Senator Eldrick “Tiger” Woods must resign now. There is no way his career as a public official and national moral compass can survive recent revelations of his infidelity. The nation’s pressing business–war and peace, health care legislation, and the economy–are too important to be delayed by the distraction of his [...]
Two stories caught our eye today, as we woke from our Thanksgiving nap.
In the Philippines, Ismael Mangudadatu successfully filed his candidate certificate for governor. So what’s the big deal?
Monday, a caravan of vehicles carrying 57 people, including Mangudadatu’s wife, two sisters, supporters and journalists were massacred and their bodies dumped [...]
That’s what they’re saying. That’s what 40 unanimous Republican Senators, and any Democratic or “independent” Senator who might join them, are saying today by voting against even debating the Senate health care reform bill. We don’t want to talk about it.
These grown men and women are saying that the prospect of [...]
Number of comments: 1 Once again, the so-called “christian” right has it wrong. Now, along with t-shirts portraying President Obama as The Joker or as Chairman Mao, you can buy bumper stickers, coffee mugs and t-shirts (even teddy bears!) with the seemingly innocent message “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8.”
What’s wrong with urging people to [...]
Tom Perriello is the first-term Democratic Congressman from the Charlottesville area of Virginia. He voted for the Democratic health care plan. Just as he promised when he ran against die-hard conservative 5th District incumbent Virgil Goode last year, and won by fewer than 800 votes.
Not only did he keep his [...]
Another morning in Hampton Roads. The Midtown Tunnel is closed. The Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel is backed up, although a VDOT spokeswoman cheerfully denied the video evidence on TV and maintained that the system is “flowing beautifully.” High Street, Crawford Parkway, and other access roads to the Portsmouth Naval Hospital, [...]
Number of comments: 1 Here’s Glenn Nye’s campaign website on health care before the election:
The American health care system offers the best care available in the world, the best trained doctors and highest quality technology. We must make that system accessible and affordable so all Americans can enjoy good medical care. We need [...]
Number of comments: 1 Don’t think your vote makes a difference? Ever get so cynical you just want to write in “none of the above?”
Well, we hope you didn’t do that in the 21st House District race in Virginia Beach. Democratic Incumbent Delegate Bobby Mathieson and Republican challenger Ron Villanueva were separated by just [...]
Number of comments: 2 If Bob McDonnell wins the Governor’s Mansion in Virginia, he’s told us what he’ll do. Words matter, and even though McDonnell says his views have changed since he wrote his Christian Broadcasting Network Law School thesis, he hasn’t said HOW they’ve changed. They might have gotten much worse.
McDonnell called the [...]
Number of comments: 5 In an editorial replete with wonderful vocabulary words like “equivocation,” “insipidity,” and “banalities,” this morning’s Virginian-Pilot nails it, endorsing Creigh Deeds for Governor.
While decrying Deeds’ “chaotic campaign,” the Pilot points to the number one issue in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia: transportation.
The Pilot aptly describes Republican Bob McDonnell’s [...]
As the two houses of Congress count the votes and pound out final bills, a story in today’s Virginian-Pilot chronicles how tense the negotiations can get. Patience is wearing thin. Are “patients” factoring into the discussion? Very punny.
We are told of a White House meeting debating a final bill that [...]
All the fuss about the “Balloon Boy” hoax is getting a little, um, nauseating. Here’s the kid story of the week that should have gotten all that attention:
Ten year old Kyle Forbes, a Houston Boy Scout who is autistic, saved the life of his art teacher on Tuesday, performing the [...]
Number of comments: 3 Every Friday, we take a look around and debunk gossip, bust urban legends, and, we hope, give you a little smile to start your weekend.
There Is No Truth To the Rumor that “balloon boy” Falcon Heene vomiting on two national morning shows is definitive proof that his parents care more [...]
Number of comments: 1 Now that Max Baucus and his Finance Committee fiefdom have had their summer of self-love, can we get on with it, and have health care reform? Apparently, Baucus saw the final vote as an occasion for jokes. Now that we have paid homage to Olympia Snowe as the Most Important [...]
Number of comments: 2 Word has it that Rush Limbaugh, the “mouth that boored,” has been dropped from the group bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams NFL franchise. Apparently, the backers of the bid feel they have a better chance of winning without Rush. What with Commissioner Roger Goodell pointing out that Rush’s [...]
Every Friday, we take a look around and debunk gossip, bust urban legends, and, we hope, give you a little smile to start your weekend.
There Is No Truth To the Rumor that Fabio bought Busch Gardens and is planning to turn it into a goose-free zone.
There Is No Truth To [...]
Number of comments: 8 Gotta hand it to Bob McDonnell. ”Trust” is a powerful ad.
