Opinion

Thanksgiving is upon us, and the traditional jocular soft news press releases about the president’s annual pardoning of a turkey are being prepared for distribution. Particularly with the current president, believed by many to be the real turkey, the subject lends itself to a lot of levity in the media, but this year a serious story about a human facing death at the hands of fellow humans has dominated the news instead. -more-

The theme of the week’s news is lying. President Bush and Vice-President Cheney have now shamelessly adopted the Big Lie technique perfected by Nazi propagandists. They have jointly and severally repeated not once but often their latest Big Lie, that they didn’t tell Congress earlier Big Lies in order to coerce a yes vote on going into Iraq. Senator Reid is calling them on it, though I haven’t yet seen Reid quoted as using the L-word, possibly because American politics tends toward genteel euphemisms. The British, who can be seen in parliamentary debate on late-night TV, have no such scruples. Tony Blair has been called a liar by members of his own party, by the British press, and by British bloggers, one of whom branded a particular Blair statement as “utter bollocks.” In fact, a Google search on “bush liar” or “blair liar” produces many charges against each of them. -more-