Lie To Me, A-Fraud

NYTimes: Reading Microexpressions During a 2007 interview with Katie Couric, Alex Rodriguez demonstrated what Dr. Paul Ekman calls, from left, gestural slips, unilateral contempt and microfear.

The psychologist who inspired the new TV show "Lie to Me" reviews A-Fraud's 2007 interview with Katie Couric and finds lies aplenty. Shocking!

NYTimes: The Voice Was Lying. The Face May Have Told the Truth.

Third Graders Debate Iraq War

An excerpt from a presidential debate in Mr. Faustmann's third grade class, Alma Michigan.

McCain's Lies About Obama's Tax Plan

Here's the truth:

The Empress's New Clothes

Sarah Palin gave a speech yesterday in which she claimed that the lavish wardrobe the RNC purchased for her are not her clothes, that she had nothing to do with the $150,000 worth of clothing that she happily wore for six weeks before the price came out, and that she will go back to shopping in consignment stores after the election (because, I suspect she realizes she is not going to DC, she is going back to Alaska).

Hilariously, this was off-the-reservation stuff from The Wasilla Diva, because later that day a reporter had this exchange on the McCain side of the campaign:

A senior adviser to John McCain told CNN's Dana Bash that the comments about her wardrobe "were not the remarks we sent to her plane this morning." Palin did not discuss the wardrobe story at her rally in Kissimmee later in the day.

Don't imagine she fired the makeup artist, either.

Watch Sarah Off-the-Reservation here:

McCain Lies About Bush and the Iraq War

McCain supported Bush and Bush's disastrous war in Iraq until, well, until he went on Meet the Press this morning, when he offered a false history.

Jed Lewison put together this short video contrasting McCain's statements today with his previous statements.

"On the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day, I have been totally in agreement and support of President Bush" (June 2005) becomes "I was the harshest critic of the failed strategy in Iraq" today.

He was either lying then, or he's lying now. Doesn't matter. He's lying.

My Final Post on Joe Sam the Plumber

Turns out he was vetted about as well as Sarah Palin.

dailykos: McCain/Palin throwing Joe the Plumber under the Straight Talk Express

The facts - as even the reluctant to bother actually doing reporting Corporate Media have revealed - are that: Joe The Plumber only makes $40,000 a year, doesn't have a valid plumbers license in the state of Ohio, has only been a "plumber" for 6 years - not 15, has never finished his plumber courses, has never apprenticed as a plumber, can't afford to buy his bosses business - which only generates $100,000 a year in income, not $250,000 - is a registered republican who owes over a $1,000 in back taxes, and under any version of Obama's plan would get a tax cut that would be larger than McCain's.

His name isn't even Joe -- it's Sam!

McCain/Palin: Throwing shit at the wall, hoping it sticks.

The Legacy Of Bush's War of Lies

A sobering and powerful ad for Tom Udall, candidate for Senate in New Mexico. The young soldier's name is Erik Schei.

Republican Zombie Lies Debunked - Part I

Obama, ACORN and "voter fraud" - dispelling the myths

Republican Zombie Lie #1: ACORN is going to steal the election through voter fraud.

Ridiculous. ACORN is an anti-poverty organization. They advocate for affordable housing (including a campaign against foreclosures by predatory lenders), better schools, a living wage, reform of immigration laws, health care, and paid sick days, among others. Here's a video that describes the work ACORN does. As part of their work they have launched a voter registration project along with Project Vote, another 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

States and the federal government all require that voter registration be non-partisan. In most states, it is required that if you register voters, BY LAW you must turn in every registration form. (That's to keep a group from registering voters and then only turning in the registration forms for people they think will vote for their candidate, or the way they want them to.)

ACORN pays people to do voter registration, often people who are unemployed and have a hard time getting jobs otherwise. (Again, that's part of their mission, ending poverty. One way to do that is to give an unemployed person a job.) And sometimes, not often but sometimes, those people cheat and turn in forms with the entire roster of the Dallas Cowboys on them, or some other fakery. By law ACORN is required to turn in those registration forms, even if it knows they are fake.

