__
This graphic was the initial reaction from Erick ‘Infinite’ Erickson at Redstate:
If it is Ryan, I’ll be quite happy. His departure from Congress would improve both Congress and the Romney campaign. It would improve Congress because too many people tend to lionize him when his record has some flaws. His presence often drowns out competing ideas that may be better and/or more conservative.
So, just barely conservative enough for the RS Strike Farce, but still an improvement on that wild-eyed communist Romney. Good to have a scale, for comparison purposes…
Mr. Pierce, as always, nails it:
Leave it to Willard Romney, international man of principle, to get himself bullied into being bold and independent.
Make no mistake. In his decision to make Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny-starver from Wisconsin, his running mate, Romney finally surrendered the tattered remnants of his soul not only to the extreme base of his party, but also to extremist economic policies, and to an extremist view of the country he seeks to lead. This is unimaginable to those of us who lived here under Romney’s barely perceptible stewardship of the Commonwealth (God save it!). If he’d even hinted that he agreed with a fraction of a smidgen of a portion of the policies on which Ryan has built his career, Romney would have been hanging from the Sacred Cod by the middle of 2005. And it’s hard not to notice that the way the decision got leaked — in the dead of a Friday night, with the Olympics still going on, after two weeks in which Romney and his campaign had demonstrated all the political skills of a handball — fairly dripped with flopsweat…
Paul Ryan is an authentically dangerous zealot. He does not want to reform entitlements. He wants to eliminate them. He wants to eliminate them because he doesn’t believe they are a legitimate function of government. He is a smiling, aw-shucks murderer of opportunity, a creator of dystopias in which he never will have to live. This now is an argument not over what kind of political commonwealth we will have, but rather whether or not we will have one at all, because Paul Ryan does not believe in the most primary institution of that commonwealth: our government. The first three words of the Preamble to the Constitution make a lie out of every speech he’s ever given. He looks at the country and sees its government as something alien that is holding down the individual entrepreneurial genius of 200 million people, and not as their creation, and the vehicle through which that genius can be channelled for the general welfare…
…[G]et him out of his comfort zone of being thought an intellectual by the likes of Louie Gohmert, and of being thought of as a bold thinker by half the buffet-grazers in the Beltway media, and he really is quite the political coward. (In this way, he is a perfect match for the man who picked him.) He does not have the raw balls to explain to the country that, no, he does not believe in government — not the federal government, anyway, and not as it was originally conceived, as the fundamental expression of a political commonwealth. He’s grandfathered his plan to chloroform Medicare so that, despite the deficit that he considers such an urgent problem, nobody alive today who might vote against him will be affected by it. For the same reason, he will not specify the cuts that he will make or the tax “loopholes” —coughMortgageInterestDeductioncough — that he will close. In any way that will come to matter to the people whose lives his policies will make harder and more miserable, Paul Ryan is still the high-school kid living off Social Security survivor benefits and reading Ayn Rand by flashlight under the sheets…
Doghouse Riley, “Rich Guy Picks Rich Guy Toady As Assistant“:
… And what a perfect summation of the last thirty years of “conservatism” this is: the über-rich white guy who thinks he should be President because he understands the needs of über-rich white guys, and the forty-something Randoid posterboy for mendacity. The CEO and the chief ad exec…
But, assuming there’s some reason other than under-the-table payoffs that made anyone feel good about the Republican party as of yesterday morning, how do you look at this stinkbomb and convince yourself that everything’s all right? A bottle of The Macallan 25 and your financial report? Your party is not in possession of Facts, an Argument, or its Senses. And that’s its sensible wing. You might win elections–you fucking might win this one, which should scare you, too–but you can’t govern. Thirty-two years ago, eight election cycles (which is enough for even “conservatives” to have begun coming to their senses), you got the opportunity to throw a monkey wrench into the machinery of government. Today you’re just the fucking monkey wrench. Tax Cuts, Because I’d Really Rather Not Pay Taxes. You’ve gone from unsustainable to incomprehensible.
You’re the party of fucking lapel flags (as opposed to the Democrats, the party afraid to not wear lapel flags). You’re the party of facile gestures which in fact put the lie to your principles, and you don’t care because your principles are just there to distract people from your lying about them.
Okay, so full disclosure: I found you incomprehensible (and reprehensible) in 1980, but at least you didn’t double down every time you hit a roadblock. A lot of people said you lost your way with the collapse of the International Communist Conspiracy (though, of course, you had to’ve lost your way just to be found there). But I’d propose that in fact you’ve never recovered from Iran/Contra and the Great S&L Swindle; like Vietnam and Civil Rights, you patched it up with disinformation. And got away with it, to the extent that you won elections, but you lost your minds. And your souls, if any. Which brings us to Romney/Ryan, 2012. This Is What “Opportunity” Really Looks Like.™
Valdivia
I laughed out loud when I saw the real Romney Ryan logo. You can tell Romney was totally passive aggressively telling Ryan what his place it. I remember the Obama Biden logo as being more equal, which says all you need to know about Obama’s comfort with who he chose.
