The Repug "elite" and their pals in the media have no respect for American citizens. They assume people so stupid (like 10 year olds, to quote one top Repug) they won't notice that Kerry's claim that Bush plans to call up troops after Nov. 2 is only echoing what Repugs have already said in Congress. Instead, they respond to Kerry's whistleblowing with their usual tactic - sling the mud and hope no one will notice the truth through the spatters. So now Kerry'sd a "conspiracy theorist," "desperate," "irresponsible," etc. And of course, who is leading the charge? The reprehensible Repug operative-posing-as-journalist, Nedra 'Tokyo Rose' Pickler.She is the WORST of the anti-Kerry propagandists. Call AP and tell them what you think of their propaganda and their chief propagandist! 1-212-621-1500 (ask to speak to Pickler personally if you can) or write info@ap.org and make sure you put her name in the heading..

We posted an article three days ago about how Michael Steele, the black Lt. Gov. of MD was paid $5,000 a month to run as Repug Gov. Bob Ehrlich's token sidekick in a state with a high black population. Now look at the Baltimore Sun's frantic spin-off! We are supposed to believe that Steele was just so poor in 2002 he just needed the cash: "Less than two years ago, Michael S. Steele was struggling to pay his bills," gushes the Sun, "He drained his retirement accounts, borrowed against his home and scrambled for consulting clients as he pursued a passion for Republican politics.." Later, of course, after this "set up," the Sun mentions the $5,000 fee. But it also lets slip a fact that blasts the phony story to shreds: Back when Steele was "struggling to pay his bills," he was a CORPORATE LAWYER who launched his own consulting business! Can't ya just see how America's struggling blacks would identify with "poor, struggling" Mr. Steele?

CBC: "NYC police arrested two men Sat. in connection with an alleged plot to bomb a subway station in midtown Manhattan. The men, 21-year-old Shahawar Matin Siraj, a Pakistani, and 19-year-old James El Shafay, a U-S citizen were charged with conspiracy to blow up the Herald Square station, one block from the site of the Republican convention." Now listen to this bogus-sounding bit: "Police say there is no evidence that the men were attempting to disrupt the convention. The city's police commissioner Ray Kelly said the men, who had been under surveillance [and just HAPPENED to be nabbed the first day of the convention], were motivated by their hatred for America [sounds like a Tom Tomorrow installment!] and are not believed to be connected to any terrorist organization. The men never obtained explosives said Kelly." But "It was clear that they had the intention to cause damage, to kill people... They did not immediately have the means to do it."

Village Voice: "Is it just us, or are these scary stories about anarchists plotting mayhem at the Republican convention starting to read like a preemptive hit? Just today the Daily News led with "Police Intelligence Warning: Anarchy Inc. Hardcore troublemakers a threat to the Republican Convention." This kind of coverage sets the stage for brutal treatment of even peaceful activists. At last fall's Free Trade Area of the Americas summit in Miami, police fed media hysteria about the ugly hordes descending on the city to justify their Rambo-like assault on union members and nonviolent demonstrators with rubber bullets and taser guns. And during the 2000 GOP convention in Philadelphia, police used trumped-up intelligence to preemptively arrest 70 puppeteers. Hey you activist lawyers out there! If this happens again, maybe it's time to launch a major class action suit against the media (reckless endangerment comes to mind...).

We have a winner! Patrick 'Tokyo Rose' O'Shaughnessy come onnnnnn down! You and your bosses have the distinction of being the embarrassing excuses for newsfolk currently slithering about the streets of any major US city! Writes Don Hazen of Alternet: " In an editorial decision that boggled the mind of even the most cynical New York media watchers, The Daily News' huge headline on Thursday screamed, "Anarchists Hot for Mayhem: Police on Guard vs. Violent Tactics." That headline was followed by an incredibly thin, "exclusive" story by Patrice O'Shaughnessy, based completely on unnamed sources in the police department. O'Shaughnessy's article beats [Rupert Murdoch's] Post for its journalistic irresponsibility. The article began "Fifty of the Country's leading anarchists are expected to be in the City for the RNC... each of the 50 have at least 50 followers who are willing to arrested.""

We noticed a pattern with the supposedly "unbiased" political blog Capitol Hill Blue: Their bashes of Bush are so over the top as to be unbelievable (and typically from anonymous sources), while their bashes of Kerry extensively cite sources and 'facts. As this smacked of sophisticated propaganda we did a little digging. Seems the site operator, Doug Thompson, not only worked for the RNC & Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, he's a rabid Clinton hater. Here's a sample from 12/21/98: "It is Bill Clinton and his henchmen who ran a White House-based political machine dedicated to the dismemberment of anyone bold enough to call the lowlife son-of-a-bitch a liar, sexual predator and felon-to-be (which, of course, he is). It was Bill Clinton who unleashed mad dogs like Sidney Blumenthal and James Carville on Ken Starr, Kathleen Willey and a host of other enemies -- both real and perceived..." The site was founded in 1994 - as were many Gringrich-y NeoCon propaganda sites.

Now, class, read through this example of Nedra 'Bush Groupie" Pickler propaganda carefully. You will note that while purporting to be a "positive" story about Heinz's Kerry's outspokeneness, it is in fact a thinly veiled slam, designed to make Heinz and her female supporters look like "femi-Nazis" (Rush must love the Pickler!). The article was also designed to promote the latest RNC-fomented rumor: that Kerry has declared that his campaign will be uniformly positive (as in no criticism of the GOP or Bush). This rumor was created so that any signs of assertiveness by Kerry or Heinz can be used as "evidence" that he is "flipflopping" on his own "directives." Slick as slime, eh? The rest of the article cherrypicks and exaggerates even small incidents to paint a skewed "Heinz as bitch" picture. But after reading this piece, we can all tell who the real b*tch is, can't we?!

