The Republican's Majority

Sarah Palin: Jewish Media is Trying to Kill Me

2011-01-13T10:46:00.000-08:00

"Journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn."

Sara Palin (http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/sarah-palin/americas-enduring-strength/487510653434)

===================================================

Blood libel (also blood accusation^[1]^[2]) refers to a false accusation or claim^[3]^[4]^[5] that religious minorities, usually Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays.^[1]^[2]^[6] Historically, these claims have–alongside those of well poisoning and host desecration–been a major theme in European persecution of Jews.^[4]

"Blood Libel," Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_libel)

Irony of Arizona Death Panels Escapes Republicans

2010-12-14T10:08:00.000-08:00

Republicans champion change as reduction in "cutting backs."

Minority Leader McConnell

2010-12-02T19:44:00.000-08:00

Are there no workhouses?

Peter King (R-NY) on The Truth

2010-11-29T10:10:00.000-08:00

Peter King (R-NY) to America

You Want the Truth?
You Can't Handle The Truth!

2010-11-27T08:25:00.000-08:00

JOIN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
The Party That Thinks You Are Stupid

"He's An Arab" Lady Still Believes

2008-10-14T07:39:00.000-07:00

I collect with vodpod

Click On The Box To Watch

Republican John McCain Suspending Campaign

2008-09-26T09:41:00.000-07:00

.

The Lie:

Republican John McCain Suspending Campaign.

The Truth:

No He Isn't.

Republican McCain Wants To Be Dictator

2008-09-19T11:01:00.000-07:00

.

The Lie:

Republican John McCain said Thursday he would fire the SEC chairman.

The Truth:

The President cannot fire the SEC Chairman.

The Lie: Republican Palin Will Cooperate In Troopergate Investigation

2008-09-16T19:19:00.000-07:00

.
The Lie: Republican Palin Will Cooperate In Troopergate Investigation

Republican Palin has defended her behavior in Troopergate and said she welcomed the investigation. "Hold me accountable," she said.

The Truth: No She Won't

Republican McCain Spokesman Ed O'Callaghan initially said Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, would not testify as part of the probe. He later clarified his statement to say Palin is "unlikely to cooperate" with the inquiry.

The Lie: Republican McCain Invented Blackberry

2008-09-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

The Lie: Republican McCain Invented Blackberry

Top Republican McCain policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, waving his BlackBerry personal digital assistant and citing Republican McCain's work as a senator, told reporters Tuesday, "You're looking at the miracle that [Republican]John McCain helped create."

The Truth: Republican McCain doesn't know how to use a computer

He also doesn't know how to send e-mail, one of the BlackBerry's prime functions.

Source: Associated Press

Sarah Palin is Lying in Troopergate

2008-09-15T10:42:00.000-07:00

The Lie: Sarah Palin in her ABC interview:

"But, the issue is the commissioner, who was his boss, was he pressured to fire that trooper, that's the underlying issue here, right, Commissioner Monegan. Commissioner Monegan has said the governor never asked me to fire him, the governor's husband never asked me to fire him, and we never did. I never pressured him to hire or fire anybody. Why I replaced Commissioner Monegan was after two years, of he working in my cabinet, as a political appointment, at will, exempt, recognizing after two years, he wasn't meeting the goals I wanted met in that area of public service, there were a lot of things that we were lacking, and a lot of goals weren't being met&...."

The Truth: Commissioner Monegan to ABC.com:

"She's not telling the truth when she told ABC neither she nor her husband pressured me to fire Trooper Wooten," said Walt Monegan, the Alaskan official whose dismissal by Sarah Palin is the focus of a state investigation known as "Troopergate". "And she's not telling the truth to the media about her reasons for firing me."

A Lie: Obama Calls Palin a Pig

2008-09-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

Obama Calls Gov. Sarah Palin a Pig.

Here's the quote:

“Let’s just list this for a second. John McCain says he’s about change too. Except….And so I guess his whole angle is, ‘Watch out George Bush. Except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove style politics, we’re really going to shake things up in Washington.’ That’s not change. That’s just calling something the same thing, something different. But, you know, you can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It’s still gonna stink afrer eight years.”

