Some things you might have missed during the lame duck session:
*LIE* of the Year: "Government Takeover of Health Care"
The GOP has been beating this drum--that "Obamacare" is a "government takeover of health care".
Politifact examines the claim--widely, widely used by Republicans--and finds it worth to be the lie of the year. A lie we have heard
a lot of from Scott Brown, on the campaign trail and after.
START Treaty: still up in the air
Reagan's baby has become the latest ploy in
GOP obstructionism.
Overview of new START from WaPo. Condoleezza Rice and other GOP bigwigs
support its ratification. On some of the latest
back/forth from Republican Senators (Dec 18).
Zadroga / 9/11 First Responders' Health Bill (more at this entry)
Republican Senators--including Scott Brown--voted AGAINST providing medical care for 9/11 First Responders--many of whom are dying of cancers/diseases from breathing the toxic fumes from the World Trade Center rubble. Only Jon Stewart--the comedian with the fake news program--is sufficiently outraged about this. Watch:
Child-marriage Act (S 987)
A bill to
work against child-marriage world wide was victim of the Culture Wars, when Republican congressmen succumbed to the
(untrue) Rumor that the bill MIGHT "really" be about abortion.
Bernie Sanders and the Tax Bill
What happens when a progressive champion actually argues--actually makes the case--for the little guy? When you can, make sure you review highlights from Senator Bernie Sanders's (I-VT) "filibuster" against the Obama-GOP tax cut compromise. It is inspiring!
(Links forthcoming)
Study Shows that TV News Viewers Misinformed--Fox Viewers Most Misinformed
Well, now it's quantifiable. Read the
summary of the findings, and also look at the study itself. You can also download the
Full Report and Survey
Questions/Methodology (PDFs). The section "A Note on the Question of What is “True”" is a very interesting read--page 3 of the Full Report.
Jon Stewart gets to some of this in his interview with Mike Huckabee, in which Stewart takes Fox to task for their silence on the Zadroga bill (from top of this blog post):
And just in case you need further reason to smack your head...Fox head
instructed its reporters/anchors to discredit climate science.
In case you thought misinformation didn't have real world impact...
The new Freshman Congress is going to spend its energy--
un-greening the Capitol. Really. It's Reagan and the solar panels all over again.
