Knowing ignorance is strength.

Ignoring knowledge is sickness.

If one is sick of sickness, then one is not sick.

The Sage is not sick because he is sick of sickness.

Therefore he is not sick.

Tao Te Ching  (Ch-71)

To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.

Confucius*

Tony Snow visited with homey John Gibson today 10/24/06 on The Big Story to spin the White House's decision to abandon the "stay the course" "strategy" and motto as the mid-term elections loom and American sentiment grows increasingly against the war in Iraq. Defending the Bush administration from charges of lying in denying the use of the phrase, Snow said researchers came up with "only" eight uses of the phrase and charges Democrats with repeating it hundreds of times "to try to characterize our policy." It's sort of like Republicans (and FOX talking heads) repeating the "cut and run" mantra attributed to Democrats, with the subtle but crucial difference that there is no record of ANY Democrat ever saying that.   He proceeded to say that we've been through a recession, 9/11, a corporate scandal, two wars, Katrina, and Americans, by working hard and also getting tax cuts, have managed to make their way out of it. Now when the middle class is beginning to feel it, with more money in their bank accounts and just feeling prosperous, Democrats want to come snatch it away. One more thing, since Gibson brought up Social Security (I guess Snow is playing after all) - in the next two years Bush will take on "entitlements" because he's bold and willing to take the hits (and a lame duck), not just looking at the past.

Snow asserts confidence that Republicans will win all the key races and maintain their hold on both houses of Congress because they have better arguments and candidates, and they have a message and all Democrats have are lists of complaints, and people going to the polls will ask themselves 'who's really thinking about how America should look tomtomorrow?"http://www.newshounds.us/2006/10/24/tony_snow_characterizes_stay_the_course_as_dynamic_and_aggressive_approach.php

No, Tony was just snowing us again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkrucUUNhdA

Keith O demonstrated that on 29 occasions THE PRESIDENT SAID STAY THE COURSE. That does not include the number of times during the same period that Condi said: WE WILL STAY THE COURSE. Or the number of times Tony Snow said: WE WILL STAY THE COURSE. Or the number of times dickyc said: WE WILL STAY THE COURSE and of course every other representative of the WH at that time...

Do not forget those days. I get to angry to go back to the lies concerning the initiation of the Iraqi war, at least today. But this period in the w WH was so funny at the time and much funnier now.

Things are going well in Iraq.

The American People are now feeling that joy of having money in their pockets once again. MAKE THAT THE MIDDLE CLASS AS SNOW WISHED TO PUT IT. And what a goddamnable line that was, remember.

Of course it was during this period that w and his minions were beginning to see the writing on the wall. Soon they would witness the end of the repub party. That is what the inside pollers were telling them.

They lied about their own lies.

A course is a course of course of course

And no one will stay on the wrong course of course

Unless of course the source of course

Is the famous mr. w

Go right to the source

And find the course

He'll give you the answer that

He thinks you'll endorse

Unless of course

The polls say nobody wants to stay the goddamnable course.

So we never said "stay the course."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFBWSZM0ksA

I had to laugh today when I saw reruns of our current Press Secretary going point by point as to how the Vice President was spewing out falsehoods one at a time during his recent interview.

I thought WHAT HAS UNCLE JOE BIDEN BEEN SAYING NOW?

He was referring of course to cheney.

"I just think it's an outrageous political act that will do great damage, long term, to our capacity to be able to have people take on difficult jobs, make difficult decisions, without having to worry about what the next administration is going to say," Cheney said in an interview aired on "Fox News Sunday."

But Cheney, in his Fox interview, said the review "offends the hell out of me, frankly." He explained: "[W]e had a track record now of eight years of defending the nation against any further mass casualty attacks from Al Qaeda. The approach of the Obama administration should be to come to those people who were involved in that policy and say, how did you do it? What were the keys to keeping this country safe over that period of time? http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/08/cheney_says_he_and_bush_disagreed_at_times.php?ref=fpb

As ABC News reported in April 2008, for instance, top Bush aides including Cheney met in the White House basement to micromanage the application of waterboarding and other torture techniques starting immediately after the CIA captured Abu Zubaydah, the low-level al Qaeda operative whose false confessions sent hundreds of CIA and FBI investigators chasing after imaginary threats. ABC reported that the CIA briefed the White House group on its plans to use aggressive techniques against Zubaydah and received explicit ap           http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/31/cheney-still-manipulating_n_273034.html

