Free Republic

George W. Bush lied about his military service record. The lie can be found in his own 1999 campaign autobiography (as written by Karen Hughes), where he dramatically describes his experience as a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. On page 34 of A Charge to Keep, Mr. Bush claims that, after learning to fly the F-102 fighter jet, he was turned down for Vietnam duty because "had not logged enough flight hours" to qualify for a combat assignment. Before going on to recall the "challenging moments" that involved close formation drills at night during...

The Hunting of the President U.S.A., 2003, 89 Minutes, color Director: Harry Thomason, Nickolas Perry Screenwriters - Harry Thomason, Nickolas Perry, based on the book by Gene Lyons, Joe Conason Producer - Douglas Jackson Coproducers - Chad O'Connor, Amy Greenspun, Keith Sky Cinematographer - James Robertson Music - Bruce Miller Associate Producers - Ben Harrell, Dana Stoltzner   Friday, Jan 23 5:30 PM Prospector Square Theatre     There can be no doubt that we live in one of the most tumultuous political climates of the nation's history, a climate where politicians can be toppled on a whim, election results...

Liberal invective against George W. Bush has not yet descended to the depths plumbed by conservatives in their crusade against the Clintons, but that isn’t because nobody’s trying. Mr. Bush’s most zealous opponents apparently believe that his faults, and those of his cronies and his administration, will be insufficient to unseat him next year. That may be why some Bush critics have been circulating a story about the financial connections between his paternal grandfather, Prescott Bush Sr., and a Nazi industrial magnate named Fritz Thyssen. The sinister cooperation between prominent American businessmen and their counterparts in Hitler’s Germany is an...

Where Oh Where Are Those W.M.D.?http://www2.observer.com/observer/pages/conason.aspby Joe ConasonJoe ConasonLast week, six months after the commencement of war in Iraq, the Bush administration?s chief weapons inspector reported on his findings. To date, David Kay has found no nuclear-weapons program (and, of course, no actual nuclear arsenal), no chemical weapons, and no evidence that those famous mobile laboratories were ever used to produce biological weapons, as advertised at the United Nations. David Kay 10/02/03"We have not yet found stocks of weapons, but we are not yet at the point where we can say definitively either that such weapon stocks do not exist...

Big Lies and little mistakes By Bryan Keefer September 9, 2003 Joe Conason, a columnist for the New York Observer and Salon, has released a new book titled Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth, which he writes is intended to debunk "myths about liberalism (and conservatism)." However, Big Lies, currently ranked eighth on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list, also includes a number of factual errors. While they do not rise to the level of Ann Coulter's distortions and fabrications in her books Slander and Treason, Sean Hannity's in Let Freedom Ring,...

<p>August 29, 2003 -- THE rise of an ardent, pas sionate, angry and en gaged left is the most im portant political story of 2003.</p> <p>The hottest book of the new publishing season is Al Franken's "Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them)." Joe Conason of the New York Observer has a fast-selling tome called "Big Lies." At the end of September comes "The Lies of George Bush" by David Corn of the Nation magazine, which will likely hit the bestseller list as well.</p>

July 4, 2003 | "Slander" is defined in Bouvier's Law Dictionary as "a false defamation (expressed in spoken words, signs, or gestures) which injures the character or reputation of the person defamed." The venerable American legal lexicon goes on to note that such defamatory words are sometimes "actionable in themselves, without proof of special damages," particularly when they impute "guilt of some offence for which the party, if guilty, might be indicted and punished by the criminal courts; as to call a person a 'traitor.'" So how appropriate it is that in the rapidly growing Ann Coulter bibliography, last year's...

Rummy the Genius Forgot About Nukes by Joe Conason The genius of Donald Rumsfeld and his deputies in the Defense Department is currently among the mainstream media’s favorite themes. According to the conventional viewpoint, their military strategy in Iraq was practically flawless, their political instincts are masterful, and their philosophical grounding is deep. (Some of them have even read Leo Strauss.) They’re just undeniably brilliant. To Americans who read and worry about the most recent developments in Iraq, this ceaseless chorus of praise for the Pentagon hierarchy can only be reassuring. Because otherwise, the facts on the ground might hint...

The legend of the liberal media is finally dead. When the mightiest voices of the mainstream gang up on Tom Daschle with Rush Limbaugh, who can believe in that old myth any more? The historic rumble started after the Senate Democratic leader compared the shrill radio host to foreign fanatics, and complained that he and his family receive threats when Mr. Limbaugh airs a diatribe against him. "What happens when Rush Limbaugh attacks those of us in public life is that people aren’t satisfied just to listen, they want to act because they get emotionally invested," Mr. Daschle said. "And...

<p>How desperate are the Democrats? Just listen to what they have to say.</p> <p>"If you like God in government, get ready for the rapture," Bill Moyers told his PBS audience the Friday after the election. Republicans will have "monopoly control" of the government, and will "turn their radical ideology into the law of the land." This means "forcing pregnant women to surrender control over the own lives," and "using the taxing power to transfer wealth from working people to the rich," as well as "giving corporations a free hand to eviscerate the environment."</p>