Squaring the Lying Circle

So this is kind of funny in a sad and cynical and sometimes deadly way:

After closing a record number of embassies around the world because of a terrorist threat, the White House once again is falling back on a change in its counter-terrorism vernacular to explain how al Qaeda can both be “on the run,” as President Obama has so often said, and posing a serious worldwide threat.

Asked whether the closings of 22 diplomatic facilities, which began over the weekend, demonstrate that the Obama administration has taken its eye of the ball when it comes to fighting terrorism, White House spokesman Jay Carney said there was no question that the “core” of al Qaeda is “greatly diminished.”

Meh. Carney can come up with a new phrase every day, but it doesn’t matter. The only people still listening to Carney — or to the President for that matter — are the ones there with him in the White House press briefing room. They think they matter, but they don’t.