lies – Page 2 – Doug's Views

October 4, 2009April 18, 2020

It is so obvious it makes me sick

Like dragging ones feet across the carpet on a cold dry day and then getting a jolt when touching anything, I get to a point where some things in life and the world become so obvious to me I wonder why it seems I am the only one who sees it and why can’t I get others to see it too. When others get that way they get ulcers or fly into a rage – me? I beat my head on a wall and write about it in my blog. Here is the latest obvious crap flaking my pie crust.

1. Where’s the change I voted for? It seems even with a new administration in Washington and the bullies out of power in Congress, we were to see actual real change. I’m still waiting. The Health Care reform debate is a prime example. It’s been obvious for years that we must end the monopoly by private insurance companies who profit from the pain and suffering of their customers. We don’t tolerate it for any other industry except health insurance.

Now it seems both spineless Democrats and the GOP bullies are planning a big wet kiss to the insurance companies along the same lines as we saw when the Medicare D pharmacy plan came out – huge payments to big insurance companies for crappy coverage for those least able to afford any medical bills in the first place. Can you say Donut hole?

Republicans have lied about the reform from the beginning – just plain lied – and our fourth estate and even Democrats just let them do it.

Here are the facts 40 MILLION people have NO insurance and approx 40,000 DIE each year because of having NO insurance.

What kind of human would allow that to happen? Republicans for one and Democrats who accept money from the insurance industry.

Polls show overwhelming public support for reform and a public option, yet some in Congress let the money do their thinking for them. SHAME ON THEM!!!!

2. Passing off “talking points” as news. What boils my blood almost as much as the GOP lies about health care reform that go unchallenged is the general incest that goes on within the Washington DC media complex.

We had an election in November and the Democrats won handy majorities in both houses and have the White House but you wouldn’t know it if you watch or read the mainstream media that comes out of DC.

It seems that the Sunday talk shows and political news in print supposedly needs to have a 1 to 1 “balance” of left and right views. While it seemed on some Sundays, former VP Dick Cheney, or for some odd reason, his daughter, was allowed to basically give a monologue about his version of events when he was President and approved of the criminal torturing of human beings among other GOP centric discussions.

Do you remember tug-of-wars from your childhood? I remember the adult in charge lining up us kids by height and then going down the line, alternating which team we would be on, to ensure that neither side was unfairly stacked. That notion of balancing the sides to make things fair has morphed in modern media to this simplistic binary equation of Republican vs. Democrat. But it’s a false equivalence, because it assumes a completely valid argument on both sides, and as we chronicle daily here at C&L, rarely do we see sensible, much less valid, arguments coming from the right to make the “balance” actually informative. Instead we get death panels, socialicommunistmarxism, concern trollism over deficit spending and the Olympic Games.
Sunday Morning Bobblehead Thread

The point again is this assumes that both sides have equally valid arguments and in some cases, like the health care debate, this is not even close. The lies about death panels, lack of public support for a public option, and “socialized medicine” told by the right are lies. Lies are not valid arguments.

Only a few years ago if you dissented against the President your words were treasonous and you should be “sent to Gitmo” or worse, where regular people wearing T-shirts saying “Bush Sucks” were detained by police when they showed up to protest Bush in public. Since November if you bring a gun to an event the President is appearing, it’s called “free speech” and you want to “take back your country” from a black guy and his uppity ways.

It kind of has an Orwellian “doubleplusgood” ring to it all.

3 Finally, who the hell is Kim Kardashian? What has she done to merit any mention in the press? I had to look her up in Wikipedia and just as I guessed she is famous for no real reason. She didn’t land a plane in the Hudson, she didn’t cure a disease, and she doesn’t contribute to society in any memorable way.

If she was someone of substance I could see why she would be newsworthy but unless I missed her winning an Oscar recently then her celebrity worth is very small compared to the amount of press she gets.

I’m just fed up with narcissism being passed out as something important. I don’t care about her or any other “celebutante” and I’ll now have to spend time scrubbing the taint from this blog. UGH!

And THAT is this edition of my Obvious rant….

September 13, 2008April 18, 2020

John McCain’s ads are LIES. Here’s the video proof.

Pass this on to protect our election from lies and deceit.

February 16, 2007April 18, 2020

The Bush who cried wolf

President Bush has a creditability problem. Here are a couple of examples.

