JoeStrout wrote:Josh Cryer wrote:All politicians are liars. All politicians are unknown variables. Politicians are "handled" by a feedback. If they *don't* do what they promised they would do, and cannot give a good explaination for their failure, then they may or may not get reelected.
That's certainly been the case for a long time — and is pretty much a plank of the Republican party, leading them not only to
lie extensively about their opposition, but to
claim their opponents are lying, without a single example to point out. Their strategy seems to be: we've been caught lying, so let's accuse them of lying too, so the stupid voters will just conclude that everybody is lying and we won't look so bad..
I saw that article you are pointing out. It is in my opinion an attempt to mislead. Let's look at it.
PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."
THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."
The so called "facts" statement does not disprove Sarah Palin's Statement. She has protected taxpayers from wasteful spending and she did tell Congress "Thanks but No Thanks" for that Bridge to Nowhere.
What is not true ?
PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."
THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation
Major law or reform ? Well, i've heard of McCain\Kennedy, McCain\Feingold, McCain\Feinstein, Grahm\Rudman, Taft\Harltley,
etc. I've never heard of Obama\Lugar, or Obama anything else.
So maybe JIM KUHNHENN considers whatever it is that Obama did as a Major law or reform, but I don't. A difference of opinion on how important something is does not make someone a liar.
Again, what did she say that wasn't true ?
PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."
THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.
Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.
He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.
Both the Brookings institute and the Urban Institute are run by Democrats. (Zoe Baird comes to mind) I don't trust their numbers on anything without coroberation from more credible sources.
Again, this is an attempt to equate a difference of opinion with lying. I personally think her statement is absolutely correct, and in any case JIM KUHNHENN is simply a partisan who is doing his best to portray her as a lying hypocrite.
MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.
THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.
Okay, maybe i'm slow, but using the number "2nd" does not refute the number "20%" Yeah, Sarah didn't put the oil in the Ground, nor did she Extract it personally, so depending on what you mean by the word "Responsible", she's either a liar or she isn't. I think reasonable people understand what was being said and only a (lying to himself) partisan could claim this was "lying."
FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."
THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.
Ronald Reagan once mentioned that he knew Thomas Jefferson, and "Sir, you are no Thomas Jefferson." Peoples reaction wasn't...
You're a LIAR ! You're a LIAR ! it was, ha ha ha... that's pretty funny.
Seriously ? You are gonna fact check a Joke ?
Well, for those of you out there without a sense of humor, the difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom is not lipstick.
Hey, you know what ? I'm tired of pointing out the dishonesty in JIM KUHNHENN's so called "fact checking." How about YOU pick the one that is a lie, and we'll look at it. I've looked at em all, and it looks like Jim is equating differences of opinion with lying, and using straw man tactics to pretend he's proven something.
In my opinion it is JIM KUHNHENN that is lying.
David