Agitprop: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Propaganda

Paging Mr. Orwell!

Rummy Pays Iraqi Papers to Print Positive Stories
Shows Iraqis What Real American-Style Democracy is Like!

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, we reported that Bu$hCo paid radio "personality" Armstrong Williams about 200 grand to shill for its "No Child Left Behind" [sic] program. Now, we find the U.S. military is doing the same thing. Positive newspaper articles written by "information operations troops," are "translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times."

And you thought the military was only for fighting wars (as opposed to that "War of Ideas" in which the College Repugs are endlessly engaged). Let it never be said that the Dear Leader doesn't take every opportunity to win hearts and minds, no matter where they are.

hat tip graphic: Agi T. Prop
tags: U.S. military iraq war on terror impeach bush lincoln group

We're Going to Have a Strategy!

A Strategy ... we have a Strategy!

Now we know how the Dear Leader is going to bring home the troops! Saddamists, Rejectionists, and Terrists BEWARE! Click here to read the strategy! Basically, we're staying until the job is done ... Bushie won't cut and run! Take that Jack Murtha! And remember, "victory" is defined as when the Iraqis "take the lead" in defeating them nasty terrists.

Or is that a "strategery"?

tags: iraq war on terror george bush

From the Department of Freudian Slips

Hatch Demands U.S. "Stay the Course" in Vietnam
Utah Senator Suggests Re-Invasion?

[via Raw Story] Utah Senator and fervent Scalito supporter Orrin Hatch stated Monday that we should not pull out of Vietnam: "The Democratic Party seems to be taken over by the Michael Moore contingent in their attitude toward Vietnam, and they continually call for a withdrawal of troops at a time when we haven't finished the job," Hatch said on a Fox network morning show.

Ooops.

tags: orrin hatch fox news vietnam iraq

Agitprop Predicts

Predicting the News Since About Six Weeks Ago ...
So You Don't Have to Pay Attention

Read now ye, these weekly three!

1) This is the week when Parliament will launch its investigation into Tony Blair's handling of pre-war intelligence.

2) Someone will leak one or both of the Bush/Blair "Let's Bomb al-Jazeera" memos.

3) After a hue and cry from the media (which will not be as big as it should be), the Justice Department will allow re-examination of the most recent Scalito documents - "[o]nly reporters were granted 180 minutes to peruse 470 pages of information ... it would take about 39 seconds to quickly read each page and figure out if the information was newsworthy or worth pursuing further."

tags: tony blair iraq war on terror al jazeera samuel alito

Rove Death Watch

Turd Blossom and the Goblet of Shit

[via Raw Story] On the second day of Fitzmas, Rove will either plead or be indicted on charges of lying and obstruction of justice. Raw Story reports that:

"Those close to the investigation say Fitzgerald will present evidence to the grand jury later this week obtained from other witnesses who were interviewed by the Special Prosecutor or testified, showing that Rove made misleading statements to Justice Department and FBI investigators in an attempt to cover-up his role in the leak when he was first interviewed about it in October 2003.

The most serious charges Rove appears to face are making false statements to investigators and obstruction of justice, the sources said. Rove does not appear to be in jeopardy of being charged with violating a law making it a crime to leak the name of a covert CIA agent because it’s unlikely that he was aware that Plame was undercover, they added."

Most interesting is the following: "Rove’s former personal assistant, Susan B. Ralston - who was also a special assistant to President Bush - testified in August about why [journalist Matt] Cooper’s call to Rove was not logged. Ralston said it occurred because Cooper had phoned in through the White House switchboard and was then transferred to Rove’s office as opposed to calling Rove’s office directly. As Rove’s assistant, Ralston screened Rove’s calls. But those close to the probe [said] Fitzgerald obtained documentary evidence showing that other unrelated calls transferred to Rove’s office by the switchboard were logged. He then called Ralston back to testify."

tags: karl rove susan ralston plamegate valerie plame patrick fitzgerald fitzmas

No Child Left Behind

I am sure that all of you Young and College Republicans were alarmed by last night's NOW broadcast on PBS. It turns out that even when the military gets all the names of potential recruits from high schools under the Dear Leader's "No Child Left Behind" law, they still have to spend more than $13,000 per recruit to talk them into serving as cannon fodder in Iraq.

Think about it! You young Republicans could help solve two problems by signing up now ... you would not only help stem the most crucial manpower shortage the armed services have ever faced, you would save the country money and help reduce the deficit. No one has to spend $13,000 to convince you that service in the Dear Leader's Operation Enduring War is righteous and just. Sign up now, and help America save!
(cross-posted at Operation Yellow Elephant)

tags: young republicans college republicans iraq war on terror PBS

The Blair Watch Project

Surf on Over ...

So bloggers, if you had a chance to publish the Bush/Blair "Let's Bomb al-Jaazera!" memo, would you do it? You might just get that chance. After surfing over to the excellent BlairWatch (via Don't Bomb Us, al-Jaazera's latest production), blogenfreude signed up to publish the memo (click here to do the same) if called upon to do so.

