Bad Deeds for 8-19-2009

Analysis Shows Republican Statements on Health Care Mostly False – As seen from the graphs below, the claims of Republicans and opponents of health care are much more likely to be false than true. Overall, 76% of their claims are either “false” or “pants on fire” lies.

They are also more likely to be false than are claims of Democrats and supporters of reform. Overall, only 28% of Democrats’ claims were found to be “false.”

For individual statements and their scores …

Republican Representative Encourages Taking Guns to Town Hall Meetings – Asked by MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews on Monday, a Georgia Republican member of Congress actually encouraged Americans to attend public forums packing heat.

Woman Shouts “Heil Hitler!” At Jewish Man Praising Israel’s National Health System – At a Las Vegas town hall meeting, an Israeli man holding forth on the virtues of Israel’s health care system, which is “universal and compulsory, and is administered by a small number of organizations with funding from the government.” The World Health Organization ranked it as the 28th best in the world. That said, let me sum up the countering argument, issued by another town hall attendee: “Heil Hitler!”

That’s right! Some idiot woman yells “Heil Hitler” at a Jewish man who was doing nothing more than being a passionate advocate for Israeli health care. The man, quite naturally, goes completely apoplectic, saying “Shame on you” over and over again. The woman counters by saying, “Well, you ought to be the most against President Obama.” The poor man responds by saying, “I want to talk, not against Obama or for Obama. I want to talk about [health care].” He goes on to describe his own experiences with high-cost health care. For his efforts, the woman mocks him some more!

Media and Right-Wing Misrepresent Numbers From AARP – You may have heard on some “news” shows and talk-radio that 60,000 seniors have canceled their membership in AARP this summer, specifically citing AARP’s push for some sort of health care overhaul. What many of these sources did not mention was that, on average, AARP loses some 300,000 members a month, and that AARP actually gained 400,000 members, and 1.5 million people renewed their memberships during the same time period.

Republicans Totally Out-of-Touch With the Rest of America on Health Care Knowledge – When a Research 2000 poll asked, “Do you think the health care reform plan being considered by President Obama and Congress creates death panels?”, 88% of Democrats and 76% of Independents gave the obvious answer of “No.” But only 43 % of Republicans answered “No.”

When asked if “the health care reform plan being considered by President Obama and Congress require elderly patients to meet with government officials to discuss “end of life” options including euthanasia,” 74% of Democrats and 61% of Independents gave the correct response of “No.” But only 32% of Republicans gave the correct answer.

Only 7% of Democrats and 8% of Independents didn’t know that Medicare was a government program. But 14% of Republicans didn’t know that.

Free Enterprise at Work: Enterprise Rent-A-Car Sold Cars Without Standard Side Air Bags to Make More Money – Enterprise Rent-A-Car, the nation’s largest private buyer of new cars and seller of used ones, chose to “delete” a standard safety feature from thousands of Chevrolet Impala fleet vehicles, saving millions of dollars.

After the company rented out those 2006-08 model vehicles, Enterprise and countless dealers nationwide offered them for sale on the open market — minus the side-curtain air bags that have been shown to dramatically reduce highway deaths.

What’s more, a Kansas City Star investigation found that hundreds of Impalas already sold were incorrectly advertised on Enterprise’s Web site as having the very head-protecting feature that the rental company opted to exclude on General Motors’ factory floor.

Coal Lobbyists Sent Fake Letters to Congress – A lobbying firm working for a pro-coal industry group sent lawmakers a total of 13 fraudulent letters opposing the House climate bill — five more than initially believed, the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming said Tuesday.

The fake letters purported to be from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, senior citizens groups and Creciendo Juntos, a Hispanic advocacy organization.

In total, the firm sent 58 letters, and committee investigators suspect several more may be revealed to be fakes. The newly discovered letters included one, allegedly sent from a senior center in Charlottesville, Va., that the lobbying firm originally claimed was legitimate, the committee said.

Regards,

Jim