Republican Lies category archive

At Bloomberg, David Abromowitz points out the the history of the Boys from Bain directly undercuts Republican orthodoxy that taxing capital gains deters investment:

Simply put, all of the investments made by Bain Capital LLC, the private-equity company Romney cofounded in 1984 and ran until 1999, occurred when capital-gains rates were much higher than they are today. Yet Bain consistently attracted massive amounts of private capital, and thrived.

Bain’s haul is further evidence that fair tax rates don’t hold back profit-seeking capitalists, at least until those rates reach a point that no one is proposing. From 1984 until 1999, the top rates on capital gains — the profit from investments as opposed to compensation for work — were often at 28 percent, and never lower than 20 percent. Indeed, in 1987, under President Ronald Reagan, the 20 percent rate rose to 28 percent — a 40 percent increase in potential taxation of Bain investment profit. (Yes, Reagan did raise taxes, even on capital.)

This will, of course, have no effect on Republicans, since their tax policies are founded on one principle: the principle that wishing will make it so.

No longer content with silent dogwhistles, members of the Republican Party have ratcheted up the racism as the election draws closer.

The latest is Congressman Pete Hoekstra’s re-packaging of the “yellow peril,” which Chancey Devega demolishes in a stunning takedown in a post whose title recalls the dog whistes, Me Love You Long Time, Me So Horny: More than Dog Whistles, Republican Pete Hoekstra Embraces the Yellow Peril Strategy.

Any but the most rabid racist today goes out of the way to avoid accusations of racism by using code words and dog whistles. So why does the GOP keep drawing the accusations?

George Monbiot, writing at the Guardian, thinks that conservatives have built themselves and their constituency into such a fact-free, hate-full fantasy world that the appeals work:

But what we now see among their parties – however intelligent their guiding spirits may be – is the abandonment of any pretence of high-minded conservatism. On both sides of the Atlantic, conservative strategists have discovered that there is no pool so shallow that several million people won’t drown in it. Whether they are promoting the idea that Barack Obama was not born in the US, that man-made climate change is an eco-fascist-communist-anarchist conspiracy, or that the deficit results from the greed of the poor, they now appeal to the basest, stupidest impulses, and find that it does them no harm in the polls.

Don’t take my word for it. Listen to what two former Republican ideologues, David Frum and Mike Lofgren, have been saying. Frum warns that “conservatives have built a whole alternative knowledge system, with its own facts, its own history, its own laws of economics”. The result is a “shift to ever more extreme, ever more fantasy-based ideology” which has “ominous real-world consequences for American society”.

Lofgren complains that “the crackpot outliers of two decades ago have become the vital centre today”. The Republican party, with its “prevailing anti-intellectualism and hostility to science” is appealing to what he calls the “low-information voter”, or the “misinformation voter”. While most office holders probably don’t believe the “reactionary and paranoid claptrap” they peddle, “they cynically feed the worst instincts of their fearful and angry low-information political base”.

. . . you’ll say anything.

Via Andrew Sullivan.

Every time I hear of a new effort by Republicans to keep voters from the polls, I remember hearing my Daddy talk about paying his poll taxes.

My ex-local rag reports on the Sheriff of Delaware’s Sussex County, whose ideal seems to be the Sheriff of Nottingham, despotic lord of all in his Shire and owner of all the deer in Sherwood.

A snippet

Over the last few months, Sussex County Sheriff Jeff Christopher has assailed his fellow county officials for overstepping their authority, proclaimed that God has brought him to his post to “fight for what is right” and declared that his job is a bulwark against tyranny.

His rhetoric places him in the company of a small but growing number of conservative county sheriffs who see themselves as the ultimate enforcers of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, The News Journal has found.

Christopher is involved in a political standoff with county and state officials over the authority of sheriffs in Delaware.

It is most curious how wingnuts feel that they must rationalize lawlessness into lawfulness with pretzel logic and fabricated history. This is sovereign citizenship with a badge.

Leonard Pitts, Jr., cuts through the smokescreen:

Though lawmakers swear their only interest is to combat voting fraud (which is not known to be a rampant problem), it is difficult not to feel their true intent is to suppress the black vote (see note–ed.).

Granted, race is nowhere mentioned in the voter ID bills. It was not mentioned in bills imposing grandfather clauses, poll taxes and literacy tests either. All were officially race-neutral, yet the intention and effect was to bar blacks from voting.

As Richard Nixon once said of his War on Drugs, another “race-neutral” policy that somehow victimizes mostly blacks, the idea is to target African Americans while appearing not to.

Note: I think Mr. Pitts left out “other minorities, students, and poor people.”

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

In a timely counterpoint to my previous post, Mike Papantonio details the Republican strategy to keep out the vote and the obstacles to overcoming it.

I get mail about Republican attempts to keep out the vote.

The Republicans in the Virginia legislature are preparing to suppress the vote; a snippet from my mail:

The nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice has reported that as many as five million Americans have been disenfranchised by statutes such as HB 9 and SB 1. In a December 9, 2011 commentary in the Richmond Times-Dispatch entitled, “Voter ID laws recall Jim Crow”, Neil Pierce notes a 2006 study by the American Research Corporation that found that 25 percent of African Americans, 18 percent of senior citizens, and 18 percent of young adults (ages 18-24) do not possess photo IDs. Senate Bill 1 and HB 9 would make it much more difficult for young adults, low income people, senior citizens, and people of color to vote.

