Lies, Lies, Lies.

Tom Coburn is a lying sack of shit.

As Republican lies on health care go, this one's pretty despicable.
For one thing, Coburn doesn't understand what the Preventive Services Task Force said -- the mammogram recommendation had to do with research-based standards, not cost.

More important, though, the legislation's provision on a 5% tax on elective cosmetic surgery clearly excludes procedures for those with congenital abnormalities, disfiguring diseases, or traumatic injuries. Anyone requiring reconstructive surgery resulting from accidents or diseases would be exempt.

There is no "5% tax on the breast reconstruction surgery after they had a mastectomy." Coburn's making it up, hoping no one notices how offensive his lying really is.

There is no depth to which the Republican party will not stoop in defense of their corporate brethren in the parasitic health insurance industry.

The Just Say No Crowd

The modern Republican party, be it in or out of power, has a single strength: playing the role of the obstructionist opposition. For the sake of it. In power, they hold up straw men and push though policies intended to fix problems that don't exist, while annihilating the ability of government to function effectively.

Out of power, it looks like this:

In the midst of an economic crisis, the GOP and its allies have convinced a whole lot of people that the only sensible recovery plan is a bad idea. The minority party has not only persuaded news outlets to give them airtime to spew this obviously-ridiculous nonsense, they've also convinced a lot of media figures that they're right.

I do wonder if they have any clear idea of the potential, even likely consequences of doing nothing about the imminent global economic collapse, already well in progress. If they do, then their actions are criminal. If they don't, then we are in deep deep trouble.

"Liberal" Is Equivlaent To "Traitor"

This Representative from Minnesota is quite special.



The money quote:

What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or Anti-America? I think the American people would love to see an expose like that.

Joe would be so proud!

To The Reichstag!

Put Godwin aside, for the moment.

Consider the recent assertions by the McCain/Palin campaign that Senator Obama is "palling around with terrorists". It has been spoken by Palin at her rallies, spurring cries of "terrorist!" and "kill him!". The locals who introduce either candidate continue the disingenuous maneuver of using Obama's middle name every time they mention him, in an effort to paint him as "other". McCain has just released an ad for the web (which inevitably get lots of free air time on the various cable news programs - talk about return on the dollar!) which reaffirms that Obama is friends with a violent terrorist and "cannot be trusted" with the presidency.

They say this:



And people believe it:



I realize we are not in second grade any more, but go ahead and take a moment to read that over again, and really contemplate what it means. A major party candidate for the highest office in the land, and possibly the most powerful office on earth, is accusing his opponent of being a sworn enemy of his own country. That is exactly what those statements and ads amount to - an accusation of murderous treason on the part of a US Senator with aspirations on the presidency.

And those making these assertions know full well there is not a shred of truth in them.

So while I am not usually inclined to make a serious comparison between the Republican party and the Nazis, I am free to make it now, and it sticks. This is the "Big Lie" tactic, where one political party or figure asserts the other party or candidate is in fact, the enemy, a person who intends to commit treason and destroy his own country. Not content to frighten Americans with "the terrorists" from some foreign land, they have moved to equating a fellow serving senator with those who really would strap on a bomb or steal an airliner and murder American citizens. It is astonishing when you really consider the magnitude of the accusation, and the likely ripple effects it is engendering now that will be in play well after McCain loses the election and returns to the senate.

Bereft in this campaign without a policy leg left to stand on, they have descended to the lowest form of political discourse, beyond the usual shots at character involving hints and allegations of financial wrongdoing or sketchy family background. This entire "Obama is a terrorist" meme is directly on par with the "he's a Jew" or "he's a communist" labels used in Germany in the 1930's to paint people as enemies of the state and all good Germans everywhere. There is absolutely no substantive difference between what the Brown shirts were doing then, and what McCain, Palin, and their campaign surrogates are engaged in today.

True Left

You read and hear all the time about how far to the left Barack Obama is. This is a standard canard of the Republicans during presidential campaigns, (never true) designed to convince stupid voters who cannot think for themselves that the Democratic nominee is some sort of flaming commie stooge. Of course it is a naked lie, no matter how many time they repeat it.

This year's version goes thusly:

"Senator Orrin Hatch appeared and took this recurring shot used by the Republican attack dogs: "In all honesty the two Democrats are very fine people but they both are extremely left. They are both to the left of Bernie Sanders, who is the socialist from Vermont, if that doesn't tell you something I don't know what does. If you use the term liberal it really means something here."

Of course, neither the candidate's voting records nor their stated and practiced political philosophy proves this point - to the contrary they explicitly debunk it.

And Bernie Sanders has something to say about this:

Q: As far as this redbating goes, what do you think Republicans are trying to scare people about – about you?

A: First of all, is they assume that when people hear the word socialist what they are talking about is the Soviet Union and communism. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders wants to renegotiate permanent normal trade relations with China – and George Bush just loves it by the way, and corporate America loves and is very proud of investing tens of billions of dollars in China, rather than in the United States, which is an interesting irony. And the Chamber of Commerce is very upset that the Chinese government wants to liberalize labor law in China, interestingly enough. You know, clearly what they are trying to do is what they always do, is confuse the social democratic policies which have been very successful in countries like Finland, Denmark, Sweden, other European countries – which guarantee healthcare to all people through a national healthcare program; which make sure that preschool education is available to all working families regardless of income; where in most cases college education is free or very inexpensive; where workers have more vacation time than they do in the United States; where unions are stronger… So, instead of looking at what goes on in some of the social democratic countries, which have virtually eliminated childhood poverty, while we have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world – instead of looking at those policies, what they do is say, "This is socialism." Socialism we equate with communism, or authoritarianism, and lack of democracy. So, it's not a new tactic, it's been going on for about 40 or 50 years.

Now that's true left!

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