Lets Clear up some Common Misconceptions before we Greet the New Year

I keep hearing debunked excuses for the war in Iraq being trotted out like they are fact...These things just seem to have a life of their own...They are debunked and fall away, only to come back, again and again, never quite dying away.
According to the Wall Street Journal:

• 41% of poll respondents said Saddam Hussein had "strong links"
  with Al Qaeda. This is down from 64% who believed this 10 months
  ago.

Al Qaeda is a lose organization of religious fundamentalist, bent on dragging the middle-east, and maybe even the entire world, back to the seventh centuray A.D. Iraq was a secular state, where western influences didn't get people stoned to death, where women could drive, pursue carreers, wear western clothes - headscarves optional - and leave their homes without a male relative along to chaperone. Iraq also had controlled borders, no terrorist threats emanated from Iraq, and the religious fundamentalists were in check.

• 22% said Hussein helped plan and support the hijackers who attacked
  the United States on 9/11. In February 2005, 47% believed this. (Complicating matters in the more recent poll, an additional 30% said they were "not sure" if this is true or not.)

This has been disproven repeatedly. Iraq had no connection to the terror attacks of September 11th, 2001. Iraq provided no material support to al Qaeda, at least no money trail has as yet been found, and three years on, I think that would have surfaced, especially as bad as they were looking for a tie. Remember Rummy that fateful day: "Is there any way we can pin this on Saddam?" I saw a 2-star movie once called "The Paper" and Michael Keaton was the good-guy reporter with ethics, Glenn Close was the editor with nary a scruple to her name. He protests that her headline story (that's gonna sell tons of papers) is not true. She tells him to relax, they will run a retraction the following day. "It only has to be true for one day." These nepharious bastards know that it only has to be said once, in any context, and then it's out there, and it takes on a life of it's own.

• 26% said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded. That's down 10 points since February.

This number should continue to shrink. For some time now, that number has been declining. Now it isn't just those of us who thought Hans Blix was doing a fine job and should have been allowed to continue his mission who don't believe Saddam had WMD's in March 2003. Now even the true-believers are doubting. Was Vice simply telling us simpleton citizens a bald-faced lie when he said he knew exactly where they were? (And why didn't he tell Blix if he indeed held such information?) Sometimes I think that Cheney's actions make him either a moron, a fucking moron, or the most nefarious bastard ever to walk the earth for all time, immemorial.

• 24% said several of the hijackers who attacked the U.S. on September 11 were Iraqis. Ten months ago, 44% believed this. (In case you've forgotten..........the actual number of Iraqi hijackers on 9/11 : zero.)

Lets just get this through our thick little collective skulls together, shall we? IRAQ HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE TERROR ATTACKS AGAINST THE WORLD TRADE CENTER, NOR THE ATTACK ON THE PENTAGON.

So, just who is responsible for the dissemination of so much dis-information? The Bush administration is clearly the official bearer of much of this responsibility. They have repeated lies, embraced half-truths, spun facts into cotton candy, and undermined veracity. They are the grand champions of highly misleading rhetoric, this was true before the invasion and remains so nearly three years after it.

That said, in fairness I will point out that some of these claims were dropped from the official White House "talking points" over a year ago. Some of these misconceptions, such as the notion of Iraqi hijackers were never uttered in the first place. But it was out there as soon as Cheney suggested just hours after the attack that Saddam might be involved. It has never been sufficiently put to bed.

Traditional Media Outlets also wear the mantle of blame heavily, for they have abdicated their jobs. But even the worst, most pandering of the bobble-head-delivered reports has to draw to the conclusion that no credible link existed between Iraq and al Qaeda, and none have even implied Saddam was involved. (This does not include Faux News, which isn't real news anyway, and whose viewers are slightly delusional about many things, especially the fallibility of the thief-in-chief..)

Maybe it's the one-in-four Americans who still believe Iraq had WMD who should take responsibility and get better informed? You don't have to be a news junkie reading six newspapers a day to recognize reality. But some people just don't want to recognize reality. The 22% who believe that Hussein blew up the WTC are probably white, college educated, middle-class or lower middle-class, red-state inhabitants, weekly church-goers, Fox News watchers, very likely to vote. The rest of that number are rural, white, poor, get-the-news-from Limbaugh types. Only part of this group believes it was Saddam, however.***

Which means that those of us who do not want to replay the crusades, and who want to restore dignity and honor to our government, must mobilize our bases, and be at the polls in equal or greater numbers. We have to take our country back. The old addage "If you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention!" has never rang more true.

I was never a big fan of theocracy, but for those who are enamored of the notion, may I suggest you relocate to Tehran? It is *absolutely lovely!!!* this time of year.

And if you are one of those who is angling for a theocracy here at home, I will help your ass pack.
If you want a Christian version of Iran in the United States, there are a lot more of us who simply do not want you here. I've always known that when Fascism came to America, it would be wrapped in a flag and carrying a Cross. I see that day coming to pass, and I am already taking action, doing everything in my power to prevent it.

Everyone who has read the constitution is hereby charged with bringing it into debate, with engaging your neighbors and friends. The Constitution is in trouble and she needs a good PR campaign. Word of mouth has always been the best advertising....

Onward Secular Soldiers!

(***The other half of this group fervently believes that the Bush White House conspired with the Saudi's and let it happen, so they could usurp our civil rights. I've been to the Missouri 6th congressional district lately and talked to people I went to school with. Methamphetamines and talk radio spawn some wierd fuckin' conspiracy theories, lemme tell ya.)