Some astonishing things are happening in politics lately. Forget the Attorney General saga or the fact that we’re in the fifth year of war with no light at the end of the tunnel. Our President quoted an unnamed blog yesterday that was apparently written by an Iraqi, who claimed that the markets in Baghdad are starting to get busier and people are returning to their homes in Baghdad. There are even some neighborhoods in Baghdad where one can go unescorted by security. In other words—it’s getting better, folks. One CNN reporter urged the President to immediately return from the Neverland where he’s been hiding because there simply aren’t any safe neighborhoods in Baghdad.

Moreover, somehow this erroneous information migrated to the McCain camp and he also quoted this blog to drive this positive and uplifting message to his potential voters. So basically what we have here is this: Short of turning on television, reading horrendous exposes in the papers and magazines, let’s just source a questionable blog, which was probably sponsored by our government to begin with. We all remember that famous Lincoln group that was fabricating stories about “progress” in Iraq in Iraqi papers. That group was formed by the Pentagon’s “Department of Propaganda” a few years back to create uplifting bullshit about the dismal situation on the ground. I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if Lincoln Group is behind these blogs as well.

This drives the point I made a few months ago. Are blogs really ceasing to be one of the last honest mediums and becoming too groomed to serve a political or public relations purpose? There is nothing wrong with public relations professionals monitoring and potentially working with bloggers.  But let’s not get carried away quite yet. Senior administration officials quoting these dubious sources to once again lie to the American public is beyond appalling.  Our own White House is in its own P.R. disaster and I really don’t know how they’re going to spin out of this one. I wonder if Bush’s P.R. team is monitoring the dismay of the American people expressed through countless blogs with the same gusto as this “positive” information emerging from Baghdad.  Somehow, I doubt it.