Dissecting Lies

The GOP/Tea Party line is that: Obama (A socialist) has, much like a dictator, taken a hold of the federal government and massively increased spending.  I don't think I'm embellishing.  I've heard this repeated by respected members of the GOP, in newspapers, on Fox News, and on right-wing blogs.

Paul Krugman has a fantastic post taking this lie apart (here).

Rather than just cut-and paste the entire blog post, here are a few key charts that really take apart what's going on with government spending.





So, what's going-on here?  Simple.  We have RECORD unemployment.  This isn't a 'government take-over' of the economy.  This isn't a massive spending designed to implement an agenda of socialism.  I know that I'm supposed to balance my thinking with the idea that my side spreads an equal number of falsehoods.  But seriously, the nonsense from the 'ring-wing noise machine' is tedious, loud, and wrong.  Here's to Krugman finding another way to point that out.  Cheers!

Some readings from July

Sometime ambition gets the best of me.  Weekly just fell away huh?  OK...  Here's some housekeeping:

A new toy around the house.  And yes, it's sweet.

Elizabeth Warren, the debate continues (even now)

Tax cuts do not automatically increase revenue

What are conservatives, now?

Making money by giving it away

The latest, greatest, board games

Long term, this is bad

Getting Krugman to stick a pencil in his eye

Improving GOP outlook in the senate

The shutdown won't happen

Where Kevin Drum reads my mind

How do people in the media keep up with the information flow?

"I'm not aware of any agency with the authority, responsibility or a process in place to coordinate all these interagency and commercial activities. The complexity of this system defies description."

What does BS look like?

Erick Erickson is a blowhard

Making decisions on the margin


If you tell lies often enough, you begin to believe them

The tea party pisses people off

The filibuster is here to stay

Sullivan loves Palin

27,000 abandoned wells not checked for leaks

The pain of Palin

Playing pretend with tax charts

How being liar makes you popular

The economics of Romneycare

Does anybody really care about the deficit?

How to shrink government services

Being on both sides of an argument

If the economy determines electoral outcomes, why was 2000 so close?

But... Does crazy win?

Another Facebook debacle

In case you were wondering, Krugman thinks he's right


I don't like FOX "News"

Great pictures from the war in Afghanistan

GDP.  It's worse then we thought

How much does that hurt?


The structure of the conflict matters more than the players

Identifying propaganda (Regarding Bush's tax cuts)

Open source textbooks.  What's not to like?


Spin, spin, spin, spin, spin...

How to piss off monkeys