Steven Benen has been doing a great job picking apart Romney’s speeches. I tend to get numbed to it over time, but Romney is quite the liar, and for some reason this week’s edition stood out, especially these two:
15. In a speech in Virginia yesterday, Romney blamed “card check” for making things “tougher” on businesses.
Card check didn’t pass, so it’s impossible for Romney’s argument to be true.
18. Romney went on to condemn Obama for “shutting down” a “wonderful” school voucher program in the District of Columbia.
Obama didn’t shut down the school voucher program in the District of Columbia. It still exists.
Some of the lies Benen chronicles require some explanation and background to understand, but these two are just plain old lies. Where are Mitt’s “Pants on Fire” and “Pinocchio” ratings?
satanicpanic
I’m look forward to the debates when Obama can drop the hammer on him for making things up.
me
OT: This is perfect.
Log Cabin Republican: Someone for whom being political allies with people who despise your very existence is less bothersome than paying a slightly higher marginal tax rate.
Hunter Gathers
Now now, you know that if Glenn Kessler does that, Fred Hiatt will receive many angry e-mails and get dis-invited to all the posh cocktail parties. Hiatt, along with all the WASPs in DC, want Obama gone. So we’re going to get months of this shit.
lamh35
@satanicpanic: Exactly. Tweety often gets on this string of thought where he thinks Robmey is gonna be great in debates against Obama. All Obama has to do it call out Robmey’s lies and just quote back exactly what Robmey’s has said over the 7 years he’s been running for president.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
For months, Martin Bashir has been introducing segments on Romney’s dishonesty with a clip from Seinfeld, The Costanza Doctrine: “Remember, Jerry, it’s not a lie.. if YOU believe it.”
Apparently last week he looked at the Book of Mormon to see what it says about liars, which St Stewart decided to pretend he thought was a bigoted attack on Romney’s religion. I guess he felt he needed to Broder-balance his segment on the GOP’s hypocrisy about Obama and OBL.
Cathyx
@lamh35: But that won’t happen because they don’t always get a chance to rebut what is said. Therefore, the lie gets to stand as it is.
c u n d gulag
“Where are Mitt’s “Pants on Fire” and “Pinocchio” ratings?”
Mitt doesn’t care – he wears asbestos magic underpants.
And Pinocchio, out of shame, voluntarily let a whale eat him – he coated himself in Cheetos dust and went to Jonah Goldberg’s house.
Suffern ACE
@lamh35: Obama is probably the only politician in my lifetime who can do that and not come off as “Mr. Smarty Pants know it all”, a type that our betters in DC hate.
Southern Beale
Anyone want to freep a poll and piss off my Tea Party neighbor? Nashville’s Dem mayor has proposed a property tax increase, our first one in 7 years. My Tea Party neighbor got me on some e-mail list where they’ll all bitching and whining about “tax and spend” and blah blah. Now they sent out this poll saying SEE NO ONE WANTS A TAX INCREASE HA HA !
Well, duh. I thought it would be fun to edge the numbers up a bit. Here’s where we are now:
lamh35
@Cathyx: but Obama is really good at it.
Remember when he threw McCain’s “Bomb bomb Iran…” line in as part of his rebuttal.
He’s smooth at the little deadly ninja cuts.
Frankensteinbeck
@lamh35:
From what I’ve seen so far, I think Obama won’t refute anything personally. He’ll talk about the great things he’s done to help people and the great things he’d like to do to help people. He’ll make a few polite but firm references to how Republicans are trying to dump our country into the sewer.
He’ll take the lead, and Romney will be left to sputting ‘But… but…’ and look like an incompetent coward who supports dog torture and starving the poor to feed bloated corporate interests. Being the adult in the room has been working pretty well, so far!
dcdl
@Southern Beale: Are you serious?! Only 53 cent tax hike. That is peanuts. I have a 3% property tax that goes up every year. It goes up almost $100 every year. It’s close to $4000 a year now.
Odie Hugh Manatee
OT: It seems that Ted Nugent had a kidney stone that caused him blow up, offer to suck the dick of a CBS reporter and to threaten to rape a CBS producer.
Can anyone explain to me how an asshole can pass a kidney stone?
