THIS IS SERIOUSLY DISTURBING:
I have to say, from what I've been seeing in recent years, since Newt Gingrich came to power back in the 90s really, the Republican party has been getting shadier and shadier until they are a sad shadow of a once great party. Don't believe me? Check it out yourself then. First of all I want to say that Rachel Maddow, Rocks! Thanks for pointing this all out to me. I knew some of it before but it helps to have it all brought together to see it more clearly.
Before I get into this, it's only fair that I point out there are two sides to every "story" but not to facts. However, the GOP side of this fact twisting, is so much worse than their opponents, that it is a marked reality worth noting. Too many times I have run down Fox News "truths" only to find they are not what they seem and fall quickly apart. To be sure, once in a while they hit the bullseye, but it is nothing in comparison to what I will detail here.
Here's the facts....
It seems that when Bush Jr. didn't like a report, they quashed it. The US Report "Patterns of Global Terrorism" from the US State Department came out for 2003 as it had for twenty years. I've read it myself in the past. Bush kept saying how good they had done in the fight against terrorism and how it was down.
The 2004 report then came out to say that terrorism was higher than it had ever been in their twenty years of reporting. And so Bush killed the report, explaining it off as a need to reevaluate the criteria the report was using. They did that time and time again.
From the Seattle Time report:
"But other current and former officials charged that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's office ordered the report, "Patterns of Global Terrorism," eliminated weeks ago because the 2004 statistics raised disturbing questions about the Bush's administration's frequent claims of progress in the war against terrorism.
"Instead of dealing with the facts and dealing with them in an intelligent fashion, they try to hide their facts from the American public," charged Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst and State Department terrorism expert who first disclosed the decision to eliminate the report in The Counterterrorism Blog, an online journal."
There is now a different report that has replaced it. But what had happened was that the old report was buried within the newer style report to make the Bush Administration not look so bad. This reminds me of what the USSR used to do in using "disinformation". They were the experts in it and taught the British (or they learned how to do it in combating the Soviets) and we learned as we had so much of that type of thing, from the British.
"Instead of dealing with the facts and dealing with them in an intelligent fashion, they try to hide their facts from the American public," charged Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst and State Department terrorism expert who first disclosed the decision to eliminate the report in The Counterterrorism Blog, an online journal."
There is now a different report that has replaced it. But what had happened was that the old report was buried within the newer style report to make the Bush Administration not look so bad. This reminds me of what the USSR used to do in using "disinformation". They were the experts in it and taught the British (or they learned how to do it in combating the Soviets) and we learned as we had so much of that type of thing, from the British.
From Wikipedia:
"Disinformation is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. For this reason, it is synonymous with and sometimes called black propaganda. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth. Disinformation should not be confused with misinformation, information that is unintentionally false.
"Unlike traditional propaganda techniques designed to engage emotional support, disinformation is designed to manipulate the audience at the rational level by either discrediting conflicting information or supporting false conclusions. A common disinformation tactic is to mix some truth and observation with false conclusions and lies, or to reveal part of the truth while presenting it as the whole (a limited hangout)."
I don't have to make this stuff up. If you ever watch the news, you've gotten the GOP's disinformation. If you watch Fox News, you probably no longer notice it, since they seem to deal in some severe nonsense much of the time. The GOP would call it, "Truth", or maybe, "Spin", but Stephen Colbert has labeled it, "Truthiness": "a quality characterizing a "truth" that a person claims to know intuitively "from the gut" or because it "feels right" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts."
Now, when a year earlier it the education department found that the Bush's push for using Charter Schools had those children showing they were falling behind public school kids, suddenly the Department of Education cut back on the data it collects about charter schools.
When mass layoffs were shown to be happening, the Bush administration decided to stop publishing information about it (The Washington Post, January 3, 2003 U.S. Drops Report on Mass Layoffs; Data Helped States Track Patterns of Industrial Demise).
This sounds very 1984 to me. If you don't like what is being said, kill it so no one reads it.
When the US Tax Policy Center's report said that Romney's plan DOES raise Middle-Class Taxes, Romney's people came back to say "Romney camp slams tax group analysis as "misleading, deceitful" (10/18/2012 The Hill - Erik Wasson). When the unemployment rate when down to 7.8% recently, the Republicans came back with doubting job numbers following these strong reports...from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (The Huffington Post, Luke Johnson 10/05/2012). What happened to the days when political parties would try to figure out how to spin numbers? Now they either try to eliminate them as the Bush administration had done, or deny their validity, which is a travesty against this country.
