Norma Furness – 9/30/08

This page was last updated on September 30, 2008.

Bush tries to sell another tall tale; Norma Furness; Beaver County Times; September 30, 2008.

When we heard from Ms. Furness a couple of weeks ago, she claimed “Political use of prayer backfires.”

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“George W. Bush could very well be likened to the Aesop fable character in ‘The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf.’”

[RWC] As a reminder, the Bush administration also raised the alarm about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“But on the other hand, he could be seen as an equal to Aesop regarding the number of fables he has produced.

“Just to list a few: ‘The Iraqi 9/11 Involvement Fable,’ ‘The Uranium from Niger Fable,’ ‘The Mushroom Cloud Fable,’ ‘The Osama bin Laden Dead or Alive Fable,’ ‘The We Do Not Torture Fable,’ ‘The Katrina Good Job, Brownie Fable,’ and the very best one, ‘Mission Accomplished Fable.’”

[RWC] The Bush administration didn’t claim Iraq involvement in the 9/11 attacks. This is one of Ms. Furness’ fables. Intelligence supported the yellowcake from Niger assessment and the UK still stands by this assessment. You’ll note Ms. Furness doesn’t get into the details of her “fables.”

“‘The Economic World Will Collapse if We Do Not Give the Fat Cats on Wall Street $700 Trillion Fable’ is the latest hot release.”

[RWC] Maybe this is nitpicking, but the proposed bailout is $700 billion, not $700 trillion. That means Ms. Furness is off by a factor of 1,000 times. $7 trillion is roughly 233 times the annual U.S. federal budget.

“Believe it or not, the Republicans on the Hill are not subscribing to this latest tale, much to the relief of most of the country.”

[RWC] Ms. Furness failed to mention Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Senate Majority Leader harry Reid (D-NV), and 140 Democrat members of the House who yesterday (9/29/30) voted for the subject bailout (H.R. 3997) are also selling the “tall tale.” 133 House Republicans opposed it. That means 60% of House Democrats voted for the bailout while 67% of House Republicans voted against it.

“I will be on pins and needles waiting for the next fable to come out. But perhaps I should not be so critical because I am in the process of penning the next best seller, the ‘Good Job, W Fable.’”

[RWC] Why should Ms. Furness “be on pins and needles waiting for the next fable to come out?” All she has to do is write another letter.