A Spectacular Falsehood

July 3rd, 2012 7:45am CST
UPDATE July 4th, 2012 8:00am CST: At this time, there is still no correction nor has there been any response to our requests for one. Contact @KarlRove, @AndrewCMcCarthy, @NROCorner or @RichLowry and demand that they explain themselves.

Have you heard the one about the President planning to spend Independence Day at a fundraiser in France? The rumor is all over the fringes of the right. Wedged in between hyperventilations over the President's "Kenyan birthplace" and "Agenda 21," the comments sections of our country's "anyone-but-Obama" blogs are full of it.

The story is, of course, as baseless as it is absurd. It is the kind of nonsense which has become so commonplace in the rumor-sphere that it would ordinarily not merit much discussion.

But this one is different. It's not just the web-rabble and the knuckle-draggers who are pushing it.

Over at the National Review, Andy McCarthy picked it up on Saturday morning. He ran with it. It's still there as I go to post, 72 hours later, without correction.

Even better, good old Karl Rove picked up the McCarthy link and tweeted it a short time later to his 353,000 followers. His post is also still up. He also hasn't issued any correction. In fact, he hasn't tweeted since.

Steve Benen writes:

"The reality is simple: neither the president nor his family are going to Paris for the 4th of July. They will, of course, be in the United States, celebrating the holiday at the White House, hosting an event for military families. Republican media outlets reporting otherwise are lying."

Benen is too kind. After three days, it seems clear that this is not cynical carelessness. This is coordinated propaganda.

The GOP, The Generals And "Waste"

April 10th, 2012

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) recently was forced to apologize for portraying the Pentagon leadership as liars on matters of the budget. 

The problem he had with their numbers was that they were lower than his preferred spending levels over the next decade.

The fracas drew attention to the hollowness of the GOP mantra that we should always "listen to the generals." So often have we heard this phrase that Ryan's blunder was an extremely important exposure of the Republican party's inherent hypocrisy on the issue of waste.

Keying off of Gordon Adams' take on the affair last week, Stan Collender fires with both barrels (pardon the expression):

"In the now closer-to-four-than-three decades I've been involved with the federal budget in some way, it has never ceased to amaze me that congressional Republicans are able to detect waste, fraud, abuse and overspending from a mile away when it involves a domestic program but are completely deaf, dumb and blind to the same thing when it involves the Pentagon. Why is it, for example, that an extra sandwich in a school lunch program is waste while an extra missile that will never be used and wasn't requested by DOD is vital to national security?"

There is no rational, much less decent, explanation. It's simply how these bastards operate.

Understatement Of The Year Nominee

April 5th, 2012

I have to tip my hat to Right Wing Watch for this gem:

"As we have noted several times in recent weeks, David Barton has a problem accurately reporting on contemporary issues that are easily verifiable..."

Wow. This is politeness on a scale that deserves no small amount of praise.

David Barton convulsively lies every single time that he opens his face-hole. RWW has tirelessly and ceaselessly exposed his lies for quite a bit longer than the last few weeks.

Frankly, I suggest that they have every right to take a lot more credit here.

As to the particular matter at hand, David Barton was lying. Again. Really blatantly.

Eric Cantor Vs. The Proven Truth

Jan 3rd, 2011

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) is the face of the modern GOP. When an Earthquake hit the eastern United States last year, he used it as bargaining chip. When thousands took to the streets to protest fraud and avarice on Wall Street, he called them "mobs."

"You Want A Job, Right?" cont...

Nov 7th, 2011
by F. Grey Parker NSFW

Cain accuser Sharon Bialek via the LA Times

Considering the conservative establishment's race to double down on their defense of Herman Cain after today's explosive revelations, one needs to wonder whether, perhaps, the GOP front-runner might not actually be doing even better had he actually raped someone.

The only accuser to come forward publicly, Sharon Bialek, is a lifelong Republican and a Tea Party supporter. Not good enough. For those in the GOP elite who have been so desperate to, as Ann Coulter notably intoned, prove that their "blacks are better," any allegation against Cain must be met with a savage response. Its veracity is of no consequence. After all, the GOP was just on the verge of showing us all how open minded they are.

We'd already listened, this afternoon, to the world's foremost overweight, balding, multi-millionaire liar and doctor-shopping, pill-popping drug-fiend as he lowered himself to previously unsuspected depths. We'd also heard that slicked back little GOP-pimp and Nerf-football-enthusiast they call Sean Hannity dismiss the allegations with a big 'so what.'

