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In my last post, I pointedly asked conservative Republicans and Tea Party candidates why they lie so much. Some glaring examples of the types of lies they tell are shown below. Most (but not all) of these examples come the marvelous site PolitiFact.com (http://www.politifact.com/), a non-partisan site which analyzes public political statements made by office holders, candidates, commentators, and anonymous emails. They rate the statements with their "Truth-O-Meter", classifying each as to how true or false they are. Categories of classification include "True", Mostly True", "Half True", "Barely True", "False", and "Pants On Fire" (as in the old Castaways' song: "liar, liar/ pants on fire/ your nose is longer than a telephone wire"). Of the lies shown here from PolitiFact.com, nearly all came from their "pants on fire" category. You may remember some of these lies. There are many, MANY others far-right spokespersons have told over the past few years, but here is a partial list of some real doozies. This should serve as a warning for voters in November: think twice and INVESTIGATE before accepting what Tea Party/Republican candidates or their viral emails tell you! 
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has claimed there are "two main problems hampering job creation" and defines them as "excessive government spending and the uncertainty Washington Democrats' policies — especially their massive tax hike — are causing small businesses." TWISTED LIE! The Bush tax cuts, which Boehner is referring to as "massive", will expire in January BECAUSE Republicans (himself included) VOTED FOR THEM TO EXPIRE IN JANUARY. That's right---JOHN BOEHNER VOTED FOR THEM TO EXPIRE! Majority Democrats in Congress don't have to do a thing in order for the Bush tax cuts, which Boehner voted for, to expire in 2011.
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Sarah Palin"Democrats are poised now to cause this largest tax increase in U.S. history."
LIE! REAGAN raised taxes higher than the real Dem plan.
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Chain e-mail
Under the new health care law, "all real estate transactions will be subject to a 3.8% Sales Tax"
LIE! Chain e-mailers just won't quit- NO such provision has ever existed!
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Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)"Ninety-four percent of small businesses will face higher taxes under the Democrats' plan."
LIE! Neugebauer's statement is problematic in several ways. First, it implicitly assumes that the Democratic plan is to let all of the tax cuts lapse, when, in fact, Democratic officials have consistently said that they intend to raise taxes only for the wealthiest individuals. Second, two independent studies that looked at the impact of the Democratic proposal on small businesses found that only between 2 to 3 percent of tax filers who report having what can be thought of as small business income will be affected. One of those studies came from the very source that Neugebauer incorrectly cited. Finally, reporting business income doesn't equal owning a small business, and data from the Tax Policy Center confirm that in the top tax bracket, only about a third of the tax filers report having at least 50 percent of their income from a business. We looked and looked for a shred of truth and couldn't find one, so we rate this Pants on Fire.
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Arizona Republican Governor Jan Brewer"Our law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert, either buried or just lying out there, that have been beheaded."
LIE. Dead bodies (desert heat victims of thirst and/or hunger, and old skulls have been found, but NO evidence of beheadings!)
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Russell Pearce, Arizona Republican State Senator who authored its controversial immigration law"Sixty percent of the Hispanics" support the Arizona immigration law.
LIE!Not even close...A national poll released in June by the Quinnipac University found that 54 percent of Hispanics disapprove of Arizona's immigration law!
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Chain e-mail
A transcript released by Occidental College proves that Barack Obama was an Indonesian citizen.
LIE. No such story, no released transcript
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Rick Barber (R-AL)"Without representation, (the IRS) can increase taxes."
LIE! This is utter nonsense.The IRS has does NOT have the statutory authority to increase taxes. That's entirely up to Congress. Gather the facts first.
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Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC)"Ninety-four percent of the bills that pass the Senate have no debate, no vote, no amendments, no reading of the bill, no online disclosure."
LIE. Stacking the deck. 56 percent (a FAR cry from 94!) of non-trivial, binding bills, received no debate and were passed by unanimous consent. And the Senate, often referred to as "the world's greatest deliberative body", would hardly have obtained that nickname if all it did was rubber stamp and shove bills through without discussion.
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Chain e-mail
Starting in 2011, "you will be required to pay taxes" on "the value of whatever health insurance you are given by the company."
LIE. Private insurance will NOT be taxed next year.
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John Boehner (R-OH) The Democrat-backed health care reform plan "will require (Americans) to subsidize abortion with their hard-earned tax dollars."
