The Lying Game

It has become painfully obvious, that John McCain has gone beyond stretching the truth in his ads. Factcheck.org, The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, The Associated Press and many more news agencies and independent groups have proven facts that explain where and when he has lied. What's more offensive about this, is that even when confronted with lies, both Palin and McCain refuse to acknowledge them as being lies. They continue to use the same lines. Does the McCain campaign think the American people are stupid?

This leads to the further question, do we really want a team of people whose path to the White House is paved by deceiving the public? If it were just a reasonable stretch of the truth, I could deal with it. I use the example of Obama's claim that John McCain would leave 100 million Americans without a tax cut. The actual number is closer to 90 million depending on your math, and I don't see a big deal with just saying 90 instead of 100. It is still a large number that should effectively get the point across. McCain has been destroying the truth


1. Obama called Palin a pig. No, he used the "lipstick on a pig" phrase as a description of his policies and how they compare to the policies of the last 8 years.

2. Palin runs a state where she controls 20% of the US domestic production of energy, this gives her great insight into everything from global warming to national security. No, her state produces 14% of all the oil wells in the US and and 1.9% of natural gas. Alaska produces 3.5% of all domestic energy production. Not 20% by even a stretch of the imagination.

3. Palin is the anti-earmark Governor, has never taken earmarks as Governor. She's against them now, but she asked for almost $300 per citizen of Alaska in federal earmarks this year, more than any other state per capita. She has reduced Alaska's requests for earmarks, but still has way more than 0. She also hired a lobbyist that allowed her to get $27 million for a 9000 person town that she was mayor of.

4. The Obama campaign is responsible for many of the negative rumors surrounding the GOP's VP pick. Factcheck.org was particularly miffed at this one. McCain used their banner and quoted their article to make this claim. There was a small problem, the article said exactly the opposite. The article stated that Obama had nothing to do with various internet rumors, just as McCain was not responsible for rumors about Obama.

5. Obama wanted to teach 5 yearolds about sex. Nope, not even close. Obama voted in support of a bill that would offer "age appropriate sex education" for various age groups. For the kindergartners this would amount to small discussion on inappropriate touching and being careful of strangers and potential predators. Several of McCain's managers have viciously tried to spread this lie, even while being confronted with the truth. This bill it might be added, never was passed into law.

6. Palin was always against the "bridge to nowhere." Not quite. Sarah Palin said on October 29, 2006; "I support these infrastructure projects. It will build Alaska, and it's cheaper to do it today than it is tomorrow." Once the bridge became more expensive, was highlighted by government spending watchdogs and it became a symbol of federal waste, she came out against it. She did keep the money though, and used it for other projects.

This is just a sampling of what has happened in the last week. Hopefully the next week will bring some honesty so we can look at the real issues, instead of questioning the validity of attack ads. ...Read more

Back from the RW&B

So, I’ve been on a vacation of sorts for the last 12 days. I made a last minute visit to my family. I’m typing up a bunch of stuff while on the plane ride back to Japan, so you’ll see it a few hours after I get back.

The big news, Sarah Palin. A hockey-mom from Alaska, governor for the last 20 months and former mayor of a small town in the same state. She bolsters McCain’s credit with conservatives, but the main goal of the choice was clearly to go after Clinton’s followers. While he will deny it, it has been obvious in both of their speeches, with references to several of Hillary’s statements and/or speeches. The one I found startling, or even amusing, was that Palin claimed that by her being elected VP, with McCain as president, that she would essentially crack the “glass ceiling” that Hillary could not. Last time I check, Hillary wasn’t willing to settle for the number two spot on the ticket. Even if the Republicans win, that ceiling will still be in place.

Right after the RNC, it came out that her 17 year-old daughter was pregnant. Of course this should pose a problem for a conservative pushing for “family values.” Her removal of a police administrator who refused to fire a police officer who divorced her sister has become a hot topic as well. Also, her involvement with the indicted senator Ted Stevens is being questioned, along with her running of his 527 political action group. The last piece I will talk about, is her experience, or more precisely, the lack there of.

She has less experience in all of her years in various government positions that Obama, but they still are saying that he is inexperienced. One reason I heard for this, was that she had experience running a government, being in charge. Well, being in charge of a state for 20 months and spending at least two months of that on maternity leave isn’t a whole lot. I had 3 years of experience managing a team at Starbucks. By the Republican standard, I should have almost as much experience as Palin.

I heard a great excuse to cover her foreign policy shortcomings, she’s close to Russia. Jon Stewart said it best, “by that logic, she’s close to the north pole so she must know Santa Claus.” The idea that she would have foreign policy experience by being close to another country is ludicrous. The idea that they complain about Obama’s experience is even more so. We shall see how they’re attacks change, and how Palin finally handles an interview when Charlie Gibson talks to her on Wednesday. Hopefully ABC will be less biased than the last Democratic primary debate.

...Read more