The following is a list of links to the Sublime Bloviations (SB) and PolitiFact Bias (PFB) Grading PolitiFact reviews I've done since starting this blog in August of 2010. Late in 2012, PFB began a website called Zebra Factcheck (ZFC) and this will also list links to each review of them. ALSO included are posted criticisms of SB/PFB/ZFC by other bloggers/websites as I come across them:
(51) Barack Obama, Democrat, True (May 15, 2012): Republicans in Congress refuse to list a single tax loophole they are willing to close. It’s True because Paul Ryan’s budget is as realistic as the Moon being made of green cheese (as I explain and SB is unwilling to recognize).
(50) ACLU of Florida, Liberal, Mostly True (May 3, 2012): There are a larger number of shark attacks in Florida than there is voter fraud. SB wants to include felons who "illegally" vote in the number, although he has no way to prove it’s actual Florida felons and the law does nothing to prevent felons from voting..and this is not about voting as much as it’s about voting registration. Update: After receiving a typical condemnation from my conservative counterpart's sub-blog, I decided to publish a response.
(49) Mitt Romney, Republican, False (April 22, 2012): Eliminating Obamacare will save $95 billion a year. SB vainly tries to make a distinction between cutting costs and saving money. But this has been repeatedly fact-checked and the rhetorical spin by SB just isn’t enough to turn it around.
(48) Barack Obama, Democrat, False: (April 7, 2012) Obama’s statement about the Supreme Court overturning Obamacare being “unprecedented and extraordinary” goaded SB in that it was felt a “Pants on Fire” was more appropriate. But the Supreme Court’s reluctance to overturn laws in regard to economic activity since the 1930’s Depression is precedented and well known, and should have figured into this ruling.
(47) Barack Obama, Democrat, Mostly True (March 29, 2012): By the Time Obama took office, the Bush Administration had given the car companies $13 billion and the money was now gone. It was gone in 60 seconds…well maybe not that quickly, but it was spoken for, despite SB’s protestations.
(46) Pat Boone, Republican, Pants on Fire (March 24, 2012): “This (IPAB --Independent Payment Advisory Board) can ration care and deny certain medical treatments so Washington can fund more wasteful spending.” As the title implies, this is the thief shouting robber, or a story of dogs with fleas, regardless of what SB says the IPAB does.
(42) Morgan Griffith, Republican, False (January, 2012): “A new ruling by the EPA would force dairy farmers to comply with the Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure Program when dealing with spilt milk -- the same regulations oil and natural gas producers must follow." It was precisely the other way around, but that doesn’t stop SB’s own bias from rearing its ugly head.
(41) David Brooks, Republican, True (December, 2011): Newt Gingrich has suggested building “a mirror system in space.” The details of a calculated word-swap that takes place in SB’s analyses.
(40) Rick Scott, Republican, False (December, 2011): "The Affordable Care Act is not the law of the land." SB ignores numerous examples of the Florida Governor resisting all parts of the law.
(39) Americans for Prosperity, Conservatives, Mostly False (November, 2011): “(President Barack Obama gave) half a billion in taxpayer money to help his friends at Solyndra, a business the Whitehouse knew was on the road to bankruptcy.” My response to another Jeff Dyberg PF critique, this time a 3,600-word tome which protesteth much too much.
(38) Mitt Romney, Republican, Pants on Fire (November, 2011): “Barack Obama said ‘If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.’” Now SB thinks it’s perfectly fine to lift a quote from Obama out of context…and everything else, like my view of it, is red herring. Here's a "Part Two" follow-up as well.
(37) John Stemberger, Conservative, Mostly False (November, 2011): “The largest number of gamblers are from the poorest segments of the population.” Should PolitiFact rule on Stemberger, his blog or the book which was the source of his statement? What does “poorest segments” mean?
(36) Herman Cain, Republican, Pants on Fire (April/November, 2011): "When Margaret Sanger started Planned Parenthood, the objective was to put these centers in primarily black communities so they could help kill black babies before they came into the world." Besides PolitiFact Georgia , all other fact-checkers blasted Cain for this statement, while SB distorts it for "context" in his usual manner.
