By: Bruce S. Ticker - 01/30/03

Hey, George…

Gotta wonder if you broke a record Tuesday night. A record for inconsistencies, to put it politely.

Others would call it a record for lies. I’m not saying that, but others might. I counted 36 lies…I mean, inconsistencies…when I read a newspaper transcript of your State of the Union speech. In fact, CBS News reported LIE #37 that the inspectors in Iraq would be able to tell if someone was posing as an Iraqi scientist.

As I watched Tuesday night, I thought I caught a half-dozen distortions and even blatant lies just during the first 10 minutes. You told some whoppers, such as:

“Our union is strong (tell that to the jobless and each local and state government)…We will not pass along our problems to other Congresses, other presidents and other generations (you already have)…We achieved historic education reform (no, you drove up school expenses and ignored real needs)…To bring our economy out of recession, we delivered the largest tax relief in a generation (we’re even deeper into recession)…We are holding corporate criminals to account (what are you doing loose?)…Our economy is recovering (again, tell that to the jobless).”

That’s just the first eight paragraphs.

Your top doozy was your declaration: “Whatever action is required, whenever action is necessary, I will defend the freedom and security of the American people.”

All by yourself? Does this mean you’ll lead the troops into battle? Why didn ’t you “defend the freedom and security of the American people” when you first had the chance three decades ago?

One woman told a reporter that she thought she heard you declare war. It sounded like that when you said, “If Saddam Hussein does not fully disarm, for the safety of our people, and for the peace of the world, we will lead a coalition to disarm him.”

I was impressed with your double lie: “As our nation moves troops and builds alliances to make our world safer, we must also remember our calling, as a blessed country, to make this world better.” Safer? Better?

Finally, there’s your line: “I urge you to pass both my faith-based initiative and the Citizen Service Act to encourage acts of compassion that can transform America, one heart and one soul at a time.”

There’s lots of hearts and souls that need to be transformed, pal. Starting with yours.

House Heavy Thomas Doubts Tax Plan

It’s either a bad sign for George W. Bush’s $674 billion tax-cut proposal or it signals Republican game-playing.

Doubts by Democrats and moderate Republicans don’t count nearly as much as those of House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, who was quoted in Tuesday’s Washington Post saying he lacks enough details to fully evaluate it. Thomas, one of the archconservative heavy hitters, singlehandedly delayed extension of unemployment benefits for months.

His words: “I’m trying to figure out what it means. “My job is not to say, ‘Attaboy. Good deal.’”

The account continues, “Thomas said the dividend plan does not actually end the double taxation of dividends, echoing criticism in the business community that it would leave some dividends taxed while favoring others. He said he also worries about the plans’s impact on investor behavior and corporate management, resurrecting traditional Republican fears of Washington meddling in the economy.”

The California Republican also said, “There are significant consequences of which stock you buy, which stock is offered, corporate management decisions. It’s pretty self-evident that there are a number of ripple effects” that have to be considered.

They Just Don’t Know Their Place

The members of the Congressional Black Caucus must be a bunch of spoilsports and ingrates.

After all George W. Bush has done for them. Just because Bush might have manipulated the presidential election by disenfranchising African-American voters, the caucus tried to interrupt the official tally of Electoral College votes certifying the election results. Then after their objections failed, they walked out ofthe joint session of Congress.

Even worse, recounts Washington Post columnist Kevin Merida, the White House “took note of the caucus’ rather muted response when Bush publicly criticized Sen. Trent Lott for endorsing Strom Thurmond’s 1948 segregationist presidential campaign.”

No wonder that Bush won’t meet with the caucus. After all, Bush’s tax cuts are going to help lots of black people. Especially people likeO prah and Bill Cosby. And the caucus members are not grateful enough to get down on their knees and thank Bush for bashing Lott. Don’t they know how hard it is to kick someone when he’s down?

Fast Eddie Slows Down Bushie’s Good News For Economy

While Pennsylvania lost 80,000 jobs since George W. Bush moved into the White House, his chief economist told Philadelphia business people that all will be well soon. However, the new governor – who must clean up eight years of Republican rule in Pennsylvania -practically laughed him out of the room.

Both were addressing the city’s Chamber of Commerce last Thursday (Jan. 23) when Glenn Hubbard touted Bush’s $674 billion tax-cut plan as a boost to the economy, according toa Philadelphia Daily News account.

“The recovery is under way,” Hubbard said. “This year will begin with modest growth and then accelerate” later in the year.

Not so fast, said Democrat Ed Rendell, who must contend with a deficit of perhaps $2 billion. His take: “There’s nothing in the stimulus program that will produce growth this year, for sure, and probably not in2004.”

Quoth The Mavens

You might recall that our leader called his Iraq war support the “coalition of the willing,” whatever that means.

To this, former Clinton administration staffer Ivo Daalder says in The Washington Post: “If that’s the coalition of the willing, it’s are markably thin coalition.”

Medicaid administrator Thomas Scully: “We want to get off toa friendly, happy, bipartisan start of the year. This clearly wasn’t doing it” (WP).

He was referring to a draconian rule to limit use of hospital emergency rooms by patients on Medicaid. Furious opposition yielded revocation of the policy and Scully brilliant quote.

C-Span caller: “Even the most liberal person knows the New York Times is a leftwing paper.” Not by my definition of “liberal” or “leftwing”.

Letters

Joanna Walsh-Ward of Lewiston, Maine., writes in The Lewiston Sun Journal - “Republicans claim they are the pro-life party. Pro-life is more than being against abortion. It’s about the death penalty, euthanasia, assisted suicide, medicine for the sick, feeding children, clean air to breathe, a home to live in, protection from the cold, help for the mentally ill, using our military personnel to defend life and the innocent children everywhere, not just in the U.S.”

Ronald Kaiserman, who lives in the posh Philadelphia suburb of Wynnewood, in The Philadelphia Inquirer - “Taxes are the cost of a civilized society. However badly it may do some things, government is the only provider of many services we demand and need. Most of the proposed tax cuts will go to people who don’t need the money. I have always believed that, among other things, ‘liberty and justice for all’ meant that there was a social contract among the people of this country.”

Walter F. Wouk of Cobleskill, N.Y., in The Boston Globe –“Sen. John F. Kerry urged citizens to rediscover the political activism of the1960s that propelled the anti-war, civil rights and voting rights movements. He should take his own advice and rediscover his oath to ‘support and defend the Constitution.’ When the Bush administration began its assault upon civil liberties by proposing the Patriot Act, Kerry voted for it. When the administration demanded the unrestricted ability to wage war on Iraq – or any other country in the Middle East – Kerry voted for it. And when it sought to consolidate its power via the Homeland Security Act, Kerry voted for it. Kerry is in no position to criticize Bush.”

Bruce S. Ticker is a contributing writer for Liberal Slant. Contact Bruce at: Brucetic@aol.com