Weasel Words and Fuzzy Phrases

   Political candidates often play fast and loose with truth, to the extent that many of their statements are flat-out lies. It is therefore up to news media to expose these information manipulations for what they are. Sad to say, in the name of "balanced coverage," news media outlets report an opposing opinion regardless of its blatant asininity.

   Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) claims he was named a federal prosecutor the day before the 9/11 disaster. Fact: There may have been a private phone call asking him to take the job, but that appointment was not announced until December, three months later.
   Candidate Carly Fiorina claims she doubled the revenue of the Hewlett-Packard Corp. while she was chief executive officer. True, through the acquisition of Compaq. Corporate profits, however, crashed, and she was fired.

They're Baaa-aaack!

   You would think that by now the Birther Blowhards have given up on the claim that a President must be born in the U.S. to be eligible to hold that office. Even worse, the biggest mouth in the Birther movement now insists he won't comment on the issue. "I've moved on," says Don Trumpolini. Not that he would ever admit he's wrong. About anything. In any detail. Ever. He won't even use the cop-out phrase that he "mis-spoke."
   Meanwhile, we haven't heard any protests from the Radical Righteous that Sen. Ted Cruz, another Republican candidate, is ineligible because he was born in Canada.
Cruz is a U.S. citizen because his mother was a citizen, so there was no need for him to "renounce" any claim to Canadian citizenship. Not that he ever had it, since he returned to the U.S. as a child.
   Similarly, Barack Obama's mother was a U.S. citizen, so it would not matter where he was born. Even so, it has been documented that he was born in Hawaii. At last report, those islands were at the time part of the U.S. And they still are.
   In any case, President Obama has only about 15 months remaining in his second term in office. Attention birthers: Give it up, already!
   Here's a thought: Isn't it time the Blowhard-In-Chief produce his own birth certificate?

Ponderous Pomposities

"You have to understand that ... "
Implication: When you understand, you will agree.

"Don't you think that ...?"
The questioner does not want opinion, but agreement.