Politics watch: Full of crap edition

If you pay really close attention, you can actually see the bullshit as it flows from a politician's mouth. Talking heads are groomed to skirt questions, dodge issues and lie through their teeth -- that's old news. What's really disturbing is when the lies flow so easily that you can't tell whether the politician knows he's full of crap or whether he's taken a nose dive off the deep end. It's exactly the difficulty of that distinction that makes politics so dangerous.

Here are a few examples over the last couple days of what I'm talking about:

* President Bush, who we all know has lost his mind, told a U.S.-run radio station that beams propaganda into Iran that the Middle Eastern nation has "declared they want a nuclear weapon to destroy people." His comments were met with shock by experts who actually know a thing or two about the Middle East. Despite what people may believe about Iran's intentions, the nation's leaders have never publicly announced a motivation for nuclear weapons. In fact, they insist their nuclear ambitions extend solely to civilian power, and the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei even issued a religious edict three years ago that forbids the production of a nuclear warhead. And we all know how they feel about their religious edicts! Of course, the three or four people in this country who are still jaded enough to trust Bush will repeat his words ad nauseum. And that's just how the GOP machine likes it. Full of shit rating: 10

* Not to be outdone, Dick Cheney provided an interesting tidbit when he gave a speech in Afghanistan. Pleading for more NATO help to fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda, the vice president declared that "the Afghan people have no desire to be pulled back into the dark ages." That's nice. Mr. Cheney, who swims in money and power, thinks the Afghan people were mere savages before the mighty hand of the United States military bombed the crap out of them. Way to win those hearts and minds, Mr. President Vice President! Full of shit rating: 7.8

* Dana Perino, the White House press secretary, is no stranger to bullshit. She throws it out like juicy stakes to a raving mob of hyenas known as the White House press corps. She even looks evil, with those hollow eyes and vacant look. On some occasions, however, she really screws up and tells the truth. On Thursday, she told a startled reporter that Bush and Cheney purposefully pursue unpopular policies so people will dislike them: "Both the president and the vice president have long believed, and it's a part of what has made them the leaders that they are, which is not to chase popularity polls but to hold themselves to a standard that requires people not to like them," she said. Full of shit rating: 0 (the truth!)

* With a hat tip to Dick.Bill over at Clubbed To Death, this last talking point involves John McCain, the so-called "foreign policy experience" candidate. Some advice to Mr. Foreign Policy: If you're going to claim Iran is giving expert training to terrorists, you might want to double check that they haven't been fighting each other for thousands of years. McCain alleged during a speech that Iran, a predominately Shiite nation, is providing aid, comfort and terrorist skills to al-Qaeda, a Sunni group. Last I checked, those two particular groups don't get along too well. In fact, they like to kill each other a whole lot. Full of shit rating: Off the scale