New Civilization News: FactCheck Checks Itself In...And Out    
 FactCheck Checks Itself In...And Out20 comments
picture20 Oct 2007 @ 12:23, by Richard Carlson

Great doubt results in great enlightenment, small doubt results in small enlightenment, no doubt results in no enlightenment.

---Yuan-Hsien

A hundred thousand worlds are flowers in the sky.
A single mind and body is moonlight in the water.
Once thinking ends and information stops,
At that moment there is no place for thought.

---Han-Shan

All wisdom comes out of one center, and the number of wisdom is one.

---Paracelsus

I thought it was a good thing when www.factcheck.org showed up a few years ago. I immediately subscribed to its occasional dispatches. A Karl Rove in power was reason enough. "Spin" was the middle name of this White House and, while acknowledged, journalists didn't seem to do much about it. We heard about "framing" your presentations so that particular words would hook your audience. We learned that "reality" is a hindrance to true economic marketfreedom. It seemed evident that lies repeated over and over finally sink in and become accepted as truth. What's a mother to do? FactCheck stepped up to the plate to test the veracity of political ads and politician claims. That seemed to be a help.

But I find I don't read everything FactCheck sends out, and sometimes I don't find the "facts" particularly convincing. I confess I probably am rooting for my good guys and don't like it much when FactCheck goes after them. The site is run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, a research group of impeccable credentials...as far as I know. So I'm glad FactCheck is around, particularly during endless campaign seasons.

But last month the Washington Post published an intriguing article that said the whole strategy of creating myths depends on the assertive statement of the story. The Post implied that by emphasizing these myths FactCheck actually is defeating its own purpose. People read the myth and that's enough to keep it going no matter how the facts check out. [link]

That was enough to send FactCheck to the couch and after a month of analysis, it has emerged with a special report on its soundness of mind. Beware: they've gone all the way back to Descartes and Spinoza. There's some deep slogging here, and it's perfectly possible you may emerge with the belief Spinoza invented spin. Maybe he did. That part's hazy. Anyway, here it is~~~

Cognitive Science and FactCheck.org, or Why We (Still) Do What We Do
October 17, 2007
by Joe Miller

Have you heard about how Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet? What about how Iraq was responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center? Or maybe the one about how George W. Bush has the lowest IQ of any U.S. president ever? Chances are pretty good that you might even believe one (or more) of these claims. And yet all three are false. At FactCheck.org our stock in trade is debunking these sorts of false or misleading political claims, so when the Washington Post told us that we might just be making things worse, it really made us stop and think.

A Sept. 4 article in the Post discussed several recent studies that all seemed to point to the same conclusion: Debunking myths can backfire because people tend to remember the myth but forget what the debunker said about it. As Hebrew University psychologist Ruth Mayo explained to the Post, “If you think 9/11 and Iraq, this is your association, this is what comes in your mind. Even if you say it is not true, you will eventually have this connection with Saddam Hussein and 9/11.” That leaves myth busters like us with a quandary: Could we, by exposing political malarkey, just be cementing it in voters’ minds? Are we contributing to the problem we hope to solve?

Possibly. Yet we think that what we do is still necessary. And we think the facts back us up.

The Post story wasn’t all that surprising to those who follow the findings of cognitive science research, which tells us much of our thinking happens just below the level of consciousness. The more times we hear two particular bits of information associated, for example, the more likely it is that we’ll recall those bits of information. This is how we learn multiplication tables – and why we still know the Big Mac jingle.

Our brains also take some surprising shortcuts. In a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Virginia Tech psychologist Kimberlee Weaver shows that the more easily we recall something the more likely we are to think of it as being true. It’s a useful shortcut since, typically, easily recalled information really is true. But combine this rule with the brain’s tendency to better remember bits of information that are repeated frequently, and we can run into trouble: We’re likely to believe anything we hear repeated frequently enough. At FactCheck.org we’ve noted how political spin-masters exploit this tendency ruthlessly, repeating dubious or false claims endlessly until, in the minds of many voters, they become true. Making matters worse, a study by Hebrew University's Mayo shows that people often forget “denial tags.” Thus many people who hear the phrase “Iraq does not possess WMDs” will remember “Iraq” and “possess WMDs” while forgetting the “does not” part.

The counter to this requires an understanding of how it is that the brain forms beliefs.

In 1641, French philosopher René Descartes suggested that the act of understanding an idea comes first; we accept the idea only after evaluating whether or not it rings true. Thirty-six years later, the Dutch philosopher Baruch de Spinoza offered a very different account of belief formation. Spinoza proposed that understanding and believing happen simultaneously. We might come to reject something we held to be true after considering it more carefully, but belief happens prior to the examination. On Spinoza’s model, the brain forms beliefs automatically. Rejecting a belief requires a conscious act.

Unfortunately, not everyone bothers to examine the ideas they encounter. On the Cartesian model, that failure results in neither belief nor disbelief. But on the Spinozan model we end up with a lot of unexamined (and often false) convictions.