(35) Jeb Hensarling, Republican, False (October, 2011): "The departments of Commerce, Education and Energy and the EPA saw their spending increase by between 130 percent and 219 percent between 2008 and 2010." Hensarling stacks the numbers using the Stimulus while SB doesn't understand accounting concepts.
(34) Bill O'Reilly, self-proclaimed Independent Fox News Republican, Mostly False (October, 2011) "says the Federal government hosted a conference and 'ordered 250 muffins at 16 bucks a piece.' " An attempt to critique this by PolitiFact Bias and SB partner in crime Jeff Dyberg comes up with the theory that Bill Adair just rated this to steer more web traffic to PolitiFact because O'Reilly said it (the second time) to Jon Stewart on the Daily Show; but O'Reilly was perpetrating the falsehood, likely knowing there was a published correction, to $16 per person for continental breakfast (including muffins) and conference space.
(33) Alan Grayson, Democrat, True (October, 2011): "According to Wikipedia, there are only five countries in the entire planet that are more unequal than the United States in distribution of wealth." SB claims that PolitiFact made a "mess" of this ruling because it incorrectly attributed the source which only partially published the data, as well as cross-referenced it numerous times. But that doesn't make it a mess, since Grayson's statement was correct regardless of the source.
(32) Robert Reich, Liberal, True (September, 2011). "The ratio of corporate profits to wages is now higher than at any time since before the Great Depression." According to SB, this only means the time before the Great Depression. I explain his misinterpretation.
(31) Warren Buffet, (who looks to be a) Democrat, True (August, 2011), "The ‘mega-rich’ pay about 15 percent in taxes, while the middle class ‘fall into the 15 percent and 25 percent income tax brackets, and then are hit with heavy payroll taxes to boot.." It took me a bit of time to work through SB's lengthy, rambling and occasionally dyslexic defense of what he thinks are the over-taxed rich.
(30) Barack Obama, Democrat, Promise Kept on Obameter (July, 2011), "Require 10 percent renewable energy by 2012." Because the energy industry went beyond the requirement all by itself, SB argues that this doesn't count as a Promise Kept. But he ignores the incentives that were behind it that Obama supported. He also uses it to impugn the integrity of the PolitiFact National staff.
(29) Michael Doherty, Republican, False (July, 2011): “Planned Parenthood Provides about 140 visits for pre-natal care in each state.” SB says newbie PF New Jersey “buried the underlying argument.” Buried? Writer Bill Wichert said it three times, did he even read it? My response.
(28) Sarah Palin, Republican, False (July, 2011): “Slim Jims ‘just recently’ cost 99 cents but now cost $2.69.” I have to say SB does a superb job tip-toe-ing around not having to admit he wants to ignore the underlying argument, as I point out.
(27) Bob McDonnell, Republican, Barely True (Mostly False?) (July, 2011): "...under Gov. Rick Perry’s leadership the state [of Texas] has created more jobs over the last decade than the rest of the states combined." I don't know about aqua-buddha, but SB is aqua-netting about what net jobs are. Here's my response.
(26) Laura Ingraham, Republican, False (May, 2011): "The Massachusetts Healthcare Plan is wildly unpopular among state residents." SB (via PolitiFact Bias) says Laura really meant among potential Republican primary voters for Mitt Romney. Who would have known? Unfortunately, only SB.
(61) With so many
PolitiFact rulings covering similar subjects, PFB/SB often tries to compare rulings between Republicans and Democrats in an attempt to prove that it
upgrades the Truth-o-Meter ruling for Democrats because of its liberal
bias. In this Lil White Lies Extra, I
look at a number of rulings where one candidate accuses the other of voting to raise their own pay. I do find a much
better apples-to-apples comparison to replace the very poor one presented by
PFB/SB, although it's less than a False to a True.
