Tell The Truth

We have become accustomed over the past several years to an annoying problem with our political leaders. They just cannot seem to tell the truth. You may remember back when it was decided that the public should not be privy to who was to write the energy policy for this country, that Vice-President Cheney decided it should be done secretly. He told us that it wasn't really the big oil guys who would be involved in it and that it was none of our business anyway. Turns out, he just couldn't tell the truth.

Then there was the little matter of the "Yellow Cake." You remember, Niger, Joe Wilson, his wife Valerie Plame? Just a fabrication by a two bit guy in Italy. And, they were told by the Italian and German government's that it had been invented. They just couldn't help themselves. They couldn't tell the truth.

After that, of course there was the Weapons of Mass Destruction. Hans Blix (top UN Weapons Inspector, prior to invasion of Iraq) told them that there was no WMD. That all they had to do was keep the inspections moving, which Hussein had agreed to, and things would cool down. No the Bush team said, there are WMD there and we can prove it. So they brought out a paper written by a college student, and some pictures of trucks. That, they said, was proof positive that we were about to eat nuclear dust. Again, they just couldn't tell the truth.

Now we have the NSA issue. We're just listening in on those bad guys calling "into" the country. We're not listening to outgoing calls. Well, we're listening to outgoing calls, but we're just listening to calls made to Al-Qaeda. And, of course we know which ones those are. So, nothing to see here, move on.

President George W. Bush, 04/20/04
"Now, by the way, any time you hear about the US Government talking about wiretap, it requires...a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constituional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution."

We now know that no court orders were obtained. Even when, under FISA, they had 72 hours AFTER they began the surveillance, to obtain one. Now they say, it would hold things up, slow us down and get in the way of our getting the bad guys. So what exactly hasn't changed? What about the Constitution? Once again, they couldn't tell the truth.

So, during the next two election cycles we'll probably hear alot of stuff about the boogey man coming to get us. And we'd better back the cheerleader with the cowboy hat, if we want to be safe. But, for me, I just don't believe anything they say. They just can't tell the truth.