Historical background on the Lie Factory:
Remember the lead up to the Iraq War? The hype was thick and well orchestrated. Cheney's gal Friday, Judith Miller, was dishing his dirt in the New York Times from an anonymous source (Scooter Libby, pardoned by Bush), and he cited her articles as proof that his ballyhoo was substantiated by a venerable newspaper (no longer). The New York Times stood idly by, letting Cheney play this trick on the American public, anonomously corroborating himself via their reknown reporter (infamous now). The NY Times aided and abetted Cheney's artifice, which would unleash death and destruction on thousands, while sweetening the pot of special interests at our expense, without so much as a correction.
Many politicians got into the act, echoing Cheney's talking points on cue: sadly, on both sides of the aisle.
(See the Democratic member, along with his friend, John McCain, of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, who I outlined in bold letters from the webpage, Events Leading Up to the 2003 Invasion of Iraq/Military Analysts Propaganda.)
Two of NBC’s most familiar analysts, retired generals Barry McCaffrey and Wayne Downing, are on the advisory board of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, an advocacy group created with White House encouragement in 2002 to push for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. [New York Times, 4/20/2008] Additionally, McCaffrey is chief of BR McCaffrey Associates, which "provides strategic, analytic, and advocacy consulting services to businesses, non-profits, governments, and international organizations." [Washington Post, 4/21/2008] Other members include senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), and prominent neoconservatives Richard Perle and William Kristol. [Truthout (.org), 4/28/2008] Both McCaffrey and Downing head their own consulting firms and are board members of major defense contractors.
One of the first things the Pentagon did, according to the timeline, was hire an expert in Public Relations to help them sell a war that was completely unnecessary.
May 2001: Public Relations Expert Joins Pentagon
Victoria "Torie" Clarke joins the Defense Department. She is a public relations specialist who served as press secretary for President George H. W. Bush’s 1992 re-election campaign, worked closely with Senator John McCain (R-AZ), and was an Assistant US Trade Representative during the first Bush’s presidency.
There even was an Office of Special Plans to concoct and spread their conspiracy theories about mushroom clouds, WMDs, and a fanciful relationship between Al Qaeda and Iraq. The American public, force fed these talking points from so many different feeding tubes shoved down their throats, swallowed it whole, and low and behold a quagmire was born, benefitting the special interests, but toxic to the dreams of the American people, who unwittingly ingested the hallucinogenic KoolAid.
The politicians in Washington and the media have been working in concert. We are affronted by each and every salvo. Cokie's dig about Barack Obama's vacation to visit his sister and grandmother as looking "foreign." Her Akaka moment. The slip of the tongue so many newsmen make: a new speech impediment, confusing s with b, that even Freud would concede is not subconscious and Liz Trotta's unthinkably vicious joke. The lies about the pledge of allegiance and his religion that are reported as accepted truth.
When we try to fight back, our letters do not make it on their opinion page. We are herded into a pen, away from their cameras. Only the craziest stunts are photographed for their papers. They extract only statements that make us look bad, and leave any argument of substance on their cutting room floors. They edit out the gaffes made by their candidate while being interviewed by their anchorwoman, Katie Couric, and insert an answer to another question, without the integrity of a proper retraction.
They control the flow of information by monopolizing ownership of the media. They control the justice system by systematically firing fair judges and hiring lackeys, who have no respect for our Constitution or the law. And after they break the law, they retroactively immune themselves and their friends. Our Congressmen are not working for us, but for the special interests, who wine and dine them and fund their campaigns.
Most Americans are not aware of this stranglehold on our democracy, and some simply do not care. Many who do care have given up fighting a force, which seems to have us surrounded and unable to move, and have decided to just live their lives as best as they can.
The odds seem against us, with the media financially under their control, but we must soldier on and do the best we can fighting the p.r. war. We must win as many hearts and minds of our fellow Americans as we possibly can. We must encourage them to break free from their apathy and use their power. Remember: there are more of us than them, and if we could only use that safety in numbers, we could take our country back.
The time is right: The American public is angry with Bush & his puppeteers. Gas prices are putting a cramp in their standard of living. Foreclosures tell them that despite what the Republicans want us to think, all is not well. The war is costing taxpayers trillions of dollars that is not being spent on domestic necessities: levies, bridges, and affordable healthcare, to name a few, with devastating consequences.
The Republican lies broadcast via their mouthpieces in the media are now well known, and even though they get more air time, most people take what they say with a grain of salt. Their credibility has tanked.
We have a golden opportunity to reach We the People, and if we can somehow get them to phone their bought and paid for Congressmen in large numbers, we could trump the lobbyists' influence and democratically seize the power that citizens rightfully should have.
Toll free Capitol Switchboard phone #: 1-800-828-0498
Here are some battle plans with which to fight the p.r. war:
- When a true Democratic representative gets the mike, only speak our talking points, not theirs, no matter how hard the talking head tries to inject them. Stay focussed. Do not leave your script. Do not provide them with any off the cuff gaffe, ammunition to play on infinite loop that hurts our cause.
- Dress for success. Wear what they wear. When is the last time you saw William Kristol, a man who is hardly ever right, but somehow is taken seriously due to the way he speaks, looks, and acts, sporting a pony tail and wearing a pair of old jeans? He gets his crazy talking points across, not by wearing them printed on a t-shirt or with some kooky antic, but by talking in a low tone of voice and acting the part of an academic. He dresses for success, not ridicule.
When is the last time Nancy Pelosi was seen on camera with her bra or slip showing? She gets to outrageously take impeachment off the table, because she looks classy. Even though what she says is full of garbage, she never looks trashy.
We need to package ourselves to match our message, which is truth. We need to dress the way a lawyer would advise us to dress to defend ourselves in court. Afterall, we are in the court of public opinion, and we do not want the jury to cast a guilty verdict on our case due to a superficial visceral reaction to our appearance. This is something we can control and we must control if we are to be taken seriously and heard.
Besides, a Congressman doesn't care what a left wing hippie thinks, he cares what the average voter thinks. We waste our time if we walk in their office with a button that identifies us as being part of a small vocal group. But, if we walk in as an ordinary voter, who is moved to act by Congress's inaction against these war criminals, who have looted our treasury, it could scare them into throwing the real bums out, not the hippies who do sit-ins in their offices to no avail. Acting and dressing mainstream is a stealth attack, which can work, vs. falling on your sword, without winning one shred of accountability.
Oh, and here is the pie, homemade cherry:
Let's make the next one MMM Peach-Mint pie. We can do it if we get our ingredients: peaches, mint, and p.r. just right.