Birds of a Feather…Use The Same Idiotic Talking Points

Newsbusters’ Lachlan Markay has caught Rachel Maddow lying -( AGAIN!)

For Rachel Maddow, corrections never come easy. But while the MSNBC host has at least offered corrections where she has previously gotten it wrong – granted, with the immense level of sarcasm and snark that is her hallmark – a recent flap with online watchdogs has the indignant Maddow splitting hairs in near-comedic fashion in an effort to avoid admitting she was mistaken.

But the numbers still belie her position.

The exchange began with Maddow’s appearance on Leno Tuesday night. She falsely claimed that “of the top ten people donating money in [the 2010 election cycle], seven of them were giving to Republicans.” In fact, as NB’s Noel Sheppard pointed out, Maddow had it exactly backwards: 7 of the top 10 individual contributors gave more to Democrats than Republicans during the past cycle (and a lot more at that).

Image via Johnny Dollar.

Johnny Dollar noticed this comment made by Shepard Smith to Juan Williams on Fox News, Wednesday:

SHEPARD SMITH: Can you explain Wisconsin?…Have you looked at the list of the top ten donors to political campaigns, the top ten highest? Seven of those ten donate to Republicans. The other three that remain of those top ten, they all donate to Democrats and they’re all unions. Bust the unions, and it’s over.

Coincidence? Dollar thinks not.

Hmm, is Shep a Rachel Maddow fan? She cites some stats and draws a conclusion from them, and the next day Shep cites the same stats using similar language–and draws the same conclusion. Now if Rachel Maddow’s stats were general public knowledge this could be a coincidence.

Of course her stats are not general public knowledge because they’re completely wrong, as both Markay and Dollar prove in their posts.

So what’s up with Shep? And why hasn’t he corrected his mistake, yet?

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Then there’s the unions and well, not to red-bait, but —the Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party,  CPUSA, Socialist Workers Party and the Democratic Socialists of America are all on the exact same page in their fight against the taxpayers.

Coinkidink?

John Rossomando at The Daily Caller thinks it says a  lot about the unions that they sound so much like these Marxists:

“Egypt, whose revolution has been a constant source of inspiration here, reflected in signs and chants — and Walker’s new nickname, Gov. Mubarak,” an article reads from the International Socialist Organization’s webzine.

photo via El Marco

The webzine also describes the unions’ protest of Walker’s plans to force a vote on curtailing public-sector unions as “class war in Wisconsin” and as an affront to “the standard of living of working people.”

The formerly Soviet-backed Communist Party USA (CPUSA) echoed similar talking points.

“Using the deficit as a scare tactic, the right-wing corporate Republicans are on a fast track to defeat every initiative of the Obama administration, to destroy unions and public services at the federal, state and municipal level, and at the same time protect tax breaks for the richest few,” Joelle Fishman, chair of the CPUSA’s Political Action Commission, wrote in an article posted on her party’s website.

photo via El Marco.

Over in the Workers World Party’s newspaper Workers World, the presence of the student participants in the demonstrations is described as “as one of the most urgent tasks for young people at the moment.”

photo via Wis. State Journal.

CPUSA:

The country is reeling from a jobs crisis, not a deficit crisis. Investments in the needs of communities that create jobs and forestall layoffs will help to create a growing economy that benefits everyone. Otherwise, the deficit will continue to spiral.

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An example is the expansion of transportation which would create new jobs and lower carbon emissions. Transportation for America, a coalition which includes a range of organizations from envrionment, labor and civil rights to developers and local elected officials, is organizing grass roots support for this project. The Equity Caucus of the coalition raises the level of struggle by arguing that communities most in need should be top priority, saying “By investing in transportation projects, America can get people back to work now, lay a strong foundation for future economic growth, and expand opportunity for millions of people. But we must target our investments equitably to the people and places that need them most.”

Richard Trumka:

Raise taxes, according to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Specifically, he wants to raise the federal gas tax as a means to fund infrastructure spending. “We need a dedicated source of revenue to create infrastructure in this country,” he tells Aaron Task in the accompanying clip.

“We need to create jobs. The best way to do that is through infrastructure development.”

Simply maintaining the existing infrastructure in this country will cost $2.2 trillion over five years, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. That doesn’t include Obama’s objective of high-speed rails and green energy projects.