"Jim," wrote in message
...
Midnight cowboy in the garden of Bush and evil
The phony journalist in the White House is the most bizarre example yet of
the administration's efforts to thwart an independent press.

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By Sidney Blumenthal



Feb. 17, 2005 | The White House press room has often been a cockpit of
intrigue, duplicity and truckling. But nothing imagined on "The West
Wing," or occurring before in the actual West Wing, challenges the most
recent scandal there in phantasmagorical possibility.

The latest incident began with a sequence of questions for President Bush
at his Jan. 26 press conference. First, he was asked whether he approved
of his administration's payments to conservative commentators. Government
contracts had been granted to three pundits, who had tried to keep the
funding hidden. "There needs to be a nice, independent relationship
between the White House and the press," said the president as he swiftly
called on his next questioner.

A man then known as Jeff Gannon, Washington bureau chief of Talon News,
rose from his chair to speak in a way that did not seem designed to elicit
information. "Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture
of the U.S. economy. Harry Reid was talking about soup lines, and Hillary
Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet,
in the same breath, they say that Social Security is rock solid and
there's no crisis there. How are you going to work -- you said you're
going to reach out to these people -- how are you going to work with
people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"

Each of his assertions was false, gleaned from right-wing talk radio,
where Gannon himself was frequently quoted and highlighted as an expert
guest.

Seems reasonable to me, My Mother was quoting Democrats about how Bush was
going to bankrupt
Social Security before the 1st election, double that on the second. When I
pointed out recently that the Democrats are now saying that SS would be
solvent until 2045, How could they have said that it was in crisis then and
now it's solvent?????

This scared my Mother and caused her and many others to vote for Gore then
Kerry. Was this a LIE?

When the Republicans feel they have to have their own press to highlight the
Lies told on the left then this country is in a sad state.