Public distrust in US government reaches tipping point

You know your government is in trouble when the public no longer accepts the government’s explanation for what happened during the worst attack on American soil.

Many potential jurors in the Jose Padilla terrorism-support case say they aren’t sure who directed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks because they don’t trust reporters or the federal government.

“There are too many ifs, too many things going on,” one male juror said. “I don’t know the whole story.”

And Swopa at Firedoglake illustrates how the Al Qaeda boogie man has lost it’s mojo even with right wing elements of the US media.

Via Steve Benen, here’s Dana Milbank in the Washington Post today, proving that Dubya truly believes in recycling:

President Bush is at odds with the American public and a restive congressional majority over the Iraq war, and even some Republicans talk about imposing new requirements that could trigger a troop withdrawal.

It’s time to play the Qaeda card.

In a speech about Iraq yesterday morning at the Willard Hotel, the president mentioned Osama bin Laden’s group — 27 times. “For America, the decision we face in Iraq is not whether we ought to take sides in a civil war, it’s whether we stay in the fight against the same international terrorist network that attacked us on 9/11,” Bush told a group of construction contractors.

. . . “I don’t need to remind you who al-Qaeda is,” Bush reminded. “Al-Qaeda is the group that plot and planned and trained killers to come and kill people on our soil. The same bunch that is causing havoc in Iraq were the ones who came and murdered our citizens.”

As Milbank notes, even Fox News was having trouble buying the new-old spin:

These awkward truths left White House press secretary Tony Snow with hard work at the podium in his first televised briefing since returning from cancer surgery.

Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier noted: “This morning the president said that al-Qaeda seems to be a bigger problem than sectarian violence. That seems to fly in the face of what we’ve heard in recent weeks and months on the ground in Iraq.”

Well,” the game press secretary replied, “you’ve got a shifting series of circumstances.”

In other words, they even lose support from their wingnut base in the polls when they admit Iraq is in the middle of a civil war.

Text and images ©2024 Antony Loewenstein. All rights reserved.

Site by Common