LIE. Direct federal funding of abortion is strictly prohibited by law.
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Michael SavageElena Kagan is "a New York City radical, Marxist lawyer through and through."
LIE. Writing a history thesis about socialism does not a Marxist make
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Bill O'Reilly"We researched to find out if anybody on Fox News had ever said you're going to jail if you don't buy health insurance. Nobody's ever said it."
LIE. Apparently, the research wasn't thorough enough. PAUL GIGOT, host of the Journal Editorial Reports, Oct. 3, 2009, said: "Democrats want to require you to buy health insurance or pay a penalty. But they don't want you to call it a tax. Under the Baucus bill, the so-called individual mandate would require everyone to buy health insurance or pay as much as a $1,900 fee. If you don't pay up, the IRS could punish you with a $25,000 fine or a year in jail." And GLENN BECK, on his Fox show, Nov. 12, 2009: "But if you don't play by their new rules on health care -- oh, here's a new little twist. Have you heard this? You're going to be looking at a fun little stint in jail."
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J.D. Hayworth"The Massachusetts Supreme Court...defined marriage as simply, quote, the establishment of intimacy ... I guess that would mean if you really had affection for your horse, I guess you could marry your horse."
LIE.Mr. and Mrs. Ed? Hayworth is talking about a landmark 2003 case in which the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled, 4-3, that gay couples have the right to marry under the state's Constitution. We took a long look at the 45-page decision in the case, Goodridge vs. the Department of Public Health. Since Hayworth suggested that he was quoting the phrase "the establishment of intimacy," we searched for that first. It's not there. The word "intimacy" appears five times in the 45-page decision (actually six times, but one is a duplicate), but never in the context of being the sole definition of marriage.
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Chain e-mail
A data-storing microchip "would be implanted in the majority of people who opt to become covered by the public health care option."
LIE. No, and the health insurance exchanges won't turn you into a zombie, either.
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Glenn Beck"In the health care bill, we're now offering insurance for dogs."
UTTERLY RIDICULOUS LIE! No public option for Bo!
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Rush Limbaugh People "can't go fishing anymore because of Obama."
UTTERLY RIDICULOUS LIE! Obama isn't confiscating rods and reels!
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Virginia Foxx (R-NC)"The economy began its nose dive when Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007."
LIE! Is it a nose dive if it's delayed by a full year? The economy didn't tank until DECEMBER, 2007, and the Democrats passed NO significant economic legislation between January and December of 2007. This is pure partisan BUNK!
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Republican strategist Nancy PfotenhauerThe president's health care proposals will cause "most Americans to have their premiums increased, not decreased, and hundreds of millions of people lose their current insurance coverage."
LIE! Pretending clarity while distorting...health care reform does NOT increase premiums and boot people out of their coverage!
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Michael Steele, chair of the Republican National Committee The Department of Veterans Affairs has "a manual out there telling our veterans stuff like, 'Are you really of value to your community?' You know, encouraging them to commit suicide."
LIE. The VA does NOT encourage suicide!
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Americans for Prosperity (a front group set up by oil billionaire David Koch)
A government panel that didn't include cancer specialists says women shouldn't receive mammograms until age 50...If government takes over health care, recommendations like these could become the law for all kinds of diseases."
LIE! The amendments assure mammogram coverage for women over 40.
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Rush LimbaughThere are "high administrative costs" when you donate to Haiti relief through the White House Web site.
LIE! No, there's no Pay Pal on the White House site
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Orly TaitzBirthers have obtained a copy of Obama's Kenyan birth certificate
LIE! The "birth certificate" was an obvious forged phony! PolitiFact.com takes this stuff seriously so the rest of us don't have to.
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Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)ACORN will be a paid partner with the Census Bureau and "they will be in charge of going door-to-door and collecting data from the American public."
LIE! ACORN had absolutely nothing to do with the Census; was never supposed to (and never did) get any federal money for the Census; and was collecting NO data for the Census.
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Newt GingrichA recent Obama executive order could "lead to a number of investigations by Interpol in the United States, potentially aimed at American officials."
LIE! Interpol just doesn't work that way.
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Chain e-mail
Maj. Nidal Hasan, the man accused of the Fort Hood shootings, "was an ADVISOR to the Obama Administration."
LIE! Once upon a time, he attended a conference. End of story.
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Dick CheneyPresident Obama "doesn't ... want to admit we're at war."
