Republican Lies category archive

Michelle Bachmann’s lies about the HPV vaccine have been amptly reported. The best analysis I’ve seen is Dick Polman’s. Here’s a snippet:

While hosting Bachmann on Fox News the other night, Sean Hannity aired one of her “mental retardation” sound bites and said to her: “Is that one of the side effects of this (vaccine)? Because I’ve not heard that.”

To which Bachmann replied: “I have no idea…I’m not a doctor, I’m not a scientist, I’m not a physician,. All I was doing is reporting what this woman told me.”

I have no idea…There it is. On a family public health issue, Bachmann admits she doesn’t know what she’s talking about, and thinks it’s fine to recycle stuff that she hasn’t checked out.

One more time, wingnuts will say whatever they need to say to make a sale. Truth and facts are irrelevant in their world.

Republican economic theory does exactly the opposite of what Republicans say it does.

Thom Hartmann explains:

Key quote:

You can’t build an economy and a nation if the only thing you are producing is derivatives.

Excerpt from the transcript:

Exactly. I think in the end, the most crucial decision that Bush made right after 9/11 — and he said it explicitly by the end of September of that year — was we don`t want the American people to sacrifice. You know, maybe longer lines at airport check-in, but that was that. Go to Disney Land, go shopping. And there would be no taxes to pay for what would turn out to be two wars.

I think that injected a cancer into the American political culture just as you were saying. If we don`t pay for wars, why do we have to pay for anything? And I think you see the seeds now of this anti-government movement that`s in some ways paralyzing the country.

See the full contract at C&L.

God forbid that schools teach stuff.

Steve Chapman skewers climate change deniers. A nugget:

They arrive at their position by reasoning backward: They reach a conclusion and snatch at any shred of evidence that justifies it. The climate change deniers don’t like the idea of governments restricting greenhouse gas emissions, so they insist that these emissions are nothing to worry about, that scientists are corrupt and that it’s all part of a socialist power grab.

They used to uphold respect for science. Now they prefer magical thinking.

Ed Quillen of the Denver Post sends a dispatch from the front:

Instead of promoting traditional economic populism, the contemporary GOP practices cultural populism. In the Republican view, you don’t worry about the billionaire Koch brothers, not when our country confronts a clear and present threat from the out-of-touch elitists who listen to NPR and the condescending snobs who can make subjects and verbs agree. And, of course, those elitist scientists.

He notes that there can be justification for skepticism, listing “Social Darwinism,” eugenics, and several other areas where scientists went wrong.

I would note that the persons who promoted those movements were not physical scientists (such as chemists, physicists, biologists, and climatologists); they fancied themselves “social scientists,” but were actually activists with axes to grind.

In the case of Social Darwinism, the ax was justifying the wealth of the robber barons and the poverty of the working class; for eugenics, it was rationalizing racism.

Click to read the whole thing. Mr. Quillen’s concluding paragraph is a gem.

Chris Matthews grills Republican Party Chairman Rhince Priebus on the anti-intellectualism and hypocrisy of the Republican Party.

Priebus’s ability to avoid giving direct answers to direct questions is awe-inspiring.

Excerpt:

“Do you have a hard time with the fact that your party left this country in wreckage?” Matthews said. “…You think you left this bed all made for him.”

Via Bob Cesca.

Watch Thom Hartmann engage two right-wing mouthpieces and decide who has the facts.

Facing South reports on the fraudsters:

After signing a photo ID bill in May, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) attempted to allay fears of voter disenfranchisement by promising to personally shuttle those without ID cards to offices where they could get them. As she told a local Fox affiliate:

Find me those people that think that this is invading their rights, and I will go take them to the DMV myself and help them get that picture ID.

Think Progress did a quick calculation of what the governor’s ID taxi service might involve. With about 178,000 eligible S.C. voters lacking ID cards, they estimated it would take Gov. Haley more than seven years in driving time to get everyone processed — “assuming there’s no traffic.”

You can guess how that promise turned out:

Voter Fraud on Koch:

From the write-up:

(T)he Koch-funded Astroturf group Americans for Prosperity is reaching into their bag of dirty tricks to keep their buddies in power at any cost. The group is sending what look like absentee ballots – but with late return dates written on them – to trick Democratic voters in two districts where Republicans are facing recall.

The Rude One dissects wingnut coverage of a news story, then points out the obvious:

They lie, this awful, destructive right wing. Often. And repeatedly. And they lie with such brazenness and bravado that it’s as if lies are steel-toed boots kicking in the teeth of truth. How do you fight that?

Details of his research (and lots of rudeness) at the link.

Thom Hartmann explains how Truman was correct (Truman is at the very end) as he dicusses “the question Republicans can’t answer”:

This is short, and it is must-listen.

Via C&L, which has examples of voter disenfranchisement efforts in Wisconsin.

Nickolas Kristof recounts the dangers of Teabagger insanity and ignorance (one of those is bad enough; the two together are mighty dangerous) on financial policy (emphasis added):

We tend to think of national security narrowly as the risk of a military or terrorist attack. But national security is about protecting our people and our national strength — and the blunt truth is that the biggest threat to America’s national security this summer doesn’t come from China, Iran or any other foreign power. It comes from budget machinations, and budget maniacs, at home.

(snip list of the practical effects of default)

. . . Republican zeal to lower debts could result in increased interest expenses and higher debts. Their mania to save taxpayers could cost taxpayers. That suggests not governance so much as fanaticism.

More broadly, a default would leave America a global laughingstock. Our “soft power,” our promotion of democracy around the world, and our influence would all take a hit. The spectacle of paralysis in the world’s largest economy is already bewildering to many countries. If there is awe for our military prowess and delight in our movies and music, there is scorn for our political/economic management.

Read the whole thing.

Via DelawareLiberal.

More here.