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You are here: Home / PolitiWhores

PolitiWhores

by DougJ|  April 21, 20113:05 pm| 93 Comments

This post is in: Both Sides Do It!, Our Failed Media Experiment

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No one could have predicted that PolitiFact would eventually decide that the only way to be fair and balanced is to carry water for Republicans. Both sides do it, shape of earth views differ. Wash, rinse, repeat.

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Reader Interactions

93Comments

  1. 1.

    The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    April 21, 2011 at 3:10 pm

    This is obviously Maddow’s fault, she hurt Politifact’s fee-fees enough that they figure all Dems must be lying assholes or something.

  2. 2.

    Tonal Crow

    April 21, 2011 at 3:14 pm

    This is good news for John McCain, no Douthat about it.

  3. 3.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 21, 2011 at 3:14 pm

    Lying Rethuglican scum. That’s Politifact.

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 21, 2011 at 3:14 pm

    Lying Rethuglican scum. That’s Politifact.

  5. 5.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    April 21, 2011 at 3:15 pm

    They started to go all Broderish sometime last year. WTF? It was a fun read for a couple of months there. Idiots

  6. 6.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    April 21, 2011 at 3:15 pm

    And raising taxes is not class warfare because we refuse to label it as such.

  7. 7.

    ruemara

    April 21, 2011 at 3:16 pm

    Look, media makes you a whore. It’s simply thus. I’m not sure why this is a surprise.

  8. 8.

    MikeJ

    April 21, 2011 at 3:17 pm

    If the republicans cut all the funds to medicare and renamed the program “medicare and a nice bowl of soup” would it be unfair to say the republicans voted to end medicare, or would we have to say that they added a bowl of soup?

  9. 9.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    April 21, 2011 at 3:18 pm

    Walt Whitman didn’t get his Medicare and look what happened to him; he ended up DEAD!

  10. 10.

    kerFuFFler

    April 21, 2011 at 3:19 pm

    Disgusting! Chait takes them to the woodshed at The New Republic over this.

    http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/87146/politifact-goes-the-deep-end

  11. 11.

    Mark S.

    April 21, 2011 at 3:22 pm

    So if I were a governor and I closed all the public schools and gave out (inadequate) vouchers for children to attend private schools, Politifact would defend me if my opponents accused me of ending public education in my state.

    Most of these fact-checking operations are terrible. They can be incredibly anal at times (some incredibly trivial point will make a statement “half-true”) and some of their writers have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

  12. 12.

    jrg

    April 21, 2011 at 3:24 pm

    Politifact has a point. If I were to name one of my testes “Medicare”, it would be factually incorrect to say that congressional Republicans voted to “end Medicare”.

    Similarly, if the GOP were to replace Medicare with a bag of pork rinds, but continued to call it “Medicare”, Dems would be flat-out, pants-on-fire lying if they said the GOP voted to end it.

  13. 13.

    piratedan

    April 21, 2011 at 3:25 pm

    @ruemara: yeah, but who’s getting “fucked”, I’d say that they’re more like pimps, keeping the frozen words of Broder alive via the usual false equivalencies methodology. You say a lie, it’s “partly true”, I tell a lie and i’m a “pants on fire liar”

  14. 14.

    kerFuFFler

    April 21, 2011 at 3:25 pm

    @MikeJ:

    If the republicans cut all the funds to medicare and renamed the program “medicare and a nice bowl of soup” would it be unfair to say the republicans voted to end medicare, or would we have to say that they added a bowl of soup?

    Perfect! I just wonder how often they’d say “no soup for you!”

  15. 15.

    Sasha

    April 21, 2011 at 3:28 pm

    PoliFact is a project of the St. Petersburg Times, which is published by the Times Publishing Company, which is owned by The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a nonprofit journalism school. They’re not profit/shareholder-driven and, in theory, not beholden to any ideology.

    Hopefully, they will realize their error and they will correct.

  16. 16.

    gypsy howell

    April 21, 2011 at 3:31 pm

    I just had a screaming argument (well, it felt that way in my head) with one of Jim Gerlach’s (R-PA) minions in DC, who emphatically told me Gerlach’s vote for the Ryan Plan was NOT a vote to abolish medicare. No sirree. No it wasn’t. Nope Nope Nope. And they aren’t vouchers either. No they are NOT! They are not called vouchers. It is not a voucher plan. No it isn’t. Because it just isn’t. They don’t call it that. So it isn’t.

  17. 17.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    April 21, 2011 at 3:31 pm

    Maybe the biggest sin here is operations like Politifact perpetuate the myth that there can be facts independent of interpretation. Journalism generally cleaves to this view.

  18. 18.

    jl

    April 21, 2011 at 3:32 pm

    I do not care for these ‘fact checkers’ who slap stupid scores on the results. These sites sometimes give useful info, but they have the air of those ‘reasonable moderates’ who define reasonable as agreeing with everything they say.

