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Spam as opinion

This morning the Boulder Daily Camera ran a piece of political spam email as a letter to the editor. The letter was "written" by Cody Elmore of Boulder, and it makes two general claims (that Bush is lowering the average American's tax burden; that John Kerry will raise that burden and yet is avoiding paying his own) as well as several specific claims (John Kerry owns four mansions; Kerry paid less than Bush in taxes even though they should have paid the same; and so on). All of these claims are either false or misleading.

The website Apeiron has a detailed breakdown of the problems with this email, including (heavens above!) actual sources and references to back up their claims. Here are some of the most salient:

Spam: "Kerry owns 4 mansions ... (His ski resort home in Idaho is an old barn brought over from Europe in pieces. ...)"
Truth: John Kerry and Teresa Heinz own one home together, their Boston townhouse. The other homes are ones that Heinz owned before she married Kerry; the "ski resort" in question was actually brought over from Europe in pieces by her late husband, Republican Senator John Heinz.
Sources:
  FactCheck.org
  Snopes Urban Legends
  Urban Legends and Folklore

Spam: "Both George Bush and John Kerry are wealthy men. ... Bush paid $250,000 in taxes this year; Kerry paid $90,000. Does that sound right? The man who wants to raise your taxes obviously has figured out a way to avoid paying his own."
Truth: The only truths here are that both men are wealthy and that Kerry paid approximately $90,000. George Bush paid $227,490 in taxes in 2003 which would more truthfully be rounded to $225,000 than to $250,000. Furthermore, the implication that Kerry "avoided" paying taxes is simple slander. Kerry's income was less than Bush's ($395,338 total v. $822,126 total), and he therefore paid less in taxes. Not exactly a case for tax fraud.
Sources:
  Tax History Project
  Citizens for Tax Justice - Bush & Cheney Tax Returns
  U.S. Newswire - Kerry Releases 2003 Income Tax Returns
  Washington Post - President Benefits From His Tax Cut

As I mentioned, Mike Buck of Apeiron has done a fabulous job of refuting pretty much every claim the email makes, so I won't go into more detail here; just read his rebuttal.

The fact that there are political spam emails being sent around the Internet with lies, unfair innuendos and faulty logic is hardly newsworthy. That the Boulder Daily Camera would print this spam as if it were a "letter to the editor," however, deserves attention. I will be calling the Camera on Monday, when their editorial staff gets back from the weekend, to ask for a retraction or an apology.

I don't expect that they fact-check every letter (though it wouldn't hurt them to ask for sources), but neither do I expect that the letters I'm reading are actually spam. And how hard could it be to look into claims like this before going to press? All I needed to learn that this was a bunch of nonsense was an Internet connection, Google, and about 15 minutes. In fact, doing a search for the exact phrase "Bush paid $250000 in taxes this year Kerry paid $90000" yields 75 different posts of the exact text of the letter they were sent.

I'm disappointed, and I'm going to let them know it.

[cross-posted at DugBlog]

Right Issue, Wrong Target

Thanks to the Boulder Daily Camera for coming up with that nice title for my letter to the editor that was published today (scroll to the bottom). The opinion piece I'm referring to in my letter can be found here. [cross-posted on DugBlog]

Convention Blogs

Colorado delegation's Blog.

conventionbloggers.com A community site for bloggers participating in the DNC, July 26-29

Denver's Talk Left, attending the Convention

Department of: Bush teaches Children Values with Poverty

The Bush administration is pushing teaching values to children, but if children don't have the basic necessities of life, values won't mean much to them. Maybe that is why the American Federation of Teachers has endorsed John Kerry. According to UPI report on 7/16/04 the number of children in poverty rose from 15.8% in 2001 to 16.3% in 2002. In addition, the Bush team has underfunded the No Child Left Behind program by $27 billion., and cut after school programs by 40%, denying 500,000 children this service.

Also, due to state budget cuts, up to 1.6 million people are losing health care coverage, including a half million children. States are finding it hard to keep up with needs due to federal cuts. Finally, in contrast to his radio address, president's 2005 budget proposes cutting Medicaid by $16 billion over 10 years according to the Office of Management and Budget.

.. This will hurt the most vulnerable children as well as senior citizens.

These cuts show how much the Bush administration values children!
via Donna

Getting Out the Word: Cheney isn't going away

Colorado Daily July 23, 2004 Letters

Cheney isn't going away

Dick Cheney, contrary to the rumours, is not going away in my opinion, with respect to the Republican Presidential ticket. It would only accentuate the essentially manipulative (often bait and switch) nature of this administration. So yeah Cheney's going to be there -I think we can count on it.

It is also interesting to me that Republicans are always so ready to attack Democrats and others for trying to start a diviisive economic class war (which it often really is).

They then turn around and attempt to cast this election as a war of American values and culture. What hypocrites! If that isn't the most divisive and most painful/personal kind of division of Americans then I'm afraid I don't know what is.

Methinks Bush/Cheney and company have picked one fight that they are NOT going to win this time. At least let' hope so.

Grant D. Cyrus (Grantmon)

Boulder

Department of: Ignore the Elephant in the Room

American Progress has a good writeup on the Sandy Berger synthetic scandal and why the Republicans are so eager to be outraged. You can get the best description of it on CNN transcripts with Blitzer apparently reading the Republican Talking Points and Berger's lawyer speaking English. Among other things it explains why Kerry knew nothing about it. Something to do with the professional standards of Ashcroft's Justice Department.

Start with:

BLITZER: "Brian Todd, thanks very much for that report. Samuel Berger is represented by another White House veteran."

Political Animal points out that Tom Davis, Republican chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, started this investigation in a day while the Valerie Plume probe has yet to start.