One might rightly wonder how a 17th-century philosophical dispute could possibly be relevant to modern myth-busting. Interestingly, though, Harvard psychologist Daniel T. Gilbert designed a series of experiments aimed specifically at determining whether Descartes or Spinoza got it right. Gilbert’s verdict: Spinoza is the winner. People who fail to carry through the evaluation process are likely to believe whatever statements they read. Gilbert concludes that “[p]eople do have the power to assent, to reject, and to suspend their judgment, but only after they have believed the information to which they have been exposed.”

Gilbert’s studies show that, initially at least, we do believe everything we hear. But it’s equally obvious that we reject many of those beliefs, sometimes very quickly and other times only after considerable work. We may not be skeptical by nature, but we can nonetheless learn to be skeptical. Iowa State’s Gary Wells has shown that social interaction with those who have correct information is often sufficient to counter false views. Indeed, a study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology by the University of Southern California’s Peter Kim shows that meeting a charge (regardless of its truth or falsity) with silence increases the chances that others will believe the claim. Giving false claims a free pass, in other words, is more likely to result in false beliefs (a notion with which 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry, who didn’t immediately respond to accusations by a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth about his Vietnam record, is all too familiar).

So, yes, a big ad budget often trumps the truth, but that doesn’t mean we should go slumping off in existential despair. You see, the Spinozan model shows that we will believe whatever we hear only if the process of evaluating those beliefs is somehow short-circuited. Humans are not helpless automatons in the face of massive propaganda. We may initially believe whatever we hear, but we are fully capable of evaluating and rejecting beliefs that turn out not to be accurate. Our brains don’t do this naturally; maintaining a healthy skeptical attitude requires some conscious effort on our part. It also requires a basic understanding of logic – and it requires accurate information. That’s where this Web site comes in.

If busting myths has some bad consequences, allowing false information to flow unchecked is far worse. Facts are essential if we are to overcome our brain’s tendency to believe everything it hears. As a species, we’re still pretty new to that whole process. Aristotle invented logic just 2,500 years ago – a mere blink of the eye when compared with the 200,000 years we Homo sapiens relied on our brain’s reflex responses to avoid being eaten by lions. We still have a long way to go. Throw in a tsunami of ads and Internet bluster and the path gets even harder, which is why we’re delighted to find new allies at www.PolitiFact.com and the Washington Post’s FactChecker. We’ll continue to bring you the facts. And you can continue to use them wisely.

Sources:

Descartes, Rene. Principles of Philosophy. Tr. John Cottingham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985 [1644].

Gilbert, Daniel T., Romin W. Tafarodi and and Patrick S. Malone. "You Can't Not Believe Everything Your Read." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 65.2 (1993): 221-233.

Kim, Peter H., et al. "Silence Speaks Volumes: The Effectiveness of Reticence in Comparison to Apology and Denial for Responding to Integrity- and Competence-Based Trust Violations. Journal of Applied Psychology 92.4 (2007): 893-908.

Mayo, Ruth, Yaacov Schul and Eugene Burnstein. "'I Am Not Guilty' vs. 'I Am Innocent': Successful Negation May Depend on the Schema Used for its Encoding." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 40.4 (2004): 433-449.

Spinoza, Baruch de. Ethics. Tr. Edwin Curley. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994 [1677].

Weaver, Kimberlee, et al. "Inferring the Popularity of an Opinion from its Familiarity: A Repetitive Voice Can Sound Like a Chorus." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 92.5 (2007): 821-833.

Wright, E.F. and Gary L. Wells. "Does Group Discussion Attenuate the Dispositional Bias?" Journal of Applied Psychology 15 (1985): 531-546.

Copyright © 2003 - 2007, Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania
FactCheck.org's staff, not the Annenberg Center, is responsible for this material.
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20 comments

20 Oct 2007 @ 15:55 by vaxen : Busting Myths...
Myths are not the same as "lies." Of course, in contemporary usage, everything has 'spin' on it even "electrons" (That's too uncomfortibly close to the word 'elections' for me, but...)

And with a name like 'Annenberg Public Policy Center...?' A pricey kind of Ahnennerbe? Well... "Just the facts, mam." ~ Joe Friday

The upcoming "war with Iran" was in the planning stages long, long ago. And Cindy Sheehan is STILL running for Congress! Imagine that!

Fun timelines and things that go bump in your wallet:

1940's Lucky Luciano's connection to the U.S. government. See: Lucky Luciano: World War II http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/lucky-luciano/world-war-ii.html During WWII, America needed new allies to advance its invasion of Sicily and Italy, so the U.S. government is reported to have covertly made a deal with Luciano, who was by then imprisoned. U.S. military intelligence was aware that Luciano had maintained good connections in the Sicilian and Italian Mafia

1942 OSS beginning, including partnership with the Mafia.

1945 Mafia paid off by OSS when a huge number of Mafiosi imprisoned on Sicily were released by order of the OSS.

1947 OSS becomes the CIA.

1948 Zionists, backed by the insurgency beginning in the 1930's of the terrorist groups that became the Haganah and Palmach and others, coerce President Truman into pressuring the United Nations into creating the Modern state of Israel. Palestinians, including especially Christians, are dislocated after the manner of Nazi disruptions of peoples and cultures.

