Republican Lies category archive
Spitball’s Old News 0
The only thing new about this is the confession:
Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, codenamed Curveball by German and American intelligence officials who dealt with his claims, has told the Guardian that he fabricated tales of mobile bioweapons trucks and clandestine factories in an attempt to bring down the Saddam Hussein regime, from which he had fled in 1995.
I remember reading that he got the name “Curveball” because intelligence types thought that was what he was throwing.
Bushies believed him because they wanted war more than they wanted truth.
Pernicious Legacy 0
Cynthia Tucker explains the damage done by Ronald Reagan. A nugget:
That has led to our present dilemma — one in which the United States is nearly ungovernable. American voters are more dependent on government than ever. Just try reducing the size of Medicare or Social Security or agricultural subsidies. (Reagan didn’t actually reduce the size of government; he didn’t even try. See chart below.) But they stubbornly resist the idea of raising revenue to cover those programs — because that would feed government!
Some voters are so philosophically opposed to government that they simply block out the idea that programs they love, such as Medicare, are government programs. (Reagan opposed the creation of Medicare, by the way, insisting that it would lead to “socialism.)
Bachmann History Spurner in Overdrive 2
Republicans must make stuff up about our history because the facts indict their beliefs and policies:
Via TPM.
At the Beck and Called Out 1
When Glenn Beck’s radio show was canceled in Philly, Beck ranted that Philly was some kind of post-Apocalyptic hell hole out of Grand Theft Auto.
Philadelphia is a big city. It’s got good parts and not so good parts, like any other city. When I worked there, I walked all over the Center City and University City areas without difficulty.
John DeBella, a local Philly radio host, calls out Beck’s lies.
By the way, the Indepence Hall area is just around the corner from where the Philly chapter of Drinking Liberally met for a while when I was there. Because street parking in Philly can be a nightmare difficult, I commonly parked two to four blocks away. Never a problem. (DL has since moved to a location closer to City Hall where street parking is in your dreams–most of the attendees walk or take transit.)
Via Glomarization, who provides more background.
Politifact Awards “Political Lie of the Year” 0
Republican Party continues to dominate the awards.
Old Tea, New Bags 0
Tennessee Teabaggers want to whitewash (you will pardon the expression) slavery.
These folks are nuts.
Birthwrongs 0
Steve Chapman, writing in the Chicago Tribune, takes a look at the current rage in Wingnut World–repealing the citizenship provisions of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. He skewers the paranoid race-baiting that underlies that effort, including the bizarre fears of Manchurian pregnancies. A nugget:
Sure they are, congressman. And while they’re here, they’re putting LSD in the water supply. Unfortunately, the fear of “anchor babies,” as they are known among anti-immigration activists, is spawning not only weird fantasies but also actual legislation.
Non-Starters 0
A letter writer in Florida has suggests that Republicans turn the table on President Obama:
How the GOP can reach out to President Barack Obama.
Stop shouting lies about his birthplace and trying to convince the American people that he was born in Kenya and is a Muslim (not that there is anything wrong with being a Muslim).
Admit the truth that the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress was responsible for the breakdown of the financial markets that caused this economic downturn.
Stop spreading falsehoods about the reforms to health care.
Not holding my breath.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
The confluence of racist lies and gunnuttery: School board member decides to attend meetings backing heat. Wonder whether this leads to a new meaning for the expression, “a heated discussion.”
Brett Reese is alleged to have left a voice-mail message for KFKA-AM 1310 owner Justin Sasso on Wednesday in which he threatened a “shootout” if Sasso did not stop his advertising reps from calling on businesses that underwrite Reese’s noncommercial station, KELS-FM 104.7, the complaint said.
(snip)
Critics, including other members of the school board, have said the letter was originally written by white supremacists.
A statement from KFKA said Reese’s letter has been reviewed multiple times by historians, who have labeled it, at best, “full of ‘half truths.’ “
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Fact Check dot org investigates:
Lee: And to the contrary, I think there is abundant research suggesting that in cities where more people own guns, the crime rate, especially the murder rate actually goes down.
