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So the verdict is in. Paul Ryan's speech was packed with out-right lies and distortions.

The articles exposing the distortions, misleading statements and outright lies in Paul Ryan’s Wednesday night speech are racing through the Internet so fast that it’s hard to keep track of them all.

The posts span the political spectrum, from the Washington Post to The New Republic, the Associated Press and CNN— even to Fox News.

As Sally Kohn, a Fox contributor, said of the speech: “To anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to fats, Ryan’s speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech.”

Many of the articles took aim at Ryan’s claims on the federal budget, Medicare and the GM plant in Janesville. Given that Ryan is supposedly a Medicare and budget policy wonk, and that he’s from Janesville and should know the GM plant’s history, it’s hard to imagine his mis-statements were a mistake.

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/purple-wi ... 48076.html

I've already shared my view that what is making Romney's campaign so notable isn't that he's Mormon, but rather that his campaign has engaged in outright, outrageous falsehoods more than any other in recent history.

Sadly, the lies often work. I blame cable networks for this phenomenon, because in the age of Fox (and others) people can choose to listen to "news" that only reinforces what they already believe. The one lone Fox contributor above certainly isn't enough to counterbalance the scores of Foxheads who are delighted with Ryan's speech.

But I wonder if we can ever reach a tipping point. I know politicians have always lied and/or distorted to get elected, but can the electorate reach the point where it's just too much, and instead of the negative lies working, the electorate punishes the liar in the end?

Or are we beyond hope? Is it now down to just money and the willingness to lie?

When Fox News calls you a liar...damn boy you're a lie-yer!

Good article here:

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/08/pa ... truth.html

Incredibly, the larger theme of Ryan’s speech was to assail Obama for failing to take full responsibilities for this state of affairs — Obama is “shifting blame,” “blaming others.” It is the single largest motif of Ryan’s speech. Let’s review: Ryan helps to create a massive structural deficit, repeatedly and almost single-handedly prevents a solution, then runs for vice-president, blaming Obama for the structural deficit and further blaming him for his unwillingness to agree that this is all his own fault. The really amazing thing is that it could possibly work.

Could Ryan claim his statements were justified because he was lying for the Mitt?

Where's bcspace, droopy and ldsfaqs?

beastie wrote:As Sally Kohn, a Fox contributor, said of the speech: “To anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to fats, Ryan’s speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech.”
...
But I wonder if we can ever reach a tipping point. I know politicians have always lied and/or distorted to get elected, but can the electorate reach the point where it's just too much, and instead of the negative lies working, the electorate punishes the liar in the end?

Or are we beyond hope? Is it now down to just money and the willingness to lie?

Thanks for this post, beastie. I've felt angry and hopeless watching the convention. Watching people chant "Make my day" while an octogenarian has a conversation with an invisible man in chair. Listening to Ryan's blatant lies during his acceptance speech. Watching the repeated distortion of Obama's "you didn't build that' in a grim echo of Geobbels propaganda maxim of the Big Lie. A party that screams 'class warfare' at anyone that points out the widening gap between the rich and the lower and middle classes, A party that is systematically using Voter I.D. laws to institute a new era of Jim Crow against the poor, students and minorities. And all being led by a man who is willing to completely remake himself into whatever it takes to be President.

There are good Republicans who despair for the current circumstances of their party. People who see a party that is becoming more white, strident, self-righteous and cut off from reality. But fear and divisiveness thrive when times are hard. Thanks to a middle class decimated by a housing bubble created by deregulation they may have enough fear. Thanks to Citizens United they have more than enough money. And thanks to Voter Registration laws in swing states, they may have enough votes.

But even If the Republicans win majorities in this election, demographics and the tide of history are against them. If wealth becomes increasingly unequal, and minorities find no voice for their concerns in the Republican Party, the GOP will not be able to build a majority coalition in the future.

But there's still a lot time and the Democrats have yet to have their convention. Prognostication is difficult, there's still a lot that can happen between now and November.

But even If the Republicans win majorities in this election, demographics and the tide of history are against them. If wealth becomes increasingly unequal, and minorities find no voice for their concerns in the Republican Party, the GOP will not be able to build a majority coalition in the future.

Which will only hurt working people who desire a higher standard of living than that which exists in Latin America. The 1% is very few and crony capitalism exists in both political parties. The idea that the rich will ever actually pay the taxes to fund all the welfare being doled out in exchange for minority and immigrant votes is a myth. It's going to be middle class liberals as well as conservatives like myself who see their standard of living decline in consequence of the anti white and anti American sentiment of the left. The appointed welfare office bureaucret who will govern who gets healthcare or food will not help you anymore because you're a registered democrat. You're going to be just another WASP to them. Think you'll get more sympathy because you're a women? You may be better off than a white man, but you'll still be just a nonminority without a card to play and believe me, you will suffer as socialism takes hold of the country and you lose the right to use your paycheck to take care of yourself. Can't afford to have children anymore? You'll either be forced to not reproduce or live at the same low standard of equal poverty the way minorities who overpopulate do now. Socialism takes care of everybody? I guess if you consider equal poverty being taken care of, and that's only for people who can claim minority status. For white people it will be even worse.

When you get more people collecting than you have contributing, it won't only mean the death of the Republican party. It will mean the end of the American stanard of living. Ironcially the death of the host kills the parasite in the end as well.

An alternative view just for balance:

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/ ... ans_speech

Jason Bourne wrote:An alternative view just for balance:

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/ ... ans_speech

That's the problem with politics today. Apparently everyone not only gets to have their own opinions, but their own facts.

Jason Bourne wrote:An alternative view just for balance:

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/ ... ans_speech

Didn't his great grandfather want to run on the Wallace-Benson ticket in 1968? That's proof for me that he is more than qualified to be political editor of the Town Hall dot com. Balance, thy name is Fox and/or Bubonic.