Clipmarks | jklugman's 'deception' clips

John McCain, Man of Dishonor

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 14:18:09 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

McCain does it again: attacks Obama for proposing to cut a defense program that McCain himself proposed to kill.

Wait! It gets worse! The program in question is called Future Combat Systems. So McCain tried a little bit of lying-by-punning:

John McCain is launching a new line of attack against Barack Obama, criticizing his rival for saying Sunday that he would buck his own party by calling for an increase in the size of the U.S. military.

“Of course, now he wants to increase it,” McCain told an audience in Lee’s Summit, Missouri Monday. “But during the primary he told a liberal advocacy group that he’d cut defense spending by tens of billions of dollars. He promised them he would, quote, ‘slow our development of future combat systems.’”

See? Obama's opposition to a particular piece of Army pork gets turned into a desire to slow all progress in defense technology, simply by dropping the capital letters.

Tags: mark kleiman, john mccain, barack obama, hypocrisy, deception, future combat systems

Lawyers accuse judge of lying, bungling Roman Polanski case

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 19:57:36 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: The famous film director Roman Polanski fled the US in 1977 because he was charged for statutory rape. Twenty years later, Polanski's lawyer and prosecutors made a deal that would have allowed Polanski to return to the US. Polanski refused the deal because the judge wanted the proceedings televised. Fast forward to now, when HBO releases its Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired documentary which contains this little tidbit. The judge calls the story completely fabricated. Both the defense and prosecuting attorney go on the record calling the judge a liar.

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

The original defense and prosecuting attorney in the Roman Polanski trial took the unusual step Wednesday of issuing a joint statement that accused a longtime Los Angeles Superior Court judge of lying, and continuing the judicial bungling that has marked the sex scandal since 1977.

Former District Atty. Roger Gunson, the prosecutor in the Polanski case, and Douglas Dalton, the film director's defense attorney, said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler discussed a deal in 1997 that would allow the director back into the country with the possibility of no jail time. During that meeting, Dalton said in the statement, Fidler made the offer contingent upon the proceedings being televised.

Tags: roman polanski, film, larry paul fidler, deception, crime

Bush breaks promise to help military families

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 15:11:14 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

President Bush drew great applause during his State of the Union address last month when he called on Congress to allow U.S. troops to transfer their unused education benefits to family members. "Our military families serve our nation, they inspire our nation, and tonight our nation honors them," he said.

A week later, however, when Bush submitted his $3.1 trillion federal budget to Congress, he included no funding for such an initiative, which government analysts calculate could cost $1 billion to $2 billion annually.

Tags: bush administration, promises, deception, military

Senators tried to suppress CIA testimony in Plame affair

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 19:22:42 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Jim Marcinkowski is a former CIA official who trained with Valerie Plame. He wanted to testify before Senate committees about the exposure of Plame. After he testified before the Republican-led Senate Select Intelligence committee, Pat Roberts declared his testimony secret, so he couldn't testify before the Democratic Policy Committee.

Marcinkowski, the lawyer and deputy city attorney, was stunned. "I sat on the park bench, in a daze. I didn't know what the hell to do. Now it hits me, that is why the Senate Select Intelligence Committee had scheduled their testimony for the day before the Senate Democratic public hearing. Until that happened we didn't hear shit from the Senate Select Intelligence Committee. They slapped the secrecy thing on it, that was their intention," to try to prevent Valerie's CIA colleagues from testifying publicly about what had happened to her, and why it was a betrayal of everyone in the CIA.

Clip Source: www.warandpiece.com

Marcinkowski told the senators that the exposure of Plame by her own government was "unprecedented. It was our classmate. We had kept a secret for eighteen years. And we were all betrayed by this White House." Marcinkowski had prepared a statement to deliver in open session before the Senate Democratic Policy committee the next day. "I also said she was covert, and I knew it. And they were taking it very seriously."