HOW DUMB DOES JOHN MCCAIN THINK YOU ARE?

From the Wall Street Journal

2005-09-06T10:17:00.000-07:00

It's not a lie but it is how to do it:

"Give me a grain of truth and I will mix it up with a great mass of
falsehood so that no chemist will ever be able to separate them."

John Wilkes to Adam Smith

2005-06-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

It's the White House

False

The Patriot Act Has Helped Prosecutors Take Legal Action Against Terrorist Operatives And Their Supporters. Since September 11th, the United States has charged over 400 suspected terrorists, and more than half of those charged have already been convicted.

White House Fact Sheet: The Patriot Act Helps Keep America Safe
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/06/20050609.html

Truth

An analysis of the Justice Department's list of terrorism prosecutions by The Washington Post shows that 39 people -- not 200 -- have been convicted of crimes related to terrorism or national security.

Most of the others were convicted of relatively minor crimes such as making false statements and violating immigration law -- and had nothing to do with terrorism, the analysis shows. Overall, the median sentence was just 11 months.

Few Terror Convictions in Cases Since 9/11, Less Than Half of the People Charged Had Demonstrated Connections to Terror Groups
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/11/AR2005061100381_pf.html

Is Bush Running a Con?

2005-04-14T09:56:00.000-07:00

If it's a worthless IOU,
then this man is a CON MAN!

President examines Bonds Issued to Social Security System He Does Not Intend to Repay.
Can Anyone Say Fraud?

2005-02-03T03:30:00.000-08:00

Social Insecurity

Lie
And best of all, the money in the account is yours, and the government can never take it away.
President George W Bush to a joint session of Congress, February 2, 2005

Truth
Under the White House Social Security plan, detailed by a senior administration official before President Bush's State of the Union address, workers who opt to divert some of their payroll taxes into individual accounts would ultimately get to keep only the investment returns that exceed the rate of return that the money would have accrued in the traditional system.

Under the proposal, workers could invest as much as 4 percent of their wages subject to Social Security taxation in a limited assortment of stock, bond and mixed-investment funds. But the government would keep and administer that money. Upon retirement, workers would then be given any money that exceeded inflation-adjusted gains over 3 percent.

That money would augment a guaranteed Social Security benefit that would be reduced by a still-undetermined amount from the currently promised benefit.

In effect, the accounts would work more like a loan from the government, to be paid back upon retirement at an inflation-adjusted 3 percent interest rate -- the interest the money would have earned if it had been invested in Treasury bonds, said Peter R. Orszag, a Social Security analyst at the Brookings Institution and a former Clinton White House economist. "It's not a nest egg. It's a loan."

If a worker sets aside $1,000 a year for 40 years, and earns 4 percent annually on investments, the account would grow to $99,800 in today's dollars, but the government would keep $78,700 -- or about 80 percent of the account. The remainder, $21,100, would be the worker's.
With a 4.6 percent average gain over inflation, the government keeps more than 70 percent. With the CBO's 3.3 percent rate, the worker is left with nothing but the guaranteed benefit.
If instead, workers decide to stay in the traditional system, they would receive the benefit that Social Security could pay out of payroll taxes still flowing into the system, the official said.

The system would ultimately look something like a proposal made by President Bill Clinton, in which the government would have invested Social Security taxes in the stock market.

That idea was criticized by conservatives. The government is choosing the stocks and bonds to be bought with Social Security money, said Jason Furman, a former Clinton administration economist. Individuals would get a limited choice, and the government would still keep most of the returns.

"They hope people will think they will take on these accounts and after 40 years, they'll have this huge windfall, but that won't happen," said Dean Baker, co-director of the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research. "I think they're trying to confuse people."

Stephen Moore, a conservative supporter of Bush's Social Security effort, said the mechanism would undermine the president's notion of an "ownership society."

