Repeated lies, start to be believed

"Obamacare is a massive government take-over of our healthcare system". Rick Santorum, GOP Presidential Candidate

"President Obama came into a bad economic recession, but his policies made it worse." Mitt Romney, GOP Presidential Candidate


"President Obama could lower the price of gas to $2.50 if he would open drilling of more public lands" Newt Gingrich, GOP Presidential Candidate

"The Democrats in the Senate have not passed a budget in more than 1000 days" Numerous Republican candidates and lawmakers


President Obama was not born in the US, and is a secret Muslim" Numerous Republican lawmakers and Conservative pundits


All of the above are demonstrably untrue. Does that surprise you? It shouldn't, but sadly it might. Depending on from whom you get your news, you might hear many of the statements above, and many more like them, spoken as if they are absolutely true. They are lies. However, the repetition of a lie does have the effect of making more and more people believe it is true. It is the duty of every citizen to hold our elected officials accountable when they tell these lies. If you hear something that is untrue, it is your duty to contact that representative (they all have websites and email addresses) and tell them that you don't appreciate them saying things that are demonstrably untrue - and point them to the facts.

The same is true for political pundits you may follow. While I believe that Rachel Maddow works hard to get her facts right, she often makes mistakes. It is her viewers duty to point it out. Here is a letter I wrote to Ms. Maddow pointing out such errors.

Rachel Maddow;


Dear Rachel, I am a long-time viewer of your show, and I applaud the obvious care you take in getting the facts right. However, I need to point out some problems with your show of late where it's quite obvious that a video clip you showed is being misunderstood. Recently you played a clip of Romney saying "how important Pennsylvania would be as a state he needed to win, and in winning he would be propelled to the Presidency". It's obvious from the clip that Mr Romney was speaking about the general election. Your commentary after the clip made it seem as if Mr Romney was not being truthful, because clearly he does not need to win the Pennsylvania Primary - which is true. Unfortunately, he was clearly not talking about the primary, he was referencing the coming General Election this Fall.


I tell you this, not because I support Mr Romney, I do not, but because these mistakes (especially when they are so obvious), undermine your credibility and might convince undecided voters that you are an unreliable source for election news. Please take care and keep up your wonderful work.


Fox news can take quotes of candidates out of context, another problem you occasionally stray into, but you do not need to do that to make the very good point that the GOP candidates are disingenuous. Please play the whole clip if the rest changes the context of the quote - and then comment on that. Your narrative is important, but not worth deception to make a stronger point. Democrats should be above that kind of thing. You do it rarely, but my teenage kids see it, do a quick Google search, find the full quote, and now they are not listening to you any longer - which is a shame.


Best Regards,
Dan Burgin

And now for something completely different

Amazing.

The President of the US: 2016

Is there any sense that the idiotic extremism of the Right in assailing women's rights is a winning strategy for the GOP? Clearly, so far, GOP strategists warnings that this is a losing battle, are being ignored by lawmakers and candidates.

Here's the proof. The endless discussions of the evils of contraception by so-called mainstream Presidential candidates like Rick Santorum (on contraception: "It's not okay"), and the fact that Romney has stated his support for a constitutional amendment to define life beginning at conception which would, by definition make the birth control pill illegal. In case you don't know, which let's admit Mr Romney clearly doesn't know, that the birth control pill actually allows a woman's eggs to be fertilized, but those fertilized eggs are not implanted in the uterus - so the fertilized eggs are removed during a woman's menses each month. Romney clearly doesn't understand that, or if he does, he's lying when he says he supports a woman's right to birth control. His quote above that he "...believes that life starts at conception, and birth control prevents conception" is clearly factually wrong. But let's be honest, clearly this whole moronic discussion we are having is terrible for the GOP - and I'm all for that no matter the topic.

So how is the GOP doing with women in swing states at present versus President Obama? While Obama and Romney split the vote of men, Obama has an overwhelming lead among women in swing states. This issue is killing the GOP, to which I stand and applaud. And Santorum? Fuhget about it, that's electoral landslide territory.

I truly hope the GOP continues this war on women's rights. Empirically, it's a death march. And it could mean that this articulate woman could become the President in 2016.

