American disconnect

Republicans are masters at spinning false facts into tea party "realities" that are deadlocking our government and undermining our nation.

Lies, damn lies and Bob Goodlatte

His nose is growing!

Rep. Bob Goodlatte joins a growing Republican liars' chorus in his recent comments about President Barack Obama being anti-small business. Joined by his crony, Chris Saxman, Bobblehead Bob criticized the president for saying that small businesses owe their success to government.

Thing is, that is not what President Obama said.

Bobblehead Bob and the former delegate deceptively cherry picked President Obama's July 13 speech in Roanoke to make it sound like small businesses can't claim credit for their successes. I guess we might give Bob and Chris a pass - after all their primary source of "news" is probably Fox "News"and it was this propaganda mill that first perpetuated the big lie.

Here is what President Obama actually said with what Fox reported in italics:

[L]ook, if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business -- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don't do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires. 

So we say to ourselves, ever since the founding of this country, you know what, there are some things we do better together. That's how we funded the GI Bill. That's how we created the middle class. That's how we built the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hoover Dam. That's how we invented the Internet. That's how we sent a man to the moon. We rise or fall together as one nation and as one people, and that's the reason I'm running for President -- because I still believe in that idea. You're not on your own, we're in this together.

Fox, the Romney campaign, and Bobblehead Bob have so little good to say about GOP candidates, that they are left with a pitiful strategy of lies and intentional distortion. I guess ginning up some controversy is a good way to distract voters from Romney's foot-in-mouth "diplomacy" where he did everything from insulting America's best friend, to offending Palestinians, and eventually going way off  the GOP message by praising Israel's government controlled health care system.

On July 25, in a segment called "Do We Look Stupid? Don't Answer That," Jon Stewart skewered Fox, the Romney campaign, and all the wing nut talking heads for their willful manipulation of facts:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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If, like me, you are sick and tired of Bobblehead Bob either (1) avoiding issues (the last two times I contacted him I got a off-topic form letter response sending the strong message he doesn't give a whit about constituents' views), or (2) marching in lockstep with Republican lies, or (3) just being a crummy representative, you should know there is a better choice for Virginia's Sixth District. A choice who will listen and give you some straight talk for a change. A choice who really believes in "government of the people, by the people, for the people." That choice is Andy Schmookler.

Truth is a stranger

In much of our politics, be it local, Virginia, or nationwide, the truth has become a stranger.

All politicians of whatever stripe, from whatever era, and manipulating whatever form of government engage in exaggeration and boasts, in selective forgetting and remembering, and in false advertising. But in modern American politics, especially on the Republican side, the truth has become an absolute stranger.

Consider that the forces driving today's GOP reject science (until they need a transplant) in fields such as biology and climatology. They refuse to accept the president's (how many ways can you prove it is valid) birth certificate. Republicans, tea partiers, and their honchos on Fox and talk radio regularly engage in spewing "false facts." Oh, I guess they sound knowledgable and convincing to the ditto heads, but truth has become a stranger. Facts don't matter. Repeat lies often enough and big enough and there are fools who will believe.

As Leonard Pitts noted in a recent column, "...Americans increasingly occupy two realities, one based on the conviction that facts matter, the other on the notion that facts are only what you need them to be in a given moment."

The recent Supreme Court decision on health care has ginned up the Republican "false facts" talking machine to new levels of dishonesty. Mitt Romney, for example, just earned 4 Pinocchios for Romney’s claim on an Obama health care pledge for twisting and perverting the meaning of 2008 campaign statements made by candidate Barack Obama.

Before the ink was close to dry on Chief Justice Roberts' decision, the Fox fact-free zone was deriding the mandate and penalty as a "tax." Arrogant Eric Cantor went into hyper-lie mode as he promised to hold a (political posturing and meaningless) vote on July 11 to repeal Obamacare. Those talking points have filtered down to local tea partiers and wingntus and are being heard on call-in shows and in barber shops in the Shenandoah Valley.

