LIE OF THE WEEK: 05-30-2008

White House Spokeswoman Dana Perino on President Bush and the 2008 election:

"President Bush isn't on the ticket... As the President said, he will do as much or as little as anyone needs him to do to help elect Republicans. But at the end of the day, any candidate who's running for office has to stand on their own two feet and they have to chart a course for themselves. Every election is about change -- go back through history and every single one is about how things are going to look in the future. "

THE TRUTH: Regardless of his name literally not being on the ballot, this election is all about the miserable failure of the Bush Administration and whether this conservative-leaning country will have to suffer through a liberal administration in order to remove the stench of the corruption brought by those who claimed conservative values while promoting only their self-interests against the interests of the American people. If President Bush had been a good or even decent president rather than one of the worst in history, he would have left coattails for those in his party to follow on and continue his legacy. Instead, Republicans not only do not have the benefit of any coattails, they have the opposite effect where they need to avoid any linkage to this failed leader. They not only have to stand up for themselves, they need to dig themselves out of a major hole to begin with. President Bush has wronged the trajectory of American government policies by allowing liberals to present themselves as a clean alternative to his corruption. He has thus allowed us to possibly have to suffer through socialist entitlement programs, unreasonable gun control, and continuation of court-imposed marriage and abortion laws rather than those supported by the morality of the majority of Americans.

COLUMN:05-28-2008

Scott McClellan's new book this is week is a rare piece of truth from an insider wishing to save himself from being included in the history of the worst presidency in the history of America. Unfortunately for him, this tactic won't work to remove the stain from his legacy. Fortunately for the America people, history will record the contents of this book as further true evidence of the incompetence, corruption, and self-interested harmful form of government that has ruled our country for the past seven and a half years and this will hopefully help to prevent the election of future administrations of the same type.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 05-23-2008

Former President Bill Clinton on press bias and playing the race card:

You've called the campaign press coverage biased against Hillary. Why do you think that is? I think most of the press people are in Obama's demographic. They need a feeling more than they perceive they need a President. There have been times when I thought I was literally lost in a fun house. How do you respond to those who charge that you and Hillary have played the race card? I'm not responsible for what other people say and what other people think. I have lived too long. All I can say is "You line up what you've done, I'll line up what I've done, and we'll see who's got a good life." I was really hurt about it at first. I am way over being hurt. This was cold-blooded, calculated, manipulated and a revolting strategy.

THE TRUTH: Much of the press had been overwhelmingly supporting Senator Clinton's "inevitability" as the nominee before the actual voting started and only started covering Senator Obama seriously after his ground-level efforts to organize and raise funds paid off. As usual, the Clintons are happy when the bias is in their favor and claim bias when it does not exist just because they lost. In terms of the race card, the Clintons' use of it is what is truly cold-blooded, calculated, manipulated, and revolting. They used that as their last desperate attempt to defeat Senator Obama's winning streak and their success in this disgusting tactic led to the extending the primary calendar until the very end two weeks from now. President Clinton can claim to be hurt all he wants, but no one with an ounce of brains will believe that any history of his working on civil rights issues (which is debatable anyway) is an automatic pass when racism is used as a electioneering tool.

COLUMN: 05-21-2008

The latest ridiculous assertion by the Clinton presidential campaign is that Senator Clinton is losing because of sexism. The opposite is true - much of her support is because of sexism by feminists who will vote for any woman for president regardless of her lack of ethical standards or qualifications. If it weren't for the women who are supporting Clinton only because is a female, she would not even be a viable candidate because she has no other solid base of support. All of the assertions of blue-collar or union support are not specifically addressing the fact that many of these people would have preferred a different candidate (mostly former Senator John Edwards) and are only choosing her when the choice is between her and Senator Obama. It's nearly over for the Clinton campaign and this will hopefully also be the end of her dishonorable self-serving career.

An unintentional truth about the war in Iraq

Patrick Kennedy, Undersecretary of State for Management on the decision to renew Blackwater's license, despite deaths and inquiries into the contractor's conduct: "We cannot operate without private security firms in Iraq. If the contractors were removed, we would have to leave Iraq."

I'm sure Secretary Kennedy did not mean to do this, but he has provided yet another piece of evidence regarding the underhanded method used to take America into the War in Iraq. Rather than telling the truth about the costs of the war, the administration provided a lot of fairy tale cost estimates and oil revenue projections. In addition, they intentionally did not provide sufficient troop levels to complete the mission as that would have required a greater amount of political will that they could not muster. They have attempted to make up for this by using private contractors in nearly every area of the war. The result has been a mercenary army that has run rampant without any legal consequences (since our interim Iraqi administration imposed laws granting these contractors immunity from both American and Iraqi laws). These same mercenaries also cause a lot of resentment for the troops they work with due to the huge disparity between the meager amount paid to soldiers and the extremely large amounts paid to contractors. Whenever American soldiers are counted in Iraq, they intentionally do not include the nearly 100,000 contractors (who are there cashing in on our grandchildren's tax dollars due to the huge budget deficits used to pay them) and this is yet another attempt to obfuscate the true cost of this war. Our military needs to be given the proper tools to do the job for any war that is necessary and we cannot allow dishonest politicians to destroy our standing in the world through the use of war-profiteering mercenaries who are not fighting for the best interests of America. If removing the contractors would lead to the end of this war, then that is proof in itself that the war needs to end.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 05-16-2008