LIE! Except for all those times he's said we're at war, DICK!
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Christopher MoncktonIf President Obama signs the Copenhagen climate change treaty, he "will sign your freedom, your democracy, and your prosperity away forever — and neither you nor any subsequent government you may elect would have any power whatsoever to take it back again."
LIE! Freedom and democracy will be unscathed, and we could back out if we want to, anyway.
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Rudy Giuliani"We had no domestic attacks under Bush."
LIE! What about 9/11, which occurred in part because Bush ignored a warning he got on 8/6/01, while on one of his many extended vacations in Crawford, TX? Did Rudy get amnesia?
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Chain e-mail
You must list all your guns on your 2010 tax return.
LIE! Far-right gun-happy crazies are just blaming Obama for an idea that died nine years ago!
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Chain e-mail
The Obama White House is renaming Christmas trees "holiday trees."
LIE! No such letter — and White House still calls them Christmas trees.
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Scott Brown The stimulus bill "didn’t create one new job."
LIE!Despite grim employment numbers, the stimulus HAS created jobs, and saved hundreds of thousands of others!
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Rush Limbaugh"President Obama . . . wants to mandate circumcision."
LIE! No one's mandating circumcision, including Obama. I think Rush had the wrong head trimmed when HE got circumcised!
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Republican Party of FloridaSchoolchildren across the nation "will be forced to watch the president justify his plans for government-run health care, banks, and automobile companies, increasing taxes on those who create jobs, and racking up more debt than any other president."
LIE! We didn't realize studying hard was socialist ideology.
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Roy Blunt"I'm 59. In either Canada or Great Britain, if I broke my hip, I couldn’t get it replaced."
UTTER NONSENSE! You're nowhere near too old for a hip replacement, Congressman, and that was a complete LIE told to confuse the public about and make Americans fear the government-run health care systems in those countries!
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Sarah PalinSeniors and the disabled "will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care."
A COMPLETE AND UTTER LIE! Sci-fi scenario not based in reality
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VOTERS: This is but the tip of the iceberg regarding the unending onslaught of conservative Republican lies! There will be even more lies coming your way from this point forward, now that the Supreme Court has permitted corporate and special interest money unrestricred access to campaigns. Far-right toadies for the rich, like Dick Armey, and wealthy oil billionaires like the Koch brothers, will be sppon-feeding you lies through naive, unsuspecting, and unqualified novice Tea Party candidates like SHARRON ANGLE in Nevada, CHRISTINE O'DONNELL in Delaware, and JOE MILLER in Alaska. These candidates, if elected, will "take this country back" and hand it right over to big money institutions and corporate plutocrats who will then cheat working people and ship jobs overseas like never before. If you are interested in bettering and strengthening this country, do NOT vote for the types of people who are shown here in this post. Do NOT take what you see on Fox "News" or hear on Rush Limbaugh as gospel truth! Instead, do the intelligent and ethical thing and CHECK OUT THE FACTS BEFORE YOU VOTE! The following sites are excellent sources for FACTUAL information on candidates (Democratic OR Republican), their positions on issues, and the claims and statements they make (regrettably, these are NOT hyperlinked for you):
1). PolitiFact.com (http://www.politifact.com/)
2). FactCheck.org (http://www.factcheck.org/)
3). Snopes.com (http://www.snopes.com/)
4). themiddleclass.org (http://www.themiddleclass.org/)
5). ontheissues.org (http://www.ontheissues.org/)
6). Open Secrets.org (http://www.opensecrets.org/)
7). Source Watch.org (http://www.sourcewatch.org/)
You may wish to bookmark these sites and save them for future reference. You will be doing yourselves, your country, our world, and even future generations a huge favor by not accepting lie as fact, and by knowing exactly what you are doing while in the voting booth! Tired of politicians lying to you? This is the SMART way to DO something about it!
18 comments:
Great list, Jack. Let's see republicans come up with a similar list for Democrats. I bet their list will be much shorter.
Not only shorter, but less exaggerated, less of an insult to the public's intelligence, and with a lesser degree of falsehood than these conservative Republican whoppers!
Oh my, I am still laughing at the nonsense. It would be hard to tell the real quotes from the chain e-mails. They are all so ridiculous you'd think all of them came from the padded room that poses as Michele Bachmann's brain.