SB 1 would eliminate voters from using their state issued voter registration card as an approved form of ID used to cast a vote. Both SB 1 and HB 9 would require voters to cast a provisional, not an official ballot if they did not bring an approved ID. Voters would have to later present the appropriate ID in order for their vote to count. Why are lawmakers making it harder to vote?

To echo the writer’s question, why do Republicans fear the electorate?

Learn more here. Sign the petition here.

Image via Balloon Juice.

The ACLU is suing the state of Wisconsin. Here’s a bit about their plaintiff, who has voted in every election since 1948 and currently serves as an elected representative on her village board:

Ruthelle Frank, a resident of Brokaw, Wisconsin since her birth in 1927, has none of the accepted forms of photo ID under Wisconsin’s photo ID law which goes into effect at the February primary election. In order to get a state ID card, she needs to prove citizenship, but since she was born at home, she has never had a birth certificate. The state Register of Deeds, however, does have a record of her birth and can produce a birth certificate at a $20 cost. There’s one problem though — her maiden name (Wedepohl) is misspelled in the record. That record can only be amended by legal proceeding, and the combined fees will run Ruthelle potentially upwards of $200. The state will not waive any of these fees, and under the new law, if she cannot obtain a state ID card, Ruthelle will be sent away from the polls.

Why do Republicans fear the voters?

We will fight until we live in a world where free Americans everywhere seek not validation of their religious beliefs through Macys signage . . . .

An actual voter fraudster lands in the dock:

A Baltimore jury Tuesday found Paul Schurick, former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s campaign manager, guilty of election fraud and related charges for his role in an Election Day 2010 robocall.

The jury found Schurick guilty on all four counts, including election fraud and failing to include an Ehrlich campaign authorization line on the calls. After the verdict was read, Schurick clutched his wife, who burst into tears.

Prosecutors said the call, which was made as Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley swept to a re-election victory, was designed to suppress black votes.

The story goes on to quote from exhibits in the case that verify that black and other minority voters were specifically targeted. This should help the NAACP’s case.

The defense is taking the position that freedom of speech includes freedom to commit fraud.

The defendant’s expression in photographs taken after the court adjourned lead me to think he was stunned at being held accountable.

Via Balloon Juice.

The AFA grades companies on how Christmas-friendly they are based on the frequency of Christmas themes in their attempts to bamboozle customers into buying over-priced, unnecessary, useless stuff advertising.

Apparently, Toyata’s wrapping a car in a Christmas bow is somehow “Christmas friendly.”

I find this year’s crop of Christmas commercials particularly sick-making. Indeed, one of the benefits of using the DVR is the ability to zip the commercials. Even watching them go by a double-speed is painful.

The largest civil rights group in America, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), is petitioning the UN over what it sees as a concerted efforted to disenfranchise black and Latino voters ahead of next year’s presidential election.

(snip)

Fourteen states have passed a total of 25 measures that will unfairly restrict the right to vote, among black and Hispanic voters in particular.

The new measures are focused – not coincidentally, the association insists – in states with the fastest growing black populations (Florida, Georgia, Texas and North Carolina) and Latino populations (South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee).

Follow the link for details.

You know that the petition is justified. The record makes that clear.

Tennessee brings back the poll tax in sheep’s clothing.

Remember that the purpose of the poll tax was not to collect money; it was to keep poor folks from voting.

Psychology Today considers how to lie with statistics, using one of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s campaign claims as its primary example (surprise, surprise). A nugget:

Here is one current example. Several weeks ago, Texas Governor Rick Perry made headlines when he pointed out that the affluent pay most of the Federal income taxes in this country while 47 percent of the earners pay none at all. He called this an “injustice”. What’s wrong with this statistic: First, it begs what should be the first question about any statistic: “Why would this be the case?” The answer is that our income taxes are progressive. Those who have more pay more. So the tax burden simply reflects the highly skewed income distribution in this country. (snip income data)

The other problem with Governor Perry’s fine sense of justice is that he was engaging in a statistical charade. It was a prime example of statistical cherry picking. If you look only at Federal income taxes paid you get a very different result than if you consider the total tax burden of our income earners. Counting payroll taxes, sales taxes, excise taxes for gasoline, and the like, you get a very different result.

Print the article out and keep it by your television for use while watching Fox.

Steve Benen comments on Mitt Romney’s prevaricating advertisement:

A liar makes false claims. A b.s. artist doesn’t much care what’s true or false, because facts are irrelevant in the person’s larger agenda. Liars care what’s true and deliberately say the opposite; b.s. artists are indifferent to what’s true and tend to see facts as inconveniences that simply get in the way.

In light Mitt Romney’s obvious and glaring falsehood in his first television ad, take a wild guess which camp the Republican’s presidential campaign falls into.

Mitt the Flip. There’s no there, there.