SNL Gets On Petraeus & Everyone Else

Saturday Night Live continues to keep a ht lead on the activities of the presidential candidates. This is from last week's show:



Tell The Truthiness ; Keep it coming!

Road To Tehran 3 ; Turning Iran In Al-Qaeda In Eight Simple Steps

With everyone in the US government insisting they have no intention of attack Iran, the flip side is that every few days there's some White House talking point aimed at painting Iran as the primary cause of unrest in Iraq or a new emerging threat to US interests.

General David Petraeus, in an interview with CNN, said that the long-term threat for Iraq could be militias backed by Iran.

Tell The Truthiness ; Doesn't Mr Petraeus deserve a break? He's done enough of the White House's bidding in the last few weeks to make Bush seem lazy. If they are going to lie to us, we'd appreciate being lied to by the President than by someone he thinks will do a better job of it than him.

Special Comment : Bush's Hypocrisy Is So Vast

Here is Keith Olbermann's Special Comment last night about President Bush's press conference response to the Petraeus adverisement.

War On Reality Part 49 ; Baghdad Is Safe, But Stay Inside The Resort

Yesterday, travel by anyone who's not military personnel outside of the Green Zone in Baghdad was suspended following the alleged killing of Iraqi citizens by US security firm Blackwater.

Blackwater is a private security firm employed in Baghdad by the US Embassy to protect employees. Two other companies carry out similar duties.

The amount of employees of Blackwater and the other firms is huge, representing massive contracts and millions of dollars to earn.

Tell The Truthiness ; This war, among other things, was all about the money.

PS - If you're anti-war and happen to live in Baghdad, make sure if you do get fatally shot it hits you in the back of the head, because then that will count in the casualty figures.

War On Reality Part 47 ; Have The Republicans Bought The Rerun Rights To 9/11?

If they could, especially some of those running for GOP presidential candidate, rerun and burn the image into people's minds once every day, like making sure you have a daily dose of vitamin c, of 9/11, Bush and his team would do it.

So as Stephen Colbert says here, they could save themselves the hassle of being creative and just rerun the footage from 2001.

Tell The Truthiness ; At least Laura knows to buy George the highlights DVD as an ideal Christmas present.

War On Reality Part 46 ; UK Troops Head Home, Via Tehran

A proxy war seems about to take place on the border of Iraq and Iran, as UK troops have been moved to that area, at the request of the Americans.

350 members of the UK armed forces have been moved from Basra (we guess from the duty free shop at the airport, since that's where they were moved to just a little while ago), after the US warned that Iran was backing conflict by factions over the border in Iraq.

This story has been receiving limited coverage in the UK, mostly in The Independent newspaper.

Tell The Troops The Truthiness ; If the Americans told UK forces to jump off a cliff, would they do it?

War On Reality Part 45 ; The Secret To Lying In Politics? Timing

Many people cannot help not just being suspicious of the content of the Petraeus report, which was of course influenced and probably written by Bush's team, but also about the timing of it's release.

Just like the Republican National Convention which took place in Manhatten a year after 9/11, tapping into fears about national security, releasing this report a day before the sixth anniversary of the attacks, combined with the 'latest' video, allegedly of Osama Bin Laden is done to scare people. It's no more complicated than that. It's designed and planned to scare people about national security, worse though, it tries to reinforce the lie that 9/11 is linked to Iraq and Saddam Hussein.

Tell The Truthiness ; Its sad that not only does Bush and his team continue to string-out this myth, spreading it thinner, but also that the public and press do not speak up loudly enough when it's presented to them.

War On Reality Part 43 ; White House Mouthpiece Petraeus

The weight of the White House must be pressing heavily on General David Petraeus this evening as his report is shot to pieces by, it seems, everyone.

Americans, Senators, Congressmen, Democrat and Republican are latching onto that opening phrase given by the General yesterday about no-one in the White House having seen or influenced the report.

As obvious as the sun crossing the sky, if he gave a true, damning indictment of the situation in Iraq, his military career would be cut short, by Mr Bush and Mr Cheney. Of that there is no doubt.

Tell The Truthiness ; If anything is needed in Iraq, it's a 'diplomatic surge' as urged by Democrats and Republicans.

War On Reality Part 42 ; We Still Have To Stay, Not Sure For How Long

Petraeus and Crocker are able to tell us a lot about Iraq. Like, according to them, the surge has begun to work, but we need to stay there longer to make sure it stays that way.

Despite this urgent need, he did say forces can begin coming back down to pre-surge levels, giving detailed numbers about this.

They were able to tell us about casualty rates, rolling averages, percentage changes, etc. All the numbers games you can ever hope to play.

However they cannot give us timetables, dates or gurantees about when any change in this false and needless war can happen.

Tell The Truthiness ; How can you be so certain about our need to remain in the country, because you say things are getting better, yet not be able to know when forces can leave?

War On Reality Part 41.1 ; Anyone Got A Spare Microphone For Petraeus?

General Petraeus has yet to speak as his microphone won't work.

Tell The Truthiness ; Just get Dick Cheney to unscrew a couple of phones, there's plenty of microphones in them!

War On Reality Part 41 ; Think The Truth, But Stick To The Script Petraeus

General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker sit in Congress about to deliver a report, goodness knows who actually wrote it and who's tweaked the language to get more time bought for this gravy train of a war.

What we've noticed, apart from the broadside by one member of the panel, is how terrified Petraeus and Crocker look.

Tell The Truthiness ; Like Bush, they both look like they've been caught in the headlights, has this war finally been caught in the same place?

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!