"Participants Would Forfeit Part of Accounts' Profits,"Washington Post, February 3, 2005

2005-01-26T19:35:00.000-08:00

Truth Takes a Dive

Q Mr. President, in the debate over Dr. Rice's confirmation, Democrats came right out and accused you and the administration of lying in the run-up to the war in Iraq.... No reaction to the lying? No reaction? (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Is that your question? The answer is, no.
President Holds Press Conference, January 26, 2005

2005-01-13T16:10:00.000-08:00

President Bush Lies

As a matter of fact, by the time today's workers who are in their mid-20s begin to retire, the system will be bankrupt. So if you're 20 years old, in your mid-20s, and you're beginning to work, I want you to think about a Social Security system that will be flat bust, bankrupt.
George W Bush, President Participates in Conversation on Social Security Reform, Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, Washington, D.C., January 12, 2005

Truth

According the the Social Security Trustees, they will be able to pay 73% of the benefits in 2042 from current tax revenue and could pay full benefits if we raise the payroll tax from its current rate (12.4% combined employee and employer on the first $87,900 of income) to 14.29%:

Projected OASDI tax income will be sufficient to finance only 73 percent of scheduled annual benefits by 2042, when the combined OASDI trust fund is projected to be exhausted.
Status of the Social Security and Medicare Programs, A SUMMARY OF THE 2004 ANNUAL REPORTS, Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees
Assuming the Trustees' intermediate assumptions are realized, the deficit of 1.89 percent of payroll indicates that financial adequacy of the program for the next 75 years could be restored if the Social Security payroll tax were immediately and permanently increased from its current level of 12.4 percent (combined employee-employer shares) to 14.29 percent.
2004 OASDI Trustees Report, IV. ACTUARIAL ESTIMATES, B. LONG-RANGE ESTIMATES

2005-01-07T13:07:00.000-08:00

"Contrary to reports, I consider the Geneva Conventions neither obsolete nor quaint."

Alberto Gonzales, Senate Judiciary Committee Confirmation Hearing, January 6, 2005
Click here to read testimony at the NY Times -- free registration required

"In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions."

Alberto Gonzales, Memorandum for the President, January 25, 2002
Click here to see a pdf file of the memorandum

Debunking the Social Security Lie

2005-01-04T10:58:00.000-08:00

Paul Krugman will be writing a series of opinion pieces in the New York Times about Social Security privatized. I strongly suggest they be read and passed around. Although it appears on the opinion page, it is full of factual information.

Click Here to Link to the First Krugman Article

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

2004-12-26T23:19:00.000-08:00

The people who ... shot down the plane over Pennsylvania....

NEWS FROM CNN. Aired December 24, 2004 - 12:00 ET

Excuse me? Shot down the plane?

He's Worse Than I Am

2004-12-11T11:04:00.000-08:00

The White House now justifies its action in Iraq as necessary to free the people of Iraq rather than due to the threat Iraq posed to the United States. A clear propaganda website, Iraq Liberation Update, shows tales of how bad things were for people under Saddam. But it appears difficult for the White House to update the site with tales of how good Iraq is today. In this way, the White House lies on a daily basis.

The site, under the command of this White House, spreads news of the joyful Iraqi people that the mainstream media refuses to show. The problem is that the vacuum created by the Bush administration plan has led to new and different horrors rather than safety in Iraq. Despite the departure of the dictator Saddam, the situation in Iraq is bleak. Despite proclamations to the contrary, the situation in Iraq is not truly shown in the American media. The daily reports of death and destruction we do see are only a small portion of the actual damage. This is repeatedly displayed by the inability of our forces to move without extreme personal danger. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said as much in his much less focused upon remark to soldiers, "You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can [still] be blown up." Even the supposedly safe International Zone is more of a bullseye than a safe area.

In addition, this website justifies the military solution in Iraq on the defeat of an evil dictator who harmed his own people, rather than the initially proclaimed reason of imminent danger to the American people. Are we Americans now such internationalists, with the highest of moral and ethical calling, that we can impose our moral opinions and judgments on others by force? Or are we simply being run by despotic rulers who exploit our people's obedience to patriot callings to enrich themselves and their cronies?