    This part of Politifact is just wrong, or garbled:

    “Another problem with the ad is that it claims that participants would have to find $12,500 to pay for Medicare.”

    Politifact does not contradict this claim at all, but mumbles about the increase in costs would be about six thousand. Well, Ok, Politifact wants to concentrate on the increase, but where did the add call the twelve thousand an increase?

    The bit about premiums will increase every year, without mentioning that the increase will not match historical increases in medical care. And that is how costs will be brought down, but millions of elderly not being able to afford procedures under the standard plan.

    My score on this Politifact conclusion: not worth squat.

    By Politico’s standards I could slowly poison the entire Balloon Juice front pagers, and not be guilty of murder because I had not ended anyone’s life, only life as we know it.

  19. 19.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    April 21, 2011 at 3:33 pm

    @Mark S.:

    These fact-checking operations are terrible.

    They’ve taken on a Sisyphean task. Honestly, I don’t know if anybody really has the smarts and the patience and the guts and the sheer staying power to set themselves up as an arbiter of objective fact these days, and keep at it for any length of time. There harder you work at trying to do the job right the higher value a target you become and the more you are going to attract howler monkeys determined to game the system by pressuring you to be “fair and balanced”. It is like trying to run a bank vault in a world where everything is built out of paperclips and tissue paper.

    Objective reality is dead by homicide.

  20. 20.

    Woodrow L. Goode, IV

    April 21, 2011 at 3:33 pm

    @Sasha: That’s not correct. Politifact, which is operated by the St. Petersburg Times, has begun syndicating its content to local newspapers.

    To name one customer, America’s Worst Newspaper subscribes.

    Yeah, I linked to the evil ones. Mordre moi. I wasn’t going to spend ten minutes looking for a suitable link.

    When truth becopmes a revenue stream– and people can decide not to pay for it if readers don’t like what is being said– it gets tailored to the needs of the market.

    Factcheck.org, which isn’t for-profit, is a much better place to get your truth.

  21. 21.

    Lolis

    April 21, 2011 at 3:34 pm

    I could see them claiming it was some form of rhetorical flourish if they wanted to be technical but claiming a Pants of Fire lie is ridiculous. This plan does end Medicare as we know it. Most people with a brain recognize it destroys the safety net. Dems are right on this.

  22. 22.

    Thad

    April 21, 2011 at 3:37 pm

    I just sent the following feedback to [email protected]:

    I have long appreciated your work and thought well of your impartiality and objective nature, but I am VERY disappointed in some of your recent work. Specifically, you really blew it when rating the Democratic ad that states: “Seniors will have to find $12,500 for health care because Republicans voted to end Medicare.” Pants on fire? Really? Replacing Medicare with a voucher system of the same name is ENDING Medicare. If I replace the US Postal Service with a system to distribute FedEx and UPS coupons but get rid of all the actual post offices and mail carriers, I’ve actually ended the USPS no matter if I keep the name.

    Medicare is a public, single payer health insurance program. If you instead take those taxes and shovel them into vouchers for private insurance, you’ve ended Medicare. Period. Perhaps if you had labeled
    this one ‘half true’ because the language was imprecise, I might have bought it… but ‘pants on fire’?

    You’ve lost all credibility.

  23. 23.

    ppcli

    April 21, 2011 at 3:39 pm

    @Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):

    Maybe the biggest sin here is operations like Politifact perpetuate the myth that there can be facts independent of interpretation.

    Huh? Somebody says that revenue increased whenever Reagan cut taxes, and I say that’s not true. Are you saying this is just a conflict of interpretations, that there’s no genuine fact of the matter, that neither of us is more right, objectively, than the other?

  24. 24.

    Midnight Marauder

    April 21, 2011 at 3:45 pm

    @Sasha:

    Hopefully, they will realize their error and they will correct.

    I find it to be more telling that the error even occurred in the first place. How obtuse do you have to be to even make an argument like Politifact put forth? I mean, this is the kind of inanity we are talking about here:

    2. Politifact: “Republicans say that future spending projections for Medicare are not sustainable, and the program requires changes.”
    __
    Obviously this has no relevance to the truth of the Democrats’ ad.

  25. 25.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    April 21, 2011 at 3:47 pm

    @ppcli: Not at all. But you rightly see the lack of clarity in my comment. Strike facts and replace it with “reporting.” Better?

  26. 26.

    Shoemaker-Levy 9

    April 21, 2011 at 3:49 pm

    I’ve said something like this before, but the few times I’ve read Politifact items I found them to be poorly thought out, reeking of “journalese” rather than expertise, and with a grading system that is utterly incoherent. This also applies to items where I ostensibly agreed with the conclusion, by the way. Politifact rates a “Fail” in my book and we’d be better off with the “he-said-she-said” horseshit from mainstream outlets than an unreliable fact-checker.

