LIE OF THE WEEK: 03-30-2007

President Bush on the Iranian military's seizure of British marines and soldiers:

"It's inexcusable behavior - Iran must give back the hostages. They're innocent. They did nothing wrong."

THE TRUTH: Until the final evidence comes out indicating whether or not the British boats actually did cross into Iranian waters or not, it's not useful to play up the political rhetoric against Iran, especially in light of the fact that the American military is already stretched thin by current
deployments and could not easily handle another conflict. Also, President Bush's characterization of the soldiers as hostages does a disservice to the actual civilian hostages held around the world today (and historically) because there is a very clear difference between a military seizing members of another country's military and a government or terrorists taking civilians as hostages.

COLUMN: 03-28-2007

The controversy this week over the minor issue of Senator Jim Webb's aide trying to enter the US Capitol with a handgun is a really good indicator that the Senator's political enemies are desperate to find an avenue to attack him. He is the kind of moderate that Washington desperately needs and let's hope that his middle of the road positions hold firm in the face the extreme left wing leaders of his party as they exercise their newly minted control over the Senate and US House.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 03-23-2007

Presidential candidate John Edwards on the return of his wife's cancer and its impact on his campaign:

"Both of us are committed to the cause, we're committed to changing this country that we love so much and we have no intention of cowering in the corner."

THE TRUTH: Since when is prioritizing your family ahead of your political ambitions known as cowering in the corner? Edwards is still relatively young and can always run for president again in four or eight years after dealing with the current health crisis in his family. So much for demonstrating any actual family values in his campaign...

COLUMN: 03-21-2007

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made a major point this week of calling all his conservative critics, especially Rush Limbaugh, irrelevant and even went as far as stating that "I am not his servant" in regards to Limbaugh. While this is of course true, the governor needs to learn a lesson from the current presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, which is that if he continues to stray extremely far from all Republican values in order to be successful governor in a liberal state, he will be generating significant career-limiting hurdles for any future aspirations.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 03-16-2007

Justice Department spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the US attorney firing scandal:

"[Gonazales] has no recollection of any plan or discussion to replace U.S. attorneys while he
was still White House counsel." She said he was preparing for his attorney general confirmation hearing and was focused on that.

THE TRUTH: Selective recollection is the oldest form of lying in Washington politics and one would think that the Attorney General would know better after six years in the White House and Justice Department. The evidence is piling up that this was a purely political action and denying that fact just adds fuel to the fire burning an administration down to the lowest popularity of any in recent memory.

COLUMN: 03-14-2007

As usual, the business world has clearly lost it's mind (or at least it's long term vision) as it pursues short terms profits. The lawsuits filed this week by Viacom and GE against YouTube, and parent company Google, ignore the fact that most of the programs being "pirated" on YouTube have significantly increased the audience for these shows, resulting in higher ratings and thus higher advertising fees and DVD sales. However, the idiots working for GE and Viacom (especially in their legal departments) don't look at that significant long term benefit and instead continually focus on the very limited short term loss of revenue when their old shows are available for free rather than for the cost of a DVD purchase or syndication revenue. They need to pull their heads out of the ground and realize the power of viral advertising before they totally lose their shirts to other companies who understand the new realities of the world.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 03-09-2007

President Bush on protesters reacting to his presence when travels internationally:

"I am proud to be going to a part of the world where people can demonstrate, where people can express their minds. It happens quite frequently when I travel around the world. I understand people's concern about war. Nobody likes war. But I've had to make the decisions I made in order to not only secure our people, but to deal with threats and to help people be free. And so I'm not surprised, nor am I angry. It's a part of life when you're the President of the United States."

THE TRUTH: President Bush and his administration clearly do not believe in people being free to demonstrate and express their minds here in America, let alone the rest of the world. Otherwise, how can they justify the recent FBI and military efforts to spy on American demonstrators as if they were a threat just because they oppose government policies? Also, if they believe in freedom to assemble and protest, how can they support so many regimes around the world who crack down hard on any kind of opposition demonstrations without a wimper of protest coming our government? Clearly, the world is demonstrating against the current administration's foreign policy decisions and it's not just "part of life when you're the President of the United States."

COLUMN: 03-07-2007

Lewis "Scooter" Libby has now been convicted and justice has been served. Now the only question is whether this sideways method of getting to the real culprits who committed a serious crime by revealing the identity of an undercover CIA officer will pay off and actually lead to the criminal prosecution of those who will do anything to win politically, regardless of the harm to our nation.

Also this week, the city of New York has decided to ban the N-word, but it's a symbolic ban that has no penalty. I guess the city council members are making too much money and have nothing better to do than work on symbolic legislation - maybe they're doing more than what it seems and their city is now 100% safe against future terrorist attacks or maybe they're just the usual idiotic politicians who succeed only by stooping to the lowest level of emotional pandering.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 03-02-2007

Vice President Cheney on his tactics when dealing with foreign governments:

"I've seen some reporting that says, 'Cheney went in to beat up on them, threaten them.' That's not the way I work. I don't know who writes that, or maybe somebody gets it from some source who doesn't know what I'm doing or isn't involved in it. But the idea that I'd go in and threaten someone is an invalid reading of the way I do business."

THE TRUTH: Trying to spin your personality after years of public records as a US Congressman, several cabinet positions, CEO at a publicly traded company, and Vice President of the US is not a good idea. It's clear that Vice President Cheney manages his interactions very much through coercive manipulation, including threats, and trying to lie about it just reinforces the notion that he is not someone who deals with the public on an honest basis.