War On Reality Part 72 ; Veterans Good For War Mongering, Little Else

George Bush was recently playing video games with veterans, which gave his image a bit of a shake, just before Veterans Day, but away from the photo-ops, things are quite different.

He also said during his radio address that he will never forget what is owed to them.

The man is either deceptive or has a short memory. Because today he vetoed a Labor, Health and Education bill which would have included money for veterans support. More shocking are the results of a survey which shows that one in four of the number of people homeless are veterans.

Tell The Truthiness ; We'd forgive you for not playing video games with wounded troops in the future, as long as you give them the money they need when they come back home.

War On Reality Part 71 ; Waterboarding Whitewash

How many more people, of any rank in US government, are there left to be made to tow the line and prop up the President? Recent events indicate not that many.

Daniel Levin, the acting assistant attorney general in 2004, asked to experience the method of torture and reported that "torture is abhorent" in a memo, which was later leaked. He was later pushed out of his job by Alberto Gonzales. Now, Malcolm Nance, a former Navy interrogation instructor has told a house committee that waterboarding is torture.

Tell The Truthiness ; "Physical pain and sheer panic" described the marine in the reconstruction shown in the video of how waterboarding felt. Enhanced interrogation techniques equals torture, plain and simple.

War On Reality Part 70 ; Blair's 'Pathetic' Iraq Backdoor

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair was given a last-minute 'get out' on the eve of the Iraq invasion, but didn't take it.

George Bush was concerned about the effect the military action would have on his "closest ally" and the UK government. The President was given advice by the United States London embassy that the war vote prior to the invasion could bring down Mr Blair's government.

The reason Mr Blair didn't take the offer from the President? He thought it would look "pathetic".

Tell The Truthiness ; Since 2003 there's been 1,220,580 war casualties in Iraq. What looks more "pathetic" now Mr Blair?

War On Reality Part 69 ; Who Ya Gonna Elect?

More people believe in ghosts and UFOs than in what President Bush is doing for the US.

34 percent of those polled by AP/Ipsos believe in ghosts and UFOs.

Meanwhile, 31 percent of the same people believe in President Bush's direction for the country.

Tell The Truthiness ; Where were the nutty people who were polled and gave this unbelievable answer? Show us the people who believe in Bush's policies, bring them forth and we'll put them inside the containment unit.

Special Comment Video Here

In two parts.



The second.

Special Comment ; Tune In Tonight

Keith Olbermann will make a Special Comment on the MSNBC Countdown show tonight at 8pm EST.

We'll post the video as soon as it becomes available. For now though, here is his 9/11 Special Comment from last year.

Urban Legend Terrorism 1 ; Have You Heard The One About The Babysitter Who Got A Lift With Al-Qaeda?

Of all people this week, the Japanese tried to justify plans to fingerprint foreigners by saying there was a member of al-Qaeda in the country illegally.

As long as he had entered legally, that would be fine you see.

Kunio Hatoyama said the man was a "friend of a friend" who was connected to the Bali bombing.

Justice Minister Kunio later produced evidence to back up his story.

Even later he said he had not met the man and couldn' confirm his friend's claim. He had earlier suggested this 'story' was an example of stricter checks needed on vistors.

Tell The Truthiness ; No Mr Kunio, this is another example of a rumour based urban legend story used to scare people to giving up basic liberty to protect their liberty. It's pointless, useless and this has been so done to death by the Bush administration.

Change the record.

This is an interesting piece about the funding of insurgents by the US.

Saunter To The White House 12 ; Giuliani Not Sure Waterboarding Is Torture

Yes, our man of the moment, Rudy Giuliani has stated that he is not sure if waterboarding can be classified as torture.

Now, really he just had to take a leaf or two out of the President's book and cover himself by :

1 . Firstly refuse to discuss specific torture techniques.

then...

2 . Get your attorney general to reclassify torture or anything that everyone else apart from you declares to be torture as not torture.

After that, you can sleep at night.

Tell The Truthiness ; First President Bush, then President Giuliani, that'll keep you awake.

War On Reality Part 68 ; Bush The Fireman

Yes, it's true, he thinks if he sits with them, it makes him look like one of them.

Tell The Truthiness ; He's been standing and sitting next to politicians for years, Bush still doesn't look like one though.

Saunter To The White House 11 ; Giuliani Caught Out On 9/11 Terror 'Experience'

A leaked memo from testimony given by the former New York Mayor, Rudy Giuliani to the 9/11 commission shows that he lied about his knowledge of terrorism.

He is reported in the 9/11 commission memo to have not known about al-Qaeda until after the attacks and that "we had nothing like this".

But in a speech he made at Regent University he said he'd been "studying terrorism" for more than 30 years.