President Bush on the War on Terror:

"The fight against terror and extremism is the defining challenge of our time. It is more than a clash of arms. It is a clash of visions, a great ideological struggle. On the one side are those who defend the ideals of justice and dignity with the power of reason and truth. On the other side are those who pursue a narrow vision of cruelty and control by committing murder, inciting fear, and spreading lies."

THE TRUTH: While the president is right in his definition of the enemy, he is wrong about his definition of America and its allies based on his current policies. It would be ideal if he lived up to the definition of defending "the ideals of justice and dignity with the power of reason and truth" instead of being the fear-mongering violator of human and civil rights who claims no need for truth and liberty when fighting evil. The pure hypocrisy of this statement in the face of Guantanamo detainee trials, the PATRIOT Act, Abu Ghraib, the false reasons for the Iraq War, and so many other examples is why President Bush is specifically detested by both Americans and our allies around the world. He talks a good game, but his actions show that he does not really believe in American values and will circumvent all of them as needed to pursue his agenda. America will definitely be better off 8 months from now when he leaves office, regardless of who his successor will be.

COLUMN: 05-14-2008

Saturday Night Live had it exactly right last weekend when they parodied Senator Clinton claiming why she should be the nominee despite there being no legitimate chance of her winning the Democratic Party presidential nomination and that message was reinforced by yesterday's election in West Virginia. In the sketch, the actress portraying Senator Clinton claimed she should be the nominee because she is "a sore loser" who has "racist supporters" and who has "no ethical standards whatsoever." In the West Virginia primary yesterday, we clearly saw Senator Clinton continue to play unethically to the racial sentiments of the least educated state in the nation (95% without college degrees) and these are obviously the actions of a sore loser who cannot admit defeat in an impossible-to-win situation and who will not step aside graciously to allow her party to unite towards a good campaign on the issues against the Republicans in the fall.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 05-09-2008

Senator Clinton on Tuesday's election results:

"Tonight we've come from behind, we’ve broken the tie, and thanks to you, it's full speed on to the White House."

THE TRUTH: There is not a single shred of truth in this statement. Senator Clinton did not come from behind in North Carolina, where she lost overwhelmingly. She also did not come from behind in Indiana, where her large lead ended up in a victory of less than 1% more than Senator Obama. The election is not a tie as Senator Obama has been ahead for weeks in terms of the elected delegates (which is what really counts), the number of primaries and caucuses won, and the popular vote. And finally, since there is currently no path from where she is today to the White House, the only thing her campaign is speeding towards is off a cliff and she's apparently intent on taking Senator Obama, the Democratic Party, and even the whole country with her rather than admitting defeat. Both Senator McCain and Senator Obama don't have a history of the type of self-interested politics that both President Bush and especially President Clinton have shown and we can only hope that whichever of them wins the presidency will maintain this posture during their term in office.

COLUMN: 05-07-2008

Yesterday's election results were not a "split-decision" despite what Senator Clinton's supporters are saying. Rather than admitting their overwhelming loss in North Carolina and that their extremely thin victory in Indiana was actually a loss after they started out with a large majority of working-class voters who were voting for her based on racial sentiments, they continue to claim that there is a good chance of her winning the nomination. At this point, that's like betting on a lottery ticket as a good chance of getting rich. It's obvious that Senator Clinton just cares about her own power, money, and influence and will not drop out despite the harm being done to her party and ultimately to the nation as she ruins what could have been a good campaign by party outsiders on both sides changing the direction of the nation from the corruption shown by the both the Clinton and Bush administrations.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 05-02-2008

Senator Clinton on the high price of oil:

"I also want to take on OPEC. You know, OPEC is a cartel, it's a monopoly... Nine of the 13 biggest oil-producing countries that are in OPEC are also members of the WTO. I would file complaints. I would also change the law so that citizens and businesses could file anti-trust actions. We're going to begin to hold them accountable."

THE TRUTH: Senator Clinton is an obvious hypocrite who will make this kind of statement when appearing on the O'Reilly Factor while trying to appeal to working-class Americans (especially those racists who are a large part of the Fox News audience and who will never support a minority for president). The reality is that her campaign is the most heavily funded by industry lobbyists and her history of financial support has always been heavily tilted towards corporate PACs and away from the interests of ordinary Americans. We should be thankful that the odds of another Clinton presidency are absolutely miniscule at this point so that we don't continue to hear these lies while our government is sold to highest bidder (along with the Lincoln bedroom).