sponsors, trying to act like a respectable news commentator. The truth is always appropriate, and giving the lie to liars is an honorable activity.

Thank you, all you fellow commenters who insist on shouting out the truths that are available even at WaPo, in the news pages.