Sunday, November 04, 2007

If a tree fell in the forest ...

... and no one was there to hear it, did it really make a sound?

Have we become so inured to the vagaries of this administration that episodes of the caliber we have witnessed the past couple of weeks don't even cause a ripple?


That a government agency (FEMA) would purposely and without guilt fabricate a news conference with the express purpose of misleading the public is bad enough (we would expect no less of FEMA). That the latest "Mouth of Sauron", White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, would pass it off as an "error in judgement", is priceless. Despite the pretty face, she is the embodiment of evil and makes me almost long for the days of Tony Snow and Ari Fleischer.

On another day, the State Department chose to give blanket immunity to Blackwater guards who were involved in the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians, effectively protecting those guilty from prosecution. It was said that the government did this so as to "get to the bottom" of the episode. A ludicrous explanation, akin to giving a serial killer immunity from prosecution so as to find out why he killed.

Yet another occasion saw the Department of Justice Voting Rights Chief, John Tanner, commenting that "minorities don't become elderly the way white people do: They die first." An unfortunate and uninformed opinion not said in private or off-the-cuff, but repeatedly to conferences of minorities. He used his sharp analytical skills to argue that Voter ID requirements will actually hurt whites more than blacks.

Now, most people, when confronted on such an idiotic remark, would recant or apologize. But, that's not what this administration does. When faced with overwhelming evidence of guilt, they will positively refuse to admit any culpability.

These episodes would be humorous if they weren't completely representative of the last 7 years. You could be sitting outside on a clear day and comment the sky was blue and these jokers would hire people to lie to you and tell you the sky was purple. When you confronted those people, they'd wouldn't admit it was blue but would apologize for you being offended by them calling it purple. Then everyone involved would get a raise and a promotion. It's Machiavellian and Orwellian all at once.



"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell


"Politics have no relation to morals." -- Niccolo Machiavelli

3 comments:

wstachour said...

The thing that drives me crazy is that this strategy still works for them. They don't come clean about ANYTHING, they admit to no mistakes, they acknowledge no failure or backsliding, and our press does not seem able to hold their feet to the fire.

You're right that one scandal after another passes in front of us, but none of them stick. So in a sense it's a brilliant strategy: don't admit to anything, stick to the party line, deflect all questions and criticism.

This is exactly what Hitler did, and it worked for him as well.

Scott said...

Yes, so what do we do about all this?

dbackdad said...

"Yes, so what do we do about all this?" -- Well, if we intend on staying in this country, then we probably do what we have been doing -- write about it, talk to others about it, encourage and support the candidates that we think can change it (in your case, Paul). If we don't believe that those things can change anything, then we're already screwed.