In case anyone needs some good perspective to forward to the 34% of the country who still haven't figured things out yet...
In George Orwell's 1984, these were the slogans of the controlling party:
- War is Peace
- Freedom is Slavery
- Ignorance is Strength
In order to ensure ignorance of the populace:
History was Rewritten and Propaganda was Used
In order to manipulate enemies:
Torture was Used
In order to keep party grip on power:
Science and Technology were Shunned
In order to stifle dissent:
Citizens were Subject to Surveillance
In order to quell the populace's desire for individual growth:
Socio-Economic Class Differences Were Reinforced
In order to maintain a hierarchical society:
Standards of Living were Forced to Remain Stagnant
In order to keep standards of living stagnant:
Perpetual War was Fought to Waste Surplus Industrial Production
War is Peace
Bush Outlines Best Chance for Peace
The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.
Bush Thanks Those He has Chosen for the Job of Expanding Freedom
"The men and women who wear the uniform today are protecting our nation and upholding our way of life," Bush told the veterans. "You have earned the respect of our citizens, and so on behalf of a grateful nation, thank you for your service for the cause of freedom and peace."
Bush States There is no Peace Without Victory
In Iraq, there is no peace without victory
Bush: War is Peace
"I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace."
Freedom is Slavery
Bush Defends Patriot Act
"The Patriot Act defends our liberty," Mr. Bush has said. "The Patriot Act makes it able for those of us in positions of responsibility to defend the liberty of the American people. It's essential law."
Others Disagree
Eight states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana and Vermont) and 396 cities and counties (including New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Eugene, Oregon, Philadelphia, and Cambridge, Massachusetts) have passed resolutions condemning the Act for attacking civil liberties.
Ignorance is Strength
Bush Proud He Doesn't Think About Stuff
"I'm also not very analytical. You know I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself, about why I do things."
Bush Not Interested in Reading Newspapers
He walks into the Oval Office in the morning, Bush said, and asks Card: "What's in the newspapers worth worrying about? I glance at the headlines just to kind of (get) a flavor of what's moving," Bush said. "I rarely read the stories," he said.
Bush Proud of C Average in College
Bush himself jokes about his mediocre grades. At the 2001 Yale commencement ceremony, the president said, "To those of you who received honors, awards and distinctions, I say, well done. And to the C students -- I say, you, too, can be president of the United States."
History is Rewritten and Propaganda is Used
Bush Explains Why US Went to War With Iraq
The United Nations passed a Security Council resolution unanimously that said, disarm or face serious consequences. And he refused to disarm.
The UN Weapons Inspector Saw it Differently
The leaders of the United States and Britain failed to exercise "critical judgment" in going to war against Iraq a year ago despite the lack of hard evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, says Hans Blix, the former chief United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq.
...Blix, whose new book is called Disarming Iraq, says he became doubtful about the existence of Iraqi WMD in January 2003. He says U.N. inspectors visited locations in Iraq that intelligence had indicated "as places where there would be weapons. And in none of these cases did we find any weapons."
Bush says we Found WMD
"We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them."
US Weapons Inspector Disagreed
David Kay, who resigned last week as the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, now says he didn't find stockpiles of WMD -- or evidence of a nuclear program well under way in Saddam Hussein's Iraq -- and he blames it on a greatly flawed intelligence system and analysis.
Bush States US Healthcare System is Working Great
"Our healthcare system is the envy of the world"
Most Disagree
U.S. has most expensive medical care in the world. Conventional wisdom tells us that we "get what we pay for." That's supposed to mean the more something costs, the better it is. That definitely isn't the case with health care in America. According to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), Americans are paying more but getting less.
Bush Congratulates FEMA Director for Work on Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts
Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.
Congress Disagrees
"It remains difficult to understand how government could respond so ineffectively to a disaster that was anticipated for years, and for which specific dire warnings had been issued for days. This crisis was not only predictable, it was predicted," the committee said in the report. "If 9/11 was a failure of imagination, then Katrina was a failure of initiative. It was a failure of leadership."
Bush Describes his Communication Style
See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.
Bush Links Saddam Hussein to 9/11
Before September the 11th, many in the world believed that Saddam Hussein could be contained. But chemical agents, lethal viruses and shadowy terrorist networks are not easily contained.
Torture is Used
Abu Ghraib, Iraq
Taguba's report cited numerous examples of inmate abuse, including:
Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet.
Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees.
Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing.
Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time.
Forcing naked male detainees to wear women's underwear.
Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate while being photographed and videotaped.
Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them.
Positioning a naked detainee on a MRE Box, with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture.
A detainee forced to stand on boxesWriting "I am a Rapeist" [sic] on the leg of a detainee alleged to have raped a 15-year old fellow detainee, and then photographing him naked.
Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee's neck and having a female soldier pose for a picture.
A male MP guard raping a female detainee.
Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees and MPs posing with cheerful looks.
Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees.