Tell The Truthiness ; Come on Rudy, what more zingers do you have for us? You've got a few more months to keep us entertained before you aren't picked as the candidate.

War On Reality Part 67 ; Bush Uses Fires To Settle Katrina Scores

President Bush used yesterdays visit to California to settle an old score with the Governor of Louisiana. With firemen providing the backdrop and thousands of people with no homes, Mr Bush made a sniping comment about the post-Katrina rescue efforts.

"Its makes a significant difference when you have somebody in the statehouse willing to take the lead."

Tell The Truthiness ; He got asked to compare both disasters, but said it should be left to historians.

Yes and the governing, Mr Bush, should be left to the grown ups.

Road To Tehran 5 ; Threatening Threats Are Threatening

The US moved to the next stage of painting Iran as the next big bad enemy by imposing sanctions.

Aimed at three banks and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps to "confront the threatening behaviour of the Iranians". This is despite the lack of any new evidence the country poses a threat to it's neighbours and US interests.

Tell The Truthiness ; President Putin's comment on the sanctions "mad people wielding razor blades" seemed very apt for the action of the US administration at the moment.

Next step to war ? A third UN resolution to be tabled for November.

California Fires ; You're Doing A Heckuva Job Arnie

Any reasonable person with a balanced outlook would assume that the chances of government emergency response incompetence following a national disaster just couldn't happen. Especially after Katrina.

You would assume that and you'd be wrong.

First the White House press office said yesterday at 1pm that it was too early for a Presidential visit to California, then by 5pm the press office was saying the President would be visiting. Tomorrow in fact is when he is due to drop into town.

The response of local government officials? You know, not that good. Someone commented he's going to arrive and tell people they're doing a heckuva job. We all know how infamous that phrase became the last time the President used it.

Let's hope he doesn't jinx them. Even if it doesn't, the scale of the task is beginning to overwhelm those doing their best. Firefighters are exhausted after three days and only now is FEMA starting to help on the ground.

Tell The Truthiness ; The people of San Diego have shown they are capable of supporting each other, so the last thing they want is the President poking his nose in. Show up on Thursday if you want George, but it won't make a spot of difference to the people there if you do or not.

Saunter To The White House 10 ; Media Blackout On Colbert!

Any doubt that there was going to be partial media coverage of Colbert's run was confirmed in no lesser place than Stephen's own show.

In his paper review he shows the non-Colbert bias in the media.



Tell The Truthiness ; Can the media handle the truth America?

Saunter To The White House 9 ; Colbert's Big Announcement On The Big Announcement

Here is Stephen Colbert telling Jon Stewart about what he might announce.

Saunter To The White House Part 8 ; Paul To Bring Back Democracy

Presidential hopeful, Ron Paul, has introduced a bill in the House Of Representatves to have the Military Commissions Act repealed.

Hardly being covered by the mainstream press, the American Freedom Agenda Act would include restoring habeas corpus to suspects.

Here is some analysis and comment from Countdown last year on the pushing through of the Military Commissions Act



Tell The Truthiness ; Good try, but don't hold your breath.

Saunter To The White House Part 7 ; Rudy Shows His True Colours

With as many candidates, from all sides, trying to appeal to as many people as possible, someone had to break ranks early.

We have a winner!

Rudy Giuliani is reported to have said in a private meeting that he would support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

Tell The Truthiness ; Mr Giuliani could contact Larry Craig, he could act as poster-boy for why gay marriage is not needed, since he gets satisfied without the need for it.

Saunter To The White House Part 6 ; A Nation Has Spoken Mr Colbert

With the nation recovering from the news of last week that political commentator Stephen Colbert is to run for President, we take you back now to just before he announced, on Larry King.

War On Reality Part 66 ; Blackwater Do Good Stuff - Bush

Another gem from the Presidential News Conference was when Mr Bush was asked about Blackwater. He tried to spin the firm's record in Iraq by saying that they "provide a valuable service that protects people's lives".

Clearly Mr Bush hadn't heard about the people who were killed in Baghdad by the company and hadn't heard the Iraqi government's decision, following a report to "insist" Blackwater leave the country.

The US is conducting it's own investigation into the shootings and both reports will be reviewed by a joint Iraqi/US commission, after that, decisions will be made on Blackwater's future.

Something of note that may influence those decisions by the US side of that commission ; the US has paid Blackwater $830 million since 2004.

Tell The Truthiness ; Since most of the chiefs at Blackwater are former appointees of Mr Bush, we're totally sure the report from the US will be fair and balanced.

Road To Tehran 4 ; It's World War Three

In today's Presidential News Conference, Mr Bush said a number of real zingers.

He said that dealing with Iran was important to prevent "World War Three."

Tell The Truthiness ; That's nice and reassuring then for a country which you have yet to prove poses a threat to the United States. You're not trying to talk up a war are you Sir?