1956 Ongoing Treaty of Rome for European Unity reaches finalized state for long term implementation by Europeans for their intent to displace the U.S. as the World Super Power.

1962 Russians and United States link computers to track nuclear strike alerts against one another. Beginning of the staging of the cold war after end of Stalinist versus old line U.S. standoff.

1962 - 1963 Beginning of the Mafia's using the Hell's Angels for contract hits. This is for the promotion of the drug dealing both were entering into. Involved and overseeing this was/is the CIA.

1962 - 1963 CIA sees the Japanese Soka Gakkai (a Yakusa organization) as a viable ally in their plans.

1962 -1965 Vatican II Council codifies apostate Tubingen and Lausanne and Geneva theologies for the European Union's attempt at a One World Religion. Three people at Vatican II were the most instrumental and would have the longest involvement after the council in the implementation of the council's aims. These three were: Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II) and Hans Kung (later the Trotsky-like sacrifice by the other two) and Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI).

1967 Air America flying many places in the world; white aircraft.

1967 Judges in the U.S. funneling drug dealers into the military, especially the Marine Corp.

1969 CIA recruitment on college campuses very high.

1969 Canada to Cuba gunrunning through U.S. by CIA.

1969 CIA, KGB and Red Chinese Intelligence working together through: out of house contract agents, who with the CIA’s complete coordination and oversight (they ran the whole thing) targeted innocent American citizens, for the next three years minimum, as subversives as a fake, for overseas CIA-MOSSAD-KGB-Red Chinese murder contracts.



1970's Continuing CIA drug dealing affecting especially the U.S military. See: http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/lucky-luciano/world-war-ii.html -- According to McCoy, the opportunistic alliances forged between the drug cartel and the C.I.A. saw the U.S. effectively turn a blind eye to the heroin syndicates in return for assistance in its obsessive fight against Communism in the region. The result of this confluence of events was that, with the withdrawal of forces in the early 1970s, the rampant heroin problem among G.I.s was simply repatriated back to the U.S.A., leading to an unprecedented explosion of heroin addiction in western nations.

Related Topics:
C.I.A. - Communism


1973 SUPREME COURT AND THEIR CO-CONSPIRATORS IN ROE V. WADE MURDERS BABIES AND DESTROYS U.S. CONSTITUTION.

President Nixon and Henry Kissinger give away the victory that the U.S. had over Vietnam in order to wound U.S. suzereignty in the world.

1980s Ronald Reagan destroys American economy and drives the U.S. into insurmountable debt.

1990's Jewish Russian mobsters flood underworld in U.S. and Israel and throughout the earth. (The area of Russia is the origin of Ma-Gog, the Khazar Ashkenazi.)

1993 Air America flying, for some time, black aircraft (especially helicopters), in the U.S. The CIA has been growing in various countries and dealing drugs to and with every dictator imaginable throughout the world for years. The drugs are shipped to the U.S. for the profit that the drug sales make for the drug lords and the crooked politicians they own here and abroad. The DEA is only a front for the U.S. to pretend they are doing something about it.

1996 Admiral Borda, loyal patriotic American and four star Admiral and Chief of Naval Operations (means he knew as much or more about intelligence operations than anyone else) and a Jew who wouldn't play ball with either the CIA's or the Mossad's crooked dealings, was murdered in the style of a Mafia whack with a single shot through the heart. A center hit, the stiff propped in achair as a warning to others not to be a stoolie. The only difference in style is the large caliber round. Some Mafia hits would match that, but usually they prefer a smaller caliber. It resembles Mossad hits in this respect of the large caliber round used. All said and done it was the Mafia under command of the CIA mimicking the Mossad. Both the CIA and the Mossad work together. But in the U.S. it is always the CIA and not the Mossad, except of course when the CIA employs the Mossad, whose superiors actually dictate to the CIA's bosses what they want, see:

http://journals.aol.com/langosh5/fa-37_talon_stealth_fighter/#Entry766

THE GOAL

Concerning the Japanese Soka Gakkai (a Yakusa organization) They seem to have people under their mind control, including, it would by the comments he made to me, a former American serviceman (ret. Marine Col. Dennis Damon), who said that the Japanese should control the world. When I totally disagreed with this person, he first had his gardener - Angel Lunarodriguez, and then Damon himself did, threaten my mother’s and my life.

Also, see http://www.abidemiracles.com/4554.htm On this link's page (hopefully it will not go 404 -- this year, 2007 it did, now see: http://www.holyconservancy.org/4554.htm ) do a 'find' search for SOKA GAKKAI for the related Israeli-Soka Gakkai drug trade connected with this. This is the Zionist gangsterism with their fellow gangsters from throughout the world, in their real colors, always permeated by the CIA and the so-called super patriots who never let the law stand in their way of getting what they want.