This article is excellent–summary of what local reporters say about Ryan.
ETA: linky http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/08/12/what-wisconsin-journalists-want-you-to-know-abo/189288
c u n d gulag
Romney/Ryan – “MAD Men” episode 2012:
Where the advertising firm tries to take over the country.
transientseeker
This is the perfect combination of hilarious and angry. As well as spot on.
Kristine
@Valdivia: Link no work.
SenyorDave
Ryan purports to be Catholic. Voted for the Iraq war, wants to destroy Medicare and Medicaid. He should be excommunicated based on his beliefs and actions concerning the poor, but I’m sure the US bishops will be kissing his right wing ass. The poor no longer matter to the Christian right, which now includes the Catholic hierarchy.
Valdivia
@Kristine:
thanks, I fixed.
Litlebritdifrnt
@SenyorDave:
Actually both the Bishops and the Nuns have told Ryan exactly what they think of his budget plan, it sucks.
mai naem
This is a little silly and it’s explainable but I noticed that they kept on mentioning that Beth Myer’s son picked up Ryan in a rented SUV. The way I originally heard on ABC implied that Myers’ 19 yr old son was waiting for Ryan to be picked up, not that they rented the vehicle together. You can’t rent a car at 19. I know this is nowhere as important as Ryan’s policy proposals but it just bugs me a little. I only know this because I remember my nephew went on a trip when he was 19 and life would have been a lot easier if he could have rented a car but he couldn’t because of his age. You can’t do it with a cash deposit, good driving record, nothing. You can do rent at 21 with surcharges etc. but not if you’re under 21.
Steeplejack
Just heard on TV that R&R’s first joint interview will be on 60 Minutes tonight.
Davis X. Machina
@SenyorDave:
They don’t matter much to anyone, come to that.
raven
I don’t suppose anyone cares that they are streaming the closing ceremony live.
Violet
@raven: Who is “they”? NBC? Did they cave after the bad press from the Opening Ceremony?
@Valdivia:
I hadn’t seen the logo so googled it. One came up that has the RR like Rolls Royce. Interesting.
Ben Franklin
He’s not even the architect of his namesake, The Ryan Plan, or as I call it, The Final Solution.
raven
@Violet: Yea and after all the whining here.
raven
HERE
mamayaga
@raven: Apparently, only if you get cable from one of NBC’s approved providers. Those of us in cable-free households are outta luck.
Mike in NC
Give Willard credit for picking a running mate who won’t upstage him, because Paul Ryan has even less personality and charisma.
Violet
@raven: I doubt the whining on Balloon-Juice affected NBC’s decision at all. I did see lots of commentary about it elsewhere and NBC had to justify its decision to show it only delayed, so I think the bad press got to them.
raven
Sposed to be lots of music.
Valdivia
@Violet:
the one I saw yesterday had a HUGE Romney with a little Ryan all the way underneath. It was at TPM Livewire in the form of a Tshirt. Couldn’t link because TPM is always down.
NotMax
Romney/Ryan (or, magic underwear/magic asterisk):
Retch-A-Sketch.
raven
@Violet: no, really? :)
Mike in NC
OT, but a local right wing paper had this headline today: “Mill Polluted Georgetown as Romney’s Firm Profited”
When asked for comment, a campaign spokesman changed the subject to the unemployment rate.
raven
You’ll be happy to know the sound sucks.
Cluttered Mind
@SenyorDave: Antonin Scalia claims to be catholic as well. He is as pro-death penalty as they come. He also believes that his judgment on such matters is superior to the Pope’s. I don’t see anyone denying him communion either.
Corner Stone
@raven: Nope. Who gives a shit?
NBC has fucked the pooch so hard this Olympics it’s impossible to castigate them properly. I’ve tried probably two dozen times to use the iPad app for the Live Olympics and been just denied each time.
Fuck NBC and their stupid streaming bullshit asses.
Valdivia
@Violet:
here you go.
Violet
@Mike in NC: I thought Ryan was dull yesterday. I was expecting him to be more exciting than Romney but almost felt Romney was the one with the charisma. That says a lot.
PeakVT
@Valdivia: …said John Nichols, an associate editor at the Capital Times in Madison. “He is Dick Cheney with very good hair.”
Ha!
“Their unemployment rate is double digits,” said Jeff Flynt, a news reporter at WTAQ Radio in Green Bay. “For a state that is trying to turn around the business aspects of the state the fact that Janesville unemployment continues to be pretty high and you have a guy who is known pretty well nationally and has not found a way to help the plant or put something in its place, that may catch” the national media’s attention.
