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BBHQ Boomer Essays: |
| Our Boomer-In-Charge here at BBHQ, Hershel Chicowitz, writes frequently about current events... from a boomer perspective. He is sometimes funny, sometimes provocative, sometimes a little of each. We hope you get a kick out of our Boomer Essays. |
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| WARNING: This essay is rated P - for Political content. Some material may be too intense for some readers. Discretion is advised. If you are not up for a serious discussion on the issues of the day, there are over 300 other pages at BBHQ with nothing but fun and nostalgia; please wander around elsewhere at BBHQ. Our recommended alternative essay this week is "Cell Phones & Other Crimes and Misdemeanors." |
Ladies and gentleman, we have had this essay and the accompanying offer available since September 2004. Since then, no one... no one... has been able to document a firm, verifiable lie that George Bush has told. No one. What does that tell you about the claims of George Bush's enemies?
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I am going to tackle, head on, one of my pet peeves: the lies of George
W. Bush. But, before you go off on a rant, please read the essay
completely. As an incentive, let me tell you that we are offering a $5,000
reward connected to this essay. And, lest there be any doubt... yes, this
is MY money at stake here. Maybe it is because I was lied to by someone close to me, or maybe it is just instinct, but I consider lying to be the most severe of the Seven Deadly Sins. Easy to carry out, but so damaging, lying also says much about the character of the individual. (OK, OK... so lying is not actually one of the top seven. Big deal; it should be.) I found Bill Clinton so despicable not because of his affair with Monica Lewinsky, et. al. (and I do mean "al."), but because he lied about it.... about it, and about so much of his presidency.... to his wife, to his cabinet, to a federal court, to the entire country. Nothing is as insidiously damaging to a relationship as is a lie. [2008 update: And by now, it is obvious that lying is a family thing that runs deep through the Clinton clan.] But that was then; today our subject is President George Bush. Now, he must have lied, mustn't he? After all, his opponents said so... repeatedly and defiantly. "An Imminent Threat" Initially, the most often quoted "lie" told by the president was that Iraq presented an imminent threat to the U.S. His opponents did not use this word without careful forethought. John Kerry used it; John Edwards used it; DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe used it; Ted Kennedy used it. Finally, "Meet the Press" moderator Tim Russert called Senator Kennedy on it, and he replied, "Well, use whatever word you want, dangerous or whatever...." and then, he robotically went back to "imminent." On "Meet the Press" in March 2003, he said he believed that Iraq "is automatically an imminent threat to the countries that surround it because of the possession of these weapons." The problem is that the "he," in this case, is former Democratic candidate Howard Dean, not George Bush. Not to be a nitpicker, but the problem is that George Bush never said that Iraq posed an imminent threat. In fact, in his State of the Union address in 2003, he said precisely the opposite:
So, the major lie that Bush was accused of telling.... turns out not to be a lie at all. The critics got it exactly backwards! Such a pain, is it not, when the facts get in the way? President Bush never said that Saddam Hussein and Iraq presented an imminent threat. Never. John Kerry, John Edwards, DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe, Ted Kennedy all knew that he did not say that. What does that make them, then?
In fact, it was Senator Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat, who said, on October 10, 2002, "I do believe that Iraq poses an imminent threat... Saddam's existing biological and chemical weapons capabilities pose a very real threat to Americans now." Dang! If only Rockefeller were the Republican nominee for president, huh?
 Out of Africa Next they say that Bush lied about Hussein buying uranium from Africa. The official web site of the Democratic party, www.democrats.org, reported, "In his State of the Union Address, President Bush told us that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa. But that claim was false." Well, let's see exactly what the president said: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Shucks; no lie there. The British government learned that. Today they still stick to that claim. No lie at all. Once again, the facts get in the way. Still, that has not stopped the president's opponents from shouting at the top of their lungs.