Jerusalem, Ecstasy and Mossad-CIA-DIA drug dealers -

http://journals.aol.com/langosh5/police-harassment/#Entry1425


"The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed!"

http://www.redrat.net/BUSH_WAR/DHS.htm

According to Devvy Kidd, "Why A Bankrupt America?" The Federal Reserve pays the Bureau of Engraving & Printing approximately $23 for each 1,000 notes printed. 10,000 $100 notes (one million dollars) would thus cost the Federal Reserve $230. They then secure a pledge of collateral equal to the face value from the U.S. government. The collateral is our land, labor, and assets... collected by their agents, the IRS. By authorizing the Fed to regulate and create money (and thus inflation), Congress gave private banks power to create profits at will.

http://www.redrat.net/BUSH_WAR/cards/ridge_colby.gif

"The implication or latent threat of terror was sufficient to insure that the people would comply." William Colby  



20 Oct 2007 @ 19:37 by jazzolog : My Fault
I knew I should have included a link to Annenberg Public Policy Center...but it's Dana's birthday today and there I was running out of time before her rising time: had to get the coffee ground, kitchen cleaned up and my uniform pressed.

OK, if you were watching Moyers back before the 2004, you became acquainted with Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the Center's director. She presented some of the most pointed insight on what was going down everytime she was on. She's particularly expert on manipulation of the Yankee "free" press. http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/Bio.aspx?myUsername=kjamieson  



21 Oct 2007 @ 06:10 by vaxen : OMG!
Kathleen Hall Jamieson is the Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication and Walter and Leonore Annenberg Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Say that in one breath! Oi! And I thought Colbys' mug was, well, muggish... but this lady really takes the cake! One look at her and...

Well, enough of that Ro! I'm sure her mother loved her.

http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/Downloads/Images/Bios/KHJ_preferred_photo_sept2007.jpg  



21 Oct 2007 @ 10:09 by jazzolog : Mother Love
Vaxen Var lives in Westminster, South Carolina, and describes himself as a freedom researcher, an information architect, and in a brief but legendary appearance at the care2.com network (to paraphrase) as a liberator of all from global enslavement. I support his work and these goals, but sometimes worry about prejudicial comments he makes...especially regarding people and their mothers. For your information, Vax created this face himself and certainly his mother shouldn't be held responsible~~~

http://www.newciv.org/pic/nl/artpic/494/000494-000005.jpg

That is not his mother with him, but our own lovely Heidi Schmidt-Goodgame, one of the only NCNers who ever has seen him---er---in the flesh.

This may also be Vaxen Var, demonstrating Vertebral Axial Decompression (or VAX-D) after which treatment he named himself~~~

http://www.handsoncare.net/pics/vax-d/vax-d2ss.jpg

"Vaxen Var" is a pseudonym.  



21 Oct 2007 @ 16:29 by a-d : Alright.Jazzo, goged'im!... ; )
...an bust some (more) myths while u'r adit! heheheheh.... ( ...nottin' is like a good laugh on an early -cloudy & freezin'- Sunday Morning!... ) /// : )  


21 Oct 2007 @ 17:55 by vaxen : Actually...
the pseudonym comes from "Virtual Address Extension (VAX)" and is the name of an OS (Operating System).

In fact that could be the Operating System that delicious looking blond is using at that primitive console.

The multics geek on the chiropractors table, massage table, or whatever you call the thing upon which he is lying, rather resembles, or reassembles, as the case may be, our perspicatiously wending jazzolog.

So much for the composite case...  



21 Oct 2007 @ 18:01 by bushman : lol
Ive always speculated that history got it wrong, and really those torture devices like the rack were really just early chiropractic tools, lol.  


21 Oct 2007 @ 21:37 by vaxen : Malthus,
oh Malthus, wherefore art Thou... Malthus.
Carpe Libertatem!

Air Force Covers Its Tail With Transparent Feathers

"A senior Air Force official released results of the command-directed investigation stemming from a weapons transfer incident that occurred Aug. 30 when cruise missiles were loaded onto a B-52 Stratofortress at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., and transported to Barksdale AFB, LA....Following the incident, Gen. Ronald Keys, Air Combat Command commander, ordered an immediate investigation to be conducted by Maj. Gen. Douglas Raaberg, ACC director of Air and Space Operations. The investigation lasted six weeks. 'This was a serious error caused by a breakdown of procedural discipline by our Airmen,' General Newton added. 'We're accountable and we reassure the American people that the Air Force standards they expect are being met'."

http://winterpatriot.blogspot.com/2007/10/its-about-that-mutiny-air-force-covers.html

http://bp0.blogger.com/_e3gDaHO8VLQ/Rb1CxnOrtbI/AAAAAAAAAVA/cLkDYkTGZgU/s200/they_dont.jpg

http://www.strike-the-root.com/  



22 Oct 2007 @ 09:09 by jazzolog : My Comment At Winter Patriot
The ol' release-it-on-a-Friday strategy seems to be working. The press in the States barely covered the report at all over the weekend. As usual these days, you have to go to European sites or blogs to find anything about problems here. As for the "mysterious deaths," Rense isn't buying it~~~
http://www.rense.com/general78/minot.htm  



22 Oct 2007 @ 14:39 by vaxen : Well...
that's good that 'rense' isn't buying it but, then, not a lot of people rely on Rense for a whole heck of a lot of stuff. There are a few places, though, that are reliable sources of factual matters.

