Creating facts that are easily disproved

Chris Matthews, MSNBC

Watching Chris Matthews’ Hardball today I was struck by war stats he threw out at the beginning of his show. The guests were Republicans Michael Steele and Ron Reagan. Matthews, talking about the American causalities in the Afghanistan war, said during the Bush presidency only 630 soldiers were killed from 2001 to 2008; in the case of President Obama, since 2009 to the present, 1,000 soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.

I wrote the numbers down to make sure I heard them correctly. They were discussing the President’s “two wars” in Afghanistan and Libya, his polices, questioning why Americans were still in Afghanistan. They were all over the place with their expert wisdom. As usual, Matthews was way, way off track!

Going on the Internet I found the information I was looking for at The Washington Post, under the banner “Faces of the Fallen.”  This information assured me even more than Matthews. As usual, he was creating his own facts. His guests did nothing to disabuse him of these wrong numbers. I looked for Afghanistan stats alone but couldn't find them. Fallen soldiers in both wars are combined. Matthews didn't say where he got his statistics.

The “Faces of the Fallen” site was designed by Nelson Hsu and Alyson Hurst and programmed by Andrain Holovaly. To see the complete breakdown with photos, ages, year of death, home state and military branch, go to washingtonpost.com, key in "Faces of the Fallen" to view the site.

To date the total of fatalities in Iraqi and Afghanistan is 6,026. The wounded  was not included in the statistics, but the number is reportedly in the thousands. Wounded soldiers suffer a variety of serious wounds due to IED attacks.

*Barack Obama was not sworn in as president until January 20, 2009.

Many fools blindly rush into a situation; but wise men prefer to be cautious and analytical

Presidential candidate Paul Pawlenty

Republican Tim Pawlenty, a potential presidential candidate in 2012, is perturbed by President Obama. He thinks the President should take unilateral action against Libya. He shouldn't pull together an international coalition to resolve the bloody battle Muammar Qaddafi is visiting upon Libyans revolting against him.

Pawlenty said in an interview with Politico: “ I’m not overtly concerned with our popularity in Europe or the Middle East.” As the Church Lady on Saturday Night Live might say: “Isn’t that special!” Realistically, it’s not wonderful and Pawlenty should be concerned. The tough guy image he is cranking up for the media and voters is pure buffoonery.

Neocon Republicans like Pawlenty, many of whom have never fought in a real guns and bullets war, are anxious to send others to fight and die while they stay home, sitting on their cushy asses, offering shopworn lip service to whoever will listen. President Obama is correct in using absolute caution about Libya. Only a chest beating fool would rush into Libya with guns blazing and bombs bombing without a flow chart of choices.

That's what Bush did in Iraq. He had already given orders to bomb Iraq, telling the American people 24 hours later. Americans, out for revenge after 9/11, applauded Bush's actions without knowing the facts. No flow charts. No exit plans on the table. Over a million deaths and human injuries later, the world finally learned the truth. There were never any WMDs in Iraq. The preemptive "Shock and Awe"bombings were personal with Bush. He had a long bone to stick up Saddam Hussein’s tokus. Hussein had threatened his daddy and Bush was angry. 

Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld said the Iraqi people would greet Americans with "roses and chocolates." They would shout with joy for being rescued from the hands of an evil dictator. Bush lied and people died. He made a speech on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln with a large backdrop banner simply stating: “Mission Accomplished.” The mission was nowhere close to being accomplished.

Here it is 10 years later and American soldiers have not received roses and chocolates from the Iraqi people. Instead, they are angry and that anger has turned outward on Americans. All of our memories are connected to televised images of death, destruction and misery in the Middle East. We saw families grieving over their sons and daughters killed in battle. Grieving Iraqi mothers and fathers were no less difficult to watch.

There is no graceful way to withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq. Bush and his gang of neocons have gone on to live their lives, appearing on TV, writing books, hitting the lecture circuit, living large and comfortably. Thousands of American men and women are stuck in a foreign land, unable to realize comfortable lives with their families, unable to make TV appearances, lecture for money or write books. Thousands of them are crippled both mentally and physically for life.

