Washington always has been a thermonuclear cliche generator. But the Obama administration, with all its super-smarts, has taken the exploitation of the euphemism to spectacular new heights.

This week, we learned a bit more about what the terms "sacrifice" (do what we want, you filthy, unpatriotic swine), "era of responsibility" (double the "sacrifice," half the prosperity) and "investments" (we squander money so you don't have to) really mean.

"Transparency" is when Barack Obama promises that the enterprising citizen will be able to track "every dime" of the $787 billion forever-government stimulus bill via a nifty Web site, called Recovery.gov (sic).

Reality is when that much-heralded site won't be complete until next spring, when half the stimulus money will have been wasted and … well, it probably won't be especially helpful.

Earl Devaney, the chairman of the "Recovery Act Transparency and Accountability Board" -- who, to absolutely no one's surprise, admitted this week that fraud is a distinct possibility -- claims the site won't be ready for five months because there isn't enough data storage capacity to hold it all.

"Stimulus": too big for cyberspace.

In the "new era of responsibility," Obama vowed during his campaign that his administration scrupulously would pore over the federal budget "line by line" to extract savings, eradicate waste and find inefficiencies.

After teeing up a record-breaking $3.4 trillion budget -- on top of bailouts, deficits, stimulus packages and other goodies for special friends -- we know that's bunk.

But watching Obama engage in his act of false heroics this week -- claiming that "we" were going to make tough budget cuts by trimming programs no one in this galaxy cares about in an effort to slice a subatomic fraction from the budget that no one will notice -- well, that was a special treat.

When it comes to "investments," the general idea is this: Every unproductive and superfluous job or project that an army of pencil pushers and special interest groups have conjured up needs someone to fund it. And because you won't do it voluntarily, the administration will do it for you in the name of "community." Continued...