Telling The Truth

Nah, when your wife is obviously pleased with her atrocious hair-do and asks you if you like it, don't go there. This is pointless infliction of harm on another in the pursuit of a literal definition of "truth." These little opportunities for diplomacy occur infrequently and are no qualifiers of the practice of telling the truth.

While I am not an appropriate model for a paragon of virtue I understand and adhere to the practice of veracity and forthrightness. As a candidate in the Democratic Primary election in the OR 2nd CD it was not in my interest to make a critical stand on illegal immigration and amnesty, it was not especially valuable to be an ardent supporter of the 2nd Amendment, and it certainly wasn't helpful to be an advocate of a reasoned and locally influenced environmental policy, but I went ahead and did it. I did it for a simple reason, I intended to act on it if elected. It would certainly not have hurt me in the General Election, but you have to get there first and getting there wasn't worth being a liar or even an equivocator.

The BushCo is an example of political expediency trumping truth, if you're interested in the DOJ and US Attorney firings The National Journal has some with held emails that show just how dedicated to that project BushCo is. Yes Gonzo knew Rove, et al took hand in the process, everybody lies and waits it out.

The GOP made sure a visit by 11 (R) Congressmen to the White House in order to"read the riot act" to the President got plenty of press. Right, today the House voted to give George II half his demanded funding for Iraq with the other half held for progress review in two months, 2 Republicans voted Yea. So where were those 11 come vote time? Voting with BushCo. Say one thing, do another, its called lying.

The American people can be lied to, for awhile, they can be frightened into stupidity, for awhile, but in the long run there is an inherent sense at work there. Eventually the steady drip drip of falsehoods and exaggerations wears through their natural desire to respect the Presidency. This points up the true danger of the BushCo policies where the truth is concerned, an erosion of confidence in our government and the belief that it is composed "of the people." We have a voter turnout of 54% for a Presidential Election and that is indicative of a cynicism concerning government. At some point either the electorate will divorce themselves from the process or there will be a reaction violent and destructive from a disenfranchised disaffected citizenry. Chaos is the inevitable result of this kind of separation between a government and the governed.