Planting Deception

Charmaine has planted a short row of Zinnias (Zinnia) behind the compost bins to act as a cover-up for the view from neighbor Dick and Judy's house.

The name of the genus derives from the German botanist Johann Gottfried Zinn.

Zinnias are known to attract butterflies, always a welcome visitor to the LipsYard.

In a recent interview with Katie Couric, Republican presidential contender John McCain blasted Barack Obama for opposing the surge in Iraq. McCain claimed the deployment of more U.S. troops gave rise to the “Anbar Awakening” in which Sunni Muslims turned against al-Qaeda terrorists. But the Anbar Awakening began Sept. 26, 2006. That was more than three months before President Bush even announced the surge on Jan. 10, 2007. What makes this McCain blunder so troubling is that CBS decided to remove it from the interview.

The cover-up was exposed by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, who accused McCain on the air of either lying or being ignorant of the facts. Ironically, John McCain is now saying the media are too soft on Barack Obama. But if Obama showed himself to be as uninformed on his top issue, as McCain did on Iraq, the media would have a field day. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the media’s efforts to hide McCain’s misstatements, flip-flops, and extreme positions.

McCain recently called Social Security a “disgrace” and lied in denying his support for privatizing it. Six times McCain has spoken of his policies toward “Czechoslovakia,” a nation that ceased to exist 15 years ago. He speaks of the “Iraq-Pakistan” border even though they do not share a border. He mixes up Somalia and Sudan. Four times he accused Iran of helping al-Qaeda with absolutely no evidence to back it up. Just like the pre-war lies told about Iraq.