The nottruth and everything but the truth, doubleplusgood

One of the most confounding characteristics of the Bush administration is it's ability to shape perception through propaganda. The rhetorical style of this administration is deliberately sunny - Clear Skies, Healthy Forests, No Child Left Behind, the Patriot Act. However, underneath the covers of each of these are provisions that lead the country in exactly the opposite direction as the title indicates. It has reached the stage where it isn't really possible to trust any information that comes out of the government. Matt Wuerker created a great cartoon today illustrating this. He calls it Rovespeak.

Now, grandiloquent names are nothing new in politics. It is also common practice to add provisions to bills that have nothing to do with the title of the bill. That's called pork.

But President Bush has gone further.

He and his team believe their ideology is the central fact that shapes reality.

They then set about editing the body of facts available to the public to conform to their ideology. This is done in a massive effort to mold public opinion to support their initiatives, which reflect their ideology, which now reflects the facts available to people...and so on.

After 9/11, Bush "convinced the EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones," according EPA Inspector General Nikki Tinsley. In late 2003, the White House website was scrubbed of quotes by administration officials speaking out against the war in Iraq. In Paul O'Neill's The Price of Loyalty it is revealed that cabinet members are regularly given memos outlining the positions they are supposed to support during cabinet meetings.

In February of 2004, the Union of Concerned Scientists issued a report entitled, "Scientific Integrity in Policymaking, An Investigation into the Bush Administration's Misuse of Science" that documented how the Bush administration has supporessed or distorted the scientific analyses of federal agencies to bring results in line with administration policy. The report begins with the censorship of finding on Global Warming, covers the effects of mercury on human beings, distortions on HIV/AIDS research, Abstinence education, and the appointment of politically qualified rather than scientifically qualified candidates to key posts.

Just recently, it has been exposed that the White House is "Making Women's issues go away" by deleting information from government websites that may be antithetical to its views. Salon has an expose on this. The full report is here.

I ask you to imagine making each of these decisons yourself. Imagine choosing to censor that 9/11 report, or scientific conclusions, or ... I find it very difficult. The truth is being bent before our eyes. We must not let the white snow of political euphemism and doublespeak send us wandering, souless into this new century. Speak now. Act now.