Okay, Bob, you have found seven women, some with impressive credentials, who will vouch that you didn’t commit sex discrimination against them. Your daughters have accomplished great things. Even your wife works, apparently.
What’s wrong with this ad? It’s false. It’s dishonest.
Karen [...]
Elvira Profe, a German who had returned from exile in Siberia, was near starvation when she met Fortunat Mackiewicz, a Pole displaced by Soviet annexation, in chaotic post-World War II Poland. The two fell in love. They sought permission to marry, but the local government banished Profe instead.
“Even though they said [...]
Every Friday, we take a look around and debunk gossip, bust urban legends, and, we hope, give you a little smile to start your weekend.
There Is No Truth To the Rumor that John Boehner would have blamed President Obama for losing the Olympic bid for Chicago if he hadn’t gone [...]
Number of comments: 1 In a flash, Pat Robertson has turned Virginia’s governors’ race from a contest between two candidates into a referendum on Pat Robertson. No longer content to let his boy, Bob McDonnell, stutter and try to defend his Christian Broadcasting Network law school thesis, Robertson launched a rescue effort this week. [...]
Number of comments: 2 Today’s Virginian-Pilot has three largely fact-free counter-offensives from the Pat Robertson/Bob McDonnell/Christian Broadcasting Network/Regent University far-right corner of Virginia Beach:
a cheery article announcing that Pat Robertson is “much more moderate” than most people realize, as well as misunderstood and unfairly criticized. You know, you hang around with tyrants and [...]
Number of comments: 2 [With apologies to Jonathan Swift.]
As the outcry over his Christian Broadcasting Network thesis died down, embattled Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell returned today to his conservative roots, announcing bold initiatives to resolve the Commonwealth’s exploding transportation crisis and to fulfill his ambition as the “Jobs Governor.”
“If all the women [...]
Every Friday, we take a look around and debunk gossip, bust urban legends, and, we hope, give you a little smile to start your weekend.
There Is No Truth To the Rumor that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus has a job offer in hand from United HealthCare. Of course, if [...]
Number of comments: 1 In his 1989 Christian Broadcasting Network thesis, Bob McDonnell called working women “detrimental” to the family, and termed feminism one of “the real enemies of the traditional family.” McDonnell urged “covenant marriage,” as well as tax, welfare, and child care policies to favor his Father-Knows-Best view of the traditional family, [...]
Number of comments: 1 Here’s Joe the Congressman’s wife, Roxanne Wilson. She’s proud to stand behind her husband, yada yada.
All of which is really sweet, but raises some interesting questions:
So, Roxanne, your husband was “the nut that hollered out ‘You Lie!’” until you found out it was him, then you were proud of [...]
Every Friday Sometimes on Saturday, we take a look around and debunk gossip, bust urban legends, and, we hope, give you a little smile to spice up your weekend.
There Is No Truth To the Rumor that Congressman Addison Graves Wilson (R-Redneck, SC), aka “Joe the Congressman,” a retired National Guard [...]
Number of comments: 2 The Virginian-Pilot reports that four people, dressed in white, painted swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti at the United Jewish Community Center in Newport News early this morning.
Vandals also defaced the Jewish Community Center’s property with anti-Semitic graffiti last October.
Another sad reminder that there are Nazis among us, as well as KKK members [...]
Today marks the anniversary of the September 11th attacks in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania. Across the country, we will all remember in our own way. We offer a prayer for the victims, for their families, for our country.
(Tomorrow: Special Saturday edition of There Is No Truth [...]
Are Republicans out of metaphors? Why has House Minority Leader John Boehner revived LIPSTICK ON A PIG?????
Today is the exact anniversary of the phony lipstick controversy from 2008–see our post from Obama’s Granby High School speech.
Last year, the Republicans were trying to hide sliding poll numbers and the collapse of the [...]
In today’s Virginian-Pilot retrospective on Greekfest and the state of race relations in Virginia Beach, Mayor Will Sessoms cheerfully chimes in:
“Everybody gets along fine,” he says. “A vast majority of people don’t see color.”
We assume the Mayor now counts himself as part of this vast, colorblind majority. Therefore, in [...]
Number of comments: 1 Today’s Virginian-Pilot ran a column by Moral Majority mouthpiece Cal Thomas entitled “Trouble in Liberal Land” that spelled out the first belated conservative defense of gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell’s thesis, submitted in exchange for a quickie law degree and a master’s degree in public policy from Christian Broadcasting Network in [...]
The American health care system offers the best care available in the world, the best trained doctors and highest quality technology. We must make that system accessible and affordable so all Americans can enjoy good medical care. We need to ensure that all Americans can see a doctor when needed [...]
The first three words of the U.S. Constitution are “We the People,” not “In the Beginning, God,” as Bob McDonnell seems to think.
