For discussion, go here.

By Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes
Sunday, September 5, 2010

Writing in these pages in early 2008, we put the total cost to the United States of the Iraq war at $3 trillion. This price tag dwarfed previous estimates, including the Bush administration’s 2003 projections of a $50 billion to $60 billion war.
This Story

But today, as the United States ends combat in Iraq, it appears that our $3 trillion estimate (which accounted for both government expenses and the war’s broader impact on the U.S. economy) was, if anything, too low. For example, the cost of diagnosing, treating and compensating disabled veterans has proved higher than we expected.

The moving story was a fabrication; Beck never held the document; and he was inspired only by the quest for cash and self-glorification. [See prior entry.]

Having been nailed by Keith Olbermann, Ed Schultz, and others, Beck finally owned up:

After being called on a white lie he told during his Restoring Honor rally, Glenn Beck admitted Thursday that he stretched the truth because he “thought it would be a little easier.”

Beck had claimed that he held George Washington’s handwritten first Inaugural Address in his hands at the National Archives, but a spokeswoman at the institution said he did no such thing. Keith Olbermann, Ed Schultz and others called him out for the fabrication.

Thursday on his radio show, Beck copped to the lie. (RELATED: Lies By Prominent Americans.)

“I thought it would be a little easier in the speech,” Beck said, than to go into the following elaborate explanation (via Mediaite): [Explanation follows.]

Wanna bet against the likelihood that in the wingnut blogosphere people will remember only Beck’s stage act and not the fact that the fake saint lied his sorry ass off? Reminds me of a Stephen Crane poem:

The wayfarer,
Perceiving the pathway to truth,
Was struck with astonishment.
It was thickly grown with weeds.
“Ha,” he said,
“I see that none has passed here
In a long time.”
Later he saw that each weed
Was a singular knife.
“Well,” he mumbled at last,
“Doubtless there are other roads.”

Glenn Greenwald
Thursday, Sep 2, 2010 10:03 ET
The profound mystery of the “enthusiasm gap”

Here’s an excerpt, providing some of the relevant factors Greenwald cites:

(3) Substantial polling data makes clear that Latinos are among the most disenchanted Democratic voting bloc, as they are furious at the White House for repeatedly violating promises on immigration reform.…

(4) At Daily Kos, Joan McCarter documents that progressive and even Democratic Party journalists are now openly acknowledging what has long been clear: President Obama’s Deficit Commission was structured so as to ensure recommendations for, among other things, cuts in Social Security benefits, to be voted on right after the election is nice and over with (an election the Democrats are trying to win by parading around as the protectors of Social Security). Also at Daily Kos, Laurence Lewis describes how similar this dynamic is to prior political controversies, where Democrats held themselves out publicly as believing one thing while privately working for the opposite.

(5) Following Robert Gibbs’ announcement that liberal Obama critics should be drug tested, and before that, Rahm Emanuel’s declaration that the same group is “fucking retarded,” a new book by former Obama “car czar” Steven Rattner describes how Emanuel worked to thwart union interests and declared, in the midst of the auto bailouts: “Fuck the UAW.”

These are among the reasons I myself find this election so difficult. They focus on the White House. I cop to being among those Emanuel and Gibbs were referring to. I feel betrayed. I have a very, very hard time imagining I’ll feel any different in 2012. In fact, if the suspicions about Social Security prove accurate, I’ll feel even worse about Obama.

But that isn’t the whole story. In this district, I’ll be voting in November for a member of Congress, a U.S. Senator, a governor, and several candidates in the state administration (attorney general etc.). I don’t know if it’s really true that all politics is local. But I do know that I’m very enthusiastic about this year’s local election. I will not be voting for or against President Obama. I will be voting for candidates who will think and act independently and not according to White House scripts.

Support the Center for American Progress

OK, pal. Now…

In the cartoon that follows, I’ve suggested Bush and Beck might start by looking where the infamous WMDs Bush joked about went missing. The difference is that the WMDs never existed. America’s honor did once exist, and Bush really did cause it to go missing.

(For younger folk, this still is from a “joke” Bush made at the 2006 White House Corresponds Dinner. Persons whose loved ones had been killed or maimed in Iraq didn’t find the joke too funny.)

Those damned liberals! Always taking rights away from conservatives. Always opposing freedom of speech.