Archive for category Liars (politics)

Alex Jones: Oklahoma Tornado Was An Inside Job

Alex Jones

Via Media Matters.

Conspiracy talk show host Alex Jones is best known for promoting the theory that the 9/11 attacks were really a “false flag” operation by the U.S. government. He said the same thing about the recent Boston bombings. Now he is making the claim that the Oklahoma tornado was a secret government plot.

Jones, a longtime proponent of the idea that the U.S. government can manipulate and even produce weather systems like tornadoes and hurricanes, went on to say that if people saw helicopters or small aircraft in the area, then “you better bet your bottom dollar they did this.”

“But, who knows if they did?” he asked. “You know, that’s the thing. We don’t know.”

Jones is being increasingly treated as a serious voice within the right-wing GOP. Republicans in the House, including Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), actually held a hearing last month to discuss Jones’ theory that that President Obama is trying to buy up all the bullets in the country.

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CNN’s Crowley Adopts False Right-Wing Claim That Obama Didn’t Call Benghazi A Terrorist Attack

Via Media Matters.

What a shame. It was Candy Crowley who courageously committed an act of journalism in the middle of a presidential debate, daring to fact-check inveterate liar Willard (“Mitt”) Romney in real time. I suppose her standing at CNN has suffered, because truth-telling just isn’t appreciated among the DC media. On CNN right-wing talking points are better than facts, so Crowley is going with the talking points.

The hyper-partisan right-wing Benghazi witch-hunt has produced no new information after NINE congressional hearings, two full-scale investigations, and an SNL parody. Senator John McCain tried to get a select committee established just to re-hash Benghazi. If I were the Senate Majority Leader I would instead assemble a committee to thoroughly investigate the Bush administration’s record on terrorism, starting with the 9/11 attacks and the anthrax letters, and charged with examining the 31 other terrorist attacks on Bush’s watch, including 7 attacks on U.S. embassies and consulates.

More info:
Fox And Issa Claim There’s A Difference Between An “Act Of Terror” And A Terrorist Attack

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Bill O’Reilly Gets Smacked By Economics Professor – Nanny States Actually Do Better

How Republicans got so stupid.

How Republicans got so stupid.

Certainly part of the reason why today’s Conservative Republicans come off as so stupid is due in large part to Bill O’Reilly’s bullshit “Talking Points Memo.”  Recently Bill said:

Bill O’Reilly: Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, now Cypress, all broke. And other European nations are close. Why? Because they are nanny states. And there are not enough workers to support all the entitlements these progressive paradises are handing out.

Economics professor Richard Wolff punished Bill O’Reilly. Here’s his smackdown on Democracy Now on Monday.

Economic Professor Richard Wolff: You know he gets away with saying things which no undergraduate in the United States with a responsible economic professor could ever get away with. If you want to refer to things as nanny states, then the place you go to in Europe is not the southern tier, Portugal, Spain, and Italy. The places you go are Germany and Scandinavia, because they provide more social services to their people than anybody else.

And guess what, not only are they not in trouble economically, they are the winners of the current situation. The unemployment rate in Germany is now below five percent. Ours is pushing between seven and eight percent.

So, ah, please get your facts right Mr. O’Reilly. The nanny state you call it; the program of countries like Germany and Scandinavia who tax their people heavily by all means, but who provide them with social services that would be the envy of the United States, a national health program that takes care of you whether you are employed or not and gives you proper healthcare.

In France for example the law says when you go to work you get five weeks paid vacation. That’s not an option, that’s the law. You get support when you are a new parent, childcare and so forth.

They provide services and they are successful in Germany and Scandinavia, much more than we are in the United States; and much more than those countries in the south.

So they are not broke in the south because they are nanny states, since the nanny states par excellence are doing better than everyone. The actual truth of Mr. O’Reilly is the opposite of what he says. The more you do nanny state, the better off you are during a crisis, and to minimize the cost of the crisis. That’s what the European economic situation actually teaches. He is just making it up as he goes along to conform to an ideological position that is harder and harder for folks like him to sustain so he has to reach further and further into fantasy.

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A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes

Mark Twain wrote, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” And that was before the invention of Faux News Channel.

The Union Protester Who Punched Fox News Comedian Steven Crowder Was Acting in Self-Defense, Will Not Be Prosecuted

Remember when conservative comedian and Fox News contributor Steven Crowder was punched in the face by a union activist outside a Michigan protest? Crowder made a big deal about it… Then came the unsurprising revelation that the video was misleadingly edited to make Crowder look like an innocent, if obnoxious, victim.

…[O]n Monday, Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III announced he will not press charges against the protester, who Dunnings said was trying to defend himself.

More info:
Are You Surprised That the Video of Comedian Steven Crowder Getting Punched in the Face By a Union Activist Was Misleadingly Edited?