PeakVT
@Southern Beale: Nashville’s Dem mayor has proposed a property tax increase, our first one in 7 years.
Another bad thing about the anti-tax jihad is that when increases come, they are steep.
Elizabelle
Good morning.
I like how Benen is writing his list, with a simple and memorable sentence refuting Romney’s misinformation.
That will be easy to pass along in casual conversation.
Sally Rakowski
Feeding your ego and trying to piss off people we don’t know or care about is a wonderful use of everyone’s time, Southern Beale. Thanks for the suggestion.
Steeplejack
@Southern Beale:
Freeped.
PeakVT
@dcdl: 53-cents is change in the mill, not the total amount. See this article:
Omnes Omnibus
@Sally Rakowski: Trolling an internet site is also a wonderful use of time. I am sure you are having fun.
bemused
@me:
Too funny. Fischer threatens Mitt but when Mitt capitulates, Fischer calls Mitt a wienie.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Omnes Omnibus:
Them rats won’t fuck themselves, ya kno.
Southern Beale
@Steeplejack:
Thanks!
Rob in Buffalo
Remember when Al Gore was the biggest liar ever because he said ~ “while in Congress I took the initiative in creating the internet”?
Southern Beale
@PeakVT:
The mayor’s proposed tax increase is actually the second-smallest in about 20 years and I’m sure the Metro council will trim it further.
It’s so cute to see the Tea Partiers whine about this stuff though. They also whine about our schools, trash pickup, brush clearing, police department, etc. Um … shit needs to be paid for, people! Put up or shut up.
Mostly they’re still stuck in their “we need to shrink government” fantasy. Well, fine then but you can’t bitch and moan that your damn brush is only picked up four times a year.
arguingwithsignposts
@Southern Beale:
Clearly, you aren’t clear about how the wingnut mind works.
And freeped twice from different browsers.
burnspbesq
This little thing from Krugman is both funny and revealing.
Omnes Omnibus
@Southern Beale: Done.
satanicpanic
@lamh35:
This. I know it’s scripted but does anyone think that Romney could pull of something like Obama at the WH Correspondent’s dinner? Obama can smile and drive a knife in like no one I’ve ever seen in politics except maybe Ann Richards.
La Caterina
@Southern Beale:
freeped. that felt good.
hells littlest angel
While reading it always gets me enraged, Steve Benen’s Mendacity Chronicles is my favorite regular blog posting. I hope the collected Chronicles is part of Obama’s debate preparation.
Villago Delenda Est
@Southern Beale:
Yet they want more, and better services. They also want them cheaper.
Cause and effect. How does it work?
Villago Delenda Est
@burnspbesq:
It’s always projection with the wingtards.
Omnes Omnibus
@hells littlest angel: I am pretty sure that the Obama campaign has this nailed.
PeakVT
@Southern Beale: A 13% jump strikes me as pretty steep. Rates should be adjusted every couple of years in order to keep up with inflation.
ruemara
@Southern Beale: I got a few seconds to ratfvck. Freeped.
satanicpanic
@hells littlest angel: Romney is hoping to overwhelm the Obama oppo research team with sheer volume, Rolling Stone’s 500 best albums style.
Villago Delenda Est
Willard Romney is obviously trying to top Lillian Hellman in the “greatest liar of all times” sweepstakes.
Southern Beale
@ruemara:
Thanks. We’re up to 34% now. Too bad you can only vote once per IP address.
Mino
I’m getting concerned about governance in blood red states and think it might be time for Dems in closed primaries that want try to save their states to re-register as Republicans in order to primary some of those ALEC legislators and blatently corporate judges we’ve seen elected the last decade or so. It’s getting out of hand. Republicans won’t pull back from the cliff and red-state Dems don’t even run candidates in a lot of state offices. I just don’t see what else might work in time to rescue the situation.
I’ve never voted for a Republican in my life and am not sure I could even do it, frankly. But shit, Texas is getting hopeless.
handsmile
Rmoney’s public remarks (and evidently private ones if disclosed) are not intended to be factual statements.
To seek evaluation of them on a Pinocchio scale or as “Pants on Fire” reveals one to be a shrill partisan and possibly an anti-Mormon bigot. (Also, Steve Benen is so unserious he works for a lesbian.)
