THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

8 - "CHENEY'S SECRET ENERGY TASK FORCE" - The Left/MSM claimed that the Veep had no right to meet with anyone in private - especially not anyone in the energy industry. The Left claimed Cheney was a tool of the industry. The Left did what they love most: dragged it into the COURTS! The Left lost their legal battle, and Bush passed a sweeping Energy Bill - WITH BIPARTISAN SUPPORT. Yawn.

9 - "'IRAQ IS A DIVERSION' BY DICK CLARKE" - Disgruntled bureaucrat, Dick Clarke claimed that Bush could have stopped 9/11 - and claimed that a "Presidential Daily Briefing" in August would prove this; however, the PDB contained NO ACTIONABLE INTEL. Clarke further claimed that Iraq was not involved in terror since 1993 - or cooperating with al Qaeda. BOTH WRONG! In fact, the Clinton Administration had proof of Saddam/al Qaeda operational cooperation, and we have discovered more proof at GITMO. BONUS BOGUS CLAIM: Clarke LIED when he testifed that stepped up counter-terror efforts were the reason the Millennium Attack failed.

10 - "HUMVEE-GATE" - An intellectually dishonest reporter for the Left-wing dominated MSM planted a question/questioner during a miltary townhall meeting Rumsfeld held in Kuwait. At the time the army had not yet reto-fitted armor on to all their 15,000 Humvees; it does take time. FACT: the Humvee was NEVER intended as an ARMORED PERSONNEL CARRIER; the Humvee is merely the "new" Jeep. FACT: The enemy always attempts to attack at your weak-points. For a limited amount of time, the Humvees were a weak point. We fixed that, and the enemy moved on to other soft-targets. That's the way war is; it was not a scandal - except in the minds of the Left/MSM. NOW: Retro-fitted/armored Humvees are having other problems.

11 - "AL QAQQAGATE / NYTROGATE" - Just before the election, the LEFT/MSM AGAIN rushed out a phony story about a weapons depot supposedly looted after we took control of Iraq. The whole story was BS.

12 - "GITMOGATE" - Amnesty International calls GITMO a gulag; Durbin upped the ante and followed suit - comparing it both a gulag and a NAZI concentration camp and a Pol Pot "killing field". SHEESH! Durbin cries as he apologizes; (he should have been censured!). The Left/MSM blames Gonzales and Rumsfeld and Bush. A congressional Delegation investigates, and finds GITMO is nearly a country club. HERE'S another report with many links) on their visit - from the NYTIMES; they buried it on page 15! MAYBE MARTHA STEWART SHOULD HAVE SERVED THERE!? The Pentagon investigated the specific FBI report Durbin misused, and found that it cannot be corroberated. (GOTTA MINUTE? Read this brilliant and hilarious sarcastic piece on the Gitmo scandal by James Lileks.)

(13) "TURKEYGATE" (hat tip reader/commentor PapayaSF) - that supposedly plastic turkey Bush held up on his surprise visit to Iraq - THAT TURNED OUT TO BE REAL! This attempt at smearing Bush proved that the Left - and the MSM they still dominate - will stoop to any depth, tell any lie, deny any truth in order to hurt Bush - even if it helps the enemy. They are shameless.

(14) "LANCETGATE" - that bogus statistical study which claimed to prove that the USA killed 100,000 civilians in the Iraq War. This study was thoroughly debunked. (Civilan casualties were probably between 4,000-8,000.) Read about it HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE - (these are links to link-filled Instapundit postings).

(15a) "KRUGMANGATE" - the Left (led by deranged NYTIMES columnist Paul Krugman) railed that the Bush tax cuts would drive the economy into a depression. WRONG. The USA economy leads the word and deficits are shrinking again. We could call this "HOOVERGATE" (15b) - because the Left kept charging over and over again that Bush was the first president since Hoover to lose jobs on his watch. Of course, by the time the election took place, that was no longer true: the nation was plus 1.5 million jobs, and the job growth has continued and the economy is doing GREAT! Of course, you won't read that much about it in the MSM!