I am seeing a very anti American trend in the Republican party where they will lie, cheat and steal apparently (Nixon notwithstanding, not like they have a history of this or anything), to look good and win elections. It's a horrible thing to do to a nation you have been elected to office to serve. It is underhanded, it is dirtying the authority and reputation of the American Government. It is biting the hand that feeds you, whipping the children in your care, kicking the dog, poisoning the roses, slapping Mickey Mouse in a mousetrap, or kicking John Wayne in the balls.
More recently, November 1, 2012 The New York Times reported, "Nonpartisan Tax Report Withdrawn After G.O.P. Protest". One of our most prestigious research groups, the group who does the research for Congress, The Congressional Research Service (how paranoid is THAT?), made an economic report stating that, "there is no correlation between top tax rates and economic growth, a central tenet of conservative economic theory". This is from Congress's own nonpartisan Think Tank. As Rachel Maddow put it about the CSR, "they are nothing but the facts and their integrity is unimpeachable."
See also: Nonpartisan Tax Report Withdrawn After G.O.P. Protest
So, the entire theory and plan that Mitt Romney and once President George "W" Bush and the Grand Old Party have been shoving down our throats for decades, is false! There really is no higher authority on this topic and what did they do? Senate Republicans raised concerns about the paper's findings and wording and they got the CRS to pull their report, against the advice of the agency's economic team leadership.
In part the report had stated that, "There is not conclusive evidence ... to substantiate a clear relationship between the 65-year steady reduction in the top tax rates [that is lowering the tax rates on millionaires and billionaires] and [creating] economic growth." There is not evidence if you cut taxes on the rich that it enhances our economic growth.
Gee, no kidding. But then, finally one and for all, proof.
The trouble is, this pretty much shoots down Romney's entire campaign. Without this, what is he? A hot bag of wind. He may have had a life in business, but he has not run a country, not the United States of America. For that, you need a real brain and a diverse set of tools, not just business. Because you are dealing with people and families in ways you frankly, never had before. There are cares and concerns as president you simply do not have as a CEO, or an investment banker. War for instance, as the Commander in Chief, isn't just about how many ships you have, or listening to the Joint Chiefs of Staff; it's also about politics. Maybe rushing in with a fleet will win a war, but perhaps you shouldn't do that because of Russia's position today. It's not all just about business.
But even if it were, Romney it would seem, has no clue what he is doing if he thinks that keeping tax rates low on his friends and himself will help our country in any way whatsoever.
This is the whole basis of the Republican party and why so many Republicans make a never raise taxes pledge to Grover Norquist.
This tampering with reports is a very scary thing. It's very 1984. It's very USSR. It's very, UnAmerican.
Look, the way to be great, to become great is to deal with your detractors. In handling not hiding from our criticisms, we hone ourselves, make ourselves better, stronger. The way to fail, to become poor in spirit and action, is to avoid criticism, to hide. The Republican party in trying to survive and look good is killing itself. When you make mistakes, when you are found to be wrong, you do not hide from it, you FIX IT. You work harder to find a better way. You do not squash your enemies, you let them strengthen you because you have to find new ways, you have to find ways to fix your problems.
What I'm seeing in the GOP is a party on its deathbed, a party that is fearful, who are going to become panicked and could at some point, become destructive. THINK about it. Haven't you ever seen a person be this way? They eventually self-destruct and that's what I'm seeing. You need to open up, not shut down. Face your fears, mistakes, and failures. Become the great party you once were and don't let these little people of spirit, these extremists, this religious fanatics be the mainstay of your party. Just STOP. Remake yourself.
I wish you well. You are an American institution. I want you to succeed. At least, I want you to be a vibrant, healthy party that does things for America for the best of civic reasons and not for self-serving, kiss the ass of the rich, type people who are deluded into thinking the earth is only 6,000 years old. Come ON! Get it together guys! Well, that's all I can offer you. The rest my friends is up to you. What do YOU want your GOP to be? This dying behemoth or a Grand Old Party, renewed?
There it is. Someone had to say it.
For that report, you can find it, here. The nice people at The Rachel Maddow Show, have put it up on their website. Because you can't find it on the U.S. Governments' website. Why is that?
It is called, "Congressional Research Service: Taxes and the Economy: An Economic Analysis of the Top Tax Rates Since 1945" (pdf)
There are also two articles linked on that page by Steve Benen: "When the GOP suppresses inconvenient truths" and, "'This has hues of a banana republic."
I hear you there brother....
This sounds very 1984 to me. If you don't like what is being said, kill it so no one reads it.
When the US Tax Policy Center's report said that Romney's plan DOES raise Middle-Class Taxes, Romney's people came back to say "Romney camp slams tax group analysis as "misleading, deceitful" (10/18/2012 The Hill - Erik Wasson). When the unemployment rate when down to 7.8% recently, the Republicans came back with doubting job numbers following these strong reports...from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (The Huffington Post, Luke Johnson 10/05/2012). What happened to the days when political parties would try to figure out how to spin numbers? Now they either try to eliminate them as the Bush administration had done, or deny their validity, which is a travesty against this country.
