Although Republicans disdain facts, let them choke on the fact that the Public (we the people through our government paid for with our taxes) built and provided everything the Republicans benefited from last week:

• the convention center (using union labor)
• the Internet
• the Interstate highway system (from a Republican who is spinning in his grave)
• the clean, safe, reliable water system
• the police and emergency personnel
• the sanitation workers
• the air traffic controllers (whose union was destroyed by Ronnie Raygun)
• PBS and NPR which provided more coverage than the commercial networks
• the public education of almost everyone

In every one of those cases, there’s a rapacious businessman rubbing his paws together as he plots to “privatized” (turn to his profit) and deregulate. Some of those workers still have unions; most once did.

And think of the Everglades, which if the sacred Free Market had its say would be covered with gated communities and amusement parks. Think of the beaches and waterfronts covered with oil wells and oil. Think of the hell on earth of AmeriCo the corporatocracy. The only thing keeping feudalism at bay is federalism.

Give the delusional penny-pinching tightwads a collective finger. VOTE!

CNN Host Dismantles Grover Norquist’s Anti-Tax Argument: ‘This Is A Wish, Not A Plan’ | ThinkProgress

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria challenged Grover Norquist’s opposition to tax increases during an interview on Sunday:

“This is all rhetoric, Grover. You’ve got a plan as a practical matter. As I said, Clinton raised taxes, he got growth. Bush had the biggest tax cuts in a generation, and he got the weakest growth in 30 years. All I’m saying is as a matter of practical planning for the fiscal future of the United States your answer can’t be, well we’ll have stronger growth. Yeah, if we grow at 6%, we don’t need to do anything. Everything is solvent, right? But I can’t wish for that. We’ve got to plan realistically.” …

But economic data just doesn’t back up Norquist’s claims. Analyzing data from the last three decades, the Center for American Progress’ Michael Ettlinger and Michael Linden found that investment, productivity, employment, and overall economic growth were all stronger during the 1990s, when America took a decade-long hiatus from supply-side economics, than they were in the 1980s and 2000s.

CNN Host Dismantles Grover Norquist’s Anti-Tax Argument: ‘This Is A Wish, Not A Plan’ | ThinkProgress

I was surprised by Parade’s interviews with the Obamas and the Romneys. Read them both.

PARADE Exclusive: A Conversation With the Obamas | Parade.com

Obama: As hard as the last decade’s been for a lot of middle-class families, we’ve got all the tools we need to succeed. We’ve got the best workers in the world, the best entrepreneurs in the world, the best colleges and universities in the world, we’ve got incredible diversity, and we’re a young nation. What’s preventing us from taking advantage of it is our politics. What we need right now is an end to the uncompromising views that have so dominated Washington. … [mjh: why does he hate America?! Pffft.]

I think that after this election, we’ll be in a position to once again reach out to Republicans and say that the American people have rendered a judgment, and the positions we’re taking are well within what used to be considered bipartisan centrist approaches.

Parade: Are you saying there’ll be a difference in how you approach Republicans, or their attitude will be different if you get reelected?

Obama: My approach has been pretty consistent from the start; I’ve often proposed ways to solve our problems that used to be embraced by Republicans. There’s no better example than the health care bill, which was designed originally by the now Republican standard-bearer and is working pretty well in Massachusetts. The Recovery Act that helped us avoid a depression, a third of it was tax cuts. My hope is that the Republican Party, post election, steps back and says, “Now that we’re not so worried about beating the president, maybe we should spend a little time focusing on solving the problems. …

When you look at the policies I’ve promoted, they used to be considered bipartisan, mainstream ideas. What’s changed is not me. What’s changed is where the Republican Party’s gone. In fact, a lot of the things I’ve done are things that Mr. Romney, when he was governor of Massachusetts, seemed to promote. … What’s absolutely true is that we’ve had to take some emergency steps, like saving the auto industry, that weren’t free, that weren’t popular, but were the right thing to do.