That Cheney was probably behind it and that this Administration, like all the other Administrations since GOD (Gold, Oil, Drugs) came to power, is simply after 'expansion' by any means possible can hardly be doubted. Thus we now have to endure the Plamegate Smokescreen yet another time around the horn.

Welcome to NAZI America. A real gas...

"...and it points to deeper intrigue -- the very sort of intrigue Wayne Madsen described in his piece of September 24th, "Air Force refused to fly weapons to Middle East theater http://winterparking.blogspot.com/2007/10/wayne-madsen-report-air-force-refused.html ":

"WMR has learned from U.S. and foreign intelligence sources that the B-52 transporting six stealth AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missiles, each armed with a W-80-1 nuclear warhead, on August 30, were destined for the Middle East via Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.

"However, elements of the Air Force, supported by U.S. intelligence agency personnel, successfully revealed the ultimate destination of the nuclear weapons and the mission was aborted due to internal opposition within the Air Force and U.S. Intelligence Community." - Madsen Report  



23 Oct 2007 @ 15:28 by jazzolog : HuffPost Scores One
Arianna put this up only yesterday, and already there are SEVEN pages of comments~~~

Midnight in America: the Mainstreaming of the GOP's Lunatic Fringe
Posted October 22, 2007 | 04:35 PM (EST)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The most significant takeover of the past decade isn't to be found among the telecoms, the big oil companies, or in Silicon Valley. The reconfigured entity is headquartered in Washington, but we can see and hear the results everyday on your television, radio, and computer screen. And America is much the worse for it. I'm talking about the takeover of the Republican Party by its lunatic fringe.

Reagan's GOP has been replaced by the dark, moldering, putrefied party of Bush, Cheney, Rove, Limbaugh, Coulter, and Malkin. Morning in America has given way to Midnight in America.

Of course, there the Republican Party has always had it Jesse Helmses, Spiro Agnews, and Lee Atwaters. But they were the minority, far removed from the mainstream of the Party -- Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, the first George Bush.

But these days it has become impossible to tell where the mainstream stops and the fanatical fringe begins. Just look at what the so-called "mainstream" of the party is endorsing

We have a mainstream on the right that supports torture, that is backing an Attorney General nominee who is agnostic on torture, and that rallies behind a president who refuses to define what the word "torture" means.

A mainstream that supports -- even applauds -- the behavior of Blackwater thugs.

A mainstream that continues to back the White House's delusions about Iraq at the expense of our military, our treasure, our safety, and our standing in the world.

A mainstream that supports the gutting of our civil liberties.

So, it can no longer be denied: the right wing lunatics are running the Republican asylum.

These days, the only thing that separates the RNC and Rush Limbaugh is a prescription for OxyContin.

The latest evidence: the ugly smear campaign mounted against 12-year-old brain injury survivor Graeme Frost and his family. This new-low-in-messenger-killing wasn't just the doing of the toxic talk radio, rabble-rousing right; it was Senator Mitch McConnell's office pulling together the talking points. And then lying about its involvement when exposed.

And notice the dearth of Republicans willing to distance themselves from the Swiftboating of a 12-year-old boy - a boy who has worked diligently to make a remarkable recovery from his devastating injuries, supported by a loving, hardworking, intact family. Aren't those some of the basic core values the GOP used to stand for?

Despite the fanatical right's takeover of the Republican Party, the traditional media -- with its obsession with "balance" and its pathological devotion to the idea that truth is always found in the middle -- has failed to properly document the metamorphosis. So much easier to see everything that's happening in American politics through the lens of right versus left.

Making matters worse, today's Democrats continue to tread lightly when it comes to holding accountable the fanatics running the GOP. Time and time again, the Democratic leadership allows itself to get played, run over, or distracted. Republicans want to deflect discussion of the war by arguing over newspaper ads and radio comments? Okay, Reid and Pelosi are game. Republicans want to avoid talking about children without healthcare by crying about Pete Stark's tough assessment of the president? Sure, here comes a Pelosi reprimand.

Democrats are in the majority today because their positions are in line with mainstream America. But if the lunatic fringe group now known as the Republican Party is to be stopped in its efforts to radically remake this country, the Democrats are going to have to step up and defend the mainstream that elected them.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/midnight-in-america-the-_b_69415.html?view=screen

LOVE that line about the RNC, Limbaugh and OxyContin.  