(60) The blog
Malark-o-Meter as written by Benjamin "Brash Equilibrium" Hanowell
takes a statistical probability approach to the PolitiFact Truth-o-Meter
rulings. His post about PolitiFact Bias'
stance is that though it says PolitiFact is biased, no actual evidence is
presented as well as no measurement of the supposed bias as compared to real
factual differences, and that the measure developed in its research is
deficient as it fails to take the other Truth-o-meter ratings into account
(True, Mostly True, etc.).
"Brash" actually takes them into account as he looks at this
measure with a lot more sophisticated quantification in another post.
(59) Mitt Romney,
Republican, Pants on Fire (November 3, 2012):
Read It and Jeep. Mitt Romney's
extravagant claim that "the Italians" were moving Ohio Jeep
production to China gets the "take-down" from not just PolitiFact Bias and its new fact-check project Zebra Factcheck, but from another
anti-PolitiFact site called counterirritant.
Besides the fact that it's not definite, and that it's misleading fear-mongering
in the rest of the ad augmenting his claim, neither know anything about
something called CKD, which I describe in the Part 2 response to the Zebra
Factcheck. CKD puts to rest their
theories about what replaces the Chinese production in Ohio, if it happens.
(58) Julian
Castro, Democrat, True (September 18, 2012): One Context for You, Two for
Me. SB/PFC misses important context for
the last Paul Ryan ruling, but goes to great lengths to bring out his own context
to prove Romney didn't say it, in his words, when Julian Castro says Mitt
Romney told college students to borrow money from their parents to start a
business.
(57) Paul Ryan,
Republican, False (August 31,2012):
Closing Arguments. Missing
important context, expecting Obama to be a prophet, and the ceasing of regular
production at 95% idle means a GM plant in Janesville, Wisconsin has not closed
are some of the mistakes SB/PFB makes in this vice presidential candidate
announcement statement that Obama promised not to close his hometown auto plant.
(56) Stephanie
Cutter, Democrat, True (August 29, 2012):
Return to Sender. Other
fact-checks and news stories verify that in order to extend the life of
Medicare in the Ryan budget proposals, it must use in all cases the same $700
billion in "cuts" so that current retirees don't have to
worry...yet. But you can't tell that to SB/PFB.
(55) In January, the blog Content In Reality as written by Eric Levine published an interesting
synopsis of PolitiFact Bias, and comes to pretty much the same conclusions as my
blog. PFB writer Bryan White debates
Levine in the comment section, where Levine advises White that his blog is
nothing but a "Gish Gallup of anti-PolitiFact propaganda." In August, he followed up with an excellent review of PFB's research study --titled "PolitiFact Bias Still Making the Same
Mistakes" where White came up with the Pants on Fire factor (that I've
covered extensively). Both are well
worth the read.
(54) Barack Obama, Democrat, Half True (August 16, 2012): "Mitt Romney paid only 14% in taxes, probably less than you." This three-part series on the subject of taxes starts with my normal analysis of SB's critique, noting his mis-comparison of the ruling, on tax rates, to one on tax share. The next two supplement this critique by reviewing effective tax rates in PolitiFact rulings, their sources and how they've used them. And I call the third part "Lil White UNLies" because I finally find a bit of agreement with Grading PolitiFact.
(53) Paul Sadler, Democrat, Mostly True (August 2, 2012). "[The] national debt...doubled during the Bush administration." A look at consistency in PolitiFact rulings, the majority of which belie SB's claim that the preferable measure of debt should be a percent of GDP, while taking inflation and the TARP pay-backs into consideration....as well as the inaccuracy in comparing it to other PolitiFact rulings on tax increases.
(52) Rush Limbaugh, Republican, Pants on Fire (July 27, 2012): [Limbaugh]...says it's not accidental that the villain in the Batman movie is named Bane. While it was posted as a "Politi-Flub" critique by SB, another post along with it by the Wordpress blog counterirritant, basically claiming that Limbaugh didn't make the connection to Romney's Bain (by counterirritant) and that it was a "joke" (by SB) made this a double-your-pleasure for Lil White Lies. Because, holy double disdain, Limbaugh himself not only made the connection crystal clear, but took it seriously too. (51) Barack Obama, Democrat, True (May 15, 2012): Republicans in Congress refuse to list a single tax loophole they are willing to close. It’s True because Paul Ryan’s budget is as realistic as the Moon being made of green cheese (as I explain and SB is unwilling to recognize).
