Its all in a Name

[Josiah]

Since the new administration took office, Washington has been consumed, on both sides of the aisle, by a kind of re-branding madness. This marathon in semantics has had a variety of tactical purposes, depending on who's got his Sharpie on the dictionary.

The Obama administration, through a string of delicate shifts in terminology, has softened -- or at least obfuscated -- the essence of the war against Islamic extremism.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, arguably the Washington equivalent to Madonna of re-branding, delivered an entire set of testimony without using the word "terrorism." She says she prefers "man-caused disasters."

And the administration as a whole phased out the term "Global War on Terror." "Overseas contingency operation" became the tag that is now used in budget documents to explain where billions of taxpayer dollars are going.

Napolitano told the German magazine Der Spiegel she's avoiding such hot-button words like "terrorism" to demonstrate the administration's desire to "move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur."

Global War on Terror is out -- "overseas contingency operation" is in. (War is War!)

Terrorist attack is out -- "man-caused disaster" is in.

Detainees: Custodial informants

Terrorists: Improvised ideologues

Deficit: Long shortfall (or inverted surplus)

One trillion dollars: Nth power financing

Abortion: Reproductive choice

Earmarks: Allocators

Bailouts: Stop-gappers

Border violence: Territorial imperative

Torture: Non-verbal questioning ( I love this one)

Taxes: Income tweaks

[Tibiki Kinew]

oh the joy of word games,,,, so when they want more taxes the tweak my paycheck to their advantage!!!
Guess it is out for us to all have a non verbal meeting to rephrase the details of our meager paychecks!

[shadowoman]

children are outgoing tweeks then????

[Ndnsoldierboy]

I don't use any of the new so called phrases during my instructing on my convoy operations lane in getting soldiers, sailors ready for either Iraq or Afghanistan...I call it like I see...My medal I was issued sez: "Global War on Terrorism" on both my Expeditionary and Service medals. This garbage on being politically correct is just plain stupid.

[Josiah]

I don't use any of the new so called phrases during my instructing on my convoy operations lane in getting soldiers, sailors ready for either Iraq or Afghanistan...I call it like I see...My medal I was issued sez: "Global War on Terrorism" on both my Expeditionary and Service medals. This garbage on being politically correct is just plain stupid.

True
And my medal says Navy Expeditionary Medal
not
Shhhhhh dont tell anyone where you got this