Democrats Thinking for Themselves

Today President Obama announced a wage freeze for federal employees in order to limit federal spending. The move is largely symbolic, because federal salaries are not a big enough part of the budget to make a big dent in the deficit. One article I read said this would decrease spending by 0.05 percent.

Daily Kos immediately came out with several posts attacking the move as a consevative idea, giving in to Republicans, counterproductive, etc. What is interesting is that, in this evening's Open Thread, a post that features DKos reader diaries that are recommended by other readers, two of the eight top recommended diaries condemned the knee-jerk reaction by Daily Kos and called for pragmatism and moderation.

I wonder if that sort of debate could take place on a conservative website. Perhaps if the President were a Republican and was attacked for being too moderate. In any case, I think it's a great sign that not everyone goes along with the most strident party-line message.

Brainwashing Our School Children

The issue that really helped me focus on what I could do with this blog was President Obama's first address to school children, back in September of 2009. Just an example, but check out some of the comments below this right-wing column. People were extraordinarily upset that the President was going to address their children and use the opportunity to indoctrinate them in some way.

Two people I know talked to me about what a bad thing they thought this was. I asked each of them if they would have had the same reaction if George W. Bush had addressed school children. They both claimed rather energetically that they would have. They are both full of shit.

I found it interesting that, less than 8 months into his term in office, people hated Obama so much that they invented this type of irrational opposition to such a benign event. I think it shows that, from the day he took office, millions of Americans hated Barack Obama, for no reason other than that some right-wing pundit, or politician, or acquaintance, told them they should.

I also noticed a year later that when Obama addressed kids again, nothing happened. That issue just got dropped, and I had not even thought about it until I saw an article pointing out that there were no protests this year. I realized that there is constant, overwhelming, barrage of this kind of stuff coming from right wing media every day. There is so much of it that we forget some of it, but it does the damage it is intended to do.

So I decided to chronicle as much of the worst stuff as I can. When the next election comes, I want to be able to go back and remind people of all the many, many lies the Republican Party counts on to keep its base coming back.

Liars and Idiots

Republicans are not like Democrats. Republicans are liars, first and foremost. Yes, all politicians, even my guy President Obama, stretch the truth, mislead, and tell outright lies sometimes, but that does not mean that the two sides are equivalent. Republicans have come to rely on a never-ending series of lies as their primary means of retaining power. They have virtually no honest policy accomplishments or platforms.

Here is a list, off the top of my head and from a review of my blog entries, of conservative beliefs, statements, accomplishments, etc.:


1. Al Gore said he invented the Internet, and started the Love Canal investigation, and was the inspiration for Love Story, and grew up on a farm.
2. George Bush was declared the victor in Florida, by Fox News, on election night, 2000.
3. The Florida votes couldn't be recounted.
4. The phony "protest" in Florida over recounts, featuring Republican congressional staffers.
5. The authorization of the use of force in Iraq was about keeping the peace, avoiding war (Bush actually said that.)
6. Bush viewed war with Iraq as "the last option." He said that too.
7. Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
8. Bush didn't cherry pick the evidence for war with Iraq.
9. Sadaam kicked the inspectors out.
10. Saddam Hussein had ties to al Qaeda.
11. George Bush, Dick Cheney, and members of their adminstration knew that Iraq had WMDs. Meaning it was absolutely certain, because that's what we know means.
12. George Bush did not lie to the American people about the evidence for war in Iraq.
13. John Kerry did not earn his medals in Vietnam (and apparently the Navy doesn't know what they are doing.)
14. Iraq was behind the 9/11 attacks.
15. Waterboarding isn't torture.
16. Because John Yoo says it isn't.
17. You can just call someone an "enemy combatant" if you want to incarcerate them indefinitely without charges and mistreat them.
18. Abu Ghraib was the result of a few low-level "bad apples."
19. The Vice Presidency is not part of the executive branch.
20. Sarah Palin is qualified to be President of the United States.
21. Sarah Palin is better qualified than Barack Obama.
22. Being mayor of a really small town (like my uncle was!) is really good experience if you want to be the Vice President.
23. Valerie Plame wasn't exposed by the Bush Administration as political payback for her husband exposing lies about the Iraq War.
24. Scooter Libby was railroaded.
25. People who opposed the war in Iraq don't support the troops.
26. People who question the reasons behind the Iraq War are trying to "rewrite history."
27. Denying gays the right to marry isn't bigotry. It's about defending marriage.
28. The founders wanted the United States to be a Christian country.
29. Barack Obama was pallin' (How do you even spell that? palin'? That would be funny.) around with terrorists.
30. Obama wasn't born in this country.
31. Obama was educated at a madrassa.
32. Obama is a muslim.
33. Obama is a socialist.
34. Obama hates America.
35. Unlike Obama, Bush kept the country safe from terrorism.
36. Republicans are "real Americans," unlike Democrats who are...French.
37. The Affordable Care Act is " a government takeover" of healthcare.
38. The ACA "leads America on a path to tyranny." (Mitch McConnell)
39. Death panels.
40. The Community Reinvestment Act caused the housing crisis.
41. Republicans want bipartisanship.
42. Republicans think it's important to listen to the American people and respect their choices at the ballot box.
43. Republicans believe in small government.
44. Republicans are fiscally responsible.
45. Republicans are concerned about the deficit.
46. Republicans don't think the reconciliation process should be used to pass major legislation.
47. Republicans want to work with Barack Obama.
48. Barack Obama wants to speak to schoolchildren in order to brainwash them.
49. Fox News is fair and balanced.
50. Fox News is not a mouthpiece for the Republican Party.
51. Fox News is actually a news network, like CNN.
52. Global warming is not man made. The scientists are confused or lying. Only Republican politicians understand this subject.
53. Obama's trip to India cost $200 million per day.
54. The stimulus did not create any jobs.
55. Obama was responsible for TARP.
56. MSNBC is like Fox News, only liberal.
57. The country is becoming more conservative.
58. ACORN stole the 2008 presidential election.
59. Democrats are using widespread voter fraud to alter election results.

