Politician 'Truthiness' Stats: Obama vs. Romney

A fun little excercise ;) According to Politifact.com Truth-o-Meter:

(scroll to bottom to see results)

• Barack Obama: Says "Mitt Romney’s plan rolls back regulations" on banks. - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True
• Barack Obama: "There are millions of women all across the country who rely on Planned Parenthood for not just contraceptive care; they rely on it for mammograms." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Barack Obama: Says Mitt Romney’s plan makes "catastrophic cuts to education." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Barack Obama: "The sequester is not something that I've proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False
• Barack Obama: Says Mitt Romney wants to add $2 trillion to defense budget that the military hasn’t asked for. - The Truth-o-Meter says: True
• Barack Obama: Says Romney said "we should ask Pakistan for permission" to take a shot at Osama bin Laden. - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Barack Obama: Says Mitt Romney "just gave a speech a few weeks ago" and said "we should still have troops in Iraq." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True
• Barack Obama: Says Mitt Romney was clear that he "would not provide government assistance to the U.S. auto companies, even if they went through bankruptcy." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False
• Barack Obama: "Veterans’ unemployment is actually now lower than (the) general population. It was higher when I came into office." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Barack Obama: "A few months ago when you were asked what's the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Barack Obama: "George Bush never suggested that we eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True
• Barack Obama: Says his administration put more border patrol agents on the U.S.-Mexico border than at "any time in history, and the flow of undocumented workers across the border is actually lower than it's been in 40 years." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Barack Obama: Says his administration has created "5 million jobs … over the last 30 months in the private sector alone." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Barack Obama: Says Mitt Romney suggested that "employers should be able to make the decision as to whether or not a woman gets contraception through her insurance coverage." - The Truth-o-Meter says: True
• Barack Obama: Says Mitt Romney "called the Arizona law a model for the nation." - The Truth-o-Meter says: False
• Barack Obama: Says Mitt Romney refused to say whether he'd sign the Lilly Ledbetter bill. - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True
• Barack Obama: When Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts, he "stood in front of a coal plant and pointed at it and said, ‘This plant kills.’" - The Truth-o-Meter says: True
• Barack Obama: As governor, "Mitt Romney raised nursing home fees eight times." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False
• Barack Obama: Says economists Harvey Rosen and Martin Feldstein have said that "paying for (Mitt) Romney’s tax cuts would require large tax increases on families making between $100,000 and $200,000." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False
• Barack Obama: Says Romney invested in a firm that made goods in China that "could have been made here in America." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False
• Barack Obama: The federal tax code has "loopholes that are giving incentives for companies that are shipping jobs overseas." - The Truth-o-Meter says: True
• Barack Obama: "In Romney's first budget (in Massachusetts), he cut $248.7 million from K-12 education." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Barack Obama: Says 50 million people would lose their health insurance if Obamacare is repealed. - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False
• Barack Obama: Says Romney wants to add $2 trillion to the defense budget that the military hasn’t asked for. - The Truth-o-Meter says: True
• Barack Obama: "Under Gov. Romney's definition ... Donald Trump is a small business." - The Truth-o-Meter says: False
• Barack Obama: Because of Obamacare, "over the last two years, health care premiums have gone up -- it's true -- but they've gone up slower than any time in the last 50 years." - The Truth-o-Meter says: False
• Barack Obama: Romney’s Medicare plan was estimated to "cost the average senior about $6,000 a year." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Barack Obama: Obama says he’s "put forward a specific $4 trillion deficit reduction plan." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Barack Obama: Says Mitt Romney's plan "calls for a $5 trillion tax cut." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Barack Obama: Romney "would turn Medicare into a voucher program." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True
• Barack Obama: Chinese tire imports threatened 1,000 American jobs, so President Obama "stood up to China and protected American workers. Mitt Romney attacked Obama's decision." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True
• Barack Obama: "Taxes are lower on families than they've been probably in the last 50 years." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True
• Barack Obama: "Over the last four years, the deficit has gone up, but 90 percent of that is as a consequence of" President George W. Bush’s policies and the recession. - The Truth-o-Meter says: False
• Barack Obama: Says Romney tax plan "could take away middle-class deductions for child care, mortgages and college tuition." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False
• Barack Obama: "Even today part of Romney’s fortune is invested in China." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True
• Barack Obama: Says Romney and Ryan "both backed proposals that would outlaw abortions even in cases of rape or incest." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Barack Obama: Says he "will protect your guaranteed benefits" in Medicare while "Mitt Romney would take away Medicare as guaranteed benefits." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Barack Obama: Says that under Mitt Romney, 89 million Americans could be denied coverage if they have a pre-existing condition. - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Barack Obama: "We've doubled our use of renewable energy." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False
• Barack Obama: "After 30 years of inaction, we raised fuel standards so that by the middle of the next decade, cars and trucks will go twice as far on a gallon of gas." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Barack Obama: Says Romney called Russia our No. 1 enemy. - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True
• Barack Obama: "I've cut taxes for ... middle-class families, small businesses." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True
• Barack Obama: Says his budget plan "would cut our deficits by $4 trillion." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Barack Obama: "After a decade of decline, this country created over half a million manufacturing jobs in the last two and a half years." - The Truth-o-Meter says: True

