The GOP’s Bigotsphere: Come For The Lies, Stay For The Slanders
Posted by Phoenix Woman on May 22, 2008
Great Ahura-Mazda on toast points, but this is funny.
A few weeks ago, Ollie Ox over at Bluestem Prairie utterly and thoroughly debunked a new GOP e-mail smear forward that’s been making the rounds and even bubbling up into letters columns in unsuspecting rural newspapers. The e-mail smear falsely claims that that the 2008 U.S. economic downturn resulted from the Democratic control of Congress in 2007. Here’s part of what FactCheck.org had to say about that (h/t Ollie):
Did electing a Democratic Congress in 2006 really lead to increased unemployment, higher gas prices and more home foreclosures?
I received this [Patriot's pasted text] by e-mail and I’ve also seen it posted as a comment on a lot of blogs and news sites. Is there any truth to it?
No, and most of the figures in a widely-circulated e-mail are made up. In fact, the entire premise of the e-mail is a logical fallacy.
Like most of the chain e-mails making the rounds, this one is inaccurate. Some claims are outright false while others are grossly out of context. Overall, the e-mail commits the logical fallacy known as post hoc ergo propter hoc (or after the fact, therefore because of the fact).
But of course, since without lies the Republicans have no hope of winning arguments, much less elections, we find that “Look True North” of the local right-wing blogging community still clings to this bit of discredited flotsam the way Norm Coleman clings to his Myanmar money and his right to have an alternative lifestyle. (Which reminds me: Hey, StarTribune, as long as you’re reprinting talking points crafted by the Minnesota Republican Party’s chief oppo-slingers about Al Franken’s attending a Christie Hefner fundraiser, will you now admit that it’s time to break the code of silence on Norm Coleman’s life?)
