Dragnet Treatment For Senator Craig

Despite the unprofessional conduct of some of the newscasters at MSNBC, see our previous blog for that episode, we still endorse Keith Olbermann's Countdown programme, giving the news the perfect satirical treatment with this gem.

Keep in mind while you watch this that the words of the police report have not been changed, which begs the question, how much more is Sentaor Larry Craig not revealing?

Tell The Truthiness ; Senator, the floor is yours, speak up!

Holding Them To Account 7 ; What's In The Water At MSNBC?

We all know good media should be objective, balanced, professional and fair.

What the heck is going on then when two newscasters laugh, live on-air at another newscaster's story of beating someone up in college?

Tell The Truthiness ; Tucker Carlson issued a statement saying he actually, with the assistance of his friend, held the man, before campus security arrived. If this was the case, why did he give a different story on air?

War On Reality Part 34 ; I Am Not Gay, Thank You All For Coming Out Today! Oops!

The antics of Senator Larry Craig, especially this bizzare and oddly entertaining statement, seem to be gripping the media.

Along with a completely unrelated thought, this clip of Little Britain springs to mind and watching Larry Craig's one after the other, you can see some unsettling parallels.



Tell The Truthiness ; I am not gay, I want everyone to know that, is that clear? Not that there's anything wrong with that! But I'm not gay, did I say that and did you hear it clearly? Just to make it clear...

Holding Them To Account 6 ; Gonzales Be Gone

Yes, just like that, Alberto Gonzales picked up the phone and told the President he was going to resign.

It was that simple.

Tell The Truthiness ; To think, he had no trouble recalling Mr Bush's phone number. Fancy That!

War On Reality Part 33 ; Bill Maher Hits The Nail

Summing it up all in one quick phrase,

" People lined up in Manhatten to get the iPhone when it came out, but they won't line up to protest the war in Iraq along the Mall in Washington."

That quote from Bill Maher on CNN's Larry King Live, repeated this evening from last Tuesday.

Tell The Truthiness ; We need more people like Bill Maher. Go Bill!

War On The President 2 ; Tony 'The Money' Snow Rattles His Change

Mr Karl Rove may have left this week, but this weekend, another member of Bush's team is also bidding farewell.

Tony Snow, the White House Press Secretary has announced his immediate resignation from the administration.

His reason for departing?

Not his cancer, which is being treated.

Nor any difference in political policy.

He's leaving because this government job doesn't pay enough. He earns $168,000 annually, but could earn far more in a similar position with a private firm.

Tell The Truthiness ; There's plenty of respect for Tony Snow from Truthiness, he didn't say it was to spend more time with his family, he said he needs more money ; fair enough.

Enemy Of The People ; Sssh, Anyone Could Be Listening

With the President on his way out, not until January 20th 2009 (not that we're counting or anything), he's making sure that the ability of the administration to have domestic surveillance made as easy and in depth as possible is achieved before it's too late.

Like something out of Enemy Of The State, surveillance not before available will be allowed to be used to by agencies. This includes radars able to see objects inside buildings and underground, plus satellites with infrared cameras to be more effective during night hours as well as during the day.

Tell The Truthiness ; Giving up some of our freedoms helps us catch those who don't believe in it? That 'reason' is starting to wear really thin Mr Bush. Especially when you 'don't think' about Bin Laden too much, but can read from space the headline on our newspaper.

Fighting Them There So We Don't Have To Fight Them Here, Yeah Right

We've been told recently that the surge is beginning to show results in Iraq.

Lets hope the White House has seen the news of 500 people killed in the Ninevah area of Iraq.

Tell The Truthiness ; Because as we all knew, before the invasion of Iraq, rogue terrorist elements were killing hundreds every day? They all turned up after we arrived, they weren't always there, so don't try and revise history to suit your cover story.

Holding Them To Account 5 ; Patriot Act Proviso

That huge lump of legislation that was dumped on the US in late 2001 was initially believed to be for domestic security protection, dig deeper and you'll find concerning aspects.

The Los Angeles Times has found a piece in the PATRIOT Act which allows Alberto Gonzales to decide if the counsel given to death row inmates is appropriate and additional small print is being finalised to give him extra say in these ultimate decisions.

Tell The Truthiness ; Will Alberto be gone before he gets a chance to use these powers for evil?

Holding Them To Account 4 ; Some Days The Show Writes Itself

Couldn't resist posting these gems from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.



Tell The Truthiness ; Let Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert run and anchor CNN for the day, you know it would be great.

Holding Them To Account 3 ; Rove Jumps Overboard

A bit later than we expected to update with video of his resignation speech, here's Mr Rove's little party piece.

It shows just how disciplined the message of Bush being moulded as a war president with the constant references to conflict.

Tell The Truthiness ; We can't wait for the legal proceedings.

A New Link We Recommend

Always wanting to expand our sphere, take a look at Take It Personally an interesting and informative site.

Holding Them To Account 2.1 ; Don't Leave Town Rove

Despite his soon to be ex-employment at the White House, Karl Rove's past actions will still be under the microscope for a while. According to Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and his response to today's weepy goodbye that is.

