Swifties Linked to LINCOLN GROUP (Pentagon Iraq "Happy News" contractors)

[emulatorloo]

Hope this isn't a dupe -- kinda interesting isn't it?

http://www.politicalcortex.com/story/2005/12/19/143515/50

<snip>


Pentagon Contractors Attacked Kerry
By The Propagandist
12/20/2005 02:51:17 PM EST
Keywords: propaganda, lies, spin, political, jason galde, media, PR

<snip>

In an in-depth investigation by Andrew Buncombe this weekend, a link was discovered between the Lincoln Group and the intense propaganda smear campaign that sunk John Kerry's bid for presidential election.


The Lincoln Group has come under intense public scrutiny for planting pro-government propaganda inside Iraqi newspapers recently. According to the article, "Lincoln Group also lists as a partner the Virginia-based private intelligence group WCV3 Security. Last year that company's executive vice-president took unpaid leave to produce Stolen Honour: Wounds That Never Heal, a film that, at a critical time in the presidential election campaign, condemned the Democrat John Kerry and questioned his version of events in Vietnam."
The Lincoln Group has strong Republican ties. It was handed $100 million dollars by the U.S. Defense Department for executing a propaganda campaign in Iraq despite the fact that it is run by a thirty year old businessman with zero P.R. or Intelligence experience.

<snip>

[Loonman]

1. Paid perjurers, huh?

Not surprising.

[NanceGreggs]

2. It figures!

A thirty year old businessman with zero P.R. or Intelligence experience, handed money (indirectly, of course) by a fifty-seven year old pResident with zero intelligence.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. I'd agree, but we make a mistake if we think bush is dumb

He is not. He is sly, power-hungry and able to keep his base alive.
he is evil, I will grant you that, but dumb? no.

Yeah, he talks like a fool, but a lot of that is a put up job.

[NanceGreggs]

7. I respectfully disagree ...

GBW grew up in a family with wealth, political power and influence. He had access to the best education money could buy, and ran businesses that brought him into constant contact with many brilliant and intelligent people.

And he still can't read, nor speak the English language. He couldn't make a go of an OIL business in Texas! He attended both Yale and Harvard, but he honestly thinks 'strategery' is a word.

He is evil, lazy, and totally self-serving in everything he's ever done.

It's the people around him who are smart (like Cheney and Rove), but Bush is stupid. And that's exactly why they wanted him to be president -- because stupid people are so easily manipulated.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. I agree with every one of your points, but I don't think we differ.

He is evil, lazy, and totally self-serving, and he does find smart assholes to work for him.
He has also confounded the US Reps and senators, purportedly democrats, for 4.5 years. That is not dumb, that is cagey and craven, manipulative and devious.

I cannot stand to watch any talk of his, but for different reasons. He has been effective in destroying our constitution - a dummy could not accomplish that, not even with the best of help.

[NanceGreggs]

18. I think we agree more than we disagree ...

But I will never be convinced that this Idiot has an iota of intelligence. It doesn't take intellect to destroy our country the way he's destroyed it. It takes small-mindedness, laziness, a massive ego -- things he has in spades. But intellect? Not buying it.

This is the man who sat in a kindergarten class after being told the country was under attack -- he didn't move until someone came in and physically led him away. He then stopped for a photo-op. Does that sound like the actions of a 'thinking man' to you?

I'm sticking to my guns on this one -- as I always do when the topic is discussed. Bush may be many, many things -- but SMART is not one of them. Again, that is why, IMHO, Cheney and the Neo-Cons supported his bid for President -- they needed someone too dumb to get in the way of their own plans, and too easily led to start coming up with his own ideas in place of theirs.

He's a dummy -- a fact which has been proven time and time again.

[blm]

14. He's dumb on policy and governance and clever as a political hitman

because that is what he did for over 30 years pulling dirty tricks with Lee Atwater and Karl Rove.

That's the biggest part of Bush's resume, but the press completely underplayed it or didn't speak of it at all.

[speedoo]

22. I think you nailed it.

The Coward is indeed a crafty political hack, like Rove and his mentor Atwater. I don't believe the Coward is particularly intelligent, but he does know how to engage in the dirty side of politics.

The really stupid people are those who still think he's good for the USA.

[Ian David]

3. Was any of the anti-Kerry smear campaign paid for with tax dollars? n/t

[blm]

12. Probably as kickback dollars - hard to find on the books.

.

[me b zola]

5. I always wondered how they were so well funded

100 million dollars will buy a lot of smear. :grr:

[EC]

6. I knew I saw that name before - in a google search last year

or a Whosit check...couldn't remember, but I did know I heard of them before...

[donkeyotay]

8. The Cunningham scandal also points to GOP-CIA round tripping ala Enron

Lots of Homeland money seems to be going to new-start contractors who kick back a few bucks to the GOP. Now we have more proof that the privatized defense-intelligence industry is using their skills to manipulate our elections. Nice. Really. No problem here. Freedom is on the march.

[emulatorloo]

10. I am not above kicking my own thread n/t

:kick:

[TayTay]

11. This is disgusting.

If we had an honest and responsbile Congress, there would be hearing over this possible mis-use of government funds. This is just amazing.

[sabra]

13. wow just wow!

k & r.

[Just Me]

15. So, more government-sponsored propaganda, huh?

In order to taint an election, no less?

Wouldn't that constitute some form of conspiracy to misappropriate federal funds?

[Snotcicles]

16. If I find out some of my tax dollars went to help destroy Kerry's

campaign I want someones head on a platter.

[emulatorloo]

19. more likely pentagon gig was a "reward"

and swiftie stuff funded by Texas GOP money.

but who knows any more?

[ClayZ]

17. Disgusting!

[BrotherBuzz]

20. Sal Russo (Move America Forward) is playing the same game

Follow the money. DU detectives need to jump on this glob of pond scum and expose him for what he is..

Bill Berkowitz
July 23, 2005

At Russo Marsh & Rogers the "truth" is always on tour


Helping Move America Forward report the good news from its "Truth Tour" in Iraq, and working on PR for the Kurdistan Regional Government, has given the California-based firm an opportunity to shape public opinion one story at a time

The so-called "war on terrorism" has been good to Russo Marsh & Rogers (RM&R), the Sacramento, California-based conservative lobbying and public relations firm. These days, it has a lot on its plate, including the recently completed "Truth Tour," and a new contract with the Kurdistan Regional Government.

The "Truth Tour" -- a seven-day carefully calibrated trip to Iraq by a group of conservative talk-show hosts -- was intended to spread the "good" news about what is happening on the ground. The tour was organized by Move America Forward (MAF - website), an organization that, according to the Washington Post, owes much of its existence to the good offices of Russo Marsh & Rogers.

SpinWatch reported that the "Truth Tour" was also in part sponsored by "the newly created Office of Media Outreach, a taxpayer-funded publicity arm of the Department of Defense."

According to an entry at SourceWatch, a project of the Center for Media & Democracy (website), in June 2004, RM&R "formed a front organization called Move America Forward… 'to stand up and support the brave men and women of our Armed Forces.'" Sal Russo, who began his political career as a special assistant to then-California Governor Ronald Reagan in the late 1960s and who later founded his own political consulting firm called California Capitol Consultants in 1976, is a member of Move America Forward's board of directors and is listed as "Chief Strategist" at the MAF web site.

<more>

http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=78

[Supersedeas]

21. * wouldn't dare give a political campaign cronie a cushy Defense contract

[progressoid]

23. A hundred million bucks....F___ an A!