23 Oct 2007 @ 18:14 by vaxen : Democrats? Republicans?
I was going to work this up into an article but decided to just sack the quarterback instead... it's a hodge podge of stuff but look between the lines and goto the sites. I watched the 60 minutes interview by Katie Couric with Valerie Plame and not one friggin mention of Iran was made! It was scrubbed clean! The Democrats? Don't forget that it was Clinton who opend the door to using outsourced Mercenaries, in Kosovo, and that these 'two parties are simply two sides of the very same coin! They ALL must go! Every damned one.

"But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people. . . This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution."

~ John Adams to Hezekiah Niles, 1818

"Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand" : Bodie Thoene

"Our job this day is to become part of the answer to the world's immense and protracted suffering rather than continuing our ancient task of being part of the difficulty.": Hugh Prather - Author, minister


A National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book
Jeffrey T. Richelson, Editor

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB54/

---

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/20/plames-cia-job-was-to-stop-iran-from-obtaining-nukes/

An interesting quote:

Couric: “Do you think President Bush was in on this?”

Plame: “I don’t know about that, but I, like most other Americans saw President Bush say on TV that he would fire anyone from his administration found to be involved in the leak of my name. It turns out, the president is not a man of his word.”

http://guntotingliberal.com/?p=2034

Valery at Huffington:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/valerie-plame-wilson/finally-telling-my-story_b_69296.html

Finally Telling My Story
Valerie Plame Wilson

I'm Valerie Plame Wilson and I'm excited to be here and blog about my book Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House, which goes on sale Monday, Oct 22. When my publisher sent me the finished copy earlier this week, it was thrilling. It felt like a new chapter (forgive the pun) has begun on the journey that has taken some incredible twists and turns since July 14, 2003, when my covert identity was exposed and ended a career that I loved. I've written honestly about my life: why I went to work for the CIA, my paramilitary training, the sort of operations we developed and ran to find intelligence on Iraq's alleged WMD programs in the run up to the war, as well as personal information, such as my battle with postpartum depression and the difficulties I had going from a private to a public persona literally overnight. My publisher, Simon and Schuster, decided to print the blacked out redactions demanded by the CIA and hopefully those passages (or lack thereof) speak for themselves and the extent to which the CIA thought the material in the book was classified.

Watching myself on 60 Minutes was surreal -- who can ever get used to seeing themselves on TV? I guess the book tour has really started and it will be a crazy week ahead. After four and a half years and everyone else in world talking about me, it feels good to finally be able to tell my story myself. It's a story about the consequences of speaking truth to power and the critical importance of holding our government to account for its words and deeds. I'm off to bed, because I have an early wakeup call tomorrow to do the Today Show. I look forward to sharing my reactions and stories with you from the road over the next few days. I will be posting throughout the week and appreciate your comments and support.

===

CIA Censors My Book: Personal Payback or Protecting National Security?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/valerie-plame-wilson/cia-censors-my-book-pers_b_69464.html

What hasn't been discussed in any depth yet is the full story of how the CIA fought to censor large portions of my book by maintaining that I can not acknowledge my Agency affiliation prior to January 2002, although so much about my career is already in the public domain. I believe that this decision by the Agency has nothing to do with protecting national security, and everything to do with further punitive action against me and a way to demean or diminish me and my responsibilities at the CIA.

For those who wish to know more about the ongoing court battle with CIA over this issue of how long I may say I served my country and accompanying censorship issues, please visit a website set up by my lawyers for that purpose: www.fairgameplame.com. It is a very user-friendly site with all the information necessary to have a better understanding of the First Amendment fight behind this book.

:A comment to Valeries' post at Huffington (Go there for the full post)

Spookcatcher (See profile | I'm a fan of Spookcatcher)
The Bush Administration Fascist organization's hand picked puppet General Hayden (on Rose's PBS broadcast as I write this) is the poster boy for propaganda. He actually said on air: the secret government is more important than any other part of Our Governement. What Ms. Plame and her husband did to serve in the Country's interest are what real heroes do. The fact that the CIA did not "out" Cheney shows the completeness and the complexity of the corruption of power that is so deeply imbedded into our Government and stretches all through the fabric of our society. The CIA is not accountable to any cabinet position and should be completely dismantled. George Tenet began the sabotage and set up the apparatus of deceit for 9/11 during the Clinton Administration, utilized General Colon Powell, and was Awarded by Our Traitor President George Bush. General Hayden should be arrested by the Joint Chiefs and stripped of his rank for wearing our uniform while obeying orders taken to dismantle and usurp the U.S. Constitution while under Oath, both under his position to Negroponte, and especially as the lap dog he is now as CIA Director.

