In February 2003, a few weeks before the Iraq invasion began, then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki told Congress that "Something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers ... would be required" to stabilize postwar Iraq. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz rejected this claim, insisting that he was "reasonably certain that they [the Iraqis] will greet us as liberators, and that will help us to keep [troop] requirements down." Rumsfeld shared Wolfowitz's optimism. Rumsfeld said the post-war troop commitment would be less than the number of troops required to win the war. He also said "the idea that it would take several hundred thousand U.S. forces, I think, is far from the mark." It would have been highly inconvenient to tell the truth right before the invasion. It was much easier to have Shinseki "retire".
"We are finding terrorists and bringing them to justice. We are gathering information about where the terrorists may be hiding. We are trying to disrupt their plots and plans. Anything we do ... to that end in this effort, any activity we conduct, is within the law. We do not torture." It appears that President Bush's definition of torture differs from the United Nations convention on torture signed by Ronald Reagan:
For the purposes of this Convention, the term "torture" means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
Bush and Cheney contend that water-boarding was not torture. Post World War II war crimes tribunalsfound that Japanese soldiers engaging in water-boarding and the officers who approved it were guilty of war crimes. The ends do not justify the means.
The Bush administration sold its Medicare prescription drug plan to conservatives in Congress as having a cost of $400 billion over ten years, enabling it to narrowly win passage in December 2003. The White House knew the costs were $551 billion - more than 25% higher. The administration threatened to fire Medicare's top financial analyst (Richard Foster) if he released the information. Two months after the President signed the law, the administration revised its costs estimates to $534 billion. Our fiscally responsible President also failed to mention that his new plan created an $8 TRILLION unfunded liability, larger than the Social Security unfunded liability.
"So I analyzed that and decided I didn't want to be the president during a depression greater than the Great Depression, or the beginning of a depression greater than the Great Depression. I've abandoned free market principles to save the free market system." These remarks by George Bush in December 2008 prove that he is either a fool, a coward, or a liar. Take your choice.
"When there is a bill that ends up on my desk as the president, you the public will have five days to look online and find out what's in it before I sign it." President Obama made this promise during the campaign. I do not recall having the opportunity to peruse the $787 billion stimulus bill online before Barack put his John Hancock on this pork filled travesty. Hundreds of "crucial projects" were added at 3:00 am the morning it was passed. This is what passes for transparency in Washington DC.
"I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists -- and won. They have not funded my campaign, they will not run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am president." This is quite an amusing campaign "promise", considering there are 15,000 lobbyists crawling around Washington DC like cockroaches spending $3.3 billion "not influencing" our honorable members of Congress. The truth is that lobbyists wrote the $787 billion stimulus bill. The voices of the American people were 10 to 1 against the bill.
President Obama issued a 14 page report on January 11, 2009 geared to sell his $787 billion stimulus plan. The report promised to CREATE (not create or save) 3,675,000 jobs in the next two years. He declared that if his package was not passed it would be catastrophe for the country, with 2 million more job losses and double digit unemployment. According to the BLS, there were 11.6 million Americans unemployed in January 2009. At the end of August, there were 14.9 million Americans unemployed. By my math, that is 3.3 million job losses since the stimulus package was rammed down our throats using fear tactics and lies. Of course, Barack the Magnificent has recently stated, "We began by passing a Recovery Act that has already saved or created over 150,000 jobs and provided a tax cut to 95% of all working families." He must subscribe to the Joseph Goebbels School of Lying Journal. The bigger the lie, the more likely the masses are to believe it. I'll be waiting for Obama to post the results on his website. He only needs to create 7 million jobs in the next 16 months.
"I happen to be a proponent of single-payer universal healthcare coverage. That's what I'd like to see." These were Barack Obama's words while campaigning for Senate in 2003. At the 2008 Presidential debate, Obama stated: "I never said that we should try to go ahead and get single-payer (healthcare)." I wonder what he believes now.
Obama makes the following declarations regarding his healthcare plan:
- No one will be compelled to buy coverage.
- No new taxes on employer benefits.
- Government can control rising health care costs better than the private sector.
- A public plan won't be a Trojan horse for a single-payer monopoly.
- Patients don't have to fear rationing.
Barack is counting on the American public to be fooled by his weasel word "compelled". His plan won't compel individuals. It will compel companies to dump private coverage for their employees, therefore forcing them into the government option. Obama will tax insurance companies, which will pass this along to consumers. Sounds like a middle class tax increase to me. Please provide me one example of Government controlling any cost better than the private sector. The Democrats have openly stated they will use the trigger as a Trojan horse to achieve their single payer goal. You cannot open up healthcare to millions and reduce costs without rationing care.
Lead Role in a Cage
Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange
A walk on part in the war,
For a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd -- Wish You Were Here
The American people have imperceptibly traded liberty, freedom and self-determination for safety, security, and protection by their government -- Like a frog being slowly boiled alive. They want their government to lie to them. It is easier to not face our intractable problems. Politicians that promise more benefits with no sacrifice are elected over and over again. Anyone attempting to get elected on a platform of reduced benefits, shared sacrifice, and truthful revelations about our fiscal situation is DOA. Americans prefer simple wrong solutions to difficult realistic solutions, talking points to real debate, material comfort to getting involved in governance. The ruling elite in Washington, on Wall Street and in the mainstream media encourage this behavior by Americans because it allows them to preserve their power. By choosing comfort over truth, we have exchanged a part in the war for a lead role in a cage. In the end these choices will lead to despair.