(50) ACLU of Florida, Liberal, Mostly True (May 3, 2012): There are a larger number of shark attacks in Florida than there is voter fraud. SB wants to include felons who "illegally" vote in the number, although he has no way to prove it’s actual Florida felons and the law does nothing to prevent felons from voting..and this is not about voting as much as it’s about voting registration. Update: After receiving a typical condemnation from my conservative counterpart's sub-blog, I decided to publish a response.
(49) Mitt Romney, Republican, False (April 22, 2012): Eliminating Obamacare will save $95 billion a year. SB vainly tries to make a distinction between cutting costs and saving money. But this has been repeatedly fact-checked and the rhetorical spin by SB just isn’t enough to turn it around.
(48) Barack Obama, Democrat, False: (April 7, 2012) Obama’s statement about the Supreme Court overturning Obamacare being “unprecedented and extraordinary” goaded SB in that it was felt a “Pants on Fire” was more appropriate. But the Supreme Court’s reluctance to overturn laws in regard to economic activity since the 1930’s Depression is precedented and well known, and should have figured into this ruling.
(47) Barack Obama, Democrat, Mostly True (March 29, 2012): By the Time Obama took office, the Bush Administration had given the car companies $13 billion and the money was now gone. It was gone in 60 seconds…well maybe not that quickly, but it was spoken for, despite SB’s protestations.
(46) Pat Boone, Republican, Pants on Fire (March 24, 2012): “This (IPAB --Independent Payment Advisory Board) can ration care and deny certain medical treatments so Washington can fund more wasteful spending.” As the title implies, this is the thief shouting robber, or a story of dogs with fleas, regardless of what SB says the IPAB does.
(45) Part of Politi-Psy's new category Lil White Lies Extra will also include the coverage of a new feature at PolitiFact Bias called “Nothing to See Here.”. In this case “PFB-ntsh” is trying to find statements not covered (yet) by PolitiFact as somehow being evidence of selection bias. We’ve been through this before (and before): nevertheless, here’s my first formal post, targeting Michele Bachmann (for ten mostly recent statements not covered by PolitiFact) which may develop into a series called Find THIS PolitiFact Ruling. (UPDATE: Rick Santorum added April 13, 2012)
(44) Since early 2012 (scroll to end of this post) I have been periodically searching for PolitiFact Bias’ “objective” research efforts on a page at the blog designated as such, which has been hinted as a review of PolitiFact’s Pants on Fire rulings as being inherently “unfair” (which doesn’t bear much relationship to “objective”). Until this so-called research is officially posted and I can take a look at it, I’m posting my following of just how long it takes (if it ever gets there) as Lil White Lies Extra. (UPDATE July 17, 2012) ...UPDATE AUGUST 1: PolitiFact Bias finally published its "research". If you want to even call it that. Here's my evaluation.
(43) Stacey Campfield, Republican, Pants on Fire (February, 2012): AIDS was transmitted to humans because “one guy” had sex with a monkey and then started “having sex with men.” It's pointed out that (like most Republicans on social issues) SB monkeys around with the “harm of homosexual practices” rather than stick to the subject.
(42) Morgan Griffith, Republican, False (January, 2012): “A new ruling by the EPA would force dairy farmers to comply with the Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure Program when dealing with spilt milk -- the same regulations oil and natural gas producers must follow." It was precisely the other way around, but that doesn’t stop SB’s own bias from rearing its ugly head.
(41) David Brooks, Republican, True (December, 2011): Newt Gingrich has suggested building “a mirror system in space.” The details of a calculated word-swap that takes place in SB’s analyses.
(40) Rick Scott, Republican, False (December, 2011): "The Affordable Care Act is not the law of the land." SB ignores numerous examples of the Florida Governor resisting all parts of the law.