Bush ignored all urgings to focus more on Al Queda throughout the first 2/3 of 2001. After 9/11, he failed to make any meaningful changes at all in intelligence gathering - despite repeated urgings by experts. When a call for a probe into the intelligence failures leading up to 9/11 was made in 2002, then in 2003, Bush fought it every step of the way. When he was finally forced to allow the formation of a commission, he claimed - a claim actually SUPPORTED by the media! - that he had been behind an investigation all along. Now, after stalling on even responding to the 9/11 commissions findings for weeks, Bush is finally acknowledging that he should name an intelligence czar. Outrageously enough, the Bushie propagandists at AP are expecting the public to buy the fantasy that a three-year stall job is synonymous with "quick," decisive action. LOL!

The USA Daily compendium of news presents a representative array of news stories every day: the frequency with which the same story appears (in different news outlets) indicates how widely the story was distributed. From July 31-Aug 2, an AP story - basically Bush campaign propaganda couched as "news" showed up over 20 times in the first two or three pages of the compendium: BUSH SAYS ECONOMY IS ON RISING PATH. This is neither an important, true, or meaningful story. It's only excuse for being is as campaign propaganda. Meanwhile, as of Aug. 2, NOT ONE story about Kerry appeared in the first two pages. This is clear evidence that AP is now providing Bush with free campaign coverage and that the nation's editors are allowing themselves to be spoon fed the material.

You might call it coincidence if, when putting in search terms like KERRY SENATE RECORD or KERRY POW/MIAS that the top twenty would be well padded with rightwing misinformation. But when it turns into page after page of search results stacked with material from FreeRepublic, Newsmax, the National Alliance (neoNazis), Drudge, WorldNet daily (fundy Christians) etc. then you KNOW that it has been engineered intentionally. With the same topics covered continually by high-hit sites like Buzzflash, Democrats.com, the John Kerry Campaign site, etc., for none of these to come up even in the first five pages of some searches amounts, we suspect to possible search engine fraud. Let google know what you think! Some activists are calling for Americans to dump their google stock until the company stops its anti-Kerry stacked search engine scam.

Have you noticed how often, especially lately, the Bush cartel puts women in front of the camera or audience to either spin the worst news of the war or act as war "cheerleaders"? From Sgt. Cynthia Beam reassuring us that the Afghan mother shot by US helicopter gunships was an "enemy fighter" to Laura Bush in Las Vegas this week assuring 1,000 white, middle-aged Repug women of how heroic her "wartime president" hubby is, from Victoria Clarke spinning the Afghanistan invasion, to Charlotte Beers and later Margaret Tuttweiller, using their "feminine touch" to sell both wars. Rep Deborah Pryce of Ohio explains it this way:''This administration is pretty macho, and it's presented the male version of war. Security is an issue that every woman, every family, every mother should take seriously, and perhaps the first lady can add some insights into that." Yep, keep 'em scared, and scrub the coverage of carnage with Tidy Bowl.

CNN anchor Daryn Kagan used the rabidly rightwing Wolf Blitzer show to "interview" a rep from Al-Jazeera. Kagan used the slanted slot to harass Al-Jazeera for daring to report civilian deaths in Fallujah and elsewhere, and to parrot Pentagon-scripted propaganda. It is obvious CNN is working hand-in-glove with the Pentagon once more (see http://www.fair.org/activism/cnn-psyops.html). Many independent journalists including those based in the US corroborate Al Jazeera reports of civilian casualties, US Military tactics, and the general state of conditions in the war zone. One reporter "recounted that during the "cease-fire," 'Americans were attacking with heavy artillery but primarily with snipers'-- with ambulances among the targets. The sniper activity was also reported by U.S. journalist Dahr Jamail (NewStandardNews.net, 4/11/04): 'Fallujah residents say Marines are opening fire randomly on unarmed civilians and have attacked clearly marked ambulances.'"

The National Center for Public Policy Research and other NeoCon front groups have been disseminating the following piece of propaganda this week as our soldiers die -- an essay entitled "Keep the Faith: A Letter from Iraq," allegedly by a soldier with the U.S. Army serving in the 16th Combat Engineer Battalion.." Progress is amazing.... Every day the Iraqi people stream out into the streets to cheer and wave at us as we drive by. When I'm on a foot patrol, walking among a crowd, countless people thank us -- repeatedly.... This is why you hear bad news and may be receiving an incorrect picture... The reality is one of an ever-increasing defeat of the enemies we face..." etc. ad nauseum. We challenge soldiers with the 16th Engineers to verify the existence of a Joe Roche in their ranks...we suspect if there is, he may not realize he "wrote" this essay (remember the bogus letters sent to papers that had soldiers' names falsely signed to them?)

On '60 Minutes,' CBS (Corporate Bull Sh*t) gave Condi Rice an easy forum for her anti-Clarke spin, followed by a Goebbels-esque segment extolling the virtues of rightwing judge Charles Pickering (in his own little questioned words). Nothing like having your own on-call propaganda outlet! Condi Rice was thrown nerf-ball questions, while the segment on Pickering depicted the judge as a good man who sends his kids to public school where (gasp!) there are black children in attendance. So what? The fact that Ken Lay donated a few thousand every year to cancer research didn't make him less of a multi-billion dollar thief! Yeah, Pickering's a good man - if you like racists who will use their power to protect domestic terrorists. (see http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0115-07.htm)

It isn't surprising that the Bush administration should create this official position. After all, everything it has done has been pure Hollywood. Remember the "wag the dog-style" set a film studio created for Bush at Doha Qatar for Central Command during the war? The Chicago Sun-Times reports: "The Homeland Security Department has posted a job for a 'liaison to the entertainment industry.' The salary could be as high as $136,000, plus benefits. The job calls for 'providing strategic counsel' to Homeland Security officials when they are asked for help with a film and approving assistance for projects that commit the department to cooperate.' " No doubt this position will help create story lines that help to promote the Bush agenda and manipulate public perceptions. And prevent studios and networks from producing "unfavorable" material!

