Benjamin Franklin once said these powerful words, half a truth is often a great lie.  The Armstrong Lie is a powerful documentary about Lance Armstrong, a sports legend who won the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 – 2005 after surviving stage 3 testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain.  Armstrong will go down in history for committing one of the best kept lies in sports history while he amassed a fortune from the sport and its sponsors.  Over the years he was plagued with rumors that he was doping or using performance-enhancing drugs which he denied emphatically.  Then a teammate became a whistleblower which caused Armstrong to be stripped of his titles, sponsors ditched him, and he faced several legal cases. So why did Armstrong lie?  Why did he risk losing it all if it ever became public?  Sports writers and enthusiasts have questions for years, but will we ever really know the truth?

The art of lying is among the most sophisticated accomplishments of the human mind.  Children must learn how to lie, how to assess the reactions of the listener, and how to adapt a story to fit a believable narrative.  Kids also need to learn how to decipher a lie to protect themself.   Learning to lie during the impressionable years of our life is why some adults conquer the art of lying.   But are all lies bad lies?  Studies have been done for years to answer this question.  I was blown away when I read one article that said there were 10 types of lies or deception.   In Armstrong’s case he lied by omission (partial truth), used lies of falsification (lie to get attention or sympathy),  told bold face lies (one tells a lie, and everyone knows it’s a lie), used lies of exaggeration (lies based on some truth), and he was a pathological liar (lies for no apparent reason).

Lies, regardless of whether they are big or small can cause a physical change in our bodies.  It can trigger increased heart rate, high blood pressure, and elevated levels of stress hormones in the blood.  It can also cause dry mouth, upset stomach, vomiting, sweaty hands, nervous facial twitches or hand twitches and can cause your skin to break out in a rash or turn red.   I know what you are thinking right now, where are we going with this Shady Shit?  Well forum after forum Mark Piland mentioned transparency and how he wanted to put in place an ordinance, like the City of Plano’s that said if you received over $1000 from any individual you could not hear any case or be involved in any discussion that could come before the council to avoid a conflict of interest or perception of wrongdoing.  You can still accept large donations, but you just can’t be involved in items that come before the city – seems simple and common sense.  

At one debate Cheney said campaigns are expensive and without donations it would be hard to run a campaign of this magnitude. This go around I have received a postcard, a magazine, and newspaper all with Mayor Cheney’s “Vote for Me” message.  Unless you are living under a rock everyone knows who Mayor Cheney is, his record, and his accomplishments, so why is there a need to spend that kind of money?  At the forum, Cheney responded and said Plano’s ordinance was put in place two years ago after all their developments were done or largely done.  He said he spoke to a Plano elected official recently (no name mentioned) about their policy and the official told him that the ordinance is not even enforceable, there are no teeth to it, and it was put in place because of a political ideology in their community who was having a tough time getting traction for their candidates that they wanted to support.  Now they have a situation where PACs and Super PACs along with other special interest groups lead the outcomes in elections.   Watching the forum, I noticed Mayor Cheney would twitch his hands, blink his eyes and his face would turn red so it made me wonder, was he lying? 

The morning after the forum I woke up, had coffee and white powdered donut (love those), and talked about the Forum with my wife.  While we were perplexed we let it go and went on with our life because we did not think for a minute this was some smoking gun.  Several days went by and we got an email from a follower who said they too were curious about Piland’s idea and Cheney’s response, so he emailed the Plano City Council.  He forwarded us the emails and responses and that is when I the light bulb turned on.  The whistle blower asked which one of the council members spoke with Mayor Cheney, could they confirm or deny his statements made at the forum, and what is their personal feeling regarding the ordinance.   Surprisingly several responded and all of them had a similar consensus.  We are publishing the first two responses in full below as we just don’t have time to post them all.

Shelby Williams responded, “the ordinance truly does have no teeth—that’s something I’d like to fix.”  Williams went on to say, “ Whomever Mayor Cheney spoke to from Plano was not correct, A) The only political ideology that drove the campaign finance ordinance was the desire to rein in the massive amount of commercial developer money influencing Plano’s elections and B) while it was argued that the ordinance would cause PACs to dominate our elections, it never happened. After the ordinance was adopted, PAC spending went down significantly.  He also said he wrote about this in 2021 when the new council proposed to repeal the ordinance.  Here’s my article from then, which includes links and screenshots to more data: https://shelbyhwilliams.com/campaign-finance-recusal-ordinance-up-for-repeal/.” 

Anthony Ricciardelli (Place 2) responded, “I voted for the ordinance when we enacted it, remain a big fan of it, and believe that it is meaningful.  I agree that there are still loopholes in it, unfortunately.  I would like to close those loopholes.  Respectfully, I don’t think it would be prudent for me to comment on something attributed to a different council member.  I can tell you that I’ve never said anything like the statements that Jeff Cheney attributes to someone on the Plano City Council.”   

Like we said earlier, lying is an art form!

TRUE: Mr. Cheney was correct that there is a loophole in the ordinance that needs to be fixed and they hope to do fix it in the near future. 

LIE: Mr. Cheney said it was put in place by a political ideology in Plano’s community that was having a tough time getting traction for candidates that they wanted to support.  Williams said it was to rein in the massive amount of commercial developer money influencing Plano’s elections.

LIE: Mr. Cheney said they now have a situation where PACs and Super PACs along with special interest groups lead the outcomes in elections.   Williams said after the ordinance was adopted, PAC spending went down significantly. 

Martin Luther King, Jr., once said “A lie cannot live” and he is right.  Lies may take care of the present but they have no future.  If you tell one lie and get caught then all your truths become questionable.  I have always believed that when someone lies to you what they are really telling you, is that you were not worth the truth.  That is a slap in the face, it tells you what they think of you and how little they value you or  think you are worth to them.  In the end we are left with one question, Mayor Cheney, who did you speak to on the Plano City Council that you quoted at the forum?