War On Reality Part 28 ; If It Walks Like A Duck

20,000 extra troops are to be rotated to Iraq in December, but they are not part of the surge it's being claimed.

Tell The Truthiness ; If we ask the same question in December, will we get the same answer?

Its Getting Hot In Here ; Take Off All Your Responsibility

We know this is directly from The NewsHole website, but....

Hands up all those going on summer holiday....



And hands up all those who are not off on holiday today...



Tell The Truthiness ; It's awfully hot in Baghdad, it must effect your judgement, if only the White House could use the weather excuse.

Queer Eye For The New Guy

With the terribly friendly atmosphere between Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President George Bush threatening to turn into a love fest, we point out the important aspects of the Camp David meeting.

Like the choice of ties with Tony Blair and the new PM in the Commons, as we reported, a similar situation has happened at today's meeting.

Mr Brown was wearing a blue, conservative tie and Mr Bush was wearing a red labour coloured tie.

Tell The Truthiness ; We knew they've said they're still close, but are they dragging their parties in new directions?!

The World Votes ; Van Dyke Flies To Baghdad

In the first of our interactive user interfaces (an online poll), the World has decided who knows more about Iraq.

100% of those who voted reckon that Dick Van Dyke knows more about the situation on the ground in Iraq than Mr Bush or Mr al-Maliki.

Tell The Truthiness ; Will his strategy be to get all sides, sunnis and shias to 'step in time'?

War On Reality Part 27 ; It Always Comes Back To Bite You In The Ass

Charges of contempt are being made on Capitol Hill against those two staff who refused to cooperate with an investigation into the attorney firings.

The full outcome could be a year in jail and a $1000 fine.

Tell The Truthiness ; Where's the executive privilege now?

Democratic YouTube Was Fun, Now Back To The Dull Stuff

The CNN YouTube Democratic Debate was fun and there was a certain surreal quality watching the candidates listen as a giant snowman asked them a question on an overhead screen.

Without a doubt it was more engaging than the usual live debate where the moderator gives them questions. Watching voters ask the questions is a little like seeing a politician out of their natural environment.

Tell The Truthiness ; Did you agree with John Edwards and think Hillary Clinton's jacket wasn't right?

Queer Eye For The Labour Guy

Fellow bloggers akromatika and xakkd reminded us about poor colour co-ordination in political stories.

This picture shows former Prime Minister Tony Blair, wearing a red tie, making his last statement to Parliament, with his replacement Gordon Brown, wearing a blue tie, sitting next to him.

Mr Blair and Mr Brown's Labour Party colour is red, with the opposing party, the Conservatives settling on blue.

Tell The Truthiness ; Perhaps someone should have told Mr Brown to keep a united front and wear a red tie and not the colour of the opposition!

Cheney Takes Power From Bush ; For About 2 Hours

In a headline we hope doesn't give you a heart attack, President Bush gave power over to VP Dick Cheney for a few hours today.

Mr Bush was undergoing a routine colon check and gave a member of the undead the reigns to the nation.

Tell The Truthiness ; We understand Mr Cheney got about five troops to the border of Iran and that was as far as he got on his pet project.

BV For Bush Vendetta?

Well, with the searching that's been going on for actual reason behind the invasion of Iraq, this one seems to have popped up and missed everyone's radar; it's all about revenge.

George W Bush is reported to have been overheard by Senator Tom Daschle, who then relayed the story to a radio talk show host that the reason for going after Saddam and into Iraq ; it was revenge for the assassination attempt made on his father by Iraq.

Tell The Truthiness ; People tend to try and kill you when you're the leader of a country, ask anyone who's had an attempt made on their life. Seems a bit severe to us, don't you think?

3618 US forces deaths so far, all for one failed murder attempt. Is this the reason Mr Bush?

War On Reality Part 27 ; Eight Week Iraq Fantasy

The White House and anyone connected to the President (minus most of the GOP who are revolting) are pretty much rearranging the deckchairs in an attempt, any attempt, to buy time up until the middle of September.

Should we now take bets on how far they can string it out before it breaks, 4 weeks anyone?

Tell The Truthiness ; Keep all those supporters appearing on the Sunday shows, if you say it's going well enough times, someone's bound to agree with you, that's just mathmatical probability.

The 130 Degrees Of Tony Snow

White House press secretary Tony Snow got grilled by ABC's Martha Raddatz on the moral equality of the US and Iraq governments going on summer break while US troops stay to bake in every meaning of the word.

Tell The Truthiness ; Will the only thing surging ahead this summer be the temperatures? Well done Martha Raddatz.

Is Mr Maliki More Reality Based Than Mr Bush?

