by James Glaser
April 11, 2006

Trust. Trust in our government used to be a given in this country. You just knew that the people elected in Washington were there to make our country a better place to live for every American. Today after decades of one after another lie coming out of that city, I have a hard time trusting anything politicians now say. Now they try and 'spin' everything.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives us this definition: A special point of view, emphasis, or interpretation — put the most favorable spin on the findings.

That is what happens with the information we are given today by our government. Almost everything they tell us has a bit of the truth connected to it, but that truth is twisted or spun into the 'truth' they want us to hear.

We now know that the White House spends millions of tax dollars producing fake news stories using actors as journalists, and those stories are given to us on the evening news just like they were the real thing. On top of that this same White House buys real journalists and has them insert whatever the Bush administration is pushing for. Don't worry, they don't just do it to us, they do the same thing in Iraq, but there Americans write the story and pay Iraqi journalists to put his or her name to it. They very well might be doing that here, they just haven't been caught in that yet.

I usually don't like to watch those Sunday morning news programs, but this week while flipping channels I watched "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" for a bit because the new House Majority Leader John Boehner was on. I guess it doesn't matter who they promote to a position of power in Washington because right away they all start putting out what ever spin they are told to.

Here is how ABC News said it, "Boehner predicted Republican victories in the November midterm elections but admitted turmoil in Iraq, the response to Katrina, and the fall of his predecessor, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, have made for a difficult beginning to the election."

That kind of spin doesn't really get to me because most Americans can see right through it. And Boehner is right about those things making this election a hard one for Republicans. What bothers me though is when people in the know or people who are supposed to be in the know, come out on national television and distort the facts to make themselves or their Party look good when lives are at stake.

When asked about what is going on in Iraq Congressman Boehner said, "I really do believe, George.... beyond a few hot spots, the situation in Iraq is improving." Of course you and I know that 21 Americans have been killed and over a hundred wounded in the first nine days of this month and who knows how many Iraqi civilians. Boehner went on with, "It's in a handful of places that are still under attack by insurgents."

An internal US government 10-page report titled "Provincial Stability Assessment" written in January by "US diplomatic and military officials" in Baghdad was, if you can believe this, leaked. The report rates six of Iraq's 18 provinces as "serious" and another as "critical." This report was written before the bombing of the Shiite shrine in Samarra that has set off violence in much of the country. US Ambassador Daniel Speckhard said that recent updates have left the report's conclusions unchanged.

One very interesting thing about this report is that it was reported by Agence France Presse. Maybe those in the White and Congress know that things leaked to the American press might not make it to the public. Now White House officials and members of Congress quote from this report.

What John Boehner left out of his remarks about Iraq, is that the report he was talking about says that only three of Iraq's 18 provinces, all Kurdish provinces in the north are considered, "Stable." It also states that Basra, a province in the south of Iraq that was once considered a peaceful region, is now listed with the six that are in the "Serious" category.

Boehner also talked about how Iraq now has electricity, like they didn't have it before we attacked, and how more Iraqi children are in school. Somehow Congressman Boehner must have missed the reports that state that Iraq's electrical grid has not reached pre-war performance nor has the water/sewage treatment systems. There are numerous reports of parents afraid to send their children to school, and many stories of Iraqis being kidnapped.

Think about all the violence we read about every day in Iraq, and then ask yourself how any Congressman could say anything good about what we have done to Iraq. Can you even imagine what it is like to be a parent in the country?

John Boehner has replaced Tom DeLay as House Majority Leader, but it is the same-ol same-ol. This new man in the post will spin every story so that he and his party look good, but you know what, they don't look so good anymore.

The horror and panic of 9/11 is over, and the American people are starting to think clearly again, and that's always bad for politicians. I would not be a bit surprised if something new happened to us so that Washington can send us back into that panic stage.

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