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Valerie Plame Wilson and the Ultimate Betrayal »

By Larry Johnson on October 21, 2007 at 8:50 PM in Current Affairs | 78 Comments

[UPDATE: On Larry King Live tonight we learned that George Tenet told Larry that he has the highest regard for Valerie (or some crap like that, I’ll pull the transcript). Isn’t that precious? And what did the asshole do to show support or solidarity for Val when it might have made a difference? ZERO, ZIP, NADA. Tenet, you are despicable. Also, www.fairgameplame.com is up and running.]

Valerie’s problem is her decency and humanity. She has reasons most Americans don’t know to be really angry with George Bush and George Tenet but she has contained her rage. In a new tasty nugget in her book, Fair Game, she gives some details on the 2004 Al Qaeda threat to kill her. The response of the Administration, or more accurately, the lack of any response, is enough to make the Pope curse. What the Bush Administration failed to do and what George Tenet, CIA Director, failed to do, goes beyond cowardice.

What am I talking about? In 2004 the FBI received intelligence that Al Qaeda hit teams were enroute to the United States to kill Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and Valerie Plame. The FBI informed Valerie of this threat. This was just more “good” news piled on the fact that her intelligence career was in shambles, that intelligence assets she had recruited/managed were destroyed, and that she was unable to rebut publicly false and malicious smears of her character and reputation by a bunch of partisan Republican hacks. As the mother of two pre-school children, her first thoughts were about protecting her kids. She took the threat seriously and asked for help.

And

Valerie Plame Wilson Speaks Muzzled »

By Larry Johnson on October 19, 2007 at 10:36 PM in Current Affairs | 55 Comments

Four years and three months after waking up on a Sunday morning and learning that her career as a clandestine intelligence officer was over because of a stupid column by Robert Novak, Valerie Plame Wilson finally gets to meet the public and tell some of her story.

Sunday night she appears on 60 Minutes, and kicks off a book tour that will start Monday morning on the Today Show and include stops at Larry King Live and the Daily Show. Unfortunately, Val cannot be totally forthcoming. I am not talking about revealing sources or methods that would compromise intelligence operations. She is a solid professional and would never entertain such nonsense. But the CIA succeeded in getting a Federal judge to block Val from admitting that she started working with the CIA in September of 1985.

Both above from:
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/

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So when Joe Wilson started making a stink about faulty intel, you can bet that those whose raison d'etre had been spreading faulty intel would move mountains to discredit him. This is a key point because, in the end, Plamegate isn't about the outing of Valerie Plame or the sliming of Joe Wilson. It's about Iraq and the White House's attempt to slam the door on questions about the corrupted intelligence that was used to lead us into a disastrous war. Intel that Fleitz and Bolton played a key role in shaping.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/plamegate-the-john-bolto_b_7648.html

Oh, and remember those six nukes? Only 5 were recovered. Where is the sixth? Can't you just feel that 'false flag operation' flapping in the breeze of the Plamegate Smokescreen?

There is a reason they are using such a photogenic damsel in the Plame Ops.  



23 Oct 2007 @ 18:19 by quinty : Speaking of “mainstream”
the far right likes to perceive itself as the "mainstream" nowadays.

Yes, they have come a long way. The John Birchers were once considered "lunatic fringe." Barry Goldwater was defeated in 1964 for being too "extreme." Goldwater, today, appears cool, sensible, and clear eyed compared to the contemporary right. How far have we sunk?

They will never stop. We know that. They have more energy, persistence, and drive than the rest of us. (I'll leave who the "rest of us" are a blank.) They will keep coming back until they get God in the schools and sink Roe v. Wade.

Bush’s debacle, unfortunately, has not discredited them. They merely see Bush as an incompetent who strayed from true Conservative values. The Christian right is actually angry at Bush for not doing enough for them. And many Republicans thinks he betrayed them on the “illegal immigrant” issue.

So they are reforming, searching for a candidate. It appears, thank god, Thompson is such a bozo that he may not have a chance. VP perhaps? Though the others aren’t much better. But Thompson is the real deal, all the far right attributes tied up into one. Fortunately, he's old, and isn't as handsome as he once was. If he had a Reaganesque charisma he would be a shoe in. The right constantly attacks Hollywood leftists. They love actors though for president. When the pundits get bored they begin to talk about who "appears" presidential. But Thompson is low in energy, a little old, and generally behind the curve. He didn't even know much about the Schiavo case.

I think Huffington was rather easy on these people. Extremely easy. She must not listen to rightwing talk radio. By the way, HR 2905 will be coming up for a vote. If passed, it will probably sink the Fairness Doctrine.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-2905  



23 Oct 2007 @ 20:45 by vaxen : Fairness Doctrine?
There is NO fairness in the 'Fairness Doctrine!' It's all icing on a very ugly 'yellow cake.' The whole lot of them need to be tossed out once and for all! They are all up to their eyeballs in corruption and under the table nuclear arms deals which is the real import of 'plame gate!' Here is a link, if you want to go beyond the 'shpittle' of who's gonna be nominated for what...

A teaser then the link:

Call it Iraq-Plamegate version 1.2.

