A friend used that old expression, “figures never lie, but lairs figure”.  The context a board meeting of clergy and layment administrating a youth camp.  The topic giving.  This layman (an accountant) went on tell us he believed in tithing,  but it’s not easy.  He talked personally, “I don’t know how much I’ve made, until year end, when I adjust figures to report income.” It is very possible to adjust investment, accounts paid vs recievable and the popular “investment credit” as well as simiple business expenses.  A smile on his face, he said, for my giving I need to determine what kind of accountant I am,  $10,000 a year or $40,000.  It was a while ago, and he continued, “I live well”.  The tragic situation today is our perception and spin on actual numbers, and meaning we assign them.  Our nation needs to wake up and decide what kind of people (accountant) we are, and shape our policy based on that reality.  I for one am tired of attempting to shape our policy by who we picture the enemy to be.  Torture, restriction of constitutional rights, a war born by a small percentagae of our population, cut backs in education and health care, racism and our growing prison population would be impossible if we set policy based our our ideals, and identity.  Time to wake up, and look in the mirror.  Let us no longer see reflected the face of the one we most fear.

We need a room full of Ritters and battalions of patriots to dislodge this incumbency of deceit we face from all sides save but a few.

Deceit is a disease that tells us we don’t have one and this Im afraid is systemic.

#84835 by Lefty on 7/07 at 11:54 am
(424 comments total)

MULSIM + NUCLEAR WEAPON = WWIII

Errr, Lefty(?), you are aware, are you not, that Pakistan is a Muslim nation and has the Bomb? Or is it just some followers of Islam that you object to obtaining such weaponry? As the current members of that religion number about 1.4 billion you got a lot of them to choose from.

Nelson Mandela once called our policy regarding Nuclear Weaponry , “nuclear apartheid”, and I gotta agree with him.

Sam,
I havent a clue as to what point you are trying to make, but perhaps neither do you…....The article is about the UN weapons inspection teams and their demise, no mention of Exxon Mobil is necesary to that discussion.

Your tarring of Scott Ritter is just plain unecesary and way beyond any point made in that fine article, perhaps youneed a Prozac?

Ritter has book contracts to keep him lying—-or failing to deal with the reality of the mideast. As long as he keeps making money from the big time publishers, he won’t be talking about oil, but neither will any of the other sorry specimens you find hereabouts. Since Scheer got fired from the LA Times for telling the truth, the others obviously got the word, and they, (and he), have taken the word “oil” out of their vocabularies. Indeed, they all very likely order only bleu or ranch dressing for their salads to keep from having to say the word oil.

They don’t outright lie; they just refuse to tell the truth, and thus I call them pimps instead of whores, because the whores take money for lying; the pimps just make money by using the whores and dealing in the same process where you never really see their denial of our coveting, lying, stealing, and murdering.

#84487 by lilmamzer on 7/06 at 7:57 am

“Scott Ritter is in the pocket of vast Saudi (Religion Of Peace©) money and influence. What a disgraceful place for a former Marine to end up in”.

The U.S. Congress, Senate and executive branches of government are in the pocket of of vast Israeli (AIPAC, JDL, ADL, GIYUS.org and a host of others) money and influence.  What a discraceful place for elected officials to end up in.

Fellow Marine Scott Ritter is not a media whore as the others most obviously are.  He means for the well being of my children and those of others in a world ruled by nut cases.

#84487 by lilmamzer on 7/06 at 7:57 am
(369 comments total)

Scott Ritter is in the pocket of vast Saudi (Religion Of Peace©) money and influence. What a disgraceful place for a former Marine to end up in.

Speaking of pockets, do they have any in your straight jacket? Oh and how on earth do you type while wearing one?

You know, with friends like you Israel could do with less friends…oy gevalt epis…...

For those who think Ritter is talking out of something other than his mouth, “The establishment of fact would have little bearing on a process in which proving the negative had become the standard for any final judgement,” (to quote him) should remind you of Rumsfeld’s “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” 

In fact, proving the negative, always an impossibility, was the final justification for the invasion - other than Rice’s ‘mushroom cloud.’  Saddam couldn’t prove he didn’t have something he didn’t have - try it some time - so WE had to look for the non-existent something to prove he indeed had something that he didn’t have. Confused yet?

The demise of that inspection team is, I’m afraid, the final nail in the coffin of a stable world.

Scott Ritter is in the pocket of vast Saudi (Religion Of Peace©) money and influence. What a disgraceful place for a former Marine to end up in.

Wow! This is the first I’ve heard that it was US policy not only under Bush the second, but also under Clinton to deliberatetely paint the reqime as hopelessly recalcitrant. I’m always skeptical of any extraordinary claim from a single source. I hope Scott can come of with some supporting information.

  Then if it turns out to be provable, the question naturally arises: “Why would Clinton have gone along with this sinister plan?” Was there some sort of political calculus that made an intractable conflict with Iraq politically attractive to the Democrats? If so that is highly disturbing, as the sanctions regime was costing ordinary Iraqis greatly in terms of their health. I’d like to believe my government wouldn’t be willing to make millions of innocent foreigners pay such a high price for political convenience.

Instead of moving forward into a new and very challenged century w/esteemable hope, we are being dragged down into a dark, draconian hole w/out a flashlight - and the Media monster wants to be the tour guide w/Mitt Romney as just another deceitful mouthpiece.
Very lovely too that the Clinton’s took the brown bag as well.

It is by the American example that these other nations arm.

The 30 year legacy of administrations, both Republican and Democratic, within a small sphere of people, have effectively changed the American dream into the American nightmare.