In his response to the report about Iraq progress, Nouri al-Maliki seemed to pull a rabbit out of his hat about the missed benchmarks.

He said that if coalition forces decided to leave the country, Iraq troops could fill the role "at any time".

Despite this, none of the targets set in the report got met.

Tell The Truthiness ; Who's better at analysing the situation, President Bush bubbled in the White House, or Mr Maliki fortified in the Green Zone?

War On Reality Part 26 ; I Have A Gut Feeling, So Do We

Tell The Truthiness ; Why should we believe anything Mr Chertoff or the Department Of Homeland Security says?

War On The President 1 ; Third Time's The Charm

The House Of Representatives has voted to remove US troops from Iraq by Spring 2008.

This is the third time this vote has occurred and there are moves on the Hill to push for the Congress to vote the same way and hold the President's feet to the fire.

Tell The Truthiness ; He accuses the US public of having war fatigue. Nothing says fatigue like having thousands of people killed in a pointless war. Your move Mr Bush.

Outta Touch, Outta Excuses, Outta Time?

When asked about whether troops levels when the US went into Iraq were sufficent, the President wrapped up his answer.

He told reporters gathered at the White House that he went ''round the table'' and asked all the military chiefs, including Tommy Franks and they told him they had enough troops.

Tell The Truthiness ; Is he preparing for a change in troop levels, but is making sure blame is apportioned so that he spreads the responsibility for a poorly planned war off on others?

War On Reality Part 25 ; Give It More Time, And Don't Pick It, It's Bound To Heal

Responding to the report about progress, or lack of it, in Iraq, the President linked time and again the situation in that country having direct effects on US soil if the region is abandoned.

Plus when asked about Mr Chertoff's gut feeling, he didn't answer the question.

Tell The Truthiness ; ''My gut tells me what my head tells me'', translates as ''I do what Cheney tells me to do.''

War On Reality Part 24 ; Ex-Aide Loyal After The End, It's Taylor Made

As she made a statement to a Senate Committee assembled to find out the truth behind the attorney sackings, Sara Taylor stuck to loyalty as a flimsy defence for refusing to answer questions about the firings.

The reason she's not telling is because she is compelled Mr Bush's executive privilege. There are areas though she can talk about without breaching the order.

Tell The Truthiness ; If you like court tv, for this administration, it's just the start.

Bush Goes Trump On Little Girl ; You're Fired ; Makes Them Cry

With his approval rating in the toilet and the war further in the u-bend of failure, Bush has shown how much he doesn't care anymore about anyone.

Yes, you'd think we were making this up and we wish we were ; he made a little girl cry.

Tell The Truthiness ; We bet behind closed doors he's kicked the dogs and kittens before too.

Our President Is A Record Breaker ; For All The Wrong Reasons

President Bush's approval rating has fallen to an an all time low of 29%.

Tell The Truthiness ; With ratings like that, even on ABC, you would have been cancelled before now!

War On Reality Part 23 ; Chertoff Gets His Security News From The Gut

Possibly being used as a smokescreen against all the bad news, possibly being used to boost the profile of his dangerously understaffed department or for any other stupid reason, Michael Chertoff has cited a terrorist attack this summer on the US, with no evidence whatsoever.

The worst thing about this new threat* is that he hasn't pretended or talked up flimsy evidence, he's gone one better, he's said that there is no evidence, but that he has a ''gut feeling''.

Tell The Truthiness ; We have a gut feeling that Chertoff is an idiot and shouldn't be in charge of Homeland Security, you really should believe us though, because it's in our gut, so it MUST be true.

* please use an english to truthiness dictionary for the truthiness language definition of this word.

Michael Moore Breaks Censors, CNN Give Him Free Rein In Part 2

In Michael Moore's CNN Situation Room slam-down on Monday in primetime, CNN stuck to their word.

Wolf Blitzer's promise to have a longer discussion with Moore taped and shown unedited later has now been released.

Tell The Truthiness ; Good to know CNN is happy to allow a balance of views, we don't want it going down a Fox News road now do we?

Iraq Surge Change ; Do You Think It Can Work?

Tony Snow indicated a 'surge redeployment' today, probably in response to that report on nothing of achievement in Iraq following the famed 'surge'.

Tell The Truthiness ; Today we ask you, the reader, does anyone think a Surge Mark Two can work? Leave a quick comment and let us know.

Official; Iraq Success 0 - 100 Ineffective War ; We Have a Big Loser

Its official, Iraq is a mess and the government of that country has achieved not a single target set.

Some say the Iraqi government has little chance to move forward unless troops leave and allow them to take real control of their own country.

