We do indeed live in fictional times; I watched all four of the recent national debates. It is only fair to admit that there were distortions on both sides as there always are and probably always will be. However, in the subsequent fact-checking it has become crystal clear that the Bush/Cheney ticket is willing to stretch or outright replace the truth more often and to greater degrees than I've witnessed in any other national political figures of my lifetime. For example, take this whopper from George:

Non-homeland, non-defense discretionary spending was raising at 15 percent a year when I got into office. And today it's less than 1 percent, because we're working together to try to bring this deficit under control.

I'm sure many people watching at home would just believe this, because they like Bush or because they have the admirable if naive trait of freely granting trust. Unfortunately, the truth is that Bush has increased both defense *and* non-defense spending faster than any president of the last thirty years. His words are so far removed from the facts that any voter with a claim to good judgment would have to re-evaluate the integrity of the man who could utter them with assurance in such a public forum. I don't believe it has anything to do with his lack of intelligence.

No politician or public figure is entirely trustworthy, but it is essential to weigh each distortion against its magnitude, motivation, and outcome.

In early high school, I tended to believe most of what I read and heard, even from political figures. The president at the time was Ronald Reagan, who projected a charming facade that was unparalleled in affecting sincerity. I took him at his word when he told the story about the Chicago Welfare Queen who bilked the government of hundreds of thousands of dollars through 4 non-existing dead husbands, 12 Social Security cards, 30 addresses, and 80 different names. I was readily convinced Reagan's worldview was shaped from filming Nazi death camps as a young soldier. I truly believed the Contras were fighting for liberation from an oppressive regime in Nicaragua. But then I spoke with people from Central America and went there myself to ascertain the Contras were mercenary terrorists looting towns, raping women, and killing civilians under the "oppression" of a democratically elected government which Nicaraguans eventually overthrew by voting out of office. I discovered that Reagan actually spent World War II back in Hollywood making training films for the Army Air Corps, despite what he was telling the Israeli Prime Minister. It turned out the Chicago woman he invoked for laughs was in fact only guilty of using two different names to get less than $10K, and was convicted on the offense. Even after it was pointed out his story about this woman was not at all factual, Reagan continued to regularly bear false witness against her. After all, it was a good story that made the point he wanted, so truth be damned. See I learned my lesson about lying politicians from the master, and I'm the better poker player now.

George W. Bush is a practiced liar working within a larger tradition of fundamental dishonesty.

George's public record of spinning the truth from a position of presidency dates at least as far back as 1967, where in an ironic episode of foreshadowing he downplayed the ritualistic branding of new pledges into his college fraternity. His delinquencies of service in the Air National Guard when he should have been in Viet Nam are well documented (well beyond what Dan Rather might add). In his 1999 autobiography, Bush claimed to have worked full-time in 1973 fighting inner-city poverty by helping to run Project P.U.L.L. at the invitation of executive director John White, but other PULL participants point out he was really an unpaid volunteer permitted to work in the lower rungs as a favor to his father in order to fulfill a community service commitment he'd incurred from some undisclosed mischief. Overlooking the admission of a DUI arrest at age 30 which was already a matter of public record, you can dismiss his hijinks as the folly of youth but still have to question the forceful way stories are suppressed without being denied. After all, this is the man in 1992 who repeatedly tells you he stopped drinking in 1986 as part of religious rebirth. The issue isn't what he's done, it's what he says now.

But hey, we all know people who prove untrustworthy regarding the sins of their personal life. I get more concerned when the stakes are markedly higher. I'm not bashful about making my case against the invasion of Iraq because four years working within military intelligence prepared me to catch distortions early. I firmly believe America was systematically manipulated by neoconservative militarists, and the blood of thousands is beyond recovery. To change the subject, most of the ugliest lies now are about how the other guy is a liar. Consider the Swift Boat Veterans for Slander, who traveled all the way to Viet Nam to get the facts about Kerry's firefights only to return and run ads that ignore and deny them through generous support from the Bush/Cheney campaign. Or take Tora Bora: what the administration publicly declared with complete assurance in 2002 they now refer to as "absolute garbage" when Kerry repeats the story with confirmed accuracy. So is it the Bush version, or the Bush version?