Threatening detainees with a loaded 9mm pistol.
Pouring cold water on naked detainees.
Beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair.
Threatening male detainees with rape.
Allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell.
Sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick.
Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting and severely injuring a detainee.
Bagram, Afghanistan
In November 2002, the CIA was reportedly involved in the torture and killing of a detainee in Afghanistan. A CIA case officer at the "Salt Pit," a secret U.S.-run prison just north of Kabul, ordered guards to "strip naked an uncooperative young Afghan detainee, chain him to the concrete floor and leave him there overnight without blankets," the Washington Post reported on March 3, after interviewing four government officials familiar with the case. According to the article, Afghan guards "paid by the CIA and working under CIA supervision" dragged the prisoner around the concrete floor of the facility, "bruising and scraping his skin," before placing him in a cell for the night without clothes. An autopsy by a medic listed "hypothermia" as the cause of death, and the man was buried in an "unmarked, unacknowledged cemetery." A U.S. government official interviewed told the Post: "He just disappeared from the face of the earth."
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
Washington has, for the first time, acknowledged to the United Nations that prisoners have been tortured at US detention centres in Guantanamo Bay.
Science and Technology are Shunned
Bush Disagrees With Scientific Theory
Well, the jury is still out on evolution, you know.
Bush Disses Global Warming Report
President Bush dismissed on Tuesday a report put out by his administration warning that human activities are behind climate change that is having significant effects on the environment..."I read the report put out by the bureaucracy," Mr. Bush said dismissively when asked about the EPA report, adding that he still opposes the Kyoto treaty.
Bush Against Stem Cell Research
I made it very clear to the Congress that the use of federal money, taxpayers' money to promote science which destroys life in order to save life is - I'm against that. And therefore, if the bill does that, I will veto it.
Citizens are Subject to Surveillance
Bush Defends Warrantless Wiretapping
Though the disclosure of the covert domestic spying program has caused concern among both Democrats and Republicans, with some calling for hearings into whether it violates the Constitution, Bush vigorously defended his right to order the program, which he said he has renewed more than 30 times.
Socio-Economic Class Differences Are Reinforced
Bush Tax Cuts Favor Wealthy
President Bush's tax cuts since 2001 have shifted more of the tax burden from the nation's rich to middle-class families, according to a study released Friday by the Congressional Budget Office. The tax rate declined across all income levels -- but more so in the top brackets, the report said.
Wage Gap Widens
The Congressional Budget Office says the income gap in the United States is now the widest in 75 years.
Standards of Living are Stagnant
As of 2004, Real Wage Growth is Negative Since 2001
Average family incomes, after adjusting for inflation, fell to $70,700 in 2004, a drop of 2.3 percent when compared with 2001. That was the weakest showing since a decline of 11.3 percent from 1989 to 1992, a period that also covered a recession.
Personal Savings Rate Drops to Zero
The U.S. personal saving rate marked an inglorious milestone in June, dropping to zero percent, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis reported last week.
As a Result, Americans Go Into Debt
Outstanding balances on credit cards have risen to more than $800 billion, or some $7,200 per U.S. household. That's the equivalent of three plasma televisions, or 24 iPod digital music players, or more than 1,200 Big Mac meals. It's more than double the indebtedness of a decade ago ---- and it doesn't include an additional $1.3 trillion in debt for cars, appliances and personal loans.
Perpetual War is Wasting Surplus Industrial Production
Bush Defines Duration of War as Generational
Our own generation is in a long war against a determined enemy -- a war that will be fought by presidents of both parties, who will need steady bipartisan support from the Congress.
3/2003, Bush Asks for $75 Billion for Iraq, Can't Predict Length of War
President Bush, asking Congress for $74.7 billion to pay for six months of combat, said Monday that coalition forces are "on a steady advance" in Iraq but said he could not predict how long the war will last.
9/2003, Bush Asks for $87 Billion for Iraq
President Bush told the nation Sunday he needed an additional $87 billion to pay for military and intelligence operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, describing Iraq as the "central front" on the war on terror.
5/2004, Bush Asks for $25 Billion for Iraq
Calling it a "high priority," President Bush on Wednesday asked Congress for an additional $25 billion to cover military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
1/2005, Bush Asks for $80 Billion for Iraq
President Bush is asking Congress for an additional $80 billion -- most of which would pay for the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
2/2006, Bush to Ask for $120 Billion for Iraq
The Bush administration said Thursday it will ask Congress for $120 billion more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
2 Wars? Heck, Let's Make it Three
President Bush said on Monday he would not rule out military action against Iran if that country was not more forthcoming about its suspected nuclear weapons program. "I hope we can solve it diplomatically, but I will never take any option off the table," Bush said in an interview with NBC News when asked if he would rule out the potential for military action against Iran "if it continues to stonewall the international community about the existence of its nuclear weapons program."
Jeb isn't the only one who should be calling Bush "Big Brother"