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Ten Years Ago Today . . . And No It Was Not Worth It

I hate looking back.  Ten years ago today the US invastion of Iraq began. 

The push for war with Iraq felt like a time of public madness.  The American media has never been less absolutely incompetent than in those months.  Yeah, the media pretty much sucks now, but back then they were awful beyond the telling of it.  The largest peace rallies in history got no coverage.  American media has spent the last decade hoping no one reminds them how bad they were, how gullible, how insanely biased for the Bush administration they were and how they mindlessly lapped up any lie they were told. Read the rest of this entry »

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Conservative Patriot Gives In: “As half the nation is in sheer awe of this American Idol “rockstar” presidency.”

I’ve followed this Facebook page for several months. Its one of the best in it’s genre; an excellent reference for study of the authoritarian mind and an excellent resource for tracking the Tea Party memes since 2010.

Its run, and run well, by a single person. Id love to speak with him and find out how I’ve been “dumbed-down.”

He posted the following today:

Conservative Patriots of America: Folks, I cannot do this any longer, it is of NO use. As half the nation is in sheer awe of this American Idol “rockstar” presidency, and the mainstream media is further enabling the STUPIDITY & NONSENSE with the dumbing-down of the citizens, Obama has just played his 115th round of golf — lucky he, huh? Well, how about that UNEMPLOYMENT RATE, or the fact that he met with his now defunct “Jobs Council” only FOUR TIMES before dissolving it — or that National Debt, or that China owns us — I mean, REALLY, WHERE do I begin??

I have sat at my computer for nearly THREE YEARS wasting my time & energy on a matter that cannot be resolved. We are less than one month into the second term, and if any of you have any “foresight,” methinks you will agree with me that NOTHING is going to get done, NOTHING is going to get better, and NOTHING can be done about it. I’ve done what I can & that’s about it, there is nothing more I can do or say. I’ll be hanging Old Glory upside-down for the next four years.

Oh, and to the Trolls, P.S. Do NOT talk about Bush’s vacations, the world was a MUCH different place during Bush’s 2 terms — find something else to bring to the table on this presidency.  Join us at: Conservative Patriots of America — on facebook.

Here’s a picture from his page that almost made me want to join up with them “patriots.”

teabagger idiots

Isn’t being anti-choice messing with family?

I sent him a Tweet asking him to contact me through Facebook. I hope he’ll give me an interview.

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Is Fox News Number One Because Most Americans Are Stupid? Maybe.

Fox News is number one in cable news. But what does that mean. I believe it reflects a very real fact about Americans; a SIGNIFICANT number of us are stupid. Australian Rupert Murdock knows it. Roger Ailes knows it, and I know it.

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Awkward and Weird

President Obama was (what else?) presidential last night. Marco Rubio, not so much. You felt sorry for the guy, if not for the Republican Party as a whole. The only time he went left was to lunge for a bottle of water – it was almost painful to watch.

Linda Holmes on NPR:

It was awkward and weird, but it was also genuine and obviously unplanned…

In that moment, there may be a measure of politically fueled schadenfreude for some, but for many more, it’s just, “Oh, oh no, oh no no, that was so uncomfortable, oh … no.” Maybe even a little, “Oh, honey.” Maybe even, “Bless your heart.”

There’s something refreshing about a moment that was so obviously not supposed to happen — it’s why blooper reels exist. It’s why debates are spent waiting for someone to say the wrong thing, even by people who don’t particularly care about the outcome. When things go awry — even in a tiny, tiny moment — the bottom drops out and the foreheads get clammy and all of a sudden, it’s interesting. It’s alive. It’s: We interrupt this impeccably produced presentation to bring you a little story we call “Humans: What Are You Gonna Do?”

In all honesty, the water gulp was just about the only part of that evening you couldn’t have known was going to happen 24 hours earlier. …[I]t was the major plot development (minor as it was) that felt like a collapse of the narrative, and the truth is, people like collapsed narratives. They feel, to use a nonword, real-er, truer, simpler, and more reflective of our experiences.

If you were a climate change denialist from Florida, you might be nervous too.

UPDATE:
6 Game-Changing Ideas In The State Of The Union

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Obama 2.0: ‘I’ll Never See This Again’

Inauguration
Sunrise this morning at the U.S. Capitol (UPI photo)

I’m enjoying the all-day MSNBC coverage of President Obama’s second inauguration, unlike Mitt Romney who says he won’t be watching today.

So far, it has been a refreshing does of patriotism, from the emotional Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir rendition of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” to the President’s call for equality for “our gay brothers and sisters.” And he promised, “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.”

