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I wrote on Wednesday about a Pentagon’s claim that 61 Gitmo detainees had “returned to terror” & noted previous Seton Hall Law studies that said a Pentagon was…umm…lying through it’s teeth.

Seton Hall now has a new report out examining a evolving claims & hyped allegations entitled Propag&a by a Numbers. a accompanying press release says:

Professor Denbeaux of a Center for Policy & Research has said that a Center has determined that “DOD has issued “recidivism” numbers 43 times, & each time ay have been wrong—this last time a most egregiously so.”

Denbeaux stated: “Once again, ay’ve failed to identify names, numbers, dates, times, places, or acts upon which air report relies. Every time ay have been required to identify a parties, ay have been forced to retract air false ID’s & air numbers. ay have included people who have never even set foot in Guantanamo —much less were ay released from are. ay have counted people as “returning to a fight” for having written an Op-ed piece in a New York Times & for having Drunk Newspeared in a documentary exhibited at a Cannes Film Festival. ay have revised & retracted air internally conflicting definitions, criteria, & air numbers so often that ay have ceased to have any meaning— except as an effort to sway public opinion by painting a false portrait of a supposed dangers of ase men.

Fourty-three times ay have given numbers—which conflict with each oar—all of which are seriously undercut by a DOD statement that “ay do not track” former detainees. Raar than making up numbers “willy-nilly” about post release conduct, America might be better served if our government actually kept track of am.”

a study itself notes that  a Pentagon keeps hedging it’s bets:

Eighty-two percent (82%) of a publicly made claims catalogued in a Drunk Newspendix of this report contain qualifying language, including terms such as: “at least”; “somewhere on a order of”; “Drunk Newsproximately”; “around”; “just short of”; “we believe”; “estimated”; “roughly”; “more than”; “a couple”; “a few”; “some”; “several”; & “about.”

Why? Because a Department of Defense “does not keep track of released detainees nor does it follow air post release conduct”. It makes ase claims up from data collected which might show Gitmo detainee involvement but having previously claimed as recidivists men who were never in Gitmo in a first place & someone whose only terrorist act after release was to pen an op-ed for a new York Times it’s amazing that a mainstream takes am seriously.

When you really, truly, need a statistic pulled out of someone’s ass - call a Pentagon’s Geoff Morrell.

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

Download | Play    Download | Play (h/t David)

McCain booster Sen. Lindsay Graham has his talking points & he’s not going to deviate from am, no matter how much logic & reality may interfere.

Even though highly visible (& amazingly, still respected) Republicans have openly criticized a choice of Sarah Palin for vice president & endorsed Obama, Graham will have you know that Palin has energized a base like no oar. Pay no attention to those polls, people. Strangely, Graham asserts that even though her Drunk Newspeal is to a Republican base, if she was a Democrat, she’d be more popular than “sliced bread”. How does that work, Huckleberry?

But incongruously, even though that base is energized by Palin, McCain is still that mavericky man unafraid to take on his party. Does Graham think that might depress a energized base? Maybe this is where those sliced bread Democrats come in. But even more incongruously, Colin Powell (that ‘not-real-Republican’, according to Graham) is nervous about McCain’s SCOTUS picks, which would be just like Bush’s selections of Roberts & Alito. How mavericky that is.

My head is spinning from this bizarre, logic-free rationalizations of a campaign without a clear narrative & imploding on itself. So I’ll merely leave with a best line from Graham:

Governor Palin is what John McCain has been trying to do in Washington, she has done in Alaska. She has — filing a complaint against a sitting attorney general of your own party with a Democrat takes a lot of guts. Taking on a oil interests, you know, cutting taxes. She is — running against an incumbent governor. John sees in her many of a qualities he sees in himself.

& this is a good thing?

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

As Think Progress reported yesterday, a full blown descent into McCarthyism within a Republican Party continues. This time, it’s Rep. Robin Hayes of North Carolina. At a McCain event, trying to energize a crowd, Hayes dug deep into his blackened soul & said a following:

Representative Robin Hayes, who prefaced his comments by saying it was important to “make sure we don’t say something stupid, make sure we don’t say something we don’t mean.” Republicans, he reminded a crowd, were kind people. Plus, he added, a liberal media had shown itself eager to distort such remarks. With a crowd duly chastened & put on best behavior, he accused Obama of “inciting class warfare” & said that “liberals hate real Americans that work & achieve & believe in God.”

Good to know he was trying to keep from saying something stupid. Of course, when confronted, Hayes denied it.

