No Mutal Back-Scratching For Iraq

Having just passed the fourth anniversary of Mission Accomplished in Iraq, troops remain, with the new security plan being rolled out and admissions that its making progress from the administration, the Senate passed the war funding bill.

But they attached the condition that it would only be applicable if the withdrawal of troops begins from the 1st Of October.

But Bush has promised to veto the bill when it is brought before him and send it back.

But is it getting any better?

No!

The Truthiness Blog Says ; Mission Accomplised anniversary hats year 5 are on sake now, get them while stocks last!

War On Reality Part 9 ; Vote Democrat & Die

As reported yesterday, Rudy Giuliani used the politics of fear in an effort to terrorise the electorate into voting Republican in the 2008 election.

Late after the last posted was uploaded, Keith Olbermann on his MSNBC Countdown show finished with a Special Comment in which he calls Mr Giuliani to account for using terrorism tactics on US voters.

Here is his Special Comment



The Truthiness Blog Says ; When you scare people into thinking something, you can get them to do (and vote for) almost anything. Mr Giuliani has simply scraped further down in the bottom of the barrel than anyone else before him.

Scare Tactics Are First WMDs In Election Campaign

Rudy Giuliani has kicked off the age old argument of voting Republican rather than Democratic. That the Republicans are best at defence and the Democrats cannot be trusted with national security.

He suggested in response to a question at a town hall meeting in New England that voting Democrat would put the US at greater risk of terrorist attack and that the country would be back to it's ''pre 9/11 attitude of defence.''

The Truthiness Blog Says ; Isn't time someone (and why not Giuliani who at one time united the country?) went beyond this predictable electioneering which shows it's head every time the security of the country is talked about. It's cheap and it's easy. Be brave politicians and campaign on what you'd do and don't blame your opponent for what you think they'd do if you lost.

Reason 188 To Not Like Karl Rove

Karl Rove attempted to handbag two women Saturday night when they raised the issue of global warming and the US's efforts to tackle it.

The women in question were Sheryl Crowe and Laurie David who have been touring US colleges to highlight global warming and get a grassroots movement going to push the federal government into real, substantive action.

Alas it wasn't to be at the White House Correspondents Dinner Saturday night. From reports, Mr Rove got hostile when Crowe and David tried to get him to reconsider his position on the science of global warming.

He even said that he doesn't work for Crow, but the American people.

Last time we checked, those people born in Kennett, Missouri still voted and were entitled to representation.

The Truthiness Blog Says ; Karl Rove, reason 189 coming soon!

Chickens To Come Home To Roost For The Wolf?

Known as Wolfie by President Bush, the President of the World Bank is skating on very thin ice and the sound of cracks spreading to his patch will get louder this week. The directors of the WB have said they are ''urgently'' wishing to deal with the scandal that's swirling around Mr Wolfowitz. He's accused of lobbying for his girlfriend to gain a pay rise and promotion.

With the general practise that goes along with those who teeter on the brink of being fired, the White House has said it has ''confidence'' in Paul Wolfowitz.

Usually with that show of support being reported it's not long before they are clearing out their desk and having their car park space repainted.

The Truthiness Blog Says ; When he does lose his job, maybe he could get a friendly bank to give him a loan at a generous rate to set up his own consultancy business?

If anything it'll keep the wolf from the door.

Even The Airwaves On The Airways Get Censored!

With the rivalry between British Airways and Virgin Atlantic rumbling onto it's 27th year, BA have taken the tit-for-tat competition between the two to a different level altogether , 36,000 feet in fact.

In the latest James Bond film, Casino Royale, Richard Branson is seen passing through a security checkpoint at Miami airport. But this scene and another of a Virgin Atlantic tailfin have been edited out of the version of the film being shown on BA's inflight entertainment system.

Airlines have a history of editing films shown onboard to the varied audience of passengers to prevent questionable content being played.

Virgin however have always been slightly different, indeed they showed the spoof airline disaster film 'Airplane!' when they first began flying to New York from London Heathrow.

BA says it edits films on the grounds of 'taste and suitability'.

The Truthiness Blog Says ; Clearly BA don't think Mr Branson is suitable or tasteful for their passengers. But I doubt he'll be flying with BA soon anyway so not to worry.

And don't call me Shirley.

War On Reality Part 8 ; Iraq Plan Is Going Well

Despite the fact their is still mass civil unrest in Iraq, specifically Baghdad.

Despite the quick turnaround of troops once they reach home to send them back to Iraq, not having had the minimum amount of leave that is required of them.

Despite the attempt to hush up the scandal of terrible conditions at Walter Reed.

