GOP Political fraud (merged)

14 Propaganda Techniques Fox "News" Uses to Brainwash Americans
TruthOut.org / Cynthia Boaz

Take the enormous amount of misinformation that is taken for truth by Fox audiences: the belief that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and that he was in on 9/11, the belief that climate change isn't real and/or man-made, the belief that Barack Obama is Muslim and wasn't born in the United States, the insistence that all Arabs are Muslim and all Muslims are terrorists, the inexplicable perceptions that immigrants are both too lazy to work and are about to steal your job. All of these claims are demonstrably false, yet Fox News viewers will maintain their veracity with incredible zeal. Why? Is it simply that we have lost our respect for knowledge?

The good news is that the more conscious you are of these techniques, the less likely they are to work on you. The bad news is that those reading this article are probably the least in need in of it.


1. Panic Mongering.

2. Character Assassination/Ad Hominem.

3. Projection/Flipping.

4. Rewriting History.

5. Scapegoating/Othering.

6. Conflating Violence With Power and Opposition to Violence With Weakness.

7. Bullying.

8. Confusion.

9. Populism.

10. Invoking the Christian God.

11. Saturation.

12. Disparaging Education.

13. Guilt by Association.

14. Diversion.

In considering these tactics and their possible effects on American public discourse, it is important to note that historically, those who've genuinely accessed truth have never berated those who did not. This is because when a person has accessed a truth, they are not threatened by the opposing views of others. This reality reveals the righteous indignation of people like Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity as a symptom of untruth. These individuals are hostile and angry precisely because they don't feel confident in their own veracity. And in general, the more someone is losing their temper in a debate and the more intolerant they are of listening to others, the more you can be certain they do not know what they're talking about.

One final observation. Fox audiences, birthers and Tea Partiers often defend their arguments by pointing to the fact that a lot of people share the same perceptions. This is a reasonable point to the extent that Murdoch's News Corporation reaches a far larger audience than any other single media outlet. But, the fact that a lot of people believe something is not necessarily a sign that it's true; it's just a sign that it's been effectively marketed.

As honest, fair and truly intellectual debate degrades before the eyes of the global media audience, the quality of American democracy degrades along with it.[

http://www.alternet.org/news/151497/14_ ... americans/


Wow... This is SO dead-on... The sheeple just march off the cliff like lemmings...Every one of these points is absolutely true...

(FauxNews will even try to convince some of the stupid people that John Quincy Adams really WAS a "founding father"... rofllol rofllol

On this 4th of July weekend, I wanted to remind everyone to pause for a moment, put down those Cokes, and join with those other Kochs in reciting our sacred psalm of patriots.

So please rise. Hand over heart. Ready. Begin:

I pledge allegiance
To the Bathtub
Of the United Slates of Norquist.
And to the Republicans,
For which it scams,
One Corporation,
Under Fraud
With Liberty & Tax Cuts for All....(corporate jet-owning billionaires.)

Bachmann's Unrivaled Extremism - Michelle Goldberg examines

Michele Bachmann honed her view of the world after college, when she enrolled at the Coburn Law School at Oral Roberts University, an "interdenominational, Bible-based, and Holy Spirit-led" school in Oklahoma. "My goal there was to learn the law both from a professional but also from a biblical worldview," she said in an April speech.

At Coburn, Bachmann studied with John Eidsmoe, who she recently described as "one of the professors who had a great influence on me." Bachmann served as his research assistant on the 1987 book Christianity and the Constitution, which argued that the United States was founded as a Christian theocracy, and that it should become one again.
.....
In the statehouse, Bachmann made opposition to gay marriage her signature issue. Both she and her husband, by all accounts her most trusted political adviser, believe that homosexuality can be cured. Speaking to a Christian radio station about gay teenagers last year, [Bachmann's husband] Marcus, who treats gay people in his counseling practice, said, "Barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined, and just because someone feels this or thinks this, doesn't mean that we're supposed to go down that road."