16 - "FUNERALGATE" - this (courtesy of John Cole of Balloon Juice) - is the phony scandal that Bush was somehow being a bad leader (and/or disingeuous) because he wasn't attending any funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq. For a COMPLETE run-down of FUNERALGATE click HERE, and read John's comprehensive review.

17 - "PATRIOT-ACT-GATE" - remember how the Lefties cried and cried and cried about how it was, in effect, a repeal of the Bill of Rights!? They were completely overboard and outta control on that. Today, they cannot name ONE citizen who's had their Rights denied. Yet despite that, they - the ACLU especially - have intervened again and again on behalf of the sworn enemies of America and liberty - making it more difficult for us to prosecute the enemy and to gather intel' on them. And now, the Left is trying to weaken it as it goes through re-enactment. (Hat tip to commentor ARMINIUS - for this and #18!)

18 - "LOOTED BAGHDAD MUSEUM-GATE" - remember how the Left, and the MSM they dominate, railed and railed about how Rumsfeld and the US miltiary had idiotically left the Baghdad Art Musem unprotected and thus has allowed masssive looting of its ancient art treasures (they called it "cultural vandalism" and they meant that WE were the vandals, and NOT the enemy!), REMEMBER!? Well: THAT WAS PHONY TOO! Most of the treasures were hidden - or stolen by insiders.

19 - "Bush first said he'd fire any leaker; now he's not saying that; therefore, Bush is moving the goal-posts-GATE" - (swiped from John Cole's BALLOON JUICE: "... here is what Bush initially said regarding leaks within his administration:

Let me just say something about leaks in Washington. There are too many leaks of classified information in Washington. There's leaks at the executive branch; there's leaks in the legislative branch. There's just too many leaks. And if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of.

This statement, due to the miracle of spin and the President's habit of using imprecise language while speaking extemporaneously, has transmogrified into 'I will fire anyone in my administration who talked about Valerie Plame.' (John Cole)

Of course, that is truly NOT what he said, and NOT what he meant. This FACT hasn't stopped the Left - (folks like John Podesta and the fat senior Senator from Massachusetts, Teddy Jo Kopechne) - and the MSM they still dominate, from LYING and distorting it to suit their narrow partisan ends. Anyone who has the slightest regard for the truth knows that the claim that Bush is moving the goal-posts to protect his cronies is completely BOGUS.

20 - "KORANGATE" - hat tip TRAN SIENT'S WATCH - This is the one in which our military was supposedly deliberately effing with copies of the Koran in order to upset prisoners at GITMO. Only it turned out that most of the Koran abuse - like the toilet-flushing - was NOT by US soldiers, but by the prisoners themselves.

21 - "FLU-SHOT-GATE" - In 2004 (and just before the election), because of a production problem, a major plant couldn't deliver the the flu vaccine to the DHHS. The Left blamed Bush. Kerry/Edwards even ran ads about it! Well, there was no wave of flu-related deaths, were there!? In fact, flu-season came and went RATHER MILDLY! I guess the Left and the MSM just made a mountain out of a mole-hill - or should we say that they TRIED to make a scandal out of THIN AIR, and FAILED! I wonder why!? Could it be .... LEFT-WING BIAS?! Naw, ya tink!? More HERE.

22 - "ABORTIONGATE" - This is the one in which the Left claims abortion has gone UP under Bush because of his policies. EVEN HILLARY PUSHED THIS LINE.

But the FACT was, that there were NO STATISTICS on the issue at the time; (the Left just made up the charge out of whole cloth!). NOW, there are statistics, and they show that abortions continued to decline in 2001 and 2002 (the last years for which statistics are available). (Hat tip KJ at NRO.)

23 - "OHIO-GATE" - The Left charged that Bush stole Ohio in 2004. A study proved that everything was fair and square. (Hat tip Now That's Ironic). ASIDE: actually, Bush lost more states by smaller margins than Kerry did. And Bush did not challenge a single one, or even cast aspersions or innuendo about them. Even though there were much more credible reports of fraud in New Mexico and Minnesota and Pennsylvania than in Ohio. The lefty Dems are just sore sports; they'd rather cheat and wind, than lose fair 'n square. AND THEY DO CHEAT: There have been some convictions of voter fraud against DEMOCRATS. But you won't see it in the MSM or on the evening news. I WONDER WHY!? Heh. By the way: the AP reports that the acting mayor of San Diego was convicted of corruption today. They DON'T mention that he's a DEMOCRAT. Do you think that IF he was a GOP'er that the AP would've left that detail out?! Of course not!