Rupert Murdoch is holding a four-day summit involving Bush's henchwoman Condi Rice, Tony Blair's former henchmen Alistair Campbell and Michael Howard, and the editors of Murdoch's most important news holdings, including the "Telegraph," "News of the World," "NY Post," and the "Sunday Times." This event, held in Mexico - during which Murdoch is turning all of his resources over to Rice, et al., allowing them to broadcast their propaganda worldwide free of charge - is obviously a war council. Bush and his minions are putting their corporate media wagons in a circle as the heat turns up and election 2004 looms. Never has there been a more flagrant collusion between the media and government. Do Murdoch's stockholders condone this outrage? Time for them to decide between profits and principles!

NY Times: "Federal investigators are scrutinizing television segments in which the Bush administration paid people to pose as journalists praising the benefits of the new Medicare law... The videos are intended for use in local television news programs. Several include pictures of President Bush receiving a standing ovation from a crowd cheering as he signed the Medicare law on Dec. 8...The materials were produced by the Department of Health and Human Services, which called them video news releases, but the source is not identified. Two videos end with the voice of a woman who says, 'In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting."'So if the news sometimes seems as though its written by the White House, maybe it has been."

Taxpayers, you will be interested to know that not only has the FCC ignored 80% of you and gone ahead and given away control of the commercial media to a few corporations, now $6.3 million of YOUR dollars is being spent to launch a State Media propaganda network. "The $6.3 million project, which is expected to begin operating in April, is one of the largest military public affairs projects in recent memory, and is intended to allow small media firms in the US and elsewhere to bypass what the Pentagon views as an increasingly "combative" (read TRUTHFUL) press corps. "This is the kind of news that people get in countries where the government controls the media. Why would anybody here want to buy into it?" Mac McKerral, president of the Society of Professional Journalists, told The Associated Press.

"News executives of most Boston TV stations are decidedly unenthusiastic about a Bush administration plan to transmit news footage from Iraq for local TV outlets in an attempt to supplement media coverage from that war-torn country. The satellite link, dubbed 'C-SPAN Baghdad,' is designed to put a more positive spin on events and circumvent the major networks by making it possible for press conferences, interviews with troops and dignitaries, and even footage from the field to be transmitted from Iraq for use by regional and local media outlets, according to news accounts. 'I'm kind of appalled by it. I think it's very troubling,' said Charles Kravetz, vice president of news at the regional cable news outlet NECN. 'I think the government has no business being in the news business.' 'We have no interest in this,' said WBZ-TV (Channel 4) news director Peter Brown. 'The Fourth Estate is independent and should remain so. As news providers, we should go there and see for ourselves.'"

"They seek him here, they seek him there, but the innocent little eyes of Bush are kept well away from anyone who might not agree with him," writes one observer in the village of Sedgefield. "President Bush has flown out of Britain aboard Airforce One - there were marvellous moments in the Prime Minister's constituency as, bundled up in body armour beneath his sports blazer, Bush strode around an empty village and eventually spots a couple of people to shake hands with. Suddenly there were five apparently ordinary mortals for him to be photographed with. Look out for it in Time Magazine and most certainly in some bout of electoral literature. After that he spotted another lone figure in the village and paced across to grab his hand too...never mind that it was the Prime Minister's press spokesman. So he's gone. Surprised he didn't leave in a stealth bomber, just to keep the theme of the visit up."

The Busheviks intead to bypass the so-called "news filter" and provide only Good! News! About! Iraq! direct to local news stations. The technical term for this plan is "propaganda", and even Bush's usual allies see right through it. According to the Washington Post, "One Republican strategist expressed skepticism about the project, saying it appeared to be an effort 'to improve public opinion back home' before Bush's reelection campaign gets fully underway."

Corporate 'science' at work! This survey was posted in a slick, animated color ad in the PentaPost. Like all corporate propaganda, this pro-industry study is being pushed like crazy by the mainstream media. Meanwhile, the extensive REAL (noncorporate) studies that have come out on the lethal epidemic of teen drinking have been just as heavily suppressed by the media. But it's just the sort of concern for "public health" and America's youth the nation is getting from the Bush Regime. Compare the Columbia study with the "Bud" version (http://www.openminds.com/IndustryResources/casa.htm) Also see: "The Economic Value of Excessive Underage and Adult Drinking to the Alcohol Industry." (http://www.casacolumbia.org/publications1456/publications_show.htm?doc_id=151714)

Newsweek's Martha Brant writes, "It often feels like the American public has no sense of the steady trickle of killed and wounded... [Why?] There are no pictures... Nick Ut's photograph of 9-year-old Kim Phuc became synonymous with the Vietnam War. She was the terrified little girl running naked, covered in napalm. Television images of caskets and body bags also changed public opinion about the war... There are no images of flag-draped coffins in this war to remind people of the human price being paid. That's because the media are prohibited from filming or photographing soldiers' remains being sent home... Showing remains sometimes seems to depend less on policy than politics. When CIA operative Johnny 'Mike' Spann was killed in Afghanistan in December 2001, the DOD had no problem letting the media in to witness the return of his remains to Andrews Air Force Base. But then, his death only stoked support for the war in Afghanistan."

