We know how truth-averse and fact-challenged the GOP are. So, here’s a primer to quickly debunk some of the scandals and talking points of the Fascist GOP, one day before the next CPAC meeting:
This man also said that “key words” were used to determine which groups to investigate, but, they weren’t limited to “Tea Party” and “Conservative” groups, as the GOP propaganda suggests. All manner of groups were investigated.
In fact, the ONLY group that was denied tax-exempt status, despite the painfully obvious fact that ALL GOP groups are political groups, was a Progressive church in California. Every other group had tax-exempt status conferred upon them. This is now a settled matter and no more hearings need to be held, period.
AP “scandal”: also manufactured by the GOP, big time. The sad fact of the matter is that, ever since the GOP wrote, passed and signed into law the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, our Constitutional rights have been restricted. One of those rights is the right of a “free press”. Even the Supreme Court’s “Feckless Five” Con majority has upheld that abomination of a law in five of the seven cases regarding it that have come before them. Ever since 1917, when the Espionage Act was passed, the courts of this country have consistently held that the press is not “free” to divulge national security secrets. However, they have ruled in favor of news organizations and journalists who have uncovered political corruption. But, since the Patriot Act, the waters have been muddied, as the GOP think that everything done is in the interest of “national security”. This problem and a few others are going to keep popping up until Congress has the balls to fully repeal the Patriot Act.
Fast & Furious “scandal”: definitely manufactured by the GOP. In fact, as it turns out, Rep. Darrell Issa’s “whistleblower” was the only person in the operation to allow guns to walk across the border, all THREE of them, from Arizona, the state with the weakest gun laws. This is projectional hypocrisy, as a Bush 43 administration-era effort, “Operation Wide Receiver”, allowed more than 2,000 guns to walk across the border. It was one of THOSE guns that was used to kill the Border Patrol officer, not one of the three from Fast and Furious, as GOP propaganda keeps telling us.
Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi!—-yikes. This is one of those situations best described as “making a mountain out of a molehill”. It makes no difference the reason the consulate in Benghazi was attacked, whether it was caused by that stupid movie or terrorists using the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks to attack Americans abroad. As Hillary Clinton said about a year ago, “what does it matter now? We have to make sure it doesn’t happen again”. In addition, three other facts blow this “scandal” or “cover-up” out of the water: first, Ambassador Stevens refused an offer for more security assets in Benghazi and Tripoli. Outright refused. Second, the House GOP voted for and was successful in cutting the embassy/consulate security budget. In 2012, the cuts equaled $330 million. They started in 2011, with about $110 million. For Fiscal Years 2013 and 2014, they’ve cut the budget even further. Third, a recent report from the Inspector General indicated that the military could not have went from where they were elsewhere in Africa to make it to Benghazi in time to prevent the attack or fend off the attackers. In fact, the Army General and Navy Admiral in charge of the area were both fired by the President for refusing to carry out orders to do something about the attacks. The General and the Admiral confirmed that they couldn’t send assets there in time, but they also elected not to send anything after the attack, despite being ordered to, so they were fired.
PPACA (GOP dog whistle term, “Obamacare”) “scandal”: Again, manufactured by the GOP. The GOP have long claimed that the PPACA would “collapse under its own weight”. But, when it didn’t, they decided to try and make it look like it would, especially regarding the federal exchange rollout. The GOP secretly hired hackers to sabotage the website. This is something the GOP love to do: claim something doesn’t work, like government, and then go out and take steps to prove it, making them “self-fulfilling prophesies”. Of course, there’s the stupid “death panels” argument, which also turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophesy, as the Red states are the ones that refuse to accept the fully-funded (for the first three years) Medicaid expansion, which will leave about 4 million people without health insurance coverage. Of course, we almost shouldn’t have to mention the fact that they’ve outright lied about premiums and the true cost of healthcare coverage under the law.
There you have it, five of the “scandals” manufactured by the GOP, thoroughly debunked. Remember that, because the latest CPAC parade of lunacy and idiocy starts tomorrow, there’ll be more “scandals”/BS/propaganda and talking points to debunk. I would hope that they have different ones, as the ones they’ve been using/spouting have been constantly and thoroughly debunked. They’re pathetic, old and tired.
The Pardu's Scroll 