Forgeries, lies and sex

Wow. I’ve had no time to blog the last couple of days and now my head is just spinning with all that has been going on so much that I don’t know where to start.
The new Ron Suskind book that reveals a White House scheme to forge a letter linking Saddam Hussein with Al-Qaeda is just incredible. The fact that the Bush administration would have done such a thing is disturbing enough, but even more disturbing in my opinion is the way the national media has downplayed the whole thing like it’s no big deal. You can’t even find the story on CNN right now. Instead, we’ve already moved on to gawking over Paris Hilton’s new ad mocking John McCain.
Last night on Countdown, Keith Olbermann had Suskind on for an exclusive interview and it was revealed that two of his key CIA sources in the book are suddenly backing away from what they said in the book. But it comes a little late since Suskind has all of their lengthy interviews on tape. Why would they have said these things to begin with if they weren’t true and who is pressuring them now to back away from their comments?
And if Republicans are going to claim that the Bushies didn’t do it, then who did? The letter truly exists and is clearly a forgery. Where did it come from and who wrote it if Suskind’s CIA sources aren’t telling the truth?
Combine this with the ongoing Anthrax controversy about the “sources” who told ABC News way back that the deadly spores were laced with Bentonite, a blatant falsehood meant to link the attacks to Iraq, and we have a clear pattern of manipulation by shadowy elements within our government trying to push us into a war and then invent reasons for us to stay.

And here are some more things I would have blogged about if I had the time:

A great article by Greg Anrig advancing the theme from his book about the failure of GOP ideas as the key reason why McCain’s presidential hopes are going nowhere.

Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, held a fundraiser last year at a Las Vegas strip joint.
And yesterday, John McCain goes to some biker bar and jokes about having his wife take part in a lewd, bikini beauty contest that regularly features women going topless and simulating sex acts on stage.

And when Republicans aren’t out promoting their brand of family values, they are going completely nuts over every little thing that Obama says in a desperate search for a “gotcha” moment. The latest was a hyped up attempt to ridicule Obama for making the very true and common sense statement that keeping your tires properly inflated improves your car’s gas mileage and saves money.
I think all the Republicans running around the last couple of days waving tire guages are the perfect symbol for a Republican presidential campaign that is running on four flat tires.