PolitiFact Georgia is supposedly a non-partisan media watchdog group that rates comments from politicians and political advocates on something called a Truth-O-Meter.
The scale ranges from completely true and goes beyond completely false to a “liar, liar, pants on fire” category that denotes the most egregious offenders.
PolitiFact Georgia recently declared a group known as Sovereign Citizens United (SCU) had their “pants-on-fire” given their claim that U.S. Congressmen from Georgia Hank Johnson and John Lewis were both socialists.
The media watchdog gave that evaluation of the SCU statement
U.S. Reps. Hank Johnson, John Lewis and other members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are socialists who are openly serving in the U.S. Congress.
Agreed, making the unfounded accusation that a U.S Congressman is a socialist does cast that member in a negative light, in effect demonizing him (or her) in the eyes of many, but a hero in the eyes of some.
And http://offsecnewbie.com/2020/12/29/vulnhub-sunset-decoy/ if SCU wasn’t telling the truth, their accusation would be a rather insidious, terrible lie. That much is true.
Which begs the question…
Quid est veritas?
The fact-checkers decreed
The S-word [Socialist] is overwhelmingly considered a toxic label in American politics. Yet, it is used more frequently these days, most often as a way to demonize liberal politicians.
I get it — it’s bad to call someone a socialist if it isn’t true.
And what irrefutable proof did the fact checkers procure making them confident enough to declare SCU such bold-faced liars with their pants on fire?
Well…they did ask the spokesperson for Hank Johnson, who cooperated:
A spokesman for Johnson wondered if Sovereign Citizens United was the same outfit that is occasionally busted for living in spacious vacant or foreclosed homes, because it believes it is immune to federal and state laws and that only people — not banks — can own land. So did we. News accounts refer to those suspects as “Sovereign Citizens.” Sovereign Citizens United lists itself as a group attempting to stop the undermining of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights by “U.N. globalists.” We couldn’t find any evidence this group was involved in any suspected criminal activity.
How apolitical of Johnson’s mouthpiece, to insinuate a personal attack on the accuser.
PolitiFact also wondered about the veracity of the claim against Sovereign enough to investigate and find it unmerited, or at least lacking evidence to support it.
But Johnson’s pants weren’t alleged to be on fire. Maybe they were only smoldering.
And who else contradicted the claim that Lewis and Johnson are socialists?
PolitiFact Georgia cited the following “reliable” sources:
“We have a banner that says ‘Obama is not a socialist, but we are,’ ” [former director of Democrat Socialists of America Frank] Llewellyn said.
In 2009, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a self-described Democratic Socialist, wrote an op-ed in the Huffington Post arguing that no one else in Congress thinks similarly.
Spokespeople for Johnson and Lewis both rejected any claims to being socialists or members of the DSA.
That certainly seems to settle the issue without ambiguity, doesn’t it?
After all — if you can’t trust the socialists to be honest about their membership, who can you trust?
Yet doesn’t it seem a little bit odd that PolitiFact Georgia actually investigated the claim that SCU was nothing more than an organized group of squatters but simply accepted the word of spokesmen for these Congressmen that they were http://ifcus.org/2016/11/30/library-plans-the-second-building/ not socialists?
As ESPN’s Lee Corso might say, “Not so fast, my friend!”
This morning by sheer coincidence I was reading an excellent article at American Thinker about black socialist preacher George Washington Woodbey.
Citing his legacy, the article claimed that 28 of the 43 members of the Congressional Black Caucus were also members of the Congressional Socialist Caucus, a whopping 37 percent of the socialist group’s total membership in Congress.
It staggered me to think that at least seventy elected representatives in Congress support socialism, a form of government in complete opposition to the freedoms for which our nation was founded.
Could this possibly be true?
Well — yeah!
It took me all of about thirty seconds to perform an Internet search for “Congressional Socialist Caucus” — initially I found it hard to believe one existed — and found a couple of interesting links.
One link even lead me to a press release from 2009 apparently issued by the same Democrat Socialists of America with the same Frank Llewellyn. The release included a list of elected members in Congress who were also members of the DSA.
Just look over the names on the list. Then check their voting records.
Maxine Waters, Charles Rangel, Barney Frank, John Conyers, Pete Stark — the list is nothing more than a roll call for uber liberal members in the House of Representatives.
Imagine my surprise to also find the names of both Lewis and Johnson on the list.
I’m shocked.
And stunned. (The Monty Python aficionados who have seen the classic All You Need is Cash may appreciate that sentiment.)
But I’m not speechless. So I’ll leave you with this suggestion….
Someone needs to be fact-checking the fact-checkers at PolitiFact Georgia.
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