(39) Americans for Prosperity, Conservatives, Mostly False (November, 2011): “(President Barack Obama gave) half a billion in taxpayer money to help his friends at Solyndra, a business the Whitehouse knew was on the road to bankruptcy.” My response to another Jeff Dyberg PF critique, this time a 3,600-word tome which protesteth much too much.
(38) Mitt Romney, Republican, Pants on Fire (November, 2011): “Barack Obama said ‘If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.’” Now SB thinks it’s perfectly fine to lift a quote from Obama out of context…and everything else, like my view of it, is red herring. Here's a "Part Two" follow-up as well.
(37) John Stemberger, Conservative, Mostly False (November, 2011): “The largest number of gamblers are from the poorest segments of the population.” Should PolitiFact rule on Stemberger, his blog or the book which was the source of his statement? What does “poorest segments” mean?
(36) Herman Cain, Republican, Pants on Fire (April/November, 2011): "When Margaret Sanger started Planned Parenthood, the objective was to put these centers in primarily black communities so they could help kill black babies before they came into the world." Besides PolitiFact Georgia , all other fact-checkers blasted Cain for this statement, while SB distorts it for "context" in his usual manner.
(35) Jeb Hensarling, Republican, False (October, 2011): "The departments of Commerce, Education and Energy and the EPA saw their spending increase by between 130 percent and 219 percent between 2008 and 2010." Hensarling stacks the numbers using the Stimulus while SB doesn't understand accounting concepts.
(34) Bill O'Reilly, self-proclaimed Independent Fox News Republican, Mostly False (October, 2011) "says the Federal government hosted a conference and 'ordered 250 muffins at 16 bucks a piece.' " An attempt to critique this by PolitiFact Bias and SB partner in crime Jeff Dyberg comes up with the theory that Bill Adair just rated this to steer more web traffic to PolitiFact because O'Reilly said it (the second time) to Jon Stewart on the Daily Show; but O'Reilly was perpetrating the falsehood, likely knowing there was a published correction, to $16 per person for continental breakfast (including muffins) and conference space.
(33) Alan Grayson, Democrat, True (October, 2011): "According to Wikipedia, there are only five countries in the entire planet that are more unequal than the United States in distribution of wealth." SB claims that PolitiFact made a "mess" of this ruling because it incorrectly attributed the source which only partially published the data, as well as cross-referenced it numerous times. But that doesn't make it a mess, since Grayson's statement was correct regardless of the source.
(32) Robert Reich, Liberal, True (September, 2011). "The ratio of corporate profits to wages is now higher than at any time since before the Great Depression." According to SB, this only means the time before the Great Depression. I explain his misinterpretation.
(31) Warren Buffet, (who looks to be a) Democrat, True (August, 2011), "The ‘mega-rich’ pay about 15 percent in taxes, while the middle class ‘fall into the 15 percent and 25 percent income tax brackets, and then are hit with heavy payroll taxes to boot.." It took me a bit of time to work through SB's lengthy, rambling and occasionally dyslexic defense of what he thinks are the over-taxed rich.
(30) Barack Obama, Democrat, Promise Kept on Obameter (July, 2011), "Require 10 percent renewable energy by 2012." Because the energy industry went beyond the requirement all by itself, SB argues that this doesn't count as a Promise Kept. But he ignores the incentives that were behind it that Obama supported. He also uses it to impugn the integrity of the PolitiFact National staff.
(29) Michael Doherty, Republican, False (July, 2011): “Planned Parenthood Provides about 140 visits for pre-natal care in each state.” SB says newbie PF New Jersey “buried the underlying argument.” Buried? Writer Bill Wichert said it three times, did he even read it? My response.
(28) Sarah Palin, Republican, False (July, 2011): “Slim Jims ‘just recently’ cost 99 cents but now cost $2.69.” I have to say SB does a superb job tip-toe-ing around not having to admit he wants to ignore the underlying argument, as I point out.
(27) Bob McDonnell, Republican, Barely True (Mostly False?) (July, 2011): "...under Gov. Rick Perry’s leadership the state [of Texas] has created more jobs over the last decade than the rest of the states combined." I don't know about aqua-buddha, but SB is aqua-netting about what net jobs are. Here's my response.