Boston Globe: "Letters to US newspapers extolling the successes of the American occupation of Iraq and signed by individual troops do not warrant a formal investigation, US Army officials said yesterday... Normally, soldiers fill out a form for the Hometown News Release Program listing their high school, local newspaper, and other information that is used by the San Antonio-based operation to write up a short news story that is then forwarded to the local print media. In this case, it seems many of the 400 or so form letters [other reports say 500 letters] that were ultimately mailed are believed to have been attached to the soldiers' Hometown News Release Program form. Those soldiers who said they never signed the letter to the editor may have filled out a separate hometown news release form, officials said. 'Some guy should have caught this,' said Major Steve Stover, an Army spokesman. 'This was [an abuse] of the Army Hometown News Release Program.'"

"Amy Connell, of Sharon, Mass., knew as soon as she received the letter from her son Adam that he did not write it. 'He's 20 years old and I don't think his language or his writing ability would have entailed that kind of description,' she said. She was right. Her son didn't write the letter. In an e-mail to ABC News today, the commander of the battalion, Lt. Col. Dominic Caraccilo, said the 'letter-writing initiative' was all his idea [Really?]... Caraccilo wrote that his staff drafted the letter, he edited it and reviewed it and then offered it to the soldiers... The Boston Globe wasn't happy to learn about the origin of the letter. An editor at the Globe told ABC News that it was 'a big disappointment.' 'Our readers have a right to expect letters that are originals,' he said." Was Lt. Col Caraccilo following orders from his superiors? We demand an investigation!

Hesiod at Counterspin Central has been on top of the identical letters sent to newspapers -- that were signed by different soldiers. "This one detail is scary...Capital Hill Blue reports that at least one soldier was ordered to sign the letter! 'One soldier, who asked not to be identified, said he was reluctant to sign the letter because he did not agree with the comments in the letter but said he was ordered by a superior officer to sign. 'When I'm given an order, I obey it,' he said.' That's a shocking development, if true. This hasn't been reported elsewhere, so we have to take the report with a grain of salt at the moment. If anyone can confirm this, e-mail me right away." Latest update from Hesiod: "ABC News supposedly has an admission from a Lt. Colonel who admits to drafting the letter and circulating it." Did someone higher up than the Lt. Colonel order him to do this?

The Olympian reports: "Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the country as U.S. public opinion on the mission sours. And all the letters are the same. A Gannett News Service search found identical letters from different soldiers with the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, also known as 'The Rock,' in 11 newspapers, including Snohomish, Wash."

Jim Lobe writes: "The more commercial television news you watch, the more wrong you are likely to be about key elements of the Iraq War and its aftermath, according to a major new study released in Washington this week. And the more you watch the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News channel, in particular, the more likely it is that your perceptions about the war are wrong, adds the report by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA)."

Classic propaganda Word Games played by the media: "Name-calling (labeling people, groups, institutions, etc in a negative manner); Glittering generality (labeling people, groups, institutions, etc in a positive manner); Euphemisms (words that pacify the audience with blander meanings and connotations); False ConnectionsTransfer (Using symbols and imagery of positive institutions etc to strengthen acceptance); Testimonial (Citing individuals not qualified to make the claims made); Special Appeal Plain Folks (Leaders appealing to ordinary citizens by doing "ordinary" things); Band Wagon (The "everyone else is doing it" argument); Fear (Heightening, exploiting or arousing people's fears to get supportive opinions and actions)." Sound familiar? We thought so!!

Jonathan Turley writes, "With the reality of entrenched opposition in Iraq resulting in increasing U.S. fatalities there, the opposition at home to the occupation is hardening by the day. The military appears to have come up with a solution: Change reality. In what has been described as a 'Pentagon infomercial,' DoD has hired a former producer of the TV show 'Cops' to film postwar Iraq from its perspective. Though producer Bertram van Munster has denied that he is shooting a propaganda piece, it is clear that the Pentagon is gearing up to frame its own account - and history - of the Iraq war. The Pentagon has a long history of propaganda efforts [and is] participating in a number of movies that will deliver its message on the legitimacy of the war and its own conduct in Iraq. Some of these efforts are already the subject of controversy. For example, military and intelligence sources framed an account of Pfc. Jessica Lynch that was almost entirely manufactured for public appeal."

The Moonie Masters of Propaganda at the "Washington Times" are airing this credibility-stretching tale: "Referred to by her spy masters only as 'Mrs. Galt,' she is by day an unremarkable American housewife and mother. But after her two children go to bed, she plunges into a secret world of Internet chat rooms and Web sites populated by some of the most dangerous people on earth. Burrowing into the byzantine network of unpublicized Web sites used by al Qaeda and other terror groups for their routine communications, she sweet-talks her interlocutors into revealing their plans, often with fatal consequences for the terrorists.'" True story .... or a lurid tale concocted to whip up support for a Bushcroft Internet snoops program....you decide!

ABC.net.au reports: "Two journalists from Sky News have been suspended over allegations that they 'faked' a television report from a British Royal Navy submarine during the Iraq war. The report purported to show the preparation and firing of a cruise missile from HMS Splendid. But a BBC documentary crew filming on board at the same time said it had been specially staged for the benefit of Sky's camera and no missile was fired." Of course, this is just the fake report that was actually caught - how many more were faked, by FOX, CNN, NBC and other propaganda outlets?