"Mission Accomplished"
Oh, but let's not get into the major lies of John Kerry. There is not enough space on the Internet for me to deal with that. But we can start with his claim about being in Cambodia on Christmas Day, 1968, a claim he has perpetuated throughout his political career:
Nope; never happened. Then there is the ever-changing story about what he did with his medals: he threw them away; he threw someone else's medals away; he threw his ribbons, not his medals away; it's none of your business what he did with his medals. According to Thomas Sowell (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20040825.shtml):
Weapons of Mass Destruction "Well, he lied about weapons of mass destruction," is what many people have written to BBHQ. Well, exactly what did the president say about weapons of mass destruction? But none of my enthusiastic writers seem to be able to quote one thing he said about weapons of mass destruction. Still, they KNOW he lied. They are positive that he lied. After all, Terry McAuliffe said so. Well, I'll make it easy for you... and them. I'll do the research for you. George Bush said, "Year after year, Saddam Hussein has gone to elaborate lengths, spent enormous sums, taken great risks to build and keep weapons of mass destruction." No lie there. Now, here are the facts: Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD). He used them against the Iranians; he used them against his own people. He had an extensive program to develop weapons of mass destruction. His army had chemical weapons suits available in 2003. Facts. Undeniable facts. "But we have not found any... so, there are none." That's a false conclusion. Just because we have not found them does not mean that he did not have them. In fact, we know that he had them. Maybe he shipped them to Syria. Maybe he buried them and then killed the soldiers who buried them. Maybe a lot of things. Evidence recently discovered indicates that Russia helped ship them to Syria and Iran in order to hide how deep Russia was in violating the arms embargo against Iraq. Just because we have not found WMDs does not mean that he did not have them; and it does not mean that George Bush lied about them. Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Madeline Albright, National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, Senator Tom Daschle, Representative Nancy Pelosi, Senator Bob Graham, Senator Carl Levin, Vice President Al Gore, Senator Ted Kennedy, Senator Robert Byrd, Senator John F. Kerry, Senator Jay Rockefeller, Representative Henry Waxman, Wesley Clark, Senator Hillary Clinton -- Democrats, all of them. They have all claimed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. I have the exact quotes here. Are they all lying? "He lied about the reasons for going to war." No, he did not. WMDs represented just one of the reasons. Deliberate and repeated violation of no fewer than 17 U.N. resolutions had more than a little to do with the reasons for removing Saddam Hussein from power. If you want to debate the validity of the war, fine. But George Bush did not lie about the reasons for removing Saddam Hussein. So, what we have here is the Democratic leadership, with the help of the mainstream press, willfully and knowingly spreading false and damaging accusations against the president for the purpose of drumming up anger among the party faithful for their own selfish political purposes. And, based on the e-mail we receive here at BBHQ, many of you are buying into it, following like sheep, the claims of your party leaders.
Anger: A Real Deadly Sin Former President Jimmy Carter, in an interview last March with the Independent, a far-left London newspaper, said, "There was no reason for us to become involved in Iraq recently. That was a war based on lies..." I wrote to Mr. Carter's office asking to which lies he was referring. But apparently Mr. Carter was too busy trashing the president to respond to my request. Mr. Carter's intense anger at having lost his re-election bid 24 years ago does not excuse HIS lie. "He lied to me personally." Ted Kennedy said, "Week after week after week after week, we were told lie after lie after lie after lie." I wrote to Senator Kennedy's office, asking for documentation of the president's lies. What a surprise.... no one from his office replied to me, either. Former Senator Max Cleland also said the president “flat-out lied” when he asked Congress to authorize war in Iraq. “He told us four things,” Cleland said, listing Bush's claims of Iraq weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons programs, attempts to acquire yellowcake uranium in Africa, and ties to al Qaeda. “All of that was a pack of lies,” Cleland said. Again, my request for documentation fell on deaf ears at Mr. Cleland's office. (There is a joke there.... but, no... I'm not going there.) Senator Cleland's anger at having lost in 2002 is not becoming. And yes, anger is one of the top seven.
Your Turn And that leaves it up to you, dear readers. Can you document for me, one lie that the president has told? Not ten, not five... I'll settle for one. And I'll sweeten the pot. We're prepared to offer a $5,000 gift certificate to Best Buy to anyone who can identify and document a lie that the president has told. A five-thousand dollar gift certificate.... or a five-thousand dollar donation to the Democratic National Committee, if you prefer. Or $5,000 in cold, hard cash. One lie - five thousand dollars. Now, we do have a few caveats. It has to be a real lie that the president told -- you know, actual words that came out of his mouth -- not something you think he said, not something you wished he had said, not something someone sent you in an e-mail message. No, it has to be something he actually said. (Unfairly confining, is is not?) And no, that smirk you all hate so much.... that is not a lie. If this is confusing to you, please read our third-grade level explanation of exactly what constitutes a lie. And, at present, we are going to exclude any statements about wiretapping. It is not that we are unwilling to tackle it. It is that the matter is so complex that we do not want to take the time, at present, to shovel past the hysteria and lead you to the truth. Ya' gotta' do better than that, friends. We feel it only fair to warn you, we do not make this offer casually. We have offered it privately to everyone who has written to us claiming that the president has lied. In one case, we carried out an exchange of over 20 messages trying to get the visitor to document a lie. Bottom line: we were called names, we were subjected to profanity; our manlihood was challenged; and writers rambled all over the place. It was the typical Democratic nonsense. But no one was able to document a lie. No one.
Another Flip-Flop Finally, you may recall that in 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry has stopped claiming that the president had lied. That is no accident. Instead, he focused on the sexual orientation of Dick Cheney's daughter. John Kerry is no dummy. He knows that if he had claimed that the president had lied during one of the debates, the president would have called him on it -- in front of 50 million voters. And that would have made the kerfuffle over Mary Cheney seem like a burp in the dark. So, your mission, my deceived Democrats, my belligerent Bush haters... is to find and document a lie that President Bush has told. Google yourself silly, folks. There is a five-thousand dollar reward awaiting you. If George Bush is as big a liar as you claim, this will be the easiest five thousand dollars you ever picked up. But.... if not.... what does that say about the claims of the entire anti-Bush campaign?