And that's the only fraud involved here, voter registration fraud. The Dallas Cowboys do not show up to vote. Poor people are not going to the polls and pretending to be Tony Romo and Terrell Owens. The fraud is perpetrated by the paid help who cheat ACORN. ACORN actually flags bogus registrations when they turn them in to the states to alert them that there is a problem. Therefore, as this Cincinnati Enquirer column points out, bogus registrations are a pain, not a problem.

There are almost no cases of actual voter fraud where a voter voted frauduently. The Bush Administrations's push to crack down on (nonexistant) voter fraud has only resulted in 120 prosecutions -- and only 86 convictions -- in the past five years. That's not .00001 percent of the voting electorate. Infinitesimally small.

And the current Republican obsession with ACORN? It's a made up issue. John McCain has supported ACORN over the years, including his appearance at an ACORN-sponsored event in March of 2006:

John McCain, in March of 2006, sitting beside Florida Rep. Kendrick Meek at an event ACORN co-sponsored in Florida.

That's right, John McCain was for ACORN before he was against it.

And here's John McCain extolling the virtues of ACORN in his address to the group. Remember, this is March of 2006, 2 1/2 years ago, John McCain was "telling immigration rights activists at a rally in Miami that they "are what makes America special."



Don't let the Republicans defraud you into believing that ACORN is going to steal the election, or that ACORN is a bad or scary group. They're just using this as an excuse to attack Obama, because they have no plan to fix the economy, and no other way to win the election other than lies and deception.

McCain Hearing Things?

Or just lying? He claims people at Obama rallies have yelled "kill him" and "terrorist" towards McCain. There's no evidence to support this, of course, as the worst Obama rally goers shout towards McCain is "BOOOOOOO". Jed Lewison posted this video of McCain's claim, calling it "Another bizarre lie."

McCain Versus His Ads

Who to believe?

Set the Record Straight

From the Obama campaign:

JOHN MCCAIN’S 17 LIES TONIGHT

1. MCCAIN PROPOSING NEW HOUSING PLAN. McCain today said he had a new plan to allow the Treasury to purchase and restructure mortgages. The truth is that this is not a new proposal and is already part of the rescue plan that was signed into law. It was Obama, not McCain who called for this move two weeks ago.

2. MCCAIN TAX PLAN IS BETTER. McCain said, “It is my proposal not Senator Obama’s” that will “take care of working families.” The reality is that even the Heritage Foundation agrees Obama will provide a middle class tax cut that studies have found is three times larger than under McCain’s plan. In contrast, the McCain plan’s benefits would overwhelmingly go to the wealthiest Americans and would leave out 101 million middle class households.

3. MCCAIN’S PLAN FOR HOUSING CRISIS. McCain said, “We have got to give some trust and confidence back to America” to solve the housing crisis. But Politifact agrees that McCain was taken by surprise by the mortgage crisis and was “a latecomer” to the debate. He even said “I don’t claim to be smart enough” to solve the housing crisis and newspapers have found that McCain “overstates” his past actions on housing regulation.

4. TIES TO FANNIE/FREDDIE. McCain talked about “Senator Obama and his cronies and friends in Washington” and blamed them for Fannie and Freddie, while news accounts have pointed out his “deeper” ties to the companies. His campaign manager Rick Davis fought against greater regulation for years, and then his firm was revealed to be taking $15,000 a month until this summer from Freddie Mac, after denying any recent ties.


5. MCCAIN WILL MAKE HEALTH CARE AFFORDABLE AND AVAILABLE. McCain said “We can do them all at once,” talking about affordability and availability of health care, but he failed to mention that experts say his plan may require some to pay more or get less coverage, that millions would lose their employer-based coverage, and that even he has admitted that his plan will raise taxes on some.

6. SMALL BUSINESS TAXES. McCain said Obama’s plan “will increase taxes on 50% of small business revenue,” when the Washington Post found similar attacks “untrue,” and studies show 97% of small business owners wouldn’t see higher taxes under Obama’s plan. Factcheck.org said the attack used “a false and preposterously inflated figure.”

7. TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY. McCain said “I am not in favor of tax cuts for the wealthy.” While he once said that the Bush tax cuts were “too tilted to the wealthy,” now he wants to make them permanent.

