<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-color:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Dear Visionaries:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-color:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">This is my column/radio commentary for the week. I especially had fun with the alliterations and variations on "pants on fire."</span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif"><br>
</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-color:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">It's going to an interesting campaign. Could we ever hope for truth in politics?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-color:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Nattering Naive Nick</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-color:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif"><br>
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">MITT ROMNEY’S PANTS ARE ON FIRE</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-color:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;background-color:white;text-indent:0.5in"> Some of the most honest
people I know are my Mormon relatives, friends, attorneys, and university
administrators, so why does Mitt Romney have such difficulty with the truth?</span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;background-color:white;text-indent:0.5in"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">I have consulted
Politfact.com to see how the candidates have registered on the
Truth-O-Meter. The base figure is the
number of statements that Politifact has checked or been asked to check. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Some quick calculations reveal
that the worst offenders are Republicans. </span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.75in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;line-height:normal">
</span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Newt Gingrich leads the
pack with 59 percent of his statements registering mostly false, false, or
pants on fire (10 of these). </span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.75in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;line-height:normal">
</span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Rick Santorum comes in
second with 51 percent with 4 burning trousers. </span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.75in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;line-height:normal">
</span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Mitt Romney is third with
41 percent but a record 13 flaming suits.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.75in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;line-height:normal">
</span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">The straight-speaking Ron
Paul still does poorly at 36 percent. Paul's pants even caught fire three times.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Out of 358 statements only
28 percent of Obama’s were mostly false, false, or combustible (5). I think that all of us are surprised that Joe
Biden did better than Paul at 35%. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">My favorite Mitt-Mistakes
are the following:</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.75in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;line-height:normal">
</span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Obama will cut $500 billion
from Medicare. The Affordable Care Act does not delete any Medicare funds;
rather, but it projects cost savings of $500 billion over ten years. A delicious irony is that the Ryan budget
would do exactly the same thing.</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.75in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;line-height:normal">
</span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Obama “gave the auto
companies to the UAW.” The stock that
the union received in return for its negotiated health benefits has been placed
in an independent trust that the union can use only for that purpose. UAW equity is not risk free because of the
volatility of the stock market.</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.75in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;line-height:normal">
</span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif"> “More Americans have lost their jobs under
Barack Obama than any president in modern history.” Exempting the first year of all presidents
since World War II, a reasonable proviso that Politifact proposed, George W.
Bush was the only one who had a net loss of jobs—1.31 million. Obama was responsible, thanks to the stimulus
and auto bail-out, for 2.62 million net jobs gained.</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.75in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;line-height:normal">
</span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Ending “Obamacare saves $95
billion a year.” Unlike Romney, the people at Politifact read to the end the
Congressional Budget Office’s analysis, which found that 10 years after repeal
the budget deficit would have increased by</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""> $210 billion.</span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">While Romney had a record 13
flaming falsehoods, Obama’s pants were on fire five times. Obama’s worst whopper was “Romney, Perry, and
Gingrich all say they would cut foreign aid to Israel—and every other
country—to zero.” If we sort out the scorched suits, 70 percent will go on the
pachyderm pile, and the rest to the donkeys.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Three of Romney’s riveting
ringers were the following:</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.75in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;line-height:normal">
</span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">“Obama is ending Medicare
as we know it.” Romney supports the Ryan budget that truly does end it. </span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.75in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;line-height:normal">
</span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif"> “The U.S. military is at risk of losing its
military superiority because our Navy and Air Force are smaller.” The U.S.
defense budget is still larger than all the world’s combined. </span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.75in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;line-height:normal">
</span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">In his 2012 State of the
Union Address, Obama “didn’t even mention the deficit or debt.” If Romney had read the text, he would have
found six references.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">My very favorite Romney blooper
was his dire warning that “we are only inches away from no longer being a free
economy.” According to the libertarian Cato Institute, the largest decrease in
economic freedom since World War II came during the Bush II era, when U.S.
dropped from 8.55 to 8.04 on a scale of 10. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">During Obama’s first year,
the Cato rating climbed to 8.06, fell to 7.96 in 2010, and then to 7.8 in 2011.
(The U.S. is now in 10<sup>th</sup> place just ahead of Denmark). If the Cato scale was a yard stick, one inch
of losing our economic freedom would be a score of .277, which is far, far
below the worst Cato score of 4.08 for Zimbabwe. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">I’ve made my own list of
Romney’s errors, and the following are the two major ones. At the GOP debate on
January 7, Romney declared that Americans make 50 percent more than Europeans
do. This of course is not true. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">According to data from the
CIA, average incomes per person are higher in Luxembourg and Norway, and 10
other European countries are within 50 percent or less of the U.S. Without
adjusting for purchasing power, this list would have been much longer. Most
European countries have higher costs of living.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Politifact ignited Rick
Perry’s backside with his “ridiculous distortion” that Obama is a socialist,
but the entire right-wing ought to be scorched for that one. Owning stock in GM, which will be sold as
soon as it is prudent to do so, certainly does not constitute the ownership of
the means of production, the dictionary definition of socialism.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Romney constantly complains
that President Barack Obama wants to make the U.S. a European welfare state. This of course is
false. Most European welfare states have paid maternity/paternity leave (up to
18 months), universal child care, universal health care, and universal elder
care. I challenge anyone to point out where Obama has committed the country to
these admirable goals.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">The Republicans’ problems
with truth began in earnest with Richard Nixon, but Ronald Reagan continued the
tradition, more by bumbling than by cunning.
(His constant exaggerations of Soviet military build-up, however, were
deliberate deception.) Mark Green’s <i>Ronald
Reagan’s Reign of Error</i> substantiates over 300 major falsehoods that the
Great Communicator made during this political career until 1986. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">With 102 Politifact errors
Obama will probably not beat Reagan, especially if he loses to Romney. A President Mitt-Mistakes would give the
Gipper a good run, but only for a $10,000 bet. With all that corporate money
coming in, I would suggest that GOP advisers consider buying some flame
resistant suits and skirts. The
Democrats could use a few as well.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Nick Gier taught philosophy
at the University of Idaho for 31 years. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""> </span></p>