Are we glad we caught David Petraeus?

By Dan Brooks in lying 2 Comments

Fox News’s handy flowchart explaining the David Petraeus affair.

Last Saturday, as you know, CIA director and four-star general David Petraeus resigned after an FBI investigation tangentially revealed that he had an affair—a real clusterfudge, it turns out, hereafter to be known as the Petraeus Affair Affair. The inciting incident in his exposure was a complaint from Jill Kelly, who told the FBI that she had received harassing emails from an anonymous source. That source turned out to be Paula Broadwell, Petraeus’s awesome and/or crazy biographer, who resented Kelly’s closeness to Petraeus because she, Broadwell, was doing sex on him. My fellow Americans: you must not do sex on your biographer. It’s like buying stock in your accountant. If Johnson could go 30 years without humping Boswell, you can do it, too.

Continue reading

The ATP documents/meth house story is not going away

By Dan Brooks in lying 1 Comment

An image from ATP’s press release about how transparent they are

Last night, Frontline aired its half of the Pro Publica story about documents found in a meth house suggesting that American Traditions Partnership coordinated with the Republican Party. ATP has been particularly active in Montana, suing to force the state to comply with Citizens United v. FEC in 2010 and, now, pursing a suit to overturn campaign contribution limits. ATP does not have to disclose its donors to the FEC, because ATP is not a political organization. As they helpfully explain in their press release, they’re a grassroots education nonprofit. One of their educational publications, for example, is the Montana Statesman, a website that just happens to run only articles about how awful various Democratic candidates are. The Statesman bills itself as “Montana’s oldest and most trusted news source.”

Continue reading

Romney and Obama both claim to be winning

By Dan Brooks in lying 2 Comments

Cedric the Entertainer’s dad enjoys early voting in Florida.

Only one week until the election—have you gone insane yet? David Brooks has; today in the Times, he argues that given Republican intransigence, the best way to ensure bipartisan reform is to elect Mitt Romney. Brooks’s bold ideas for the future always involve universal Republican governance. He can be forgiven his quadrennial hysteria, however. Not even the candidates themselves know who’s winning—or if they do, they ain’t telling. Both the Obama and Romney campaigns have declared victory in the general election and unquestioned dominance of several swing states, where their own spending is going to work and the other guy’s is a sign of desperation. It kind of puts the voter in an odd position.

Continue reading

Paul Ryan is a fucking liar

By Dan Brooks in lying, Uncategorized 4 Comments

As a hip, modern American, I have come to accept a baseline level of mendacity in my political candidates. I’m fully inured to Orewllian doublespeak, for example. When the House passes a bill specifically to prevent tax increases on people making over a million dollars a year and calls it the Buffett Rule Act, I smirk grimly and move on. Every once in a while, though, some elected figure manages to lie in a way that makes me actually angry. Despite my jaded exterior and desire to focus on cat videos, I am occasionally overwhelmed by that rage which comes when a smug person attempts to deceive you by offering to help. Yesterday, Paul Ryan got me. Video after the jump.

Continue reading

On calling certain other people liars

By Dan Brooks in lying 1 Comment

Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!

If the internet has reduced your brain to a stimulus/response meme generator, the most exciting part of Tuesday night’s debate was Mitt Romney’s “binders full of women” remark. It was weird! He kind of misspoke! Let’s put it on that “walk into Mordor” thing! For my money, however, the strangest moment in the presidential debate was when moderator Candy Crowley corrected Romney regarding Obama’s use of the word “terror” after the attack on the US consulate in Libya. He did say that in the Rose Garden the day after the attack. What Romney claimed was not factually accurate, or strictly correct or, you know, true. But was he lying?

Continue reading