Permit this bird to push back against the distortions and false facts currently littering my nest. I guess the  mandate and penalty in the Affordable Health Care Act is a "tax" in the broad sense that every payment to government is essentially a tax. Shenandoah National Park entrance fees are a "tax." Get caught failing to drive by the rules you get a fine... I mean penalty... I mean "tax." The mandate and penalty in the Affordable Health Care Act is quite similar to the well established principle that if you want to license a car and drive on our government built roads you have to have insurance. If you fail to do so, you must pay a uninsured motorist fee... or a penalty... or a "tax."

Ezra Kline @ The Washington Post.

Another oft repeated Fox/Republican false fact that is making political rounds locally as well as nationally is that Obamacare represents the largest tax increase in history. Wrong. False. Untrue. As the Washington Post's Ezra Kline concludes, "So no, the Affordable Care Act isn’t the 'biggest tax hike in history.' It’s not even the biggest tax hike in the past 60 years. Or 50 years. Or 30 years. Or 20 years."

I'd like to add that the mandate and penalty, if it is a "tax," is (like the uninsured motorist fee) a voluntary tax. You choose to be irresponsible and not be insured... then, and only then, you pay the tax. It is all about personal responsibility and paying your own way. But, we shouldn't be surprised that Republicans only give lip service to personal responsibility and paying the costs of what they want.

In their zest for removing President Obama and putting politics above nation, Republicans appear to have taken to heart the advice of Mark Twin when he wrote in a letter to San Francisco Alta California, dated May 17, 1867, "The most outrageous lies that can be invented will find believers if a man only tells them with all his might."

More Mark Twain wisdom on lying liars and the lies they tell.

Let 'em eat cake

The Republicans have been blocking extension of unemployment compensation. While Virginia's rate of about 6.7% is well below the national unemployment rate of over 9%, the GOP's anti-people, anti-middle class stance is hurting folks here in the 6th District and across the Commonwealth. Their reason - we have to pay for it. I have a suggestion - how about pulling troops out of Iraq? Or, Afghanistan? Running a needless/based on a big lie war (Iraq) or one that can't be won (Afghanistan) have been draining the federal treasury since President Bush got us mired in them.

Time to take care of folks here, in our neighborhoods... people you and I know. Besides, their spending will have a stimulative effect on the economy.

Interesting listening to the Repub talking heads on talk shows over the weekend and today. They all call for cutting the budget but none of them - NOT ONE - will say specifically what they'd cut. Reminds me of Nixon's "secret plan" to end the war in Vietnam. A lie then. Lies now.

Republican lies about VA economics

If you listen to the chicken sh*t being spread by Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling, and Republican spin masters (liars), you'd think the Commonwealth of Virginia is a high tax state, run inefficiently, and deep in debt. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, Virginia ranks as one of the highest states in per capita income and well below the national average in tax burden. Under Governor Mark Warner and Governor Tim Kaine, Virginia has won accolades for state government management, delivering a quality education, and creating a business-friendly environment. As the Washington Post points out:

In fact, the Republican rhetoric points to a real dilemma for its own candidates: how to reconcile the fact that Virginia is regularly ranked among the best-managed states, the best states in which to raise a family and the best states in which to do business with the fact that it has been run by Democratic governors for the past eight years.

After eight years of George Allen and Jim Gilmore Virginia was in the dumper... the budget in shambles, the bond rating tanking, schools declining, local governments in disarray. Then came the rescue by Mark Warner and Tim Kaine; supported by quality legislators like Creigh Deeds carrying the flag in the Virginia Senate and Jody Wagner crunching the numbers as Secretary of Finance.

In the last weeks of this strange campaign, Virginians will focus like a laser beam on truth and reality. Republican lies will bubble to the surface like spilt oil in a farm pond. Watch for these races to tighten up quickly.

Pond Scum

I received this photoshopped picture in my U.S. Postal Service mailbox today. The envelope was postmarked Charlottesville, which could be many places in central Virginia or the Shenandoah Valley. Of course, the cowardly pussy who sent it didn't include a return address or sign his/her disgusting note, printed in bright red, which read:

I THOUGHT THAT

YOU AND ALL OF

YOUR NUTTY,

ANTI-AMERICAN LIBERAL

FRIENDS WOULD ENJOY THIS.

