OK, I'm baaaaaaack!!

Early in the Obama Administration, there were wholesale changes to language used in briefings and speeches from both the President and his staff. The War on Terror was changed to the Overseas Contingency Operation and an act of terrorism was to be referred to as a "man-caused disaster". Well to quote the Church Lady, "Isn't that special?"

Some of you may be wondering why I am recycling this bit of information from well over a year ago in my first post back after being on hiatus? Hang with me for a minute, I think you'll see where I am going. In attempts to control the messages this Administration, although they aren't the first to do so its only magnified in our current 24/7 media cycle, has attempted to change the lexicon of both recent and not so recent history.

Early in his presidency, Obama gave a speech on immigration in which he told the story of Emma Lazarus who was inspired to write "The New Colossus" for the Statue of Liberty in 1883. President Obama told the story that she was inspired by what she saw and heard, so she penned the sonnet and donated it to help with the construction of a new statue - The Statue of Liberty which was in part funded by donations by people across the country. Great story right? Problem is, it isn't true. The Statue was a gift from France, the PEDESTAL was in part constructed by donations from Americans. Just semantics, right?

Let's take a look at taxes. President Obama assured us that there would be no tax hikes on people who make under $250,000 all during his campaign to win the White House. Healthcare reform has reversed that by 180 degrees. Now we have "healthcare reform" that the President, in a recent interview with George Stephanopolous, defended against its being called a tax.

OBAMA: No. That’s not true, George. The — for us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase. What it’s saying is, is that we’re not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you anymore than the fact that right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase. People say to themselves, that is a fair way to make sure that if you hit my car, that I’m not covering all the costs.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But it may be fair, it may be good public policy…

OBAMA: No, but — but, George, you — you can’t just make up that language and decide that that’s called a tax increase.

However now the Administration is forced to defend its healthcare reform in a lawsuit. And what is their very first argument? In a recent document, the Justice Department (under the superior tuttelage of Eric Holder) says that the requirement for people to carry insurance or pay a penalty is "a valid exercise" (or did he mean excise) of "Congress' power to impose taxes". Semantics again, right?

Yesterday I was listening to the President's speech at the Disabled Veteran's of America Conference in Atlanta. In a portion of the speech (that I doubt very many people other than the attendees and news junkies like me saw) the President made the following remark, "When the terrorists and militias plunged Iraq into sectarian war, our troops adapted and adjusted". Does that scare anyone as much as it did me when I heard it?

After a year and a half of backing away from using the term terrorist or terrorism and using that same time revising history, I am more than a little concerned that the Administration has so tacitly and nonchalantly decided that it is okay to use terrorist and militia in the same sentence. It sends a disturbing message to the people of the United States don't you think? Or is that just semantics too and we shouldn't worry?