Are you looking forward to anything in particular at this convention? I want to watch Julian Castro’s speech.
Early Morning Open Thread: “Rosie Ruiz Republicans”
(D.B. Echo at Another Monkey)
__
Professor Krugman is tired of listening to high-level Republicans lie:
… Obviously nobody cares how fast Mr. Ryan can run, and even his strange marathon misstatement wouldn’t be worth talking about in isolation. What makes this incident so striking is, instead, the way it resonates with the essential Rosie-Ruizness of Mr. Ryan’s whole political persona, which is built around big boasts about accomplishments he hasn’t accomplished.
For Mr. Ryan, as you may recall, has positioned himself as an icon of truth-telling and fiscal responsibility, while offering policy proposals that are neither honest nor responsible. He calls for huge tax cuts, while proposing specific spending cuts that, while inflicting immense hardship on our most vulnerable citizens, would fall far short of making up for the revenue loss. His claims to reduce the deficit therefore rely on assertions that he would make up for the lost revenue by closing loopholes that he refuses to specify, and achieve further huge spending cuts in ways that he also refuses to specify…
Still, Mitt Romney, not Mr. Ryan, is the presidential candidate, although that’s sometimes hard to remember. So how does Romney/Ryan differ from Ryan alone? It’s worse. Like the Ryan plan, the Romney plan offers huge tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy, while pledging to offset these cuts by closing unspecified loopholes; but Mr. Romney adds to the implausibility by also demanding higher defense spending and eliminating the Medicare cost savings contained in Obamacare. Realistically, the Romney plan would explode the deficit, not reduce it…
So what is this election about? To be sure, it’s about different visions of society — about Medicare versus Vouchercare, about preserving the safety net versus destroying it. But it’s also a test of how far politicians can bend the truth. This is surely the first time one of our major parties has run a campaign so completely fraudulent, making claims so at odds with the reality of its policy proposals. But if the Romney/Ryan ticket wins, it won’t be the last.
He’s not too crazy about the Rosie Ruiz Republicans’ Media Village enablers, either:
Everybody Does It
That seems to be the new Beltway line, now that the shock over the lie-fest in Tampa has died down a bit. At the Washington Post (except at Ezra’s blog), at Politico, and so on, it’s excuse time — sure, Ryan and Romney told a few whoppers, but isn’t that just how politics is?It’s not hard to understand why this is happening. For one thing, there’s the views-differ-on-shape-of-planet ethos that has imbued political journalism for many years now. On top of that, a lot of people in DC have major reputational capital at stake. After all the puff pieces on Paul Ryan, after all the op-eds praising his truthfulness and responsibility, after not one, not two, but three Pete Peterson-backed deficit-hawk organizations gave Ryan an award for fiscal responsibility, admitting that he’s actually a big low-body-fat liar would be extremely painful…
This is something new in American politics, and everyone trying to deny that fact is in effect an enabler.
I had not heard, incidentally, that the infamous Hugh Hewitt, John ‘Hindrocket’ Hindracker‘s Powerline partner, was the man who first deep-throated Ryan’s sub-three-hour marathon lie. It must be very strange to be Professor Krugman, a man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, doggedly reporting the truth about “pink slime economics“. A man ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile: self-interested political grifters and MBA-bearing morons fulminating about balance and harsh choices and broken calculators…
***********
Apart from waiting for further dispatches from Angry/Crank2012 at the Charlotte convention, what’s on the agenda for The All-American Holiday That Is Entirely Different from Commie-Socialistic May Day?
Early Morning Open Thread: “Rosie Ruiz Republicans”Post + Comments (111)
Report from the Murder Hotel
The booze and the tomatoes (all I’ve eaten today is turkey, cheese, and tomato sandwiches) turned out to be more useful than pants (which Cole left hanging in his basement). There are pants purveyors open tomorrow, apparently, but the liquor stores were closed today and are closed tomorrow! A nice gentleman in the room next door told us where we could buy some pants after I gave him a ginormous cup of rum. (Rum is conducive to chit chat. Imagine if I’d given him a ginormous cup of pants? That barely makes sense.)
So we caroused at the Motel 6 for a spell.
Oh, and I met Vent Casey III aka @vcthree on Twitter. He wrote this blog post last year for The Grio. He’s a lovely fellow:
And here’s a picture of He Who Shall Not Be Photographed. I keep trying to sneak attack him, but he’s quick to Heil Hitler to avoid a photo:
Funny that.