(26) Laura Ingraham, Republican, False (May, 2011): "The Massachusetts Healthcare Plan is wildly unpopular among state residents." SB (via PolitiFact Bias) says Laura really meant among potential Republican primary voters for Mitt Romney. Who would have known? Unfortunately, only SB.
(25) Newt Gingrich, Republican, Half True (May, 2011): "President Obama deserves to be called the most successful food stamp president in American history." SB claims the context was about creating jobs, but as I point out, if that's the case, why do the conservative Republican Bible belters have the highest concentration of food stamp users?
(24) Bill Nelson, Democrat, Mostly True (May, 2011): “55% of people who cast a provisional ballot (in Florida) in last presidential election—their vote did not count.” SB says provisional ballots are discarded for good reason, and not only fails to provide that "reason" but relies on the standard Republican suppress-the-vote excuse of "possible fraud." I call it Mocking The Vote.
(23) John Kyl, Republican, False (April, 2011): Abortion services are well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does. SB says Kyl's amusing correction that this statement was "not intended to be factual" made it "the definition of hyperbole." But it wasn't hyperbole by any stretch, especially when Kyl has to "sort of" tell you that it is when he knows he's wrong.
(24) Bill Nelson, Democrat, Mostly True (May, 2011): “55% of people who cast a provisional ballot (in Florida) in last presidential election—their vote did not count.” SB says provisional ballots are discarded for good reason, and not only fails to provide that "reason" but relies on the standard Republican suppress-the-vote excuse of "possible fraud." I call it Mocking The Vote.
(23) John Kyl, Republican, False (April, 2011): Abortion services are well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does. SB says Kyl's amusing correction that this statement was "not intended to be factual" made it "the definition of hyperbole." But it wasn't hyperbole by any stretch, especially when Kyl has to "sort of" tell you that it is when he knows he's wrong.
(22) Michael Moore, Liberal, True (March, 2011): Just 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined: SB says Moore left off a crucial descriptor, I say the underlying argument (“the gap between rich and poor”) made the descriptor self-evident.
(21) Tim Kaine, Democrat, Mostly True (February, 2011): When George W. Bush was president, the population grew by 10%, the number of jobs grew by 1%. My math shows he was off by 6 percent, while a Republican received a True for being off by 14%. SB selectively parses the numbers.
(20) Bobby Scott, Democrat, Mostly True (PolitiFact Virginia, January, 2011): The tax-cut deal [Tax Cuts Compromise] ‘adds more than $800 billion to the deficit over two years -- more than the cost of TARP and more than the cost of the Recovery Act’ and about the same as health care reform. This time, instead of numbers, SB selectively parses the words. My view is he parses them too much.
(19) PolitiFact’s 2010 Lie of the Year, that “Obamacare” represents a government take-over, has gotten considerable play, and SB was one of the first on the scene to take it apart. My never-answered point on this conservative faith in the slippery slope was where does one draw the line over which the government take-over “takes over.” No one could give me a straight answer, not even SB.
(19) PolitiFact’s 2010 Lie of the Year, that “Obamacare” represents a government take-over, has gotten considerable play, and SB was one of the first on the scene to take it apart. My never-answered point on this conservative faith in the slippery slope was where does one draw the line over which the government take-over “takes over.” No one could give me a straight answer, not even SB.
(18) Eric Cantor, Republican, Barely True: Letting Bush tax cuts expire would raise taxes on small business. Now SB selectively parses statistics, all the while complaining PF is doing the same. Here’s my look at it.
(17) On PF putting an exclamation point following something he wrote (without one) which PF quoted in a mailbag article: uber-anal-nit-picky, I say. Wah, wah, this is just more evidence of horrid, sloppy work, cries SB.
(16) Rick Perry, Republican, Barely True (November, 2010): Washington’s reach even extends to telling us what kind of light bulb we can use. A great example of failing to believe in innovation and the capalistic system SB thinks is the bees knees, and blaming the government for every little thing. I don’t agree--I believe that old adage "necessity is the mother of invention," particularly in this case.