What is, and is NOT a centrist.

Paul Krugman makes an excellent observation, one that just happens to be true (unlike some preposterous rants from the Right). It's a full-throated take-down of the Ryan Budget as the extreme, social darwinism, anti-New Deal piece of legislation that it clearly is. Krugman assails the media's current fascination with the "brave" Ryan budget, and the myth that Ryan himself is a centrist. He asks this question:

Well, ask yourself the following: What does it mean to be a centrist, anyway? 

It could mean supporting politicians who actually are relatively nonideological, who are willing, for example, to seek Democratic support for health reforms originally devised by Republicans, to support deficit-reduction plans that rely on both spending cuts and revenue increases. And by that standard, centrists should be lavishing praise on the leading politician who best fits that description — a fellow named Barack Obama.

This particular myth, driven hard by the GOP, and unfortunately echoed by the media who, after years of being attacked by Fox News as being "left wing" and "lame-stream", are so desperate to be seen as centrist that they jump at the chance to embrace a seemingly reasonable Paul Ryan, and his "brave" budget. Please. Mr Ryan is the veritable wolf hiding in sheep's clothing - unless you happen to be extremely wealthy, or one of those corporations that, as Mr Romney points out, "...are people my friend".

Time to be real. The GOP has driven off an ideological cliff, and we need to make sure they're not hanging onto the ledge. Dear, Republicans. It's time to fall, and past time for your party to throw off the tantrums of the Tea Party, and return to the actual center, rather than the center that's somewhere to the right of nowhere at present. It will be your demise if you continue this path. The best argument against democracy might be 5 minutes with the average voter, but sooner or later, even these average Joe's know a Wolf when it bites them, and steals their money.

Shared Delusions: a story of demise of a once great political party

In today's Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer, ever a partisan hack opinionator if ever one existed, has blasted the President for criticizing the Supreme Court's activism. It is one of a long string of clues since 2008 in a growing body of evidence that the GOP is headed toward political exile. The moronic war on birth control, abortion, and ultimately on the independence of women, the nomination of an unanchored flip-flopping candidate who can convince the low information GOP primary voters that he's a Conservative, then Etch-A-Sketch his way to the middle in the general election, and even this article from Mr Krauthammer are part and parcel of a theme.

Here is my response to Mr Krauthammer where this theme of political exile emerges:

Mr Krauthammer, please. You wrote, "Obamacare passed the Congress without a single vote from the opposition party — in contradistinction to Social Security, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare and Medicaid, similarly grand legislation, all of which enjoyed substantial bipartisan support.". 

The extreme obstructionist nature of the GOP during Mr Obama's entire tenure, does not somehow denigrate the majority for lack of the minorities'  votes on any piece of legislation. What happened to respect for the electoral mandate Presidents win? The President chose, perhaps unwisely (we shall see), to spend the political capital he earned on this issue in his first term. It is not his fault that the disdain the nation felt (and still feels, left and right) about GW Bush administration caused this landslide. Respect the decision, and the majority vote. A deliberate strategy, so ineloquently phrased by Mr McConnell, to make the entire force of the GOP's efforts in a severe economic downturn, not to help the nation thru a crisis caused in large part by lax regulation under Mr. Bush, but instead to make Mr Obama, "a one-term President" is to blame for the lack of aisle crossing on this, and any other legislation since Mr Obama took office. If you don't recognize that the GOP should shoulder almost all of the blame for the great recession, and the nation's disgust at our Federal institutions, you are clearly deluding yourself. It's ok, it is a shared delusion among the most rabid partisans the nation has ever seen coming from your party. Elections matter, and the rightward lurch of your party, combined with 8 years of idiotic and destructive nonsense coming from Mr Bush is why your party will lose, yet again, in 2012. 

It's time you and your GOP cohorts took a good long look in the mirror, and realize that moving ever rightward, and criticizing a Democratic President who operates somewhere only ever so slightly to the left of Ronald Reagan, is a recipe for disaster and will relegate your party once again to 40 years of exile in the minority. Open your eyes sir.

Will the GOP cast off the extremism of the right wing in time to save the party? Let's hope so. In a two-party system, strength on both sides is required for balance and stability to happen and for our nation to be strong.