Gosh, reading an economic report to Congress from President Bush, one wonders if he is back on the blow. Here is how an AP article put it on 2/13/07:

Looking back on last year, Bush said the economy turned in a solid performance despite the ill effects of the residential real estate bust.
The economy grew by 3.4 percent last year, as measured by gross domestic product from the fourth quarter of 2005 to the fourth quarter of 2006.
The president’s report projects that economic growth will slow to 2.9 percent this year, reflecting lingering fallout from the housing slump. Next year growth will pick up, with the economy expanding by 3.1 percent.
Bush pushes free trade as key to strong economy

Meanwhile, this week Chrysler announced the cutting of 13,000 jobs, US icon candymaker Hershey announced they would cut 1,500 jobs and move more production to a new plant in Mexico, and Coca-Cola plans to cut 3,500 jobs.

So growth in 2006 was 3.4 percent and is expected to be 2.6 percent in 2007 and then 3.1 percent in 2008? And 3 major employers are slashing payrolls.

I am not an expert but Bush’s report is NOT good news and neither is the economic forecast.

President Bush also now wants us to believe that Iran is supplying arms to Shiite militias in Iraq in a way that recalls the efforts the administration tried to “prove” the danger of Saddam Hussein as a pretext to invading that country. The mainstream media seem to have collective amnesia of that debacle and are reporting the “proof” about Iran without challenge.

The website Media Matters, as well as anyone with an IQ over 10, sees the parallel:

In reporting on the Bush administration’s allegations about Iran’s role in Iraq, media outlets have covered the matter in a muddled, incomplete manner, omitting any skeptical or critical analysis of these allegations, which suggests, in the words of washingtonpost.com’s Dan Froomkin, that “the lessons we should have learned from Iraq may not have been learned at all.”
Fool me twice? — NY Times, CBS, NBC report Bush allegations about Iran without context, skepticism

Froomkin, writing on the website “Nieman Watchdog” said:

You Can’t Be Too Skeptical of Authority
Don’t assume anything administration officials tell you is true. In fact, you are probably better off assuming anything they tell you is a lie.
Demand proof for their every assertion. Assume the proof is a lie. Demand that they prove that their proof is accurate.
Just because they say it, doesn’t mean it should be make the headlines. The absence of supporting evidence for their assertion — or a preponderance of evidence that contradicts the assertion — may be more newsworthy than the assertion itself.
Don’t print anonymous assertions. Demand that sources make themselves accountable for what they insist is true.
How the press can prevent another Iraq

Froomkin also listed the “provocation alone does not justify war” and that we need to find out what others outside the US think.

Knowing that Bush is such a religious person, I would also like to offer the classic fable by Aesop about the “Boy who cried wolf” that I learned in Sunday school.

The moral is if you lie enough times, when there is real danger you will not be believed. Bush wonders why people have a hard time believing his accusations about Iran.

March 16, 2006April 18, 2020

Playing hooky from work

I’m suppose to be at work at this time but I called in sick. I’m not sick.

I guess I am just bored with my job.

I did plan on going I really did, even after waking up late and knowing I would be late. But when it came time to trudge to work I just couldn’t do it. Whenever I call off for a non-sick reason I have huge pangs of guilt. I was indoctrinated to want to work and knowing if I don’t have a valid reason, it is a bad reason not to go into work.

Most companies I’ve worked for have attendance policies and they have them because if people had a choice, most would not want to be working. Even with the shot to the pocketbook, they can find other “fun” things to do with their time.

I don’t feel guilty because I called off, but I do because I like and respect my co-workers and I feel I’m letting them down if I skip a day or two.

My job isn’t difficult or stressful. It is challenging but because my company controls my time by minute detail, I’ve grown bored. Most would say, “Then quit.”

I would if I could find a job similar in duties and pay but I know that is not likely.

I can tell I’m bored at work because when I am on break or lunch, the time flies by quickly. When I am working the time seems to stand still. 8 hours seems like I am stuck in my own hell.

I’ve tried to read or write to take my mind off the ticking clock. I’ve even taken to covering up the clock on my computer so I don’t watch it, but none of it is helping.

I’m playing with fire and I can’t help myself at the moment. I know I’m going to need a real day off due to a family emergency, health issue when the Bird flu hits, or some other reason that is more real than “I don’t feel like working today.” And if I’m not careful I’ll have plenty of time not to work as I collect unemployment for violating the rules. And it will be nobody’s fault but mine.

December 18, 2005April 18, 2020

King George spies on loyal subjects just in case….

That loud thud you heard Saturday was the other shoe falling in Washington when President Bush went on live television and admitted he had the National Security Agency spy on US citizens. He hid behind the cloak of the 9/11 attacks to justify his actions in issuing the order.