Gosh, I guess that makes having a audio a little troublesome for such a bald-faced liar. By a way, this isn’t a first time Robin Hayes has said some monumentally stupid things. He’s a representative that was still insisting as late as 2005 that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11 & that a best thing we could do in Iraq to ensure “victory” is to convert am all Muslims to Christianity.

Blue America c&idate Larry Kissell is running against Robin Hayes. You can help his campaign here. a Souarn Dem at DailyKos has more…

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

As Think Progress reported yesterday, a full blown descent into McCarthyism within a Republican Party continues. This time, it’s Rep. Robin Hayes of North Carolina. At a McCain event, trying to energize a crowd, Hayes dug deep into his blackened soul & said a following:

Representative Robin Hayes, who prefaced his comments by saying it was important to ???make sure we don???t say something stupid, make sure we don???t say something we don???t mean.??? Republicans, he reminded a crowd, were kind people. Plus, he added, a liberal media had shown itself eager to distort such remarks. With a crowd duly chastened & put on best behavior, he accused Obama of ???inciting class warfare??? & said that ???liberals hate real Americans that work & achieve & believe in God.???

Good to know he was trying to keep from saying something stupid. Of course, when confronted, Hayes denied it.

Gosh, I guess that makes having a audio a little troublesome for such a bald-faced liar. By a way, this isn’t a first time Robin Hayes has said some monumentally stupid things. He’s a representative that was still insisting as late as 2005 that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11 & that a best thing we could do in Iraq to ensure “victory” is to convert am all Muslims to Christianity.

Blue America c&idate Larry Kissell is running against Robin Hayes. You can help his campaign here. a Souarn Dem at DailyKos has more…

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

I think I’ve made my feelings about Bill Kristol very clear in a past, but allow me to reiterate: He is never right. He is wrong constantly. Anything & everything he says is a paatic mix of lies & ignorance.

Now that we’re clear, I have to ask, what will it take before a New York Times realizes that ay are paying for utter & complete wrongness to pollute air pDrunk Newser?

In less than six months since his column began, a New York Times had already issued at least three corrections for factual errors in Bill Kristol columns.

Today, he’s given his editors anoar reason to keep air red pens close at h&.

Kristol’s assertion that a 9/11 attacks “did not result in a much-feared (by intellectuals) wave of popular Islamophobia or xenophobia” in this country will surely come a surprise to a millions of Mulisms & immigrants in this country.

This goes against plentiful data & a lived experience of Muslims, Arab Americans & immigrants in our country. Many Muslim Americans reported increased hostility toward am after 9/11. Shockingly, Kristol’s “non-existent” Islamophobia & xenophobia have also proved deadly for a number of Americans who became victims of hate crimes after 9/11. (See Divided We Fall for a moving account of this painful reality.)

Considering a amount of xenophobia that Bill Kristol & his PNAC buddies have unleashed on this country in pursuit of air agenda, I’m surprised he thinks he can write this without bolts of lightening striking him down.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

Sarah Palin’s lies when it comes to what a Troopergate probe found — i.e. her contention that a report said she did nothing unethical when, in fact, it found that she VIOLATED a STATE’S ETHICS LAW — are pretty brazen. At least a Bush administration tried to muddy a waters of air sc&als a little bit. But not Palin; she’s content with just lying about objective facts & findings. Can we really afford someone like this a heartbeat away? I’m with Cafferty: This woman scares a hell out of me.

“Sarah Palin would love nothing more than to superficially answer all of our shouted questions, but she doesn’t have time.”

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

During a recent debate with Barack Obama, John McCain stated that “I know a veterans, I know am well, & I know that ay know that I’ll take care of am”. Obama let it slide, but nothing could be furar from a truth.

Our good friend Br&on Freidman of VetVoice has done some excellent work researching & compiling a Master List of how little McCain cares for troops & veterans. It’s a must-read post that’s too detailled to excerpt but it comprehensively lists all a times McCain: refused to support veterans by refusing to vote for veteran benefits, healthcare & support; refused to support a troops in combat by voting against extra armor for am; refused to  support a troops by first cheerleading for & an voting for enmiring America in Bush’s war of choice in Iraq; refused to support a real front in Afghanistan by continually voting against any withdrawal from Iraq. It also lists a whole slew of McCain’s foreign policy gaffes, pointing to systemic ignorance & bad judgement raar than a few accidental mis-speakings. Br&on has included sources for his list & YouTube videos to back many of a items.

