PoliticsPA Didn't Do It's Homework (Toomey's Climate Vote)

Remember this?

It was only from a couple of days ago.  It as a blog post about Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey's recent climate contradictory amendment votes - wherein he voted in favor of the idea that climate change is real but against the idea that human activity significantly contributes to it.

And in doing so he showed us again he's denying the science (but at least he's trying to give himself some political cover).

At the end of the blog I wrote:

And if no one in the media calls him on it, we'll know they didn't do their homework. Or they did and they're giving him a pass on it.

Well it didn't take long.

Take a look at this from PoliticsPA.  In a short piece titled:

PA-Sen: Toomey Balances Right and Center Ahead of 2016

We read how he's trying to "balance" Right and Center:

For example, last week Sen. Toomey was one of only 15 Republicans who voted for an amendment to express that humans contribute to climate change.

The Senator’s spokeswoman, Elizabeth Anderson, asserted that Toomey’s views on climate change are nothing new. “Sen. Toomey has always said that human activity contributes to climate change,” she said. “The degree to which we play a role is clearly up for debate.”

Note how the vote against the amendment containing this text:

...human activity significantly contributes to climate change

Was omitted in this coverage of how Senator Toomey is looking to "balance" his conservative credentials with some more supposed centrist ones.

It paints an incomplete picture of the Senator's position on climate change in that he's still denying the science.

And PoliticsPA didn't do it's homework - or it did and it's giving Toomey a pass.

That didn't take long at all.

The Desperate Corbett Campaign

How else can you explain such a fleeting connection with the truth?

I've seen this ad on my TV a few times (as I am sure you all have):


But did you know that it's all based on a smeary lie?

Look at the image.  It reads, "Wolf calls for income tax increase" and references that to PoliticsPA.

But when you actually go to PoliticsPA looking for a mention of Wolf increasing the income tax, you'll find this piece.  In it, it reads:

The Democratic nominee’s proposed budget would also adjust the state’s 43 year old income tax. If elected, he plans to shift more of the financial burden onto citizens in the higher income brackets. He also plans to relieve more low-income households of their tax burden through a “universal exemption.”

Wolf sees his plan as fair, and he hopes that it will lessen the burden on those who he deems as the middle class; households with annual incomes between $70,000 and $90,000. [Emphasis added.]

And yet the first line of the ad claims that "Tom Wolf is going to raise the income tax on middle class families." You can't get much more dishonest than that.

The interesting part about all this is that while the (at best) misleading Corbett ad references PoliticsPA on the tax increase, all the information above is actually found at (now wait for it), PoliticsPA.

If Corbett had better ideas than Wolf, he'd be spending his money telling us all about them.  Instead he's using his money to mislead the electorate, the people he hopes will vote for him.  Can't get much more desperate than that.

And then there's the photoshopping.  (PoliticsPA led me to Buzzfeed on this):

A black woman smiling in the background of a group picture that appears at the bottom of every page of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett’s campaign website is actually a stock image, photshopped in.

What, they can't find an actual picture of the Governor speaking with actual African-Americans to use on the campaign website?

2 Political Junkies shares "Best Political Blog in the Pittsburgh Region" - PoliticsPA

PoliticsPA recently set about determining what are the best political blogs in Pennsylvania. Deservedly won were:

Best Overall Political Blog: Capitol Ideas, Allentown Morning Call
Best Print-Backed Blog: Early Returns, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
(Though, personally, I would have reversed those.)

And, then there was this:


(Click to enlarge)
Hey, we're happy to share the distiction with Early Returns.

A big THANK YOU to PoliticsPA and everyone who participated!
.