I genuinely thought it could not get much worse. Silly me. I was wrong. There was still plenty of broadcast day left.

The sputtering shit-bag known as Dick Morris charged onto the Murdoch Device to smear Cain accuser Sharon Bialek further. She's a "gold digger." She "wants money." She wants "a book, a movie, a film deal, a spread in Playboy, who knows?" By the way, Morris went out of his way to make sure Fox viewers knew that Ms. Bialek has "an out of wedlock child."

That bit, in particular, is as venomous as anything I have ever heard. The GOP, the ban-abortion-and-even-contraception party, is now sending its media heavyweights to use Ms. Bialek's embrace of the challenge of single motherhood, rather than choosing to terminate her pregnancy, against her.



Hannity couldn't resist the chance to outdo his afternoon antics. The graphic behind his introduction to footage of this afternoon's presser reads "Anatomy Of A Smear Campaign."



Morris apparently stuck around the vermin-ridden filth that is Fox studios to get a chance to repeat his "Playboy spread" slur. Hannity made sure to plug Morris' children's book at the top of the segment. I shit you not. Again, Morris says "this woman is in search of money." 



As I said to a colleague earlier, after all the years that the GOP paraded and manipulated the case of Paula Jones in an attempt to teach us how much "character matters," this propaganda is beyond reason.

The institutionalization of situational ethics is now more damning for the GOP than anything of which Cain is accused.

Remember, women of the GOP, it's not good enough for you to prove your pro-life position through action, vote with your party and also act on behalf of your party's causes. You have to let the men around you do and say whatever they want, whenever they want, no matter how disgusting it may be.

After all, baby, you really are only good for "a Playboy spread" if they turn on you.

Dick Morris, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity say so.

The "Uncertainty" Lie

Oct 10th, 2011

To hear the Republican party's current ranking members tell it, everything wrong with the American economy stems from "over regulation." This has created too much "uncertainty" and is the reason the engine of job creation has collapsed.

In particular, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's (R-VA) entire economic message is based on this premise. A few weeks ago, he repeated his position, "By pursuing a steady repeal of job-destroying regulations, we can help lift the cloud of uncertainty hanging over small and large employers alike, empowering them to hire more workers."

There are more examples of this nonsense HERE, HERE and HERE.

Most experts have been growing increasingly annoyed listening to this skipping record. You don't have to be an ardent Keynesian to understand that the problem starts with demand. Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute recently observed:

"There is a ... story, widely told by Republican politicians and business trade associations, which claims that business investment and hiring is being held back by uncertainty over future regulations and taxation. As Maine Senator Susan Collins said in introducing her bill to put a moratorium on all new regulations: “Businesses, our nation’s job creators and the engine of any lasting economic growth, have been saying for some time that the lack of jobs is largely due to a climate of uncertainty, most notably the uncertainty and cost created by new federal regulations” (Kasperowicz 2011). Her view has been repeated by others, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (2011) and the Chamber of Commerce (Donohue 2011)."

Is it true? Are America's businesses desperately crying out against "regulation?" 

In a word, "NO." 

As it turns out, not only is it provable that this is bullshit but, even better, it is former Reagan aide and stalwart conservative economist Bruce Bartlett who has done just that.

"Evidence supporting Mr. Cantor’s contention that deregulation would decrease unemployment is very weak. For some years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has had a program that tracks mass layoffs. In 2007, the program was expanded, and businesses were asked their reasons for laying off workers. Among the reasons offered was “government regulations/intervention.” There is only partial data for 2007, but we have data since then through the second quarter of this year.

The table below presents the bureau’s data. As one can see, the number of layoffs nationwide caused by government regulation is minuscule and shows no evidence of getting worse during the Obama administration. Lack of demand for business products and services is vastly more important."

Here is the same data from the BLS crunched by the EPI in the form of a graph.

I have opined in the past that this "uncertainty" meme is not only dishonest, it is actually anti-Capitalist.

What the GOP has been arguing in favor of over the last decade is not unfettered markets. They want to rig the game, not set it free.

Pure Capitalism is built on the concept of accepting risk.

Today's Republicans are stipulating that there should be little or no risk.

They are determined to shield capital investors from the consequences of stupid or even dangerous decisions. Their message and their mission is to eliminate responsibility.

The sick irony, now that they also have declared that "corporations are people," is that they are actually doing what they have been arguing "liberals" have been trying to do for the last two generations.

The GOP is actively conferring victimhood on a group and trying to confer special rights and a special status.

It's not the corporation's fault... it's everybody else's fault.