Despite the 200 people killed in the marketplace bombings on Wednesday, the worst single day of violence since the security plan lauded by Mr Bush was launched.

Despite all this. Mr Bush says the security plan seems to be working.

What opposite universe is he living in?

If this plan appears to bearing fruit and it involves the construction of whole walled sections of the city, then some people, indeed quite a lot don't like your plan.

The Truthiness Blog Says ; Where will it finish at? Perhaps just build a huge wall around Iraq, with no doorways, that'll keep everyone in the country safe. Good call Sir.

Technology Gets Virginia Tech Together After Tragedy

Stories have emerged in the last twenty-four hours of how Virginia Tech students checked up on each other, trying to ensure that their classmates, friends, teachers and staff were safe and well and exhanging their individual stories on what happened on that terrible day at such a peaceful, happy place.

Sites such as Facebook and MySpace were filled with the frequent 'are you ok?' message being exchanged between friends and students who may not even have spoken in years, desperate to know that they were safe.

As a way of dealing with the tragedy and the mourning process, the swaping of experiences and stories on that day will allow people to heal and have a comprehensive view of events, allowing greater understanding of what those involved went through when their day was shattered.

The Truthiness Blog Says ; For once, technology, can help those dealing with this life changing event feel more part of a community, instead of isolating people as technology can so often be accused of.

We are all thinking of you at Virginia Tech.

Wife Takes Excuse For Being Late As Total Rubbish, Literally!

A man from Gloucestershire in the UK went missing when he took some rubbish to the local rubbish tip. William Robertson, 80 turned up 170 miles from his home, slightly confused in Cornwall. Police had appealed for sightings of him and his car before he was found on Saturday.

It was unreported whether the rubbish he was due to get rid of had been disposed of or not.

His wife was not best pleased as his excuses for going missing are getting rather outlandish, unconfirmed reports say.

The Truthiness Blog Says ; Talk about a cover story!

Keep Getting Mis-Informed ; It's Better For You Than Watching Real News

According to another survey, those who watch The Daily Show & The Colbert Report among other things are likely to be more knowledgeable. Those giving the highest number of correct answers about current affairs were regular viewers of those shows on Comedy Central.

The group giving the lowest score of correct answers were those who watched Fox News

The Truthiness Blog Says ; Who's for getting Comedy Central to launch a 24 hour 'news' channel and call it Faux News?

Iraqi Parliament Picks Up The Pieces

The suicide bomb attack on the Iraq Parliament building inside the heavliy protected Green Zone in Baghdad shows that no-where at all in the Iraqi capital is safe.

Previously, with all the mayhem taking place outside of it's walls, the area containing US military headquarters, embassies and other politcal installations, it provided a break to all that an allowed the governing of Iraq to continue without incident.

All that went into history as a bomb exploded near the cafeteria just as ministers and staff were breaking for lunch on Thursday.

The Truthiness Blog Says ; Is there an end in sight for all this?

Nancy Grace ; Don't Look Into Her Eyes!

With the end of the Duke Lacrosse case, we stumbled on some clips of the CNN Headline Prime presenter Nancy Grace in full flow after the case broke.



Then to cheer you up and to bring Nancy down a peg or two we have this from NBC's Saturday Night Live



The Truthiness Blog Says ; The most scary name in news!

War On Reality Part 7 ; Propaganda Is Alive And Well In The UK

After the UK Navy service personnel were released by Iran and flown home, then the abuse and mudslinging really started.

It was first announced that the sailors were to be allowed to sell their stories to the media since this was an 'exceptional case'.
The reason given for the 'pay and tell' of the stories was to allow the real story to be gotten out there.

One question quickly jumped to mind. If the 'real story wasn't really getting out' then what 'truth' were we told in the press conference that this blog reported on once the personnel arrive back at their UK base?

But then the Defence Secretary Des Browne, after the lone female of the group Faye Turney had sold her story to The Sun newspaper (owned by News Corp's 'Mr Burns' media-baron Rupert Murdoch) and ITV's Tonight Programme for a six figure sum, said long after the sound of the stable door banging shut very, VERY loudly, ''Clearly with hindsight... I could have made a different decision''.

The Truthiness Blog Says ; No matter how badly this has been handled, in terms of trying to spin a story to the benefit of the UK and US position that Iran is the enemy, its been at best a half-hearted success. But the efforts to squeeze every drop of anti-Iranian feeling out of this situation were exhausted. Its clear the UK public aren't as gullible as some officials think, this wasn't an 'exceptional case', military hostages have happened every couple of years since the dawn of time.

So please don't hijack this situation to ratchet up tension toward Iran.

You tried to sell the story to the public ; but not everyone 'bought' it (accept Mr Murdoch).

