"Lies, Half-Truths Outed" SF Chronicle

Another weapon here for the pro-sanity ticket.
From Saturday 9/13 and - updated -Saturday 9/20.

Gratuitous lie count:
Obama / Biden: 3
McCain / Palin: 16

"Each week until the election, The Chronicle will publish a compilation of “lies, half-truths and contradictions” uttered by the presidential campaigns and their supporters during the previous week. Many of the distortions were not seen in California or appeared only on cable networks. Here’s the rundown from the week:"


9/13/08
Link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/13/MNKS12T3V8.DTL&type=politics

#1
The statement:
In a 30-second TV ad called "Original Mavericks" showing on national cable and battleground states, the McCain campaign asserts that GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin "stopped the Bridge to Nowhere."
The distortion:
She was for the bridge in 2006 until she was against it. Congress pulled funding for it two years before Palin adjusted her position. The nonpartisan Politifact.org said: "We rate Palin's position a Full Flop."

#2
The statement:
In a 30-second online ad called "Lipstick," the McCain campaign took Sen. Barack Obama's use of the phrase "lipstick on a pig" out of context as a sexist smear on Palin. Obama was using the phrase to describe how McCain's foreign, economic and health care policies are similar to President Bush's.
The distortion:
McCain used the exact same phrase to describe Sen. Hillary Clinton's health care plan on the campaign trail last fall. He should know better; his former press secretary Torie Clark wrote a book called "Lipstick on a Pig: Winning in the No-Spin Era By Someone Who Knows the Game."

#3
The statement:
In a 30-second TV ad called "What Kind" running in key states, the Obama campaign said that McCain "voted to cut education funding." It also states that "McCain's economic plan gives $200 billion more to special interests while taking money away from public schools."
The distortion:
Three of those five votes the campaign cited were against increased spending - that's not a cut. Another was actually a funding increase. The $200 billion refers to McCain's plan to cut the tax rate for all business corporations over five years. But that's not taking money from the public schools, it is part of McCain's proposal to "freeze non-defense, non-veterans discretionary spending for a year."

#4
The statement:
In a 30-second TV ad running in battleground states called "Education," McCain's campaign asserts that Obama's main education accomplishment was "Legislation to teach 'comprehensive sex education' to kindergartners."
The distortion:
As a state senator, Obama supported a bill - which never was passed out of the Illinois Legislature - which included teaching "age-appropriate sex education" - for younger children that could include topics like what is inappropriate touching. Parents could opt out of the unit if they were uncomfortable with their kids hearing this material.

#5
The statement:
When appearing on ABC's "The View" Friday, McCain said Palin never sought congressional money for projects as governor of Alaska. A 30-second advertisement released Friday talks about how Palin has cut earmark requests.
The distortion:
Palin's office asked for $256 million in earmarks last year and $197 million this year. As mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (pop. 7,000), the town sought $11.9 million in earmarks from 1999-2003, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan Washington D.C. budget watchdog group.

#6
The statement:
A chain e-mail circulating around the Internet that lists books Palin tried to have removed from the Wasilla, Alaska, public library after she became mayor in 1996. There is no evidence that the e-mail was created by the Obama campaign.
The distortion:
Politifact.org found that no books were banned: "Nor is there any record that Palin ever initiated a formal process to censor any books, as the e-mail suggests."

#7
The statement:
Palin told ABC's Charlie Gibson Thursday that she had never met a foreign head of state. Said Palin: "I think if you go back in history and you ask that question of many vice presidents, they may have the same answer."
The distortion:
Every vice presidential candidate still alive to ask reported that they had met at least one head of state. That's in the last 32 years, according to ABC news research.

#8
The statement:
In a 30-second TV ad playing in battleground states called "Fact Check," the McCain campaign cites the nonpartisan political advertising watchdog Factcheck.org as saying Obama's attacks on Palin were "completely false" and "misleading."
The distortion:
Factcheck.org didn't say that. Says who? Factcheck.org: "We have yet to dispute any claim from the Obama campaign about Palin," the Web site said.

#9
The statement:
On the stump and in interviews, McCain touts Palin's "executive experience" as governor for 21 months of a state with fewer people than San Francisco and as mayor of a city with fewer people than the Cow Palace can hold.
The distortion:
In an October 2007 debate against, among others, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, McCain said, "I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time."

