President of Fabricated Crises (Harold Meyerson in the Washington Post)

[DemoTex]

Some presidents make the history books by managing crises. Lincoln had Fort Sumter, Roosevelt had the Depression and Pearl Harbor, and Kennedy had the missiles in Cuba. George W. Bush, of course, had Sept. 11, and for a while thereafter -- through the overthrow of the Taliban -- he earned his page in history, too.

But when historians look back at the Bush presidency, they're more likely to note that what sets Bush apart is not the crises he managed but the crises he fabricated. The fabricated crisis is the hallmark of the Bush presidency. To attain goals that he had set for himself before he took office -- the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the privatization of Social Security -- he concocted crises where there were none.

So Iraq became a clear and present danger to American hearths and homes, bristling with weapons of mass destruction, a nuclear attack just waiting to happen. And now, this week, the president is embarking on his second great scare campaign, this one to convince the American people that Social Security will collapse and that the only remedy is to cut benefits and redirect resources into private accounts. (More ..)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A2304-2005Jan11?language=printer

Excellent piece! Must read. Another Meyerson zinger: In Bushland, it's always time to fabricate a crisis.

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Big BIG kick.

[blm]

2. Demo, send the article to your local paper's editorial manager.

Request they print this column.

[DemoTex]

3. Great idea.

I'll do it.

[blm]

5. I hope others do, too. It's a good tactic.

II sent it immediately after reading it on another thread.

It's good to send it to shows like Hardball and Inside Politics, too. Just in case you get an honest production asst. there who sees it.

[Catfight]

4. Bush tells BIG TEXAS lies for the times. yawn....n/t

[indepat]

6. The bedrock of almost every policy initiative and action hinges on

fabrication that is sold by duplicitious, disingenuous, and sanctimonious mendacity.

[prodigal_green]

7. When even liberal friends of mine who believed the weapons scam ask me

how I knew the Chimp was lying, I had to haul out the old gem, "because his lips are moving." There is no surer bet on the planet that whatever he says, the opposite is true.