  27. 27.

    OzoneR

    April 21, 2011 at 3:52 pm

    Boy, can’t wait to hear how this is Obama’s fault. If only he had done a speech slamming the Republicans’ budget and plans to privatize Medicare, but since he didn’t…

    Oh well

  28. 28.

    Tonal Crow

    April 21, 2011 at 3:52 pm

    @Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):

    Maybe the biggest sin here is operations like Politifact perpetuate the myth that there can be facts independent of interpretation. Journalism generally cleaves to this view.

    It’s becoming increasingly difficult to discriminate snark from earnestly-held belief here. But if that wasn’t snark, putting your finger in a candle flame for a few seconds should disabuse you of some incorrect notions.

  29. 29.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 21, 2011 at 3:55 pm

    Isn’t Politifact just making the point that Republicans have no plans to end Medicare for current recipients slash Republican voters?

  30. 30.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    April 21, 2011 at 3:56 pm

    @Tonal Crow: See #25

    Edit: Also see Hume, inductive reasoning.

  31. 31.

    ppcli

    April 21, 2011 at 3:58 pm

    @Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): I don’t mind that. Sorry if I seemed cranky – there’s a lot of (what strikes me as) sophomoric and poorly thought out relativism around the university that drives me up a wall, and this pressed my buttons. [Also, this kind of “There’s no objective reality or truth, as Kuhn has shown” view has been picked up by the more broadly read of the anti-science rightwingers to regrettable effect – if everything is social construction then what privileged place do evolution, accepted climate science, etc. have?]

  32. 32.

    SteveinSC

    April 21, 2011 at 4:05 pm

    Wisconsin Supreme Court challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg asked election officials Wednesday for a statewide recount in her flagging upset bid against Justice David Prosser,…

    An AP story from HuffPo a day or so ago. What part of Kloppenburg’s challenging of the election result is an indication of “flagging?” The AP, America’s Fifth Column news source.

  33. 33.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    April 21, 2011 at 4:05 pm

    @ppcli: I feel ya. As a child of the late 20thC, relativism is part of my mental toolbox. For better or worse, it’s in there.

  34. 34.

    OzoneR

    April 21, 2011 at 4:06 pm

    in all seriousness, what moron didn’t think the Democrats were going to flayed like a prized tuna for doing something Republicans get away with all the time and are occasionally called heroes and winners for doing?

  35. 35.

    Upper West

    April 21, 2011 at 4:06 pm

    On the other hand, the Jon Kyl “90% of Planned Parenthood’s work is abortions” lie only merited the level below “pants on fire.”

    What does a lie have to do to get a pants on fire around here?

  36. 36.

    Midnight Marauder

    April 21, 2011 at 4:06 pm

    I just read this over at TPM:

    If my memory serves — and perhaps someone can find the link for me — Politifact was similarly bamboozled by President Bush’s efforts to partially phase out Social Security.

    and it reminded me that Politifact was “bamboozled” in much the same manner not all that long ago.

    Democrats jumped on a comment that Sen. John McCain made at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire on June 12, 2008.
    __
    “I am not for quote ‘privatization of Social Security.’ I never have been, never will be,” McCain said in answer to a voter question.
    __
    The Democratic National Committee quickly spliced that video onto file video of McCain on C-Span.
    __
    “Without privatization, I don’t see how you can possibly over time make sure that young Americans are able to receive Social Security benefits,” he said in 2004.
    __
    The 26-second spot wraps up with a photo of McCain and George W. Bush, and audio of a crowd shouting “Four more years!”
    __
    Seems like an obvious flip-flop, right?
    __
    Not so fast.
    __
    The DNC ad truncates McCain’s remarks at the 2008 town hall. The Nashua (N.H.) Telegram reported the following exchange:
    […]
    ‘I am not for quote “privatization” of Social Security. I never have been, never will be. That is a great buzzword for an attack,’ McCain shot back.
    __
    ‘Workers should have the right to put their own taxes, their own money into an account. If they don’t want to, don’t do it.'”
    __
    McCain’s rejection of the word privatization goes back to President George W. Bush’s 2005 push to allow workers to divert a portion of the program’s payroll taxes to personal investment accounts. The thinking was that private accounts would give younger workers the ability to manage their retirement nest eggs without government interference and it would keep the system solvent.
    __
    McCain supported Bush’s plan, going so far as to accompany the president on a series of town hall meetings in March 2005.

    They ended up rating the claim from Democrats as “half-true.”

    Yep, we’ve played this game before.