Valerie Plame and Sibel Edmonds…

Mathieu Verboud: But let me go back to how we found about a key point in Sibel’s case : its connection to the Plame case. Around May 2005, we discovered Plame’s story in a Vanity Fair article. We knew nothing about it. We learnt that Plame was Ambassador Wilson’s wife. But a few months later, we also learnt that she had been working in counter-proliferation at the CIA. And that looked odd to us. After Barlow in the 80s, then Sibel, another U.S intelligence officer, another public servant knowledgable about nuclear black market was facing the intimidation tactics from the government. Could that just be coïncidence? Particularly since Grossman was publicly known to be involved in the Plame case along with… guess whom? Steve Hadley! The man who sealed Barlow’s fate.

In November 2005, we learnt from the Turkish paper Hurriyet that Plame was investigating Turkey, but not only that: she was investigating the ATC! Our intuition had proved right.

Later, in April 2006, we confronted Sibel with this set of facts and ask her to go on the record. Sibel’s line about Plame and Brewster Jennings is just gold. She said: "During my time at the FBI, I never heard the name Valerie Plame - but if you are asking me about Brewster Jennings, that's another story, a story that I cannot comment on because I cannot talk about anything that I did at the FBI - and the targets and the details of the investigations." The message is crystal clear: there are mentions of Brewster Jennings on the wiretaps! Praises to Sibel to be so smart in front of a camera.

Coming back to Grossman, exposing his role would have been interesting for the film, but the guy being what he is, there was no way that he would have given an interview if we had brought up any kind of charges. So we decided to just let him talk, give us his vision of Turkey. This man has nerves! Turkey, for example, was known to him as being a transit point for drugs but not as the biggest opium processing country in the world. In his always soft manners, he repeatedly tried to make us look like we had ‘caricatural views’ of Turkey.

Then we tested him - we asked him about Valerie Plame - and it was amazing to see his face change! He had the nerves to say that he didn’t know anything about Valerie Plame, or about Brewster Jennings - which is simply false! As mentioned earlier, his name had already appeared publicly in the Valerie Plame's case! Anyway, we didn't point out to that simple fact and fended off.

Next, we just mentioned that there was this little woman of Turkish origin whose name was mentioned in an article in Vanity Fair speaking about FBI and Turkey… His face changed again, and he came up with this answer: "Vanity Fair? I am afraid it is not a magazine I read!" We then asked him directly about Sibel Edmonds and he said that he didn't know anything about her. Even the name was "unfamiliar".

http://sibeledmonds.blogspot.com/2006/10/verboud-interview-part-5-valerie-plame.html

Actually I'd call it 'Iran Gate 7.07'

So much for Nigers' yellow cake. Maybe the real reason all those kiddies in Niger are starving? Now Doctors Without Borders is trying to get a version of peanut butter into their diets and asking the American Taxpayers to support it... to help all the little kiddies that are starving, in Niger, to a chance in life. Sheeeeeeyit!  



23 Oct 2007 @ 23:34 by a-d : Here's something that could
explain "a few Things"...methinks... ;o http://www.alternet.org/story/15935?page=entire  


24 Oct 2007 @ 06:50 by vaxen : Nous Means Mind:
The Pakistanis bought a yellow cake from Africa (Probably Niger) and iced it according to lessons learned from their good friend America. The paricular kind of icing leaves a tell tale trace, an 'aftertaste' in the mouth if you will. It was thought that Saddam, who was in love with Astarte (Though she hated him) bought a bit of yellow cake from Africa, too, in order to celebrate his beloved Astartes birthday with. Kaboom, kaboom! But... he didn't get the cake! The African baker just did not trust Saddam with such an important, and secret, mix... so, no cake for Saddam.

But, because of the tell tale after taste the icing leaves in the mouth, it was found - by a very intrepid soul - that actually the yellow cake the African baker sold to Pakistan (He trusted them cause they were friends of a friend of his...America!) was sold to Iran by Americas Pakistani friends!

Yahoo! Bhutto returns to an explosive beginning. Heh! Willon and Plame? Unh hunh... CIA? Unh hunh... dirty tricks? Unh hunh... Fun and Games? Unh hunh.

CIA is a master at this game, never doubt that. They are not as stupid as their children, the media et al, would like you to believe.

A hall of mirrors. The Wizard of OZ? George the elder.

“I’m the commander, see? I don’t need to explain — I do not need to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being president." --- George the lesser.  



18 Sep 2008 @ 14:02 by Frank Montalvo @70.128.150.223 : who checks Factcheck?
read about the Palin and the librarian tif and never heard a word from the librarian's point of view without even a Factcheck caveat. Is it wise to give only one side and never caution the reader as to why that is?  


20 Sep 2008 @ 10:30 by jazzolog : Let FactCheck Check You
FactCheck is posting a couple items everyday now, with campaigns in final swing. http://factcheck.org/ While a bit too moderate and sensible for my frantic pace, it does provide ammunition against all the spin. You can ask questions there and also subscribe to alerts of all the posts.  


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