So will all of us that publish in the U.S. get sent to Guantanamo? Only the Dear Leader knows for sure ...

tags: war on terror george bush tony blair iraq al jazeera impeach bush impeach blair guantanamo

Agitprop Predicts

Once Again, the Fallout

1) This is the week that Scotty the Lying Bushtool will announce his "retirement." Nope. 0 points.

2) Bad Witch of the Midwest Jean Schmidt will issue an apology to John Murtha. While it did not sound like it (more like: "I'm sorry I got caught" rather than "I'm sorry"), it was widely reported that Mean Jean did apologize. 1 point.

3) At least two senators will join Biden's call for an Alito filibuster based on his race rulings; there will be no mention of an abortion filibuster, however. 1 point - looks like Reid and Kennedy have done this.

The math: batting average this week: .666 (batting average of the beast); overall: .470.

tags: scott mcclellan jean schmidt john murtha iraq joe biden ted kennedy samuel alito harry reid

Bolton Wants To Shut Down U.N.

Didn't They Learn Anything Back in 1995?

You would think the Repugs learned something after being blamed for shutting down the government in 1995 in service of their ideology. But no. Not satisfied with having pissed everyone off in their attempt to shut down the U.S., now "diplomat" John Bolton is attempting to shut down the U.N. He wants to prevent passage of "the organisation's 2006 budget until member states approve wide-ranging management reforms."

At this point, even the Poodle's government is against Bolton. When Bu$hCo loses the Brits, game over! [via Raw Story.]

tags: john bolton United Nations impeach bush bush administration

NERDS !!!

Are you a nerd? Do you know who the man pictured on the left is? Have you ever built a computer? Do you think Cate Blanchett hasn't been hot since she took off the Spock ears she wore in the LoTR trilogy? Virtual Pus links to a questionnaire revealing just how nerdy you are. If you care, blogenfreude's nerd score can be found by scrolling down and looking on the right side of the page.

tags: cate blanchett nerds

The Mother of All Soft Landings

Michael "Missed It By THAT Much" Brownie Starts Own
Emergency Management Consulting Firm

[via The Defeatists] Once again, F. Scott Fitzgerald is wrong on the second act thing. Earlier, we reported that Brownie had stayed on at FEMA at his old salary as a consultant. Now that FEMA finally shook him off, he's announced that he's opening his own emergency management consulting firm.

How quickly do you suppose Brownie will have contracts from FEMA, Halliburton, and KBR? And how many people does this clown have to kill before he's forced back into the Arabian horse business?

tags: michael brown FEMA hurricane katrina bush administration

Giving Thanks In Wartime

Happy Thanksgiving to all who drop by ... except Bu$hCo, Limbaugh, O`Reilly, and the like. Hey, we here at Agitprop have our standards. This is the Thanksgiving view last year from Agitprop Tower here in Chinatown ... the Manhattan Bridge.

And what to say of the Iraq War? It`s sad that so many are away from home fighting terrorists that weren`t in that country before the war started. They should be here, or somewhere else where their efforts would have not been wasted. Even worse ... who wants to eat a turkey dinner provided by Halliburton? Awful, simply awful. One cannot help but think of them.

tags: iraq war on terror impeach bush support the troops thanksgiving

Bu$hCo Gives Top Value for your Intelligence Dollar!

Bush Shitcanned the August 6, 2001 PDB
So Why Not the Iraq Intel Too!

In a post From the Circular File, the King of Zembla has an excellent discussion of Bu$hco's attitude towards intelligence. The intel about Iraq's WMD and it's al Qaeda connections wasn't "distorted, hyped, or fabricated" ... because it showed there were no WMDs or al Qaeda connection, it was simply tossed down the old memory hole. The King quotes Murray Waas:

Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, according to government records and current and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

We misquote Calvin Trillin and Pete Seeger: They lie, they simply falsify! And give us such good value for our intelligence dollar.

tags: iraq war on terror george bush dick cheney al qaeda

November 22, 1963

One more to go with the JFK post I put up yesterday. It was an eerie day to photograph the school book depository.

tags: november 22, 1963 john kennedy jfk george bush

Birmingham Blues

Kathy at Birmingham Blues got sad news during this holiday season and needs your support. Drop by.

tags: birmingham blues

When Repugs Attack ...

Mean Jean Violates Rules On Campaign Website
Marine Quoted on House Floor Not Exactly Backing Up Her Story

Poor Jean ... she was born with a green foot in her mouth. First, she had to fix her campaign website quick-like because she violated House ethics rules by posting certain images. [Thanks to BluegrassReport.] As if that wasn't enough, "the Marine behind whom Schmidt was hiding, when she made the thinly veiled reference that Rep. Murtha is a coward, is disputing her comments." [Thanks to Shakespeare's Sister.]

Well, at least she still has that hideous stars 'n stripes jumper.

Thanks to Alan for pointing me to the Bluegrass post.
tags: iraq jean schmidt john murtha

Tories Gone Wild!