JoeCitizen.org writes: "After the attacks of September 11th, the American landscape was stunningly transformed into a sea of flags, which appeared almost overnight on lapels, in windows, from rooftops, on cars, on clothing and in advertising... Because Bush offered no guidance on the types of consumerism that would be most beneficial to the 'war effort', the mass consumption of patriotic paraphernalia resulted in numerous oddities and ironies... But perhaps the most unseemly use of patriotic imagery was the 2003 Easter baskets sold at K-marts and Walgreens which along with jelly beans and chocolate eggs also contained U.S. military action figures and thereby strangely juxtaposed a religious holiday celebrating Jesus, who told his followers to 'turn the other cheek', with toys that glorified war." Check out the slide show of patriotic paraphernalia -- serious and satirical -- but always ironic!

Cheryl Seal reports, "The 'Post' and its 'accomplices' in the White House use an impressive arsenal of CIA tactics. Real stories are routinely buried or killed, while phony or slanted pieces of propaganda are slickly worked onto page One. The Post played a huge role in fabricating and disseminating the Jessica Lynch myth, for example - then was then one of the slowest media outlets to correct the exposed lie. Because the paper is supposed to be the voice of OUR NATION'S CAPITOL, the Post's routine dissemination of disinformation is a far greater betrayal of America than it would be for the major paper of any other city. " Several examples of the Post's tactics from this week's news are examined.

Cheryl Seal Reports: "If the average American knew what the 'new GOP' truly stood for and what its real objectives were, there is no way this clique of corporate schmoozers and phoney 'Christians' could remain in power. In fact, I suspect the party would go extinct, just like the old Federalist party back in the early 1800s, which represented largely landed aristocrats of a stamp more appropriate to monarchic England than to the U.S. But, alas money - combined with media control - talks. With the billionaire brigade showering Bush and Co. with wheelbarrows full of cash in preparation for 2004, God only knows what sort of well-packaged bulls--t we will have flung at us in coming months. These folks have enough cash to take a rotting sow's ear and turn it into a convincing imitation of a silk purse -- at least as long as you don't get close enough to whiff the stench."

Antonia Zerbisias writes for the Toronto Star: "Released last week, the FAIR study reports that 'official voices' -- U.S. government and military, past and present -- dominated TV newscasts, 'squelching dissent' and crowding out alternative viewpoints, including foreign perspectives. American television viewers 'were more than six times as likely to see a pro-war source as one who was anti-war; with U.S. guests alone, the ratio increases to 25 to 1,' the study's authors, Steve Rendell and Tara Broughel, report in the May/June edition of FAIR's magazine Extra! They looked at 1,617 talking heads and other on-camera sources... Turns out that, not only did Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld take over Iraq for the U.S., he also scored a clear victory over the media. Indeed, military types got twice as much face time as civilians did. They were reinforced by the Pentagon's slickest marketing move of all time, the embedding of hundreds of journalists with the troops."

Led by master propagandist Karl Rove, "The Bush White House is known for its skill at stage-managing historic p-residential events [such as the Top Goon aircraft carrier landing and the Mt. Rushmore pose]. But, however spontaneous, almost nothing could have reinforced the preferred White House impression of a p-resident taking charge of the Middle East peace process better than the pictures of President [sic] Bush behind the wheel of a large golf cart, ferrying Arab leaders Tuesday to their joint photo opportunity. Bush and the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority swerved into view from around a corner and behind stands of palm trees, all crammed into the cart, a beaming Bush in the driver's seat."

Robert Parry writes: "'Matrix' and its sequel. 'Matrix Reloaded,' offer a useful analogy for anyone trying to make sense of the chasm that has opened between what's real and what Americans perceive is real. Like the science-fiction world of the two movies, a false reality is being pulled daily over people's eyes, often through what they see and hear on their TV screens. Facts have lost value. Logic rarely applies. Some living in this 'American Matrix' are like the everyday people in the movies, simply oblivious to what's going on beneath the surface, either too busy or too bored to find out. Others appear to know better but behave like Cipher, the character in the original movie who chooses the fake pleasures of the Matrix over what Morpheus calls 'the desert of the real.' Many Americans so enjoyed the TV-driven nationalism of the Iraq War, for instance, that they didn't want it spoiled by reality."

Despite odd ideas of intellectual independence, most Americans hold the same beliefs, and most of them are wrong - created by corporate manipulation.

Cheryl Seal writes: "To keep the public from ever being able to get a firm handle on what's really going on, the White House colludes with the media to manipulate headlines, story slant, and even story content (which ranges from blatant omissions to outright lies). The tactics used are classic CIA, and can be divided into a few general categories: Distract and Redirect, Rewrite and Confuse, Historic Rewrite, and Black Hole. An example of 'Distract and Redirect': This week, war crimes charges are being filed in Belgium against the Bush administration, with Tommy Franks as the most accessible and appropriate first target. US human rights offenses against Iraqi civilians are detailed in the complaint. So what is the story dominating the news? Homeland security terror alert is raised to code ORANGE!!!! Can't possibly worry about war crimes charges at a time like this, right?!"

Paul De Rooij writes: "Psyops specialists know that one of the strongest human tendencies is to try to conform to a group. Their objective is to create a din of jingoism pushing for 'our' team intimidating others, and at the very least causing dissenters to lay low. It is not a good idea to go against the grain in the middle of a riled crowd. This is achieved by filtering the news so that it fits in with the desired message by, e.g., 'embedding' of journalists, incorporation of censors within the main media networks, and shutting out alternative news sources. The result was stoking rampant jingoism in the US -- and a mostly silenced anti-war movement."

"Pentagon officials said yesterday that an aircraft carrier waited within sight of San Diego last week while Resident Bush slept aboard, instead of heading straight to port after 10 months at sea... Democrats complained about a civilian's use of a crew member's flight suit, which could be construed as a uniform. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) asked the General Accounting Office... to examine the cost of the event. 'This was a deliberate and intentional use of the military for campaign purposes,' Waxman said. 'Of course, the president [sic] should greet the troops. The question is misusing the Navy and Air Force and taxpayer dollars to kick off a reelection campaign.'" Bush said, "And not only was I able to thank our troops, I was able to speak to the country and talk about not only their courage, but the courage of a lot of other men and women who wear our country's uniform." Hey AWOL, you should be groveling before their courage -- you cowardly deserter from the National Guard!

