Black Tongued Liars

I was once told to be careful about what I said or my tongue would turn black implying that I was about to lie or that I had already spoken it.

How many have heard that if a dog has a black spot on its tongue that it’s part Chowchow? My Golden Retriever, Tyler, had black spots on his tongue and I don’t think he was part Chowchow. Maybe I was mistaken.

A lot of folks these days are running around with black tongues from the President to Senator Chris Dodd and many others in Washington. It’s amazing what happens when you bring “change” to DC isn’t it? Perhaps all the black tongued government officials are Chowchows or Golden Retrievers or just plain old liars?

The double-speaking, lying, conniving, spin doctors are working double time with their outrage over the AIG bonus payment incident. The major media isn’t telling the American taxpayer that the Administration and the Congress have known about the AIG bonuses since last November.

The Obama administration says they didn’t know anything about the bonuses that were paid last Friday until a couple of weeks ago. AIG has received about $170 billion in bailout funds and paid out $165 million in retention awards to keep employees

The truth is, for months, the Obama administration and members of Congress have known that insurance giant AIG was getting ready to pay huge bonuses while living off government bailouts. It wasn't until the money was flowing and news was trickling out to the public that official Washington rose up in anger and vowed to yank the money back.

So far, the administration has been unable to match its actions to Obama's tough rhetoric on executive compensation. And Congress has been unable or unwilling to restrict bonuses for bailout recipients, despite some lawmakers' repeated efforts to do so.

It was our ole buddy Democratic Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut who heads the Senate Banking Committee, who added to the economic recovery package an amendment that cracked down on bonuses at companies getting bailout money, but exempted bonuses protected by contracts, like AIG’s. Under pressure by Republicans, Mr. Dodd stated this week that the AIG exemption actually had been inserted at the insistence of the Treasury during Congress’s final legislative negotiations.

While the administration has been mostly on the defensive, the competing outrage in Congress belies the fact that a few Democrats had tried to draw attention to the A.I.G. retention bonuses since last November.

Proverbs 6:17 - 19

There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him:

• a lying tongue,
• a heart that devises wicked schemes,
• feet that are quick to rush into evil,
• a false witness who pours out lies
• and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

Our President needs our prayers.