The little dears... 

Hey Kids! It's Glenn Beck Time!

Oct 1st, 2011
by F. Grey Parker
NSFW. Also, it's not a violation of Godwin when you are actually fighting a fascist.

I have to admit that I'm surprised I didn't see this coming sooner. Remember when Glenn Beck accused the President of "indoctrination" for giving a back-to-school speech to America's children?


Beck likened Barack Obama to Mussolini at the time. How could he not draw such a frightening comparison when the President's speech was riddled with such overtly partisan messages as this one?

"Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide."

You get the idea. Well, Beck's back, baby, and he actually is after the children.

Perry Watch - Unoriginality Edition

Sept 1st, 2011

Remember the nutty lie about President Obama doing more for Brazilian oil exploration then he has domestically? Remember how even Fox News was shamed into toning it down because it was a blatant falsehood?

Well, apparently, Republican Presidential hopeful Texas Gov. Rick Perry never got that memo. In his continuing quest for attention and validation, he repeated it recently. This has naturally earned him a Politifact "pants-on-fire" award.

Also, would someone please tell Perry that when you fire a gun in the air the bullet comes back down? Just an aside. Thinking of the children.

Good News... Again

Aug 20th, 2011

The ratings for some of the most dishonest right wing propagandists continue to show evidence of freefall. I noted last month what is arguably the under-reported story of the year, that Fox News' ratings are in a devastating decline. It gets better. A lot better.


From Business Insider:

"The just-released Arbitron report reveals that a lot less people are listening to right-wing talk radio.

With a lull in ratings since November, Rush Limbaugh had a 3.0 share of listeners for his radio time slot, which is a 33% slide from October and from last April, reports Crain's Business.

Meanwhile, The Sean Hannity Show was reported to be down 28% from its peak numbers in the fall."

This does beg a few questions. Where is the shake-up? You know? Where is the evidence that they have been approached by management and are attempting to retool their programs for better market share?

There is none. And, you shouldn't expect any. That is because these are not pundits. They are craven corporatist activists whose masters are willing to lose money so that they might keep dis-informing the public.

Are you ready to fight for the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine yet?

Broken Promises Indeed

May 4th, 2011

I generally don't post outright DCCC videos here. This is a worthy exception. Enjoy this round up of liars. Blatant fear mongering prior to the 2010 ballot followed by lockstep approval of Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) Path To Poverty. I endorse their petition.

Only Progressive Special Interests Are Bad

April 6th, 2011

That would seem to be the message on FOX. Media Matters notes that more outside money went to Prosser than Kloppenberg. That sure didn't make this segment from America Live.

Palin's Mouthpiece Is Proven A Liar By Palin

Jan 9th, 2011

As the right wing smear machine fires up it's afterburners, the big defense from the Palinistas regarding the infamous "target map" continues to be from her mouthpiece, Rebecca Mansour, who petulantly insists that "we never ever, ever intended for them to be gun sights." We are supposed to believe that they are "surveyor's symbols."

Here's what your boss tweeted about them. Fine. They weren't "gun-sights." They were just "BULLSEYE" symbols used to "TARGET" her foes.

The Murdoch Device's Ongoing Scheme

Dec 15th, 2010

The Murdoch Device continues it's partisan crusade against, well, knowledge and language.

From HuffPo:

"A top Fox News editor sent an email to staffers and journalists questioning the science behind global warming and directing them to always point out on air that the theory has its skeptics.

Media Matters obtained the memo. It is the second such email the organization has released in as many weeks. Like the last one, the global warming memo came from Bill Sammon, Fox News' Washington managing editor. Sammon was also the author of an email directing journalists to use the phrase "government option" instead of "public option."

One Big Phony

Nov 12th, 2010

There's nothing inherently harmful about a phony. Jim DeMint, on the other hand, is of the dangerous variety. His vow to prevent the raising of the debt ceiling unless he gets some wholly ineffectual and purely symbolic something is deeply irresponsible. Watch this video. Then, go to the bottom of the page. There, you will find his home and D.C. official contact information. USE IT.

340 Russell
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-6121
Fax: 202-228-5143

112 Custom House

200 East Bay St
Charleston, SC 29401
Phone: 843-727-4525
Fax: 843-722-4923

Kilmeade Drops a Whopper

Oct. 1st, 2010

FOXNews' Brian Kilmeade took a shot at the stimulus this morning by saying "it did more harm than anything else." How do you argue with something so jingoistic as to be removed from reality. Well, with reality as evidenced here, here, here, here, here and here.