Worse still, we have made a grave mistake in that we did not attack the country that has the worst of the world's despotic rulers. If we choose this new justification, why do we not use this noble calling to spread freedom to truly oppressed people? Why are we not going into Zimbabwe? How about Myanmar(Burma), one of the most repressive countries in the world? It is because these countries are not teeming in resources and therefore the well-being of these people is of a lower priority. When are we going into North Korea? It's cruel practices against its people are well documented This country, however, also has little in the way of resources and actually does pose a threat to America, especially if attacked. We therefore stand back, behind China, Japan, Russia and South Korea, remove some of our troops because we are stretched so thin militarily and do little to protect the American people. This is the legacy of the Bush administration. A failure to truly protect the American people.

In the end, it is us who must save our own country. This country is not the government, no matter who is elected, but is us. We must exercise, as stated by Jefferson, our right "to alter or to abolish [the government], and to institute new Government." We must work to eliminate the illegitimate Bush government and install a new government that serves the people. Write your Senator and Representative with this message.

Can He Send the Copies to Iraq?

2004-10-29T06:34:00.000-07:00

President Bush's campaign acknowledged Thursday that it had doctored a photograph used in a television commercial to remove the president and the podium where he was standing. The campaign said the ad will be re-edited and reshipped to TV stations.

A group of soldiers in the crowd was electronically copied to fill in the space where the president and the podium had been, aides say.

Bush campaign admits doctoring photo for TV ad
Associated Press
Oct. 28, 2004

2004-10-14T16:35:00.000-07:00

Bush Calls for Government Rationing of Health Care

Government rationing health care? Yes, says George Bush.

President Bush called for government rationing of health care at the third presidential debate.

Help us prioritize those who need to get the flu shot, the elderly and the young. The CDC, responsible for health in the United States, is setting those priorities and is allocating the flu vaccine accordingly.
George Bush at the 3rd Presidential Debate available at GeorgeWBush.com :: Transcript from Tempe, Arizona Debate Where President Bush Finished Strong, October 13, 2004

But the Bush Campaign had already admitted this in a campaign ad:

Voice Over:
Rationing. Less access. Fewer choices. Long waits.
And Washington bureaucrats, not your doctor... make final decisions on your health.

Bush campaign ad "Complicated Plan" GeorgeWBush.com ::
Bush-Cheney '04 Launches New Television Advertisements, "Complicated Plan" and "Your Doctor" October 12, 2004

Oops, that ad said John Kerry was going to ration health care. Is the Bush Team Lying? Maybe they just misstated.

TRUTH - AT LEAST TWO OUT OF THREE!!

2004-10-09T10:14:00.000-07:00

FIRST, THE QUESTION
JONATHAN MICHAELSON: Mr. President, if there were a vacancy in the Supreme Court and you had the opportunity to fill that position today, who would you choose and why?

NOW THE TRUTH
BUSH: I'm not telling. (LAUGHTER)

THEN TRUTH OR LIE? - YOU MAKE THE CALL
I really don't have -- haven't picked anybody yet.

THEN ANOTHER TRUTH
Plus, I want them all voting for me. (PRESIDENT LAUGHS)

President Bush at the October 8, 2004 Presidential Debate

Never Forget Who is Responsible

2004-09-20T11:19:00.000-07:00

I am truly disturbed that we have all forgotten something important. While we can agree that Saddam Hussain was a bad guy, the constant refrain of America and the world being more safe and secure is a LIE! I see over a thousand soldiers from this country who would not have died otherwise, and thousands more from other countries have died in various attacks, in various countries, by various entities. Every day brave American men and women return to this country dead due to our President's choice to overthrow a despotic regime. I fear for my neighbor's oldest who will soon be 18 and therefore will be eligible when the draft is reinstated.

Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box

Click here to pay your respects to America's fallen heroes
Please be horrified at what the Bush Administration doesn't want you to see or think about.