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Exploring My Roots: A Chicowitz History
Membership details here.
Terrific boomer memorabilia!!
Remember this?
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Visitors Respond
We have received a lot of responses, quoting the president as saying
something like, "We are working hard to make our borders safe." Then the
reader throws out some statistic about how many illegal aliens cross the
border every year.
"Ah, HA! Gotcha; it's a Bush lie!!! He lied, he lied, he lied!
Halliburton, Halliburton, Halliburton."
I really, really, really wonder.... are these people soooo stupid that
they actually do not know what a lie is... soooo blind that they
think that anything the president says that they dislike constitutes a
lie?
Ladies and gentlemen, I know that you do not like the
president. That's a given. But please do not show your ignorance and
blindness by submitting such silliness. You embarrass yourself and waste
our time.
If you have been so brainwashed and so corrupted, please read
our third-grade level explanation
of what constitutes a lie. Gees, our audience is the baby boomer
generation - fully-grown adults over the age of 40. It is embarrassing
that we have to remind you of something we all learned before the age of
five.
My, what short memories some of you have. After shouting for three years, "Bush lied! Bush lied! Bush lied!" the only (or the best) example you can come up with goes back to the third debate in October, 2004. Responding to Senator Kerry, Mr. Bush said, "Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those exaggerations."
Two years earlier, during an impromptu question and answer session, the president did respond to a question by saying that he did not worry too much about bin Laden. The statement was made off the cuff; it was not scripted. But yes, he did say it.
However, in order for the president's response in the debate to constitute a lie, the president would:
• have to have been able to recall at that moment the fact that he
made that off the cuff comment two years earlier;
• decided to deliberately deny having said that he was not worried
about bin Laden, knowing that the press would dig up the statement he
made and use it against him.
Do you remember everything you said two years ago... every single statement you made, even statements made off the cuff? Could you, during a pressure-packed environment, with 50 million people watching, accurately recall a specific thing you said two years ago?
I do not believe that the president is a genius, but I give him more credit than to deliberately say something that he knew was factually incorrect and that he knew would make headlines the next day if he said it.
Please! If the president is the habitual liar you claim him to be, come up with a better example. This ain't gonna cut it.
So, much as many of the entries frustrate us, we laughed ourselves silly over this one from Andrew:
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"Bush most recently lied that the item under his jacket was a poorly
tailored shirt (his press secretary and tailor had said earlier that it
was his suit that was poorly tailored - both unlikely for a man with his
money and power). A blatant lie." "I'll take the gift certificate, thank you." |
See... this is why we have to carefully define what a lie is. It does cut down on the riff-raff, though only slightly.
(The sad part is that I think Andrew is serious.)
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Well, they keep trying. Our second favorite entry comes from Tom, who
is... if nothing else, passionate:
Nor, obviously, did he manage to attend those annoying English classes in eighth grade. So, this is your average, "educated Bush hater," then, huh? Well, that would explain a lot.
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The BBHQ Election 2004 Guide -- These essays
document what the mainstream press does not want you to know. Read these
essays, and then explain to us why you still believe that John Kerry
should be president:
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Got it! Got it! Got it!!! Hurray!!!
In late May 2005, when discussing Senate confirmation of judicial appointments, the president said, "The Republican leadership's 'nuclear option' would eliminate the filibuster and turn the Senate into a rubber stamp..."
No, it would not. That is an absolute, definitive lie! Not true. It is a lie, clear as can be!
Oh, wait.... just a second.... that was not president Bush who said that; it was President Kerry.
Never mind.
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| The BBHQ Album of the Month is "Old Friends Live on Stage (Deluxe Edition) (2 CD/1 DVD)," by Simon & Garfunkel. If you were fortunate enough to see them in concert last year, I do not have to sell you. The concert was terrific! This album collection includes 55 songs, plus their new recording, "Citizen of the Planet," and one of the songs sung by the Everly Brothers during the concert. The DVD was recorded during their concert in Madison Square Garden in 2003. For any S&G fan, this is a must have! But then, you knew that already, didn't you? |
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The BBHQ Book of the Month is
"Vinyl Highway," by
Dee Dee Phelps. You remember her as Dee Dee, of Dick and Dee Dee.
Together, they took a decade long ride on the rock and roll roller
coaster. It was a heck of a ride! Dick Clark, Quincy Jones, the Beach
Boys, Glenn Campbell, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Vinton... Dick and Dee Dee
rubbed shoulders with all of them. This is her "behind the scenes" story.
It's pretty cool.
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