The Con is On

We know about the plastic turkey that Bush held on a platter during one of his staged surpise visits to Iraq a few years back, and anyone paying attention realizes that this entire war was, is, and continues to be sold as if it were some new salty snack food, complete with a group organized in the White House with the sole job of "selling" the war, and a 24/7 propaganda mill within the Pentagon set up to to shill for, and give political cover to, Bush and pals. (of course YOUR tax dollars pay for this.) They refer to it as a "war room", but the only war they're waging is on reality and on your right to know the truth.

Remember all the right wing congressmen you've heard spouting about their visits to the market, and how it was "proof" that violence was down, etc? Sure, it was laughable, as when Lindsey Graham and John McCain strolled through the market wearing body armor, surrounded by a platoon of troops, with 7 attack helicopters circling overhead. Lindsey even picked up a few rugs - cheap.

Then we had some bumpkin Republican congressman get whacked around by Wolf Blitzer of all people when he started trying to recite the new White House talking points and describing how his visit to Iraq certainly convinced HIM that everything was going great there. Heck, it was almost like walking down the streets of a small midwestern town.

But Wolf had to go a spoil it by pointing out it was a pentagon guided tour, and that he was likely heavily protected. Well, the Republican admitted, there was an entire PLATOON of marines surrounding him.

But that's not the kicker. It's this:

A more elaborate example of administration Disneyland can be found in those bubbly Baghdad markets visited by John McCain and other dignitaries whenever the cameras roll. Last week The Washington Post discovered that at least one of them, the Dora market, is a Potemkin village, open only a few hours a day and produced by $2,500 grants (a k a bribes) bestowed on the shopkeepers. "This is General Petraeus's baby," Staff Sgt. Josh Campbell told The Post. "Personally, I think it's a false impression." Another U.S. officer said that even shops that "sell dust" or merely "intend to sell goods" are included in the Pentagon's count of the market's reopened businesses.

It makes you proud to be an American when you realize that this crew has spent years and billions of your money to manufacture bullshit and then turn around and try to get you to swallow it. You paid for it. Does it taste good?