Friday, July 15, 2005
Roving Karl and the Truth
Karl Rove is really good at what he does. I've mentioned in various humorous (I hope) articles in the past that I do admire the Republican information apparatus (that being largely Karl Rove) for it's ability to distort reality to suit its purposes without appearing to have deviated a whit from the facts. It's an amazing thing, it is. I admire his ability that is, not the results, but I'm not as worried as, say, Paul Krugman, who writes for the New York Times. Mr. Krugman thinks that Karl Rove spells the end of American civilization. Well, with all due respect, hogwash Mr. Krugman.
It's hogwash not because Mr. Rove is innocent of what he's alleged to have done vis-a-vis releasing the name of a CIA agent. Maybe he is, but frankly I doubt it. It's hogwash because while the truth may not matter in politics as practiced inside the beltway these days, it never the less comes out sooner or later. You can lie yourself blue in the face with great success for a while, but whatever is, is, and as such what is will become apparent, or if not that, the lies will become so apparent as to render them ineffective, after which something closer to the actual truth will become the official story.
You remember the fall of the Soviet Union? You may recall that the hard liners staged a coup, but were brought down by the ease of information transfer over the Internet. We are the most wired nation on the planet, and have been since the Internet consisted of two computers in California. In spite of the erroneous dreck on blogs and rant sites all over the place, in spite of ridiculous "news" such as the cable news services (Fox is the worst, but not by a lot), the actual facts are floating around and sooner or later will either settle out on the bottom or rise to the top, to strain a couple of metaphors at once. Or, put simply, the truth will out because we can freely exchange information, even if some of it is unpleasant.
Speaking of unpleasant information, Michael Moore was granted a summary judgment in his defense against a lawsuit from Terry Nichols' brother. It seems that the court found that he told the truth, and the truth, as a lawyer will tell you, is an absolute defense against charges of libel or defamation. The propaganda mill had it that this suit was more evidence of how un-American and money grubbing Michael Moore is, implying that the brother of a terrorist would never resort to filing a frivolous lawsuit for personal gain, so the charges must be true. As I said, the truth does come out eventually.
You'd think those folks who lie for a living would benefit from reading Macbeth?
Nah. Facts don't matter, do they?
It's hogwash not because Mr. Rove is innocent of what he's alleged to have done vis-a-vis releasing the name of a CIA agent. Maybe he is, but frankly I doubt it. It's hogwash because while the truth may not matter in politics as practiced inside the beltway these days, it never the less comes out sooner or later. You can lie yourself blue in the face with great success for a while, but whatever is, is, and as such what is will become apparent, or if not that, the lies will become so apparent as to render them ineffective, after which something closer to the actual truth will become the official story.
You remember the fall of the Soviet Union? You may recall that the hard liners staged a coup, but were brought down by the ease of information transfer over the Internet. We are the most wired nation on the planet, and have been since the Internet consisted of two computers in California. In spite of the erroneous dreck on blogs and rant sites all over the place, in spite of ridiculous "news" such as the cable news services (Fox is the worst, but not by a lot), the actual facts are floating around and sooner or later will either settle out on the bottom or rise to the top, to strain a couple of metaphors at once. Or, put simply, the truth will out because we can freely exchange information, even if some of it is unpleasant.
Speaking of unpleasant information, Michael Moore was granted a summary judgment in his defense against a lawsuit from Terry Nichols' brother. It seems that the court found that he told the truth, and the truth, as a lawyer will tell you, is an absolute defense against charges of libel or defamation. The propaganda mill had it that this suit was more evidence of how un-American and money grubbing Michael Moore is, implying that the brother of a terrorist would never resort to filing a frivolous lawsuit for personal gain, so the charges must be true. As I said, the truth does come out eventually.
You'd think those folks who lie for a living would benefit from reading Macbeth?
Nah. Facts don't matter, do they?