Click Here to See Who is Responsible for Their Deaths

Today's Lie -- It's Cheney Again

2004-09-13T16:40:00.000-07:00

===============================
THE DAILY MIS-LEAD
< www.Misleader.org >
===============================

CHENEY MISLEADS ON IRAQ/AL-QAEDA CONNECTION

Displaying a brazen disregard for the facts, Vice President Cheney told an audience in Cincinnati Thursday that Iraq had "provided safe harbor and sanctuary...for Al Qaeda."[1] There is no evidence to support Cheney's claim. The 9/11 Commission - which spent months exhaustively studying the issue - concluded there was no "collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al-Qaeda.[2]

After the release of the report, Cheney claimed there was "overwhelming" evidence of a relationship between al-Qaeda and Iraq and that he had "probably" seen evidence that was not shared with the commission.[3] After investigating the matter, the 9/11 Commission found "it had access to the same information the vice president has seen regarding contacts between Al Qaeda and Iraq prior to the 9/11 attacks." The commission also reaffirmed its position that it had not discovered a "collaboration-cooperation between al-Qaeda and Iraq."[4]

Sources:
1. "Cheney Says Iraq Harbored Al Qaeda," Los Angeles Times, 9/10/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=3146793&l=54791.
2. "Al Qaeda-Hussein Link Is Dismissed," Washington Post, 6/17/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=3146793&l=54792.
3. "Cheney blasts media on al Qaeda-Iraq link," CNN, 6/18/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=3146793&l=54793.
4. "9/11 Panel Upholds Iraq-al-Qaida Finding," ABC News, 7/7/004, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=3146793&l=54794.

Visit www.Misleader.org for more about Bush Administration distortion.

===========================================================

Subscribe to the Daily Mislead! Go to http://www.misleader.org and enter
your e-mail address in the "Receive the Daily Mislead" box in the
top-left corner of the page.

More Affordable and Accessible Health Care Defined

2004-09-10T14:40:00.000-07:00

LIE
President Bush is making [healthcare] more affordable and accessible to all Americans.

--Vice-President Cheney at the Republican National Convention

source: 2004 Republican National Convention

TRUTH
Employer-sponsored health plan premiums rose 11.2% in 2004 according to a Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Educational Trust survey, more than five times the national increase in wages, which rose 2.2% from the spring of 2003 to spring 2004, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Since 2001 the proportion of employers offering health benefits decreased 7.4% and there are 5 million fewer jobs offering health benefits.

The average employee's share of family coverage has risen by more than $1,000 since 2000, an increase of 59%.

source: Daily Health Policy Report - Kaisernetwork.org#25690#25690

Today's Lies, Brought to you by the Wall Street Journal

2004-09-10T09:45:00.000-07:00

Are they Republicans? I am using today's (September 10, 2004) Wall Street Journal, so I can't directly say yes; I'll let you judge. But the quote they used is straight out of the Republican National Committee's arsenal. Let's start on the Opinion Page. While not strictly a lie, this is very misleading.

"Mr. Kerry suddenly turned against the war, too. 'Are you one of the anti-war candidates?' asked Chris Matthews back in January on MSNBC's 'Hardball.' Mr. Kerry: 'I am--Yes . . .'

Source: . Wall Street Journal, September 10, 2004, page A12

What's your impression?

Now, let's finish quotation:

In the sense that I don‘t believe the president took to us war as he should have, yes. Absolutely. Do I think this president violated his promises to America? Yes, I do, Chris. Was there a way to hold Saddam Hussein accountable? You bet there was and we should have done it right.

Source: Hardball transcript from August 16, 2004

Was your impression based on the Wall Street Journal correct?

Does the edited version in the Wall Street Journal give a fair opportunity to truly judge what Mr. Kerry said? Chris Matthews, host of Hardball, doesn't think so.

Do you (Matthew Dowd, a senior strategist with the Bush-Cheney campaign) think that was a fair cropping of what he had to say? You cut him off after he said, yes. And you did not let him continue on to say: 'in the sense that I don‘t believe the president took to us war as he should have.'