These statements all have something in common: They are LIES told by LYING LIARS and believed by IDIOTS. Another thing they have in common is that Fox News is in some way behind nearly every one of them. You can quibble about a few of these if you like, but on the other hand, I could have made it an even 100 if I had wanted. 59 already seemed like a lot.

These are not little lies. Al Gore would almost certainly have been elected President if it weren't for the lies about him inventing the Internet and more. (He never said that or anything very close -- a Republican hack "invented" the line.) The 2004 election was close enough too that it was probably decided by lies about John Kerry's war record and by George Bush very deliberately misleading people who weren't paying attention (a big group!) by constantly conflating Iraq and 9/11. It is very fair to say that the last two times a Republican was elected President, it was probably due to really big Republican lies. In addition, it is quite possible the Iraq War, and the 4,400 dead American soldiers and 100,000+ dead Iraqis would not have happened without the falsehoods used to justify it. These lies, all of them listed above, and all the countless others, have consequences.

Conservatives like to defend their lies by saying that a large number of Democrats have their falsehoods too; for example, many Democrats believe that Bush had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. This is a pathetic false equivalence that shows how weak the conservative argument is. Many Democrats do believe that Bush had prior knowledge of the attacks, but I'm not sure where they got the idea. Unlike virtually every conservative lie listed above, this one was not promoted by any prominent politician or media outlet. The best-known person I remember pushing the idea was Rosie O'Donnell.

That long list of conservative falsehoods above did not happen by accident. You can't look at all that and not realize that spreading lies, lots of them, all the time, is a very deliberate strategy that the Republican Party uses to keep power.

When I first started this blog, I didn't have a specific purpose in mind, and I wrote about various things. Now I have a purpose: to keep chronicalling the lies, day after day and week after week, and reminding people of what one of our major political parties has become.

Republican Stupidity, Special Thanksgiving Edition

Conservatives view the Thanksgiving story as an example of the failure of Communism. Really. It would be hard to make up ideas this stupid.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

A nice review of George Bush's book that observes that decision points, for George Bush, never seemed to involve actually thinking about things and weighing the possibilities.

"There are hardly any decision points at all. The path to each decision is so short and irresistible, more like an electric pulse than like a weighing of options, that the reader is hard-pressed to explain what happened. Suddenly, it’s over, and there’s no looking back."

"Here is another feature of the non-decision: once his own belief became known to him, Bush immediately caricatured opposing views and impugned the motives of those who held them. If there was an honest and legitimate argument on the other side, then the President would have to defend his non-decision, taking it out of the redoubt of personal belief and into the messy empirical realm of contingency and uncertainty."

Yeah, that's the guy I remember.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

Rush Limbaugh objects to Motor Trend naming the Chevrolet Volt as Car of the Year for 2011, because, no doubt, Al Gore would approve of the car. Motor Trend shoots back.

Republican Stupidities of the Week

So much to write about this week.

Republicans are apparently opposed to getting rid of incandescent light bulbs, because it's, you know, to help the planet, so it's a lefty idea. That won't do.

Maybe that's because they think only God can destroy the planet, so it doesn't matter what we do.

The US Chamber of Commerce used a huge contribution from health insurers to fund opposition to the Affordable Health Care Act. Republicans did all they could to help.

Some random idiot from a conservative values group says the medal of honor is being sissified because... well because he's an idiot.

Roger Ailes, the Fox News czar, says that NPR is run by Nazis.