It Came From Outer Space/ The GOP!! Rudy's Question & His Answer

Here's the video of Rudy Giuliani being asked that priceless question.



Tell The Truthiness ; More of this please Rudy.

9/11 Truth Part 1 ; NIST Says Collapse Of Twin Towers Unexplainable

The National Institute for Standards and Technology has been made to admit that the collapse of the twin towers cannot, after a lengthy study, be explained.

A 10,000 page report has revealed also that the temperature of the steel would only have reached, at the most 500 degrees, nowhere near the 1000 degrees needed to weaken and further still from the 1,500 degrees needed to melt it.

So the ability of the towers to collapse at freefall speed is not possible because of the fire. The only other option that has yet to be fully investigated is a controlled demolition using explosives.

The NIST has no word on World Trade Center Building 7, which collapsed at 5.20pm, at freefall speed also, which had minor fire damage and was hit by far less debris from the falling towers than other buildings which remain standing to this day. The NIST promised to look at controlled demolition for Building 7 in August 2006, but has yet to report. When it does, we will let you know the results.

Tell The Truthiness ; We need a new, broad investigation. And we needed it six years ago.

Saunter To The White House Part 5 ; I Vant To Bite Your Vote

Rudy Giuliani (our unofficial new favourite 'hasn't got a hope in hell chance of winning" candidate) did the impossible today.

We thought he couldn't get better than misleading us to think there was oil on the moon, then he pushed things by saying he would be ready for an attack from aliens.

But he's done it!

He said, during a Republican Jewish Coalition talk whether he was a real Republican, "I gave my blood for the Republican Party in New York."

He said some other things as well, but just quoting this line was more fun.

Tell The Truthiness ; Will Rudy be campaigning on Halloween, or will he be 'resting'? Hmmm.

Al -Qaeda In Space!!! Giuliani Takes 9/11 To A Galaxy Far Far Away

Rudy Giuliani said he plans to keep us safe from alien attack.

Tell The Truthiness ; It's true! Really!!! Click here and read!!!

PS We'll post the video of him being asked the question about alien protection as soon as it's beamed down.

War On Reality Part 65 ; Craig Appeals Over Ruling

Larry Craig keeps the bizzare twists coming as not only on the weekend was he inducted into the Idaho Hall Of Fame, but today he appealed against a ruling by a judge.

He is appealing to overturn the judge's ruling that his original guilty plea, for being caught in an airport bathroom on lewd conduct charges, still stands.

Despite his guilty plea at the time, Senator Craig's lawyer said "from the outset Senator Craig has maintained he is innocent of any illegal conduct".

Tell The Truthiness ; If that's the case, why did he plead guilty in the first place? Everyone's still waiting for an answer. Really!?

War On Reality Part 64 ; Government Wanted Phone Tapping Before 9/11

The above is a video about the warrantless wiretapping, it's not specifically about this case though.

The National Security Agency asked a telecommunications firm early in 2001 to take part in an illegal phone monitoring plan.

A former Qwest Communications International executive, charged with insider trading, claims the NSA approached his company in the last days of February 2001 to take part in the undercover plan.

When they declined, citing the worry that the scheme was illegal, he alleged later that the company lost contracts directly because it had refused to agree to what the NSA was asking it to do.

Tell The Truthiness ; Why did the NSA need to do this monitoring illegally? Why has the Bush administration maintained that warrantless wiretapping came out of 9/11, when clearly people were anxious to use it before? Who knows more than they are letting on? They probably don't recall though.

Saunter To The White House Part 4 ; The Democratic Smearing Begins

It was just a matter of time and it was going to be a Democrat and it was going to be on the candidate viewed as the biggesst threat potentially. That's why this weekend, Barack Obama has had to defend himself against bizzare and unfounded accusations that he is a muslim.

Unidentified emails were sent out claiming Obama had joined a christian church to downplay his real religion. The Senator is not muslim, never has been and had successfully put claims first made in January, on Fox News, to sleep that said he was.

Tell The Truthiness ; It's no surprise this came from Fox News, it's no surprise these attacks were made on a black democratic candidate, it's no surprise religion is being used to scare the electorate. What is surprising is how early these smear attacks have started, it therefore will require strong Democratic action to counter this and the coming attacks from these hidden elements in the election campaign.

Those of us who oppose Bush and the current government have had enough, so these attacks are the last desperate actions of people scared of change. We say, bring it on.

We're Just Asking...

Tell The Truthiness ; Go on, you know you want to Al.

Is There Anything He Doesn't Say?

You might think he just keeps talking in the hope that someone listens, but this time he really has wadded into the debate on torture, in a big way.

We don't a video of this, but here's the Daily Show's take on the word game the government is playing.