Was this the inspiration for the Bushbrat's staged Top Gun landing on the aircraft carrier? Back during Bush Sr.'s presidential campaign, there was a Bush-for-President ad featuring a clip of BushDaddy in WWII. It showed Daddy being pulled out of the drink onto an aircraft carrier, after his plane was shot down. The only problem with this 'heroic' legend is that a squadron mate of Daddy's, Chester Mierzejewski, claimed that Daddy, who was the pilot, bailed out of the plane early. He said that Bush Sr. could have attempted a water landing. Instead Bush Sr. bailed out, possibly condemning his two crewmen to their deaths. And bear in mind that the reason Bush Sr. joined up was to try to save the Bush family 'honor' -- after the treasonous Prescott Bush was exposed as a Nazi financier by the government. Keep strutting in your Tom Cruise uniform and carrying that helmet under your arm -- AWOL Bush! We know the truth about you -- and your family's -- 'patriotism.'

So how much did it cost the taxpayers for the Bushbaby (who deserted his National Guard post during Vietnam) to get his joyride and propaganda stunt? "Resident Bush didn't have to make a dramatic tailhook landing on this aircraft carrier. He could have flown here on a helicopter as presidents normally would, the White House said Friday. Officials also acknowledged positioning the massive ship to provide the best TV angle for Bush's speech, with the vast sea as his background instead of the very visible San Diego coastline. Bush's aides were delighted by the saturation television coverage and front-page pictures of Bush's visit Thursday to this ship homebound from the Persian Gulf. Press secretary Ari Fleischer dismissed any suggestion that the overnight trip was custom-ordered to provide campaign footage for Bush's re-[s]election campaign." What do you wanna bet AWOL Bush's landing is featured prominently in election ads a year from now? And Ari's words will be long forgotten?

From the Memory Hole: "On 9 April 2003, the front page of the London Evening Standard (circulation: 400,000) contained a blurry image supposedly showing a throng of Iraqis in Baghdad celebrating the toppling of Saddam Hussein. What we are really looking at is an incredibly ham-fisted attempt at photo manipulation. The source of the image is footage from the BBC. The Standard's paperboys were obviously allowed to clone and blur the image in numerous ways to make it look like a gigantic crowd. This was first exposed Simone Moore and posted on the UK Indymedia site. A user named Gnu posted the image below, which highlights some of the most obvious signs of fakery. The red circles show a man in a turban who appears three times. The purple circles highlight an unknown object that also appears thrice. The blue circles show two instances of an identical white object, disembodied arm, and partial male faces."

From the Memory Hole: "During the same week, the front covers of Newsweek and US News and World Report showed the same Iraqi kissing different soldiers. And the guy also had a prominent spot smashing the statue of Saddam at the stage-managed pull-down in Baghdad. Surely Hollywood will soon be calling for this hot young actor."

Gregg Gordon writes: "It was a scene that reminded us of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Rumsfeld said - the toppling of that hollow, sheet-metal statue of Saddam Hussein. But in subsequent days, more glimpses of this scene have been published. Photos of the square from a longer distance show a crowd not just small, but pitiably small - in a vast traffic circle cordoned off by US armored vehicles. Another photo showed, among the screamers and chanters, a man who bore a striking resemblance to a figure photographed just a few days earlier in the entourage of Ahmad Chalabi, convicted bank swindler & fugitive from neighboring Jordan who is Rumsfeld's choice for Hussein's successor. How did he get there? And who brought him? And with how many others? Could it be that the appropriate analogy was not the fall of the Berlin Wall but rather the organized thuggery of Republican Congressional aides flown into Florida to 'spontaneously' disrupt the Miami-Dade recount after the 2000 election?"

The Bush Reich is spending well over $200 million in a counterpropaganda campaign in post-war Iraq. While removing bigotry and hatemongering from the Iraq landscape would be a laudable effort, the propaganda-soaked Bush administration is hardly the entity to undertake creating an alternative. In fact, it was only after intense protest by Iraqis that the USAID reluctantly deleted a proposed plan for a Bush-authorized 'reeducation plan.' "At the last minute, Usaid scrapped plans for American consultants to write and deliver an entirely new library of de-Ba'athised school textbooks," reports the UK Telegraph, "Iraqi exiles working with Usaid on the project objected to the idea of US officials imposing a new curriculum on Iraq, sources said. One Iraqi exile familiar with the discussions said: 'It's not up to the Americans to dictate to Iraqi students what to study.'" Especially not Americans at the Heritage Foundation!

Mike Hersh writes, " I feel like I'm in a horror movie these days. It's like the whole population was drugged or body snatched and I am walking among robots or fakes or brainwashed people and there is nothing I can do. The level of vicious attacks from the right wing is amazing. The entire country music awards show horrified me. I cried. I had freezing cold down my spine. I saw the Dixie Chicks castigated at every opportunity with endless boos from an unthinking audience. They won nothing even though their music is still number 1, and all the stops of their tour is sold out, it was pure vengeance. I saw the end the 'controversial' pro-war song winning! Sung as the closing number with oceans of red white and blue flags, ribbons, fireworks exploding and everyone singing how good we are how the best we are. I shivered as images of Nazi Germany came to my mind [in] the complacent arrogance of a people drunk with megalomaniacal illness. In history, that has proven fatal."

