Thursday, August 30, 2012

Tampa and the will to power

As I've been saying since Richard "you sure as hell are a crook" Nixon departed the White house and the Republican War on Truth began, if the Republicans accuse their opponents of something, you can be sure not only that it isn't quite true, but that the accusation is an attempt to distract from their own guilt.  So when the war criminal Allen West disgusts us with the accusation that the Democrats are "the most racist party I've ever seen in my life" we know the opposite is true.

And why doth West protest? Why because the press isn't showing him the respect his hypertrophied ego demands and why would anyone detest the torturer of innocent civilians; despise the accusations that Democrats are Nazis and Communists (at the same time no less?)  It could only be that he's got dark skin, of course. 

And then, there's Paul Ryan, the delight of Tea Perverts everywhere who enlightens us with lies like:

 "And the biggest, coldest power play of all in Obamacare came at the expense of the elderly. ... So they just took it all away from Medicare. Seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama" 

when it isn't actually true -- the cuts are in payments to hospitals, not in coverage to individuals. The cuts are savings  while Ryan's plan would actually deprive Medicare recipients of coverage.  Paul Ryan is a liar, but what did you expect?  The truth would ride out of town with him on a rail and covered with feathers.

And then There's Paul Ryan howling like a damned soul about the "corporate welfare" that was the stimulus package. Welfare and Communism and all that, even though the Republicans asked for a much bigger package and with no requirement to tell us who was getting what - even though Ryan stomped his feet and whined and begged for even more money for Wisconsin companies.  Paul Ryan is a lying, duplicitous, forked tongued son of a bitch, but I repeat myself.  I already said he is a Republican candidate.

And then there's Paul Ryan, the con man, the liar, the swindler, the bearer of false witness -- there's Paul Ryan blaming Obama for the closure of a Janesville Wisconsin plant that was shut down before Obama became president. Ryan, following in the tradition of accusing FDR of  causing an economic crash that started three years before he was elected. And there's Ryan condemning from the platform in Tampa that Obama disregarded the advice of a bipartisan debt committee that Ryan himself condemned. Did I mention that Ryan is a Republican?  Lying is what they do, whether it's lying to start wars, lying about how top bracket tax cuts don't cause recessions when they do and raising them prevents growth when the opposite is true.  That's what history says, but hey, you can't believe history -- history is Liberal. Hell you can't even hear History, it speaks in timorous whispers while the Right Wing roars and threatens and rages from every screen, from every radio speaker and every corporate owned newspaper.

But why lay the lies on Ryan alone? They're all liars and pickpockets and Romney has to take responsibility for it all.  He has to explain why taking the $716 billion in Medicare savings achieved by Obama and spending it will reduce spending and why reducing revenue will pay off the debt. He has to give us more than vague generalities and slogans and promises that are negated by other promises, but he can't because what he says is designed to "energize" people who know nothing and prefer to remain angry at their chosen scapegoats.  

But of course the truth would lose the election for him and of course the New Right isn't about fixing the country anyway, it's about power.  It's not about you or your life, your liberty or your pursuit of happiness; it's about power, power and more power and such such concentrated power that answers only to money -- power over a country that is more and more irrelevant, increasingly deluded and ignorant, ever more bellicose and yet has the power to destroy the world. 


5 comments:

  1. The whopper. From the CBS.com fact-checking article.

    The claim: Obama is responsible for the closing of the GM plant in Janesville:


    Ryan in his speech suggested that the General Motors plant in his hometown in Janesville, Wis., remains shuttered because President Obama failed to keep his promise to retool the the auto industry.


    Here's what Ryan said:


    "My home state voted for President Obama. When he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it, especially in Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory. A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: "I believe that if our government is there to support you ... this plant will be here for another hundred years." That's what he said in 2008.


    Well, as it turned out, that plant didn't last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day. And that's how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight."


    Ryan references a speech Mr. Obama delivered at the Janesville plant on Feb. 13, 2008. (The full transcript of the speech is here.)


    Mr. Obama did say: "I believe that if our government is there to support you, and give you the assistance you need to re-tool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another hundred years. The question is not whether a clean energy economy is in our future, it's where it will thrive. I want it to thrive right here in the United States of America; right here in Wisconsin; and that's the future I'll fight for as your President."

    As some fact checkers have noted, the plant closed before Mr. Obama took office.

    The plant's last full shift was on Dec. 23, 2008, and the Associated Press documented the tear-filled day in detail. As some conservative sites have noted, the plant produced a limited number of vehicles up until mid-2009.

    After it was reported in October 2008 that GM was speeding up the plant's closure, Mr. Obama said this in an October 11, 2008 campaign statement: "This news is also a reminder that Washington needs to finally live up to its promise to help our automakers compete in our global economy. As president, I will lead an effort to retool plants like the GM facility in Janesville so we can build the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow and create good-paying jobs in Wisconsin and all across America."

    A General Motors spokesperson told CBS News today that the plant was idled in December 2008 because of a decline in demand for SUVs due to rising gas prices.

    President George W. Bush first approved $17.4 billion in auto bailout loans on Dec. 19, 2008, but it was too late to save the Janesville plant. Mr. Obama extended the bailout after he took office, and some analysts have claimed more than 1 million jobs were saved by the bailout.

    Asked if there was anything Mr. Obama could have done to reverse that decision when he took office in January 2009, the GM spokeswoman said, "from a business perspective, it was a done deal. I don't think I can add anymore."

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  2. Best review of Rethug Convention yet!

    Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap!

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  3. I second that!

    In all fairness, I think we should give the clap to the Republicans too.

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  4. Capt. Fogg,

    Yes, I can report that dinosaurs who watched the convention felt the same and thought the same. I had some of it on "background tv" while doing more productive things, and the lies were thicker than green goo, or sour cream, or any thick stuff you'd care to mention. The Mittster seemed sort of mean during his speech, and Ryan's lyin' was beyond all measure. If the American People vote for these guys, what they deserve is a government that continues to take great wads of their money, only to give them nothing in return -- not even the barren promise to give them some semblance of good government.

    Clint Eastwood is someone whose movies I'll bet we all love, and I find it impossible to get mad at Clint, lest I sin against art. But that "Chair Act" was pretty lame, and disrespectful of the president to boot. He most certainly didn't make Romney's day with his rambling standup routine -- nobody saw the warm-and-fuzzy Mittvideo during prime time -- you know, the one that was supposed to convince us all that he's a jolly good fellow, which nobody can deny.

    Oh well, at least they didn't make Hank Williams, Jr. or Ted Nugent the keynote speaker. That's something, anyway.... I suppose we oughtta be thankful.

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  5. FJ,

    Lyin' Ryan was simply using Republogic which mirrors the old "post hoc ergo propter hoc" -- afterward, therefore because of and insists before, therefore because of. It's kinda like John McCain's insistence that gas prices were high because of Barack Obama even though Obama wasn't in office. Lyin' Ryan also claimed to have run a marathon in under three hours. At least he's now admitted to be a lyin' sack of shit on that count and why not? it simply doesn't matter in the world of Republogic.
    Basically it proves that hate justifies anything you say about the hated thing. I hate therefore it's true.

    Octo,

    I think the Repubicans are good enough at getting the clap without help. It's keeping them from spreading it that's the problem.

    Dino

    Actually I'd prefer that they had included Ted "machine gun" Nugent and all the other psychotic hate mongers. Many people with remnants of reason are starting to get disgusted by these relics from the Civil War. Hell, let's give Charlie Manson some air time too. All these GOP cocque succours are equally as interested in starting a race war.

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