  37. 37.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 21, 2011 at 4:07 pm

    @OzoneR:

    in all seriousness, what moron didn’t think the Democrats were going to flayed like a prized tuna for doing something Republicans get away with all the time and are occasionally called heroes and winners for doing?

    Nick woulda totally called it.

  38. 38.

    Midnight Marauder

    April 21, 2011 at 4:09 pm

    @Upper West:

    On the other hand, the Jon Kyl “90% of Planned Parenthood’s work is abortions” lie only merited the level below “pants on fire.”
    __
    What does a lie have to do to get a pants on fire around here?

    Utterly astounding. These people are straight up clowns.

    We should note a few caveats.
    __
    First, we think many people would acknowledge a difference between providing an abortion and, say, handing out a pack of condoms or conducting a blood test. The former is a significant surgical procedure, whereas the latter are quick and inexpensive services. So Planned Parenthood’s use of “services” as its yardstick likely decreases abortion’s prominence compared to what other measurements would show. Using dollars spent or hours devoted to patient care would likely put abortion above 3 percent in the calculations.
    __
    Second, it’s worth noting that Planned Parenthood self-reported these numbers, although the group says each affiliate’s numbers are independently audited. (There is no single, national audit.) So we have no choice but to accept their accuracy more or less on faith.
    __
    Still, even with those caveats, we do think that Kyl has vastly overstated the share of abortions.
    __
    We checked with Kyl’s office but did not hear back. However, a few hours after the speech, CNN anchor T.J. Holmes told viewers that the network had received a statement from Kyl’s office saying that the senator’s remark “was not intended to be a factual statement but rather to illustrate that Planned Parenthood, an organization that receives millions in taxpayer dollars, does subsidize abortions.”
    __
    The statistics from Planned Parenthood and the statement from Kyl’s office make it clear that he erred by saying abortion counts for well over 90 percent of the group’s services. We find his claim False.

  39. 39.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    April 21, 2011 at 4:09 pm

    @ppcli: But I score points for not invoking quantum, Heisenberg etc. Right?

  40. 40.

    OzoneR

    April 21, 2011 at 4:10 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Nick woulda totally called it.

    you really need to get over this obsession with this Nick guy, it’s just weird.

  41. 41.

    bemused

    April 21, 2011 at 4:11 pm

    @gypsy howell:

    Ha, ha. Gee, where have I heard the word voucher before, from Paul Ryan himself perhaps? The staff person sounds like a little kid who swears he didn’t eat any of the brownies with chocolate smeared all over his face.

    Truly ridiculous people.

  42. 42.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    April 21, 2011 at 4:14 pm

    @Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):

    But I score points for not invoking quantum, Heisenberg etc. Right?

    “The Dancing Wu Li Masters made me do it” is a catchall Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card that comes in handy from time to time.

  43. 43.

    Uloborus

    April 21, 2011 at 4:15 pm

    @jrg:
    That’s really the kind of crap they’ve been doing. I noticed (and realized Politifact was no longer trustworthy) when they agreed that ‘job-killing’ is a factual description of the ACA because 39,000 jobs are calculated to be rendered obsolete and removed in the beaurocratic reorganization it will involve. No mention of affects on jobs at large in the economy, which is the actual implication of ‘job-killing’. No mention even of whether the reorganization would create new jobs.

  44. 44.

    ppcli

    April 21, 2011 at 4:16 pm

    @Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
    Absolutely. Nor Gödel’s theorem. Points for that too. [Though the remark about Hume on induction had me gritting my teeth. Still, even for this blog a scholarly argument about Hume’s treatment of induction in the Treatise and Inquiry would be something of an off-topic digression. So let’s just agree to call that one a “grandmaster draw”.]

  45. 45.

    Mark S.

    April 21, 2011 at 4:20 pm

    @Midnight Marauder:

    Still, even with those caveats, we do think that Kyl has vastly overstated the share of abortions.

    Ya think? What fucking jackasses.

  46. 46.

    flounder

    April 21, 2011 at 4:21 pm

    I remember reading this Politifact article about Michael Moore’s statement that the richest 400 Americans have more wealth than the lowest 50% of the population, and thinking that even though P-fact rated his statement as “true”, they took a really snide and dick-ish tone in doing so. I basically came to the conclusion that they aren’t interested in fact-checking, they are interested in hippie-punching.
    http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/mar/10/michael-moore/michael-moore-says-400-americans-have-more-wealth-/

  47. 47.

    jl

    April 21, 2011 at 4:23 pm

    Does anyone know what is up with Politifact?

    I mean, in terms of how do the really decide what the ratings will be?

    Is there a balance test for their conclusions, so they can retain their cred as ‘Serious’?

    Are the radical moderates (aka eccentrically opinionated clowns a la Perot)?

    Wikipedia says Politifact is run by the St. Petersburg Times (and effing newspaper, not that there is anything wrong with that).

