On Tuesday right wing pundit John Lott continued pushing the conspiracy theory that President Obama is denying Texas disaster relief for political reasons. Lott's background as a gun industry apologist is littered with ethically questionable episodes so it's not surprising to see Lott using a highly misleading cropped quotation to suggest Obama's words back up this baseless claim.

Lott:

“We're gonna punish our enemies, and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,” President Obama in an interview with Univision TV.

Remember that quote when you see how Obama denies Texas aid for disaster relief and punishes the media who provide critical news coverage.

On October 25th, 2010 discussing frustration some Latinos feel at the failure of immigration reform to become law President Obama told Univision:

We're gonna see how well we do in this [2010 midterm] election and I think a lot of it is gonna depend on whether we still have some support not only from Democrats, but also Republicans, but they're gonna be paying attention to this election. And if Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, we're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us, if they don't see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it's gonna be harder and that's why I think it's so important that people focus on voting on November 2.

It's hard to imagine that any honest analysis would have interpreted Obama's words to indicate a philosophy of vindictive politically motivated reprisal. President Obama wasn't referring to his own actions and the only reprisal he was encouraging was voting.

But Lott is not interested in an honest analysis or in looking at the facts, Lott is distorting a quote to engage in a political smear against the president.

Not surprisingly Lott is also wrong on the facts about Texas wildfires. As Media Matters has documented the Obama administration hasn't denied Texas aid for disaster relief. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has not issued a disaster declaration in relation to Texas wildfires, but they have offered offered substantial financial assistance. According to the Houston Chronicle:

Current federal aid covers 75 percent of Texas's costs for emergency response work, such as evacuations, equipment, field camps and meals for firefighters, police barricading and traffic control.

A review of FEMA's declarations of “major disasters” shows several states that voted against President Obama in the 2008 have received that category of aid this year.

Lost data, fabricated identities and mysteriously changing blog posts that justify false accusations is about the level of discourse we've come to expect of Lott, looks like it's time to add misleadingly cropped quotes to push made up scandals to the list.