Republican Lies category archive

Would the CIA make stuff up?

Yes-indeedy-do.

Of course, without having attended the briefings, there is no way to judge who is telling the truth–the CIA or Nancy Pelosi. But the media frenzy over the divergent stories seems to discount the idea that the CIA would ever mislead lawmakers about its actions. This view is hard to square with history; as Adam Serwer noted at the American Prospect’s blog Tapped (5/15/09), a recent book on the CIA by New York Times reporter Tim Weiner recalled several examples, including former CIA directer Richard Helms telling the Senate in 1973 that the CIA had no involvement in that year’s coup in Chile, a lie that led to Helms pleading guilty to perjury in 1977. Weiner also described CIA director William Casey’s frequent dissembling in the Iran/Contra scandal..

(Via BartBlog.)

This whole Pelosi thing is so much wingnut spook smoke-screen.

Look! A spectral being looms on the horizon!

The Pilot doesn’t understand, but it’s actually pretty obvious.

Down the road a piece:

Every time (Virginia–ed.) Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell is criticized for his position on jobless benefits, members of his campaign seem to retort with two words: “card check!”

It’s understandable that McDonnell wants to change the subject. He should have foreseen the inevitable backlash when he supported Republican lawmakers’ rejection of $125 million in federal stimulus funds. The money would have paid for unemployment assistance at a time when 300,000 Virginians are out of work.

What’s harder to understand is why McDonnell keeps insisting the issue is somehow connected to the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as card check, a bill before Congress that would make it easier for unions to organize workplaces.

Neither proposal makes the rich richer or the poor poorer.

It’s a Republican thing.

James Wolcott explains:

How tiresome, and yet how completely in character, for Newt to profane the lazy-ass patriotic splendor of America’s beloved summertime holiday (referring the Independence Day tea parties–ed.) with a lame-ass recruiting effort with him as bandleader. Newt’s co-optation of the Fourth won’t impinge upon me, since I will be spending the holiday as I always do, letting my eyes light up with wonder at the glory and majesty of a great tradition.

The thing about Newt is, no matter how big a crock you think he is, he never fails to outperform.

The more they talk, the more they indict themselves. Senator Leahy starts to speak sense at about the one minute mark.

The Secretary of State on rudeness as a diplomatic technique:

Via Delaware Liberal.

Noz on the plight of the right:

that’s basically the dilemma of the modern right. they’re building their own alternate reality that they really believe to be true. and they believe that repeating these “facts” is the best roat (sic) out of the political wilderness. except that to everyone else, the repetition of stuff like this look like rants.

Shorter version:

1. They believe the stuff they make up.

2. They think everyone else will too.

Toyota Motor Corp.’s production in Japan for fiscal 2009 will likely drop below the 3 million unit level for the first time in 31 years, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.

Toyota’s domestic output would fall to about 2.8 million units, marking a decline of more than 30% from the company’s peak production in fiscal 2007, the report said.

What’s that you say?

But the Republicans tell us it’s all the UAW’s fault. What’s with that?

Q. Name one dishonest and three honest breeds of nuts.

Via Delaware Watch.

Out of ammo:

“We have very, very little (ammunition) of any caliber,” said Larry Baity, a 74-year-old counter clerk at Gun City who said he has waited on Williams. “We’re virtually out. We’ve got a lot of bare shelves.”

The scene at Gun City is playing out across the U.S. as record gun sales deplete stocks from ammunition makers Alliant Techsystems Inc. and Olin Corp. Demand for firearms is being driven in part by concern that U.S. President Barack Obama may impose new controls, said Matt Rice, a spokesman for Springfield, Massachusetts-based Smith & Wesson Holding Corp.

Where these folks got the notion that their precious warm guns are in danger is beyond the rational.

Facts below the Fold

The spirit of McCarthyism is alive and well in Wingnuttia:

Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) puts the number of socialists in the House at 17.

“Some of the men and women I work with in Congress are socialists,” Bachus told local government leaders on Thursday, according to the Birmingham News.

Bachus gave the specific number of House socialists when pressed later by a reporter.

Have they no shame?

Read more »

From FactCheck dot org:

Some Republicans have been quick to blame Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut for allowing big bonus payments to AIG executives. They get the facts backward.

The public record shows Dodd authored an amendment that would have prevented “any bonus” being paid to top executives of firms getting bailout money. It was the White House and the Treasury Department that insisted Dodd’s amendment be watered down to apply only to bonuses paid under agreements signed in the past five weeks. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has taken public responsibility for that.

We lay out the full story in our Analysis sectiom.

(Yeah, I know the category for the post is a redundancy.)

The Sunday Breakfast Mission is overwhelmed by ReagoBushonomics (emphasis added):

The emergency shelter holds 20 adults and a handful of children, depending on their ages. There are transitional apartments for families headed by single mothers, and housing for families moving into their own homes. And there are plans for a six-unit apartment building, though it’ll be another year before ground is even broken.

But that capacity is far outstripped by the need. In January and February alone, the shelter had to turn away 103 men, 76 women and 73 children — more people than went through its doors in all of 2008.

It’s the only shelter in Sussex County that accepts children, said Program Director Michele Stewart.

The office gets 15 to 20 calls a day, and most get the same answer.

“We don’t have space,” Morole says flatly, and sadly. “The way the economy has turned, it has increased. The kind of help people want has changed.”

John Cole surveys a new batch.

I’m not going to try to improve on this on how the same story gets spun in opposite ways.

Words matter. Words can hide or conceal reveal the truth.

Read more »

The Booman documents the facts.

Steve sums up the successes of “abstinence only” sex education:

It took a while, but the statistics are finally showing that abstinence only education is a success! It is doing exactly what it is designed to do, leave boys and girls with too little information to control their own lives. Now the kicker is that teen preganacies are on the rise for the first time in well over a generation.

Later on, he has this quotation from the news story that prompted his post.

“Believe it or not, kids today get less information in schools about birth control than their parents did,” Columbia University professor Leslie M. Kantor said.

If they are getting less information than I did, they are truly in deep yoghurt. Or Jello. Or something.

And quite willing to pander.

The Glorious and Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq.

From the Left Shue:

Iraq Body Count: 2/22/09
Americans Killed: 4247
Americans Wounded: 50,000
http://icasualties.org/
Iraqis Killed: 1,000,000+
http://www.thelancet.com
“…a small price…” Rep. John Boehner