    I think the Times is run by a local nonprofit. (Basically it run by academic journalist wonks? Is that right?).

    So, as far as I can tell, Politifact is one newspaper’s opinion, and probably a lot of conventional journalist editorial balance BS goes into deciding what the conclusions are. Wikipedia has a list of disputes that show both Dems and GOPers complaining it is biased, but I don’t have time to read it now.

  48. 48.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    April 21, 2011 at 4:23 pm

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Quantum mysticism? Nice. If I’d thought of that circa 1979, I’d be typing this from my private jet.

    “grandmaster draw”

    I am a total punter in the world of philosophy. An enthusiastic, but self educated amateur. Happy to be corrected.

  49. 49.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 21, 2011 at 4:23 pm

    @OzoneR:

    you really need to get over this obsession with this Nick guy, it’s just weird.

    What’s even weirder is the way you forget to capitalize the first words in your sentences like Nick used to do and how you always say exactly what Nick would say if he hadn’t run off in disgrace after getting busted for being a bad faith actor the same day you showed up. Now that’s pretty fucking weird, doncha think? There’s weird and then there’s weird.

  50. 50.

    jl

    April 21, 2011 at 4:24 pm

    @flounder: They are interested in self promoting.

  51. 51.

    Redshift

    April 21, 2011 at 4:24 pm

    This was the part that pissed me off the most:

    All seniors would continue to be offered coverage under the proposal

    Really? What part of the Ryan proposal guarantees that seniors will continue to be offered coverage as the value of their voucher falls continues to fall behind what others are paying? Especially considering that “mandates” of any kind are toxic to conservatives?

    But wait, perhaps that doesn’t qualify as “pants-on-fire” because they carefully used the word “offered”! That doesn’t mean it’s affordable, or that the voucher is equal to the cost, or that it provides anything like the same level as coverage as Medicare does, but as long as there exists something called a health insurance policy that if “offered” to seniors, I guess the statement is true. Winning!

  52. 52.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 21, 2011 at 4:25 pm

    @Midnight Marauder:

    the network had received a statement from Kyl’s office saying that the senator’s remark “was not intended to be a factual statement but rather to illustrate that Planned Parenthood, an organization that receives millions in taxpayer dollars, does subsidize abortions.”

    Those used to be called “deliberate lies intended to demonize an enemy.”

  53. 53.

    Tonal Crow

    April 21, 2011 at 4:26 pm

    @Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):

    @Tonal Crow: See #25. Edit: Also see Hume, inductive reasoning.

    So your argument isn’t that an objective reality doesn’t exist, but merely (!) that we lack the philosophical tools to determine its nature?

  54. 54.

    jl

    April 21, 2011 at 4:28 pm

    @Redshift: there are some regulations in the Ryan that will probably make sure every senior who applies will get an offer for a minimum plan, at same rate for same age group. I think that is all, but not sure.

    Edit: I checked back at your comment, and read something different than what I remember. You editing your comments extensively (like I do sometimes)? Anyway, I basically agree with what you wrote.

  55. 55.

    Rihilism

    April 21, 2011 at 4:28 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Had the Democratic ad implied that the Republicans were planning to change Medicare for current recipients, Politifact would have had a point. Since the ad didn’t,…, not so much…

  56. 56.

    Redshift

    April 21, 2011 at 4:29 pm

    Gahhh, and this!

    “Nobody voted to end it,” he said. “They voted to hopefully change it one day, when they get a chance, but they would need a Republican-dominated Senate and a Republican president, neither of which they have.”

    Pants-on-fire, no question! Nobody is saying they passed a law to outlaw Medicare, but saying that holding a vote on a budget plan isn’t “voting” is just asinine.

  57. 57.

    OzoneR

    April 21, 2011 at 4:31 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    What’s even weirder is the way you forget to capitalize the first words in your sentences like Nick used to do and how you always say exactly what Nick would say if he hadn’t run off in disgrace after getting busted for being a bad faith actor the same day you showed up. Now that’s pretty fucking weird, doncha think?

    I don’t say anything 15 other people on this blog don’t already say regularly. Why you’re targeting me, I have no idea, but I got to say, very creepy, so stop.

  58. 58.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 21, 2011 at 4:33 pm

    @OzoneR:

    I don’t say anything 15 other people on this blog don’t already say regularly. Why you’re targeting me, I have no idea, but I got to say, very creepy, so stop.

    lolz

    Turns out all those other 15 people were Nick too.

    Yer killin me here Nick!

  59. 59.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    April 21, 2011 at 4:35 pm

    @Tonal Crow: Your argument is that fire can be determined to be hot independent of observation? By whom?

  60. 60.

    OzoneR

    April 21, 2011 at 4:39 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Turns out all those other 15 people were Nick too.