PARADE Exclusive: A Conversation With the Obamas | Parade.com

PARADE Exclusive: A Conversation With the Romneys | Parade.com

Don’t get complacent or over-confident, but there is reason to hope Heinrich might win. VOTE!

New Mexico Senate race moves toward Democrats

Momentum in Senate the race in New Mexico between Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and former Republican congresswoman Heather Wilson has swung to and fro, but lately, there are have been some emerging signs that Heinrich has the upper hand.

After a review of the most important factors in the race, The Fix has moved the New Mexico Senate race out of the tossup category and into the collection of races that leans toward the Democrats. …

The momentum has swung away from Wilson, but the race is not completely beyond her grasp. Earlier in the race, she showed positive signs that caught the attention of national Republicans. She outraised Heinrich during the first two quarters of the year, and didn’t have any trouble advancing from what was once viewed as a potentially tough primary. For a Republican, her moderate profile is a good fit for the Democratic-leaning state.

For now though, Heinrich has shown an ability to withstand Republican attacks and scare away some national Republican money. That’s good news for Democrats who are trying to maintain their Senate majority in November.

New Mexico Senate race moves toward Democrats

Paul Ryan’s speech in 3 words | Fox News

The good news is that the Romney-Ryan campaign has likely created dozens of new jobs among the legions of additional fact checkers that media outlets are rushing to hire to sift through the mountain of cow dung that flowed from Ryan’s mouth. Said fact checkers have already condemned certain arguments that Ryan still irresponsibly repeated.

Fact: While Ryan tried to pin the downgrade of the United States’ credit rating on spending under President Obama, the credit rating was actually downgraded because Republicans threatened not to raise the debt ceiling. … [follow the link for more]

And then there’s what Ryan didn’t talk about.

Ryan didn’t mention his extremist stance on banning all abortions with no exception for rape or incest, a stance that is out of touch with 75% of American voters.

Ryan didn’t mention his previous plan to hand over Social Security to Wall Street.

Ryan didn’t mention his numerous votes to raise spending and balloon the deficit when George W. Bush was president.

Ryan didn’t mention how his budget would eviscerate programs that help the poor and raise taxes on 95% of Americans in order to cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires even further and increase — yes, increase —the deficit.

Paul Ryan’s speech in 3 words | Fox News

GOP: The party of incoherent old white men. Eastwood’s not one to mock Biden.

Transcript of Clint Eastwood speech at RNC | Fox News

The media coverage of Paul Ryan’s speech: 15 euphemisms for ‘lying’ – The Week

Republicans are delighted with Paul Ryan’s GOP convention speech, hailing it as an out-of-the-ballpark hit that demolished President Obama’s case for re-election. The nation’s fact-checkers, however, are not as pleased. Ryan suggested that Obama’s policies failed to save a GM plant in Ryan’s hometown of Janesville, Wis. (It closed before Obama was inaugurated.) He accused Obama of raiding Medicare of $716 billion "at the expense of the elderly." (Ryan’s own budget includes the same savings, achieved, as in Obama’s plan, by cutting reimbursement rates to health care providers, not seniors’ benefits.) And Ryan even chastised Obama for ignoring the recommendations of a presidential bipartisan debt commission. (Ryan sat on the commission and voted against its report.) Truly, Ryan was apparently trying to "set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech," says Sally Kohn at Fox News. However, since it’s impolitic to accuse a vice presidential candidate of being a liar, most news organizations have tip-toed around the L-word. Here, 15 euphemisms they’re employing instead (emphasis added in all cases):

The media coverage of Paul Ryan’s speech: 15 euphemisms for ‘lying’ – The Week

Paul Ryan’s speech included an incredible string of false or misleading statements. – Slate Magazine

Ryan plowed through one of the more impressive strings of whoppers we’ve seen at this level. Ryan’s been doling out chunks of this speech for weeks, which made the fibs sound even stranger.

In the spirit of the Internet, I will package them in listicle form.

Paul Ryan’s speech included an incredible string of false or misleading statements. – Slate Magazine