Why do I have to keep explaining the Village Rules to you smart people?
Southern Beale
@PeakVT:
We didn’t raise property taxes earlier because of the economic recession and then 2 years ago we had the devastating floods that hit Nashville, it was a real disaster. The mayor knew that a property tax increase on top of both events would have hurt people (and also probably would not have passed metro council anyway …)
Omnes Omnibus
@handsmile:
So does the whole State Department.
/wingnut
arguingwithsignposts
@Southern Beale: Only once per browser, actually. And if you cleared your cookies and cache, I bet you could do more.
Hill Dweller
I posted Kessler’s ‘challenge’ to Obama and Romney on another thread last night, where he pretended Obama and Mitt both lie at the same rate. The implication was both of them can’t give a speech without lying. Of course, Kessler reached that opinion by pretending Obama ‘lying’ once in a thirty minute speech is the same as Romney lying every time he opens his mouth.
Kessler(nor any of the fact checkers) can’t call it straight, because he would be called liberal. So he has to split hairs ten different ways to pretend Obama is lying as much as Willard.
We’ll continue to see the media gloss over Willard’s lies and ineptitude. Conversely, they’ll cover anything that might be negative for Obama like their lives depended on it. Those fucking hacks want a horse race and the sweet, sweet ad revenue, and will do everything to make it happen.
Southern Beale
@Mino:
Really? Hell no.
We are open primary here and I know some folks who advocate gaming the system and trying to vote for the most repulsive Republican in a primary so as to give the Democrat a better chance. I just don’t see the point. I’d rather put my time and energies into building up the Democratic Party not tearing down the Republicans.
GregB
It seems like only yesterday when my wingnutter friends were railing against Slick Willie Clinton. A man who would lie for political gain.
Now they are embracing the most mendacious, amoral politician I have witnessed in forever.
Now they say the only thing that matters is the ability to beat Obama.
Principled conservatism, greatest oxymoron ever.
Baud
Benan’s writing can seem a little formulaic at times but in terms of content he’s the best.
Mino
@Southern Beale: No. You’ve got me wrong. Try for saner Republicans. Get rid of the lunatics! You could still vote Dem in the election for all the good it will do you.
beltane
I’m still reeling over Tagg Romney’s IVF/surrogate hatched twins. How is he going to wage war against “artificial” methods of birth control when his own family employs highly artificial and perhaps even ethically debatable forms of reproduction? This does nothing to make the Rmoneys appear more “normal”.
Donut
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’m glad to see I’m not alone in being disgusted by the patently messed up equivocation that Stewart crapped all over the place with that one.
When Democrats, and specifically PBO are self-righteous about religious tests for office, ol’ Johnny boy can let me know, because then Bashir’s point would be erroneous. Until then…he can fuck off.
Personally, I think Stewart’s shtick has long run its course and that bit was proof of it.
dcdl
@PeakVT: Ahh, that makes much more sense. I was just being lazy and drinking coffee and not researching.
Redshift
@Rob in Buffalo: The Village only cares if they think you lie about things that are completely unimportant
hells littlest angel
@Donut: He can still be very funny and incisive, but I’ve had a hard time respecting Stewart since his self-righteous rally to “restore sanity.”
And then there’s his creepy fawning over Bill O’Reilly…
Southern Beale
Ah we’re at 38% now. Well, that’s better than 33%!
martian
It doesn’t matter if Romney lies. The worldview of the 27% is built on lies. Ever glance into a newspaper comments section (note: not a recommended leisure-time activity)? Conservatives still think Acorn is going to help Odumba steal the election just like the last time. And if you present facts to the contrary to such a conservative, and if by chance they listen, you just get the quick side-step of “Well that might be true, but it’s not the point. The point is blah blah conservative boiler-plate grievance blah. So there!”
__
Romney must lie to connect with the Republican base.
__
Romney must lie to even be a perceptible, tolerable presence within the Republican reality.
Julia Grey
She might be getting paid, so “fun” could have nothing to do with it.
On the other hand, I find that making money is fun in and of itself, so….