Let me ask you, Matt, are you going to have the president stop saying that John Kerry, on our show, on HARDBALL, because that‘s what he was referring to, clearly, 220 days ago when he said this, are you going to get him to stop saying that John Kerry declared himself the anti-war candidate, which is clearly not what he said because I used the word anti-war candidate and I referred to a number of them? You say what he said on my show and he didn‘t say that. That‘s all I‘m asking.

I‘m asking you, is the president going to keep saying that something that was said on this show wasn‘t said?

Why don‘t you show [President Bush] a tape of the show for 10 seconds so he‘ll get it straight.

But you don‘t—you can‘t. So it only showed the first part of the sentence so they wouldn‘t get to judge it for themselves, right?

Would you like to have your sentences cut down like to a third of their length and let people decide on the first three or four words what you meant by the 20 words? Let me repeat it again, what he said. I‘m not going to argue this any further tonight. I think you guys should consider taking this off your loop. I think the president ought to be shown this tape so he knows what he‘s talking about, instead of having it fed to him by somebody who doesn‘t show them full sentence.

Source: Hardball transcript from August 16, 2004

This particular edited use of the Hardball quote surfaced in Kerry On Iraq , a video "paid for by the Republican National Committee and Bush-Cheney, '04 Inc." that was reportedly viewed 7,186,362 times. Does this count as 7,186,362 lies or just one big one?

source: http://www.kerryoniraq.com , a site "paid for by the Republican National Committee. Not Authorized By Any Candidate Or Candidate Committee - www.gop.com"

Senator Robert Dole Questions Bush's Guard Service

2004-09-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

What does Robert Dole think?

"And I think he's -- I said months ago, "Don't go too far." And I think he's got himself into this wicket now where he can't extricate himself because not every one of these people can be liars. There's got to be some truth to the charges. "

Senator Robert Dole speaking on CNN

Today's Headlines

Bush's Guard Duty Under Microscope -- CBS News September 9, 2004 10:52:27

Renewed focus on Bush time in military / Ex-official says he helped politician's son avoid Vietnam -- SF Chronicle

Democrats to push Guard questions through election - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - September 09, 2004

Democrats Say Bush Lied on Guard Service -- Associated Press

Book Unflattering to Bush Draws His Campaign's Fire -- NY Times

White House Response

"I chalk it up to politics. They play dirty down in Texas. I've been there. I see how it works. (Truth)

But the bottom line is that there is no truth to this." (Lie)

Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director, speaking to CBS News Wednesday September 8, 2004 on questions about President Bush's Guard Duty.

What does Robert Dole think? Bob Dole thinks

"There's got to be some truth to the charges. "

Senator Robert Dole on CNN

2004-09-09T11:45:00.000-07:00

We Must Correct Lies That Masquerade as Truth.

Note: I can not confirm that the letter writer here is a republican, however, the letter does state the republican party line.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 9, 2004: MY LETTER WAS NOT PUBLISHED TODAY.

Here is an example. The following letter appeared in my local paper, the Contra Costa Times, on Monday September 6, 2004. Click here or on the letter to enlarge it to a readable size.

Click here or on the letter to enlarge.
Originally published in the Contra Costa Times, Monday September 6, 2004.

These lies deserve a correction. What follows is a letter I wrote to the Contra Costa Times. Based on the verification phone call I received, I expect this letter to be published tomorrow, September 9, 2004.

I assumed that letters to the Readers' Forum, while expressing opinion, also had to be factual. The Times states that "Letters are subject to verification" a process designed to "make sure or demonstrate that (something) is true, accurate, or justified." [source: Oxford University Press] The letter, "Truth unknown," published Monday, September 6, 2004 fails this process. John Kerry's military records are available at his website, www.johnkerry.com. I can understand Ms. Ehrman's confusion. One candidate, George Bush, actively fought the release of his records, released as few records as possible in response to Freedom of Information Act requests, and some whose records are still missing according to the Associated Press ("Records on Bush's Military Service are Missing" Matt Kelley, Associated Press, September 6, 2004).

