Shortest Joke in the World: Truth in Politics

(Picture from here.)

Politics is a rough game. But it gets almost impossible when the politicians (both in office and trying to get in office) start lying.

I have a little trouble with "misstatements". A lot of these are out and out, bald face, up front, in your face lies.

A few examples.

The Democratic Primary for New York City happens on September 14. The current rep, Carolyn Maloney, is being challenged by Reshma Saujani-- who, I think from the pictures, suffers from Bush Smirk Syndrome. Be that as it may be, Saujani has been out and out lying. (See here.) Maloney might not be the right person for the job but Saujani looks no better.

Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman are competing to be California Governor. Both sides are lying about the other. Further, the supporters of both sides are lying about the other. Brown's side says Whitman has "done nothing for the middle class" which is patently false. For her part, Whitman's camp says much of California's woes are Brown's fault. Which is kind of tough since the decisions that got them there happened after he left office. (See here and here.)

Republicans like to hit Harry Reid. No surprise there. A PAC says Nevada got bottom of the barrel when it came to the stimulus money. (Interesting attack since the stimulus money was roundly attacked by Republicans. Their motto appears to be: "We hate that stimulus money. Give us more." But what of that.) Not entirely true-- Nevada is 43rd, not 50th as they claim. Even so, it's hard to blame Reid for it since the money is driven by formulas. (See here and here.)

In New York it's Democrat vs. Democrat. In the Georgia governor's race it's Republican vs. Republican. However, here, as in New York, deceit rules. Karen Handel has been annointed by Sarah Palin as her choice. It's with mixed feelings that I report she's under attack by John Oxendine. I don't mind the attack but Oxendine is lying. He misquotes an article describing skyrocketing budgets since 1997 attributing it to her after she'd been in office three months. He claims she funded abortions when she did not. (See here.)

When they get interviewed on television, they're not worth watching. (See here and here.)

Too many to count:
Obama here. Wisconsin Senate race here. Florida Governor's race here. Colorado Democratic Senate primary here.

What's strange is these guys say this and expect not to get caught by it. I just ran briefly over FactCheck.org (bless them!) to get the above. It's easy to catch them. Pretty much, with the internet, fact checking is pretty easy. You have to rate the good sources (factcheck.org, etc) over lesser sources, journalists over bloggers who don't reveal their sources, bloggers over tea baggers and pretty much anybody over Ann Coulter. See? It's easy.

So: either people take what is being said without critical thought, have already made up their mind without facts or just don't care.

I don't know which is more scary.