Tell The Truthiness ; Change happens now, not next year.

Michael Moore Broadsides On CNN At Wolf Blitzer; Update

Tell The Truthiness ; As promised, here's the video.

Michael Moore Broadsides On CNN At Wolf Blitzer

We don't have video of the interview yet, but as soon as it hits YouTube, we'll be the first to post it up.

Michael Moore was on CNN's The Situation Room talking to Wolf Blitzer about his new film about medical care, Sicko, when he went after the media for not apologising about Iraq coverage after his last film Fahrenheit 9/11.

Mr Blitzer more or less just let him roll, though did promise a recorded extended interview to be broadcast tomorrow.

Tell The Truthiness ; That's why it's called live TV everybody!

How Safe Can We Be With So Many Vacancies At The Department Of Homeland Security?

Anyone considering a change in career needs to look no further than the Department Of Homeland Security.

With 138 vacancies out of 575 positions, there will be plenty of space for all those new immigrants crossing the borders to get a government job.

Tell The Truthiness ; A high proportion of those vacancies are in the intelligence department. There's a vacancy for that in the Oval Office too. Anyone know where to download an application form?

Do you feel safe with all these vacancies?

Feelings Boil Over On Bush & Cheney Impeachment

Nancy Pelosi was the last person we imagined to be getting hot under the collar this week with everything else that's going on.

Unless she introduces impeachment articles in the House in the next two weeks Cindy Sheehan will stand against her in 2008.

Tell The Truthiness ; Lets hope Pelosi's statement that July will be an interesting month rings true and not just for her sake.

If Its Good Enough For The Goose ; US Becomes Vague & Hazy In The Heat

Just as the UK government tries to keep the public in that country on the edge of their seats about the overblown terrorism threat, its shoulder-to-shoulder ally has said the same thing.

Like an echo bouncing across the Persian Gulf, similar in tone to that made about the UK security situation, it could have been a carbon copy.

The comments made by Lt Gen David Petraeus could be a last ditch effort to change public opinion on an indefinate war as calls grow for a pullout or policy shift.

Tell The Truthiness ; He compared Iraq to Northern Ireland, are you telling me you think their are WMDs in Belfast? Someone ring Fox News, they'd love that story!

In The Heat Of The Fight ; Everyone's Keeping Busy

Washington and the rest of the country is baking under summer heat, some seem to be feeling it more this afternoon than others.

Senator Harry Reid is saying that GOP members who have defected on Iraq are making the White House to reconsider it's
position on the war. Senator Jim Webb is hoping to pass legislation to increase the turnaround time troops get on rotation from action in Iraq.

While the President is only interested in protecting his ass by invoking executive privilege to keep questioning of aides in the attorney furore. Other Republicans are jumping overboard and hearings on Libby are being penciled in.


Tell The Truthiness ; Despite the heat, everyone seems to be keeping busy. But are they keeping cool?

Mr Potato Head ; Iraq Policy Rattles In Bush's Head

After his fourth of July speech, the US deaths over the weekend and the massive bomb that killed 150, much has been made of what the President is thinking on Iraq.

Some have said that the policy, direction, way, whatever you're calling it, has always been known in the White House. But then, some insiders say that the President keeps his true opinion of the policy to himself.

Tell The Truthiness ; Maybe the President sounds-off Barney in quiet moments on the lawn.

War On Reality Part 22 ; Would You Mind Awfully If We Went After The Terrorists In Your Backyard?

We all know how much Bush and the US are big, big fans of going to the ends of the Earth to catch terrorists and evildoers. But, considering all that, it's rather odd that back in 2005 Don Rumsfeld, remember him (you can get pills for the nightmares), called off a raid aimed at catching senior members of al-Qaeda.

The reason for the sudden change of heart you ask?

The US were worried about upsetting Pakistan. When have another country's feelings been taken in account when military action was concerned?

Is there something about Pakistan which we've missed? The only other country in the World that is treated so carefully is Saudi Arabia.

Is there oil underneath Islamabad?

It Might Rain A Year From Today ; UK Scare Tactics Rolled Out

The usually unflinching Brits are going through an interesting time right now as a new era is being moulded by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Since the failed car bombings, the urge to remain 'on alert' has been a non-stop story.

Now the UK's security minster Sir Alan West has said the fight against this terrorism could last 15 years.

Tell The Truthiness ; You shouldn't make sweeping generalisations like this. You may cite it as being 'honest and open' to citizens, but it gets hijacked by areas of government and the media and used to scare the population out of their wits. Tomorrow forces may leave Iraq and begin diplomacy with those fighting the coalition. Then again, it might not happen, but predicting the future in this fashion is a dangerous thing.

