nytimes: The G.O.P. Fact Vacuum

[spanone]

Honesty is a lost art. Facts are for losers. The truth is dead. Pick one.

Whatever the term of art, they all signal a dark turn, and, this week, the Republican Party took that turn with reckless abandon.

Lying is certainly nothing new in politics. One could even argue that it’s fundamental to politics. Saying incredible things in a credible way is the art; using math of vapors to sell dreams of smoke is the craft.

But Paul Ryan’s acceptance speech on Wednesday took things up a notch.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/opinion/blow-the-gop-fact-vacuum.html?_r=1&hp&pagewanted=print

[CrispyQ]

1. Great commentary!

On Friday, PolitiFact still had Romney’s statements as Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire 42 percent of the time, compared with 27 percent of the time for Obama.

Propaganda is one thing; prevarication is another.

more . . .

Yet the candidates are virtually tied in most polls. What does this portend for the republic? I worry deeply about this, not simply because I work at a newspaper, but because I am an American.

Almost half of what Mitt Romney says is a lie.

[rock]

2. Wow! That (almost) makes Rmoney the perfect non-information machine

Information is probabilistic. You actually need to lie 50% of the time to carry no information.