These draft-dodging, profiteering misleaders have given literally dozens of new and different reasons for going to war in response to the stream of contrary facts, and yet their campaign rests on the premise that John Kerry is a flip-flopper. I know better. When they say John Kerry voted against supporting the troops, I just think back to the live C-SPAN broadcast I watched where Republicans and Democrats alike denounced the $87 billion appropriations bill as unprecedented in its lack of detail and accountability. I salute Kerry for the courage to vote against that bill as written. Despite its passage with every penny intact, we still heard about American soldiers sent without training or body armor and humvees without doors: who's fault was that, executive branch? But no, Kerry is inconsistent because he voted to go to war. Republican pundits pull quotes out of context to make this point, but I read Kerry's caveats and flawed intel premises when he shared them, and so the charges can't stick for the observer who isn't so ignorant.

Let there be no doubt or confusion about where we stand on this. I will support a multilateral effort to disarm him by force, if we ever exhaust those other options, as the President has promised, but I will not support a unilateral U.S. war against Iraq unless that threat is imminent and the multilateral effort has not proven possible under any circumstances

--John Kerry, 9 Oct 2002

Welcome to election year. For sideshow we've got that horrible liar Michael Moore, whose film Fahrenheit 9/11 was actively fact-checked by a third parties before its release and further verified by the New York Times. The cottage industry of right-wing critics decry, among other things, Moore's representation of the 2000 election controversy in Florida and particularly the suggestion that black voters were disenfranchised. If the aspersions were so misplaced, why was the state of Florida forced to settle in the class action lawsuit that resulted from its wrong actions, and why did it take a court order to get Florida to release the list of purged voters this time around? Underhandedness is the hallmark of the season. Hear about the hundreds of Democrat voter registrations destroyed by RNC contractors in Las Vegas? See anything wrong with these Michigan absentee ballots? Notice the major Republican players resigning under investigation for voter fraud in South Dakota or voter sabotage in New Hampshire? We'll have to wait until the elections are over to see subpoenas delivered to House Majority leader Tom DeLay for his ethical abuses, to Bush family counsel James Baker for his conflicts of interest, or to White House special adviser Karl Rove for his breach of national security. With my votes already in the mail, I can be patient. Meanwhile, the news brings more reasons...

The potency of the al Qaqaa story was never that it was the worst thing that has happened in Iraq. It's that it brings together in one package almost everything that's gone wrong: incompetence, abetted by denial, covered up by dishonesty.

-- Josh Marshall

Spare your conscience.
Don't vote for Bush.

With that off my chest, here goes with the very last single from my CD. Who says nothing in life is free?

Services vs. Secrets

by Hilfiger Tout

I have been working with abstracts since I was a lad, but somewhere along the way I got infected with this notion that ideas were meant for sharing, not hording. I have used free and open source software as long as I can remember, and have more recently allowed my career to rest on the practice of using nothing else. The popular perception may be that this would lead to greater frustrations in the depths of shoddy code and limited functionality. Fact is nothing could be further from the truth; the DIY approach instead protects me from the greatest sources of stress and aggravation, not to mention cost.

Anybody who thinks a little program that's distributed free and can be cloned by anyone is going to affect anything we do at Microsoft has his head screwed on wrong.

--Bill Gates, regarding Java

He's been surprised to find many spyware and adware programs that he never authorized on [his computer].

--Washington Post, regarding Bill Gates

Along with condolences to Windows users everywhere, I dedicate this song in gratitude to the heroes of the tribe that came before, like RMS, Linus, Larry, Eric, and Tim. They've given the world fresh inspiration and better options. While I still hope to make my own tiny contribution someday, I accept with humility the role of miniature cog in the vast machine of productivity enhancement they've built. Out of an interest of consistency, I also permit you to copy, distribute, or perform my songs free of charge as explained in the the license. Give me liberty, or give me a new line of work.

With the all-important presidential election just days away and my songbook temporarily exhausted, I suppose I will have to get back to real work next month. That's fine, since I've really just been stalling until I had something worthwhile to share. I do, and it should be delivered in time for the holidays. I hope you've enjoyed this little exercise, whoever you may be.

Am I to presume you have nothing to add?