8. 2005 ENERGY BILL. McCain attacked Obama for his vote for the 2005 energy bill, saying it had “billions for oil companies.” The truth is that FactCheck.org called this “an old canard” and a “false attack.” The non-partisan Congressional Research Service said the bill actually raised taxes on the oil and gas industry.

9. 94 VOTES FOR HIGHER TAXES…AGAIN. McCain once again repeated the attack that Obama voted 94 times for higher taxes, calling it “his record.” This attack has been debunked by the Associated Press, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, CNN, the New York Times and FactCheck.org, among others.

10. OBAMA RECORD ON NUCLEAR POWER. McCain said, “Obama is opposed to that,” when the reality is that this attack is “false” according to FactCheck.org. Obama supports nuclear as long as it’s “clean and safe.”

11. HEALTH COVERAGE FOR PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS. McCain said his health care plan would let people cross state lines to get plans, suggesting it would improve care and not telling Americans that it would weaken patient protections and does nothing to require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions. McCain’s plan would create a situation the GOP chair of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners said would cause a “race to the bottom.”

12. HIGHER HEALTH CARE COSTS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES. McCain attacked Obama’s health care plan, suggesting that Obama will fine small businesses and make health care more expensive for them. ABC pointed out that he was “omitting key details about Obama’s plan to mitigate costs” for health care for small businesses. McCain also omitted his record of voting repeatedly against tax credits for small businesses to help with health care costs and that the majority of members of the National Federation of Independent Businesses oppose his plan.

13. JUDGMENT ON IRAQ. McCain said that he had “the judgment” to make national security decisions, ignoring his record of misguided statements during the course of the Iraq war. In 2005 he said the war would be over within 18 months. In 2003 he said “we will be welcomed as liberators,” and that “we will win it easily.”

14. RUSSIA AND GEORGIA. McCain said Obama “was wrong about Russia when they committed aggression against Georgia” when Obama had condemned Russia’s actions and called for an immediate ceasefire.

15. SURGE IN IRAQ. McCain again attacked Obama on the surge, when news accounts show that Obama “said at the time” that the increase “could improve security in certain neighborhoods but that it would not solve the long-term political strife.” Meanwhile McCain said only 10,000 troops would do the job.

16. NEGOTIATIONS. McCain attacked Obama on diplomatic engagement, but the Washington Post has said McCain is “distorting history when he suggests that Barack Obama is bucking American presidential tradition in expressing a willingness to meet with the leaders of countries hostile to the United States” and that McCain is “incorrect.”

17. SOMALIA. McCain held up Somalia as an example of failed American foreign policy, saying “we ended up having to withdraw in humiliation.” McCain ignored the amendment he introduced in 1993 to cut off funding for troops in Somalia.

Gotta Run

yahoo: A 'Palin Bingo' card sits on a counter at a debate watch party at a tavern in Seattle Thursday evening, Oct. 2, 2008. People watched the televised debate there between vice presidential candidates Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Joe Biden and filled out game cards based on comments made by Palin.
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

My real life keeps intruding on blogging!

Read elsewhere:

Palin screwed the pooch on the bankruptcy question last night. She said she and McCain weren't opposed to changing current bankruptcy laws regarding first mortgages. Problem? McCain does indeed oppose changing the law. Current bankruptcy law doesn't allow bankruptcy judges to rewrite mortgage terms on first - primary - residences. But if you're a rich fuck like John McCain, bankruptcy judges have the power to protect your 2nd house, your 3rd house, your 4th house, your 5th house, your 6th house, your 7th house, your plane, your yacht -- but not the primary residence for millions of ordinary Americans. Palin basically adopted Obama's position in her answer, and McCain's camp is flailing. Smell the hypocrisy. Team of mavericks, my eye.

Washington Post reports that McCain has hired a new aide: Mark Buse, who was hired by Freddie Mac in 2003 and 2004 to lobby.....wait, this gets better....to lobby John McCain!

Jane Hamsher skewers Wrinkly/Winky '08:

She does not know what "achilles heel" means. Watch it. She Does. Not. Know. What. It. Means.

