LIE OF THE WEEK: 09-28-2007

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on building a border fence:

"I have been against the fence, I thought it's a bad idea even when it was just a matter of discussion," said Pelosi, D-Calif. "These are communities where you have a border going through them, they are not communities where you have a fence splitting them."

THE TRUTH: This is an absolutely ridiculous statement from one of the top leaders of a government that is supposed to espouse the rule of law. Unlike other nations who hold together based on a common culture or loyalty to a royal family, all American citizens (and especially the political leaders) swear to upload the US Constitution as the basis of our nation. If laws are being flouted with people crossing our border illegally, then the only logical response is to enforce the law through stricter means. Having a border going through a community does not negate the fact that each half of those communities exists in a different country with a different set of laws. If Speaker Pelosi cannot be trusted to enforce the laws, then she should resign or be removed from her position as a leader in a country based on the rule of law.

COLUMN: 09-26-2007

The verbal assault inflicted upon the President of Iran by the President of Columbia University as he introduced him was justifiable, but unfortunately, it was filled with propaganda and half-truths which decreased the credibility of the entire exchange. Iran is clearly a dictatorship, but calling the Iranian President a dictator belies the fact that he was in fact elected in an election far freer and fairer than anything in the neighborhood. Most American allies in the region only have useless symbolic elections, if any, and claiming Iraqi and Afghani elections as free and fair ignores the extremely violent situation under which the elections were held, which made participation impossible for a large segment of the population. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also only holds a very limited amount of power and the true dictator in Iran is the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He controls the military and internal security forces and ultimately holds the final say over all government matters. Furthermore, Columbia University Lee Bollinger kept associating the Iranian President's personal extremist views with the entire nation of Iran, which is an improper position to take, unless we also want the entire world to associate the Bush administration's extremist views on preemptive war and executive power with our entire nation. We need our national discussion to be based on truth and justice and not try to refute propaganda with propaganda of our own.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 09-21-2007

Congressman Peter King on Muslim Americans:

"Unfortunately, we have too many mosques in this country. There's too many people who are sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully. We should be finding out how we can infiltrate. We should be much more aggressive in law enforcement."

THE TRUTH: It is absolutely true that we need to find out who is sympathetic to Islamic Extremists and monitor their activities to ensure that they don't support or conduct acts of terrorism. However, this ludicrous statement by an obvious racist will simply drive mainstream Muslims away from their needed role of monitoring and reporting any suspicious activities in their communities to law enforcement. "Too many mosques" sounds just like the Nazi propaganda against the Jews just before the the horrific activities of the Holocaust and World War II began and it should be condemned by all Americans to ensure that we don't move an inch down that absolutely wrong direction.

COLUMN: 09-19-2007

Senator Clinton finally announced her "universal" health care plan this week. Just like all of the other Democrat plans, this is a very bad addition of more big government bureaucracy that tries to incorporate elements to benefit her corporate lobbyist contributors. It's the worst of the worst and should be avoided at all costs. If all Americans should have healthcare, it should be done in such a way to give them the most choices in the free market. The most recent expansion of government-operated health care, Medicare Part D drug coverage, proves that the worst possible outcome will result from our current lobbyist-controlled political environment. The lies and cover-up about cost projections, the forbidding of price negotiation (where the taxpayers are forced to pay well above retail price), and the infamous "donut" policy (where seniors pay a premium and receive no benefits) are all proof that our current legislative and executive branches will all ultimately develop something to the detriment of the American people that they are elected to represent.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 09-14-2007

Senator Barack Obama on holding Iraq War hearings on September 11, 2007:

"I have to say, and this hasn't been commented on, I think that we should not have had this discussion on 9/11 or 9/10 or 9/12. Because I think it perpetuates this notion that, somehow, the original decision to go into Iraq was directly related to the attacks on 9/11."

THE TRUTH: This ridiculous assertion has no basis in reality. It is very true that the Bush Administration has abused the memory of the events of 9/11/2001 to achieve their poorly devised goals and continues to do so to this very day. However, delaying the critically needed discussions (which are finally showing that the "surge" has actually been totally useless in achieving any meaningful political changes in Iraq and that the Bush war strategy continues to be a complete failure) to avoid them happening on the 9/11 anniversary will just lead to the shedding of more blood and the wasting of more resources. Trying to show that the Bush Administration falsely links 9/11 to Iraq is not helped by using false connections like this. There is ample evidence of their deceptive behavior without having to resort to concocting linkages like this.

COLUMN: 09-12-2007

After being asked to wait for months to see if the troop surge "change in strategy" (actually a tactical change, not a strategic one) will be successful, this week's reports by General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker do not tell us anything but the most obvious facts: adding more troops as a police force helps to stabilize a chaotic situation. This does not show any sign of changing the political realities or forcing anyone to do anything which will allow us to leave. Asking for more time is meaningless when absolutely nothing has been accomplished in the environment of reduced violence that has been bought through an enormous investment of Iraqi and American blood and funding. Unless the Bush Administration intends to keep our American soldiers as at least the semi-permanent police and national guard throughout Iraq for many years to come, continuing to "stabilize" Iraq in this fashion is not sustainable and will ultimately result in another huge spike in violence once we are forced to finally reduce our troop levels, due to the extreme strain of using so many national guard and reserve troops. It's time for a real change in strategy, but that is apparently waiting for the next administration because of the stubbornness of the Bush administration in not wanting to admit that they lost the war to begin with.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 09-07-2007

President Bush on Bin Laden's new propaganda videotape:

"If al-Qaida bothers to mention Iraq it's because they want to achieve their objectives in Iraq, which is to drive us out and to develop a safe haven. And the reason they want a safe haven is to launch attacks against America, or any other ally," Bush said. "And therefore, it's important that we show resolve and determination, to protect ourselves, to deny al-Qaida safe haven, and to support young democracies, which will be a major defeat to their ambitions."

THE TRUTH: Al-Qaeda's objective in Iraq is very clear: keep us there so that they can continue to use our occupying presence as a major point of propaganda for recruitment and so that they can kill American soldiers on a daily basis without much risk to themselves. They have absolutely no need to drive out to form a safe haven because they already have the safe havens they need in Pakistan and Afghanistan (notably because we did not finish the job there after 9/11 due to the Bush Administration's obsession with Iraq and Saddam Hussein). President Bush's attempt to spin the Al-Qaeda propaganda to support his failed policies is not likely convince anyone who isn't already a member of the small minority of Americans who might still believe anything he says after so many years of deceptive politics.

COLUMN: 09-05-2007

Does anyone actually hold out any hope that President Bush will stop being stubborn and actually do something right? It's clear that he is more concerned about his legacy than anything else and will keep us in Iraq until we actually win (which is nearly impossible at this stage) or someone else takes office as the next U.S. President. His continued claims that staying in Iraq helps defeat terrorism is nonsensical because it's clear that our presence in Iraq is actually creating more terrorism in the world. None of the reports or other milestones we keep hearing about will make any difference because he is intent on continuing to try to avoid being permanently labeled as a failed president and will use every last ounce of his authority to stall for time. It's a sad day when the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth has no credibility and no influence to take any useful actions and the entire world is just stuck in rut waiting for his term in office to expire.