    Wait, MikeJ is Nick? The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik is Nick?

  61. 61.

    Tonal Crow

    April 21, 2011 at 4:42 pm

    @Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): My argument is that fire *is* hot irrespective of whether anyone observes it. I think Hume’s problem with induction is a useless distraction from the vital task of using the tools we have to determine reality as best we can determine it. Sure, the entire universe could be a computer game being played by a cosmic teenager on her cosmic cellphone, and (for example) the Planck Length could be an artifact of that game’s limited resolution. So?

  62. 62.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 21, 2011 at 4:42 pm

    @OzoneR:

    Wait, MikeJ is Nick?

    Are we talking about the same delightfully witty MikeJ?

    The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik is Nick?

    I only know one commenter who is that dispirited about current events.

    Serious question, Nick? Are you retarded or do you think we are?

  63. 63.

    OzoneR

    April 21, 2011 at 4:44 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Are you retarded or do you think we are?

    well you certainly are…please stop responding to me. I asked nicely once and you didn’t stop

    just stop

  64. 64.

    catclub

    April 21, 2011 at 4:46 pm

    @Rihilism: You realize of course that current recipients will also be affected. Just not as quickly.

    Imagine the day when all but one person has been switched to vouchers. What do you think the purchasing clout of medicare will be on that day – and will any doctors take their ridiculously low reimbursements? Now work backwards to
    two surviving oldtimers.

    One may note that this problem can be avoided by dying. (Quickly)

  65. 65.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    April 21, 2011 at 4:47 pm

    @Tonal Crow: Fire does not exist if it is not observed. E.g., make a positive statement about something that has never been observed.

  66. 66.

    Woodrow L. Goode, IV

    April 21, 2011 at 4:47 pm

    @jl: Politifact syndicates their content– meaning that newspapers pay money to run it.

    Which means that newspapets can cancel the contract if readers object to the findings. Which means Politifact would lose income and have to lay staffers off.

    Being run a by a non-profit doesn’t mean they don’t have to earn money– or take in more than they spend. It just means (to oversimplify a lot) that the IRS doesn’t require them to figure out how much money is left over and pay taxes on it. They’re not removed from economic realities– they need to make a buck by serving customers as badly as everyone else.

    The Annenberg Center for Public Policy (which runs factcheck,org), on the other hand, is independent. They get their operating budget from an endowment. They fund some projects through grants from other foundations, but the nest egg is secure.

    They have to stay within a budget– but nobody can shut them down by refusing to buy/read what they produce.

  67. 67.

    Redshift

    April 21, 2011 at 4:48 pm

    @jl: Actually, as far as I can tell, even in the detailed section, all it says is:

    First, it ensures security by setting up a tightly regulated exchange for Medicare plans. Health plans
    that choose to participate in the Medicare exchange must agree to offer insurance to all Medicare beneficiaries,
    to avoid cherry-picking and ensure that Medicare’s sickest and highest-cost beneficiaries receive coverage.

    Nothing about charging the same premium to all Medicare beneficiaries, nothing about about a minimum plan. So at best, it will only guarantee that there will either be plans that are available to all seniors, or there will be none at all, unless one believes that the free market fairies will automatically provide good things whether they’re profitable or not.

  68. 68.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    April 21, 2011 at 4:49 pm

    @Tonal Crow: You’re right about induction. Granted. Alas, I must go to work.

  69. 69.

    eric

    April 21, 2011 at 4:51 pm

    @Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): “hot” may be relative; but the average kinetic energy of the molecules at the non-quantum level is certainly observer-independent….the best evidence of that is that the Universe had non-zero average temperature stars prior to the existence of earth … or else none of us could be here. So there are facts that were facts before the existence of any observers.

  70. 70.

    eric

    April 21, 2011 at 4:53 pm

    @Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): for years, the neutrino

  71. 71.

    Tonal Crow

    April 21, 2011 at 4:54 pm

    @Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):

    @Tonal Crow: Fire does not exist if it is not observed. E.g., make a positive statement about something that has never been observed.

    If the unobserved does not exist, then we do not exist, because we could not have evolved, because we weren’t observing the universe until we evolved a cortex of complexity sufficient to the task, and therefore the universe did not exist prior to that point, which point therefore could never have been reached.

  72. 72.

    George Berkeley

    April 21, 2011 at 4:58 pm

    @eric: Because God was observing the universe.

  73. 73.

    eric

    April 21, 2011 at 4:58 pm

    @Tonal Crow: Berkeley I refute you thus.

  74. 74.

    gypsy howell

    April 21, 2011 at 5:09 pm

    @catclub:

    Not to mention the millions of married couples, one of whom would be eligible for good old medicare because they’re over 55 now, and one of whom will be dealing with vouchers because they are under 55 now.

