Eternal Sunshine of the Blameless Mind

NYT: "Hitting Rewind, Bush Museum Says – You Decide"—

A six-minute introductory video by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledges disputes over Iraq and interrogation techniques while defending them as efforts to protect the country. "If you were in a position of authority on Sept. 11," she says, "every day after was Sept. 12"

Sure: before September 11, all went swimmingly.

With the, What memo would that have been? And the, "All right. You've covered your ass, now."

Not to worry: from "Sept. 12," this crowd was in complete control of the story line.

You have to credit the right for its brilliance in undermining education while creating an enormous propaganda mechanism. When a vast segment of the population has a bit of a problem with logical thought, this (from the NYT story) is a piece of cake—

... visitors to an interactive theater will be presented with the stark choices that confronted the nation's 43rd president: invade Iraq or leave Saddam Hussein in power? Deploy federal troops after Hurricane Katrina or rely on local forces? Bail out Wall Street or let the banks fail?

False choices embedded in the fog of propaganda... Weirdly resonant in the abstract "choice" between starving and dying in unsafe working conditions, so beloved by the makers of conventional wisdom.

This Bush place's presentation of 9/11 is "celebratory," says Steve M. But then it's always been; this simply enshrines Bush's crowing about The Trifecta. It has always been about the profit to which they know they are entitled and over which they never will be held to account.

The right triumphed after 9/11; now they have a ready-made, institutionalized Terror narrative, always waiting to serve their political gain. As Steve M. writes—

... right-wingers, at least during Bush heyday, always acted as if 9/11 was the greatest day of their lives. It made them and their president the moral arbiters of America. It made it impossible to challenge their political dominance. That's all they cared about. Bush clearly looks back on that moment of unchallenged power with nostalgia. He misses it.

The right is responding to the Boston bombings pretty much the same way. In a way, it's even worse -- if you went to right-wing sites after 9/11, you were at least likely to find memorial shrines to the dead with solemn patriotic music and illustrations of eagles shedding tears. With Boston, they're going straight the liberal-bashing, Muslim-baiting, and Democrat-hunting. Never mind the absurdity of the notion that 9/11 was somehow a triumph for their guy but Boston was a horrible failure for the current administration. What's also clear is the self-righteous joy with which they're waving real and invented evidence of intelligence lapses, cover-ups, and Muslim group guilt. They're doing an end zone dance without even a pro forma pause to remember the dead and wounded.

Pierce, on the media's role—

The coverage of the opening of this vast temple to prevarication and ruin is not about bricks and mortar. It's about an attempt by the courtier press to absolve itself of a dereliction of duty that rivaled even that of the president in question while New Orleans drowned, and while the economy was bubbling toward disaster. (That dereliction of duty, it should be noted, now and forever, began with the coverage of the 2000 presidential campaign, and the disgraceful performance of the elite political press corps towards Al Gore.) It's about their efforts to help the country absolve itself from the immense damage it brought upon itself by electing, and then re-electing, a half-bright dry drunk who wrecked nearly everything he touched, and who now is trying to rehabilitate himself by explaining that he hasn't ruined anything else since he left office, and doesn't that make him a swell fella. The elite press is dedicating an entire day of coverage to the perpetuation of a monstrous public lie. Electing George W. Bush twice was a monumental act of democratic self-destruction from which the country has yet to recover. Celebrating him celebrating himself is simply to pour battery acid into the still-open wounds.

The Living Presidents Club always shows up for business as usual. Of the yuks here, Clever Sister said, "Bush would paint horns on Clinton."

Not unreasonably, Steve M. thinks ""Jeb Bush is the happiest man in America."

And if all else fails to rehabilitate sufficiently, demented (apparently Republican) lady can torture a rodent, and present us with a thrilling Flight Suit Sugar Bush Squirrel.