George W. Bush back in the spotlight as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee releases new information that proves that Bush Administration lied in run up to Iraq war, and CIA Director claims that torture techniques were authorized by President Bush personally.

Courtesy of AOL:  

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee released new information on Thursday that he claims is evidence that the Bush administration misled the nation in the run-up to the war in Iraq. 

In a speech on the Senate floor, retiring Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., outlined a 2003 CIA cable that warns George W. Bush administration officials against making references to claims that Mohammad Atta - the man who led the 9/11 hijackers - met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in the Czech Republic before the Sept. 11, 2011, attacks. Levin claims Bush officials used the unconfirmed meeting to link Iraq to 9/11 to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq. 

"There was a concerted campaign on the part of the Bush administration to connect Iraq in the public mind with the horror of the Sept. 11 attacks. That campaign succeeded," said Levin, who cited opinion polls from that time showing many Americans believed former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was involved in the attacks. "Of course, connections between Saddam and 9/11 or al-Qaida were fiction." 

He referenced a Dec. 9, 2001, appearance by Vice President Dick Cheney on "Meet the Press." Cheney said: "It's been pretty well confirmed that he (Atta) did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months before the attack." 

"Far from 'pretty well confirmed,' there was almost no evidence that such a meeting took place," Levin said. "Just a single, unsubstantiated report, from a single source, and a mountain of information indicating there was no such meeting. ... Travel and other records indicated that Atta was almost certainly in the United States at the time of the purported meeting in Prague."

Of course I am relatively certain that all of you already know that the Bush Administration lied us into the Iraq War. (And if you don't know that you need to drop everything and watch Hubris right now.)

However with all of the hubbub over the Senate report on torture right now it is a good time to remind ourselves that virtually everything we think we know about why we went to war in the first place is a lie.

And speaking of the torture report as I am sure many of you have heard, there is a concerted effort to convince the American people that President Bush himself was out of the loop when it came to the harshest interrogation techniques, but the CIA Director wants you to know that is all bullshit.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail:

The CIA's enhanced interrogation technique program was authorized by President George W. Bush, the bureau's current director John Brennan said on Thursday, and it had his full support. 

Brennan, who worked at the CIA at the time as a deputy to a high-ranking CIA official, told reporters that Bush ordered up the program six days after al Qaeda attacked America, despite the fact that the spy agency did not have adequate space to house detainees nor did it have the correct training to interrogate them. 

'In many respects the program was uncharted territory for the CIA, and we were not prepared,' he said, later stating that officers 'inadequately developed and monitored' the program and 'the agency failed to establish quickly the operational guidelines needed to govern the entire effort.' 

Brennan also said that whether or not these "enhanced interrogation techniques" provided any intelligence that could not have been gathered without them is "an unknowable fact."

So to sum up, the Bush Administration lied us into a war that cost thousands of American lives, and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Iraqi lives. Bush ordered the use of  torture techniques even before we had captives on which to use them. And yet to hear the conservatives tell it President Obama is the one who has tried to "fundamentally change this country."

Simply put, George W. Bush is a criminal and a traitor to his country.

Darren Wilson did NOT know about the convenience store robbery when he confronted Michael Brown on the streets of Ferguson. Update!

Courtesy of the Daily Mail:  

In Wilson's now very public account of his encounter with Michael Brown and Dorian Johnson on August 9 he has claimed that he asked Brown and Wilson to move to the sidewalk rather than walk in the street. 

When they walked on, Wilson has repeatedly stated, he realized they matched the description of two suspects wanted in connection with the robbery of nearby Ferguson Market. A youth matching Brown's description had stolen a box of Swishers cigarillos. 

It was this realization, he stated, that caused him to reverse his vehicle and sparked the car-side confrontation that left Brown dead on the street with six bullets in his body. 

But the sworn testimony of Wilson's squad supervisor directly contradicts this account. 

Wilson's supervisor was the first officer to speak with the 28-year-old cop following the shooting. The men spoke before St Louis County Police had even been notified of the incident and before the medical examiner or investigating officers had arrived on the scene. 

At that time, the supervisor said:'He [Wilson] did not know anything about the stealing call.' 

When pressed by the attorney questioning him, the officer reiterated that Wilson, 'did not know anything'. 

Asked, 'He told you he didn't know about there being a stealing at Ferguson Market?' 

The officer responded, 'Correct.' 

Now this is a key fact because, number one it proves that Wilson was not responding to a person that he knew to be violent, and number two it proves that Wilson lied to the Grand Jury. 

And the part that I found particularly enlightening was that in fact Wilson could NOT have known about the robbery because the call came in AFTER the shooting had already taken place.

(Update: Okay somebody asked me how I know that the robbery call came in after the shooting. In point of fact I described that poorly. What I meant to say was that it was unlikely that other officers would be looking out for Brown as the responding officer only received the call after 11:54, which is immediately after the robbery took place. He then had to drive to the convenience, conduct his interview (At which time he received a more detailed description.) Brown was shot dead at 12:01 which means that quite literally this officer was probably in the process of conducting his investigation.  And as this was a low priority, unarmed, snatch and grab it is very unlikely that he called for assistance or put out an APB.)