Max's Dad,
Yeah, they're all pretty far-fetched. And a far cry from the civil discourse we used to get from, say, William F. Buckley or Barry Goldwater, isn't it? Those were conservatives of principle and intellect, not the loonies of today like Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, or Bachmann!
As always Jack, your blog posts are a public service. I'd forgotten a lot of these lies, because there's always something new coming down the pike with these corporate shills isn't there?
You took a much needed hammer to this bullshit and did it with solid research.
I'll be forwarding this around.
Cheers, Jack.
-SJ
SJ,
Thanks, my friend. Our tolerance for bullshit is diminishing. This country deserves far better!
The problem is, Jack, that the dumbed-down voter can't tell fact from lies and doesn't have the desire to ferret out the truth. So the lie just hangs there as a piece of 'truth' especially when the receiver likes the lie better than the truth.
It's all rather hopless...
Hello Jack,
As many well know, I live on the Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) Peninsula and we are very in tune with what goes on the Peninsula no matter if you live on the Maryland side or Delaware side of the boarder. I live on the Maryland side but work and shop in a town located in Delaware just 5 miles away.
No one saw Christine O'Donnell replacing the 30 year MODERATE Republican Congressman Mike Castle. Even as late as last week, the Moderate Republican Mike Castle had her beat by double digits. I can tell you that as Delaware is a more moderate state Democratically leaning, I have not met anyone who voted for O’Donnell. The Tea Party does not have a large presence in Delaware….so go figure?!?
So in summation, O’Donnell being so far to the right (she even has Sarah Palin glasses and ends some of her statements with the patented, “You Betcha”) when she comes up against the MODERATE Democrat…..she will loose. All O’Donnell (and Sarah’s Teabaggers, “if they exist in Delaware,”) has done is loose the Republican Congressional seat to the Democrats.
Just like Oliver Hardy use to say to Stan Laurel….GOOD JOB Sarah and Chrissie…..this is another fine mess you have got us into!!!
mud_rake,
I'm not as pessimistic. Remember, too, that the dumbed-down voter also responds to the loudest and most repetitive voice. The Democrats have more money to spend this fall, so if we and they both bark loud and often, the situation should work out far less bleak than the corporate media would like us to believe.
Engineer of Knowledge,
I tend to agree with your analysis, and I got a kick out of that Laurel and Hardy analogy. :-)
Why did Obama pick Rahm Emmanuel over you for chief of staff Jack?
You da man!
You da Ayatollah? :-)
Hello Jack,
I wanted to pass on that today in Bethany Beach, Delaware, the Arian Nation, and openly supporters of Delaware’s new Republican Congressional candidate, Christine O'Donnell, is having a White Supremacy rally at the Boardwalk Bandstand.
This ding-a-ling Chrissie O’Donnell is just as scary and corrupt as Sarah Palin ever was.
Engineer of Knowledge,
It's really a shame to think that, even today, segments of our population have not progressed beyond vmindsets of 100 years ago. "Pristine" O'Donnell is VERY much like Sarah Palin: thoroughly selfcenterbed, money and attention-hungry, short-sighted, dishonest, and ignorant. Our standards have really fallen. I think my next post will address this.
Great list, Jack.
Consider a Republican saying, "If you put is in power, corporations will be allowed to rip you off, we'll let Wall Street convery your social security benefits to executive bonuses, we'll kill your medicare, we'll start more wars, and we'll take away your rights."
Who would vote for them then? Republicans lie, because truth does not bode well for their future.
TomCat,
You are absolutely right, and that is precisely why they lie.
Wow! Gosh Jack... great research and catalog! I've bookmarked this for reference. Also:
I want to thank you for joining in last night. You contributed some very sound, thoughtful points to the evolving conversation. The 'bear' fellow is a real radical! I have to say, though, I'm happy to include as many directions of thought as possible into the conversation. I do think, our blogging and our conversations like last evening and on other like shows / social networks brings a much needed free voice to the larger American / global community.
I wanted to thank you for your contribution. I hope you enjoyed it. You sound just great!!!
I'm hoping to have you again!
Thanks so much
I've posted to you here because I'm spam blocked on your email - LOL!
Great post Jack!
Thank YOU, Gwen, for the opportunity to be on your radio show. It was indeed fun talking with you, Oso, and Bear. I look forward to next Sunday's show. And you shouldn't be blocked from my email, as I have you on my "safe" list. Please try again, anytime you like!
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