LIE OF THE WEEK: 11-30-2007

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani on accusations of political corruption:

"I thought the way the story was presented was like a hit job. Coming two hours before this debate, I kind of got the idea that it was not a legitimate story."

THE TRUTH: Although the timing may have been politically motivated, it's clear that there is some truth behind these accusations. From the Bernard Kerik corruption case to the evidence showing Guiliani worked with his closest political allies in the same manner as a mafia don to these latest accusations saying that he abused official travel expenses in order to further his marital infidelities when he was mayor, Rudy Giuliani has shown that he believes that doing some good work for his constituents allows his to abuse his position for personal gain. He even says so in many debates when he states that the net effect of his mayorship was a good thing, so these issues of corruption don't really matter. This is an absolutely unacceptable position. Doing good does not justify the slightest amount of corruption - this is the same fallacy used in our foreign policy for the past century ("this dictator is a bastard, but he's OUR bastard") and the net result has been the weakening of America's values and reputation in the world. We need to elect someone who will represent our goodness as a country, not just our ability to get the job done and Rudy Giuliani has shown himself to be the wrong man for that job.

COLUMN: 11-28-2007

Religion is in the news lately but, as usual, it's not coming up in good ways.

In the arena of the American presidential campaign, it's once again former Governor Mitt Romney telling everyone that he believes in God, Jesus, and Christian values. His continual repeating of these statements hasn't convinced the majority of Americans who recognize the cultist aspects of Mormonism that have not eroded despite it's enormous growth over the past century. Mormons still believe in God in ways that are not acceptable to anyone following the mainstream monotheistic faiths, such as believing that God was a human who "evolved" to become the god of this planet and that Mormons can similarly "evolve" to become gods of their own planets. They also try to whitewash all of the obvious "con-man" activities of their religion's founder by making statements like "if the fruit is good, that proves that root is good". I agree that most Mormons I've met are some of the best, clean-living people around, but that doesn't excuse their belief in a completely illogical system that is contrary to every bit of human reason and logic. The only way a Mormon will become the President of the USA is by America becoming a completely secular nation where it's citizens actions are not at all guided by their faiths and we are thankfully very far from that day.

In the arena of world politics, a dictatorial regime is once again abusing religion to distract people from their own failures as a government. Just as the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad were exaggerated and used to whip up public sentiment against Europe in the mostly tyrannical regimes in the Muslim world, the Sudanese government is trying to do the same thing with a ridiculous assertion that a British schoolteacher insulted Islam by naming a teddy bear Muhammad. It was actually her students who named the bear after one of their classmates and no western media source should repeat the propaganda of the authoritarian regime in Khartoum and allow them to distract people from the genocide in Darfur or any of the other horrible acts inflicted on their own people.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 11-23-2007

President Bush on Pakistani Military Dictator Pervez Musharraf:

"I've found him to be a man of his word."

THE TRUTH: Unless Musharraf is secretly promising President Bush that he will maintain military rule as long as possible while allowing extremists rule large parts of his country, President Bush making this statement further proves that he doesn't care about his credibility with the American people or our allies. Musharraf has been promising to restore democracy to Pakistan since before President Bush came to office, not to mention promising to step down from his military post all along as well. None of these promises have come to fruition as he has instead broken down all of his country's democratic institutions in favor of his continued control. Although he was right to take power from a corrupt prime minister (Sharif) who attempted to assassinate him by not letting his almost-out-of-fuel plane land in 1999, he should have immediately held free and fair elections if he truly believed in freedom and democracy. Instead, he has followed President Bush's playbook by using the 9/11 attacks as an excuse for scaremongering and maintaining a hold on power. We need a major change in America's foreign policy of supporting friendly dictators because it truly is a major cause of terrorism, but it's sadly clear that this won't happen under President Bush or any of the currently leading 2008 contenders.

COLUMN: 11-21-2007

This week's "Black Friday" sales will be lackluster because the American economy is on the brink of a precipice. The only growth in the economy over the past 6 years has been in the income of the extremely rich and that is insufficient to drive most Americans to shop when their mortgages are out of control, their gas and grocery spending has been forced to intolerable levels, and they haven't experienced any real income growth since the late 1990's. Both President Bush and former President Clinton are to blame for this situation as uncontrolled free trade with nations that don't have worker or human rights has eliminated all decent future prospects for America's working class. They are also responsible for the flood of illegal immigrants taking the lowest-end jobs, which has similarly driven down all middle class and working class income. We need a new president in 2008 who will dramatically change these policies if we want to have any chance of maintaining our economic superiority in the future. Unfortunately, all of the leading candidates seem to be cut from the same cloth as they continue to pander to every special interest who brings them a check at the expense of the American people. The only ultimate solution to this issue will be either the elimination of money from the political system or the rise of a strong third party based on the principles of true democratic representation, either of which sadly may take many years to occur

LIE OF THE WEEK: 11-16-2007

Senator Hillary Clinton on being "attacked" by the other candidates:

"I don't mind taking hits on my record on issues, but when somebody starts throwing mud, at least we can hope that it's both accurate and not right out of the Republican playbook. Because what I believe is important is that we put forth what we stand for. I have been active for 35 years. The American people know where I stand."