Was the toppling of Saddam's statue a staged media event? There were only 150 celebrating Iraqis. Most curious is that one of the cheering Iraqis looks a heck-of-a-lot like a member of Ahmed Chalabi's 'Free Iraqi Forces' militia.

"The Office of Global Communications, a controversial agency created by Bush in January, has blossomed into a huge production company, issuing daily scripts on the Iraq war to U.S. spokesmen around the world, auditioning generals to give media briefings and booking administration stars on foreign news shows. The office--a sort of global public-relations firm for Bush and the U.S. war effort--tightly coordinates the message of the Pentagon, the State Dept. and the military command in the Persian Gulf, ensuring that any war commentary by a U.S. official is approved in advance by the White House. Critics are questioning the veracity of some of the stories being circulated by the office and deriding it as a propaganda arm... The communications office helps devise and coordinate each day's talking points on the war. Civilian and military personnel, for example, are told to refer to the invasion of Iraq as a 'war of liberation.' Iraqi paramilitary forces are to be called 'death squads.'"

"In the good old days, the US used to tell a lie -- crass propaganda -- and it would stick for a long time. Journalists would have to scurry for months before they could expose the lies, but by then it would be almost irrelevant, e.g., ... the infamous throwing-babies-out-of-incubators story concocted to swing American opinion in favor of the Gulf War in 1991. In the run up to the US-Iraq war, it became increasingly evident that propaganda has a diminished half-life. Whereas years ago the reigning technique was to repeat a lie often enough, now it seems to have given way to a constant barrage of lies or semi-lies with a very short half-life. As soon as a propaganda ploy has been exposed, the current media spinners will move to the next tall story. They seem to count on either the poor memory of the population, their general disinterest or their credulity. There are also good reasons to believe that the current barrage-propaganda approach is losing its effectiveness."

NY Times reports, "It was much easier to convey a positive story of American involvement in Afghanistan than it has been in Iraq. [Iraq] is very different,' he said. 'You obviously have a very active and wider array of media coverage that is capturing many, many more individual snapshots of what's happening. Their graphic images [of murdered civilians] are emotionally gripping and are difficult to compete with.' Khaled Abdelkariem, a Washington-based correspondent for the Middle East News Agency, said the problem is that the administration's emphasis on soldiers delivering food and medicine rather than discussing why a foreign army is invading Iraq has often seemed patronizing. 'The Arabs or Muslims are not 4-year-old kids who don't know what's happening around them,' he said. 'I appreciate their efforts, but I'm afraid it's not working. This feed-and-kill policy - throwing bombs in Baghdad and throwing food at the people - is not winning hearts and minds.'"

Gregory Sinaisky writes, "How to tell genuine reporting from an article manufactured to produce the desired propaganda effect? The war in Iraq provides us plenty of interesting samples for a study of disinformation techniques. Take the article 'Basra Shiites Stage Revolt, Attack Government Troops', published on March 26 in The Wall Street Journal Europe. Using its example, we will try to arm readers with basic principles of disinformation analysis that hopefully will allow them in the future to detect deception... The first rule of disinformation analysis: truth is specific, lie is vague. Always look for palpable details in reporting and if the picture is not in focus, there must be reasons for it. Want to know the names of rising stars of disinformation to watch? The Wall Street Journal article was 'compiled' by Matt Murray in New York from reports by Christopher Cooper in Doha, Qatar, Carla Anne Robbins and Greg Jaffe in Washington, and Helene Cooper."

Cheryl Seal writes, "In the 50-50 lie, instead of reporting that the number of people moved to take to the streets to protest the war totally overwhelms those willing to protest in its favor, the networks report that 'protests both for and against the war are being staged.' Conspicuously absent from such reports is any mention of comparative numbers of protests and protestors. The implication here is everything, the truth nothing. Here's a classic example: At the height of this week's international protests involving millions, one headline on AOL's mainpage (AOL is the FOX of the Internet), described this historic situation as a 'Mixed reaction to war around the world.' Mixed reaction? That's like calling Vermont, which has the fewest non-white residents of all the states, a melting pot."

Here's an internal memo from Mark Sunderland, Broadcast Standards Manager of MTV Networks Europe: "Dear all, In the light of the outbreak of war in Iraq in the last 12 hours, our recommendations for the scheduling and content of videos and programmes are as follows: 1. Video recommendations: Obviously, there will be heightened public sensitivity to representations of war, soldiers, bombing, destruction of buildings and public unrest at home. The ITC Programme Code requires us not to broadcast material which offends against good taste or is offensive to public feeling. We therefore recommend that videos featuring the following are not shown at the moment: war, soldiers, war planes, bombs, missiles, riots and social unrest, executions, other obviously sensitive material. Examples include: System of a Down "Boom!" - anti-war video containing facts and figures about, amongst other things, the projected casualties in the war in Iraq" etc., etc., etc.

Tom Engelhardt writes of the metaphors of the corporate media's war propaganda, e.g.: "Mr. Bush decided to act on fresh intelligence indicating an opportunity to decapitate the country's leadership early in the war.' An execution of the most grisly, medieval sort. The 'decapitation' of a 'target of opportunity' was, in fact, the image du jour on TV last night - and it clearly came straight out of Pentagon-speak... Everyone [on TV waited] fruitlessly to be 'shocked and awed' talked in the obviously cool as well as distinctly chilly language of the Pentagon. The equivalent of penis envy on American wartime TV turns out to be weapons envy. America's latest weaponry is presented in elegant graphics. The planes and missiles pirouette slowly, elegantly, like so many dancers as commentators lovingly describe - 'caress' wouldn't be to strong a word - them. One announcer spoke of the 'package' being 'inserted.' (This turned out to mean the planes and missiles just then attacking Baghdad.) "

Ellen Goodman writes, "I am normally protected from talk radio by my day job, but it was no surprise that the hosts were all right wing. That is, by now, a given. Some venture capitalists are trying to start a left-leaning network, but today it's as if one medium has been thoroughly ceded to the right, and in this case prowar, wing. In my car-bound venture, I kept thinking of the old adage, 'Truth is the first casualty of war.' But this time, truth became a casualty before the first shot was fired. Truth was wounded in the prewar. Half-truth now limps dangerously to the front line. In many ways, talk radio seems to have taken up where yellow journalism left off. It bears the trademark disregard for history, casualness about facts, and a penchant for propaganda."