Joey Maloney
@Southern Beale: Oh, you better be careful. Radley Balko lives in Nashville these days. If he finds out you’re encouraging other people to vote he might have a tantrum.
(Freeped, 6 times on 3 browsers from 2 different IPs.)
Southern Beale
@dcdl:
It’s 53 cents per $100 dollars of assessed value.
Southern Beale
@Joey Maloney:
LOL.
Southern Beale
Is Radley Balko a troll? Do I know him?
Southern Beale
@Mino:
Fuck that. Let the Republicans clean up their own mess. If you want saner Republicans in a red state you’re voting for a Democrat.
Southern Beale
@arguingwithsignposts:
Oh, gotcha. Thanks.
martian
@Southern Beale: Freeped.
Christ. Just a 53 cent increase? What can you even buy with 53 cents that the lack of will cause your family hardship? There’s probably at least that much sticky change sitting under the front seat of your car.
__
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Joey Maloney
@Southern Beale: You don’t know Radley? Blogger (http://theagitator.com), libertarian. Does excellent work on Drug War, police militarization, and criminal justice issues in general, but is standard glibertarian stick, stone stupidly wrong on pretty much anything else.
And he used to get paid by the CATO Institute. Which is relevant because, you remember a couple of weeks ago I posted a bleg for people to vote on a poll at the National Police Misconduct Tracking project about who should take it over? Well, thanks to me apparently CATO’s proposal went down in flames and Radley crapped a brick. I’m now banned at his blog. If I cared I’d of course create multiple sockpuppets to show up every day and taunt him for being a sore loser crybaby but a) life is short and b) I actually do respect him for the important work he does.
catclub
@Southern Beale: Not true. I voted,
closed the browser – presumably eats the cookie,
then voted again.
And we are up to 39% in favor.
Ruckus
@Southern Beale:
One of the things about having pretty static wages is that any increase on taxes or fuel or… causes peoples standard of living to decrease. And as voting is about the only way anyone has a say about these things, we get anti-tax crap and ever increasing income inequality. Not looking at how economies work is a huge problem, one that many so called economists can not even seem to do.
vtr
Generally, I think we’ve been too generous toward Republicans when we call them stupid. They’re usually simply lying. With Romney – I just don’t know.
WaterGirl
@Southern Beale: I voted, but then I did the math. If my math is correct, I would be paying 662 dollars more in real estate taxes every year on my little 125,000 house. Right now my taxes are 2400 a year, that would be an increase of roughly 25%.
Either I stewed up the math, or your real estate tax rates must generally be a lot higher than ours.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
I could only vote once in that poll. I tried shutting down the browser window and opening a new one; maybe I’m doing something wrong. It’s up to 41-57 now.
Frankensteinbeck
@hells littlest angel:
He lost me with his interview of Obama. One long relentless accusation that Obama broke his promise by not bringing ‘change’, with ‘change’ defined exclusively as changing the partisan tone in Washington. Stewart wouldn’t listen to or talk about anything else, just the partisan wrangling.
Blaming the fucking victim, how does IT work?!
martian
@WaterGirl: Okay, I misunderstood what the increase was. Chalk up my confusion to having seen school and such like referendums for so little go down to defeat.
__
So, that would be roughly a 55 dollars a month increase for a 125,000 dollar house. Seems doable to me, but that’s not a nothing increase when you’re poor or trying to stay middle class on a very tight budget.
gloryb
Sure, consider it done!@Southern Beale:
Ruckus
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
He’s a big asshole so lots of stuff can pass. And has.
And I get the point of passing a kidney stone. Wrong orifice. However as Teddy is all orifice…
Brachiator
@Villago Delenda Est:
Damn, that’s cold. And right on the mark, too.
The weird thing is that Romney is obviously a coward and a liar, and yet GOP has no problem with this. None at all. Right wingers are happy to see that they can make Romney prove his pro family bona fides by forcing him to purge a gay staffer. And they only want to hear what will make them happy. They want lies.
I am not sure that this will be enough.
The Big Lie that Romney is telling is that he knows how to fix the economy. And he will ask voters to ignore everything else that the Republicans will most certainly do to fuck over women, the poor, and immigrants.