THE TRUTH: This is an extremely big lie because Senator Clinton avoids all accountability for everything she's ever done which has had negative consequences. Has anyone actually ever heard her take responsibility for any of her actions? (The Iraq War vote? The failed 1993 healthcare initiative? etc) She deflects every issue into an attack on the Republicans, as if that is the same as having a solid position on an issue. It's ironic that she accuses her opponents of using the "Republican playbook" to attack her because it's exactly what she's been doing to both Senator Obama and former Senator Edwards. (Most recent example: she attacked Obama for not having foreign policy experience by stating that spending part of his childhood overseas does not count as foreign policy experience one day after several Republican groups started using this attack.) It's also ironic that she should claim 35 years of experience when it's clear that the majority of those years (1979-2000) were spent as a First Lady of Arkansas and of America and not in any policymaking position. Being "Slick Willy's" First Lady is also another indicator of not having any firm positions and instead just following public polls and campaign money. We need to hope and pray that circumstances do not line up to make her our first female president because that will be one of the worst possible outcomes of the 2008 election.

COLUMN: 11-14-2007

The news that former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is now running strongly in Iowa is a welcome sign that the Republicans may have a chance at a decent candidate after all. Although he is technically still second behind former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, it's clear that all of Romney's support is purely based on his enormous financing of his own campaign and that very little of the public will actually support him, mostly based on distrust of his flip-flopping or distrust of his religious beliefs. Unlike Romney and the national front-runners (former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuiliani and former Senator Fred Thompson), Huckabee is actually a Republican with a clear history of demonstrating the values that conservatives are supposed to be about. Giuliani is clearly an extreme liberal who has no conservative credentials whatsoever and Thompson is a Hollywood actor who occasionally uses those acting skills to pursue a political career whenever he doesn't have any other work. (He famously stated that politics is for actors too ugly for Hollywood - if that is his view, he clearly doesn't understand public service.) If we can perhaps get a real Republican race going between Huckabee, Senator John McCain, and Congressman Ron Paul, we might have a chance at having a decent candidate who can save American from having an ultraliberal president for at least the next four years.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 11-09-2007

Former President Bill Clinton on his wife's failed health-care plan in 1993:

"She has taken the rap for some of the problems with health care the last time that were far more my fault than hers."

THE TRUTH: When President Clinton was running for office in 1992, he assured the majority of Americans (who are conservatives) that he was his own man and that Hillary wouldn't be his "co-president." When he later assigned her control of his administration's universal health care proposal, he very gladly disavowed any personal political responsibility for it's failure. Now that the shoe is on the other foot and Hillary is claiming her "executive experience" as First Lady as qualifying her for the presidency, Bill is rushing in to take responsibility for the complete failure of their proposal. As we all know the Clintons have no sense of any ethics in taking responsibility for their actions, no one should believe this attempt to take away the proper blame for the rightful failure of a policy that would have been disastrous if ever enacted.

COLUMN: 11-07-2007

Pat Robertson is more interested in power than in following any moral beliefs, which is a completely unethical position to take. This has been previously shown, but is absolutely proven by his endorsement today of Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign. Mr. Giuliani has demonstrated for years that he is a true big city liberal who has little regard or respect for the family values that most Americans hold dear. From supporting "alternative lifestyles" (far beyond just the issue of homosexual marriage) to preventing legal gun ownership for self-defense to imposing his liberal view of when life begins (at birth) by supporting abortion-on-demand, these are just a few examples of where his positions diverge wildly from true conservatives. In his endorsement statement, Mr. Robertson mentions only three issues: fighting crime, lowering taxes, and standing up against terrorism. Last time I checked, fighting crime and standing against terrorism were not conservative positions (though usually done much better by conservatives). In terms of taxes, New York City taxes were at all-time high when Mr. Giuliani became mayor and even a Democrat would probably have lowered them eventually as the national economy got much better, as Mr Giuliani was lucky to experience during his term. Rudy Giuliani became a Republican because he wanted to work in the Reagan Administration and continued as a Republican because it is much easier to win the New York primary system when you only have a few competitors instead of the hundreds of Democrats who run for every office. He espouses no actual conservative positions and is only being supported by Republicans who are power-hungry and see him as the best chance to win. Pat Robertson's already dwindling flock should give up on him as a lost cause and move on to support true conservatives rather than wasting their time and money on a misguided man leading them further and further astray.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 11-02-2007

Senator Hillary Clinton on her "stand against special interests":

" You know, I have a long record of standing up and fighting, and I take on the special interests. I've been taking them on for many years. And I think all you have to do is go back and -- and read the media to know that."

THE TRUTH: A more important source to read is the Federal Election Commission, more specifically the reports on her campaign contributions. As was correctly pointed by her rivals for the Democratic nomination for president, she is the candidate who has accepted the most campaign contributions from special interests from both of the major political parties. In fact, she owes very little of her support to individual donors and relies heavily on campaign committees and donation "bundlers". If she thinks any of us buy her ridiculous assertion that this money does not influence her policy positions, then she must have a very low opinion of the intelligence of the American people. It will be a sad day for America if we have to suffer through another 4 or 8 years of a Clinton administration where policy will be decided either by reading polls (close to election seasons) or by selling to the highest bidder (as was done to the Lincoln bedroom).