Take some time and read James Carroll.  http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-08-30/cheney-wins/2/ 

Cheney's role in the administration of George W. Bush is well known, from his self-appointment as vice president, to his coup-like marginalizing of Bush on 9/11, to his key role in defining America's response to al Qaeda's heinous crime as war, to his falsification of reasons for the 2003 war against Iraq. The short of it is that America's two largest foreign-policy problems today--the doomed war in Afghanistan and the unresolved moral catastrophe of Guantanamo--both begin with Cheney. And why should it surprise that, unlike his all-but-forgotten henchmen Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, Libby, and Addington, he is still in the nation's face, advocating the continuation of his gravest mistakes? Where he started out aiming apparently only to defend his legacy, the old maestro of the outmoded response has wound up influencing policy once again.

You see the tactics are the same whether the bastards are in power or not.  Lie, repeat the lie and of course send others out to repeat the lies:

Indeed. Here's a look at some of the recent times Cheney has strayed from the truth:

• On July 21, Cheney defended the Birther movement on CNN's "Larry King Live" -- despite the fact that those behind the movement and their claims about President Obama's birth certificate have been thoroughly debunked.
• On July 13, when it was revealed that former Vice President Cheney directed the CIA to keep information on a secret program to assassinate al-Qaida leaders from Congress for eight years, some Democrats called for an investigation into the matter. In response,  Liz Cheney misrepresented what Democrats wanted to look into and told the Washington Times, "I am really surprised that the Democrats decide that that's what they want to fight over. I mean, if they want to go to the American people and say that they disagree with the notion that we ought to be capturing and killing al-Qaida leaders, I think it's just going to prove to the American people one more time why they can't trust the Democrats with our national security."
• During an appearance on CNN on June 10, Cheney blasted Obama for his foreign policy positions. She said, "I would say one of the things that is troubling to Americans, I think, is the extent to which this administration is focused on the president's popularity overseas. We've now seen several different occasions when he's been on the international trips, where he's not willing to say, flat out, 'I believe in American exceptionalism. I believe unequivocally, unapologetically, America is the best nation that ever existed in history, and clearly that exists today.'" However, as the Washington Monthly's Steve Benen pointed out at the time, on April 5, Obama in fact stated clearly, "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism. I'm enormously proud of my country and its role and history in the world."
• Salon's Joan Walsh took her on for a variety of false claims during an appearance on CNN on June 9. Cheney argued that Obama's decision to close Guantánamo and possibly bring the detainees still held there to U.S. soil to stand trial would "make us less safe." Walsh  pointed out that in 2006, President Bush had advocated for the very same thing, which Cheney denied, despite all evidence to the contrary. Walsh also discussed the numerous former Bush officials who are staunchly in favor of closing Guantánamo even as Cheney tried to depict the closing of the prison as a completely partisan decision.
• On June 4, Cheney appeared on NBC and said that her father never made a link between 9/11 and Iraq in justifying the decision of the U.S. to oust Saddam Hussein from power. This is flatly false.   http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/08/31/big_liar/

This is what I get from Huffpo:

Sam Donaldson and Liz Cheney spiritedly debated the decision by Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate whether or not torture occurred during CIA interrogations of terrorist suspects. Cheney took the position that this matter had already been investigated, with the conclusion being no illegal activity had taken place.

Donaldson countered that the investigations had been undertaken by the Bush Justice Department, an agency that became notoriously political during Bush's administration, and that a fresh investigation is needed  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/30/sam-donaldson-spars-with_n_272257.html

That is not a spirited debate. That is a screaming match between an old man wearing an atrocious rug with Alzheimer's and a goddamn liar.

Now we have people claiming that we need to discuss the issues, use adequate sources and some logic and come to some agreement.  These repubs are not people. Certainly not the type of mammals one might wish to reason with.

Now, three years ago, these tactics DID NOT WORK.  But take a look at this:

Pointing to Cheney's strong favorability rating among Republicans (66 percent in a May 2009 poll compared to Colin Powell's 64 percent), McLaughlin also noted that the former vice president has a strong political platform from which to test the electoral waters.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/01/cheney-in-2012-some-key-g_n_273470.html

Fine, work a bit. Research and cite your sources. And prepare for a decent debate.

I swiped this gem from Miguel who like Q hides the gems in the midst of threads:

BUT NOT WITH THE GODDAMN FASCISTS WHO CONTROL AND ARE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

*http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Confucius/