Pants on Fire
Dan Petegorsky
Dick Cheney may not be getting any air time at the Republican convention this week – but he more than anyone appears to have left an indelible stamp on the Party and the parade of leaders who’ve spoken thus far. Speaker after speaker displayed a Cheney-like ability to stand before a national audience, look into the cameras, and with a straight face tell lies so transparent that thee minutes on the Internet can disprove them.
One of my favs last night was from Mike Huckabee:
And speaking of Gov. Palin, I am so tired of hearing about her lack of experience. I want to tell you folks something. She got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States.
Keeping to my three-minute rule, I found that:
The total population of Wasilla according to the 2000 census was 5,469.
When Sarah Palin was elected mayor of Wasilla in 1996 she won by 616-413 votes.
Even though Joe Biden dropped out early in his 2008 Presidential bid, his name appeared on many ballots and he still garnered 79,754 votes.
That means Joe Biden actually received more than 129 times the number of votes that Sarah Palin did.
So – here’s my challenge: what are your favorite lies that can be exposed in three minutes on the Internet?
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connect with blueoregon
Sep 4, '08
If the McCain-Palin Energy Plan is going to benefit American Owned companies, encourage American owned start-up companies, and create American jobs; then why was the largest North American Project lease given to a foreign company by Gov. Sarah Palin?
And what, EXACTLY, is "clean coal?"
Sep 4, '08
Telling lies doesn't work well with voters, especially when it comes to ethics investigations and firing respected public servants so you can carry out a vendetta.
Just in on ABC news, more evidence of Palin's lies in Trooper-gate: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5724378&page=1
Contrary to what the wingnut trolls want us to think, this story has legs.
Sep 4, '08
Obama awoke this morning with a moose head in his bed.
Sep 4, '08
My personal fave from last night was when Palin claimed Obama had written two memoirs and yet had authored no major legislation as a state Senator or US Senator. So let's break this down:
No "major" legislation must not include the 2007 Ethics Reform bill? Or the nuke non-proliferation deal with Dick Lugar and Chuck Hagel. Then there are the Illinois' death penalty reforms, one of almost 800 bills he sponsored in the state Senate. He's authored over a hundred bills in the US Senate so far.
But that's not the best lie of Palin-Scully's list. Obama's written one memoir, not two. Audacity of Hope is a policy (lite) book. Meanwhile, McCain's written no fewer than three memoirs.
Sep 4, '08
O authored 3 modest bills in the Senate. He co-sponsored many others.
Sep 4, '08
We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.
Sep 4, '08
Being a community organizer is unimportant, without value to society, is easy, and contemptable.
Sep 4, '08
Giulliani: Obama has never lead anything!
10:58 a.m.
Sep 4, '08
I can't believe anyone hasn't mentioned her repeated lie about being against the Bridge To Nowhere, when in fact, her gubernatorial election was predicated on keeping it.
So I'll just throw that one out there.
11:12 a.m.
Sep 4, '08
And this photo shows Palin crowing about the earmarks she was raking in. "We did well!"
And... $605,000 dollars for a... pedestrian pathway? In a town of less than 6000 people? How many cars do people actually have to dodge up there? And more importantly, what kind of salaries are they paying their pavers? Don't tell me this wasn't just for pure porkbarrel make-work patronage jobs. There's no other explanation.
"Fiscal conservative" indeed. "Reformer" indeed. What a steaming pile of Republican corruption.
Sep 4, '08
Romney talking about hohw we need change in washington: Getting rid of the Liberal control, and giving it to the conservatives. Where has he been the last 8 years?! Democrats only had control of both houses since '07, and the President is still conservative!
Sep 4, '08
Meg says: We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.
Ever been in either of those two cities, troll?
Sep 4, '08
the President is still conservative!
Anyone seen this bumper sticker recently?
"WHAT EXACTLY IS IT THAT CONSERVATIVES ARE CONSERVING?"
I don't know the cirrect answer, except that it is NOT the United States Constitution.
12:01 p.m.
Sep 4, '08
My personal favorite lie was in the film about McCain where it said his "summer gas tax holiday" plan would lower energy prices. That bit of pandering has been widely and thoroughly debunked.
I did however really like Palin's surprising admission that "Osama bin Laden is still out there . . . " Yes, he is. Care to discuss the strategic decisions--Iraq, Iraq, and Iraq--that have extended Ozzie's life for the past 8 years? Care to discuss John McCain's role in making a resurgent Taliban/Al-Qaeda part of our current reality? (The sound of crickets echoes across the Republican convention floor...)
Sep 4, '08
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASILLA - The Matanuska-Susitna area is the methamphetamine capital of Alaska, according to Alaska State Troopers. In 2003, authorities uncovered nine meth labs in the area. Last year (2005), the number increased to 42, said Kyle Young, an investigator with the troopers who works with the Mat-Su narcotics team.
Officials with the Office of Children's Services in Wasilla said the problem affects children. The office receives about 40 calls a month from people reporting abuse or neglect involving some aspect of the highly addictive drug.
I'm sorry, who was the mayor again during this time? Is this really the kind of "experience" we need in office?
Well to conservatives, a meth house is better than no house at all!
Sep 4, '08
I did however really like Palin's surprising admission that "Osama bin Laden is still out there . . . " Yes, he is. Care to discuss the strategic decisions--Iraq, Iraq, and Iraq--that have extended Ozzie's life for the past 8 years?
To the tune of the Yale Fight Song:
Tora Bora, Tora Bora, Tora Bora, Tora Bora, Tora Bora, Tora Bora, Tora Bora, John McCain!
Bullshit! Bullshit! Bow-wow-wow! John ... Mc ... Cain!
Sep 4, '08
"We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco." Janek51, I am with you that is a Big Lie.
Sep 4, '08
Phil Barnhart during A-G primary: John Kroger supports an expansion of Measure 11!
Sep 4, '08
The best (and probably most damaging once it's exposed) lie has to be that she turned down the funds for the "bridge to nowhere".
http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed7/idUSN3125537020080901?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=10112
They simply reclassified the money from "earmark" to "grant", which the state can now use at its discretion. She took the money. Her big "No Thanks" line was a big lie.
Sep 4, '08
Meg, my apologies. I took your citing the quote the wrong way. Sorry!
1:52 p.m.
Sep 4, '08
Yea, I went through last night debunking some of the stuff from Giuliani and Palin's speeches:
http://blogfororegon.com/2008/09/giuliani_iraq_and_its_not_1980s
Sep 4, '08
I missed Mitten's speech, but apparently he wants to keep Al Gore's non-existent jet on the ground.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/04/romney-gore-jet/
2:09 p.m.
Sep 4, '08
Paraphrase -- "I'm always anti-tax and have shrunk government by cutting waste"
vs. $15 million Wasilla sports complex; substituting regressive sales tax & bond borrowing for property taxes w while expanding government.
Yahoo Politico (generally pro-Palin current Wasilla mayor story, but note at bottom what she says about the sports complex).
Perspective from a home-town critic
Anchorage Daily News
Daily Kos on land cost botch and other aspects of sports complex.
Sep 4, '08
How about Sarah saying that parents of special needs children will find an advocate in the McCain White House (i.e., her)...
Only problem was, in the two years she's been governor, she slashed the special-ed budget by something like 65%?
Gee.... with "advocates" like her, who needs enemies?
2:52 p.m.
Sep 4, '08
Wow. I never thought I'd see actual news out of the mainstream media, but have a look at this: On Obama, Earmarks, Palin Less Than Honest
By ABC news!
Clearly, some reporter is going to soon have her ass in a sling for not pushing the GOP party line.
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