(15) Dan Coats, Republican, Pants on Fire (October, 2010): The new health care law “will force seniors into Barack Obama’s government-run health care program.” It’s safe to say that anyone 65 or over is already in Medicare...does SB have proof it changed its name to Obamacare? Does Obama hold a gun to their head? I don’t get it, but I'll try to explain.
(14) Michael Bennet, Democrat, True (October, 2010): Ken Buck wants to outlaw abortion, even in cases of rape and incest: SB ignores some of the details; let me elaborate.
(13) Chris Coons, Democrat, True (October, 2010): New Castle County’s unemployment rate has NOT almost doubled in the last two years. Here’s one SB critique I concur with. PolitiFact read the statistics incorrectly.
(12) John Loughlin, Republican, False (October, 2010): Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. The term Ponzi is applied generically to a lot of things, which doesn’t mean that the “thing” is technically a Ponzi (that’s my take on it). But SB’s emphasis on a rational Ponzi in economic theory is not reality.
(11) Alan Grayson, Democrat, Half True (September, 2010): Daniel Webster wants to make divorce illegal, even for divorced wives. We’re in agreement again, can SB keep this up? Alan Grayson was getting desperate with some hyperbole.
(10) Rick Scott, Republican, Pants on Fire (September, 2010): The stimulus has not created one private sector job. SB’s grading system becomes highly suspect here, and while he says Rick’s statement was hyperbole, he can’t really prove it.
(9) Ann Coulter, Conservative, Half True (September 2010): There have been more terrorist attacks on U.S. soil by Muslims in the Obama’s first 18 months in office than in the six years under Bush after he invaded Iraq. Coulter fits the period of time to her argument, her usual modus operandi, but SB still defends her.
(8) Jim DeMint, Republican, Pants on Fire (June, 2010): Ninety-four percent of the bills that pass the Senate have no debate, no vote, no amendments, no reading of the bill, no online disclosure. SB salivates over PolitiFact being compelled to re-write this one. But he missed the official definition of what a “bill” is the first time, and wrote it again, while it was a taxing job (pun intended) for me to tie it all together.
(7) Alan Grayson, Democrat, Mostly True (August, 2010): The United States is "50th in life expectancy" in the world. SB wants more evidence and does his own interpretation. It seemed to me Grayson had some qualifiers that SB ignored.
(6) Dan Fanelli, Republican, Pants on Fire (June, 2010): Under the new health care law, the elderly will be denied care when they have passed the age limit for treatment. SB goes to the absurd end of the slippery slope, the death panels, even though it’s been refuted over and over.
(5) Joe Biden, Democrat, True (July, 2010): I never called for a partition in Iraq. According to SB, hard and soft partitions are only euphemisms; I learned about “Straw Men" (SB's, that is).
(4) Liberal Bloggers, True (August, 2010): Nathan Deal “dabbled” in birther conspiracies. SB’s definition of dabbling got totally “brutalized” later when Christine O’Donnell admitted to dabbling in witchcraft. I had a great time with it, because no one, no one else recognized SB's definition.
(3) Sherrod Brown, Democrat, True (July, 2010): Twenty-two million jobs were created during Clinton’s two terms but only 3 million during Bush’s. SB made a case about the underlying argument being that tax cuts create jobs. He just ignored Bush’s borrowing.
(2) Sarah Palin, Republican, Barely True (July, 2010): The U.S. "only ranks 25th worldwide on defense spending as a percentage of GDP.” SB trashes the source, editorializes about the media’s anti-military bias and the U.S. being forced to indirectly help the “the beleaguered European welfare states.” He might as well write talking points for the Heritage Foundation. Sarah was just downplaying military expenditures since the G.O.P. loves the military....which was the underlying point.
(1) Barbara Boxer, Democrat, Pants on Fire: “I was criticizing the fact that she [Condi] didn't know how many people died in Iraq.” I also agreed, although I thought she was misunderstood; don’t know why SB was complaining, since she was ruled Pants on Fire.