As Bush and Mission Accomplished can show, running things to a timetable isn't always the best way to operate.

Levees Breaking All Over Washington, Mr Bush Swamped By Floodwaters

As predicted, another couple of GOP Senators have broken ranks and said enough is enough on Iraq policy, or lack of.

Get ready for more of the same in the coming week.

Tell The Truthiness ; We could set up a rolling news channel devoted just to this story, someone call MSNBC!

Mr Bush Versus The 2 Billion Live Earth Viewers

With Live Earth concerts starting almost every hour round the globe this Saturday, its curious to grind the urgent need for change against that of someone saying, 'lets wait a bit longer'.

Mr Bush is to wait until 2008 to begin doing something about climate change.

Around 2 billion people are due to tune in to todays concerts.

Tell The Truthiness ; Bush will have to go a long way next year to catch up with the potential for change that's building up amongst everyone round the World.

War On Reality Part 21 ; Thompson's Fictional Watergate Whistleblowing?

Someone's suddenly researched deep enough to have read Senator Thompson's memoir about the Nixon fall from grace and found a clue that's rather at odds with his crusading, self-styled, independent image in the public eye.

The former Die Hard 2 actor, who played Washington Dulles Chief Air Traffic Controller Mr Trudeau, actually tipped off the White House before the famed questioning the following day happened.

Tell The Truthiness ; It shows how far things have come, back during Watergate no-one knew about the wiretapping, until they got caught and the whole thing was exposed. Now, if everyone knows you're wiretapping and some in government make it public, you can't be taken to court, because its really a secret and no-ones meant to know.

How things progress, justice (or just-ish as Stephen Colbert would put it) in America.

Case On Secret Spying Dismissed Because Its A, Shhh, Secret

In a stunningly stupid example of the way domestic surveillence has extended post 9/11, the wiretapping case had been rejected on a technicality this evening.

In a nutshell, because wiretapping is supposed to be covert, you therefore cannot prove it goes on, they won't tell you outright, then you have nothing to bring a case against, because you have no evidence.

Yes, it's that simple, that stupid and that foolish. And yes, we're thinking that same thought as you.

Tell The Truthiness ; Perhaps Bush could class the whole of the War On Terror as covert, then if anyone does try to impeach him, or bring any legal action to his door, it will get thrown out because it was 'supposed to be our secret'. Really though, we shouldn't go putting ideas into his head.

Hope For Golden Days Of Dissent, Remember The Midterms?

The former Bush loyalists that keep throwing themselves clear of the crashing bus haven't had praise for very long as they really need to oppose the President's plan by coming up with one of their own.

This is something that seems to have escaped most of them up until now.

But, there does seem to be something they could latch onto.

Remember the Iraq Study Group Report? New Mexico Republican Sen. Pete V. Domenici is bringing up a bill which would have the power to implement the recomendations of the ISGR. The same man we blogged about earlier on is coming up with an alternative to the Bush 'lets keep going for as long as we can' policy.

Tell The Truthiness ; Do you have a copy of the report Mr Bush, have ours, we can courier it if you like?

Iraq Breaks All Box Office Records

The surge may be in an effort to make Iraq safer, but it's not making it cost effective, the invasion/war is now costing the US $12billion a month, up from the $8.7billion during last year.

Tell The Truthiness ; Get ready for cuts at home, can anyone say social security?

The Domino Effect On Iraq, Stampede Toward Sense On The Hill

Up to 12 Republicans getting ready for relection are thought to be the next to defect from Bush's Iraq policy.

Keep watching the skies for further details, or just the cable news.

Tell The Truthiness ; Sense returns to Washington, can we really say that?

Bush & Cheney Getting A Taste Of Their Own Just-ish?

Question:
Do you favor or oppose the US House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush?
7/5/07 Favor Oppose Undecided
All Adults 45% 46% 9%
Voters 46% 44% 10%
Democrats (38%) 69% 22% 9%
Republicans (29%) 13% 86% 1%
Independents (33%) 50% 30% 20%
3/15/06 42% 49% 9%
Based on 1,100 completed telephone interviews among a random sample of adults nationwide July 3-5, 2007. The theoretical margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points, 95% of the time. Of the total sample, 933 interviews were completed among registered voters.

Question:
Do you favor or oppose the US House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney?
7/5/07 Favor Oppose Undecided
All Adults 54% 40% 6%
Voters 50% 44% 6%
Democrats (38%) 76% 24% -
Republicans (29%) 17% 83% -
Independents (33%) 51% 29% 20%
Based on 1,100 completed telephone interviews among a random sample of adults nationwide July 3-5, 2007. The theoretical margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points, 95% of the time. Of the total sample, 933 interviews were completed among registered voters.

