Parsing Kerry

  "And I have to tell you, I say this to you politely. The media in America has a bigger responsibility than it’s exercising today. The media has got to begin to not give equal time or equal balance to an absolutely absurd notion just because somebody asserts it or simply because somebody says something which everybody knows is not factual.
  "It doesn’t deserve the same credit as a legitimate idea about what you do. And the problem is everything is put into this tit-for-tat equal battle and America is losing any sense of what’s real, of who’s accountable, of who is not accountable, of who’s real, who isn’t, who’s serious, who isn’t?" - Senator John Kerry

This is an interesting one. In fact, without examining its premises, one might be tempted to agree with the Senator.
The need for a good parsing comes in in the highlighted portion above. After all:

• Everyone knew the Copernican system was not factual.
• Everyone knew the germ theory of disease was not factual.
• Everyone knew the way to get out of debt would be to borrow more money.
• Everyone knew there would be a default on US government debt without a deal by 2nd August.
• Everyone knows that S&P downgraded US debt because they're stupid and evil, not because there's any possibility of a default ever happening in the US.

Even more troubling - depending on one's locale:

• Everyone knows the Holocaust never happened.

Posted by Pygmalion 56

Related Posts:
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Parsing the Prez
Parsing the Prez
Parsing the Prez #2
Parsing Pelosi
Parsing the Prez #3

Parsing the Prez #3

Quotes and translations from president 0bama's address of Sunday evening:

"Now, I’ve said from the beginning that the ultimate solution to our deficit problem must be balanced."

By which he means that the approach must be balanced, not the budget. We mustn't simply spend within our means, we must take more money from citizens to cover our spending.

"Now, is this the deal I would have preferred? No. I believe that we could have made the tough choices required — on entitlement reform and tax reform — right now, rather than through a special congressional committee process."

By which he means that it wasn't purely a credit line increase, or a plan where the credit limit was raised and taxes were raised by the same amount, thus holding the deficit steady.

"Now, this process has been messy; it’s taken far too long. I’ve been concerned about the impact that it has had on business confidence and consumer confidence and the economy as a whole over the last month."

By which he means only this last stretch when actual work was being done. He seems uninterested in the previous months and years during which his party refused to propose a budget when they controlled the House, and then to prevent passage of any proposed budget when they only had the Senate.

"Most of all, I want to thank the American people. It’s been your voices — your letters, your emails, your tweets, your phone calls — that have compelled Washington to act in the final days. And the American people’s voice is a very, very powerful thing."

By which he means that it felt like his votes were going away, and he was desperate both to implicate others and to look presidential while doing it, thus - he hopes - minimizing his further drop in approval polling.

In one way, it's frightening how transparent he is. In another way, it's comforting.

Posted by Pygmalion 56

Related Posts:
Parsing the Feds
Parsing the Prez
Parsing the Prez
Parsing the Prez #2
Parsing Pelosi

Parsing Pelosi

Pelosi tweet: What we’re trying to do is save the world from the Republican budget..We’re trying to save life on this planet as we know it today.

As has recently been the case, this tweet takes very little parsing.
"Life on this planet as we know it today," for Pelosi is simply the life of taxing and distributing money (read "granting fiefs" if you will) in order to gain perpetual reelection.
Should any real spending reform come to pass, life as 'Representative' Pelosi has come to know it would most definitely come to an end. Frankly, I'm not sure who - apart from those directly affected in the DC-tocracy - would mourn that end.

Pay attention to what they actually say, and definitely not just to which words they mouth.

Posted by Pygmalion 56

Parsing the Feds

parse -

transitive verb

2: to examine in a minute way : analyze critically

Our federal financial types are telling us that if we don't raise the debt limit so we can borrow more money, then we'll have to default on our current obligations. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says that interest rates would spike, stock and home values would sink, savings and investment would dry up, jobs would disappear, businesses would fail, and everything from tax refunds to troops' salaries would go unpaid.

Here's the translation for normal people:

We owe too much right now, so we'd better borrow some more.

It's interesting that paying down debt apparently hasn't occurred to anyone in DC.

I wish I could run my household like that. Of course, I wish I could tell my employer how much more he has to pay me every year as well.


Posted by Pygmalion 56