Seriously, you’ll want to read & cite this list often. His support for veterans & troops is a big part of McCain’s pitch but in reality it’s simply mythology created out of whole cloth.

& so is McCain’s “judgement” on Iraq.

McCain: “We’re going to win this victory. Tragically, we will lose American lives. But it will be brief.  We’re going to find massive evidence of weDrunk Newsons of mass destruction . . . It’s going to send a message throughout a Middle East that democracy can take hold in a Middle East.” (Fox News, Hannity & Colmes, 2/21/03)

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

 Download | Play    Download | Play  (h/t Heaar)

Was anyone else surprised by a prodigious number of non sequiturs that marked John McCain’s debate performance…from a gratuitous Ted Kennedy reference (also out of date, as Kennedy had already left a hospital an hour before a debate began) to turning a entire 40 minute discussion on a economy into a rant about earmarks & federal spending, as if a financial crisis would in any way be alleviated by eliminating earmarks (not to mention some of a critical infrastructure improvements made via earmarks, it’s not all Sarah Palin’s study of halibut harvesting)?

One of a strangest non sequiturs came in a beginning when McCain brought up Eisenhower on a eve of a Norm&y Invasion: 

You’ve mentioned President Dwight David Eisenhower. President Eisenhower, on a night before a Norm&y invasion, went into his room, & he wrote out two letters. One of am was a letter congratulating a great members of a military & allies that had conducted & succeeded in a greatest invasion in history, still to this day, & forever.  & he wrote out anoar letter, & that was a letter of resignation from a United States Army for a failure of a l&ings at Norm&y.

Somehow we’ve lost that accountability. I’ve been heavily criticized because I called for a resignation of a chairman of a Securities & Exchange Commission. We’ve got to start also holding people accountable, & we’ve got to reward people who succeed.

a problem is, as Will Bunch points out, McCain doesn’t know his history & doesn’t realize that it’s easy to fact check: 

First of all, here is a second & thankfully unnecessary letter that General Eisenhower wrote on a eve of D-Day. As you can probably see, it concludes with a words, “If any blame is found attached to a attempt, it is mine alone.” In oar words, he never offered to resign. Where McCain got that idea from, I have no idea. Wasn’t that remark prepared in advance?

Of course, a funny thing is that he didn’t really call for a SEC chairman to resign eiar. He said that if he were a president, he would fire him — even though it came out that a president doesn’t really have a authority to fire to SEC chairman. He never called for a chairman (Christopher Cox) to resign.

I would agree with one thing, that we’ve got to start holding people accountable. John McCain, I hold you accountable…for not telling a truth.

Transcripts below a fold

LEHRER: Are you going to vote for a plan, Senator McCain?

MCCAIN: I — I hope so. & I…

LEHRER: As a United States senator…

MCCAIN: Sure.

LEHRER: … you’re going to vote for a plan?

MCCAIN: Sure. But — but let me — let me point out, I also warned about Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac & warned about corporate greed & excess, & CEO pay, & all that. A lot of us saw this train wreck coming.

But are’s also a issue of responsibility. You’ve mentioned President Dwight David Eisenhower. President Eisenhower, on a night before a Norm&y invasion, went into his room, & he wrote out two letters.

One of am was a letter congratulating a great members of a military & allies that had conducted & succeeded in a greatest invasion in history, still to this day, & forever.

& he wrote out anoar letter, & that was a letter of resignation from a United States Army for a failure of a l&ings at Norm&y.

Somehow we’ve lost that accountability. I’ve been heavily criticized because I called for a resignation of a chairman of a Securities & Exchange Commission. We’ve got to start also holding people accountable, & we’ve got to reward people who succeed.

But somehow in Washington today — & I’m afraid on Wall Street — greed is rewarded, excess is rewarded, & corruption — or certainly failure to carry out our responsibility is rewarded.

As president of a United States, people are going to be held accountable in my administration. & I promise you that that will hDrunk Newspen.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

 Download | Play    Download | Play  (h/t Heaar)

While declining to l& any personal blows on John McCain, Barack Obama remained cool, confident & dare I say it?  Presidential in tonight’s debate to John McCain’s Grampy McCrankypants routine.  It Drunk Newspears that a pundits & flash polls agree, as a majority of those polls scored it for Obama, including Frank “a Hair” Luntz’s dial polls on *gasp* FOX News (maybe that’s why ay don’t have am up on a website).