    Mr Howell, for example, will have the pleasure of watching me struggle through the hellish private health insurance complex with my ever-declining coverage and ever-increasing premiums, while he’s taken care of through medicare. Yeah, he’s not going to have ANY problem with that.

  75. 75.

    Joel

    April 21, 2011 at 5:25 pm

    What’s funny is that the right blogosphere has been railing against Politifact for years, which means they’ll comfort themselves with a glass of High Broderism.

  76. 76.

    jl

    April 21, 2011 at 5:25 pm

    @Woodrow L. Goode, IV:

    Thanks. That means reader complaints about Politifact to local papers and their internet sites might make some difference.

    It would be interesting to compare Politifact and factcheck, and other ‘fact checkers’ conclusions.

  77. 77.

    Rihilism

    April 21, 2011 at 6:33 pm

    @catclub:

    I don’t disagree with you at all. I was simply referring to the Dem ad and Politifact’s factlessnessness…

  78. 78.

    Uriel

    April 21, 2011 at 8:51 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    lolz

    Hey! I just realized- you forgot to capitalize the first word of your post.

    Just like Nick used to.

  79. 79.

    PolitiFartGA

    April 21, 2011 at 9:03 pm

    They have always been bad. There’s no “eventually”.

  80. 80.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    April 21, 2011 at 10:43 pm

    @eric:
    @Tonal Crow:

    If the unobserved does not exist, then we do not exist, because we could not have evolved, because we weren’t observing the universe until we evolved a cortex of complexity sufficient to the task, and therefore the universe did not exist prior to that point, which point therefore could never have been reached.

    Our presence is an observable fact as are the mechanisms of evolution. No problem there either. Are you saying that an event is separable from its effects, consequences? I think they are one and the same.

    He (Pauli) theorized that an undetected particle was carrying away the observed difference between the energy, momentum, and angular momentum of the initial and final particles.

    Something was there, that was observable. It was the neutrino, which is difficult to detect. Observable is not the same as detectable.

    “hot” may be relative; but the average kinetic energy of the molecules at the non-quantum level is certainly observer-independent….the best evidence of that is that the Universe had non-zero average temperature stars prior to the existence of earth … or else none of us could be here. So there are facts that were facts before the existence of any observers

    All observable facts.

    Facts reside in minds and minds must interpret.

    (I feel like I’m digging myself into a hole here, but I cannot put my finger on the nature of this hole.)

  81. 81.

    Tonal Crow

    April 21, 2011 at 11:22 pm

    @Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):

    @Tonal Crow:

    If the unobserved does not exist, then we do not exist, because we could not have evolved, because we weren’t observing the universe until we evolved a cortex of complexity sufficient to the task, and therefore the universe did not exist prior to that point, which point therefore could never have been reached.

    Our presence is an observable fact as are the mechanisms of evolution.

    Right. Which means that your postulate about the nonexistence of the unobserved is incorrect.

    (I feel like I’m digging myself into a hole here, but I cannot put my finger on the nature of this hole.)

    I’m pretty sure I just pointed out a big hole, though I suspect it’s not the only one on that road.

  82. 82.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    April 22, 2011 at 12:22 am

    @Tonal Crow:

    …because we could not have evolved…

    We evolved? How do you know? Evidence.

    I don’t need to be present to know a thing happened. Evidence is sufficient. Observable evidence. Right?

    I am not making a solipsistic claim that the universe winks out of existence when I go to sleep at night. I am saying that an unknown thing does not exist. By definition. It is unobserved. Seems tautologically tight to me.

    Just to be clear, when I say observe I don’t mean the banal act of simply seeing something. Merriam Webster:

    Observation 2a : an act of recognizing and noting a fact or occurrence often involving measurement with instruments

  83. 83.

    johnny walker

    April 22, 2011 at 12:34 am

    This is “Pants on Fire” while Kyl’s 90% non-stat was merely false, huh? Sure thing.

    Generally a good site, but company policy seems to be that once a ‘ruling’ is made it must be defended at all costs, no matter how ridiculous the logical leaps get, or what contrary facts are presented. I had an exchange with them via email once where they explained that a poll showing majority support for a public option wasn’t relevant, because

    People who responded in favor of a public option may have been responding in favor of the choice of having a public option or not rather than in support of the public option itself.

    This happened almost a year ago and I’ve been trying in vain to parse it out since. Nearest I can get is that they think there are sometimes situations in which a person is presented with a choice between… one thing. (?) “The choice of having a public option or not” … wouldn’t that be any case in which a public option a) did not already exist and b) had not been legally barred from existing?

    I take it to mean Politifact thinks that saying, “I support a public option” is actually a very oblique way of saying “I prefer the status quo,” because we always have the choice of having a public option or not. We can enact or repeal one at any time. Whatever, it makes my brain hurt.