How do Bob McDonnell’s strange CBN civics lessons impact Virginians 20 years later?
Why does it matter what Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell wrote in 1989 about his philosophy [...]
Every Friday, we take a look around and debunk gossip, bust urban legends, and, we hope, give you a little smile to start your weekend.
There Is No Truth To the Rumor that Bob McDonnell’s thesis is causing such a stir because people misunderstand his “traditional” Catholic beliefs. We acknowledge Bob’s [...]
“Mr. Wilson bores me with his Fourteen Points; why, God Almighty has only Ten!”
French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, quoted on his frustration negotiating with American President Woodrow Wilson after World War I.
Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell, who is trying to run his campaign as a mainstream conservative, is deservedly [...]
The myth: It takes 60 votes in the Senate to pass health care reform.
The fact: 50 senators voting yes can pass a health care reform bill, assuming Vice President Joe Biden is present to break a tie. Sixty senators are necessary to invoke cloture, to stop debate and bring the [...]
Number of comments: 2 To the woman He said, “I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
Genesis 3:16 (NRSV)
Today, we examine one aspect of Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell’s 1989 thesis he is [...]
Number of comments: 1 Lost in the firestorm over Bob McDonnell’s Christian Broadcasting Network University thesis comes the Republican gubernatorial candidate’s backtracking claim that he has not changed his positions (except when he has), including this flip flop on his previously hard-line pro-life stance:
McDonnell also said his oft-quoted opposition to abortion except to save [...]
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell says he has changed his mind about working women being “detrimental” to the family and other inflammatory views expressed in the thesis he submitted for televangelist Pat Robertson’s barely-accredited Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) University in 1989, according to a Virginian-Pilot story today.
Reading the thesis, however, one [...]
Number of comments: 1 Today, we welcome Notes From the Far-Center to our blogroll, and highlight Kurt’s entry from August 9th as a particularly excellent reason to check in.
This is the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, another massive human tragedy Republicans ignored. One year ago, with the economy collapsing all around us, McCain and [...]
Every Friday, we take a look around and debunk gossip, bust urban legends, and, we hope, give you a little smile to start your weekend.
There Is No Truth To the Rumor that Senator John McCain was awkwardly trying to praise his late “friend” Senator Ted Kennedy’s bipartisan style when [...]
Senator Ted Kennedy died this morning in Hyannis Port, Mass. Our nation’s leaders reacted this morning with brief statements:
“Even though we knew this day was coming, we awaited it with no small amout of dread,” [President] Obama said.”For his family, he was a guardian. For America, he was a defender [...]
Number of comments: 1 If all our insurance premiums were treated with equal disdain as those we pay for our private or employer-supplied health insurance, health care insurance reform, including the public option, would be a slam dunk this summer.
Imagine receiving these letters . . . .
To: Mr. John Q. Public
From: NoState Insurance
RE: Fatal [...]
Number of comments: 1 Horace Cooper, former top aide to former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey, was indicted yesterday on charges of public corruption in the Jack Abramoff bribery scandal.
The federal criminal charges against Cooper, a former professor at George Mason University School of Law, Federalist Society member, and CNN pundit, include one count of [...]
Number of comments: 2 Every Friday, we take a look around and debunk gossip, bust urban legends, and, we hope, give you a little smile to start your weekend.
There Is No Truth To the Rumor that progressive Democrats have responded to the apparent waffling of “blue dog” Democratic legislators on health care reform by [...]
When any health care reform is denounced as a “government takeover” . . .
When Chuck Grassley, the lead Republican negotiator on a Senate bipartisan panel admits he won’t vote for any proposal he negotiates, and claims Congressional reformers advocate “pulling the plug on Grandma” . . .
When any “public option” [...]
The Virginian-Pilot waxes rhapsodic about a peaceful, civil, bipartisan meeting on health care. There were “no rants, no rowdiness” at a “forum” on health care with Congressman Glenn Nye.
The participants emphasized common ground and avoided sniping. The crowd of nearly 100 submitted “sober, substantive questions.” There were “no outbursts, no [...]
We envisioned a no-nonsense, wry liberal blog
A fearless swamp bird might cut through the fog.
So we started Great Blue Heron a year ago today,
And entered the not-so-gentle blogosphere fray.
We were mere rookies, babies, rubes, for gosh sake.
But we vetted and beat back Thelma the Drake.
We gave you 80+ reasons [...]
Number of comments: 2 Our health care system is an unconscionable mess. People are suffering. Some are dying, needlessly. Many, many are going bankrupt, even if they are fortunate enough to have health insurance.
Health insurance is a sham. It disappears just when we need it most, when we become sick. We are one of [...]
President Barack Obama eloquently explains the urgent need for health insurance reform and the task before us. [...] 