Former President Jimmy Carter has said (ok, he is promoting his book, so we take that he's in the news at all, for any reason, as a given) he is convinced the US is involved in torture that breaks international law and said President Bush has created his administration's own definitions of torture and human rights to allow them to get away with it.

When questioned on CNN Mr Carter said he doesn't "think" he "knows" Bush's government tortures.

The White House continued to hold the line that "we do not torture".

Tell The Truthiness ; Keep saying it and eventually Bush will deny it was ever said, remember like "stay the course"?

War On Reality Part 63 ; Coalition Of The Dwindling

Out of a non-US force of 50,000 in Iraq at the beginning of the war, it will drop to a staggering 7,000 by the middle of next year.

Not only is this an example of how the "coalition of the willing" (remember that, gosh it takes us back) has seeped away, but also shows, in stark relief, how much more the burden of this war is being heaped on US troops.

Nearly every country that was allied with the United States is reducing or is planning to reduce it's contribution this year or the next.

Tell The Truthiness ; It might seem inappropriate, but Mr Bush, just declare victory, call the UN to arrange peace keepers and quietly leave. Giving all business interests back to the Iraqis. When we say leave, don't build a couple of airbases on the frontier near Iran or anything. Just leave and give these people back their country. It'll be difficult, but what's happening now is difficult enough to bare. So try the alternative.

Republican Debate 2 ; Thompson Meets Expectations - Doesn't Fall Asleep

Everyone's talking about keeping America safe, making sure business deals on major national infrastructure are sound and that more fuel is from the US and what's Senator Fred Thompson doing?

Please email or comment and let us know.

Republican Debate ; Giuliani Blasts Off

No, we don't mean in the sense of getting angry, but jumping from certain subjects in a strange pattern.

In one answer about energy independence, he went from oil to national security to the moon. We might have misheard, but did he suggest the US has to go to the moon for the sake of national security?

Tell The Truthiness ; Is there oil on the moon?

Brits See The Light, Head Home ; Brown's Speech

Here is the video of Prime Minister Gordon Brown announcing the cutting of UK troops in Iraq.

Blackwater 2 ; Australian Private Company Opens Fire

An Australian company opened fire on a car at a checkpoint after it failed to stop after warnings, reports say.

Employees of the Unity Resources Group shot dead two woman today despite repeated warnings in central Baghdad to slow down and stop, including hand signals and a flare.

The Chief Operating Officer of Unity was "unaware" about the deaths when questioned.

Tell The Truthiness ; Reportedly, this is the first time Unity have been reponsible for a fatal shooting, lets watch and see that they keep to their promise and do "whatever" the Iraqi Interior Ministry asks them to in relation to this shooting.

War On Reality Part 62 ; $8 Million A Life, Blackwater's Fixed Costs

An Iraqi report into the Blackwater shootings has called the incident "pre-mediated murder" and a call of $8 million compensation per victim has been made.

The report is due to be presented to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government for review soon. 17 people died and 27 other citizens were killed after the private contractors opened fire after, it's reported, no provocation in Nusorr Square, West Baghdad.

Tell The Truthiness ; Lets make sure justice comes to those responsible for this.

News Wars Gets Book ; We've Preordered Our Copy, Have You?

A new book by Howard Kurtz shows how the big three networks continue to chase fewer viewers in the last big war of national evening news broadcasts.

Some of the extracts, here, are very telling and interesting.

War On Reality Part 61 ; Iraqi Government Says Surge Has Failed

The whole aim of the surge was that an increase in troops would lead to stability which would give leaders breathing space to achieve political progress.

But any political progress hasn't just stopped, it's gone backwards. If any evidence was needed, here it is; the Iraqi government has recognised that progress is just not possible and will not happen.

Tell The Truthiness ; Some predicted a "major breakthrough" in governing in Iraq. If progress ever does happen it will be methodical, plodding and agonisingly frustrating.

Then There Were 2,500 ; The British Are Going, The British Are Going!

We don't have video of this announcement yet, but here is a two part interview with Gordon Brown by BBC reporter, Andrew Marr. Once today's video is available, it will be up.

Part One



Part Two



Gordon Brown this afternoon announced that UK troops in Iraq will be reduced to 2,500 by the Spring. He also gave details about Iraqi nationals who are working as interpreters having aid available to them for the chance to settle in the UK.

In the discussion of it being a defeat for allied forces, Prime Minister Brown said the reason these withdrawals are happening is because Iraqi forces are able to take control for themselves.

Tell The Truthiness ; Despite the disaster that Iraq has been for all those concerned in recent times, this, that troops are coming home, is good news.

War On Reality Part 60 ; Torture Analysis Roundup

We were going to post this late last week, but there were just so many stories to cover, it got pushed aside.

