Holding Them To Account 29 ; White House Memos Show Endorsement On Torture

In what appears to have been a 'take out the trash day' style move, it's confirmed that George W Bush's White House endorsed CIA torture techniques in memos issued by them.

Not released until now, the memos gave the CIA official written confirmation that the White House supported their torture policies.

Tell The Truthiness Says ; If the election wasn't so close, this news would be front and centre. Seems the current administration is clearing out the smelly trash from the garage before the moving van arrives.

War On Reality Part 99 ; Bush Turns Statement On Gustav Into Push For Oil Drilling

Unconnected, uncaring, unsympathetic, unpresidential; all of these and more can be used to describe the small speech President Bush gave this morning about the federal and local response to Hurricane Gustav.

He didn't mention people and inform residents about the state of the region, instead he launched straight into how Gustav highlights the need for offshore drilling.

Tell The Truthiness Says ; Hurricanes and increased offshore drilling are connected in the same way that chocolate biscuits and rabbits are connected.

War On Reality Part 97 ; George 'Harry Potter' Bush & His Oil Wand Of Destiny

President Bush did himself no favours by saying how much he wished he had a big wand to wave on oil prices. Yes, he really said it and we have the video tape.



Tell The Truthiness Says ; Only a few more months to go, only a few more months to go, keep repeating.

Saunter To The White House 101 ; Polar Opposites On Iraq

Here's some reaction and analysis to the Iraq issue from McCain and Obama and, even though he wasn't going to wade in, Bush.

War On Reality Part 94 ; Forgotten Afghanistan

This June has seen the highest number of foreign soldiers killed since the invasion happened in 2001. 39 soldiers have been killed in June this year.

Tell The Truthiness ; As has been said so often, didn't we 'win' this war in 2001? Oh, that must have just been post 9/11 propaganda combined with a poorly understood definition of what 'winning' was.

War On Reality Part 93 ; It's All About The Oil First, Iraqis Second

As we reported over a year ago, the plans to get control of Iraq's oil reserves into the hands of Western corporations, were detailed before the invasion and have quietly been advanced in the last five years.



Now, 36 years after Iraq nationalised it's oil industry, Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP are coming back in to pump oil and make billions. Iraq has the fourth largest oil reserve in the World, after Saudi Arabia, Canada and Iran. The four companies have been given 'no bid' contracts because, as an Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman said they had been advising the ministry without charge for two years before being awarded the contracts.

What a coincidence.

Tell The Truthiness ; So, congratulations to Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP for acting like a greedy heir spending time with a rich elderly relative for no good reason to get their hands on the assets at the opportune moment. Like we said, it's a total coincidence.

War On Reality Part 88 ; Five Years Later From Mission Accomplished

This date marks five years since President Bush stood beneath a huge banner emblazoned with the legend Mission Accomplished. He said that major combat operations had finished in the country and that the US had won.

How wrong he was and how wrong he has been continually ever since. Some people rally against the critics of the current government headed by a guy who would be out of his depth in a puddle, but they forget to see the bigger picture. In decades, in centuries to come, historians and students will analyse this period in our history and say one thing.

"What the hell were the people doing to stop him and hold him to account?"

Tell The Truthiness ; President Bush is still the President and will be until January, as such, our current obsession over the presidential campaigns should not make Mr Bush any less accountable for his actions, whether they are from five days or five years ago.

War On Reality Part 87 ; Bush Inner Circle Approved Torture

The Associated Press is reporting that an inner circle of US government officials, led from Dick Cheney pushed for torture to be used and asked the Justice Department to approve it.

What is very revealing is that efforts were made to keep all this and even discussion of the subject away from President Bush, allowing him to deny any torture was taking place.

Tell The Truthiness ; We are now in a dangerous era, when a government is more dangerous to it's people than the enemy it claims to protect us from.

War On Reality Part 84 ; An Artistic Response To Bush & McCain

This picture was published in response to the death toll mark being reached the other day.

War On Reality Part 82 ; 5 Years Of This & How Things Can Be Different

The fifth anniversary of the US led invasion and occupation of Iraq has thrown up a lot of numbers. The deaths, military and civilian, money wasted, attacks, the list is pretty endless. But there is one thing, above everything that we have learned and it's illustrated on the cover of today's Independent, shown above.

The one lesson we never learn is that of history. Human's have very short memories. From the constant meddling by other people and other countries in the Middle East since the dawn of time to the ignorance of federal officials of the mathematical vulnerability of a below sea-level city to the affects of a hurricane's winds and flood waters.

But instead we bury our heads in the sand and claim ignorance, when the lessons of history surround us, like the elephant in the room. This happened the last five years and still we are there, fighting for what exactly?

According to today's news from London, it's against a shadowy collection of loosely affiliated groups that are all around us and all out to get us.

But, look deeper, with more attention to detail and you'll find that things are not like that, the threat has been exaggerated. Using that report as an example, the UK of the 1970s was a far more dangerous place to exist than today's version. In 1972, 470 people were killed by terrorists (the legacy, mostly of the IRA) and in 2007, that number was three (the last fragments of violence in Northern Ireland).

The politics of fear has been almost fine-tuned these past seven years. We've seen the fake terror threats. We've seen the linking of any criminal activity to al-Qaeda. Yes, that includes those people at work who offer you pirate copies of DVDs, they're on a hotline to Osama Bin Laden and are planning the next big attack. We've seen the hyping of non-existent or paper thin intelligence on the next country to attack.



