Does he think we're as stupid as he is?

Yesterday I said the Bush adminitration should issue some retractions concerning their prior statements about the war in Iraq, and I cited the "Mission Accomplished" flying/sailing press conference that Bush held on May 1st. Well, I was certainly floored to shit when I saw this headline last night: "Bush disavows mission accomplished banner". When I read the article, though, I didn't find the substance to be as conclusive as the headline.

There's a reason for that, and I think an editorial from Buzzflash hits the nail on the head:

Media strategists noted afterward that Mr. Sforza and his aides had choreographed every aspect of the event, even down to the members of the Lincoln crew arrayed in coordinated shirt colors over Mr. Bush's right shoulder and the "Mission Accomplished" banner placed to perfectly capture the president and the celebratory two words in a single shot. The speech was specifically timed for what image makers call "magic hour light," which cast a golden glow on Mr. Bush.

Mr. Sforza worked for Bush. So, when Bush said yesterday that, "The 'Mission Accomplished' sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished," it was a flat out lie.

What I love, though, was the Republican pundits who buy Bush's bullshit and practice some revisionist history, claiming that Bush never said that our mission in Iraq was over, ignoring the fact that he was in front of a big fucking banner that said it, on an aircraft carrier, kind of annoucing to the nation that the military was victorious in Iraq. Will anybody admit that he spoke too soon?! Of course, these are the same people who claim that the Bush administration never instigated there was an imminent threat from Iraq because Bush never said the word "imminent". Sometimes you have to wonder if they believe all the bullshit they try to shovel down our throats.