Forget the tight stripper skirt, forget the metallic eyeshadow inappropriate for anyone over the age of 40, forget the cloying sitcom delivery, the lies, the cruel and calculated needling of Biden by calling his college professor wife a "school teacher" and saying "she'll get her reward in Heaven" (to a man whose first wife died in a car accident) -- she's an idiot.

I cannot believe that we are seriously thinking of placing this dodo bird within reach of the Presidency.

Sarah Palin's 18 lies, from Americablog.

Fairytales

Rolling Stone: Make-Believe Maverick
A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty

McCAIN FIRST

This is the story of the real John McCain, the one who has been hiding in plain sight. It is the story of a man who has consistently put his own advancement above all else, a man willing to say and do anything to achieve his ultimate ambition: to become commander in chief, ascending to the one position that would finally enable him to outrank his four-star father and grandfather.

In its broad strokes, McCain's life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers' powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives' evangelical churches.

In one vital respect, however, the comparison is deeply unfair to the current president: George W. Bush was a much better pilot.

Be sure to read the two other essays Rolling Stone has on Old Spice/Bible Spice '08:

The Double-Talk Express
From tax cuts to torture, John McCain has flip-flopped on a host of issues - including his own immigration bill

Mad Dog Palin
The scariest thing about John McCain's running mate isn't how unqualified she is - it's what her candidacy says about America

McCain's Temperment

Olbermann last night on McCain's temperment:




To me this was the most telling exchange, about the ad McCain ad claiming Obama was in favor of comprehensive sex education for kindergartners. (a bill supported by the PTA, btw).

Q: How can you go about building trust, without, I would content, absolute 100% truth?

McCain: "Because I have always had 100% absolute truth, and that's been my life of putting my country first. And I'll match that record against anyone's, and I'm proud of it, and an assertion that I've ever done otherwise, I take strong exception to. And you'll have to provide better proof than a bill that Senator Obama supported, that clearly called for the teaching of sex education to young children, so....

And be sure to watch for the tongue-jutting. Creepy.

The Real John McCain

On display at the Des Moines Register Editorial Board yesterday:



Sarcasm, anger, barely controlled fury. That's the real John McCain.

Notice the tongue-jutting after he defends the "Obama wants to teach 5-year-olds sex ed" commercial, at about 37-40 seconds on the tape, and at the end after he claims that the only conservatives who don't like Palin are "Georgetown cocktail party conservatives".

You can watch the rest of the videos at the Des Moines Register site.

McCain Blinks

Excessive blinking is a sign of lying:



hat tip to Dependable Renegade.

Deep Thought

If John McCain is suspending his campaign, why is he giving his campaign speech (being shown uninterrupted on CNN, the stupid news network) at the Clinton Global Initiative?

Oh, yeah, it's a transparent political stunt. I forgot.

Liar/Liar '08

John McCain's campaign is hiring writers to write fake letters to the editor supporting his campaign.

salon.com: I ghost-wrote letters to the editor for the McCain campaign
I spent a morning in John McCain's Virginia campaign headquarters ghost-writing letters to the editor for McCain supporters to sign. I even pretended to have a son in Iraq.

John McCain Lied On Sunday Night

John McCain stated flatly on Sunday night that his campaign manager, Rick Davis, had had no involvement with Freddie Mac for the past two years. Yesterday the NYTimes reported that this statement was a lie as Rick Davis's firm was paid $15,000 a month UNTIL LAST MONTH to lobby for the mortgage giant.

John McCain is a liar. I am sick of listening to Democrats wax on about how heroic he was 40 years ago (Bill Clinton did it on The Daily Show last night) without out pointing out the basic fact that the John McCain who is running for President in 2008 is a habitual liar.

NYTIMes: McCain Aide’s Firm Was Paid by Freddie Mac

Liars

Emergency! Emergency! Everybody to get from street!

The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming (1966)

The Bush Administration admits that the Treasury Department's "plan" to bailout the banking industry isn't sudden. They've been working on it for months.

firedoglake: Bush Mouthpiece Admits: They’ve Been Sitting on this Plan

What else are they lying about?