When People Lie

Political cartoon can take the lead in this particular post. Glenn McCoy is regularly published by Bellevue News Democrat/Universal Press Syndicate. And is republished regularly, in the Spokesman-Review. In this cartoon, McCoy accuses the news media of ignoring the fact that Hsu, a Democratic fundraiser and a fellow who was placed under felony indictment had raised thousands of dollars for Democratic presidential candidates. Meanwhile televising Senator Larry Craig and his getting busted for sexual misconduct. Problem is, Mr. McCoy must not have been paying attention when CNN aired the fact that Hsu had raised money for presidential candidates such as Hilary Clinton (depicted here) and as soon as she knew the man happened to be a fellow facing indictment, also returned the money or gave it to charity. That is, to put it charitably that McCoy wasn't paying attention. Of course he must have known since he is as much a journalist as those who write editorials. What he chose to do was spin away from the facts and target the people who provide his paycheck (also depicted here). So maybe, McCoy needs to find a new place for his cartoons, since he obviously doesn't like the news media who publishes them for him.

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Next, found in the Coeur d'Alene Press, Paul Finman local letter writer from Post Falls, Idaho. Mr. Finman attacks the Democrats as the people orchestrating Senator Larry Craig's destruction. Senator McCain, presidential candidate Gov. Mitt Romney and etc. aren't exactly Democrats and we don't know the political afiliation of the undercover cop that busted Craig. But we do know that Craig signed a guilty plea and is now trying to whine his way out of a self-inflicted embarrassing position. What did the Democrats have to do with Craig and his getting busted in a sex sting? Absolutely nothing. Finman, to put it charitably, wasn't paying attention either.

Bill Klein of Nine Miles Falls, Washington tends to have a problem nailing down facts as well. Part of his letter (in support of a Senator he never voted for) attacked the news media for not taking a whack at Democrats facing the same predictament that Senator Craig faced. Actually, Barney Frank got taken to task, Senator Kennedy (though re-elected many times) got Chapaquidick (sic) thrown in his face on a routine basis. And plenty of other members of Congress got into sexual trouble as well. Phil Hart, running for president (Democrat) got run off the campaign trail when the news media caught him in an act of infidelity. And yes, President Clinton got put through the news media meat grinder just because of Monica Lewinsky. In Bill Klein's case, must have been long term memory loss.

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And now going to Michael Barone and his willingness to tell the readers that GW's bull about Iraq is factual. And turning on Democrats in particular who point to the GAO report as to why we seem to have failed in Iraq (facts: we have). And painting it as politics. Problem is, as I have blogged about this before, military progress ain't nothing if political stability hasn't been acheived. And GW and Co. have routinely dismissed "benchmarks" a necessity to a functioning and democratic Iraqi society plus government. But by failing to meet those benchmarks, the Iraqi government has guaranteed the undermining of all those military successes that Barone keeps bringing out. So, are we supposed to remain in Iraq propping up a government that won't work? That's not politics, that's not defeatism, that's a challenge to an administration that is too scared to answer it. And lashes out, as Barone is also prepared to do, at those who dare pose the challenge. ***

Bill McKenzie had a kind of sort of answer (Spokane, Washington) for Barone, published in the Roundtable of the Spokesman-Review on the same day, 5 September 2007. He took some of GW's bull about why we invaded Iraq and ran with the ball. In the part of the letter to be referenced here, we invaded Iraq to create a democracy... But he ran with the ball in a direction that no GW supporter would ever go, Democracy and Islam are incompatable. Right. If the democracy is imposed on a Middle Eastern culture by a western nation (the U.S. of A.) it is going to be incompatable. McKenzie's letter demonstrated why GW failed in Iraq. *** Sorry Barone.