An Epidemic Syndrome - Lying Bastard Fatigue

Rant Warning

It's official. The United States is currently suffering an epidemic of Lying Bastard Fatigue. It is caused by an overdose of Lying Bastards in the body politic.

We, and the world in general who must put up with them being de facto rulers without ever voting for them, are tired and sick at heart of the lying bastards who call themselves our leaders and the sycophantic goons who would allow any lie by those glorious annointed ones.

There have been lies over Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, "Homeland" security, Israel's influence, Katrina reconstruction, warrantless wiretapping, campaign finance corruption, lobbying graft, torture, rendition, election fixing, threatening the Supreme Court and even Christmas! That's not even close to a complete list!

Now come the lies about another of Bush's Lying Leaks.

Court papers filed late Wednesday by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald quote Libby as telling a grand jury that Bush, via Cheney, authorized him to reveal the key judgments of a National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to New York Times reporter Judith Miller. The president and vice president have virtually unlimited legal authority to declassify government secrets.

The White House spin on this, mindlessly repeated by their cheerleading squad, hinge on the last sentence above. "It's not a leak because it's legal, the President can't leak!" is paired with "The information was declassified to rebut political claims against the President". In their hearts, they must know that they have contracted Lying Bastardness by defending Bush with this flimsiest of excuses. I am sure they recall, as do Greg Sargent at Tapped (a very succinct deconstruction of the spin, there) and The Gun Toting Liberal, that Bush has uttered many statements over the Plamegate "leaks" - all technically truthful if he believed that he himself cannot leak - that give the lie to the spirit of his words and actions.

President Bush, 9/30/03:

“I don’t know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I’d like to know it, and we’ll take the appropriate action.”

President Bush, 9/30/03:

“If there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of. . . . I have told our administration, people in my administration to be fully cooperative. I want to know the truth. If anybody has got any information inside our administration or outside our administration, it would be helpful if they came forward with the information so we can find out whether or not these allegations are true and get on about the business.”

President Bush, 10/28/03:

“I’d like to know if somebody in my White House did leak sensitive information.”

President Bush, 6/10/04:

Reporter: “Do you stand by your pledge to fire anyone found to have done so?”

President Bush: “Yes. And that’s up to the U.S. Attorney to find the facts.”

At least 36% of the populace are carriers of the underlying cause of Lying Bastard Fatigue and the syndrome has been seen to spread into other areas of the body politic after first infection.

Kevin at Preemptive Karma is asking for a blogswarm on the subject, in the hope that the Democrat leadership will get off their asses and actually do something about Lying Bastard Fatigue and it's root causes. The trouble is - most are themselves carriers of this syndrome and have been infecting those they come into contact with for years now. Lying Bastardness crosses party boundaries.

Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) is under federal investigation over the exact uses of $250 million of taxpayers money he "earmarked" into five nonprofit organizations that he set up. He is the senior Democrat on the House ethics committee. A criminal bribery investigation is also under way into Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA).

And Lying Bastard Fatigue can be fatal to many - especially if they are poor or if they live in a fireign oil-rich nation. Witness the Booman Tribune's excellent diagnosis of the underlying Lying Bastardness of the rush to war in Iran.

There are anti-viruses, like the Texan Ron Paul, but they are losing the battle against such a widespread infection.

The only answer may well be to purge the body politic of all sources of infection. If the politicians don't like it then they can elect another people, yeah? Same for the media too.

Update Kevin from Preemptive Karma, in comments, puts me right on his post:

Actually, my call isn't to prod the Dem leadership as much as it is to prod the media. I agree with your criticism of the Dem leadership and it's not by accident that I'm not a Democrat. The media, particularly editorial commentaries, often prod the policos more effectively than anything else. Which is why I suggest writing a letter to the editor of one's local newspaper.

And also adds that, where Lying Bastard Fatigue is concerned, "It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness."

Thanks Kevin and I agree, which is why I am still writing Newshog. Hopefully it casts a tiny glow of its own.