{"id":7347,"date":"2006-05-08T11:05:48","date_gmt":"2006-05-08T15:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7347"},"modified":"2006-05-08T11:05:48","modified_gmt":"2006-05-08T15:05:48","slug":"you-probably-didnt-see-the-connection-between-the-war-and-domestic-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/you-probably-didnt-see-the-connection-between-the-war-and-domestic-agriculture\/","title":{"rendered":"You probably didn’t see the connection between the war and domestic agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"

I can appreciate the fact that the [tag]war[\/tag] in [tag]Iraq[\/tag] has become a national security and public relations nightmare for the [tag]White House[\/tag], so it stands to reason that the [tag]Bush[\/tag] gang would want administration officials to put as positive a spin as possible on war developments.<\/p>\n

That said, this<\/a> is just embarrassing.<\/p>\n

Career appointees at the Department of Agriculture were stunned last week to receive e-mailed instructions that include Bush administration “talking points” — saying things such as “President Bush has a clear strategy for victory in Iraq” — in every speech they give for the department.<\/p>\n

“The President has requested that all members of his cabinet and sub-cabinet incorporate message points on the Global War on Terror into speeches, including specific examples of what each agency is doing to aid the reconstruction of Iraq,” the May 2 e-mail from USDA speechwriter Heather Vaughn began.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Department of [tag]Agriculture[\/tag]<\/i>? In every<\/i> speech? I can see it now … “Ladies and gentleman, we’ve seen a 4% increase in the demand for food stamps over the last year, and, by the way, stay the course, don’t cut and run, we’ll fight them there so we don’t fight them here. Thank you for your attention.”<\/p>\n

I’m only half-kidding.<\/p>\n

There’s a sample introduction: “Several topics I’d like to talk about today — Farm Bill, trade with Japan, WTO, avian flu . . . but before I do, let me touch on a subject people always ask about . . . progress in Iraq.” See? Smooth as silk.<\/p>\n

So then you talk about how “we are helping the Iraqi people build a lasting democracy that is peaceful and prosperous.” If it looks like the audience is with you, try to slip in the old Iraq\/al-Qaeda\/terrorism link and say Americans are helping build a country “that will never again be a safe haven for terrorists.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The WaPo’s Al Kamen posted a .pdf<\/a> of the email, and I’m afraid it’s just as silly as it seems. Indeed, a few of these might as well have been written by The Onion.<\/p>\n

What’s more, staffers at the [tag]Department of Agriculture[\/tag] were also instructed to prepare a memo on all of their successful pro-war spin in weekly summaries to the White House, which apparently wants to keep track of cabinet agencies’ propaganda efforts.<\/p>\n

In other words, play up Bush’s “clear strategy for victory in Iraq” (actual quote from the Agriculture memo) or you’ll get a call from Karl Rove. These guys made a right turn at ridiculous and are heading straight for pathetic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can appreciate the fact that the [tag]war[\/tag] in [tag]Iraq[\/tag] has become a national security and public relations nightmare for the [tag]White House[\/tag], so it stands to reason that the [tag]Bush[\/tag] gang would want administration officials to put as positive a spin as possible on war developments. That said, this is just embarrassing. Career appointees […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}