Albany,n.y. Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 As we get closer to election day, all you hear every day are lies & more lies from these people trying to get themselves or their cronies elected. Even when they tell the truth, they do so in a manner that takes a true fact and twists it into a false conclusion. If these clowns really wanted to tell the truth it would be quite simple. Make it a law that any office holder, or person running for office who lies to the public be subject to perjury charges. Penalty if convicted: A stiff fine, community service and a permanent ban from ever seeking office again. In the case of a person in office-impeachment & removal from office plus the above penalties. I'm just so sick of the ads that are running. You can often find articles in print or tv, radio etc that expose the statements as outright lies. An example of truth being twisted is one I received in the mail just the other day. Claiming his opponent was a tax raiser, a politician included a statement saying his opponent helped raise assessments up to 90%. As someone very familiar with the field, all I can say is that if you have a revaluation, assessments will go up. Depending on what year the assessments are based on, assessments can go up many times. For example, when Nassau county went from 1939 based assessments to more current market value assessments a $400,000 house may have been assessed less than $10,000, got raised over 4000% and may or may not have had a tax increase. Politicians will always tell you the half truth to fit their agenda. They are lower than pond scum! Throw them all out of office & for the worst-into a jail cell. Edit: Here's a story about how far the NRCC will go, using a staff member's incorrect dialing of a number to smear a foe: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/ne...t_id=1003286540 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 Throw them all out of office & for the worst-into a jail cell.819377[/snapback] You advocate a purge... Jail time?? What are you a pinko??... ONLY KIDDING... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanker Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 Yeah. Lying politicians. That's new. Maybe you could start the pogrom on the founding fathers. You know - they said in black and white "All men are created equal..." Stoopid lying bastages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRC Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 As we get closer to election day, all you hear every day are lies & more lies from these people trying to get themselves or their cronies elected. Even when they tell the truth, they do so in a manner that takes a true fact and twists it into a false conclusion. If these clowns really wanted to tell the truth it would be quite simple. Make it a law that any office holder, or person running for office who lies to the public be subject to perjury charges. Penalty if convicted: A stiff fine, community service and a permanent ban from ever seeking office again. In the case of a person in office-impeachment & removal from office plus the above penalties. I'm just so sick of the ads that are running. You can often find articles in print or tv, radio etc that expose the statements as outright lies. An example of truth being twisted is one I received in the mail just the other day. Claiming his opponent was a tax raiser, a politician included a statement saying his opponent helped raise assessments up to 90%. As someone very familiar with the field, all I can say is that if you have a revaluation, assessments will go up. Depending on what year the assessments are based on, assessments can go up many times. For example, when Nassau county went from 1939 based assessments to more current market value assessments a $400,000 house may have been assessed less than $10,000, got raised over 4000% and may or may not have had a tax increase. Politicians will always tell you the half truth to fit their agenda. They are lower than pond scum! Throw them all out of office & for the worst-into a jail cell. Edit: Here's a story about how far the NRCC will go, using a staff member's incorrect dialing of a number to smear a foe: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/ne...t_id=1003286540 819377[/snapback] They are not under oath, so they cannot be committing perjury. Slander/Libel laws are already in place, which is the vehicle that should be used in this case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 Forget the legalities as it's too slippery a slope. I've always been fond of the idea of every politician who seeks an office to be subject to engaging in unscripted debates with questions asked by impartial community members while the debaters are wearing polygraphs with real-time results on public display. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orton's Arm Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 Make it a law that any office holder, or person running for office who lies to the public be subject to perjury charges. Penalty if convicted: A stiff fine, community service and a permanent ban from ever seeking office again. In the case of a person in office-impeachment & removal from office plus the above penalties. I'd welcome a law like that, if applied properly. But there's danger here. For example, take some deeply controversial issue, such as the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. If the issue is controversial enough, people are often willing to distort things to get their way. Suppose, therefore, that a politician makes an assertion about that conflict, which he honestly believes is true. Suppose further that those on the other side of the issue choose to call him a liar. They'd take him to court, and they'd do what they could to blur the line between their opinions, and actual facts. If you were just looking at actual facts, you'd probably see that there's no way of knowing whether the politician's assertion was true. But if you look at the accusations leveled against him by his ideological opponents, he'd seem to be one of the worst liars in the world. Whether the politician gets punished will ultimately be left up to a jury, which is little better than leaving it up to random chance. (Witness the O.J. trial.) You'd have to put controls on the system to make sure it wasn't used to stifle legitimate intellectual debate. You'd also have to make sure those who distorted facts in an effort to incriminate a politician were themselves subjected to very harsh penalties. But I agree with the implication of your post: namely, that the abundance of lying that takes place in politics indicates that the rewards for telling a lie are often too high, and the penalties for getting caught are too low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GG Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 They are not under oath, so they cannot be committing perjury. Slander/Libel laws are already in place, which is the vehicle that should be used in this case. 819451[/snapback] No, we need more laws to protect the public. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 No, we need more laws to protect the public. 820183[/snapback] Agree... We don't need any more laws... Yet, quite a double edge sword... Without 'em we don't have a leg to stand with all the shadyness, dishonesty that exists among the public/private sector. It is all about who controls who... Both sides are crooked... It comes down to which thief you trust the most... Some will say the individual, some will say the faceless government. I guess it depends on which side you fall and which interests serve you the best... I sure the hell don't want a law that puts the squeeze on me or my self-interests... Yet, if it falls on you... Who gives a phuck... That is the way we see it in America, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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