One of the memes I often have to repeat is, simply put, the Republican and conservative leadership routinely lies to its followers. I mean, outright lying on just about every issue.
One lie in particular is so utterly ridiculous and so outside the purview of reality that we can draw no other conclusion besides the obvious: conservative leaders think their followers are really, really stupid. And considering how many followers repeat this lie, the leaders might actually be right.
Here it is. Human breathing, they say, creates CO2 emissions and therefore liberals want to regulate human breathing in order to prevent the climate change “myth.”… CONTINUE READING HERE.
It turns out spending large sums of money to purchase grossly-offensive billboards along the Eisenhower Expressway in Chicago which compare those who believe in climate change to terrorists is not the best way to convince people that climate change is a hoax, nor is it the best way to manage your not-unlimited funding. And in the case of the Heartland Institute, it may have cost them their entire operation.
During his closing remarks at the Heartland Institute’s Seventh “International Conference on Climate Change,” Heartland President Joseph Bast revealed that the group has no plans to hold another conference and is struggling to pay its staff following the defections of corporate sponsors in the wake of the disastrous Unabomber billboard campaign and Deniergate document dump.
“I’m not a good fundraiser,” Bast admitted to the crowd today in Chicago as the gathering wound down.
Bast appealed directly to the crowd for donations, saying that “if you’ve got a rich uncle” [ask him to donate to Heartland].
I won’t call this a victory because climate change denial is a very big problem and some of the biggest deniers are sitting members of congress, but in a world where an increasing number of people are convinced that climate change is real if for no other reason than witnessing radical weather themselves, this kind of outrageous smear campaign is going to become not just ineffective but also a liability to climate change deniers.
Right-wing news site The Daily Caller has come up with an innovative new method of attracting people to sign up for their email updates: Each week through Election Day new registrants will be eligible to win a free handgun. And not just any handgun; the weapon in question is “engraved with the Bill of Rights.”
The gun’s manufacturer, Jim Pontillo, has attacked American progressives for supposedly seeking to promote communism in America and claimed that “people calling for secession” are not “fanatics who hate America” but are instead acting “in the Founding tradition.”
This ad is currently running on the website’s NRA-sponsored “Guns and Gear” page
In exchange for signing up for Tucker Carlson’s email newsletter, you’ll be entered to win a free handgun, inscribed with the bill of rights, manufactured by a man who believes threatening to secede from the union is a “founding tradition.” Yeehaw!
Of course these newsletters contain all manner of hyperbolic assertions and language designed to incite hatred for the government, so pairing that with a free “2nd amendment remedy” makes sense.
According to a new report from USA Today, American automakers are now operating at “maximum capacity.” Some are canceling annual shutdowns and adding new shifts to keep up with demand, which is now projected to reach 14.3 million vehicles in 2012.
Automakers are pushing factories and workers to the limit to try to meet burgeoning demand for new vehicles.
Some plants are adding third work shifts. Others are piling on worker overtime and six-day weeks. Ford Motor and Chrysler Group are cutting out or reducing the annual two-week July shutdown at several plants this summer to add thousands of vehicles to their output.
“We have many plants working at maximum capacity now,” says Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans. “We’re building as many (cars) as we can.” [...]
The automakers’ problem now is one they welcome:
It’s hot demand. Sales for 2012 are estimated at 14.3 million vehicles, according to IHS Automotive, up from 12.8 million last year.
For perspective, vehicles sales were at a 27 year low when President Obama chose to rescue the industry rather than let it fail. Now they’re struggling to keep up with demand.
Mitt Romney, meanwhile, either believes we should have let them go bankrupt or that he deserves credit for their rescue. He’s not really sure. He’ll get back to you after discovering which line polls better.
Mitt Romney debuted a fresh line of bull today, promising 6 percent unemployment by the year 2016. The only problem is the Congressional Budget Office has already projected a 6 percent unemployment rate by 2016 under the current administration’s policies.
Mitt Romney, who often chides President Obama for presiding over unenployment rates above 8%, told TIME that he would get that number down to 6% as president.
Oddly enough, that’s almost exactly where the Congressional Budget Office predicts unemployment will be at the end of the next presidential term. While hardly the most reliable number this far out, CBO’s latest report sees unemployment dropping to the low-sixes in 2016 en route to about 5.5% unemployment by the end of 2017.
You can always count on Mitt Romney to dream big and take the first step into explored territory. To boldly go where other men have gone before.
