Tampa and the will to power

By Capt. Fogg

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 and 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.

And there's Ryan claiming 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 corporately 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 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.

(Cross-posted from Human Voices.)