"In a move that has raised eyebrows in some legal and journalistic circles, Clear Channel radio stations in Atlanta, Cleveland, San Antonio, Cincinnati and other cities have sponsored rallies attended by up to 20,000 people... The sponsorship of large rallies by Clear Channel stations is unique among major media companies, which have confined their activities in the war debate to reporting and occasionally commenting on the news. The San Antonio-based broadcaster owns more than 1,200 stations in 50 states and DC. 'I think this is pretty extraordinary,' said Glen Robinson, who teaches law at the University of Virginia. 'I can't say that this violates any of a broadcaster's obligations, but it sounds like borderline manufacturing of the news.' A spokeswoman for Clear Channel said the rallies, called 'Rally for America,' are the idea of Glenn Beck, a Philadelphia talk show host whose program is syndicated by Premier Radio Networks, a Clear Channel subsidiary."

"Network newscasts, dominated by current and former U.S. officials, largely exclude Americans who are skeptical of or opposed to an invasion of Iraq, a new study by FAIR has found. Looking at two weeks of coverage (1/30/03-2/12/03), FAIR examined the 393 on-camera sources who appeared in nightly news stories about Iraq on ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News and PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. The study began one week before and ended one week after Secretary of State Colin Powell's February 5 presentation at the U.N.. More than two-thirds (267 out of 393) of the guests featured were from the US. Of the U.S. guests, a striking 75% (199) were either current or former government or military officials. Only one of the official U.S. sources-- Sen. Edward Kennedy (D.-Mass.)-- expressed skepticism or opposition to the war... Protest to: PeterJennings@abcnews.com, evening@cbsnews.com, nightly@nbc.com, newshour@pbs.org

BuzzFlash reports on "an astounding admission by a Washington Post writer who revealed the truth to Poynter.Org columnist Jim Romenesko: White House reporters have to have quotes that they publish, after 'background' interviews, approved by the Stalinist censors in the Rove/Fleischer office of White House Communications. Not only do the so-called reporters have to get approval before including the quotes in an article, the White House can alter the quotations and demand that they be printed as though they were the original quotations. As a strategy, Rove and Fleischer have White House Staff provide many interviews on 'background' so that then they can force the reporters to submit to the White House censors any quotations that they want to actually print. This admission by the Post Reporter further confirms that we have, in essence, a government controlled media operation mistakenly labeled as the White House Press Corps."

"A Cold War-era office with a shadowy name and a colorful history of exposing Soviet deceptions is back in business, this time watching Iraq. The Counter-Disinformation/Misinformation Team's moniker is more impressive than its budget. It's a crew of two toiling in anonymity at the State Department, writing reports they are prohibited by law from disseminating to the U.S. public." Yeah, but whose lies are we all supposed to believe?

Carol Brightman reports for GlobalVision News: "It's time to take a close look at the Defense Department's plan for managing the U.S. media during the impending invasion of Iraq. Called 'embedding,' it will position chosen reporters and photographers inside military units - not for a week but for the duration of the war... Whitman's boss, Victoria Clarke, offers the official answer. 'The fundamental principles on which we will say no, you can't transmit are operational security, success of the mission, and safety of the people involved.' Like Keck, she notes that 'somebody who is embedded with a unit has a full appreciation for that.' These are the principles that were invoked to silence the press during the first Gulf war, and are nearly always summoned in times of stress between public and military interests. It's when and by whom and how they're applied that makes a difference."

R.B Ham writes: "Observe, dear friends, as the psychological preamble to the next act of terror on North American soil is played out in front of our very noses. The web of deceit is currently being woven. What is so astonishing to me is the blatant Orwellian overkill in which our supposedly free press is currently engaging in. The mainstream media is using material supplied expressly by the Fourth Reich's propaganda ministry. Concurrently and obediently, all the top players are stepping up to the plate to do their part."

Now isn't this a "coincidence" (yeah, right): the Bush folks launched a slick Goebbels-style propaganda campaign in Indonesia this week devoted to showing just how peachy keen life is for Muslims in the good ole USA.... the same week, of course, the Bush folks tricked thousands of Muslim Americans into showing up to comply with a registration order so they could be arrested and detained, no doubt indefinitely, ala Stalinist Russia. Do these Cold War dinosaurs really think no one will notice that the propaganda is a cheap-shot smokescreen for their systematic racist targeting of Muslims around the world? Maybe that played OK in Peoria circa 1955, but not in 2002!!

The Bush Reich is considering issuing a secret directive to the American military to conduct covert operations aimed at influencing public opinion and policy makers in friendly and neutral countries, senior Pentagon and administration officials say. Among the possible tactics being schemed: setting up phony schools aimed to brainwashing young Muslims into the "American way" of religion and a revival of the Mockingbird program in which journalists would be paid to write pro-American propaganda, which would be planted in legitimate newspapers (As if that program actually ended in anything other than name!). The Rummy-Bush scheme has created a deep, bitter division between the conscienced and conscienceless at the Pentagon.