That’s not true.
Follow the link for the full report.
Clowns to the Left, Jokers to the Right (Updated) 0
I received an email today from one of my leftie mailing lists with the subject line
Tell Sarah Palin: Violent threats have consequences.
You may recall that many found Sarah Palin’s gun sight graphic deplorable when it was first published.
It was indeed crude, rude, stupid, combative, tasteless, and silly all wrapped up in one cute little ball of yarn-spinning (much like Palin herself).
But it was not a threat.
Calling it one detracts from the larger problem and requires ridicule, for it clouds the issue, which is this:
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Adherents of the right wing quickly and casually label those with whom they disagree as traitorous, treasonous, and unAmerican (as well as perverted, godless, and whatever else pops up in their Roget’s–no insult is beyond their pale).
Rightwingers cannot brook disagreement. Anyone who disagrees with them becomes not just an opponent, but also their and the country’s enemy. Once someone is so labeled, he or she becomes fair game for whatever loony-toon decides that the violent rhetoric of the right is not rhetoric, but a call to action.
You seldom hear violent rhetoric from the mainstream left (such as it is). As Bob Cesca pointed out this morning:
Furthermore, the rightwing’s tactics of hate militate against reason and compromise.
After all, one cannot reason with a traitor, can one? If one’s political opponent is ipso facto a traitor, simply because he or she opposes you, conciliation becomes impossible.
So, why do they do it?
The facts lean left.
Fear and hate obscure facts. Fear and hate is what they got.
Addendum:
I did not expect to have an update for this post, but I really must direct you to Field’s remarks.
Shorter Scalia: Women Don’t Count 0
Ann Woolner, writing at Bloomberg, explains. A nugget:
When the Amendment was written, “Nobody ever thought that that’s what it meant,” Scalia said.
Here we have a perfect example of what’s so very wrong about so-called originalism, the theory Scalia claims to follow. The idea is that the Constitution should be interpreted according to its authors’ original intent, no changes allowed.
The 14th Amendment wasn’t meant to protect women, religious minorities, ethnic groups, and certainly not homosexuals. Written after the Civil War, its single aim was legal rights for newly freed slaves.
Newly freed MALE slaves, that is.
The leopard reveals his spots.
“Originalism” is to the law what the Laughable Curve is to economics: Fancy dress clothes for sacrificing the public good to the benefit of the privileged.
Home, Home on Derange 0
Bob Cesca reports.
Remembrance of Things Past (Updated) 0
Haley Barbour may not remember Jim Crow, but Mike Littwin of the Denver Post does.
If you weren’t there or have that new ailment, “amnesia Barbour barbarica, read his reminiscence. A memory from 1962:
When she asked which side I was taking, I said, innocently, “I’m pro-integration.”
“How would your mother like it,” she said, and I find it stunning even today, “if you brought home a little colored girl?”
Afterthought:
Oppression is seldom oppressive to the oppressor.
Addendum:
Shaun Mullen considers those who still don the gray and take to the barricades, though they do it today with pen, not with bayonet. A nugget:
Read the whole thing.
Sharia Hysteria 0
Leonard Pitts in the Chicago Tribune:
We are gathered here today to mourn the loss of America’s mind.
It was last seen last month in Oklahoma. There, voters gave emphatic approval to a measure outlawing the use of Shariah law — a strict and often brutal interpretation of Islamic religious strictures — in state courts. Shariah is not known to be a problem in Oklahoma, or, for that matter, anywhere else in the United States, something even the bill’s backers concede. But, said the initiative’s sponsor, then-Republican state Rep. Rex Duncan, why wait?
Of course, by that reasoning, one can also justify laws regulating time travel, flying cars and pink unicorns pooping in public parks. Should we assume Oklahoma legislators are hard at work on laws to restrict these and other non-existent troubles?
It’s called the politics of hate.
It’s what the rightwing does best.