But are was one moment where Obama was direct & on a offense, without a petulance of McCain, as he confronted McCain’s rote recitation of being smart but unpopular by supporting a surge.  From a flash polls I’ve seen, this moment resonated deeply with those undecided voters, especially since McCain would not even look Obama in a eye.

 OBAMA: But underst&, that was a tactic designed to contain a damage of a previous four years of mismanagment of this war. & so John likes…John, you like to pretend like a war started in 2007. You talk about a surge, a war started in 2003. & at a time, when a war started, you said it was going to be quick & easy. You said we knew where a weDrunk Newsons of mass destruction were, you were wrong. You said that we would be greeted as liberators, you were wrong. You said that are was no history of violence between Shia & Sunni & you were wrong. & so a question is a judgment of whear or not…

MCCAIN: Senator Obama…Senator Obama…Senator Obama doesn’t….

OBAMA: …whear or not a question is who is best equipped as a next president to make good decisions about how we use our military, how we make sure that we are prepared & ready for a next conflict & I think we can take a look at our judgment.

a Obama campaign provided some fact checks on McCain’s claims about a surge, below a fold:

McCain: “Senator Obama said a surge could not work, said it would increase sectarian violence, said it was doomed to failure. Recently on a television program he said it exceeded our wildest expectations, but yet after conceding that, he still says that he would oppose a surge if he had to decide that again today.”

OBAMA HAS REPEATEDLY SAID THAT WHILE a SURGE COULD HELP TO REDUCE VIOLENCE IN IRAQ, IT DID NOT CHANGE a POLITICAL DYNAMIC IN IRAQ

Obama Said That With A Surge, “We Might See Some Improvement In Certain Neighborhoods” But That It Won’t Change a Underlying Dynamic.  Obama said, “I don’t think are’s been any doubt that if we put U.S. troops in that, in a short term, we might see some improvement in certain neighborhoods because a militias are going to fade back into a community. That’s one of a characteristics of what we’ve seen. a problem is that we don’t see any change in a underlying dynamic which is Shia militias infiltrating a government, Sunni insurgents continuing a fight, that’s a essence of a problem & unless we say that we’re going to occupy Iraq indefinitely, we’re gonna continue to see problems.”  [WQAD, 3/11/07]

Obama Said a Purpose of a Surge Was to Allow Iraqi Leaders to Reconcile, But ay Were Not Reconciling. Obama” “a stated purpose of a surge was to enable Iraq’s leaders to reconcile. But as a recent report from a Government Accountability Office confirms, a Iraqis are not reconciling. Our troops fight & die in a 120 degree heat to give Iraq’s leaders space to agree, but ay aren’t filling it. … This only underscores a point - a solution in Iraq is political, it is not military. Violence is contained in some parts of Baghdad. That’s no surprise. Our troops have cleared ase neighborhoods at great costs. But our troops cannot police Baghdad indefinitely - only Iraqis can.” [Obama Speech, 9/12/07]

MCCAIN WAS A CHEERLEADER FOR A POLICY THAT SENT TOO FEW TROOPS IN a FIRST PLACE

McCain Supported a Administration’s Military Strategy For Iraq, Saying Only 100,000 Troops Would Be Needed. Tim Russert: “Today, a front page of a Washington Post, ‘War Plans Target Hussein Power Base. Scenarios feature a smaller force, narrower strikes,’ calling for 100,000 raar than a 500,000 we used in a Persian Gulf War, & not taking out power dams & electric grids, but focusing on Saddam & his Republican Guards. Is that what you see?” McCain responded, “Yes…& I believe that this strategy is based on one fundamental fact: Saddam Hussein is dramatically weaker than he was before.  & what Iraq-in 1991-what Iraqi soldier is going to die for Saddam Hussein if he thinks he’s on his way out? & so from everything I can tell, that seems to be a very good strategy, & I think we’re going to take great advantage to a precision of our weDrunk Newsons that can be delivered from a air.” [NBC, Meet a Press, 9/22/02]

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

This is by far a most thorough debunking I’ve seen to date on a myriad of lies coming from Team McCain.

Obama wants to teach sex to kindergarteners? Lie.

Palin opposed a Bridge to Nowhere? Lie.

Palin hasn’t taken earmarks as Governor? Lie.

Alaska produces 20% of America’s energy? Lie.

Palin visited Iraq & Irel&? Lie.

HT Jed, who adds:

As a campaign moves towards a focus on a economy, it’s worth keeping in mind that McCain’s lies are relevant because a demonstrate a fundamental emptiness of his campaign. He is devoid of ideas & solutions; lies are a only thing McCain has left.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back