Bush Wanted to Bomb al-Jazeera
Mad Maggie Wanted to Nuke the Argentines

First, there was the Iron Lady ... Margaret Thatcher (pictured here on a golf ball so you can imagine giving her a good thwack). Courtesy of a biography of François Mitterand, we find that she "forced [Mitterrand] to give her the codes to disable Argentina's deadly French-made missiles during the Falklands war by threatening to launch a nuclear warhead against Buenos Aires ...." Well, isn't that special?

Next, there was our own Dear Leader, Preznit George W. Bush. We find that he "planned to bomb pan-Arab television broadcaster al-Jazeera, British newspaper the Daily Mirror said, citing a Downing Street memo marked 'Top Secret'." He was talked out of it by the slightly less insane Tony Blair, who sensibly feared that "such a strike, in the business district of Doha, the capital of Qatar, a key western ally in the Persian Gulf, would spark revenge attacks."

Revenge attacks? Hmmm. And what have we learned today?

Tories cannot be permitted to have their fingers on the button of anything.

tags: margaret thatcher george bush argentina falklands tony blair al jazeera

November 22, 1963

I took this photo in January 2003 when I was in Dallas on business. I could not bring myself to go into the museum. It was afternoon, and the light was not the best, but I photographed for more than an hour. A homeless man slept in Dealey Plaza, a bottle in a bag nearby. Tourists walked past him. If you've never been there, it's smaller, more intimate, than you think. There is an "X" in the road where JFK took the head shot. Why?

I left to head back to NYC a few days later. As the car accelerated to get onto the highway, I felt strange. I looked back over my right shoulder, and there was the school book depository. I felt sick.

We feel something was stolen from us. Who knows what Kennedy would have done? At the time of his murder, it was not clear that he would be re-elected. But when I think of the stage JFK was setting (onto which LBJ would soon stride) I still believe. Given our present "leadership," I feel the loss even more acutely.

Neil Shakespeare has a sad remembrance here.
tags: november 22, 1963 john kennedy jfk george bush

Cheney - It's What's For Murtha's Dinner

Tidmus Strikes Again!

[via Pam's House Blend]

Note that Dad resembles Murtha a bit ...

tags: dick cheney john murtha mike tidmus

From the Department of Delusion

Dear Leader Says Progress in Iraq Is "Amazing"
Also Commends Brownie Again for Heckuva' Job

Dear Leader to South Koreans: "As a matter of fact, I know relations between our governments is good."

So is they?

A similarly delusional Dear Vice Leader Cheney labeled as dishonest and reprehensible "the suggestion by some U. S. senators that the President of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on pre- war intelligence."

So Dick, they "accidentally misled?" "Oops, we were having a few beers, and suddenly there we were in Iraq!"

hat tip (graphic): Commandante Agi. T. Prop
tags: iraq war on terror impeach bush george bush south korea dick cheney

Agitprop Predicts

Once Again, We Predict the Week's News
So You Don't Have to Pay Attention

1) This is the week that Scotty the Lying Bushtool will announce his "retirement."

2) Bad Witch of the Midwest Jean Schmidt will issue an apology to John Murtha.

3) At least two senators will join Biden's call for an Alito filibuster based on his race rulings; there will be no mention of an abortion filibuster, however.

tags: scott mcclellan jean schmidt john murtha iraq joe biden samuel alito

The Dear Leader and the Doors of Fire

And now, your Moment of Zen

tags: impeach bush george bush china

Agitprop Predicts (another $!%@*# week)

Well, We Try To Predict the News So You Don't Have To ...

1) Scooter Libby will begin to (or will be reported to begin to) cooperate with Plamegate prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who seems to be trying to get Libby to flip on Rove, Cheney, or both. 0 points (not even close).

2) Bush will make an astounding gaffe on his Asia trip (not just the usual misstatements). 1 point - I think his call for the Chinese to print Bibles qualifies.

3) MPs organizing to impeach the Poodle, Tony Blair, will announce by the end of the week that they have over 200 cross-party signatures as necessary to force the Commons to set up a Privy Council investigation that would examine in detail the case against Blair. 0 points (and wishful thinking ...).

Batting average for the week: .333, overall .420. Hat tip to actor212 for calling a terrorist attack dead on.

tags: agitprop predicts scooter libby george bush tony blair

Another Circular Firing Squad

Dems to Dems: RUN AWAY!

Shakespeare's Sis posts on this over at her site. Brave Sir Rahm Emanuel (D-Clintonista) runs away from the toughness displayed by Jack Murtha (D-Balls) and says: "Jack Murtha went out and spoke for Jack Murtha. ... At the right time, we will have a position." The vote is scheduled for tonight, Rahm! Time to grow a set.

tags: iraq john murtha jack murtha rahm emanuel

Black is the New Red

Wear Black on Friday

Carl has this over at Simply Left Behind via Blondesense Liz: supporting the troops now apparently requires that the truly patriotic wear red on Fridays. Carl suggests black, Liz suggests blood red. The former is not a problem for us New Yorkers - we always dress like we're ready to go break in somewhere ...

tags: iraq support the troops