Nah. He didn’t embarrass the state. Only half of it — the half composed of people with brains in their heads. The Republican half, on the other hand, gobbled it up, anxiously awaiting the results of his wacky racist tinfoil hat crusade to Hawaii.
The new Crossroads GPS ad could be the most lie-packed thing to be produced by the Rove team since the justifications for invading Iraq. Seriously. Benen enumerated the lies and cynicism:
It talks about bailouts, assuming voters won’t know it was Bush/Cheney that rescued Wall Street before Obama took office.
It talks about debt, assuming voters don’t know Mitt Romney’s agenda would raise the debt far more than Obama’s agenda would.
It talks about student loans, assuming voters don’t know that Obama expanded Pell Grants and Romney wants to scrap student loans altogether.
It talks about “job-killing debt,” which as a policy matter, is just idiocy.
It lies about the stimulus; it lies about spending; it lies about health care.
If Obama were such a terrible failure, shouldn’t his Republican critics rely on truths for their attack ads? Why make stuff up if the facts are supposed to be so damning?
Check out this piece of work for yourself. And while you’re watching, imagine you’re an undecided moderate voter who’s not as connected to these issues as you and me.
Again, this confuses the deficit and the debt. Since when did rising debt have anything to do with jobs? Every modern president since Reagan has presided over a remarkable increase in the debt. The difference is in the federal budget deficit where President Obama has trimmed the deficit by $312 billion. The president has cut taxes, cut spending and cut the deficit. He’s also created jobs and the healthcare reform bill will curb increases in costs. The stimulus rescued the economy from another Great Depression. The economy is steadily growing, jobs are being added and the Dow has doubled.
I mean, it’s a total brain-scrambling lie from beginning to end. And people will believe it. They’re suckers.
Mediaite put together a pretty eery montage of cable news lookalikes. In particular, Tamron Hall and Bill O’Reilly are weirdly similar to their celebrity counterparts. And I’ll post this one, because I’m sure it’ll drive Hannity fans crazy.
Ashby posted about this yesterday but I thought I’d weigh in. Again, the official Iowa GOP platform contains the following section:
We insist that a candidate prove that he or she meets all requirements for that office prior to being placed in nomination, including proof of United States citizenship.
They didn’t include the definition of “proof.” Obviously furnishing your official birth certificate isn’t good enough anymore. Nor is a newspaper announcement. Nor is confirmation from the state Department of Health. I think they need videotape — but even that can be altered with CG technology. So I guess what they’re really saying is: if you have a foreign-sounding name and dark skin, you can’t run for office in Iowa.
In other news, according to Fox News President Jabba the Hutt Roger Ailes, we still “don’t know anything” about President Obama.
An obvious wink and a nod to birthers.
After several books, the scrutiny of several campaigns on the left and right, and nearly four years in office, I think we already know everything there is to know about him. At least everything that is relevant to those outside of his family.
Even though he obviously has some issues to overcome, I simply don’t believe the progressive love affair with Newark Mayor Cory Booker is over. On Meet the Press, the popular mayor inexplicably attacked the Obama team for demonizing Mitt Romney’s record with Bain Capital and likened it to the Republicans using Rev. Wright as a campaign issue.
“[F]rom a very personal level, I’m not about to sit here and indict private equity,” Booker said. He continued by saying that he’s “very uncomfortable with” the attacks on Bain. He added, “[T]his kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides.”
Ugh. The “both sides” meme and an infuriatingly false equivalence between Bain and Rev. Wright… CONTINUE READING HERE…
Like Donald Trump before him, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio has dispatched a team of pathetic rent-a-cop whackjobs to the state of Hawaii in search of confirmation that President Obama was born there. Because the word of the state government and all other available evidence just isn’t good enough.
Not to be outdone by the Arizona secretary of state’s recent flirtation with birtherism, Sheriff Joe Arpaio escalated his probe into President Obama’s birth certificate this week by dispatching a deputy from his “threats unit” to Hawaii.
Both the Arizona Republic and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported deputy Brian Mackiewcz traveled with Arpaio’s volunteer posse member Michael Zullo on Monday to try to get an official confirmation that Hawaii has the president’s birth certificate on file. [...]
The Star-Advertiser reported that Zullo and Mackiewcz flashed badges on Monday when they showed up at the Hawaii Department of Health. Mackiewcz apparently also handed over a business card showing he is part of the Arizona sheriff’s “Threats Management Unit.”
It’s long past time for an intervention. Joe Arpaio belongs in a prison cell.
This is clearly racially-motivated, and Arpaio and his band of fascist disciples need to be removed from the stage before they further embarrass the nation.