Bush's big lie should not be forgotten by any of us. The wounds of these wars are too deep to push to the back of our minds.

If President Obama go it alone in Libya, America may find itself in another protracted Middle East conflict. The same spineless neocons pushing for an immediate show of American chutzpah, are the same hypocrites who will use it against President Obama in 2012 if a unilateral invasion evolves into a long confrontation. Iraq and Afghanistan are perfect, in-your-face examples of why it is dangerous to kick down a door without knowing what’s waiting behind it.

Repeated second guessing of President Obama

Former President Bush lied to America to start wars Afghanistan and Iraq. The media sucked up the lies without question or investigation. Bush talked tough using sound bite language.  He was always good for a bumper sticker slogan. The media thought he was a Texas cowboy who carried a big stick. The media absolutely loved him!

But Bush and VP Dick Cheney hated the media. They used it for their own purpose, and only did interviews with Fox news and hate talk radio, mainly Rush Limbaugh. The media and pundits did not complain for fear of losing the limited access they had to the president and vice president.

Bush neglected the economy. He did not add the cost of the wars into the annual budget. Americans thought the economy was solid as a rock. Bush blindsided them with a smile. He vacationed more than another media darling, Ronald Reagan. 

Republicans, the media and hot shot pundits did not complain out loud. Long vacations, state dinners, traveling on Air Force One were not questioned. The presidential perks were all a part of running the country.

Not so with President Barack Obama. When he hosted his first state dinner and the menu was published, hate radio talker Laura Ingram had a Texas size hissy fit! She felt the president should have had a less expensive cut of meat, given the economy was in such bad shape. People were jobless and being evicted from their homes. She said when she youngster, at home, she and her mother, who was a waitress, ate chopped beef.

Mark Levine, another hate talker who loathes the President, went stock raving mad on radio; yelling and screaming about President Obama travels on Air Force One. He calculated how much gas Air Force One required in state travel and out of the country. He felt that President Obama and his staff should fly commercial. He said people were suffering, and the president was living too high off the hog. He said the President and his family are living better now than they ever lived in their lives. He said the President should stop having state dinners and parties until the economy is back on track.

Pray tell why all the second guessing, analyzing and investigating the President’s every word and decision? These are the same media and pundits that acted like water boys for Bush and Cheney. If Bush and Cheney pissed in their faces and told them it was raining, they would pull out their umbrellas and continue standing in the "rain."

The media are upset because President Obama does not get angry and blow up. His coolness, which is his personality, is disconcerting. He appears not to care, copy cat media and pundits say. He's weak and indecisive, they decided.  They are practically demanding that President Obama paint his face black and perform a minstrel show. They say he is an angry black man, who cannot control his temper.  The proof? There is none. Does not matter. The media and pundits want him to be average like them.

President Obama is constantly compared to dead presidents, and what they would do about the economic crisis. Solutions of yesterday are not workable solutions to fix today’s problems. But that does not matter. The media and pundits think he should channel dead presidents anyhow. When Obama was running for president he campaigned on what he thought was wrong with the country and the economy. He offered solutions. Like all the candidates, he had no inside information regarding the economy, the two wars and the approaching economic disaster that he was about to inherit from George Bush. The media and pundits thought he should have known the economic disaster was coming.

I recall the media  and pundits getting very angry at  the president-elect. They strongly proposed he overthrow Bush, and take control of the White House before January 20. They forget that Obama was a Constitutional professor. They did not want him to wait until inauguration day. Suddenly the media  and pundits were concerned about the economyand wanted candidate Obama to fix it. How quickly the media forgot that in this country, we have one president at a time. That did not stop their ranting at the president-elect.

Since he as been president, no legislation that Obama signed into law is acceptable. Supposedly the general public hates the legislation, especially health care reform. Teabaggers and Republicans say the President does not understand their “values." In searching for a definition of values as touted by Republicans, I found they believe Democrats are sinful, do not believe in God, are not religious, are Satan worshipers, haters of unborn life, America and the Constitution.