After he finished with his testimony and the senators' questions, Marcinkowski went out the back door of the building and walked over to a little park between the Senate office building and Union Station. He sat down to think about what had just happened and his cell phone rang. It was Tom Daschle's staffer, who was setting up the hearing for the next day's Democratic Policy Committee meeting. "And she told me, ‘Jim, Pat Roberts just declared all your testimony to be secret. I don't know what you are planning on saying tomorrow, but he declared it secret.'"

Tags: cia, jim marcinkowski, pat roberts, republicans, senate, deception, secrecy, plame-affair

Americans can't trust General Petraeus

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 18:17:00 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Blogger Glenn Greenwald has compiled a list of Daivd Petraeus' optimistic portrayals of our progress in Iraq, spanning from late 2003 to, well, last Wednesday, when he was interviewed by Republican commentator Hugh Hewitt.

Lawrence Korb also notes that Petraeus wrote an op-ed six weeks before the 2004 Presidential election talking about how great a job we were doing training Iraqis..

Clip Source: www.salon.com

But Petraeus in particular has demonstrated that his statements merit particularly potent scrutiny. So many of the misleading government claims over the past several years about The Great Victory we are Achieving in Iraq have been based upon optimistic claims from Petraeus that turned out to be highly questionable, to put it generously.

Tags: david petraeus, deception, iraq, war

Dunkin' Donuts tries to squirm out of NYC menu requirements

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 18:17:41 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: consumerist.com

The result is hilarious. From NEW YORK STATE RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION VS NEW YORK CITY BOARD OF HEALTH:

Dunkin' Donuts submitted a sample menu board in an attempt to demonstrate that calorie information would not fit along with price information. From that sample, the Department's director of graphics produced a replica of the menu board with comparable fonts and layout to demonstrate that calories could be listed easily and visibly, as shown in the illustrations below, and in Mr. Krueger's declaration.. These modifications, as well as the earlier examples, provide clear evidence that calorie listings required by the regulations are feasible to implement with basic graphic design techniques.

Dunkin' Donut's sample menu is on the left, NYC's on the right.

Tags: free-market, nyc, dunkin' donuts, corporate-malfeasance, deception

Rumsfeld: I Have Never Painted A Rosy Picture About Iraq

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 06:03:58 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Wrong.

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

Rumsfeld: ‘I Have Never Painted A Rosy Picture’ About Iraq

Here’s just a few of the “overly optimistic” comments made by Rumsfeld (and no, we did not have a “dickens of a time” finding them):

Dec. 18, 2002: KING: What’s the current situation in Afghanistan? RUMSFELD: It is encouraging. They have elected a government through the Loya Jirga process. The Taliban are gone. The al Qaeda are gone.

Feb. 7, 2003: “It is unknowable how long that conflict [the war in Iraq] will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.”

Feb. 20 2003: “‘Do you expect the invasion, if it comes, to be welcomed by the majority of the civilian population of Iraq?’ Jim Lehrer asked the defense secretary on PBS’ The News Hour. ‘There is no question but that they would be welcomed,’ Rumsfeld replied, referring to American forces.”

Mar. 30, 2003: “It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.”

Tags: donald rumsfeld, deception, iraq, afghanistan, incompetence

How Republican Senators broke their promise to investigate Iraq intelligence

Sun, 27 May 2007 02:31:10 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks:

First Roberts said publicly that he'd "try" to have Phase II available to the public before the 2004 election. He didn't. Roberts then gave his word, in writing, that members of the Senate Intelligence Committee would have a draft report on controversial "public statements" from administration officials. That didn't happen either.Then Roberts indicated that he might just give up on the second part of the investigation altogether, because, he argued, there was nothing left to learn.

Under pressure to release Phase II before the 2006 elections, Roberts agreed to release subparts of the report, which documented...nothing about the White House's mistakes.

One reason why we should be skeptical of Republican reports from the Senate Intelligence Committee. In this instance, they were shamefully negligent in overseeing the executive branch.

Clip Source: www.talkingpointsmemo.com

it may seem odd that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is just now, in mid-2007, producing a report on the White House ignoring warnings about Iraq in 2003. The war is already in its fifth year. Where has this information been? And wouldn't it have been a lot useful before, say, before the 2004 presidential election?