24 - "FBI-ACLU-GATE" - Per Kerr/Volokh (hat tip NRO/ADLER/Corner): Eric Lichtblau's New York Times story about the FBI's keeping records on the ACLU is based on a serious misrepresentation. ... the New York Times reported today that the FBI had 1,173 pages of records "on" the ACLU, which makes it sound like the FBI is keeping a large dossier on the ACLU. ... It turns out that the language of the ACLU request was tremendously broad. The ACLU didn't request just documents about the ACLU, or documents about monitoring the ACLU. Rather, it made an extremely broad request that asked the FBI to collect any documents in its possession that even just referred to the ACLU. ... my suspicion is that the New York Times reported the number of FBI pages that mention the ACLU as if it were the number of FBI pages that were about the ACLU and its activities. It seems to me that the difference is considerable."

YOU BET THE DIFFERENCE IS CONSIDERABLE; it's the difference between a pseudo-scandal and the truth. In other words: the Left tries to strike again, but again they only STRIKE OUT! Here's how the ACLU press release presents DOJ's court filing in response to its FOIA request (again, from Kerr/Volokh): Government Has Amassed Thousands of Pages on National Peace and Civil Rights Organizations NEW YORK — The American Civil Liberties Union today revealed that the FBI has amassed more than 1,100 pages of documents on its organization since 2001, as well as documents concerning other non-violent groups including Greenpeace and United for Peace and Justice.

This is nothing more than RANK DISTORTION and a SMEAR against the FBI. The NYTIMES and the WASHPOST and the rest of the MSM relayed the Left-wing SMEAR as if it was Gospel. The Left and the MSM they dominate have no shame, no morals, and no chance at winning with tactics like this! Thank God!

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We should also always remember one of the most annoying and non-productive characteristics of the folks that make these Left-wing smears: even after they've been disproved, the Left-wing talking heads still repeat them over and over and over again. I think their employing the BIG LIE THEORY in practice; they think if the say it often enough people will believe that they're true. And the sad fact is, that because so many people limit their news intake to the MSM or the NYTimes, they have NO IDEA WHAT THEY'RE MISSING: the truth!

And, the MSM cannot get away with using the excuse that they're just INCOMPETENT. After all, nearly ALL the mistakes always benefit either the Left or our enemies in the GWOT. That's NOT incompetence; that's bias verging on treason.

IF I WERE INCLINED TO HELP THE LEFT/MSM, I'D RECOMMEND THAT INSTEAD OF TRYING TO SMEAR BUSH WITH PHONY SCANDALS, THAT THE LEFT PROPOSE SOME COUNTER-POLICIES FOR THE GWOT AND THE ECONOMY AND ON OTHER DOMESTIC ISSUES. Not that it would work: The Left's policies are as bad as their phony scandals! Heh.

And I'd recommend to the MSM that they cover the news; there's a lot happening out there, and it's pathetic that they miss most of it! They miss the REAL news because they're too busy trumping up phony news to hurt Bush. NEED MORE PROOF?! Well, here's the CLINCHER: I defy ANYONE to send me a link to ONE SINGLE SOLITARY NEWSTORY which the MSM skewed in a way that was FAVORABLE to Bush! (And don't give me that old WMD canard: everyone's intel' had it the same as the CIA, and even Bill Clinton belirved it; in fact, it would have been treason for any American president NOT to.)

[ANNOUNCEMENT: If you folks out there have more Bogus Bush Scandals (or better links to the ones I've mentioned), let me know in the comments section; (please provide a link to new bogus scandals, if you can). I'll post the best of the additional BOGUS BUSH SCANDALS right here on the front page!] (UPDATE 7/19 - NOTE: this post has been edited and its original layout changed slightly for greater clarity.)

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 10:45 PM ; Permalink;