Thursday, July 07, 2005

"You Can't Handle the Truth"

Former California state assemblyman Howard Kaloogian, or as he is identified in puffed up press releases from the phony organizations for which he acts as the front man, the "Honorable Howard Kaloogian," is on his way to Iraq to bring us the "truth".

Kaloogian, who has indicated his interest in Congressman Randy "Duke of Corruption" Cunningham's seat in San Diego's 50th Congressional District, is taking a bunch of right wing talk show hosts to Iraq so that they can overcome the "complete disconnect between what is going on the ground in Iraq and over the skies and what they are seeing reported in American media."

It is hard to put either the word honorable or truth in a sentence that also contains Kaloogian's name. And, frankly his crew of mostly second string, small market Rush Limbaugh wanabes, are hardly a credible source of real news, except to those who consider Fox News as their information source.

Kaloogian's operation, Move America Forward, is nothing more than a right wing propaganda and fund raising site. It was originally developed by the Republican PR firm of Russo Marsh & Rogers. Move America Forward is a site that, while pretending to be a support organization for our military and those fighting terrorism, is pushing right wing hot buttons and developing issues based contributor lists to help the radical right pursue Mr. Kaloogian's agenda of attacking the 1st Amendment, railing against the United Nations, immigration, taxes, liberals, etc.

If there is any truth to be found in Iraq, you can bet that if won't be found by any of the propagandists on Mr. Kaloogian's junket, which is being partially funded by the American tax payer. Mr. Kaloogian's knows that the situation in Iraq is not being reported accurately. He points out that,

"The impression most people have on the streets of San Diego is that car bombs are the norm when in fact they aren't," Kaloogian said. "Detroit is arguably a more dangerous place than Iraq."

See what I mean about Kaloogian and the truth. The last time I checked, foreign ambassadors weren't being kidnapped and assassinated in Michigan. The last time I checked, Michigan wasn't the scene of 81 car bombings, or 70 daily armed attacks aimed at the police, or 800 civilian deaths to violence each month.

Hey, Honorable Howard, the last time I checked the United States Department of State didn't have a warning like this out for Michigan:

The Department of State continues to strongly warn U.S. citizens against travel to Iraq, which remains very dangerous. Remnants of the former Baath regime, transnational terrorists, and criminal elements remain active. Attacks against military and civilian targets throughout Iraq continue, including in the International (or “Green”) Zone.

It was one thing when Mr. Kaloogian and his band of right wing zanies were trying to censor CBS (Reagan movie), Disney (Fahrenheit 911) or plot the recall of every elected Democrat in the state of California. But, when Mr. Kaloogian and his crew try and use our soldiers as shield for their schemes, that's going to far.

That is the truth.