In 2004, Bachmann gave a speech warning that gay marriage would lead to schoolchildren being indoctrinated into homosexuality. She wanted everyone to know, though, that she doesn't hate gay people. "Any of you who have members of your family in the lifestyle, we have a member of our family that is," she said. "This is not funny. It's a very sad life. It's part of Satan, I think, to say that this is gay."

http://www.religiousrightwatch.com/2011 ... emism.html


RUN, Bachmann, RUN!!!! Please!!!

LJ is trolling again.

What Michele Bachmann and Her Teapot 'Patriots' Do Not Know About America

The unsettling thing about Michele Bachmann’s failed discussion of the founders and slavery is not that the Tea Party “Patriot” knew so little about the birth of the American experiment that she made John Quincy Adams—the son of a somewhat disappointing founder (John) and the cousin of one of the true revolutionaries (Sam)—into something he was not.

Bachmann has for some time peddled the notion that the nation’s founding fathers worked “tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States.” She is simply wrong about this. The last of the revolutionaries generally recognized by historians as the founders—signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and their chief political and military comrades—passed in 1836, with the death of James Madison. That was twenty-seven years before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, and twenty-nine years before the finish of the Civil War.

But Bachmann has never been bothered by the facts. Until now.

As she has moved from the fringe of the House Republican Caucus—which earlier this year dismissed her candidacy for a minor leadership role—into serious contention for the Republican presidential nomination, she has finally begun to be called out on some of her more outlandish statements.

Noting that many of the founders were slaveholders, George Stephanopoulos asked Bachmann the other day on ABC News’s Good Morning America to explain how she came to her distinctive view of the nation’s founding. “Well, if you look at one of our founding fathers, John Quincy Adams, that’s absolutely true,” the Minnesota congresswoman chirped. “He was a very young boy when he was with his father serving essentially as his father’s secretary. He tirelessly worked throughout his life to make sure that we did in fact one day eradicate slavery…”

In fact, John Quincy Adams was just 8 when the Declaration of Independence was signed and just 20 when the Constitution was being cobbled together at a convention that agreed to a “compromise” that identified a slave as three-fifths of a human being. He did not sign either document. Nor did he participate in any significant manner in the debates regarding those documents—or the compromises contained in them—until the last years of his life

http://www.thenation.com/blog/161798/wh ... ut-america


Never let facts get in the way of a good Neo-Con history rant...Just ask Sarah Palin!!

LJ is trolling.

LJ is trolling.

Another troll topic by LJ

Voter ID Bill Sponsor Could Lose License After DUI Charge

State Rep. Robert Mecklenborg (R), key sponsor of the Ohio bill that cracks down on voting rights (part of which is soon to become law) was arrested in April for drunk driving with a 26 year old woman as his passenger and Viagra in his system.

Ironically, losing his drivers license might complicate his ability to vote, though presumably he can get a non-drivers state ID to allow him to vote.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/


Dang... Don't you hate it when that happens? rofllol

Wis. GOPer Loses Court Case To Get On Ballot In State Senate Recalls

A Dane County judge has ruled against Wisconsin GOP state Rep. John Nygren's effort to get onto the ballot to challenge Democratic state Sen. Dave Hansen, after state election officials disqualified Nygren due to a lack of sufficient petition signatures. It leaves the GOP with only one other candidate in the race -- who brings some personal baggage.

As WisPolitics reports, Nygren has now announced that he will not further contest the decision, and as such is dropping out of the race. "While I disagree with the court's decision, I respect the process and will cease any further actions to appeal this decision," Nygren says. "It's unfortunate that my candidacy in this recall election has been determined by Democrat-appointed GAB staff that has constantly worked against me as I defended myself from the Democratic Party's frivolous challenges."

After Democrats challenged errors and qualifications for some signatures at the state Government Accountability Board -- which oversees elections in the state -- he was busted down to 398, two short of the threshold, thus keeping him off the ballot.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011 ... hp?ref=fpb


I guess the poor GOP can't even cheat their way into winning the recall elections in Wisconsin.... Poor GOP....