The latest development in the saga of the so-called "birther" challenges to Barack Obama’s presidency comes from Hawaii, Obama’s native state. Yesterday, Gov. Linda Lingle signed a law allowing state agencies to ignore requests for information if they determine the requests duplicate or are substantially similar to earlier ones. The law targets those who contend Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. and thus, under the Constitution, can’t be president; they still are sending 10 to 20 e-mails every week asking the state’s Health Department for verification of his birth certificate.
A False Hit on Bobby Bright
A new National Republican Congressional Committee ad falsely claims that Rep. Bobby Bright, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, "is supporting" President Obama’s health care legislation. He’s not. The fact is, Bright was one of the few Democrats who voted against it, and he favors changing certain aspects that he calls "deeply flawed."
Bright was strongly opposed to the law and said he was "disappointed" and "saddened" by its passage:
Bright, March 22: I voted against the health care reform bill because our country cannot afford its massive cost,
Benton’s Bogus Viagra Ad
Don Benton, a Republican from Washington state who is running for U.S. Senate against Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, is airing a false and misleading ad that says: "Patty Murray voted to use taxpayer money to give Viagra to sex offenders.” The ad goes on to say, “What if I told you your taxpayer dollars are already doing that?”
It ends by urging viewers to “tell Patty Murray that you’re sick of her reckless spending.”
In a graphic on screen,
NAFTA/CAFTA Blame Game
A union-sponsored ad charges that Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s support of "unfair" trade deals "made it impossible for American workers to compete." But several economic studies say trade deals, like the North American Free Trade Agreement, have had a small impact, or even a positive one, on American jobs.
As we said last week, this ad starts with a true claim about union workers at a Cooper Tire plant making wage concessions to ward off a threatened closure.
Labor, More So Than Lincoln, Saved Arkansas Jobs
In the Arkansas Democratic Senate primary, an ad from Sen. Blanche Lincoln claims that "she saved 1,700 Cooper Tire employees from losing their jobs to Chinese imports." But a labor union supporting her more liberal opponent countered with an ad in which a Cooper Tire worker says: "We saved our own jobs and we had to take big pay cuts to do it." We find the labor claim to be true, and Lincoln’s to be a bit of an exaggeration.
Congress Did Not Raise Its Pay, Deny Seniors Increase
Chris Cates, a Republican congressional candidate in Georgia’s May 11 special election, says in a new TV ad that Congress voted to give itself a pay raise, while denying senior citizens on Social Security a cost-of-living increase. He’s wrong on both counts.
https://static.video.factcheck.org/vid/GatesFedUp.mp4
In “Fed Up,” an ad that started running May 3, Cates gives a litany of complaints about Congress, including that it has “gold-plated health insurance” (a matter of opinion, but members of Congress receive the same health care plans as federal workers ),
Whitman Ad Misfires
A Meg Whitman ad falsely accuses her opponent in the California GOP gubernatorial primary of presiding over a spending increase of nearly 14 percent in the department he headed as state insurance commissioner. The true increase is half that.
The smackdown between Whitman and Steve Poizner has tightened up in the weeks since we found big factual problems in one of Poizner’s ads last month. Both candidates are straining to cast themselves as "real" Republicans and to label the other as a RINO –
Healthreform.gov’s Positive Spin
A federal government website designed to help Americans understand the new health care law isn’t always helpful — or in some cases even accurate.
Take this question in the Q&A section for “small businesses."
Q: Am I required to offer insurance to my employees?
A: No. There is not a so-called “employer mandate” in the legislation.
That’s true if your definition of "small business" only covers firms with 49 or fewer employees; there’s no requirement that they provide coverage.
A Big Webby Win for FactCheck
We’re very happy to announce that FactCheck.org has won the 2010 Webby Award (also known as "the Oscars of the internet") in the Politics category. Thanks to your votes, we also won this year’s Webby People’s Voice award. This is our second Webby — we also won in 2008 – and it’s the fourth year in a row that we’ve won a People’s Voice award. FactCheckED was also a People’s Voice winner in 2008, in the Education category.
Sunday Replay
Immigration and the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico crowded out most other subjects on the May 2 Sunday talk shows, and we found trampled facts in both areas.
Immigration Face-Off on ‘Face the Nation’
Arizona’s tough new immigration law sparked a heated exchange between Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois and former Rep. J.D. Hayworth on CBS’ "Face the Nation." Hayworth, who is hoping to defeat Sen. John McCain in Arizona’s GOP Senate primary,