Not a lot new here, but the Countdown show introduction, from Thursday, gives a good overview of the whole sorry state of this story.

This one is the introduction to the Countdown show from Friday, with new developments in the story, again it gives a good roundup of the whole thing.



Tell The Truthiness ; "Do we torture? Well, it depends what you call torture, because what me and Dick call it is probably not what you call it, so we're ok yeah, now watch this drive..."

SNL's Take On Senator Larry Craig's Unusual Position

Saturday Night Live's dig at the Senator's bizzare refusal to step-down.

War On Reality Part 59 ; Pelosi Corrects The President

Remember the other day when the President was talking about the interrogation techniques used and claiming that the Democrats knew about them?

On Fox News Sunday this morning House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denied she had seen any memos from 2005 about the expanded CIA techniques.

Tell The Truthiness ; Just because something is unacceptable Mr Bush, doesn't mean you can make it excusable by claiming your opponents knew about it and therefore are in the same moral hole as you.

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.

War On Reality Part 58 ; They See A Standard & They've Just Got To Lower It

Torture, according to the Justice Department is "abhorrent", that word was used and many others in a December 2004 legal opinion giving the Department's stance on the issue.

Well, in true form, the Bush administration has shown it's wish and indication in black and white with this story that it pushed for torture to be carried out after former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' document which was issued not long after he started his job in February 2005. This memo, was, as all of the best White House memos are, kept secret.

Click here for the New York Times story.

Tell The Truthiness ; Reason 653 to not trust George H W Bush and his gang.

We don't have the footage of him defending himself from the last few days, but here is last year's clip of him talking to Matt Lauer on NBC. The interview is very telling of how he defends the use of 'torture' to keep people safe and invoking terror to frighten people, he talks about 9/11 and he talks about Lauer's family several times. Frightening.

The Loosest Of Loose Cannons ; Senator Larry Craig

Senator Larry Craig has said he will carry on in the Senate, despite his wish to change his guilty plea which was turned down yesterday and the despite the wishes of many in the Republican Party. The head of the GOP Senate Committee has pleaded with Craig to leave.

He won't stand again at the next election, but in the meantime will continue to represent his constituents, despite what they may think of him and his actions over recent months.

Many think he's just going to continue to be nothing but a 'national punch line'.

Tell The Truthiness ; Hasn't his integrity been shattered, how can he remain and for how long before his Senate position becomes completely untenable?

Senator Craig Judge Says 'No No, Then Yes Yes!'

Larry Craig today tried to change his guilty plea after his disorderly conduct charge three months ago.

Judge Charles Porter said that Senator Larry Craig's guilty plea was entered "accurately and intelligently" in June and was upheld.

We shall now have to wait and see how this impacts on the Senator's future. You'll remember when he said he would resign, then returned to work, so chances are there'll be some more twists in the tale.

Tell The Truthiness ; Don't let the door hit you in the wide stance on the way out!

Just For Fun

As the title says, just for fun.

War On Reality Part 57 ; What Might Happen? In An Episode Of Sliders?

Tell The Truthiness ; Imagine, Bush never got elected, it's too emotional for us.

Preporting & Specularium ; Our Two Favourite None-Words

Tell The Truthiness ; We're surprised Jon and the team could even get through that without cracking up.

Leapfrogging Mayor Injures Woman Dressed As Tomato

No comment required, just click here.

War On Reality Part 56 ; I'm Not Thinking Of The Childrens

President Bush vetoed an expansion of child health insurance today, kicking off a fight with the Democratic Congress. Republicans are confident they have enough votes to prevent the bill getting through in the house, however the Democrats have indicated they will fight for this bill.

Interestingly Bush stamped the bill 'veto' in private with no cameras or reporters present. He stressed afterwards he was in favour of private medical care, if anyone was in any doubt.

Tell The Truthiness ; Someone tell the President giving increased insurance to children for healthcare doesn't mean you'll turn into a communist overnight.

Road To Tehran 2 ; Lets Go Round Again

The war in Iraq could become last season's collection as some 'experts' say Bush and Cheney will order strikes on Iran before the end of his presidency.

Indeed, if you take Seymour Hersh at his word, it seems Bush and Cheney "really want" to attack Iran.

Tell The Truthiness ; Where is the mainstream media on questioning this? They should have learned their lesson from Iraq and their 'reporting' of the facts back then. So lets have a steady stream of impartial reporting on whether or not a war is neccessary or a threat even exists.

Reported Iraqi Deaths Fall 50 Percent, Will It Last?

Iraqi civilian deaths have fallen by half during September, the lowest level for over a year.

The US military claims the fall in casualty numbers is due to the 30,000 extra troops and different strategies.

Tell The Truthiness ; Has the number of unreported deaths, which aren't included in these figures fallen as well? Could this be a turning point? We won't hold our breath to wait and see.