With the 2004 presidential election looming, and Bush's chances for a second term in doubt, then-Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) decided to split the report in two -- Phase I would document how wrong the intelligence community was (which was released quickly), while Phase II would report on how the White House used/misused/abused the available information.

And that's when the stonewalling began.

Tags: promises, republicans, senate, iraq, deception, bush administration

Wolfowitz lied about disclosing gf's promotion & raise

Mon, 07 May 2007 18:29:41 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: www.ft.com

Paul Wolfowitz yesterday backed away from earlier claims that the World Bank's ethics committee had been kept informed of his handling of the pay and promotion of a colleague with whom he was romantically involved.

The president of the bank said in a letter to a special committee investigatingallegations against himthat earlier assertions that the bank's board was kept informed referred to an anonymous e-mail it had been sent by an angry member of staff.

The letter sent yesterday appeared aimed at least in part at avoiding a finding that Mr Wolfowitz and his advisers had attempted to cover up their role in the affair.

Tags: paul wolfowitz, deception, world bank

White House backtracking on temporary surge

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 22:12:15 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks:

Basra, Iraq (AHN)-During a news conference with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the top U.S. commander in Iraq Gen. George Casey estimated that the 21,500 additional U.S. troops sent to Iraq will only need to stay until around late summer.[1]

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON, April 27 — The Bush administration will not try to assess whether the troop increase in Iraq is producing signs of political progress or greater security until September, and many of Mr. Bush’s top advisers now anticipate that any gains by then will be limited, according to senior administration officials.

In interviews over the past week, the officials made clear that the White House is gradually scaling back its expectations for the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. The timelines they are now discussing suggest that the White House may maintain the increased numbers of American troops in Iraq well into next year.

Tags: iraq, bush administration, promises, deception, fubar

Pat Tillman's Death: A Look Back in Time

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 20:14:01 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: "Tillman's mother says:

'"The Army used him. They knew right away he was killed by fratricide and used him for their own purposes to promote the war, to get sympathy for the war, for five weeks.'"

Read the whole blog entry for Jeralyn Merritt's argument that the military covered up the circumstances of Tillman's death to counter-act the bad news coming out of Iraq (yes, I know Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan).

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Jeralyn Merritt

Bio

Pat Tillman's Death : A Look Back in Time (11 comments )

The Inspector General of the Pentagon has asked the army to open a criminal investigation into Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan.

The request, which came out of the inspector general's review of four previous investigations of the April 22, 2004, shooting, will likely lead investigators from the Army Criminal Investigation Command to return to Afghanistan and conduct a monthslong investigation into whether Tillman's death may have been a homicide, the result of criminal negligence or an accident, said an Army official who asked to remain anonymous.

Tillman's mother says:

"The Army used him. They knew right away he was killed by fratricide and used him for their own purposes to promote the war, to get sympathy for the war, for five weeks."

Tags: military, deception, pat tillman, iraq

Petraeus wants to drop ban on domestic propaganda

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 01:23:23 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: According to this article, General Petraeus wants to tear down the wall between the military's public affairs operation, which is supposed to truthfully communicate with the US media and public, and the military's information operations, which is given leeway to use deception and propaganda to communicate with foreign populations.

I don't understand why we tolerate the use of deception in any kind of public communications whatsoever, with the US public or with the publics of other countries.

Via Lindsay Beyerstein at Majikthise

Clip Source: www.concordmonitor.com

ince the end of the Vietnam War, the military's public-affairs officials have tried to rebuild the Defense Department's credibility by putting distance between themselves and Pentagon efforts that use deception, propaganda and other methods to influence foreign populations.

A 2004 memo by Gen. Richard Myers, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, codified the separation between public affairs, which communicates with the media and the public, and "information operations," which attempts to sway people in other countries.

But Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has asked for changes that would allow the two branches to work more closely together. His request has unleashed a debate inside the Pentagon between those who say the separation has made the Defense Department less agile and those who believe that restructuring the relationship would threaten to turn military spokesmen into propagandists.

Tags: david petraeus, deception, propaganda, military

No More Glass Ceiling?

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 17:44:48 GMT

clipped by: jklugman

Clip Source: feministing.com

Forbes just released its list of international billionaires, which includes more women than ever before. And the ladies of IWF are crowing that this proves women don't need anti-discrimination or pay equity laws:

This is irrefutable proof that women don’t need government programs to help them make it in the business world—a fact our friends at NOW and similar organizations are unwilling to admit.

Except for the fact that every woman in the top 100 has inherited her wealth, not shattered the glass ceiling to earn her millions. The presence of these women on the Forbes list has next to nothing to do with the obstacles faced by average working women. And, in fact, it's still a great idea for government to pay attention to how these average women are faring in the workplace. Paris Hilton's riches are no excuse to ignore the issue. (Although she did film a season of "The Simple Life" attempting to be an office intern...see above artwork.)

Tags: gender, discrimination, work, inequality, wealth, deception, teaching

Chomsky misrepresents Kennan

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:10:40 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: This clip is Chomsky quoting a State Dept memo, written in 1948 by George Kennan, that makes it appear as if Kennan is endorsing the US engaging on a sinister plan to maintain economic disparities between itself and other countries. Chomsky wrote this in his 1993 book What Uncle Sam Really Wants.

In fact, Chomsky omits the fact that Kennan was really arguing against the US trying to beat back communism in Asia. Kennan was really advocating letting Asia go and maintaining a sphere of influence limited to Japan and the Philippines.

Clip Source: www.geocities.com

One document to look at if you want to understand your country is Policy Planning Study 23, written by Kennan for the State Department planning staff in 1948. Here's some of what it says:

we have about 50% of the world's wealth, but only 6.3% of its population....In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity.... To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives....We should cease to talk about vague and ... unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.

Tags: noam chomsky, deception

Reports of progress in Iraq challenged

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 12:58:26 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks:

If violence is down in Baghdad, analysts said, it is likely because the Shiite militias operating there are waiting out the buildup in U.S. troops, nearly all of whom are being deployed in the capital. At the same time, Sunni insurgents have escalated their operations elsewhere.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

President Bush on Tuesday cited "encouraging signs" of military and political progress in Iraq as his new strategy gets underway. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice noted that "things are going reasonably well." And on Thursday, Rice's special coordinator for Iraq, David M. Satterfield, described a "dramatic decrease" in sectarian attacks in Baghdad since Bush's plan was announced in January.

But a number of analysts and critics said this week that some of those signs indicate less progress than the administration has suggested. Sectarian attacks in Baghdad are down at the moment, but the deaths of Iraqi civilians and U.S. troops have increased outside the capital. Though Iraqi leaders have agreed on a new framework law for oil resources, the details of how the oil revenue will be divided among competing Iraqi groups remain unresolved.

Tags: iraq, bush administration, deception, fubar, civil war, news, politics, war

Clipmarks | jklugman's 'deception' clips

John McCain, Man of Dishonor

Lawyers accuse judge of lying, bungling Roman Polanski case

Bush breaks promise to help military families

Senators tried to suppress CIA testimony in Plame affair

Americans can't trust General Petraeus

Dunkin' Donuts tries to squirm out of NYC menu requirements

Rumsfeld: I Have Never Painted A Rosy Picture About Iraq

Think Progress

Rumsfeld: ‘I Have Never Painted A Rosy Picture’ About Iraq

How Republican Senators broke their promise to investigate Iraq intelligence

Wolfowitz lied about disclosing gf's promotion & raise

White House backtracking on temporary surge

Pat Tillman's Death: A Look Back in Time

Pat Tillman's Death : A Look Back in Time (11 comments )

Petraeus wants to drop ban on domestic propaganda

No More Glass Ceiling?

Chomsky misrepresents Kennan

Reports of progress in Iraq challenged