The White House Blog: right wing disinformation continues

Posted by Jim Gilio on February 2, 2010 at 10:09 PM EST

Last week, we told you how CNN had fact-checked the top ten items in a report issued by two opponents of the Recovery Act and found that nine of their top ten claims were false.

• “We took a closer look at the Senators’ top ten examples of so-called waste.  We found that nine of the ten did not tell the whole story and in some cases were inaccurate.” [CNN, 1/25/10]

But recently, CNN and others in the press have taken a look at #11 on the Senators’ list: which they call the “The Napa Wine Train” project, but is really a job creating flood protection project that will make the city of Napa safer while putting up to 600 people on the job.

In their report, the Senators’ titled the project “All Aboard The Wine Train!,“ and imply that the Recovery Act is frivolously funding a three hour Napa Valley train tour:

• “The Napa Wine Train has proven to be a popular tourist attraction, providing, ― a relaxing three hour journey along the thirty six-mile round-trip… through one of the world's most famous wine valleys. One of the most popular meals on the train is the $124 Vista Dome Lunch, where guests enjoy ―a complimentary glass of California sparkling wine [that] continues with a four course lunch of their choice.”

Thankfully, CNN and others have recently corrected this report:

• CNN said: “In fact, the money is not being spent on the wine train. The stimulus money is for a massive flood control project for the valley.” [CNN, 1/28/10]
• A spokesperson for the Napa River Flood Control Project agreed, “This is perfectly fitting into what stimulus was intend to do. As you see here, people are on the job working today who may not be otherwise.” [CNN, 1/28/10]
• And you can check with the Napa Wine Train folks, “The person who did the research for the senators didn't do a thorough job and I think if they had done a thorough job we wouldn't have been on the list at all.” [CNN, 1/28/10]

Even the San Francisco Chronicle posted a blog calling out Senators’ McCain and Coburn:

• “It made for good sound bytes: Obama's handing money to the rich liberals in California! (Lunch on the train runs into three figures.) But it turns out that's not what happened at all.  The stimulus is actually funding the Napa River Flood Project's efforts to elevate the train's tracks and build a flood wall at the depot. These projects are just a small part of an overall plan to manage flooding in the area.” [SF CHRONICLE]

Here’s what’s really going on:

• “Supporters of the project say the stimulus fund will create at least 600 jobs and those jobs are expected to last two to three years until the project is done. But that's for the whole flood project. The contractor expects the track work will employ some 200 people. Once complete it should mean Napa won't flood every few years.” [CNN, 1/28/10]

As the President puts forward new measures to ensure every American who wants a job can get one, here’s what we know: 2 million jobs already funded by the Recovery Act, two quarters of GDP growth helping pave the road to recovery, and a flood protection project in Napa Valley is creating jobs while protecting a community against flooding.

Here’s what we expect moving forward: as the President introduces new jobs measures like he did today, we hope that the Administration’s opponents get off the sidelines and engage in meaningful dialogue that will help rebuild America’s middle class.

Jim Gilio is White House Spokesperson for the Recovery Act

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Bither Queen Orly Taitz Told Us To Lie

The Huffington Post | Rachel Weiner First Posted: 11-12-09 12:39 PM | Updated: 11-12-09 01:29 PM

In his decision dismissing a lawsuit filed by Orly Taitz late last month, U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carterr mentioned that some witnesses complained that the birther chief urged them to lie on the stand. Now, more details are out, as one of the witnesses has made his affidavit public.

Lucas Smith, a fellow conspiracy theorist who Taitz identified in her lawsuit as the discoverer of Obama's fake Kenyan birth certificate, gave his statement to the Orange County Register.

Among the allegations Smith makes is that Taitz asked him to say that he was the one who obtained a document that was alleged to be a 1964 Kenyan birth certificate for Barack Hussein Obama II. He says he didn't.

That document had been called a forgery by experts, and Smith said his own research also concluded that the document was fake. He also alleges that Taitz asked him to give false testimony about speaking to specific people in Africa, and that she asked two other people to lie under oath.

California has initiated a procedure to strip Taitz of her legal credentials. Rightardia suspects her misconduct in front of Judge David O. Carter and the $20,000 court fine will result in disbarment.

The “Birther queen” has been slapped with a $20,000 fine for “wasting the judicial resources” of the Middle District of Georgia, where she’d filed one of her numerous lawsuits demanding that President Obama prove his citizenship before deploying soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan. The judgment, called Taitz’s case and tactics “delusional."

See the rest of the story at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/12/birther-lawsuit-witnesses_n_355550.html

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Liar, liar, pants on fire: The historical revisionism of the right

The right wing has been distorting American history since the United States was founded. Let's take a look at some of the biggest lies. 

1.The US was founded as a Christian nation. Most of the people who migrated here believed in God but not necessarily organized region. We call such people as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin 'deists. People who believe in organized religion are called theists.

The US Constitution does not mention God, Jesus or Christianity. The Establishment Clause or the First Amendment establishes barriers between church and state and does not allow a religious test for holding public office. In fact, the Treaty of Tripoli 1996-97 specially states the US is not a Christian nation.

2. The Founders were brilliant men who wanted static laws and courts that were strict constructionist. First of all the Founders were a diverse lot and Alexis de Tocqueville noted some startling differences between the people who settled the North and the South. De Tocqueville even predicted the people in the South might one day undermine the new nation.

Trying to make the founders into a collective noun is a mistake. There were great arguments when the Constitution was being written and sentries were placed around the hall in Philadelphia so no one could ease drop.

The Bill of Rights was an afterthought and two political parties: Jefferson's Democratic Republican party and and Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Party formed immediately after the nation was founded. If the Founders didn't allow for change, why did they create a House , a Senate and a judiciary? Why did the Founders allow the Constitution to be amended?

3. The Civil War was fought over State's Rights. The Abolitionist's in the North were certainly against slavery, but the real issue was the expansion of slavery into new US territories.

In fact, the Constitution of the Confederate States of America had the same supremacy clause that is in the US Constitution. The Confederate States had some rights to regulate and tax commerce on waterways, but otherwise the Confederate government's laws superseded state laws.

4. The Depression was caused by the Democratic Party. This is a huge lie because three Republicans were president prior to the great Depression: Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.

The Great Depression started when Hoover was president. Hoover actually started a lot of the public works programs, but his programs were conducted on too small of a scale. The Republicans also neglected traditional black Republican voters who defected to the Democratic Party after FDR was elected.

5.The Democratic party is fascist. Again, another huge lie. Many Republicans were openly sympathetic to Hitler on the onset of World War 2 and some even continued to do business with the Nazis during the war.

There was even a right wing Nazi movement called the Bund that was active in the US. In 1934 retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler testified to the McCormack-Dickstein Congressional committee that a group of right wing men had approached him as part of a plot to overthrow Roosevelt in a coup. The US entered World War 2 against Japanese militarists and European fascist nations such as Germany and Italy.

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