10/22/2004

Orwell

I came across this blog via DailyKos. The writer has documented several instances where the White House has literally scrubbed information and files from its own website. This is, quite frankly, no different from the old totalitarian habit of "erasing", say, Trotsky from a picture also featuring Lenin and Stalin, once Trotsky fell into disfavor. Specifically, by clicking the link above, you'll be reminded of the VP debate, where Cheney said Edwards was "dead wrong" when he said that the US was taking 90% of coalition casualties and paying 90% of the cost of the Iraq occupation. Cheney chided Edwards, saying that Edwards was ignoring the deaths of Iraqi guardsmen. Brad checked the White House website, and clicked a link to find out the names of the coalition members. The linked-to file was gone. He found it via Google's cache. "Iraq" was not named as a member of the coalition (obviously). Brad then notified the White House webmaster of the broken link and waited a couple of weeks for them to fix it. They did. By getting rid of the link altogether. When the policy doesn't fit the facts, the Bush administration (which acknowledges that it operates outside the reality-based community), changes the facts. It's appalling.

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