Republicans oppose the START treaty, because nuclear proliferation will make the world safer, or more likely because President Obama supports it.

Mitch McConnell says that affordable care for everyone equals tyranny. I guess the less tyrannical thing to do would be to let poor people go broke because they get sick.

Joe Miller lost the Alaska senate race to a write-in candidate, and neither he nor Fox News can stand it.

No, Obama didn't "ambush" the Republicans last January. He just made them look bad because he was better prepared, and because he exposed their BS.

You lost Joe. Because you're a nutcase.

John McCain has to keep making up excuses to oppose DADT. How about because you just don't like gays, Senator? If you tell the truth the first time, it's easier to keep your story straight.

Michele Bachmann opposes earmarks, until she figures out that sometimes they might help her.

Fox News says that a candidate for office should resign from their media job, because it wouldn't be right for them to have a media platform to promote themselves. Ah, but that was then, and that was a Democrat.

Fox News gets a little carried away with the Obama hating...

That's a lot of stupidity, and there's not even a link to ending unemployment benefits. Nor did I point out that they had a terrorism trial in New York, and nothing bad happened, so I guess conservatives are feeling pretty sheepish about all the overhype, right? I gotta get back to doing this every day, just to keep up.

Calling Out Fox News

This was written before the election, but I think Media Matters gets it right. Fox News is so powerful now that they are probably the single most influential political organization in America. They provide candidate endorsements, free air time, organizational assistance, a fund-raising platform, and when all else fails, cash. And their philosophy is all conservative all the time.

Glenn Beck Stupidity of the Day

Cenk Uygur, the Young Turk, says that Beck has gone too far this time.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

One of our congressmen -- John Shimkus, who will likely chair the House Energy Committee -- tells us that global warming can't destroy the earth because he believes the Bible is our best guide to science.

Republican Stupidities

George W. Bush says his worst moment in office is when Kanye West called him a racist.

Sarah Palin stupidly believes, and repeats, that Pennsylvania classrooms have outlawed cookies.

Palin gives advice to the Federal Reserve.

Waterboarding isn't torture because John Yoo said it was OK. Note that Bush refuses to answer whether it would be OK for a foreign power to waterboard an American, because the answer would have to be "yes," which would make clear (to people who don't have the brains to see for themselves) what an evil SOB this guy is.

And one rare moment of Republican clarity.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

Today's winner is Michele Malkin, conservative pundit and liar.

Usually, I get these posts by visiting a series of left-wing sites (Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, Media Matters for America, etc.) and picking out the most outrageous examples that they find. As I did not see anything realy juicy yet today (weekends can be slow), I Googled "conservative blogs" to look for something myself. It took about two minutes to find something really stupid.

Michele Malkin managed to catch Harry Reid on camera saying "but for me, we'd be in a worldwide depression." Wow, pretty egomaniacal, right? But if you click to her article, watch the video. Then notice two things:

1) Reid is setting up a hypothetical case. The fuller quote is, "It doesn't give them comfort or solace to say, but for me, we'd be in a worldwide depression." And he laughs a little as he says it. It's just dishonest to say that Harry Reid is claiming he saved the world.

2) The article points out that it took from 1776 to 1990 to pile up $3 trillion of debt. It of course neglects to mention that about another $5 trillion piled up during the G. W. Bush administration, even though he inherited a budget surplus, or that conservatives like Malkin DIDN'T SAY A THING about those deficits while Republicans were running them up and not lifting a finger to control them, or that the deficits under Obama WERE MOSTLY DUE TO BUSH ADMINISTRATION POLICIES AND THE SITUATION HE INHERITED, not due to Obama's policies.

Like I said -- liar.

Second Republican Stupidity of the Day

This one is so similar to some of the other recent manufactured outrage stories, I wanted to make note of it even though it's a few days old. Obama made a comment about Republicans having to sit in the back of the car that they drove into the ditch, and Fox News created a controversy out of thin air, trying to reword his comments as "back of the bus" and ludicrously claiming they were insensitive.

And Jon Stewart nailed them for it.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

In typical manufactured-outrage fashion, the right wing is whining about the cost of the President's upcoming trip to India. Yes, these things cost a lot of money, no matter who is President, but it's part of what Presidents do. Right wing liars like Michelle Bachmann know that there is absolutely nothing honest to complain about, but this is the type of for-idiots-only "issue" they keep throwing out there to keep the hatred and outrage of their most ignorant followers burning.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

Well, yesterday was election day, and lots of Republicans were elected to the House. That's dumb enough right there.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

Why not just go with a continuation of yesterday's? Fox News is now hyping Sarah Palin's stupid story from yesterday about underhanded journalists plotting against poor Joe Miller.

At least in this case, we know whether this is ignorance or dishonesty. The folks at Fox aren't dumb; they're just liars.