Ford CEO Takes Us For A Ride

On a review of the footage taken at the White House on the day that George Bush is meant to have almost put Nancy Pelosi in charge, it turns out the head of Ford may have not just exagerated things a bit, but, well, made them totally up.

Nothing at all in the video of Bush, Cheney and Ford CEO Alan Mulally at a demonstration of a Ford hydrogen hybrid, matches a quote made by the Ford CEO a few days earlier.



The Truthiness Blog Says ; The head of a vast multinational corporation lies to make himself look good, is nothing sacred! What next? Lying politicians, call centre workers and fast food firms? Whats happening to the World!

Want To Run A War? Download The Application Form Here!

The Bush administration is dealing with three military generals have rejected taking the position of a 'war czar' to oversee all strategic decisions within these conflicts and report back to the Pentagon and State Department.

The job description is thought to include ' ability to work under pressure' and 'multi-skilled to enable analysis of many conflicts and unique, diverse campaigns on a variety of fronts' , as essential skills for any potential applicants.

The Truthiness Blog Says ; Isn't it slightly concerning that the administration is only now attempting to fill a vacancy like this and didn't do this in October 2001, before it invaded Afghanistan, then later Iraq?

May the US should write notices on the sides of their vehicles in Iraq with the wording ' we apologise for the poor quality of this conflict, we aren't meeting our usual high standard. This is due to an employee shortage. We are working hard to fix this as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding and patience.'

I'm Kent Brockman, time for the news, be afraid, be very afraid!

Poking fun at cable news and twenty-four hour rolling news in general is always good, it makes sure they don't get too pompous and over inflated.



The Truthiness Blog Says ; As the Terminator would say, '' I want your clothes, your boots and your airtime for a party political broadcast!''

Four Years & One Day on In April 2007

It's been four years and one day since the statue of Saddam Hussein fell and Baghdad was liberated following the invasion of Iraq.

Protests were staged in Baghdad to call for the withdrawal of allied forces in that city and in that country.

Far from the flowers and sweets being thrown at advancing troops it's more likely to be bricks and crudely made explosive devices.

Far from the friendly, warm relationship it was expected Iraq would be having with the US, the Iraq people and government appear to have seen through the absence of a post-war plan, leaving a dangerous and uncertain vacuum in their country.

The Truthiness Blog Says ; It would be wrong to say things haven't changed in Iraq since 2003, they clearly have. Iraq is now more vocal than ever about it's dislike of an occupation by US and allied forces. Could it now be time to consider giving the people we are meant to have liberated back their country?

Hindenberg Warning! This production contains scenes of potential explosion and mild peril.

Confirmation came through like a ten tonne weight landing thwack from a great height today as to President Bush's dislike of hybrid and alternative vehicles.

Last week, with a Ford built hydrogen hybrid vehicle being demonstrated at the White House, President Bush, the hands-on guy that he is, tried to get involved. Fortune didn't shine on the fearless leader though as he had to be stopped by Credit Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally before he plugged the electrical cord into the hydrogen tank of the demonstration vehicle and nearly blew himself, the Vice-President and half the White House up, not to mention creating a rather large hole in the South Lawn.

The Truthiness Blog Says ; We always knew that the President never liked the idea of non-oil fueled vehicles and now he's confirmed it in public. He'd rather blow himself up than let them gain a market share!

This would have made Cheney shooting that guy in the face look like a wardrobe malfunction.

War On Reality Part 6 ; The Truthiness Award Goes To Mr Cheney

As scandal has drown the administration once again this week, the Vice President Dick Cheney has again tried to reassert the government's line of 2003, that Iraq had contact and collaboration with al-Qaeda before the 2003 US-led invasion.

The administration seems to be treading water with a rubber-ring which has less and less air in it barely keeping their heads above water.

The Truthiness Blog Says ; In a reverse effect, the vacumn created after the unseating of Saddam means insurgents in Iraq have been joined by al-Qaeda and are there now, all thanks to the invasion. This administration gives the impression it will implode in on itself sooner rather than later. Stand clear.

Bill O'Reilly Shows The Fair & Balance Of Fox News

Who'll bet against us that Blll O'Reilly will be felled by a heart attack from getting angry before the year is out?



The Truthiness Blog Says ; Place your bets!

Its always 12 Noon Somewhere

At noon yesterday, BST, a flight from Tehran touched down at London Heathrow, a scheduled British Airways daily service, its cargo, slightly more interesting to the World's press than normal, the freed UK service personnel arriving back from Iran.

At noon yesterday, ninety miles West of Heathrow on another runway at RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire, a military transport aircraft was touching down, with the bodies of two British service personnel.

