Honesty

"One sees from the experience of our times that the princes who have
accomplished great deeds are those who have cared little for keeping
their promises and who have known how to manipulate the minds of men by
shrewdness; and in the end they have surpassed those who laid their
foundations upon honesty."

"Let a prince have the credit of conquering and holding his state, the
means will always be considered honest, and he will be praised by
everybody; because the vulgar are always taken by appearances and by
the issue of the event; and in the world there are only the vulgar, and
the few who are not vulgar are isolated when the many have a rallying
point in the prince."

--Niccoló Machiavelli

"Why of course the people don't want war ... But after all it is the
leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a
simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a
fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship
...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding
of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to convince them
they are under attack, and denounce the pacifists for lack of
patriotism and exposing the country to danger."

-- Hermann Goering, at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II


<http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/>
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
http://csmonitor.com/specials/neocon/index.html
http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/
http://www.bushlies.com/
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/9/4360