By Jim Stanford on January 25, 2008
“There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.”
— Dick Cheney, Aug. 26, 2002
Someone finally has done the math.
A nonpartisan research group has documented 935 false statements made by the Bush-Cheney administration in the run-up to the Iraq War.
Dick Cheney told only 48 of those lies, compared to 260 by President Bush, 244 by Colin Powell and 109 by Donald Rumsfeld.
The report was compiled by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit organization of independent investigative journalists dedicated to ethics in government.
Most importantly, the study found that Bush and seven of his top officials “waged a carefully orchestrated campaign of misinformation” about the threat posed by Iraq.
Join U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) in calling for impeachment hearings.
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In local GOP news, state Rep. Keith Gingery has renewed his efforts to saddle more young people with a criminal record.
Gingery, a Republican from Jackson, has introduced a bill for the third time that would give police more leeway in citing minors for possessing or consuming alcohol.
Gingery’s bill would make it a crime for a minor to attempt to purchase alcohol, to solicit others to purchase alcohol, to possess alcohol or to have consumed alcohol, even on private property.
Gingery, also a county prosecutor, told the AP last week that under current Wyoming law, minors cannot be cited unless they are “drunk or under the influence of alcohol” on “any street or highway or in any public place.”
Gingery, 37, failed in two previous attempts to pass similar legislation. Last year the Senate Judiciary Committee apparently found it absurd that an 18-year-old about to go off to war could not drink a beer with his or her parents.
The bill is misguided for several reasons. While it will do little to dissuade young people from drinking alcohol, it could hurt their chances of getting into college.
As Steve Rosen of McClatchy Newspapers reported this week,
Consider the example of a high school honors student who was a class leader, a star athlete and had all the grades. He appeared to have his ticket punched to an Ivy League school — until being charged with underage possession of alcohol.
It’s not beyond the realm of possibility for a college admissions officers to deny this application, according to Kansas City, Mo., lawyer Charles Fairchild.
“If admissions officers see something they don’t like, they won’t admit you,” said Fairchild, the author of Dude, What Are My Rights? The Self-Help Legal Survival Guide for ages 18-25.
People with a college education are less likely to have run-ins with the law and be a drain on public resources later in life, according to a congressional report that showed cutting financial aid to students with drug convictions did little to reduce drug use.
McClatchy’s Rosen continues,
To be sure, Fairchild acknowledged that teens will make mistakes and need to be held accountable. But he believes tougher criminal statutes and community standards on incidents such as underage drinking and drug-related offenses have created a “zero tolerance policy” and “higher hurdles for kids to have to clear,” especially high school juniors and seniors.
I reported on Gingery’s first effort to pass such legislation, back in 2005-06. I asked him whether his bill would deter young people from consuming alcohol, and he said, “I don’t think it will stop the problem, but it’s definitely a tool to assist law enforcement.”
I also asked him whether he ever drank a beer while underage. His response: “Huh-huh, I don’t know about that.”
N&G editor Tom Dewell cut that part from the story, saying it wasn’t relevant.
Gingery’s move comes amid renewed debate nationally over lowering the drinking age. As MSNBC reported last summer,
Libertarian groups and some conservative economic foundations, seeing the age limits as having been extorted by Washington, have long championed lowering the drinking age. But in recent years, many academics and non-partisan policy groups have joined their cause for a different reason: The age restriction does not work, they say. Drinking has gone on behind closed doors and underground, where responsible adults cannot keep an eye on it.
The legislation is House Bill 35. Text of the bill can be viewed here.
Gingery is up for re-election this fall. His contact information at the Wyoming Legislature can be found here.
Posted under Iraq war, dick cheney, politics, republican party, wyoming legislature
From Dan Froomkin of WashingtonPost.com:
“… there are plenty of reasons why the deceitful run-up to war is not old news. For one, the war goes on. For another, government credibility remains severely damaged. And then there’s the fact that the president has never really been held to account for his repeated falsehoods.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/01/23/BL2008012301758.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns
Jim,
I am glad to see that you are back to updating your blog. I’ve always enjoyed your reporting and thank you for raising the issue of underage drinking.
You are correct that the bill is not designed to add to any deterence to underage drinking, rather the bill is simply fixing antiquated language. It is simply an attempt to modernize our underage drinking laws. The present law uses words such as “drunk”, which is not the legal term that is used in courts of law anymore. It also fixes the “Tanner Rule” problem that requires prosecutors to choose whether they are pursuing the crime for “malt beverage” or “liquor”.
As for the part about drinking with your parents, that amendment was added on the Senate side last year, without my objection. That was not a concern of mine, my concern was simply updating some antiquated language.
Also the bill remedies a situation in which many courts have had differing opinions upon, whether the underage drinking law applies at private residence parties. In some communities the judges have ruled that it does apply and others have gone the other way. Whichever direction is decided, the legislature needs to give some direction to the courts as to how the law should be applied.
Thank you again for raising this issue on your blog and I will be very interested to receive comment on the bill at kgingery@wyoming.com
Jim,
I would also mention that I am no way attempting to “saddle” any minors with a criminal record. In the State of Wyoming almost all Underage Drinking charges are handled uniformly, specifically, that the intent is to assess the minor’s use of alcohol, determine if this was an isolated event or does this minor have an ongoing issue with alcohol, and then provide whatever assistance can be provided. After completing the assessment and assistance, the charge is usually dismissed, thus not appearing on the minor’s record.
The objective when dealing with minors in the Wyoming court system is to assist, not to punish. All of the Juvenile Code is built around this supposition.
You also raise the issue of lowering the age limit. You may have a very valid point that it should be lowered down to 17, but the problem is that Congress has dictated that the drinking age must be 21 or else the state loses highway funds. Wyoming was one of the last states to raise their age limit, mostly because they resented the fact that Congress was dictating the law to Wyoming. My bill does not touch upon this issue, again, it is simply fixing some confusing and antiquated language in the present statute.