“The authorization I gave the National Security Agency after September the 11th helped address that problem in a way that is fully consistent with my constitutional responsibilities and authorities. The activities I have authorized make it more likely that killers like these 9/11 hijackers will be identified and located in time. And the activities conducted under this authorization have helped detect and prevent possible terrorist attacks in the United States and abroad.”

The Bush administration also said that not only did Congress allow the President to issue such an order in the blank check resolution they gave him in October 2001, but that Congressional leaders, GOP and Democrats, had been briefed on the spying on several occasions.

The NY Times wrote this on Sunday:

“The disclosure of the security agency’s warrantless eavesdropping on calls between the United States and Afghanistan sheds light on the origins of the agency’s larger surveillance activities, which officials say have included monitoring the communications of as many as 500 Americans and other people inside the United States without search warrants at any one time. Several current and former officials have said that they believe the security agency operation began virtually on the fly in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks.”
Eavesdropping Effort Began Soon After Sept. 11 Attacks

As any fisherman will tell you, when one tosses out a net sometimes you get other things beside fish. That is the Bush operation in a nutshell. It assumes we are guilty till proved innocent and their fishing operations have had limited success. Fewer than a couple dozen people arrested in the US for suspected terrorism activities since 2001 have been terrorists.

In a Washington Post article in June 2005 found:

Among all the people charged as a result of terrorism probes in the three years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, The Post found no demonstrated connection to terrorism or terrorist groups for 180 of them.
Just one in nine individuals on the list had an alleged connection to the al Qaeda terrorist network and only 14 people convicted of terrorism-related crimes — including Faris and convicted Sept. 11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui — have clear links to the group. Many more cases involve Colombian drug cartels, supporters of the Palestinian cause, Rwandan war criminals or others with no apparent ties to al Qaeda or its leader, Osama bin Laden.
But a large number of people appear to have been swept into U.S. counterterrorism investigations by chance — through anonymous tips, suspicious circumstances or bad luck — and have remained classified as terrorism defendants years after being cleared of connections to extremist groups.
For example, the prosecution of 20 men, most of them Iraqis, in a Pennsylvania truck-licensing scam accounts for about 10 percent of individuals convicted — even though the entire group was publicly absolved of ties to terrorism in 2001.
U.S. Campaign Produces Few Convictions on Terrorism Charges

Bush’s actions may also conflict with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (1978) that requires court orders before spying on anyone can be started. That act was made law after the widespread surveillance done on protest groups and others in the 1970’s by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies and the abuse those agencies were found to have done.

A basic civil right is that search and seizure requires a warrant from a court. It is a check against an abuse of Federal power against people. President Bush seems to be abusing his authority.

Now I fully expect to see, later Sunday morning, the usual administration talking heads trying to spin Bush’s actions and try to turn it around and make it look like those for civil rights are in league with terrorists. Watch the morning shows and you will see it and hear it.

Then there is this bit from his “speech”:

“The activities I authorized are reviewed approximately every 45 days. Each review is based on a fresh intelligence assessment of terrorist threats to the continuity of our government and the threat of catastrophic damage to our homeland. During each assessment, previous activities under the authorization are reviewed. The review includes approval by our nation’s top legal officials, including the Attorney General and the Counsel to the President. I have reauthorized this program more than 30 times since the September the 11th attacks, and I intend to do so for as long as our nation faces a continuing threat from al Qaeda and related groups.”
President’s Radio Address (12/17/2005)

He is asking us to trust him and his appointed officials to operate in a correct manner. This is the same guy that just days ago admitted he tried to sell the war in Iraq based on bogus intelligent info, that we aren’t holding suspects in secret prisons in other countries where torture is not a big deal, and Iraq is getting better everyday. I find it hard to see President Bush and “trust” in the same room not alone in the same sentence.

According to the NY Times:

“In the early years of the operation, there were few, if any, controls placed on the activity by anyone outside the security agency, officials say. It was not until 2004, when several officials raised concerns about its legality, that the Justice Department conducted its first audit of the operation. Security agency officials had been given the power to select the people they would single out for eavesdropping inside the United States without getting approval for each case from the White House or the Justice Department, the officials said.”

And this is what happens, and we told you so, when Congress signed away their oversight on the “war” on terrorism in October 2001.

Congressional leaders, Democrat and Republican, have some serious explaining to do as to why they let the spying continue as long as did and it seems it still is. Their shock and indignation seem very hollow indeed.