by Jim Hightower

PRESIDENT PINOCCHIO SPEAKS TO THE NATION

Gosh, so much muck to rake, so little time.  I speak, of course, about George

W's recent "State of the Union" pontifications.  What a mess of lies!

His headline-grabber was that America is "addicted to oil" and that he'll cut

U.S. reliance on Middle-East oil by 75 percent over the next 20 years.  Wow!

That's a huge change, right?  Wrong.  Bush didn't mention that our imports from the Mid-East constitute a mere 11 percent of America's oil use.  Also, the next day, his own energy secretary rushed out to say of Bush's 75-percent pledge: "He didn't mean it literally."  The promise to cut Mid-East imports "was purely an example," he said.  Oh.

Then there was George's proud economic boast that "America has created 4.6

million new jobs" during his tenure.  Well... yeah... but America has also lost

2.6 million jobs under Bush, leaving a pathetic record of job creation.  Plus,

Bush's new jobs pay so poorly that hourly workers are not even keeping up with inflation.

Of course, a Bush speech would not be complete without another Iraq lie.  This time, he gloated about his success in "shutting off terrorist infiltration"

into Iraq.  Well... not exactly.  In fact, just before George's speech, a top

Republican wailed that the Iraqi border is "extremely porous" and that a poor

job was being done to stop infiltration by terrorists.

The Bush lies just kept flowing: He bragged about reducing federal spending,

for example,when in fact he's raised it about 30 percent, and he patted himself on the back about his response to Hurricane Katrina, yet the next day the General Accounting office blasted his administration and Bush himself for their failed response.

This is Jim Hightower saying... This guy will go down in history as President

Pinnoccio!

(c) 2006, Copyright - Saddleburr Productions, Inc. This essay is herein reprinted with the author's permission.