Republican Lies category archive

Any fool can file a lawsuit.

It is a one of the glories of American jurisprudence.

Fortunately, the law does not take kindly to fools.

A federal judge today (October 29) dismissed a lawsuit brought by individuals claiming that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and, as a result, does not meet the qualifications to be president. Along with bouncing the lawsuit, U.S. District Court Judge David Carter eviscerated the controversial lawyer representing the “birthers” who sued Obama. In a 30-page order filed today, Carter stated that he was “deeply concerned” that attorney Orly Taitz “may have suborned perjury through witnesses she intended to bring before this court.”

The inevitable result.

John McQuaid writes at the Guardian:

Clearly “news” is not what Fox is about. Republican media strategist Roger Ailes, the network’s founder and architect, has run a brilliant rhetorical game from the start: Fox adopts the outward forms of the establishment US media and pretends to hew to its standards – in order to undermine those very things. Fox claims to give its viewers the straight story, while proclaiming it’s the New York Times and CBS that are really biased.

Shaun Mullen has more.

Inevitable result:

Mendacity in Virginia.

Bob McDonnell, Republican candidate for governor and graduate of Pat Robertson’s Regents University, makes stuff up. It is a Republican tradition.

From Fact Check dot org (emphasis added). Follow the link for the full analysis:

Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell’s new ad claims that Democrat Creigh Deeds’ policies would bring $7,800 in higher taxes over four years for Virginia households. The ad would be devastating, if it were true.

The rewards of failure in American politics is continued income. Frank Rich in the Toimes:

Those who demanded that America divert its troops and treasure from Afghanistan to Iraq in 2002 and 2003 — when there was no Qaeda presence in Iraq — bear responsibility for the chaos in Afghanistan that ensued. Now they have the nerve to imperiously and tardily demand that America increase its 68,000-strong presence in Afghanistan to clean up their mess — even though the number of Qaeda insurgents there has dwindled to fewer than 100, according to the president’s national security adviser, Gen. James Jones.

But why let facts get in the way? Just as these hawks insisted that Iraq was “the central front in the war on terror” when the central front was Afghanistan, so they insist that Afghanistan is the central front now that it has migrated to Pakistan. When the day comes for them to anoint Pakistan as the central front, it will be proof positive that Al Qaeda has consolidated its hold on Somalia and Yemen.

Making an error, very human.

Persisting in error, guaranteed Sunday network talk time.

Via John at Eschaton.

They’re losing before the Nobel Committee. Listen here:

Fact Check dot org looks at statements by Congressman Boehner of Ohio on “Cap and Trade” and flatly declares, “That’s not true.”

Not that it was spin. Not that it was “shaded.” Not that it was half-truths.

Just that it was flatly “not true.”

He is, of course, a Republican. Lies are all they got.

As I was saying to someone today, it’s a bum rap.

As I said, the Republican Party needs villains. If it can’t find them, it will invent them.

Watch for an official Republican Party version of this, coming soon to a tea party on your street:

Via Atrios.

Calling out the lies.

Click for a larger image

Via Glenn Greenwald, who reminds us that (emphasis added)

. . . everything the Republican leaders said about Iraq turned out to be false, fictitious, imaginary — and their false-pretense war led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings.

Everything.

Transcript here.

The issue isn’t that Congressman Joe Wilson (Embarrassment–SC) is a nutcase. It’s that he’s one of a party of nutcases.

Fact Check dot org calls out “Conservatives for Patients’ Rights” (there’s an oxymoron if you ever saw one). A nugget:

Lose your own doctor? Many people experience that today, if their employer changes insurance plans, if they change jobs, or if they become uninsured for any reason. Wait longer for care? Given the shortage of family doctors, which is only expected to worsen, we can expect wait times to increase even if the system remains untouched. Pending overhaul legislation aims to ease that, in fact, by increasing certain payments to physicians and making other adjustments to encourage training of primary care physicians.

Rationing? That occurs on a regular basis today, whenever insurance companies or government programs like Medicare reject claims, or when the companies drop people who have become ill for not disclosing often minor and unrelated preexisting conditions. Under pending legislation, insurance companies would be unable to deny coverage to individuals because of preexisting conditions.

And when it comes to losing one’s insurance, that’s another everyday occurrence under today’s system, as millions of people who have lost their jobs in the recession have found. Under the pending proposals, individuals could lose their current insurance plans, though for different reasons; small businesses might decide to buy coverage through a newly created health insurance exchange, for instance, rather than stick with their current plans. The big difference? For the vast majority, if not all, people, “losing your insurance” would simply mean switching insurance plans – not losing coverage, as many do today.

Follow the link for the full analysis.

FactCheck dot org. Follow the link for the full analysis:

Our inbox has been overrun with messages asking us to weigh in on a mammoth list of claims about the House health care bill. The chain e-mail purports to give “a few highlights” from the first half of the bill, but the list of 48 assertions is filled with falsehoods, exaggerations and misinterpretations. We examined each of the e-mail’s claims, finding 26 of them to be false and 18 to be misleading, only partly true or half true. Only four are accurate. A few of our “highlights”:

• The e-mail claims that page 30 of the bill says that “a government committee will decide what treatments … you get,” but that page refers to a “private-public advisory committee” that would “recommend” what minimum benefits would be included in basic, enhanced and premium insurance plans.
• The e-mail says that “non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services” but points to a provision that prohibits discrimination in health care based on “personal characteristics.” Another provision explicity forbids “federal payment for undocumented aliens.”
• It says “[g]overnment will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals.” This provision isn’t about children with learning disabilities; instead, it pertains to restricted enrollment in “special needs” plans, a category of Medicare Advantage plans. Enrollment is already restricted. The bill extends the ability to do that.
• It claims that a section about “Community-based Home Medical Services” means “more payoffs for ACORN.” ACORN does not provide medical home services. The e-mail interprets any reference to the word “community” to be some kind of payoff for ACORN. That’s nonsense.

It’s not about the cost of medical care. It’s about the cost of affording medical care.

In the last 10 years, the healthcare insurance industry has increased their profits by 450%..