My next book. . .

. . .will be about how the advertising industry misleads the public into believing in the existence of a rotund man in a red suit with a white beard who gives out presents at the Winter solstice.
But less seriously, how can we be expected to take this,

"A former senior aide to President Bush claims that the White House deliberately mounted a dishonest propaganda campaign to sell the Iraq invasion to the US public, in the most damning insider account of the presidency so far." ?

I'm no statistician, but I would be prepared to bet that 75% of the people reading that opening paragraph have a) wearily frowned then b) raised eyebrow briefly before c) saying 'Welldur.'

It does raise the slightly more interesting question, though, as to why a senior aide is sticking the knife into Bush's podgy arse now. True, the latter is coming up to the end of his tenure in office, of course, and it's always open season on politicians at that stage in their death cycle and former staffers have to make a dime somehow, but this signifies something else. It illustrates that the ruling class is in a state of civil war. They are fighting amongst themselves over how to respond to the economic crisis, the forthcoming conflict with Iran and how to continue the supression of the world's working population. Scott McClellan's obvious statements naturally provoked disingenuous rebuttals from the Shitehouse. The following,

"Karl Rove, who had been Bush's chief of staff and is now a commentator on Fox News, said yesterday that McClellan had been out of the loop on many issues and had never expressed his concerns while working for the administration. " is indicative on at least two levels. Firstly its bitterness, not that surprising, but secondly the throwawy line ". . .and is now a commentator on Fox News. . ." which can be read without realising. It proves McClellan's point that the media is too compliant with the government - but also shows that, in fact, the media is part of the ruling class' governance tactics.

[This just in: "Father Christmas has reacted angrily to claims in redexile league that he does not exist by clainming ...."distrungtled atheist"...'bastard'...'faulty crackers and stupid hats'...'which broke out at staff Xmas party'.........