Unknown News | Commentary by Helen & Harry Highwater

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Helen & Harry's MENTAL HEALTH MOMENT

One word that might save America

by Helen & Harry Highwater, Unknown News May 27, 2007

How can George Bush and Dick Cheney get away with telling so many lies? It seems they can tell any lie they want, knowing their lies will echo across the media without ever being really challenged, knowing that no matter how many and how huge the lies they tell, every lie will eventually become "common knowledge" and widely perceived as "truth."

How do they do it?

The lies have worked because there's a taboo against calling the President a liar. Politicians think they can't say "liar", journalists think they can't type or speak the word, when discussing the White House.

We have to get past this silly concept that The Presidency belongs on some pedestal where blunt words like "liar" can't be spoken, and no matter how many lies the President tells he must be mentioned only with an aura of respect.

Liars don't deserve anyone's respect. Shying away from the word "liar" lets this liar administration kill people, lets them enact insane policies both foreign and domestic. We need to push past that

taboo and do it now, because our lives, our fortunes, and our nation's sacred honor hang in the balance.

Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, we've always had the power to come home to America. We need only speak the words: The President is a liar. The President is a liar.

Say it out loud, because every time it's said, it helps push the conversation past the forbidden zone and into the open, so we can finally understand what this presidency is: An enormous pack of lies, wrapped in an expensive suit and a fake Southern accent.

^{* * *} The President is a liar, and that's not exactly a news flash. Most Americans already know Bush is a bald-faced chronic liar. They know it either specifically or with a 'gut feeling'. But you'll almost never hear it said on TV, not in so many words, and in our tube-drenched society, nothing seems "real" until it's been on TV.

Imagine if a well-known member of Congress went on TV and said, point blank, "President Bush is a liar". It would bring the topic out of the blogs and bars, out of Americans' quiet conversations and into the national debate.

And there's really nothing to debate -- anyone whose head isn't hermetically sealed already knows that the emperor has no clothes, and the President is a liar. It only needs to be said, loud and clear. And preferably, on television.

Paging Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin). Paging Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas). Any member of Congress who possesses a soul or a smidgen of integrity, or who wants to be folk hero instead of merely a politician, should call the liars liars -- on TV.

The first politician who turns directly to the camera and says, "The President is a liar" without mincing words, without nicing it up, with no polite euphemisms, will instantly become America's most popular politician. The clip will air thousands of times on every channel but Fox News, and the Bush-Cheney administration's credibility will evaporate within days.

Of course, we have very few statesmen, only endless office holders, and not a one of them have yet shown that kind of courage. None have yet had the spine or simple honesty to call the liars liars, and perhaps none will -- so we the people need to say it, again and again.

Bush, Cheney, and their cohorts have constructed an entirely truth-free administration, and it will fall like sneezing at a house of cards when a few members of Congress -- or millions of ordinary Americans -- tell the truth about the liars. Say it in so many words: "These guys are big fat liars." Bush, Cheney, Gonzales, every one of them who's quit, every one who's stayed, every nominee, every crony, every fill-in-the-blank: Anyone in any high office in the Bush-Cheney administration is a liar.

Everyone knows they're liars, so just say it. Say "liars", don't just think it. Say liars out loud, say liars often, say liars everywhere, say liars over and over until it spreads from the grassroots to a grass fire. Don't let anyone say Bush or Cheney anywhere, without interrupting to point out that they're frickin' liars. Say liars loud enough, often enough, and the spell will be broken -- this regime will be effectively toppled.

But please, for your nation's sake say it now -- while quaint notions like Truth, Justice, and The American Way still have a chance at recovery.

© by Helen & Harry Highwater, Unknown News.

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Everyone knows they're liars, so just say it.

Say "liars", don't just think it.

Say liars out loud, say liars often, say liars everywhere, say liars over and over until it spreads from the grassroots to a grass fire.

Don't let anyone say Bush or Cheney anywhere, without interrupting to point out that they're frickin' liars.

Say liars loud enough, often enough, and the spell will be broken -- this regime will be effectively toppled.

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Helen and Harry Highwater have published Unknown News since 1997. We're a married couple sharing a byline à la Lennon and McCartney, and "I" can be either of us, or both of us. If you're consumed by curiosity, it's safe to assume the more boisterous and aggressive bits come from Helen, and anything ladylike or demure is probably Harry's work.

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