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A message from Democracy for America: Last week, Republicans stormed into Tampa hoping to change the conversation this election season. Did they ever - even Fox News was concerned with the distortion of facts and the lies being told by the Romney/Ryan ticket. This week, Democrats take to Charlotte to counter the lies.

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Fight the No Choice Team

Paul Ryan repeated many false claims with vigor in his speech at the RNC. He said Romney-Ryan would preserve and protect Medicare for the present and future generations, that Obama is raiding it. Nothing could be further from the truth - remember Ryan is the guy who authored and passed a House budget which would privatize Medicare for those under 55 and would cut benefits for Medicare recipients.

Help the Feminist Majority organize and fight back.

Ryan also told other fairy tales. Much of the media was not fooled - reviews called his speech out for being "filled with economic inaccuracies." The fact checkers said it contained "several false claims and misleading statements."

Let's face it. The Romney-Ryan ticket spells disaster for millions of women and continues to engage in mass deception. Women voters must know before it is too late.Please help the Feminist Majority organize in the field and online. Help us fight the deception.

Make no mistake about it—the GOP is attempting to cut off all access to abortion, defund all family planning programs, and is attempting to go backwards on women's rights, human rights, you name it. The final Republican platform supports:
The Human Life Amendment to the US Constitution, which would ban all abortion with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the woman and would ban some forms of birth control
Banning same sex marriage
Rejecting affirmative action
Rejecting ratification of the U.N. Convention (treaty) to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
Rejecting the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Sex segregation for academic classes in public schools
Replacing family planning programs for teens with abstinence only education
Strict voter ID laws.

I shudder to think if this GOP would control the House, the Presidency and the Senate. What would happen to women? Help us make sure this doesn't happen.

As Romney and Ryan try to misrepresent their position on Medicare, birth control, abortion, women's rights, we must fight back.

For women's lives,

Eleanor Smeal
President
Paid for by Feminist Majority and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
© Copyright 2012, Feminists for Obama, a project of the Feminist Majority
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Call Out Ryan's 5 Lies

Paul Ryan lied to the American people. Some journalists and outlets covered Ryan's lies. But others failed to check the facts and didn't call Ryan out on his brazen lies.

In this crucial election, news reporters have an obligation to educate the public about the facts regarding the major issues and call out the candidates every time they lie.

That's why I created a petition urging the major news corporations—ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX, and MSNBC—to live up to their obligation to report the truth. The petition says: 

Mainstream media: Fact-check and call out candidates when they lie. You have an obligation as journalists to educate the public on the facts of the major campaign issues.

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

Here is a list of five lies that Paul Ryan told when he gave his speech at the Republican National Convention. Every single news outlet should report on these lies.

1. Lie: President Obama is the "greatest threat" to Medicare.

Truth: Obama didn't make any cuts to Medicare benefits; he made cuts to provider reimbursements, to improve cost efficiency and extend the fiscal security of Medicare by eight years. According to the Medicare actuary, "[Obama's] Affordable Care Act makes important changes to the Medicare program and substantially improves its financial outlook."¹

But Ryan actually does want to cut benefits. He proposed dismantling Medicare and replacing it with a voucher system, leaving millions of seniors to come up with more money to pay for care out of pocket.^2,3

2. Lie: President Obama didn't save a General Motors plant in Wisconsin.

Truth: First, Obama wasn't even in office when the GM plant closed. Second, Obama never made a promise to save it.⁴

3. Lie: President Obama ignored recommendations of a bipartisan debt commission.

Truth: Paul Ryan actually sat on that commission. And he led Republicans in voting down the commission's own recommendation. So the commission never gave a report to Obama, because Ryan himself voted to kill the report before it could.⁵

4. Lie: President Obama is responsible for the downgrading of the U.S. Credit Rating

Truth: House Republicans, including Paul Ryan, held the full faith and credit of the United States hostage to try to ransom it for trillions of dollars in cuts to social programs without increasing taxes on the wealthy one dime. Standard & Poors said specifically, "We have changed our assumption on [revenue] because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues." That's why our nation's credit rating was downgraded.^6,7

5. Lie: Ryan wants to protect the "weak."

Truth: Ryan's biggest feat in his political career was proposing a budget with dramatic cuts to programs benefiting the poor. He'd cut Medicaid by one third, take away health care insurance from 30 million Americans, and cut Pell Grants for 1 million students. All so that he could give more tax breaks to the rich.⁸

Click here to add your name to my SignOn.org petition urging ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX, and MSNBC to call out candidates when they lie, and then pass it along to your friends.

