Republican Lies category archive

Lies and lying liars: Dick Polman post mortems the IRS non-scandal.

It was a put-up job, a con, a rigged game, a Republican snow job, a tissue of lies.

Last Monday, lest we forget, newly-surfaced IRS documents made it abundantly clear that the Republican scandalmonger’s central premise was a fraud. Issa had repeatedly alleged that Obama (or his White House minions, or his ’12 campaign team) had commanded the IRS to unfairly target conservative groups. But now it turns out that the Cincinnati IRS office targeted liberal groups just as often, using key words like “progressive” and “Occupy” and “medical marijuana.” Turns out, the IRS office took these shortcuts because it wanted to determine whether blatantly political groups – on the left and right – were trying to mask themselves as apolitical in order to get tax-exempt status.

But wait, didn’t the original IRS inspector general’s report single out the agency’s targeting of conservative groups? Why did it fail to mention the targeting of liberal groups? This week, we learned the answer. According to a spokesman for the inspector general, Issa himself specifically told the IG to “narrowly focus on Tea party organizations.”

More about lies and lying liars at the link.

Rachel predicts the effects of gutting the Voting Rights Act.

Via Raw Story.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Has there been any organization since the Inquisition that has been as fascinated with the private parts of others as the Republican Party? Dick Polman:

Wow, did you know that the womb was a sexual pleasure zone? I didn’t know that, either! Here’s what Burgess said on Monday evening, in the early moments of a House debate on a Republican bill that would ban virtually all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy:

“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful. They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to believe that they could feel pain?”

By suggesting that teensy male fetuses spank the monkey, Burgess was apparently trying to make a case for the pain canard.

Read the rest.

“They throw mud because mud is all they got.”

For example.

Via Bartcop.

The summing up:

Via Political Animal.

Josh Marshall fisks ABC’s John Karl’s non-apology for spreading Republican propaganda in a blatantly–er–let’s just say “erroneous” news report.

(Link fixed.)

Reg Henry counsels caution. A nugget:

In this week of scandal, in which the conservative outrage meters have been howling about administration actions (or inactions), those of us who do not get our aerobic exercise by jumping to conclusions are forced to reconsider our cautious reserve.

This reserve is justified by the experience of recent years. During the Clinton administration, those crying wolf were in full throat over the Whitewater scandal, which wasted much time, cost millions of dollars to investigate and left the Clintons sitting pretty.

(snip)

And so it goes. From the moment President Barack Obama was inaugurated, the hate machine was cranked up. This happened with the last occupant of the White House, too, but that was a Model T hate machine compared with the super-duper, industrial-strength lie mixer rolled out for Mr. Obama. No other president in memory has had to fend off claims that he was not actually an American — and that was just for starters.

If you look at the facts on the supposed scandal, there’s really not much there there.

Rachel Maddow tries to separate truth from fiction, and finds out that one thing is certain: ABC got itself suckered.

Trudy Rubin zeroes in on the scandal:

The scandal is that Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) and some Republican colleagues are dishonoring the memory of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans by making a political circus out of their deaths.

As chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Issa is ready to manipulate the pain and anger of relatives and colleagues of the victims, but shows little interest in making U.S. diplomats safer. The hearing he held last week ignored the real issues raised by Benghazi in favor of promoting conspiracy theories about “talking points” that administration officials used after the tragedy.

Follow the link for her explication of the issues vs. the Republican talking points non-issues.

In the midst of a larger post about one of his favorite subjects,* one in which he has expertise, Dick Destiny pens the ultimate definition of “Republican Think Tanks.”

Heritage Foundation was never a think tank. It’s just another propaganda mill funded by wealth to provide convenient studies and experts for the worst GOP impulses.

_______________

*That is, fear-mongering about made-up technological threats in pursuit of consultancy contracts.

Dick Polman looks at Darrell Issa and sees Geraldo:

I can’t help but recall Geraldo Rivera’s infamous TV documentary about Al Capone. This was in 1986. Geraldo said he’d found the gangster’s secret vault, and promised to open it on live TV.

Do read the rest.

Via C&L.

Chris Hayes parses the propaganda.

A quote from James Inhofe, R–One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, encapsulates the Republican strategy of lies:

There’s no downside if I’m wrong on this.

Via Bob Cesca.