I am seeing a very anti American trend in the Republican party where they will lie, cheat and steal apparently (Nixon notwithstanding, not like they have a history of this or anything), to look good and win elections. It's a horrible thing to do to a nation you have been elected to office to serve. It is underhanded, it is dirtying the authority and reputation of the American Government. It is biting the hand that feeds you, whipping the children in your care, kicking the dog, poisoning the roses, slapping Mickey Mouse in a mousetrap, or kicking John Wayne in the balls.
More recently, November 1, 2012 The New York Times reported, "Nonpartisan Tax Report Withdrawn After G.O.P. Protest". One of our most prestigious research groups, the group who does the research for Congress, The Congressional Research Service (how paranoid is THAT?), made an economic report stating that, "there is no correlation between top tax rates and economic growth, a central tenet of conservative economic theory". This is from Congress's own nonpartisan Think Tank. As Rachel Maddow put it about the CSR, "they are nothing but the facts and their integrity is unimpeachable."
See also: Nonpartisan Tax Report Withdrawn After G.O.P. Protest
So, the entire theory and plan that Mitt Romney and once President George "W" Bush and the Grand Old Party have been shoving down our throats for decades, is false! There really is no higher authority on this topic and what did they do? Senate Republicans raised concerns about the paper's findings and wording and they got the CRS to pull their report, against the advice of the agency's economic team leadership.
In part the report had stated that, "There is not conclusive evidence ... to substantiate a clear relationship between the 65-year steady reduction in the top tax rates [that is lowering the tax rates on millionaires and billionaires] and [creating] economic growth." There is not evidence if you cut taxes on the rich that it enhances our economic growth.
Gee, no kidding. But then, finally one and for all, proof.
The trouble is, this pretty much shoots down Romney's entire campaign. Without this, what is he? A hot bag of wind. He may have had a life in business, but he has not run a country, not the United States of America. For that, you need a real brain and a diverse set of tools, not just business. Because you are dealing with people and families in ways you frankly, never had before. There are cares and concerns as president you simply do not have as a CEO, or an investment banker. War for instance, as the Commander in Chief, isn't just about how many ships you have, or listening to the Joint Chiefs of Staff; it's also about politics. Maybe rushing in with a fleet will win a war, but perhaps you shouldn't do that because of Russia's position today. It's not all just about business.
But even if it were, Romney it would seem, has no clue what he is doing if he thinks that keeping tax rates low on his friends and himself will help our country in any way whatsoever.
This is the whole basis of the Republican party and why so many Republicans make a never raise taxes pledge to Grover Norquist.
This tampering with reports is a very scary thing. It's very 1984. It's very USSR. It's very, UnAmerican.
Look, the way to be great, to become great is to deal with your detractors. In handling not hiding from our criticisms, we hone ourselves, make ourselves better, stronger. The way to fail, to become poor in spirit and action, is to avoid criticism, to hide. The Republican party in trying to survive and look good is killing itself. When you make mistakes, when you are found to be wrong, you do not hide from it, you FIX IT. You work harder to find a better way. You do not squash your enemies, you let them strengthen you because you have to find new ways, you have to find ways to fix your problems.
What I'm seeing in the GOP is a party on its deathbed, a party that is fearful, who are going to become panicked and could at some point, become destructive. THINK about it. Haven't you ever seen a person be this way? They eventually self-destruct and that's what I'm seeing. You need to open up, not shut down. Face your fears, mistakes, and failures. Become the great party you once were and don't let these little people of spirit, these extremists, this religious fanatics be the mainstay of your party. Just STOP. Remake yourself.
I wish you well. You are an American institution. I want you to succeed. At least, I want you to be a vibrant, healthy party that does things for America for the best of civic reasons and not for self-serving, kiss the ass of the rich, type people who are deluded into thinking the earth is only 6,000 years old. Come ON! Get it together guys! Well, that's all I can offer you. The rest my friends is up to you. What do YOU want your GOP to be? This dying behemoth or a Grand Old Party, renewed?
There it is. Someone had to say it.
For that report, you can find it, here. The nice people at The Rachel Maddow Show, have put it up on their website. Because you can't find it on the U.S. Governments' website. Why is that?
It is called, "Congressional Research Service: Taxes and the Economy: An Economic Analysis of the Top Tax Rates Since 1945" (pdf)
There are also two articles linked on that page by Steve Benen: "When the GOP suppresses inconvenient truths" and, "'This has hues of a banana republic."
I hear you there brother....
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