The economy is still in crappy shape. The big question is whether people will give in to fear and desperation.
cckids
@handsmile:
Romney’s theme song is Adelle’s Rumour Has It: “. . just cause I said it, don’t mean that I meant it. . . just cause you heard it . . people say craaazy things”.
Southern Beale
@Joey Maloney:
You know the Radley name sounds familiar but no, I don’t visit Glibertarian blogs all that much. They’re like the blind squirrel who finds a nut occasionally. Julian Sanchez is like that, I don’t know how someone so smart can be so dumb.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@Southern Beale:
Freeped, also, too.
Now at 47% (yes) vs 53% (no).
Southern Beale
@Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor:
I just checked and now it’s at 44%. But .. well done, young patriots! :-)
WOLVERINES!
Steeplejack
@martian:
Actually, the increase would be $13.80 a month, by my calculations.
PeakVT pointed out that the 53 cents is a millage rate per $100 of assessed value, and currently residential properties are assessed at 25% of appraised value. So the $125,000 house would be:
That doesn’t seem so heinous.
ETA: This is in line with what the article PeakVT linked to says:
Skerry
@Rob in Buffalo:
Al Gore was just inducted into the 2012 Internet Hall of Fame.
http://internethalloffame.org/
Edited to try to fix link
martian
@Steeplejack: Ah, incorrect again. Links, what are they for? I should read before I comment?! That would be an intolerable infringement of my constitutional right to freely speech on the intertubes!
__
That does sound very reasonable when you put it all accurately like that, though.
Steeplejack
@martian:
Not dinging you. I ran the numbers to check myself and then (belatedly) looked at the linked article to find that second snippet.
But this seems emblematic of how stuff does or, all too often, does not get done in our society. Higher taxes! Eek! Do not want! But then the reality of $15 or so a month doesn’t sound too awful, especially when you get more frequent trash pickups or whatever.
Further note: the linked article mentions that this proposed increase will still leave the taxe rate 3 cents below where it was when the current mayor took office in 2007.
martian
@Steeplejack: No problem, I’m not taking it too hard. I’ve been wrong once or twice before.
__
Seems to me the problem isn’t only off-the-cuff bad assumptions, though that certainly contributes. I was wrong, you showed me I was wrong, oops!, all done now – and I think a fair number of people would process things that way. But what can be done about the propensity of a large percentage of people to believe things that are manifestly, provably untrue such as, for just one example, Obama raising their taxes. Seems like April 15th and filling out another year’s taxes would lay that one to rest if it was a simple misunderstanding but, not really, no, not for a lot of people. Some are arguing in bad faith, but I don’t believe most are so, what gives and what can be done about it?
Brachiator
@martian:
People are strange about taxes. Some simply believe as an article of faith that every tax credit and tax cut comes from Republicans, period. Other people would think their taxes are too high unless they got a refund of all income and payroll taxes.
A couple of years ago, California reduced some exemptions and credits, so that a number of people who got federal refunds got small state refunds or had balance due returns. People who think of taxes as one thing blamed the Feds or Obama even though he had nothing to do with it.
And of course people foolishly believe that the IRS writes tax laws. Even Congress shamelessly exploits this big lie.
Then there is stupidity. I have dealt with people who believe that they don’t have to report interest or rental income, don’t understand that business income is subject to SE tax, or think that they should get credits that they do not qualify for. A lot of these people look to blame someone that they are not getting big ass refunds all the time and no matter what.
asiangrrlMN
@Southern Beale: Done. The first answer is now up to 45% ::snicker::
martian
@Brachiator: I don’t think that stupidity is a solvable problem, unfortunately. Maybe it boils down to an issue of changing the culture, since much of the stupidity relies on a context wherein taxes are money that everybody knows the government steals out of your pocket to waste on nonsense and poor (brown) people instead of the price we all pay to have nice things. Step one: eradicate racism… Yeah… we’re not looking at a quick turnaround time here. I guess the right wing has been dedicated to poisoning the well since at least FDR, though, so it would be unrealistic to hope for anything that would take less than many years of consistent effort.
tybee
@Southern Beale:
done.
gaz
@Southern Beale: freeped. gettin closer
rikyrah
Benen’s weekly Chronicle of Willard’s lies is a service he is providing to the country