The Ministry of Truth meets the Mighty Wurlitzer

How the GOP Machine creates its own reality

In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about
enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued.

''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''

http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/sloth/2004-10-16b.html

Created Reality: Bill Clinton, Janet Reno, and Louis Freeh were responsible for the Ruby Ridge incident

Timeline for reference:

August 21 and 22, 1992 - Ruby Ridge Incident
November 3, 1992 - Clinton beats George Bush the First to become 42nd US President
January 20, 1993 - Clinton takes office
February 11, 1993 - Reno nominated for AG
March 12, 1993 - Reno takes office
July 20, 1993 - Freeh nominated for FBI Director
September 1, 1993 - Freeh begins term as FBI Director

The meme usually starts with the "News for MBFs" sites like NewsMax:

Clinton Must Fire Reno for Condoning Brutality
Wilson C. Lucom
Friday, May 12, 2000
President Clinton must fire Attorney General Janet Reno for allowing a second illegal act of brutality by men under her command.

The first act of illegal brutality was the killing of an unarmed woman at Ruby Ridge.

http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/5/12/184002

And Judicial Watch:

FREEH BENEFITS FROM CLINTON-RENO COVER-UP: NEVER PUNISHED FOR RUBY RIDGE AND OTHER MISCONDUCT

Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government abuse and corruption, announced today a new investigation of the cover up of former FBI Director Louis Freeh’s role in the Ruby Ridge scandal.

Judicial Watch will begin to seek information on this new scandal and demand that the new Bush Justice Department investigate as well. Larry Potts, a former FBI official and Freeh friend who issued illegal “shoot on sight” orders which led to the death of a woman clutching her infant at the hands of a FBI sharpshooter, now works for Bill Clinton’s private investigator Terry Lenzner.

“Any student of Freeh’s role in the Ruby Ridge cover up understands that Freeh wired the internal FBI investigation to try to help his friend Larry Potts escape punishment. That’s called obstruction of justice. The Bush Justice Department should not only investigate Freeh but the Clinton Justice Department’s role in ‘pardoning’ him,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/archive/2001/1003.shtml

From there, it bounces merrily around the Whackosphere, picking up faux credibility with each orbit:

But our American Domestic War criminals are called HEROES when they follow the murderous orders of Janet Reno and burn more

than 80 innocent Christians to death, or kill Randy Weaver's wife, 14 year old son, and his dog for no reason.

http://www.trilobyte-mag.com/kerrey.htm

Until it reaches the so-called mainstream:

Few members of the Clinton administration have engendered as much controversy as Attorney General Janet Reno. She was praised for her role investigating the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the Unabomber but criticized for her handling of the Ruby Ridge incident

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/govt/admin/reno.htm

And becomes common knowledge:

When it comes to freedom and privacy, never did The Daily Star or its left-wing, liberal, Democratic ilk ever point fingers at the worst attorney general in our history, none other than Bill Clinton’s heroine Janet Reno.

Remember when Vickie Weaver, with her baby in her arms, was assassinated by Clinton/Reno snipers at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, after they had already murdered her 13-year-old son, Samuel?

William Eckardt, Oneonta

http://www.thedailystar.com/opinion/letters/2005/01/lt0131.html

Despite the inarguable fact that it's NOT FUCKING POSSIBLE for Clinton, Reno, and Freeh to be responsible for what happened BEFORE THEY TOOK OFFICE.