Cowardice asks the question - is it safe? Expediency asks the question - is it politic? Vanity asks the question - is it popular? But conscience asks the question - is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it BECAUSE it is right. -Dr. Martin Luther King
Paul Krugman asks a very important question.
Why did I have to be the one pointing out this falsehood? Doesn’t the White House have any kind of response team? Or are they so eager to be bipartisan that they don’t want to point out that Ryan is talking nonsense?
He's referring to the nonsensical Republican claim that discretionary non-defense spending is up 80 percent under Obama.
It's not true, folks. No matter how many times Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan bloviate over this, they are lying through their teeth, pure and simple.
Why hasn't the President come out and said so? Stuff like this is prime fodder for the "bully pulpit," after all.
For that matter, especially now that the Democrats are gearing up for the election, why don't they have a team of bloggers and tweeters working round the clock to counter Republican falsehoods? (They would need three full-time people monitoring Fake Noise alone--if they could stand it, that is. I couldn't. My brain would explode.) The Repugs thrive on spreading falsehoods; they know from experience that with the Fake Noise propaganda machine on their side, they have a far greater chance of making the American people believe said falsehoods.
So why isn't the administration doing something to combat this? Taking the bipartisan high road ain't gonna do it, folks. I suppose Obama thinks Boehner is a worthy golf partner, but really, he ought to know that Cantor, Ryan and Grover Norquist are full-blown slimeballs. They wouldn't turn on a hose if the President was on fire. Whether they admit it to themselves or not (and at least the Tea Partiers will say so), most Republicans are out to Beat the Black Socialist Boogeyman, full stop.
Hell, I could refute Repug falsehoods, and I'm certainly not a journalist. Most Republican lies are easy to knock off; one or two Google searches, along with the requisite reading, and you're done. I both blog and Tweet, so I know how to express myself. (I also don't have a smartphone, so I couldn't tweet breast shots even if I wanted to.) The point is getting the correct information out there, and not letting the propaganda take over. As much as I like Paul Krugman and Rachel Maddow, I don't think they should have to do all the heavy lifting.
Sometimes Barack Obama reminds me of a regal, stately Afghan hound, trotting along with his nose in the air, holding himself above the fray. Unfortunately, he's surrounded by pit bulls, he's about to get that stately nose torn off, and he needs to start fighting back.
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