Republicans, on the other hand, are the bearers of all that is good: God, guns, religious, love of family and country and the Constitution. None of what I read about Republican values  explained why so many “family values” spouting Republicans cheat on their wives and willfully indulge in homosexual acts with young men, or have affairs with an assortment of women, married and single.

President Barack Obama is faithful to his wife, who he loves and admires. He does not hide that love from the public. After 16 years they still have a date night. The president lights up when she walks into a room. Sometimes she blushes, acting like a high school girl on her first date. The president listens to her. He loves his daughters and his mother-in-law, who he respects. He has faith in God and attends church whenever he can. Since leaving the church he belonged to for 20 years, he explained that he does not want to put another church through the hassle his attendance will cause. He stands on what he believes, whether it’s popular or not. Are these the character traits of a man who has no “values?”

And now right wing pundits, hate talk radio and the media are second guessing Michele Obama’s motives for the White House garden, and wanting to find a solution to obesity in children. Right wings nuts say it’s a government take over! Hate talkers say Michele Obama has no right to tell parents what to feed their children. In other words, if children suffer high blood pressure and diabetes at young ages, so be it.

Laura Ingram bragged on her show about the fatty foods she eats. The reason? She’s showing First Lady Michelle Obama that she cannot tell her what to eat! That is so silly and childish. Ingram is also jealous of Michele Obama. She has compared herself to the First Lady. She's even toned up her arms so she could go sleeveless on TV. One night when she was on Bill O'Reilly she pulled off her jacket. O'Reilly asked if she was stripping. She pulled off her jacket to show off her arms. He did not notice.

The second guessers are trying to rewrite the President’s agenda. When he does not follow their suggestions, they attack him. As I watched Keith Olberman’s Countdown on MSNBC s tonight, he and his guest complained that the President does understand the enormity of the BP oil spill crisis. He left all the power in the hands BP, Olbermann said. He feels that in allowing BP to clean up its own mess, the President is letting the fox guard the hen house.

Last week Chris Matthews suggested the president rent a submarine, gather some divers, go 5,000 leagues under the sea and plug the oil spill! He says the President's coolness scares him.  Matthews wants to see anger from this President. Chris Matthews looks at too many movies. He is always comparing life issues to movies. This spill is not an instant fixer-upper. Who is the wiser: Matthews and the media, or President Obama who first analyzes, holds discussions with experts, and then reaches a sensible conclusion?

I go with the "cool" guy. He is the wisest of them all.

Sometimes complication is required

President Barack Obama

President George Bush

During George Bush’s administration he made pundits, and the media feel they were intellectuals worth reading and listening to. With a chuckle in their throats they made excuses for Bush’s slaughtering the English language and mangling of foreign leaders' names. It did not matter to the media. Bush was the man! He was the Decider! He was The Uniter!

President Obama, a former Constitutional professor who tends to explain his answers in adult language rather than perky bumper sticker, is ridiculed. The media hate the fact that President Obama intelligent and speak perfect English. He has an extensive vocabulary with which to express himself. I am not surprised when lazy pundits, and a lackluster media chose to make fun of his responses to questions.

As a former substitute teacher, I believe in thoroughly explaining answers to questions for the sake of clarity. I learned in the classroom that short answers do not work for all students. When this situation happened several students repeated the same question, at which time I would delve into more details. I would then ask if they understood. Students who initially said they understood the short response got a better understanding of the problem. Detailed answers are sometimes necessary.

But it does not matter what President Barack Obama say or how he says it. If he recited the Lord’s Prayer he would be accused using too many words, forcing religion on Americans, taking away their right to deny that God even insists!

Intelligence has taken a back seat to stupidity, screaming talk shows on television and bitchfest reality shows. That's where intelligence is today. Low information individuals do not recognize intelligence when they hear it. The media are pushing the notion that intelligence does not matter. Sound bites and misinformation is the norm of the day. That's why the media complex industry loves Sarah Palin.