Wednesday, March 31, 2010

A Misspeak is a Misspeak is a Lie

A Misspeak is a Misspeak is a Lie

I don’t have to tell you, ladies and gentleman, that things are getting crazier and crazier up in Washington—at least as I see it. The vote on Health Care and the subsequent bill sent to the President who signed it seems to have just ignited even more of a firestorm.

I didn’t oppose it when it began over a year back, but as I learned more about it, I perceived its fallacies. Then I began to oppose it. Now, despite what some firebrands might think, there were no politics on my part. I did what ninety percent of you, nor apparently our Congressmen, did not do. I read the whole disgusting House and Senate Bill all the way through. It blows my mind at the staggering number
of folks who blindly accept whatever they are told.

Contrary to what you may think (and I’ve been so accused), I do not regurgitate the philosophies of the Right Wing commentators so prominent on the airways today.
Many of them profess the conservative values my parents gave me. I treasure those values. And there are hundreds of thousands of folks out there who were taught as I. The explications of Glenn Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, and O’Reilly embrace those values.

Beck, I listen to maybe five minutes a week, and then only when I switch stations. Limbaugh, who is full of himself, ten or fifteen minutes on Tuesdays when driving out to the weekly luncheon with a bunch of old codgers like me who believe we can change the world.

I listen to Hannity, who dwells on too many half truths, when I have my grandsons and we’re heading for McDonalds. And then they’re shouting what they want to eat. Now if any of you holier-than-thou Liberal Saints think I retain anything from his words during that trip, you’re nuttier than the administration we have up there now, and you ought to run for a Democrat office.

Where do I get most of my information? Golly, gee, this is going to be a revelation, but I do what every American should do. I read and research a cross-section of media to see what is going on, C-Span, CNN, Fox, ‘The Nation’, ‘Harper’s’, newspapers, etc—an eclectic selection.

Then I listen to the words of Congressional leaders explaining portions of a bill only to discover when I read the bill, their explanation contradicts the bill.

A lie? Or perhaps a ‘misspeak’, one of those currently coined words used to coat the truth. If it were a lie, a ‘deliberate misspeak’, then shame on them. If it were an honest ‘misspeak’, then shame on them for not knowing the bill before they interpret it for the average Joe Sixpack.

We can call it what we want, but you know a lie—sorry, a ‘misspeak’. And here is one of the many ‘misspeaks’ in the Health Bill jammed down our throats. Obama led parents to believe kids with pre-existing conditions could not be turned down. But, gee whiz, seems like there’s a itty bitty catch. It just so happens that isn’t true.
Don’t believe me? Would you believe Karen Lightfoot, spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the main congressional panels that wrote the bill? She says ‘Under the new law, insurance companies still would be able to refuse new coverage to children because of pre-existing medical problems.” Google it yourself.

Now, I don’t know about you hard-core Democrats, but to this little old country boy with no political affiliation, that’s as black a ‘misspeak’ as I’ve ever heard.
If you can explain it, help me out.

Disagreement is the source of America’s greatness as far as I’m concerned. We can disagree about anything we want. That’s our right.

To accuse, without proof, those with whom you disagree of repeating information from prejudicial sources is nothing short of political ignorance. Of course, Ignorance is great at throwing strikes of unsubstantiated accusations.

I’ve had many disagree with me in the past. Some, eventually, have seen what I meant; others have not. And that’s fine.

I’ve always believed ignorance seeks its own level, like stagnant water. But then, those who see things differently than I think the same about me.

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