Right lies. Just a choice few:
High oil prices are the fault of Democrats who oppose drilling more wells in the U.S. The oil companies are already sitting on sixty-eight million acres of leased land they haven’t begun to explore for oil. The oil supply is controlled by the OPEC cartel and refined and distributed by the oil company oligopoly. The price of oil is whatever the cartel and oligopoly want it to be.
Iran is a clear and present danger and must be summarily dealt with. Iran is a poor and desperate place with hopelessly corrupt and inefficient leadership and a vastly discontented population. Iranian infrastructure is decrepit and backward, education is mindlessly Islam-dominated, and in a country with vast oil reserves, petroleum is rationed because the Iranian leaders are too stupid, too lazy, and too inept to exploit their own resources. A military threat? The Iranians fought an eight year million casualty war with Iraq and achieved nothing but a stalemate. The same Iraq we rolled over and occupied in a matter of days.
The President is the Commander in Chief of the nation. Which implies he’s entitled to assume near-dictatorial powers in a time of crisis. Article II, section 2, of the Constitution: "The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states." Bush is commander in chief of the military only. He inhabits a branch of government co-equal with the legislative and the judiciary. The assumption of extra-constitutional powers represents a violation of the president’s sworn duty to protect the Constitution and is an impeachable offense. And by the way, what crisis? A ragtag band of demented sheet-wearing murderers hardly constitutes a mortal threat to the world’s hyperpower.
The "surge" is a tactical departure that is working. The surge merely restored troop numbers to prior levels. Before any additional troops were deployed a) ethnic cleansing segregated formerly mixed Iraqi neighborhoods, obviating the need for more ethnic cleansing; b) Moktada al Sadr declared a Shiite ceasefire, taking his militia off the streets; c) bribed with weapons and money the Sunnis of Anbar province agreed to start fighting Sunni extremists instead of US and Iraqi government troops. Oh and despite the drop in the violence level over five hundred people are still dying a violent death every month in Iraq.
The markets will correct themselves. Industry will police itself. All regulation is bad. The savings and loan implosion. Enron. Long Term Capital scandal. Mining deaths. E coli and salmonella in the food supply. Bear Stearns. Fannie and Freddie. Mortgage scandal. Housing collapse. Etc.
The GOP is the party of family first. Mark "page boy" Foley. David "call girl" Vitter. Larry "toilet bowl" Craig. William "gambling man" Bennett. Rush "obese drug addict" Limbaugh.
And those other hardy annuals:
We fight them there so we don’t fight them here. Universal healthcare is socialism. Negotiating is appeasement. Trickle-down economics works. Criticism of US policy a) provides aid and comfort to our enemies; b) is "blame America first" knee-jerk anti-Americanism; c) is never justified under any circumstances (unless there’s a Democrat in office). Dick Cheney is sane. George Bush is smart. Fox News is accurate. Ann Coulter is hot. John McCain is independent. And honest.
Sigh. Add your own Right lies to the list, to the extent you can stomach contemplating them.