    They also explicitly stated that they ignored that particular poll because it funded by MoveOn. Take that for what it’s worth.

  84. 84.

    johnny walker

    April 22, 2011 at 12:43 am

    Also, I’m going to take over the St. Petersburg Times and start paying all the writers with pieces of old cardboard boxes that have “PAYCHECK” written on them in Sharpie. It’s clearly labelled as a paycheck guys, don’t go all wobbly on me now…

  85. 85.

    Tonal Crow

    April 22, 2011 at 1:42 am

    @Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):

    I am not making a solipsistic claim that the universe winks out of existence when I go to sleep at night. I am saying that an unknown thing does not exist.

    Which is wrong for the reasons I’ve already written. It’s also wrong because it violates causality generally, not just with respect to our own evolution. Imagine event Z, which is caused solely by event Y with a time lag of 1000 years. Imagine also that we do not observe event Z until the year 2200. Then we have the unholy spectacle of that observation somehow “creating” not just event Z in the year 2200, but also event Y in the year 1200.

    P.S. My not-quite-twin Nagual Crow would love this stuff. But you could never be quite sure whether he was serious about whatever position he seemed to be arguing.

  86. 86.

    johnny walker

    April 22, 2011 at 2:02 am

    @Sasha: They don’t correct; not ever. It’s just not how they roll. The extent of their response to this is to subtly mock the people who’re expressing concerns, by putting up a “humorous” post full of all the hilarious analogies that funny people have sent them on the subject.

    Were we right on this? Were we wrong? I dunno, but this guy compared the Ryan plan to replacing his dog with a different dog of the same name! Ha ha, our readers are silly!

    …and that will be that. As far as they’re concerned, they’ve ‘addressed’ the issue by acknowledging that they’re getting bombarded with email. People are upset, opinions differ, both sides do it, moving on.

  87. 87.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    April 22, 2011 at 2:48 am

    @Tonal Crow:

    Imagine event Z, which is caused solely by event Y with a time lag of 1000 years. Imagine also that we do not observe event Z until the year 2200. Then we have the unholy spectacle of that observation somehow “creating” not just event Z in the year 2200, but also event Y in the year 1200.

    Ah, I see what you’re saying. I have no desire to violate causality.

    Let’s travel back to Sept 11 (sic!) 1940. Can you definitively say that there are cave paintings in Lascaux? You cannot. You can hypothesize they exist certainly, but that puts them in a different category. The next day 4 French teenagers and their dog discover 17,000 year old paintings. I don’t contend that their discovery caused their creation. They were discovered with along with their history, so to say.

    Now we can say they did indeed exist on Sept 11 (never forget!) but only because of our subsequent observation and privileged position in time. Prior to Sept 12, we could make no such claim.

    There. Hows that? (It’s alright. You can tell me I’m circling the drain)

    Nagual Crow

    Oh! You don’t sound like a crow. You’re this kind of crow: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonal_(mythology)

  88. 88.

    snowpea

    April 22, 2011 at 7:56 am

    the st. petersberg times got a new editor late winter of last year after which there was a noticable shift to the right.
    and now rick scott is governor.

  89. 89.

    Tim I

    April 22, 2011 at 8:24 am

    Politifact has always played these games. What do you expect? They are the bastard stepchild of a Florida newspaer, after all.

  90. 90.

    PolitiFartGA

    April 22, 2011 at 10:40 am

    And for the record, at least the national organization laughs the tax-cuts-equals-revenue-increases nonsense out of the room and calls Joe Walsh a liar:

    http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/apr/19/joe-walsh/rep-joe-walsh-said-every-time-weve-cut-taxes-reven/

    The Georgia team totally fell for Saxby’s assertion of the exact same claim because he cited two examples, one of which was false and one (arguably!) true:

    http://www.politifact.com/georgia/statements/2011/apr/15/saxby-chambliss/chambliss-makes-case-tax-cuts-citing-reagan-and-bu/

    So you get a half true rating, I guess, if one of your examples is true, even if you’re making a blanket statement about how tax cuts affect revenue.

  91. 91.

    Sasha

    April 22, 2011 at 12:22 pm

    the st. petersberg times got a new editor late winter of last year after which there was a noticable shift to the right. and now rick scott is governor.

    That (sadly) would explain a lot …

  92. 92.

    Tonal Crow

    April 22, 2011 at 1:17 pm

    @Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): That’s a very different argument from your initial one that “an unknown thing does not exist”, and seems to boil down to the question of what evidence is sufficient to support an assertion of existence.

  93. 93.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    April 22, 2011 at 1:59 pm

    @Tonal Crow:

    Science philospher Amanda Gefter says,

    In Einstein’s view, while facts reside in the world, principles reside in the mind

    Well, I guess if you’ve got Einstein on your side…

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