EVEN THIS JOB IS ABOVE

B.O.'S PAY GRADE!!!!!

The original of the photograph is below. It is the creative work of Ted Szukalski who has a great website of his creative and original photographs. He is appalled that his copyrighted work is now being used for obscene political purposes. Szukalski says:

It is not often that I would post the same image twice in my stories. However , this photo of the homeless man and a women has become part of dirty tricks in American presidential campaign.

Someone has doctored this image to portrait Barack Obama as the shoe shine man and Sara Palin as his customer. This altered image is being circulated via email in USA. The perpetrator of this plagiarism left my copyright notice, which contains the address of this website, thus implying it was my original work. This is quite a low act as it involuntarily involves me and my photographic work in American presidential campaign, which I honestly do not know much about nor do I follow it. I certainly do not have favourite views either for American Democrats or Republicans.

I would like to assure both senator Barack Obama and Alaska’s Governor Sarah Palin that the altered image has not been created, authorised, endorsed or distributed by me.

I'll save this in my collection of hate in the Shenandoah Valley. Along with the Obama sign spray painted with "KKK." Along with the Obama/Warner/Rasoul sign with "nigger" painted over Obama's name. Along with my phone message that shouted "nigger lover."

The Shenandoah Valley has beautiful scenery and many wonderful people. But, in our midst are a few hateful racists. People who have been encouraged by the mean-spirited McCain/Palin rhetoric. Haters that are kept at arm's length but are nevertheless encouraged by some local Republicans. Low life pond scum who have no appreciation or idea of what it means to live in a democracy.

For shame, Shenandoah Valley. You see yourself as a Christian area who loves your neighbor and treats others as you want to be treated, but at the same time some among us aid and abet racists who do these disgusting things. Or you look the other way. I'm not sure which is worse - being evil or being silent in the face of evil. 

Daily Slur

The Daily News-Record editorial page is a daily regurgitation of bile flung (usually) at Tim Kaine, Barack Obama, and anyone the editors deem liberals (which is all Democrats and any Republican to the left of Newt Gingrich). At least they aren't so happy with McCain either, especially since, gasp, his "Left Talk Express" has a (inadequate) plan to deal with climate change and environmental issues.

This week, the DNR editors put out this below the belt crap:

Edward Luttwak, writing in The New York Times on May 12, makes a few interesting points about Sen. Barack Obama, the Democrat presdential candidate. Speaking of Mr. Obama's professed Christianity, Luttwak writes that Islam does not recognize Mr. Obama's conversion, which could be problematic for a President Obama.

"Like all monotheistic religions, Islam is an exclusive faith," Mr. Luttwak wrote.

"As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran, his mother's Christian background is irrelevant. ...

"His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is ‘irtidad' or ‘ridda,' usually translated from the Arabic as "apostasy," but with connotations of rebellion and treason. Indeed, it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder (which the victim's family may choose to forgive)."

All of which means, Luttwak says, that providing security for a President Obama on a visit to a Muslim country would be ticklish "because the very act of protecting him would be sinful for Islamic security guards. More broadly, most citizens of the Islamic world would be horrified by the fact of Senator Obama's conversion to Christianity once it became widely known — as it would, no doubt, should he win the White House."

This truth, should not, Luttwak observes, affect whether a voter casts his ballot for Mr. Obama. But it does mean a President Obama's miraculously smoothing relations with the Islamic world isn't the certainty some observers say it is.

A sampling of the interesting comments on the DNR's online forum (join in with your own):

"... DNR, racism has no shame..."

"So which is it? Is he a secret Muslim that we have to fear, or a Christian who converted from Islam and we need to fear FOR him? Can't have it both ways."

"'Obama's professed Christianity.' You must be implying that he is some sort of manchurian Muslim candidate. False, wrong, and shame on you..."

"The best part (OK, I'll grant you there's a lot of best parts in this short piece) is how the DNR decides that we Christians should recognize Koran teachings and disregard Obama's mother's faith..."

The Daily News Record is a pretty solid in reporting local and state news. Too bad they have the right wing monkey cage running the editorial room.