Then to top all that, President Bush, today, on this most sobering of dates, claims victory in Iraq. His Vice President goes one better and responds to a question about two thirds of the US public being against the war, Cheney responded with "so?".

But, things don't have to be like this and recent movements since the start of the year indicate they won't be soon. The interest by Americans and others around the World in the nominees for President has never been seen before in recent times. Every speech, every primary, every stand on an issue is devoured and analysed by media, but equally by the public.

To take things back from the brink of another seven years of what we've just been through, get involved, become an active citizen, get informed and keep informed on what elected officials are doing, even if it's only locally in your town or city. Become a member of a party, attend rallies, investigate those you are considering voting for.

Tell The Truthiness ; We have lived as if in a trance, we have lived as people in fear. That nightmare, that has become daily life for too many of us, is coming to an end. We are waking up from it and it's up to us, not only to move onto a new era of citizen, grassroots led governance, but to promise we shall not let future generations repeat our mistakes.

Olbermann's Bush Era Timeline 2002-2008

Here is an excellent piece from Countdown of the 'terror' warnings of the last five years and their uncanny closeness to sensitive political incidents for the Bush administration.



Tell The Truthiness ; Worryingly, what could be added to this during the next 331 days before he leaves?

Bush , FISA, Warmongering & A Special Comment

Here is last night's Special Comment by Keith Olbermann from Countdown on MSNBC.

355 Days Left ; No-One Expects Anything Anymore

The State Of The Union speech was given by the President this week and, he didn't even try to redeem himself.

Mr Bush is relying heavily on history being his judge. So in thirty or forty years, at least they'll be able to put a name-to-the-face responsible for the state of international relations and delays in environmental protection.

Tell The Truthiness ; No-one is going to mind if Mr Bush just sits quietly in his office and reads some of those books he missed out on. Really, go ahead, put your feet up, you've done enough, you really have.

Look Out, The Latest War Franchise Is Launched

Tell The Truthiness ; Look out Finland, he's after you before January next year!

Road To Tehran 9 ; Bush Says 'No No No' I'm Right

President Bush has bragged (apparently to reassure) the Israeli Prime Minister that he doesn't actually take any notice of the intelligence community's evidence that Iran has no current nuclear weapons programme.

Indeed, we'll repeat it again, the last time they had a programme was back in 2003, nearly five years ago. The National Intelligence Estimate however has been brushed off in public and totally dismissed as fiction in private by Mr Bush.

Is this an attempt to ratchet up the 'big bad wolf' image of Iran that Bush is desperate to maintain. Or, are these comments the final steps toward a full out invasion before the President's term expires?

Tell The Truthiness ; Someone please stop him. Anyone.

Truthiness Teller Colbert AP's Celebrity Of The Year

He may have suffered a faltering attempt to stand for President and be off air while the writer's strike drags on, but the father of twenty-first century news comment has been acclaimed.

Stephen Colbert has been named by the Associated Press as their Celebrity of the Year.

The man who speaks not his mind, but his gut on all things news, has done it again.

Tell The Truthiness ; A merry American Christmas to our celebrity of the year, Stephen Colbert.

Nation, you know you should be bowing in honour.

Saunter To The White House 18 ; Ohio's Voting Machines 'Flawed'

A report into the voting machines due to be used in Ohio for the general election in November has found them open to tampering. A federally funded study found investigators could remove memory cards and put extra votes into the machine count.

Interestingly, Secretary Of State Jennifer Brunner called for replacement machines to be optical scan machines, which involve manually filled out paper ballots.

Tell The Truthiness ; Florida is also scrapping touch-screen machines. Maybe November's election may have an accurate result, unlike the previous two.

Bush On Iran No Nukes ; How Long Might He Have Been Lying For?

We know a bit more know on the process of the release of info on the 'Iran stopped it's nuclear programme'. George Bush was told there was new information on Iran's nuclear programme several months ago.

However, it's then said that he didn't know what the information was. Plus it's not been confirmed whether the Director Of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell told the President that all previous intelligence could be considered invalid.

Tell The Truthiness ; So, did the President know? If he did, how long ago did he know? If the intelligence was faulty, was Mr Bush told this, or did he choose to continue ratcheting up the non-story on Iran in absence of any valid information? Mr Bush, you couldn't stop talking on Monday, want to talk out the answers to these questions? We're ready to listen.

War On Reality Part 79 ; Bush Tries For 'Iraq 2' With Iran

President Bush went on TV this morning and decided to say that nothing has changed and that instead Iran is still a threat.

Despite the National Intelligence Estimate, parts of which were made public yesterday indicates that Iran shut down, of it's own accord, it's nuclear weapons programme.

So spin has taken over and the President has done his own revisionism of current events and has ignored yesterday's report.

Tell The Truthiness ; Have they been telling us the truth, or has the President and administration been determined to go into Iran as long as they've had the same wish about Iraq? So is the President lying, again?

Pakistan's Middle Class Protesters Show A Dangerous Fracture In US Ally

One thing seems to have been missed in all the protests and riots in Pakistan recently. Yes, the application of power by President Musharraf has been questioned. The real motives about the return of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif have been talked about.

But on one, visually stunning aspect of this uprising, never seems to get a mention.

The people who have been protesting have been wearing suits.

Yes, like those hippies and young people against the Vietnam war, or the masked protesters during the 'Battle For Seattle' in 1999, these people have their own 'First.'

Television and print media has shown people in suits and business attire protesting and rioting. Lawyers.

Tell The Truthiness ; When middle class, mild mannered, well tailored lawyers take to the streets, you know there is something very wrong with your country.