Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Politi-Score: Suggestions
Recently a commenter named Joanne Libby queried on the Facebook PolitiFact discussion board that she'd "Would like to see a Republican vs. Democrat Scoreboard." So I commented to her about this blog and my Politi-Score category. She did the link, and commented to me "I don't get the scoring system - to me it would be 100, 75, 50, 25, 0, -25. Getting 90 for mostly true and 60 for false seems too close for the difference."
I can understand that. My initial thought was PolitiFact's rulings should be graded the way grades are done the way most of us are familiar with, A-F, with A being 100 points for True (Passed Perfect Score), down to 50 points (less than Flunking) for Pants on Fire. But Joanne's comments have a point. If you start at 100 points for True, 50 points is "Half True," logically. She posed a negative number of -25 for Pants on Fire. So I applied her point system and came up with the following:
Monday, October 4, 2010
Peasel Prattle: Flint, Fear and Flux Capacity (Updated)
From the What a CROCK Files
This starts the first of my series of reviews of the “Letters to the Editor” (of the Flint Journal) by one Richard Peasel, former co-worker and co-car-pooler, who is also a rabid right-winger.
This starts the first of my series of reviews of the “Letters to the Editor” (of the Flint Journal) by one Richard Peasel, former co-worker and co-car-pooler, who is also a rabid right-winger.
This particular letter, published October 1, is SO chock full of lies, distortions, and misrepresentations, I just don’t know where to begin! So I’ll take it step by step. Peasel uses a rhetorical device which would be described by Bryan White as "concrete examples" which is nothing more than a nice bullet list of lies, distortions and misrepresentations.
Has columnist Andrew Heller borrowed the president’s teleprompters to parrot the president’s speech inaccuracies, or does Andy have a shorter memory than the average American (Sept. 10 column regarding people with short memories voting Republican)?
I could not find the Andrew Heller column to which Rich refers, and assume it means people have short memories with regard to George W. Bush’s record the last eight years before Obama was elected. Like all those things that started with Bush that contributed to the deficits: Bush’s tax cuts, his Iraq/Afghanistan wars, his Medicare Part D, his financial crisis, his bailouts…..or did Rich forget? Because they’re definitely not Obama speech inaccuracies, they’re….FACTS. The financial impact of Bush’s activities is enumerated later in this piece.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Mock the Dummies: Monster Government
This video was from about a year ago, but its message is still current. I don't know why it's called "Does Fox News Employ Dummies?"; it's more about "Monster Government." The background tune from Star Wars is very apropos, and reminds me of a certain blogger and his main page "honor rolls." It also makes a humorous point about the conflicts of values ("choices") that Conservatives try to espouse.
Peasel Prattle: A Primer
From the What a CROCK Files
My voice in politics got its start back in 1994 when I was in a car pool with a guy named Rich Peasel who seems to have one retirement hobby of writing letters to the Editor at the Flint Journal, which get published, on average, of about once a month. His letters evoke controversy because he is unabashedly very right wing on every talking point conservatives espouse. His writings are so to extremely the right they are almost silly, so I can understand why they are published (often the Flint Journal will publish letters in response to his). He thinks he is a writer; however, he’s admitted to me he’s tried to parlay it to the Detroit Free Press and USA Today, but he hasn’t gotten too far. About the only thing I take exception to is the way he behaves (because, to put it mildly, he’s a tad hypocritical in his actions, which is my biggest complaint about most of the right wing fanatics I have come in contact with in my life.)
My voice in politics got its start back in 1994 when I was in a car pool with a guy named Rich Peasel who seems to have one retirement hobby of writing letters to the Editor at the Flint Journal, which get published, on average, of about once a month. His letters evoke controversy because he is unabashedly very right wing on every talking point conservatives espouse. His writings are so to extremely the right they are almost silly, so I can understand why they are published (often the Flint Journal will publish letters in response to his). He thinks he is a writer; however, he’s admitted to me he’s tried to parlay it to the Detroit Free Press and USA Today, but he hasn’t gotten too far. About the only thing I take exception to is the way he behaves (because, to put it mildly, he’s a tad hypocritical in his actions, which is my biggest complaint about most of the right wing fanatics I have come in contact with in my life.)
He was pretty well versed in his politics back in 1994, and he looked forward to doing the touché on me almost every day. However, with the advent of the internet and its “fricking Google it,” commentary, social networks and blogs, it has leveled the playing field for me a great deal. I did not have a quick wit and the “Jeopardy” type answering ability for person to person verbal exchanges back then, but today I can fairly quickly cite references and write cogent rational responses to right wing rants, such as those he exposed me to back then.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Sidebar: "Convenient Morality"--Follow-up on Andrew Shirvell
Well, looks like the proverbial defecation has finally hit the propeller with Andrew Shirvell, the Michigan Attorney General's employee who was targeting/stalking Chris Armstrong, young University of Michigan openly-gay student, which I talked about in a previous post of mine (to the effect that this Shirvell must be in the closet to be doing something like this). Shirvell’s closed down his blog (probably to keep Mike Cox, the AG, from reading any more of it!) by allowing invitation-only access. It seems Mike Cox has suspended him and Facebook has some pages defending Chris, one of which ("Fire Shirvell") had a friend count approaching 10,000 the last time I checked. I’ve put my two cents in comment-wise that I think this Shirvell could be a genuine danger, and I hope Chris gets the protection order he seeks in court.
Sidebar: Blog Poll Results Aug.-Sept. 2010
The question was: What will be the result of Bryan White's landmark study to prove PolitiFact's left wing bias in its rulings?
Total voters: 9 (10 if you include my vote)
Votes
0 - Bryan will be hired as a consultant at St. Petersburg Times at a 6-figure salary.0 - Bill Adair will be fired then commit suicide.
0 - PolitiFact will be disgraced and have to shut down.
1 - PolitiFact will be forced to remove the TruthOMeter.
10 - NOTHING--because blogs like mine will prove Bryan's studies were bullsh*t.
5 - NOTHING because nobody considers his (or this blog's) opinion as relevant.
0 - PolitiFact will be butt of jokes on the Daily Show, Colbert Report and the O'Reilly Factor.
Well, looks like my readers think Bryan White is a b*llshit artist. But then, my blog could be just as irrelevant as his. I had votes from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Florida, Washington, D.C. and Arizona. There was one for removing PolitiFact’s Truthometer, but that was my vote…so apparently those who have read my blog aren’t in favor of that. Thanks to all for voting and please stay tuned for the next poll!
