Commentary

Bottom line on Obama: Words mean little

David Harsanyi, detnews.com

Washington always has been a thermonuclear cliché generator. But the Obama administration, with all its super-smarts, has taken the exploitation of the euphemism to spectacular new heights.

This week, we learned a bit more about what the terms "sacrifice" (do what we want, you filthy, unpatriotic swine), "era of responsibility" (double the "sacrifice," half the prosperity) and "investments" (we squander money so you don't have to) really mean.

"Transparency" is when Barack Obama promises that the enterprising citizen will be able to track "every dime" of the $787 billion forever-government stimulus bill via a nifty Web site, called Recovery.gov (sic).Reality is when that much-heralded site won't be complete until next spring, when half the stimulus money will have been wasted and ... well, it probably won't be especially helpful.

Earl Devaney, the chairman of the "Recovery Act Transparency and Accountability Board" -- who, to absolutely no one's surprise, admitted this week that fraud is a distinct possibility -- claims the site won't be ready for five months because there isn't enough data storage capacity to hold it all.

"Stimulus": too big for cyberspace. [more]