quote unquote: Albert Einstein

"Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.” ― Albert Einstein

Second Thoughts

“I want to be the president for the struggling, the striving and the successful.” -- Hillary Clinton, before the Michigan primary

“I don’t want to be the president for those who are already successful — they don’t need me. I want to be the president for the struggling and the striving.” -- Hillary Clinton, after the Michigan primary

Extra credit:

Resource: The Afghanistan Report the Pentagon Doesn't Want You to Read

"Senior ranking US military leaders have so distorted the truth when communicating with the US Congress and American people in regards to conditions on the ground in Afghanistan that the truth has become unrecognizable. This deception has damaged America’s credibility among both our allies and enemies, severely limiting our ability to reach a political solution to the war in Afghanistan. It has likely cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars Congress might not otherwise have appropriated had it known the truth, and our senior leaders’ behavior has almost certainly extended the duration of this war. The single greatest penalty our Nation has suffered, however, has been that we have lost the blood, limbs and lives of tens of thousands of American Service Members with little to no gain to our country as a consequence of this deception." -- from Dereliction of Duty II: Senior Military Leaders’ Loss of Integrity Wounds Afghan War Effort, an unclassified summary of our failed military adventure in Afghanistan by Lt. Colonel Daniel Davis, posted by Rolling Stone.

For background, see The Afghanistan Report the Pentagon Doesn't Want You to Read by Michael Hastings (Rolling Stone 2012-02-10).

See, also: In Afghan War, Officer Becomes a Whistle-Blower by Scott Shane (New York Times 2012-02-05). Officer: U.S. paints false picture of Afghan war by Agence France-Presse (2012-02-06).

The Economic Crisis: Lies. Damned Lies. And Statistics.

We have a jobs crisis not a regulatory uncertainty problem. "The demand for goods and services is depressed because of the collapse of the housing and stock market bubbles—the financial crisis—that has led to both a deleveraging (paying off debts) of households and a cratering of the construction sector. The initial shock of the bubble’s burst then cascaded into non-construction business investment that dried up as customers disappeared. Finally, all of this led to state and local governments cutting back services and jobs as tax revenues plunged." Regulatory uncertainty: A phony explanation for our jobs problem by Lawrence Mishel (Economic Policy Institute 2011-09-27).