This information is from an American Research Group Poll now out.

Tell The Truthiness ; Mr Bush & Mr Cheney, its the endgame, get packing gentlemen.

If I Could Talk To The Insurgents ; Doolittle Rings Bush's Iraq Bell

Another two GOP members have said it's 'times up' in Iraq, pretty soon the only people left who agree with Bush's Iraq policy will be Bush and Barney.

Tell The Truthiness ; He'd better make decisions about Iraq now, because in a few months it sounds like Dick Cheney will be bogged down in the quagmire that is his impeachment.

War On Reality Part 20 ; Just-ish, The New Bush Buzzword

Thought you knew that our rules of law were based on Justice?

They were, up until about two days ago, then, the latest Bush Buzzword reared it's ugly head.

Just-ish. Allow Stephen Colbert to explain.

Tell The Truthiness ; First it was truthiness, now it's just-is. What more alterations to reality will Bush make to suit his own agenda?

War On Reality Part 19 ; Someone Must Believe The Words He Throws Out

In his 4th Of July speech, Mr Bush did just what you've come to expect him to, related the war in Iraq to another war, which had different intentions and was grounded to a different place in time.

He related the US war of independence to that of the invasion of Iraq, just like he's compared it to the second world war and all conflicts in between. He said the enemy being fought in Iraq was the same that attacked the US on 9/11 and for the same reasons.

The second world war would have happened if the US had got involved or not, indeed, it had been going for a while before they joined in. Its clear Iraq would still be pretty stable if the invasion hadn't happened, plus Saddam would not have launched WMDs, unless he bought them from us in the meantime.

Some of those attacking coalition (does it count as a coalition with just two parties?) forces are no doubt Iraq citizens who've had enough of the occupation and quite rightly just want their country back.

Tell The Truthiness ; If five years of a war is not 'early' to exit it, then what do you deem a short war Mr Bush, twenty years?

War On Reality Part 18 ; Power & Responsibility On Bush's Watch, He's Caught Out, Now Get Out

Enough is enough, the one piece that was given in karma-like opposite to all that Bush and his cohorts have gotten away with, has been reversed.

Scooter Libby is getting a pardon, in all but word, though it means the same thing. There have been reports that the machiavellian shadowman, Dick Cheney, made a deal with Libby before the trial even started to assure him that he would not serve prison time.

Tell The Truthiness ; If the leadership of this once great country carries on, even until the next election, it will damage democracy at home and abroad which may never be repaired. You cannot wield all the power and take none of the responsibility, things don't work like that.

War On Reality Part 17 ; Keeping You Informed & Scaring The Crap Out Of You About UK Car Bombs

Despite the car fire at Glasgow Airport yesterday afternoon and the failed, we emphasis the word, failed car bombing in London on Friday morning, none of this has kept some areas of the media from taking the story and running with it until it resembles something entirely different from the bare facts.

Firstly it was alleged the cars in London was packed with explosives. The vehicles, we are told, contained cans of petrol, the first one having between two and five cannisters of propane and butane gas and nails to inflict injury (rather like the IRA bombs from the UK mainland campaign through the 70s and 80s). The petrol was actually evaporating, that was the smoke which made people notice the vehicles in the first place. so the longer the fuel vapourised, the less 'explosives' there were to explode. The cars had two mobile phone triggers, one of the cars have been rang twice, to detonate them, which both calls failed to achieve.

But, what isn't being reported much is that neither vehicle contained an oxidiser, which is vital for such a device to explode.

Secondly, a bomb disposal team member 'risked his life' to diffuse the bomb and is being hailed a hero by media. But if they couldn't have exploded, then why is this being furthered?

Thirdly, 'this has all the hallmarks of al-Qaeda' is being repeated constantly. Media outlets continue though to say this is probably connected to 'international terrorism', but the only organisation that keeps getting talking about is al-Qaeda.

Fourthly, if this has all the hallmarks, then why have all three supposed attacks failed? The Glasgow aiport jeep fire had no explosives in it. The attackers had the good sense to get one of themselves burnt, and arrested.

Fifth, 'there was no specific intelligence of an attack like this', wrong, The Times newspaper has reported that nightclubs in the UK were warned two weeks ago about them being targets for attacks.

Tell The Truthiness ; These people had the style to buy or steal a Mercedes, but not to fine-tune their bombmaking ability. Doesn't really sound like an effective, shadowy international organisation does it? You would imagine the bombs had actually exploded by the way this story is being reported by some media outlets, which they DID NOT!