Paul Krugman Makes Fraudulent Claim Against Michelle Bachmann in NYT-- Not a Surprise

The New York Times' Paul Krugman is reasserting that he's on par with Ed Schultz. In the wake of the deranged Loughner's shooting spree, Krugman has taken up the cause to slander political opponents and mislead the public. Disguised as an opinion on "hate speech" (in other words anything not in line with the Left's political agendas), Krugman's column self-righteously disparages political opponent and spreads lies.

On Monday he wrote this:

"It's hard to imagine a Democratic member of Congress urging constituents to be 'armed and dangerous' without being ostracized; but Representative Michele Bachmann, who did just that, is a rising star in the G.O.P."

As James Taranto in The Wall Street Journal points out:

"As we noted in yesterday's column, in October then-Rep. Paul Kanjorski, a Pennsylvania Democrat, mused about assassinating a fellow politician. Not only was he not ostracized; he was rewarded with a spot yesterday on the op-ed page of Krugman's newspaper."

Yet, the quote, or phrase actually, attributed to Bachmann was cherry-picked from any sort of context and then grossly warped to fit Krugman's needs.

This is the actual quote from Bachmann via blogger Dave Evers at Fish Fear Me (with audio available at the link):

"We met with Chris Horner last week, 20 members of Congress. It takes a lot to wow members of Congress after a while. This wowed them. And I am going to have materials for people when they leave. I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us, having a revolution every now and then is a good thing, and the people--we the people--are going to have to fight back hard if we're not going to lose our country. And I think this has the potential of changing the dynamic of freedom forever in the United States and that's why I want everyone to come out and hear. So go to bachmann.house.gov and you can get all the information."

Yup. Telling people to be armed with facts about energy taxation is just about the same as inciting people to violence-- like let's say the band Rage Against the Machine's songs performed for arrestables just prior to a protest. Does Krugman really expect us to believe this?

Taranto continues:

"Krugman, who recreationally burns politicians in effigy, described Bachmann's comment as 'eliminationist rhetoric.' That is flatly fraudulent.

"If the broader claim--that the 'rhetoric' of Republican politicians and the nonliberal media was to blame for last Saturday's act of mass murder--is true, why can't it be presented without false factual assertions? Krugman's little lie undermines the big lie he and his newspaper are attempting to purvey.

"Krugman and his colleagues on the Times editorial board are not skilled enough to be effective liars. That is far from the worst thing you can say about newspapermen. But when did the people who run the New York Times forget that their job--their duty--is to tell the truth?"

This sort of nonsense that Krugman and many others are indulging in has to stop. The Left is walling itself in by making up it's own facts, isolating itself by printing obvious, and easily researched, distortions. While that's politically advantageous for the Right, it is ultimately damaging to the country as a whole.

I have to wonder if this is not the natural outgrowth of the Marxist belief that if you control the media, you control the people. It's a myth of course, as any study of Soviet Union, Eastern Bloc countries, and China can easily confirm. Hardly anyone believed the official line, and what resulted was simply that facts and truth became lost between rumor-mongering and cynicism.

The American Left (so keen on imitating policies that have repeatedly failed in foreign countries) seems intent on following this path-- even without a state-run media. The results for America will be the same-- pessimism, cynicism, distrust, and a loss of the truth.

UPDATE: Heh. The guys over at HillBuzz.org have a couple of choice quotes from Krugman.

"You know that Republicans will yell about the evils of partisanship whenever anyone tries to make a connection between the rhetoric of Beck, Limbaugh, etc. and the violence I fear we’re going to see in the months and years ahead. But violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate. And it’s long past time for the GOP’s leaders to take a stand against the hate-mongers".

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, January 2011

"A message to progressives: By all means, hang Senator Joe Lieberman in effigy".

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman – December 17th, 2009

Now to be fair to Krugman (which is far more than he does for his opponents) this is the context of his hanging Joe Lieberman in effigy statement:

"A message to progressives: By all means, hang Senator Joe Lieberman in effigy. Declare that you're disappointed in and/or disgusted with President Obama. Demand a change in Senate rules that, combined with the Republican strategy of total obstructionism, are in the process of making America ungovernable.

"But meanwhile, pass the health care bill."

Yup. It's the old America-isn't-governable-by-Leftist-political-elitists-unless-they-are-given-power-to-rule-by-decree theory--like Venezuela. That's a Woody Allen favorite, by the way. If only we could go a step further and get rid of those pesky, smelly, unintelligent, gun and religion clinging, ungovernable voters...

You may notice that Krugman's own 2008 election night party in which political effigies were burned is not mentioned. Hey, nothing eliminationist about that. No hypocrisy here. Nothing to see. Move on.