Joseph Goebbels, the
Minister of
Propaganda in
Nazi Germany,
never actually said "The
bigger the
lie, the
more it will be
believed"—but that hasn't
stopped people from
falsely attributing the quote to him.
I suppose that's ironic, in an Alanis Morrissette sort of way.
Whatever its origin may be, the so-called "Big Lie" technique has been employed by tyrants and despots for decades, with varying degrees of success.
In fact, just last week, the White House claimed that more than 6 million people had enrolled in Obamacare—a lie which quickly proved too small to be believed.
Experts immediately began to question the veracity of that number, and so, this week, President Obama and his media enablers raised it to 7 million.
Given the way this administration operates, the body count is likely to climb even higher before all is said and done.
Morning lineup:
Meet The Press: Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen; McCutcheon v. FEC Plaintiff Shaun McCutcheon; Robert Weissman (Public Citizen); Roundtable: Kathleen Parker (Washington Post), Former Sen. John E. Sununu (R-NH), Former Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN) and Former Chairman/CEO of AOL Steve Case.
Face The Nation: White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer; Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX); Climatologist Heidi Cullen; Tom Friedman (New York Times); Author Todd Durham; Roundtable: Amy Walter (Cook Political Report) and John Dickerson (CBS News).
This Week: Rep. John Carter (R-TX); Former Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Ret. Gen. Peter Chiarelli; Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO); Roundtable: Democratic Strategist Donna Brazile, Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), Bill Kristol (Weekly Standard) Alicia Menendez (Fusion).
Fox News Sunday: Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX); Sen.Tim Kaine (D-VA); Former CIA/NSA Director Gen. Michael Hyden; Roundtable: Brit Hume (Fox News), Elise Viebeck (The Hill), Sociopath Liz Cheney and Juan Williams (Fox News).
State of the Union: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA); Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI); Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD); Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI); Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA); Roundtable: Democratic Strategist Penny Lee, Corey Dade (NPR) and Ross Douthat (New York Times).
Evening lineup:
60 Minutes will feature: an update on the ghost towns of Fukushima (preview); a report on the nurse practitioners who are providing healthcare to the uninsured working poor in Appalachia (preview); and, a report on the largest cache of missing art since WWII and the battle over its ownership (preview).
On Comedy Central...
Jon Stewart weighed in on SCOTUS's decision in McCutcheon v. FEC.
The Daily Show
Monday: Author/Journalist Matt Taibbi
Tuesday: Actor/Comedian Denis Leary
Wednesday: Actor Colin Firth
Thursday: Actress Jennifer Garner
And Stephen Colbert agreed with Bill O'Reilly that life isn't always fair.
The Colbert Report
Monday: Author Edward Frenkel
Tuesday: Primatologist Jane Goodall
Wednesday: Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg
Thursday: Sting & Trudy Styler (The Rainforest Foundation)
Elsewhere...
Matt Bevin, Mitch McConnell's primary challenger, mounted a revolutionary defense of his accidental attendance at a pro-cockfighting rally.
"But it's interesting when you look at cockfighting and dogfighting as well," Bevin said in an interview on the Terry Meiners Show on Louisville's WHAS on Thursday. "This isn't something new, it wasn't invented in Kentucky for example. I mean the Founding Fathers were all many of them very involved in this and always have been." [...]
"I'm going to defend the right of people to freely gather and discuss whatever they want to," Bevin said. "I'm a believer in the Constitution and in the First Amendment," Bevin also said. "Not just for raising money but also for freedom of speech."
Meanwhile...
A bill to ban cockfighting in Louisiana raised concerns among chicken boxing proponents.
A Louisiana senator is opposing a bill that would close loopholes in a state cockfighting ban, saying it threatens the legitimate, less bloody sport of "chicken boxing." [...]
Guillory represents an area of rural Louisiana that fought to keep cockfighting legal prior to the ban. He said chicken boxing is a sport that uses some of the paraphernalia involved in cockfighting, but he said the matches aren't fought to the death.
He described chicken boxing as similar to human kickboxing, with chickens kicking at each other while wearing rubber "gloves" that cover the spurs on their legs. The chickens face each other in rounds of 10 minutes each, and Guillory said there's little chance of serious injury with veterinarians on hand to monitor the matches.
"Instead of a blade or exposed spur, they hit each other with these boxing gloves on, which is quite safe," Guillory said after the hearing. "There's no blood."
And, in other news from the animal kingdom...
An 8-year-old's efforts to have the woolly mammoth named South Carolina's state fossil devolved into controversy.
A bill to underline the state's pride in its ancient resident moved quickly with the House's blessing. But then Senator Kevin Bryant proposed an amendment rooted in the Book of Genesis, imputing God as the creator of the woolly mammoth: "And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, the cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good." The senator stirred up a familiar debate between firm believers in evolution and those who insist it should be devalued and taught as a "pro and con" theory.
Lawmakers weary of controversy at the end of the session ruled the amendment out of order. Senator Bryant countered with fresh language that alluded only passively to divinity, describing how the state mammoth was "created on the Sixth Day with the other beasts of the field."
It's the circle of life.
- Trix