Saunter To The White House Part 3 ; All Of Our Minorities Aren't Worth It

Despite the 'big four' not turning up to the date, they were still politely given the chance to speak.





Tell The Truthiness ; Where were you all? Tavis Smiley would have given you a run for your money, including how much you raised when you should have been at the debate.

Jack Cafferty Tells It Like It Is

Jon Stewart also had Jack Cafferty on the Daily Show last night, here's what he had to say.



Tell The Truthiness ; Lets hope he doesn't retire as soon as he hits 65. Keep going please Jack.

War On Reality Part 56 ; Will No-One Think Of The Childrens?

Jon Stewart does nothing but play the clip of the President talking about education.

War On Reality Part 55 ; Blackwater's Black Iraq Record

The level of force used by the US private security firm Blackwater has been strongly questioned by a congressional staff report.

They say that Blackwater's use of force has been "frequent and extensive" and that in 80 percent of cases, Blackwater employees fired first. This is despite Blackwater only being allowed to fire weapons to defend itself.

Tell The Truthiness ; We should get more details and possibly an admission of poor management tomorrow when Blackwater's CEO answer's questions on his company's conduct in Iraq.

Bill Maher Takes The P*ss Out Of Bill O'Reilly

Bill Maher comments on Bill O'Reilly and his comments.

War On Reality Part 54 ; Talking's The Politician's Substitute For Action

Much has been made in the past few days on President Bush's meeting on climate change.

He did say that he took climate change seriously. But nearly all of the countries he invited oppose his wish for voluntary cuts in emissions, as they all believe mandatory cuts are the best option. With fifteen months left, many people are looking to the next government to achieve real traction on global warming and minimising it's effect.

Tell The Truthiness ; Bush said he took Osama Bin Laden seriously, well, we all know how that turned out.

War On Reality Part 53 ; Selling War As A Product, Every Season

Here's a trailer for a film now showing, that gives an interesting insight to how war has been sold to the US public for the past 50 years.

Tell The Truthiness ; Fear is the ultimate selling tool, it's that simple.

Road To Tehran 1 ; Joint Chiefs Dust Off Plans

Today we launch another thread to our coverage ; 'Road To Tehran'. Although there has been discussion of a war in Iran as not possible in the current climate, we all know how spin and repetition of an idea can change people's minds.

The Vice President has asked the Joint Chiefs to redraw plans for an attack on Iran. An initial attack would be by bombing of nuclear sites, military and infrastructure.

Tell The Truthiness ; If this is the next step in Bush's and Cheney's plan, how far will it be allowed to go and who will ultimately stop it?

War On Reality Part 52 ; Lazy Couric - Iraq Assessment 'Not My Job'

The above is a simple edited version of Katie Couric's reports out of Iraq from the beginning of the month.

Couric has stirred the pot further following the controversial reporting she made on a trip to Iraq where she simply repeated White House talking points. She tried to defend herself in an interview at the National Press Club, broadcast on CSPAN-2.

We don't have a youtube video of that interview, but click here to watch.

Tell The Truthiness ; You can't defend yourself for not having a ''Walter Cronkite'' moment by then just repeating what you've been told by US military and administration officials. That is just lazy and sloppy journalism.

War On Reality Part 51 ; Cheney Catches Gonzales-itis

A speech made by Vice President Dick Cheney has, like a stone, made it's way to the surface and shows how Mr Cheney defended not going after Saddam and 'finishing the job' after the Gulf War.

Tell The Truthiness ; What changed Mr Cheney? What altered your thinking from such (we can't believe this is about to be typed) a reasonable standpoint to get to the polar opposite within ten years? You cannot cite 9/11 as there wasn't, isn't and will never be a connection between them. Unless you just lie and insist there is. But you've already tried that.

So what caused that change? Who changed your mind?

Bill O'Reilly Does It Again, Shows Us Why He's On Fox

Bill O'Reilly, black people, controversial comments, you can join the dots yourself, or click for it here.

Plus though, here's a colourful chart quantifying his comments on 'black', 'African' and 'African-American'.

Tell The Truthiness ; If anyone's in a Harlem restaurant, which has mostly black patrons and still listens or watches him, do email us and tell us why.

Senator Craig Isn't Gay And He Doesn't Want To Help Them

Senator Larry Craig has just voted on a Hate Crimes Bill in the Senate which is to expand protection for victims of hate crimes based on their sexual orientation.

He voted against the bill.

Tell The Truthiness ; Remember, he's not gay! And that's ok!

President's Phonetics Released ; Mugabe - mooGAHbee , Bush - ENGLISH LESSONS

In another example of why the US President is dangerous not only to his country, the World, but also the English language, a copy of his speech was released today.

