The Republican Right Wing are great corruptors of the truth. Their talking points have already been published. They are all over the airwaves” the blogosphere the websites and newspapers with a consistent message. It is imperative that bloggers Liberal or otherwise do not allow their false talking points to metastasize into the public’s psyche. Each misstatement lie ” or truth twisting must be addressed immediately with documented facts.

Irv Lewis “”Scooter”" Libby” Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff ” was indicted today on five counts in the investigation concerning the illegal outing of Valerie Plame” a covert CIA agent. The counts include obstruction of justice lying to the FBI and perjury.

The reason for the outing of the CIA agent was twofold. The first was a misleading attempt to discredit Joe Wilson Ms Plame’s husband for his statements against the Iraq war and his subsequent New York Times Article stating that his trip to Niger found no evidence of Iraq’s purchase of uranium. This would remove a major justification for any preemptive war with Iraq. The second reason for the outing seemed to be punitive. It would ensure that critics understand that any measures would be used against dissention. Judging from the behavior of the press and most mainstream organizations this communist/Stalinist behavior was successful as everyone feared confronting the Bush administration significantly on any issue whether it be the Iraq war the Patriot Act irresponsible tax cuts and more.

Sean Hannity Rush Limbaugh Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson Newt Gingrich Bill Bennett and many other Right Wing hacks have been using the following talking points. It is imperative that they be refuted continuously. Unfortunately if falsehoods are repeated without being countered by truths most Americans tend to accept it as true fact.

• RNC Talking Point: Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is creating the criminalization of politcs.
  
  
• Truth: This investigation and indictment has nothing to do with politics. It is about the illegal outing of CIA agents and subsequently the lying to FBI agents perjury and obstruction of justice.
  
  
• RNC Talking Point: There was no indictment on outing of CIA agent so there was no original crime.
  
  
• Truth: The reason perjury and obstruction of justice is such a major crime is that one cannot find the underlying crime if the investigation is stymied by said crimes.
  
  
• RNC Talking Point: Senate commission confirmed that Joe Wilson’s article was a lie or never accepted.
  
  
• Truth: This is an utterly false statement. Read here for more background.
  
  
• RNC Talking Point: Valerie Plame sent her husband Joe Wilson to Niger to research the uranium claim which opened her to scrutiny.
  
  
• Truth: The statement is patently misleading and is simply used to change the conversation. Read here for more background.
  
  
• RNC Talking Point: Valerie Wilson was not really a covert agent/spy and many already new what she did.
  
  
• Truth: The FBI up until yesterday could not find anyone who new what she did prior to Novak’s column. Read here for more background.

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter,
and most Right Wing Republicans continue to insist that the main stream
media is liberal. President Clinton may beg to differ as every liberal network systematically allowed itself to be used as the Right Wing’s
mouth piece to pass blatantly false and/or misleading information. The fact
is that the liberal media has allowed the Right Wing to castrate it. Had
that not being the case President Bush could never have been elected. Anyone
listening to the President babbling next to foreign leaders whether from the third world or other countries must cringe in embarrassment that the United States the sole standing super power is lead by such ineptitude.
The genesis of this country’s
malaise was the election of President George Bush. President Bush had been
knowingly lying on most issues of consequence he campaigned on. The "liberal media" never took him to task in any substantial manner.

• Why did the "liberal media" not expose the president’s military record while he implied his prowess as a military supporter?
  
  
• Why did the "liberal media" not expose his dealings in the many failed companies in Texas that were simply fronts using his name for influence pedaling?
  
  
• Why did the "liberal media" not contrast his and his family’s "moral shortcomings" to his opponents given his moralizing on their values?
  
  
• Why did the "liberal media" not constantly report the irresponsibility of the large tax cuts while fighting a war?
  
  
• Why did the "liberal media" not hammer the administration on all the information available to discount the rational for going to war?
  
  
• Why did the "liberal media" not explain to the public at large the fascist inklings of the Patriot Act?
  
  
• Why did the "liberal media" not expose the no-bid contracts going to the President’s and Vice-President’s cronies?

The fact is the main stream media is not liberal at all. It has been made impotent by its corporate masters who would rather not engage an administration that is willing to use a corrupt religious movement to intimidate them with unenforceable threats. A free media is imperative to prevent the government and/or the ruling party from exercising complete dominion over the population at large. It should be that free voice that protects the population against government propaganda that allows uninformed support for bad and corrupt policies.
Ultimately the media is very much responsible for our malaise given its willful inaction. One can only hope that the teeth it has shown in the last few weeks will continue and grow to atone for the past five years.

Freakonomics that they make is that the declining crime rate you know they deal with this hypothesis that one of the reasons crime is down is that abortion is up. Well –
CALLER: Well, I don’t think that statistic is accurate.
BENNETT: Well I don’t think it is either I don’t think it is either because first of all there is just too much that you don’t know. But I do know that it’s true that if you wanted to reduce crime you could — if that were your sole purpose you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out these far-reaching extensive extrapolations are I think tricky.

The caller was concerned about abortion in the context of population loss. No where in his comments were racial overtones discernable. Bill then took it upon himself to inject the stereotype of blacks being pre-disposed to criminal activity.

While it is true that black males have a much higher rate of incarceration and commit more violent crimes than their white counterparts, it is extremely important to find the reasons for said behavior as opposed to assuming a racial component.

The vast majority of violent crimes are committed by the socio-economically disadvantaged irrespective of race. For historic reasons (slavery, overt and covert racism) this applies to blacks at a much higher percentage. Additionally laws are written or implemented in manners that disproportionately punish blacks more harshly (crack cocaine convicts get harsher sentences than cocaine convicts; blacks get harsher sentences for comparable crimes).

Entry into the justice system is generally through the first responders the police. Many studies in many states have shown that police are predisposed to stereotype black males. Moreover black males do not get the breaks that white males get for minor indiscretions. In my predominantly white upper middle class neighborhood it is customary for police to escort teenage boys home for drunk driving bad behavior illegal drinking or fights. In most black neighborhoods the resolution is the immediate teenager’s entry into the justice system. That one event changes the entire outcome of that black teenager’s life and his outlook on the rest of life. He now has nothing to lose.

Bill Bennett type conservatives believe in simplistic solutions without analyzing the real causes for our country’s problem in general and crime in particular. They believe that law and order on black boys is a major part of the solution. That simplistic approach only fills prisons with a large quantity of angry black males that upon release will effect their wrath from the criminal knowledge acquired in prison.

Crime must be punished. Excuses must not be made for any criminal, black or white. It is important however to solve underlying problems that predisposes people to commit crimes. Laws must be written equitably. First responders must be educated on the negative effects of stereotyping and must be punished when such stereotyping can be proved.