It Was A Wednesday, Which Means #PDK Tweeted Some Bogus Right-Wing Nonsense

Stop me if you've heard this one:  Peter Kinder, our Lieutenant Governor and the top-ranking Republican in Missouri, sees something on these here internets about how libruls are bad people, and he then tweets it out out to his followers with his initials attached as an endorsement of the content without checking to see if the allegations are true or reasonable in any way.  The press, in turn, yawns and never asks him to explain the garbage coming out of his Twitter account because...well... I have no good explanation as to why reporters wouldn't ask a statewide public official to explain his or her statements just because they happen to have been made through an online social networking service that didn't happen to exist 5 years ago.  (But did you hear that he might run for governor!  You know, like he announced 10 months ago?!  That story they'll write, even if no one will go on the record to confirm or deny the speculation.)

Anyway, here are two tweets from Wednesday that should have received some attention and push-back, but didn't: 

The allegation here, which spread like wildfire after they appeared on the Drudge Report, is that President Obama's upcoming trip to India will cost $200 million per day.   Such spending would be pretty incredible if true, especially when you consider the fact that the war in Afghanistan costs $190 million a day.  But it isn't true, as you can read at FactCheck.org, the Wall Street Journal, Politifact.org and Snopes.com.  The hysteria is all based on a "demonstrably incorrect" story from the Press Trust of India. 

Another day, another made-up scandal. But this is how it works.  Kinder whips up the GOP base with yet another bit of garbage, moves on without apologizing or clarifying, and will continue to do so because (a) he's crazy and (b) there are no real consequences for the behavior outside of posts on his favorite blog.