The draft of his speech to the United Nations General Assembly includes notes on phonetics for World leaders and country names, Mauritannia - moor-EH-tain-ee-a, that he will cover during the talk.

Tell The Truthiness ; Bush = SS-care-EE.

John Grisham Voices Thoughts On Bush Government ; "Bad People"

John Grisham, author of countless books on crime, lawyers and things of that sort, has made his feelings about the current government very clear.

During promotion for a new book, which we won't name here, he said the administration is built around "bad people with evil intent".

He also added we would be paying for this war in decades to come.

Tell The Truthiness ; He did back John Kerry back in 2004, so if we can get him to turn round and throw his support towards whoever the GOP candidate becomes...who knows! That's a spooky enough plot for a book, hope John's reading this.

Holding Them To Account 10 ; Gonzales 'Al Be Going'

Alberto Gonzales left on Friday and was given a full send off by his office. And Jon from The Daily Show...



Tell The Truthiness ; Some staff didn't get him a leaving card, they just "did not recall" he was leaving.

President Bush Says Nelson Mandela's Dead ; Mandela Most Surprised

The common sense which may have lingered in that last, deep, dark recess of President Bush's brain has finally left it's owner and gone squinting out into the light.

He made a reference to fighters in Iraq and said, well, this...



Tell The Truthiness ; There was a statue of Mandela unveiled a few weeks ago, he was there to pull off the cover. He was the man in the bright shirt Mr Bush.

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.

Dan Rather Has Courage ; Sues CBS For $70 Million

After Dan Rather's hurried and unexpected dismissal 15 months ago from the anchor chair of the CBS Evening News, there's been some comments and sniping from both sides.

Today that was ratcheted up a notch as the ex-anchor filed a lawsuit against CBS for $70 million damages.

He cites them allowing a biased and incomplete investigation into the George W Bush National Guard report.

All this comes at a bad time for CBS as discussion of it's Evening News broadcast's further sinking ratings seems never ending.

Tell The Truthiness ; It would be interesting to find out what the objective of ousting Dan Rather was, what was actually achieved by it in the broadcasting and politcal Worlds and who's agenda it was.

War On Reality Part 50 ; Tasered Student Shows How Free Speech Becomes Optional Extra

As millions watch the video of Andrew Meyer being tasered during a question and answer session with Senator John Kerry, people have said less about the limits on free speech than the voyeuristic aspects of the tape.

Yes, his capture and restraining plays well for a viral video, but the bigger picture is that he was held and taken away for asking questions.

Tell The Truthiness ; Last time anyone checked, Tim Russert or Martha Raddatz didn't get that type of treatment for asking questions, why should it be different for anyone else?

PS John Kerry said as he was being tackled he would answer his questions, but he never answered as everyone's attention was distracted.

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.

Saunter To The White House 2 ; If We Ignore Black People, Like The Iraqis, They'll Kill Each Other Eventually

With the 2008 US General Election looking several Worlds away from that of the ballot of 2000, some things just don't seem to have changed.

Despite the running of Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, which people said just wouldn't and couldn't happen a few years ago, the actions of the GOP in this election run-up could harm relations between ethnic groups more than anyone realises.

The offer for the main Republican hopefuls to speak at a PBS sponsored GOP forum at Morgan State University Maryland, has been shoved aside.

Fred Thompson, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney have snubbed the debate. The city of Baltimore, where Morgan State is located is a mostly black city.

Tell The Truthiness ; Old, white men don't like to mix with black folk? Doesn't this sound like a bad modern remake of 'In The Heat Of The Night'? GOP, grow up and wake up.

War On Reality Part 48 ; Mr Craig Returns To Washington

Senator Larry Craig returned, unannounced, to the Capitol today.

When questioned as to whether he would be resigning, after last month's arrest by police for soliciting sex in an airport bathroom, he said no.

Perhaps he's forgotten that in the immediate furore last month he said he would resign, then backtracked.

Tell The Truthiness ; Does this guy even remember which state he represents? Idaho for the record.

Mexico Is Country 81 To Think Bush Is A Big *%&@

Former Mexican President, Vicente Fox has said in an autobiography how he thought Mr Bush to be the "cockiest guy I have ever met in my life".

Tell The Truthiness ; We think this every day.

PS - Mr Fox also added he never imagined George W Bush would ever get elected. All we can say is "the horror, the horror, we should wake up soon."

Well, we'll all wake up in January 2009.

Fox Censors 'Anything' Offensive ; Religion, War, Storylines, Truth, Freedom Of Acceptance Speeches

Sally Field's speech after winning an Emmy last night was cut off by Fox.

Fox defend themselves by saying they cut her off after the word 'god', which she followed with a 'damn', which they deem could offend some viewers.