And remember 15 witnesses said that Michael Brown was running away when Wilson started firing at him, and 16 said he had his hands up before the last bullets were fired.

I think at this point the Justice Department has no choice but to launch their own investigation.

This whole thing stinks like crazy.

If you did not see Rachel Maddow yesterday trotting out all of the misinformation that has been inflicted upon us by the conservative media, then you really must stop and watch it now.

Click image to play video

Okay seriously how many of these examples had you missed or completely forgotten about?

And Breitbart news...Breitbart News should rename itself the "Conservative Onion" so that people will know that they are NEVER to be taken seriously as a news outlet, ever!

I think that Rachel should to a follow up piece about all the stories that the conservative media reported correctly that was ignored by the regular media.

Of course that will only be about two minutes long, but in the interest of fairness.....

Bristol Palin's ghostwriter helps her to tell HER side of the drunken brawl. Spoiler alert: Bristol is an innocent victim. Update!

"He had his hands on me, pushing me down.  That’s when I swung and hit his face."

So the Palin family is calling in all of their apologists to help spin the drunken brawl story their way.

This includes Bristol's blog writer Nancy French. who essentially weaves a tale of woe that has little in common with the facts as we know them. The title of this revisionist history is "The Truth about the “Palin Brawl” – The Media Reveals Its Bias Against Conservative Women Once Again."

Okay buckle up because you know there are going to be plenty of sharp turns and sudden stops in this wild ride.

First she starts off listing all of "lies" told about the Palin family.

Such as that Trig is not Sarah's son. (Of course he is. She adopted him.)

That they can see Russia from their house. (Not anymore I think Putin is building a wall to specifically keep from horrified by their antics.)

And that her parents are, and no I am not typing this wrong, "giving" a divorce.

After that Brancy attempts to paint their masterpiece of mendacity....with their fingers apparently.

First off it seems that Bristol is blaming the attack on Steve Lebida on Connor Cleary, who she claims was tweeting that now infamous phrase "About to be famous up in this bitch" DURING the party on September 6th.

However that tweet did not come out until September the eleventh. So I think we can all safely call bullshit on this one.

Bristol goes on to claim that it was Connor's mother who pushed Willow. (Does anybody else find it interesting that now she claims to know who this was, after telling the police she had no idea of the woman's name or age?)

So in Bristol's story she was in the limo when Willow came up to her crying after being pushed down by this lady. (Connor Cleary's mom in this story.)

Well Bristol could not let that slide because, and these are Brancy's words, "Next to God, family is the most important thing to me."

I am going to cut and paste this next part for accuracy, as I don't want to get any of the carefully crafted wording wrong:

After I got out of the car, I didn’t get far. I never even got to talk to his mom, because a guy in his late thirties or early forties got in my face. He was towering over me – probably at 6 foot something and over 200 pounds. He puffed his chest out and started yelling. 

“You c-nt!” he looked right in my eyes and said. “Get the f-ck out of here, you slut!” 

I was alarmed that things had gotten so bad so fast. But it got even worse when this guy started pushing me. He had his hands on me, pushing me down. That’s when I swung and hit his face. 

Some would say I should’ve never retaliated in defense against him, but certainly he should never have pushed a girl. It didn’t phase him. He pushed me down to the ground and kept me there. 

It was scary and awful. He held me down until someone got me out of the situation. 

That’s it – that’s the story. 

I didn’t “swing and hit him seven times with a strong right hook” as so many so-called news stories have reported. After this incident, I still had a perfect manicure on all ten of my nails. Plus – I’m left handed. I wouldn’t even begin to know how to begin “swinging” at someone. 

The incident was scary and infuriating. I had bruises all over me from being pushed down.

(The above is exactly how this is written on the blog right now. I want you all to remember that in case it gets changed later.)

Okay so to be clear this, in no way, reflects the version told by seven eyewitnesses and Korey Klingenmeyer himself.  However the Palins believe that because of their infamy and money THEY can change the narrative and the press will simply eat it up. (P.S. For those who want to compare this fantasy to the facts, just click here.)

From there Brancy dares to compare how this incident is being covered to the media response concerning news about Joe Biden's son or coverage of the Clintons.

The last part goes like this:  

But it wasn’t Chelsea. 

It wasn’t Hillary. 

It wasn’t someone they liked or someone they agreed with. 

It was a conservative. 

And once again, the hypocrisy of the media is laid bare.

Just so you know I was able to get a message out to Korey Klingenmeyer yesterday through a few connections, that he needed to seriously consider getting a lawyer and pressing charges. 

I would give the same advice to the Cleary family as well.

The Palins survive because people are too afraid to stand up to them.

Well if they don't nobody will. And the time is now.

Right fucking now.

Update: Brancy has now added a report from CNN for which she takes great umbrage.

Update 2: Unbelievably Carol Costello of CNN is now apologizing for her remarks (Warning, link takes you to Breitbart.):

"Over the past few days I have been roundly criticized for joking about a brawl involving the Palin family," Costello writes. "In retrospect, I deserve such criticism and would like to apologize."

According to CNN she will NOT be apologizing on the air.

But still WTF?