Hey! I’m Making a Point Here. So what if I am Lying?

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. – Mark Twain

When Senator Jon Kyl told a CNN reporter that his claim about Planned Parenthood’s 90% rate of abortions “was not intended to be a factual statement”, it’s a possibility that he was being honest but he thought he was talking to a FOX news reporter.  Why else would you tell someone who does not openly contribute $1 million to your Party that you lied to the public?  Lying IS a shared experience between the GOP and FOX.

This “shocker” is anything but.  The GOP exceeds natural limits of liars when it comes to matters that hurt people who make less than $50,000 annually.  To speak against Planned Parenthood, whose largest contribution to society is to actually prevent unwanted pregnancies and insure healthy fetuses during pregnancy, is about as lame as blocking funding for green technology to replace our dependence on fossil fuels because Big Oil and Coal are likely to lose a few million from their annual billion dollar profits.  Such stands like this are popular only with those people who have a personal agenda and can’t see the forest for the trees.

But this qualifier of not being intended to be a factual statement could pretty well be attached to most of the ludicrous commentary that comes of the mouths of right-wing extremist.   To them an error in fact or judgment is irrelevant because as Kyl went on to explain, any “organization that receives millions of dollars in taxpayer funding”, deserves defunding if it does some things that our partisan hacks and campaign contributors don’t like.

ACORN, PBS and Unions, like Planned Parenthood, were and are examples of organizations that often are critical of the GOP and right-wing issues while serving poor people, critical thinkers and working people.  Naturally you would want to defund these organizations if you are to limit access and knowledge that may compete with what you’re trying to brainwash people with.  But when it comes to subsidies and legislation that increase profits for large private corporations, well … a line has to be drawn somewhere.  When you hurt a wealthy person’s hefty stock portfolio you are endangering their ability to replace their Mercedes every year or push that two week European vacation into late summer instead of late spring.

Next time you hear someone in Congress, especially in the GOP or its new subsidiary, the Tea Party, say anything that demonizes someone else, it’s a pretty sure bet that it was “not intended to be a factual statement”, just a contentious comment to further stir the pot of angry social discourse in this country and enhance the political gridlock that supposedly everyone is against.

Then again, if you’re a publicity hound who has no shame, such lies will always get you a spot on the Colbert Report

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2 thoughts on “Hey! I’m Making a Point Here. So what if I am Lying?”

  1. How is “not intended to be a factual statement” allowed? How does the person who utter those words think that it is okay to utter those words. I guess his thinking was that the ends justifies the means even if it means cutting off funding for poor and low-income women who use Planned Parenthood for necessary health care services.

  2. I thought we already knew when politicians were lying, by looking for signs of their mouth moving, but this is a new transparency when they admit that they tell lies to make their point! What ever happened to integrity and intelligence as ideals (for people and for politicians)?!

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