They didn't restore the sound feed though after 'damn', they kept it quiet until she'd finished her sentence.

That sentence included an overall anti-war theme to the speech about mothers and children being brought home.

Tell The Truthiness ; As Fox says, it bleeped out anything that they deem could offend, didn't they miss all the sex and violence that they pass as 'news' on their Faux News channel?

Greenspan ; Iraq War All About Oil...Oops, What Should I Have Said?

The former Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, has backtracked on his comments published in his memoir about Iraq, the war and it's oil supplies.

The quote in the book says " the Iraq War is largely about oil".

Today though, watering down his comments, in an interview, Greenspan has corrected himself by claiming he told the White House that removing Saddam was "essential" to secure World and US oil interests in the region.

As you'd expect, everyone in the US administration who has responded to the book and the round of press interviews given by Greenspan says the ex-Fed boss is very nice but wrong. Fancy that!

Tell The Truthiness ; Why then was the Iraqi Oil Ministry the only protected building during the looting, post-invasion in Baghdad?

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 44 ; Petraeus Media Response

Here's an example of the excellent coverage provided of the recent events in the news. God bless and honor Stephen Colbert.

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?

Saunter To The White House 1 ; For Obama, It's Sofa-So Good

Today Truthiness launches a new coverage segment called ' Saunter To The White House'. As we all know, the election isn't until November next year, so since there is so little to stretch so thinly, we've called it saunter, as anyone who plans to run the whole way will drop dead before Halloween.

So kicking things off is Barack Obama's, Oprah Winfrey backed fundraiser this weekend. Winfrey invited 1500 guests to raise an expected $3 million for the Presidential candidate.

Tell The Truthiness ; Could this just be the sort of high-profile backing that Obama needs to keep pace with Hillary Clinton?

PS Do we all get a free car now?

Then There Were 5000 ; 250 Head Home Soon

250 soldiers are heading back home early from Basra in the latest phase of withdrawal for UK forces.

A total of 500 are due to return under the overall plan to handover Basra Palace.

Tell The Truthiness ; If those 250 of the full 500 are brought home even earlier again, we'll let you know.

Troops Show Their True Feelings In Basra Pullout

It seems that those UK troops leaving Basra couldn't keep their real feelings quiet, as this picture shows.

Tell The Truthiness ; Some details coming in about more UK troops leaving, we'll post when we get the details.

War On Reality Part 40 ; Bin Laden Reserves Complimentary Seat At Next GOP Debate With Tape Donation

The 'latest' tape from the Big Bad Bin Laden has been released, timed to help politically the Republican party and Mr Bush.

All tapes of Bin Laden have been released at times which strategically have potential to give the GOP a boost by, well scaring people and discrediting any hint of an alternative to the official 9/11 story.

Tape is released, tape is played on TV for 24 hours, President or Secretary Of Defence or Chairman Of The Joint Chiefs makes appearance on TV saying how we must not let these terrorists win and to keep spreading liberty throughout the World.

And the result? Anyone who was waivering to vote for another party at the next general/midterm election decides to stick with the Republicans.

The US company IntelCenter, which gained this tape, has been caught out doctoring tape of Mr Big before and of presenting other tapes in totally the wrong context.

Tell The Truthiness ; Indeed, the Bin Laden in this tape looks nothing like the earlier ones, there are so many holes in the official story of him being reponsible for the attacks that it makes Swiss Cheese look watertight. Plus, don't the Republicans and the Bush Cohorts know that tapes like these have diminishing returns?

War On Reality Part 39 ; Is The Truth About 9/11 Breaking Cover?

The wikipedia entry for Flight 11 and Flight 77, which we are told crashed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon respectively nearly six years ago, has been altered.

The alteration says that although those flights took off before and after that day, on September 11th they were both NOT scheduled to fly.

Corroborating this fact are details of flights which are kept at the Bureau Of Transportation Statistics.

Click here and look for yourself.

But now it gets very interesting, the alteration, which anyone can make on Wikipedia, has been traced back to a computer with an American Airlines IP address.

Tell The Truthiness ; Why is someone at American Airlines changing the details of what happened on that day? We've not been told the whole story, can someone from AA and BTS explain the most basic 'facts' and why they need alteration? What's being hidden, now is the time for questions, not ridicule.

War On Reality Part 38.5 ; This Lazy & Conning President

Here is the YouTube video, sorry for the delay.

War On Reality Part 38 ; This Lazy & Conning President

The Special Comment by Keith Olbermann on MSNBC shown last night can be found here. Later we'll post a video directly onto this main page, once someone more technically minded than us posts it on YouTube.

Tell The Truthiness ; Now we have it in black and white, Bush has no desire to bring troops back before he tries to load this war onto the Republican candidate in this month or in October. This man needs to go, now.