I’ll keep trying. If I don’t get murdered in my sleep at this hotel first.
Cheers!
[cross-posted at ABLC]I Forgot To Mention the Rental Car Debacle
I forgot to mention this little bit of joy yesterday. In a moment of brilliance (actually my mom suggested it), I decided to rent a car since there is no AC in the family truckster and I should probably get something with more room for luggage since I had ladies on the road. As it turns out, I have the biggest suitcase, and it doesn’t even have any damned pants in it.
At any rate, I called the Avis at the airport, rented a town car for the week, because the price was only about 30 bucks more than a midsized, plus, IT’S A FUCKING TOWN CAR! In my planning zeal, I forgot one thing- airport rental outfits don’t have a place to park your own jalopy, because everyone who rents from an airport has… just gotten off a plane.
I figured that out after driving around the airport for 20 minutes trying to find AVIS, then being told by a helpful and laughing cabbie that “Umm, the rental car outfits are in the terminal.” Reasonably sure from his tone that there was an implied “YOU MORON” at the end. It then dawned on me that I would have to find a space in extended parking, which was problematic, because prior to heading to the airport I went shopping and picked up a case of green tea, a case of water, a bunch of lunchmeat and stuff for the trip down, a case of wine, a handle of rum, and a handle of vodka. How the hell am I going to carry all that three miles from extended parking to the rental place.
I then realized that I was going to have to rent the car, then pay for a day’s worth of parking, drive to where I had parked the Subaru, load everything, and then leave. Now, this being labor day week-end, the only space in the Pittsburgh airport lot was about 3 miles from Cleveland. I drove around for 20 minutes until I finally found a space, then waited, no kidding, 25 minutes for the shuttle. At this point, I was 20 minutes late picking up Heather.
Finally made it to AVIS, and surprise surprise, despite the fact that I had called Friday night and reconfirmed that my car would be there 12 hours later, there was no town car. The next closest thing was a Crown Vic, and at this point, beaten down by life, I just blurted out “Does it have AC and Bakes? Yes? I’ll take it.”
We fill out the paperwork, I go out to the lot where the Crown Vic is parked, got in, and guess what? The seat was broken. Wouldn’t move and it felt like I was sitting on the horn of a saddle. Walked back in to the counter, told the guy the seat was broken, and he just laughed and told me last week the maintenance guys had parked a minivan there with no back seat, much to the surprise of the family of seven who had rented it.
Long story short, I finally told him, look- just give me the best damned car you have and cut me a break for all the bs I’ve gone through. He gave me a 2012 Ford Explorer with 7k miles, charged me for a mid-sized, and I have to admit it was a pretty nice ride. I especially liked I could blast the ac at 64 on my side and keep it at 70ish for the ladies.
At any rate, this is why I hate traveling. No matter how much you plan, everything always goes to shit one way or another.
I’m off to bed. Have to rest up so I can go be hot and miserable all day tomorrow in 90 degree heat, 100% humidity, and intermittent thunderstorms.
*** Update ***
Classic:
Why yes, that is a duct tape shelf repair job to my room refrigerator.
I Forgot To Mention the Rental Car DebaclePost + Comments (107)
A Party Broke Out
So we were sitting on the balcony, met a bunch of delegates, and we now have a block party going on on. I may not have remembered to bring pants, but I did bring rum, vodka and wine. So I guess I have my packing priorities right.
We Made It In One Piece
Made it to Charlotte, and there was remarkably little fussing from the ladies, who were preoccupied with this whole internet thing while I drove. Found a great alternative station on Sirius (First Wave or something), and relived every John Hughes film on the drive down.
Got to the Motel 6, and I am reasonably sure I have seen this place before in a Cops or 48 Hours episode.
Open Thread: Just in Time for the Convention — White House Honey Ale Recipe
__
__
The Boston Globe seems to have scooped the story: “… Aficionados will note that it is a fairly standard concoction of light malt extract, amber crystal malt, honey, gypsum, yeast, and corn sugar.”
Via NYMag, which added: “And, just in case any enterprising opposition researchers are on the hunt for government waste: all the equipment and ingredients are paid for by the Obamas. So, file White House craft beer under ‘things we wouldn’t have under President Romney'”
*********
Now that we’ve got the refreshments sorted, what’s on the agenda for the midpoint of the holiday weekend?
Open Thread: Just in Time for the Convention — White House Honey Ale RecipePost + Comments (122)