I think the President’s intentions are good, even though I often disagree with his decisions. I think he wants to do his best for the voters who entrusted him with the office for another four years. From today’s reporting:

Departing the West Front of the U.S. Capitol after delivering his second inaugural address on Monday, President Obama wanted to take one last glance of the hundreds of thousands of Americans gathered to celebrate his second term. After all, it would be his last.

“I want to take a look one more time,” Obama said, lingering for a few short moments to savor the view as the crowd shuffled past him. “I’ll never see this again.”

I don’t think he was referring to Justice Scalia’s Renaissance-style hat.

UPDATE:
Obama Pushes Back On ‘The 47 Percent’: Entitlements ‘Do Not Make Us A Nation Of Takers’

UPDATE:
Obama condemns ‘perpetual war’ during inaugural address

UPDATE:
12 Ways Obama Smacked Down the Tea Party and the Right in Inauguration Speech

UPDATE:
Media Identify Mainstream Positions As Part Of Obama’s “Liberal Agenda”

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Claiming Abstinence, LDS, Idaho, Republican Senator Mike Crapo Arrested for Drunk Driving

We are no longer surprised when a Republican politician who claims superior virtues and morality, fidelity or religious conviction turns out to be a hypocrite.

The steady parade of Republican hypocrites remind us of our differences. We pedestrian scum (Democrats) claim to hold no high ground in the realm of personal purity. In stark contrast, Republicans to the person, bathe in self-righteous claims of moral superiority.

Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) mug shot

Mike Crapo mug shot

No doubt, Republican apologists will invoke Lewinski or Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick in a feeble effort to distract us from the hypocrisy. Its all they’ve got. But neither Clinton nor Kennedy associated himself with the lofty moral high ground claimed by their Republican counterparts. Neither man was elected under such an absurd premise. And we Democrats cherish the Founders intention that we be free to elect “scumbags.” The Founding Fathers knew self-professed moral angels were likely to disappoint.

Ever since Karl Rove convinced the Republican Party to grab its collective ankles before the alter of the Evangelical Christian Right, Republican politicians have rushed to the public podium to loudly and publicly declare themselves proprietors of an impossibly high “moral” standard. The result is serial oneupsmanship among Republicans at every level of office and a predictable train wreck of hypocrisy.

For Mike Crapo, being a Republican AND a Mormon AND a drunk is a double whammy made all the worse coming on the heels of Mitt Romney’s ass whuppin’. No one will be surprised when we find Willard slumped by the side of the road soaked in his own urine. Such is the state of today’s Republican party a.k.a. The Clown Barkers’ Carnival.

The AP reported this story

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Fox and Friends Hires Dirty Old Man to Comment on ‘Holiday’ Political Correctness/”War on Christmas”

Two of the biggest Douchbags on Fox News (and they are ALL douchbags down to the interns) Gretchen “Cougar” Carlson and her sidekick  Skippy The Douchbag Doocey, stepped in Murdock doggy doo again.

Fox News continued its fight against the so-called “War on Christmas” on Thursday by going straight to the source: Santa Claus.

“In its most absurd defense against the war on Christmas yet, the morning show had Santa Claus himself  stop by on Thursday to explain why he refuses to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”.

“Fox and Friends” hosted Santa impersonator Sal Lizard to speak out about “political correctness.” “You’ve been around for a long time doing this,” host Gretchen Carlson asked. “What do you make of the political correctness part of our culture? Have you seen it change over time?”

(h/t ThinkProgress)

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‘Plan B’ Is DOA

Boehner

Speaker John Boehner’s “Plan B” is dead on arrival in the House of Representatives. The House has adjourned until after Christmas without taking a vote on “Plan B.”

It was a tax increase on working Americans, coupled with a massive extension of the Bush Tax Cuts For The Rich on the first $1 million of income. Boehner couldn’t find the votes for it, but this didn’t matter because the Senate Majority Leader said the Senate would not consider it, and President Obama said he would veto it if somehow it got to his desk.

Because right-wing Tea-GOP House members oppose even a token income tax rate hike on multimillionaires, Boehner added a series of sweeteners from the right-wing wish list – like Christmas stockings hung by the fire (OK, not like that at all).

  • Cuts to food stamps that would hurt millions of low-income Americans
  • Cuts to Meals on Wheels, a program that delivers meals to seniors
  • Cuts funding to health exchanges and Medicaid
  • Cuts to the Dodd-Frank financial reform law that will yield no cost savings

Nobody in Washington seems to know why Boehner was wasting everyone’s time with this proposal, when all the House has to do is vote on the Senate-passed bill that makes tax cuts for the rich on the first $250,000 of income permanent. President Obama has said he would sign it.

Does it matter to average Americans if they get a tax cut on their first $250,000 or their first $1 million? I don’t even know anybody who makes $250,000 a year.

UPDATE: How Boehner’s ‘Plan B’ Debacle Has Transformed The Fiscal Cliff Talks

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