"The need for Karl Rove to explain his role in the firing of the U.S. Attorneys does not diminish when he leaves the White House. Our investigation to date has revealed the White House’s contempt for the rule of law and its interest in the politicization of the Department of Justice.

"While resignations at DoJ and the White House continue to mount, questions raised by this investigation remain. We will continue to seek answers to these questions and expect full cooperation from Mr. Rove and other officials regardless of whether they are employed by the White House."

Tell The Truthiness ; He may be about to leave the administration's employ, but that doesn't erase everything that's gone before. Get a good lawyer Mr Rove.

Holding Them To Account 2 ; Bush's Brain Resigns

In a teary farewell, the man anyone who likes the idea of democracy loves to hate resigned this morning.

Karl Rove will leave at the end of August, for, yes, that old chestnut, the sake of his family.

He's nicknamed 'Bush's Brain', can we expect the rest of the President's body to follow in the next couple of months?

Tell The Truthiness ; Rumsfeld, now Rove, could we have Gonzales next please?

We'll post footage of him announcing his departure once it's available, but in the meantime, here's an interesting film about the Houston Plan. We've never heard of it either.

The War On Weariness

People at home may be sick to the back teeth of the war without end in Iraq, but a new health issue has become clear for those serving in this conflict.

Record numbers of troops in the field are suffering with overtiredness, leading to serious long-term health problems.

The US army appears to care very little, with shorter leave for those returning home between tours of duty.

Tell The Truthiness ; As each weary day for these troops passes, without an end in sight, the reasons for going to war become less and less clear. The fuzziness they are no doubt suffering has spread to not just the administration, which is considering a return to the draft to maintain troop levels, but to the media. Because overtired soldiers isn't as hot a story as them getting blown up.

Bob Murray - Public Face Of A Very Private Disaster

Despite all that's been said about the Utah mining collapse, much of the information is being relayed from the mine operator and not from the emergency services.

Misleading infomation about the cause of the collapse hangs over Mr Murray who lobbied against safety measures being brought into the industry by state of Ohio lawmakers.

Murray Energy Corp's face during the whole of the events in Utah has been Bob Murray. Indeed, he's made sure to be in almost every single picture as the rescue moves forward.

In 2001, he sued the Akron Beacon Journal for $1 billion over an unflattering profile. (Among other things, the story said: "Even his friends roll their eyes at his hyperbole.") The case was settled out of court on undisclosed terms.

Also, in 2001, Murray was acquitted of charges he assaulted an environmental activist fighting Murray's plans to mine beneath a 400-year-old forest in Ohio. Murray was accused of throwing Chad Kister into a wall outside a hearing room. Murray claimed the accusations were politically and financially motivated.

Tell The Truthiness ; Like the judge in the Anna Nicole Smith case, with Mr Murray you know you shouldn't watch him on camera, but are secretly fascinated by this blustering man who's responsible for what's happening in Utah.

The War On Reality Part 32 ; Secrets & Whys?

The weight of office that other government officials and politicians seem able to bare does not extend it seems to a couple of Republicans.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra R-Mich, had an article published in Thursday's New York Post in which it was revealed the budget for human spying had decreased, kept strictly top secret.

What makes this worse is that Hoekstra has damned those who have disclosed secrets before. Those who have leaked in the past have been deemed "recklessly and illegally" publishing information for political motives.

Tell The Truthiness Says ; Interesting to note that security threats are selectively released for maximum effect ; could this be another use of that ploy to scare people about national security to benefit the Republicans?

War On Reality Part 31 ; Got A Problem? Throw Troops At It

Due to, we are told, troop rotation overlapping, there are currently more troops in Iraq than at any other time during the war.

Tell The Truthiness ; 162,000 troops and what more does Bush have planned for them?

Revolting News Readers Get Your Vote

Following the huge success of our interactive user interface, we've got the results of another one.

100% of our visitors who voted agreed that it right that news readers refuse to read stories about pointless celebrities.

Tell The Truthiness ; We aspect the Today Show to go back to giving out real news on it's show, you know the war, rather than what cushions someone's got in their rehab bedroom.

War On Reality Part 30 ; We Don't Recall Having Any Respect For You For A Long Time

The ability to not recall any past events on Capitol Hill seems to be spreading from the Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to the Vice President Dick Cheney.

When asked by CNN's Larry King, Mr Cheney cannot recall authorising the hospital bed visit to John Ashcroft to push him to certify the intelligence gathering programme.

Tell The Truthiness ; 'I don't recall' is as worse than saying 'yes', have some guts Mr Cheney, if not, borrow some from Mr Chertoff, he's got plenty of guts (with feelings) to spare.

YouTuber Upset At Clinton/Obama Question

The question asked about open discourse between those states the US hasn't talked to for a while and the future President in the YouTube debate has been discussed by the man who put it forward.

Tell The Truthiness ; Is true there are efforts afoot to prevent the Republican version of this event going ahead?

War On Reality Part 29 ; We've Only Scratched The Surface

It turns out the surveillance carried out by the Bush administration that we've all been outraged at is actually far deeper than we all thought.

Using once again that old chestnut, an executive order, in late 2001 increased snooping on anyone suspected of being connected with potential terrorists was ordered.

Tell The Truthiness ; Who is really that surprised at this?