And to show that the UK isn't quite as paranoid about showing photographs of coffins being brought back from Iraq and other war zones the country is involved in, a photo of the coffin being carried onto the tarmac was shown on the front of a national newspaper, along with a picture of the returning fifteen personnel.

The Truthiness Blog Says ; There's nothing wrong with letting the media show pictures of service people's coffins, it might remind people that actual real people are being killed over there.

Iran Captives Tell Of Treatment

The UK Royal Navy Personnel have told the press the way they were treated by the Iranian authorities during their captivity.

Over thirteen days the sailors were kept in solitary confinement, were given no news from the outside World, indeed one serviceman said that none of the guards 'spoke English'.

Clearly still shocked and overwhelmed by the experience, the press conference at Royal Navy Base Chivenor, Devon lasted about fifteen minutes and details of their treatment was small in detail and questions about the Navy's reconsideration of procedures for this type of situation in the future were met with a 'we can't comment on that'.

The personnel have ben given two weeks compassionate leave but say they look forward to returning to work.

The Truthiness Blog Says ; Lets sit back and watch the spinning of this story from everyone involved begin.

This is part of the press conference, it is Fox News though, so watch through a 'news' filter. But the feed is almost identical to BBC News 24, so its not that bad.

Who's That Hiding In The Corner?

Who's afraid of the big bad war funding Mr Cheney?



The Truthiness Blog Says ; Is Cheney thinking to himself '' I can get a really clean shot here and no-one will suspect me!'' ?

Dangerous Drug Found To Be, Well, Dangerous

A study from the University Of Texas Southwestern has discovered the previously undiscoverable, it will shock you into something you wouldn't have imagined.

Taking cocaine can double your risk of suffering a stroke. Other drugs such as speed and crystal meth can increase the risk five times over.

What a shock, who would have thought snorting a drug that can make your nose dissolve could also put you at greater risk of stroke?

The Truthiness Blog Says ; What next, will there be labels of syringes saying 'injecting illegal drugs could seriously damage your medical insurance?

Being Fat Can Seriously Damage Someone Else's Health

A Doctor in the UK has said one of the main causes of back-pain in nurses and other staff in the Country's National Health Service is bigger and bigger patients.

The need to move patients from beds to operating tables can lead to twisted spines and undue pressure on bones and muscles said Dr Matthew Bennett of the British Chiropractor Association.

A Department Of Health spokeswoman said that staff were advised to use equipment to lift and move patients.

The Truthiness Blog Says ; Don't be surprised when the nurse moves you onto the trolley with a forklift.

UK Navy Captives ; Bush's Sound & Fury

We're happy to announce this is The Truthiness Blog's one hundredth post.

And not to disappoint anyone our century post is about that old chestnut. President Bush.

He made comments on Sunday about the captured UK Navy personnel, he seemed quite happy to call them hostages, said they should be returned and added '' they're innocent. They did nothing wrong.''

Maybe it would be helpful to all them diplomats working all day and night behind the scenes to have Mr Bush keep from potentially inflamming the situation. He could do well to tone down his language.

On this occasion the UK do not need him throwing in his two cents worth. They have become stuck in this themselves and can sort it out on their own.

The Truthiness Blog ; On this issue, it's what doesn't get said publicly that's important. That applies to President Bush as well as anyone.

Highway Shut Causes A Butterfly Flap

In Taiwan, a highway lane has been closed to allow migrating butterflies to move safely across the road without being killed by turbulence caused by fast moving traffic.

Perhaps the Taiwan government can give President Bush tips on closing something or reducing or outlawing a thing which might give the polar bears a chance to regroup.

If he doesn't, he knows they'll storm the White House.

The truthiness blog says ; We won't let up on this polar bear thing, whatever you do, don't make them angry, just like Dick Cheney with that gun., they can turn on you.

Ocean's Easter Eggs Eleven

With people all over the planet gearing up for the end of this week, tucking into chocolate easter eggs and sweet flavoured rabbits, those celebrating Easter in the UK should be extra careful to check the eggs they might have.

A lorryload of £70,000 worth of Cadburys chocolate eggs were stolen in Staffordshire on Tuesday March 20th. The thieves uncunningly told the driver eggs were falling out the back and jumped in the cab when he got out check.

So if anyone should knock on your day today and attempt to sell you cheap Easter eggs and you happen to be in the Midlands, UK, then check the use by date and if they offer you them for a pound each then for god sake haggle, they've got thousands of them.

The truthiness blog ; Nothing says thank you for your sacrifice like a commercially produced, boxed chocolate hollow egg, that's been stolen.