Michael Brent

EVERY TIME YOU SEE A LIE, CHALLENGE IT!

Arnold Schwarzenegger -- A True Liar at the Republican Convention

2004-09-04T17:00:00.000-07:00

True Liars

LIE

"As a kid I saw the socialist country that Austria became after the Soviets left. Now don't misunderstand me."

---Arnold Schwarzenegger August 31, 2004

Truth

Austria was governed by coalition governments that included the conservative People's Party and the liberal Social Democratic Party, Martin Polaschek, a law history scholar and vice rector of Graz University, told the Vienna newspaper Kurier.

Between 1945 and 1970, all the nation's chancellors were conservatives -- not socialists. And when Schwarzenegger left in 1968, Austria was run by a conservative government headed by People's Party Chancellor Josef Klaus, a staunch Roman Catholic and a sharp critic of both the socialists and the communists ruling in countries across the Iron Curtain.

Schwarzenegger "confuses a free country with a socialist one," said Polaschek, referring to Soviet bloc communist officials' routine descriptions of their eastern European countries as socialist. "He did not speak as a historian, after all, but as a politician."

Norbert Darabos, a ranking official of Austria's opposition Social Democratic Party, complained, "The Terminator is constructing a rather bizarre Austria image."

Schwarzenegger's spokeswoman, Margita Thompson, said the governor was not referring specifically to the Socialist party but rather to "a socialistic style of government and governing that he experienced when living in Austria."

Source: Austrians question Schwarzenegger's recollections of his homeland in remarks to RNC
San Francisco Chronicle, September 4, 2004

And for the Governor's spokeswoman, a little lesson about Austria's style of government:

Government: Federal republic with nine provinces, each with own assembly and government. 1920 constitution, revised 1929, forms constitutional basis of government. Government consists of executive, legislative, and judicial branches. President head of state, elected every six years by popular vote. Executive headed by chancellor (prime minister) and cabinet, which reflect party composition of parliament. Legislative power vested in bicameral parliament consisting of Nationalrat (National Council) and Bundesrat (Federal Council). Nationalrat primary legislative power, with 183 popularly elected members; Bundesrat represents the provinces with sixty-three members elected by provincial assemblies. Independent judiciary.

Source: FACTS ON AUSTRIA
Information from the CIA Factbook 1999 & the Library of Congress
Edited by Richard Jaklitsch

Oh and so there is no confusion about what is meant by a federal republic, the CIA defines it.

Federal Republic - a state in which the powers of the central government are restricted and in which the component parts (states, colonies, or provinces) retain a degree of self-government; ultimate sovereign power rests with the voters who chose their governmental representatives.(emphasis added)

source: CIA - The World Factbook - Notes and Definitions

And a lesson about Austrian Politics:

Politics: Dominated by Social Democratic Party of Austria (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs--SPÖ) and Austrian People's Party (Österreichs Volkspartei--ÖVP);

Source: FACTS ON AUSTRIA
Information from the CIA Factbook 1999 & the Library of Congress
Edited by Richard Jaklitsch

When the Austrian Republic was reestablished in 1945, the Provisional Government formed by Chancellor Karl Renner was made up of approximately equal numbers of representatives from the Sozialistische Partei Österreichs (SPÖ-Social Democrats), the Österreichische Volkspartei (ÖVP-Christian Democrats) and the Kommunistische Partei Österreichs (KPÖ-Communists).

After the first elections to the Nationalrat, in November 1945, in which the Communists won only four out of a total of 165 seats, there was, until 1947, one communist minister in addition to the cabinet members representing the two major parties. With the exception of this two-year period, the government until April 1966 was always in the hands of a coalition between the People's Party and the Socialists, with the Chancellor coming from the People's Party, which was consistently the stronger. In 1966, the People's Party gained a majority and formed a one-party government, which remained in power until April 1970.

Source: THE LEADERS OF AUSTRIA
The Direct Rulers of the Austrian People
Information from the CIA Factbook 1999 & the Library of Congress
Edited by Richard Jaklitsch