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• Mitt Romney: Says Barack Obama "sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China" at the cost of American jobs. - The Truth-o-Meter says: Pants on Fire!
• Mitt Romney: "Women in Barack Obama's White House are earning less than men." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Mitt Romney: "Under President Obama: $4,000 tax hike on middle-class families." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Pants on Fire!
• Mitt Romney: Says Barack Obama was silent on Iran "when the students took to the streets in Tehran and the people there protested, (and) the Green Revolution occurred." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False
• Mitt Romney: "Pakistan has 100 nuclear warheads and they’re rushing to build a lot more. They’ll have more than Great Britain sometime in the relatively near future." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True
• Mitt Romney: "Latin America’s economy is almost as big as the economy of China." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Mitt Romney: "I went to the Olympics that was out of balance, and we got it on balance." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True
• Mitt Romney: "The president said he was going to create daylight between ourselves and Israel." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True
• Mitt Romney: Says a university survey concluded his Massachusetts administration "had more women in senior leadership positions than any other state in America." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True
• Mitt Romney: "Regulations have quadrupled. The rate of regulations quadrupled under this president." - The Truth-o-Meter says: False
• Mitt Romney: Says Barack Obama began his presidency "with an apology tour." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Pants on Fire!
• Mitt Romney: Says President Obama waited two weeks to call the attack in Libya "terror." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Mitt Romney: "Oil production is down 14 percent this year on federal land." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Mitt Romney: Says Obama broke his promise to offer a comprehensive immigration bill in his first year. - The Truth-o-Meter says: True
• Mitt Romney: "Since President Obama took office, there are over 450,000 more unemployed women." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Mitt Romney: "In one year, (President Obama) provided $90 billion in breaks to the green energy world … into solar and wind, to Solyndra and Fisker and Tesla and Ener1." - The Truth-o-Meter says: False
• Mitt Romney: Says President Obama has "doubled" the deficit. - The Truth-o-Meter says: False
• Mitt Romney: "Pre-existing conditions are covered under my (health care) plan." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False
• Mitt Romney: Massachusetts schools "are ranked No. 1 of all 50 states." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True
• Mitt Romney: Says Obama promised to cut the deficit in half. - The Truth-o-Meter says: True
• Mitt Romney: "Right now, the (Congressional Budget Office) says up to 20 million people will lose their insurance as Obamacare goes into effect next year." - The Truth-o-Meter says: False
• Mitt Romney: Says Barack Obama "put in place a board that can tell people ultimately what treatments they're going to receive." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False
• Mitt Romney: "We’re now spending 42 percent of our economy on government." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True
• Mitt Romney: "On Medicare for current retirees, he's cutting $716 billion from the program." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Mitt Romney: College tuition "costs have risen by 25 percent under the Democrats." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False
• Mitt Romney: "Redistribution" has "never been a characteristic of America." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Pants on Fire!
• Mitt Romney:  "Seven times Obama could have stopped China's cheating. Seven times, he refused." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Mitt Romney: "Under Obama, families have lost over $4,000 a year in income." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True
• Mitt Romney: "Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax." - The Truth-o-Meter says: True
• Mitt Romney: The "48, 49 percent" that supports President Barack Obama are "people who pay no income tax." - The Truth-o-Meter says: False
• Mitt Romney: "Fifty percent of kids coming out of school can't get a job." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True
• Mitt Romney: Says President Obama promised "he'd keep unemployment below 8 percent" if the stimulus passed. - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False
• Mitt Romney: Says five studies show his tax plan can cut rates and still bring the same revenue without raising taxes on the middle class. - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False
• Mitt Romney: Under Obama, home values in Florida collapsed, construction jobs were lost and the state had a high foreclosure rate. - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False