#10
The statement:
In her ABC interview Friday, Palin says that "I'm attributing some of man's activities to potentially causing some of the changes in the climate right now." When Gibson said that sounded like she has changed her position on the causes of climate change, Palin challenges Gibson to show her "where I've said there's absolute proof that nothing that man has ever conducted or engaged in has had any effect or no effect on climate change."
The distortion:
In an August 2008 interview with NewsMax, Palin said: "A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one, though, who would attribute it to being man-made."


9/20/08
link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/20/MNLIESCHART.DTL&hw=Lies+Half+truths+outed&sn=001&sc=1000

#11
The Statement:
On Monday, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch, McCain said the "fundamentals of the economy are strong." He and his campaign later tried to clarify that to say he meant that he was referring to the strength and resilience of the American worker were strong.
The Distortion:
McCain has used the same phrase 16 times in speeches between Jan. 1 and June 5th of this year, according to MSNBC's archive of speeches.

#12
The Statement:
The McCain campaign 30-second radio ad running in key states says that "McCain-Palin and Congressional allies" support stem cell research.
The Distortion:
GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin opposed stem cell research in her 2006 gubernatorial race. Check this.

#13
The Statement:
The Obama campaign is running a 30-second Spanish language television and radio ad in states with heavy Latino populations that says McCain and "his Republican friends" show "two faces" to Latinos. The ad shows a picture of Rush Limbaugh above the words "Mexicans -- stupid and unqualified."
The Distortion:
Tying McCain to Limbaugh's harsh rhetoric is misleading; Limbaugh opposed McCain's efforts at immigration reform and has referred to McCain as "McCrazy." McCain hasn't used that type of demeaning language -- even when giving in to the party's more conservative elements on immigration.

#14
The Statement:
The McCain campaign is running a 30-second Spanish-language television ad that says "Obama and his Congressional allies say they are on the side of immigrants. But are they? The press reports that their efforts were 'poison pills' that made immigration reform fail."
The Distortion:
Not exactly. It was the lack of Republican support that killed immigration reform last time around. "I don't know that you can say 'poison pill' because things hadn't gotten far enough so that anything would actually rise to that level (of poisoning the bill's chances)," said Doris Meissner, senior fellow at the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute. At a GOP debate in January, McCain said that he wouldn't vote for his own immigration bill. Check this out.

#15
The Statement:
On the campaign trail Monday, Democratic VP nominee Sen. Joe Biden said "When George Bush said we shouldn't investigate why the government's response to Hurricane Katrina was so incompetent, John McCain stood with him." And in the past, McCain has said he "supported every investigation" into Katrina.
The Distortion:
McCain voted twice vote against a nonpartisan commission to investigate who screwed up the response to the disaster. McCain, along with other GOP senators wanted a "bi-partisan" congressional committee to look into the federal response.

#16
The Statement:
Tuesday on the trail, McCain said "I have never asked for a single earmark, pork barrel project for my state of Arizona." It has become a standard line in his stump speech.
The Distortion:
Not true. In 2006, the nonpartisan Politifact notes that McCain co-sponsored legislation asking for $10 million for the University of Arizona; in 2003, McCain won authorization to buy property to create a buffer zone around Luke Air Force Base in Arizona; and in 1992, McCain asked the EPA to provide $5-million for wastewater project in Nogales, Ariz. Check this out.

#17
The Statement:
On the campaign trail or in interviews, McCain and VP-nominee Gov. Sarah Palin often say that Obama will raise taxes on the middle class. An 30-second TV ad released Thursday says he would tax electricity, heating oil and "life savings."
The Distortion:
None are accurate. "McCain ad misrepresents Obama's tax plan. Again," according to Factcheck.org. Obama's economic plan calls for cuts for middle-income taxpayers and would increase rates only for people with family incomes above $250,000 or for individuals making over $200,000. Check out this and this.

#18
The Statement:
In a Sept. 15 appearance, Biden said McCain opposed a GI- benefits bill, and said McCain called it "too generous."
The Distortion:
McCain did oppose Democratic Sen. Jim Webb's version of a GI-benefits bill, but never called it too generous. McCain supported a less-costly GOP version. A compromise version passed -- McCain didn't vote on the bill, but a spokesman said he would have supported it. Said FactCheck.org: "Biden proved once again that it doesn't take outright falsehoods to create a skewed impression of one's opponent."

#19
The Statement:
In response to this week's economic crisis on CNBC, McCain pointed to his experience as "chair of the Commerce Committee which oversights every part of our economy."
The Distortion:
Maybe he's thinking about the Senate Banking Housing and Urban Affairs Committee -- that's what's responsible for the financial institutions that went south this week. Commerce isn't. Check this out. And here's what the Banking Committee oversees.