Plausible deniability in the News

Here's another good example of Bill O'Reilly's pathological self-removal from reality.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200602170008

Last week, O'Reilly said, well, he said lots of things. But this is one of the stupidest/funniest: with regard to allegations that Cheney had been drinking and/or drunk when he shot his lawyer pal Whittington, O'Reilly said that if anyone was to see someone on television discussing those allegations "you've got to click that off and never watch them again because there you have defamation -- character assassination based on nothing."

He must not have watched Brit Hume's interview with Cheney last Tuesday, when Cheney acknowledged having a beer with lunch.

And to top it off, later in the evening, Fox's very own political analyst Dick Morris brought the subject up and said, "[Cheney] admitted to drinking at lunch," and there's been no clarification as to what exactly happened afterward in terms of alcohol consumption, and none of the eyewitnesses to the entire afternoon will say a thing. This is all according to Morris.

Hey, Bill, better talk to Murdoch about shuttin' that troublemaker up. Crazy liberals.

And though I think this whole story, while compelling, is ultimately pretty trite, one interesting facet of the scene has been the total collapse of any coherent version of events from any quarter. The one thing Cheney's accomplished by shooting a 78-year-old man is to demonstrate how fluid and absolutely full of shit political cover stories are. There were spins on the spins. First it's Whittington's fault. Then it's Cheney's fault, but he's really sorry. And nobody was drinking anything except Dr. Pepper. Oops, wait, no, we forgot to mention Dick had a brewsky. Just one. We promise. What about Whittington? Oh, he took a few hits off the peace pipe, but no booze. Honestly.

a good summary of the monstrous fuckups and complications from most everyone involved:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200602160007

Oh, Dick, what have you done? And can we please get over this whole thing? Seriously, these fuckers have lied and contorted the truth on any number of much more serious matters. Let's get back to those stories.

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Like this one:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/19/AR2006021901031_pf.html

Senator Rockefeller said of the White House's intrusion onto the House Intelligence Committee's meetings over shrub's supposedly illegal wiretaps: "The White House has applied heavy pressure in recent weeks to prevent the committee from doing its job."

In other words, they're still trying to cover their asses, which is a good sign, because it means they still think they're in trouble. Keep it up, Rocky.

***

And as a postscript to the earlier posting about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez:

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060219162909990010

Chavez had this to say to Condoleeza Rice: "Don't mess with me, girl."

HA! BIATCH! GIT DOWN!

I can see it now: the latin socialist punk versus the house negro. Oh, lordy...

Fried chicken and collard greens. Oh, and some corn bread.