President Obama: The Defense Hawk

Has President Obama slashed national defense?

"He wants to dismantle the military just like Western Europe did theirs." - Rush Limbaugh

GOP Senator Toomey: Background Checks Are Not Gun Control

Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, from Pennsylvania ,has announced the deal with Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who holds an A rating from the National Rifle Association. "I don't consider criminal background checks to be gun control. It's just common sense," Toomey said

Dow Jones Hits All Time High a Week After Previous Record

The Dow Jones hit an all time high yet again a week after the previous all time high.

GUNS Kill More than Clubs, Bats, Knives and other Weapons COMBINED

Nothing angers me more than when someone argues a point that doesn't exist. The accuracy of the following claim varies depending on how you frame it. Greg Abbott Texas Attorney General - "More people killed with hammers & clubs each year than rifles," This is true but can be misleading.

Margaret Thatcher Kept Good Socialism and Got Rid of the Bad Socialism: Lawrence O'Donnell

Lawrence O'Donnell breaks down the mythology put on the late Margaret Thatcher.

Socialist Legacy of Margaret Thatcher

The late Margaret Thatcher like Ronald Reagan would be unelectable in the primary of today's Republican Party, as Think Progress pointed out. Even she realized that capitalism could not solve  particular issues such as climate change.

She supported socialized medicine. The modern-day GOP is so obsessed with trying to repeal Obamacare that they’ve held nearly 40 votes to do so. But Obamacare is actually a much more conservative health care policy than the socialized National Health Service, which Thatcher lauded as an accomplishment of the United Kingdom. “I believed that the NHS was a service of which we could genuinely be proud,” she wrote in her book, “It delivered a high quality of care — especially when it came to acute illnesses — and at a reasonably modest unit cost, at least compared with some insurance-based systems.”
She increased taxes. Spending actually rose during Thatcher’s first seven years in office, as the New York Times reports, and taxes took up a larger percentage as share of gross domestic product. Indeed, even by the end of her time in office taxes were still a higher percentage of GDP than they were when she arrived:

Thatcher also increased the Value Added Tax (VAT), which Newt Gingrich described as “European socialism” during the 2012 election cycle.
She believed in climate change. Thatcher was an early adherent to climate science, and once warned, “The danger of global warming is as yet unseen but real enough for us to make changes and sacrifices so that we do not live at the expense of future generations.” [Think Progress 3/8/13]

Under President Obama Domestic Oil Production has Skyrocketed

In the right wing bubble, you'll hear claims about how oil is not being obtained, where its not being obtained, but not how much has been obtained.

"Oil drilling permits down 36 percent under Obama" -Washington Times
"Obama Shuts Down 1.6M Acres to Oil Shale Development"- Breitbart.com 
"Oil production is down 14 percent this year on federal land."- Mitt Romney
"Obama vows to drill 'everywhere we can', except where there's oil"- Examiner.com

When folks hear and read headlines on right wing websites like this over and over again, they're probably skeptical and dismissive when they hear President Obama say:  

"Our oil production right now is higher than at any time in the last eight years." -President Obama

In reality:

• Annual U.S. domestic oil production is at an at least 15 year high according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
•  Its been increasing since 2009 for the first time since 1991.