Thanks!

–Brenda Witt

Sources:

1. "Fact check: Paul Ryan at the RNC," USA Today, August 30, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=279602&id=50188-18623853-s4gNKgx&t=8

2. "Undoing Obama Medicare cuts may backfire on Romney," The Boston Globe, August 18, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=279597&id=50188-18623853-s4gNKgx&t=9

3. "Romney-Ryan Medicare Plan Would Cost 29-Year-Olds $331,200: Report," Huffington Post, August 27, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=279596&id=50188-18623853-s4gNKgx&t=10

4. "Paul Ryan Misleads With GM Plant Closure Tale," Huffington Post, August 29, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=279598&id=50188-18623853-s4gNKgx&t=11

5. "Fact Check: Paul Ryan misleads on debt panel's spending cut plan," CNN, August 30, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=279608&id=50188-18623853-s4gNKgx&t=12

6. "Top 5 Fibs In Paul Ryan's Convention Speech," Talking Points Memo, August 30, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=279595&id=50188-18623853-s4gNKgx&t=13

7. "Paul Ryan Address: Convention Speech Built On Demonstrably Misleading Assertions," Huffington Post, August 30, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=279604&id=50188-18623853-s4gNKgx&t=14

8. "4 Ways Paul Ryan's Budget Would Devastate The Poor," ThinkProgress, August 17, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=279605&id=50188-18623853-s4gNKgx&t=15

This petition was created on SignOn.org, the progressive, nonprofit petition site. SignOn.org is sponsored by MoveOn Civic Action, which is not responsible for the contents of this or other petitions posted on the site. Brenda Witt didn't pay us to send this email—we never rent or sell the MoveOn.org list.

Want to support our work? MoveOn Civic Action is entirely funded by our 7 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

Media Matters for America Weekly Update

This week is about confronting lies. When faced with lies, be it a campaign or a film, how will media respond? And what's behind lies that a group tells in the media? All that and more.John Whitehouse
Twitter: @existentialfish
How The Media Covered Two Romney Falsehoods
Mitt Romney has campaigned heavily on two claims that fact-checkers have widely ruled false. First, that the President Obama gutted welfare requirements (in reality Obama granted states the flexibility Republican governors asked for). Second, that Obama took $716 billion out of Medicare (in reality, Obama cut spending that was targeted at hospitals and doctors, not beneficiaries). How did leading print and cable news cover the lies? Fox News and the Wall Street Journal were by far the worst, but the rest of the results might surprise you. http://mm4a.org/Pv3SSn
MEDIA MATTERS AT THE MOVIES
Discredited author and highbrow birther Dinesh D'Soouza has a new film that is all the rage on Fox News and Rupert Murdoch's Twitter feed.Simon Maloy saw the movie and afterward chatted with some members of the audience. He explains how the appeal of the film is not in its litany of factual inaccuracies, but in D'Souza taking advantage of a certain caricature of President Obama: http://mm4a.org/QnsvVq
UNDERCOVER AT THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MARRIAGE'S STUDENT CONFERENCE
Over the past few years, the National Organization for Marriage ("NOM") has been at the forefront pushing to restrict the rights of LGBT couples, both in the media and in the courts. Our Carlos Maza went undercover at their Ruth Institute student session to document four days of extreme anti-gay indoctrination and flat out lies about gay couples. Find out what they are saying when they are not doing the media rounds: http://mm4a.org/SMz1G9
REALITY UNDERMINES FOX-FUELED RNC CONVENTION THEME
Fox generated the theme of the Republican Convention based on deceptive editing of President Obama. The President was merely pointing out that government is necessary for a free market to function, citing roads as an example of things that businesses need but didn't build themselves. Since then, numerous examples from the convention undermine Fox's theme. The latest is a speaker who received millions in taxpayer-funded contracts. http://mm4a.org/UbMNjM