Three short pieces, linked by the theme of "propaganda"

1. New Deal revisionism. eripost compares FDR's 100 days to what we will, in all likelihood, get from Barack Obama (ignore the Barry-worship in the first paragraph):

Unlike relief programs, the Civil Works Administration provided jobs. Within ten days Hopkins had put more than 800,000 people to work, 2.6 million by mid-December, and by early January he was well over the 4 million mark. The CWA paid the prevailing minimum wage for unskilled labor, and the work was seasonal. When it went out of existence in April 1934, the CWA had pumped close to $1 billion into the ailing economy. Eighty percent of that had gone directly into workers' wages, with the bulk of the remainder paid out for equipment and material [49]. Less than 2 percent went for administrative overhead

Will Obama create jobs that rapidly? No, he will not. Even while covering the inauguration, the Screeching Heads on Fox News were screeching that Obama must not repeat the "mistakes" of FDR's New Deal, because "The New Deal did not work." I'm quite sure that Obama will take the advice of the Screeching Heads.

A pity, that. The right-wing has been spreading distortions about the New Deal for decades:

In his 2003 biography of FDR, Conrad Black took issue with the school of historiography that asserts that recovery in the United States lagged behind that of other industrial countries. As Lord Black points out, American employment figures did not distinguish between those who had no job whatever and those working for the WPA, in the public works program, or enrolled in the CCC. All were lumped together as "unemployed". When the relief workers were factored in, American unemployment totals dropped by almost 60 percent.

As Paul Krugman has often noted, Milton Friedman and his followers have never stopped lying about the New Deal. The reactionaries (hoping that repetition will trump history) continually bleat that government relief efforts deepened and extended -- even created -- the Depression. Funny thing: Uncle Miltie orignally argued that FDR should have acted with greater boldness at an earlier time. Friedman later changed his tune without offering new facts or a new argument.

I never understood the right's antipathy to the New Deal -- without it, capitalism would never have survived.

2. The "brilliant orator" is caught in plagiarism -- again: Krugman made a good catch. From Obama's inauguration speech:

What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility

Dubya, 2000:

...we must usher in an era of responsibility.

The local newspaper in my home town used Obama's "responsibility" line as a banner headline, even though it's a swipe.

I'm not saying that the next president should give a thumbs up to irresponsibility. But let's have an end to all this nonsense about Barry the "brilliant orator." He's simply mouthing the familiar. It's "just words."

3. Clinton-era revisionism: Bob Somerby has a particularly good offering today. He reminds us that it was alleged "liberals" --the same people who now swoon over Obama -- who relentless assailed Clinton and Gore, making the Bush disaster inevitable. Somerby's take-down of Steve Clemons is priceless.