Obama truth stats (since Sept):  
    False:4,  Mostly False:8,  Half-True:16,  Mostly True:10,  True:6
     Total: 44

Romney truth stats (since Sept): 
    False:5,  Mostly False:7,  Half-True:8,  Mostly True:7,  True:3, Pants on Fire!:4
     Total: 34

What's Austerity? "Madrid on the Brink"

Austerity.

This short film chronicles the events of September 25 - 29, 2012 in Madrid, Spain, where tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to demand the resignation of the government and an end to police brutality. Many of the protests ended in clashes with the police. Since the standoff began, the images of police brutality have travelled the world over, shocking and inspiring people across Europe and leading to an international day of action on September 29. This film tells the story of why so many people took to the streets and follows these events as they unfolded. (source)

Sept. 11 -- the Story Continues...

On September 11th, 

A series of airplane hijackings and suicide attacks were committed against strategic targets in the United States. Nearly three thousand people were killed in New York City, almost two hundred at the Pentagon and forty more died near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in the open countryside, shortly after 10 a.m. The United States and the world were taken by surprise that fateful morning when hijackers seized four jet airliners.

Two of the planes were intentionally crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center; afterwards, both towers collapsed at 9:59 a.m. and 10:28 a.m., the first time steel-framed towers had ever done so. Incredibly, Seven World Trade Center building (7 WTC) collapsed in the afternoon at 5:21 p.m., even though fire has never caused any steel-framed high-rise building to collapse. Soon after the attacks, the American and Western European media were blaming Osama bin Laden and the pro-Islamic terrorist organization al-Qaeda, who had declared a holy war against the United States and its citizens. A juggernaut was set in motion from that point on.

In the late afternoon of September 11th, 

Donald Rumsfeld, who was Secretary of Defense, instructed military aides to find evidence of Iraqi involvement in the terrorist attacks. Soon, Saddam Hussein was accused and a War on Terror was declared by President George W. Bush and his administration, but with promises of bringing the alleged terrorists to justice. The American Congress promptly signed a joint resolution three days after the attacks, giving unprecedented powers to the chief executive and a Global War on Terrorism was initiated on October 7, 2001, in Afghanistan. On March 20th, 2003, a coalition force led by the United States and Britain invaded Iraq.

The consequences of the attacks were soon to be felt, both directly and indirectly. Those who were exposed to toxic debris after the collapse of the towers suffer from respiratory diseases, and the social, economic, geopolitical and cultural consequences of the September 11 attacks are simply staggering.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted an investigation and the 9/11 Commission, chaired by Thomas Kean, issued a report. The commission blamed al-Qaeda and questioned the competence of domestic security and intelligence.

In the years following September 11,