Unlikely. Ryan has very good hair.
Violet
@Valdivia: Ha! That’s funny.
Corner Stone
@Ben Franklin:
Paul Ryan doesn’t want to eliminate people, just cripple them financially to such a degree they have no choice but to either do what they are told or die.
rikyrah
just thought of another ad,
use the ‘ Willard will only pay 0.82% in taxes under the Ryan/Romney Budget Plan’
and apply it to all the GOP Candidates….use their tax returns against them.
just exactly how much would they pay in taxes under the Ryan/Romney Budget Plan.
raven
@Corner Stone: Are you holding you breath too? Ipad app has worked fine for me, maybe you don’t know what you are doing.
Corner Stone
@Mike in NC:
I know this is kind of like “how many angels can dance” territory, but could anyone really have less of those things than Romney?
Valdivia
@Violet:
I know right? It’s like Romney is trying to squash the Ryan name. Made me laugh. :)
@PeakVT: at some point the media will stop fawning and start reporting on his record. That should be fun.
MikeJ
@raven: And while Madness is playing, NBC has what sounds like one mic stuck in the back row of the stadium and nitwits talking in crystal clear 44khz audio over it.
Worse than nothing. What a bunch of morons.
raven
@Violet: Romney looked like he was going cry.
Corner Stone
@raven: Always a possibility.
Except I somehow have used all the Live apps to date pretty seamlessly. The Masters Amen Corner app was the balls man.
raven
@MikeJ: Who?
becca
Ryan/Romney
The Kiss-up/Kick-down Kidz
raven
@Corner Stone: March Madness wasn’t bad.
NotMax
Things about Mitt as high church muckety-muck:
Violet
@Valdivia: It’s kind of weird because of the strange logo-ized R of Romney’s name. And then Ryan is in normal letters. Looks a bit like “Omney/Ryan”. Whatever the heck “Omney” is.
Patricia Kayden
“Paul Ryan is an authentically dangerous zealot. He does not want to reform entitlements. He wants to eliminate them.”
Amen, Charles. This must be emphasized over and over again by the Obama campaign.
Corner Stone
@raven: I agree, good call. I loved that app.
I just can’t ever seem to navigate to the event I want on the NBC Live app, and when I do I get 4 minutes of ads playing and then the event never is displayed.
Maybe it’s just me.
WaterGirl
@raven: I had no luck with the iPad either, toward the beginning of the olympics.
And even though I get cable, from an approved cable source, I get all the way through the setup process and it still gives me an error. After the third time, I said fuck it.
Edit: because I would rather shoot myself than call the morons at comcast tech support.
Corner Stone
@efgoldman: Yeah, I’m upset by their shit. But I’m not the only miserable loser whining about it. I’ve read actual, officially sanctioned, media reports about NBC taking shit from a broader collective.
Violet
@NotMax:
Mitt Romney’s going to lose it when he hears about “Got Mormon Milk.”
lamh35
Evening from NOLA.
Some great reads from Booman:
Picking Ryan Wasn’t Bold; It Was Insane
by BooMan
anon
Ryan – Perfect pick for Bain Capital; terrible for the USA.
Corner Stone
@WaterGirl: And when I took it to a location not at my house it made me jump through hoops to get it to load. Then told me the same thing it told you. Basically, suck it.
gnomedad
So when (please FSM) the ticket loses we’ll still have to listen to whining about “not conservative enough”? Jeebus.
rlrr
Paul Ryan or Gabe Lewis: who can tell the difference…
Corner Stone
The stud volleyball player from Brazil is named Sidao and when it’s pronounced I hear it as “Sit Down!”.
Dude is slapping the Russkies around silly style.
Fraud Guy
Current headline on nbcnews.com.
Really? This is why editors are important.
PeakVT
Somebody has figured out the real reason Romney choose Ryan: Mitt Romney Would Pay 0.82 Percent in Taxes Under Paul Ryan’s Plan
Comrade Mary
This would be a bad time to mention that I’m getting the closing ceremonies live (but with annoying commercials) on Canadian tv, right?
Corner Stone
@Corner Stone: I watched, literally, 3 to 5 minutes of the crowd doing the wave this morning when I thought I was going to get highlights from track & field.
DB
I wish this ThinkProgress Paul Ryan/Ayn Rand interview video would be aired on TV:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7zwO88nRH8&feature=player_embedded
mamayaga
That Romney history combined with the Booman link above just underscore to me the extent to which the Ryan pick not only intensifies Mitt’s problems in selling his economic policies, it also highlights the radical culture war stances, especially in relation to ladyparts and gays, taken by both of them. I really think that it can’t be said too much that both Romney and Ryan believe abortion is not acceptable even when a pregnancy threatens the mother’s life. This is definitely a minority position in this country, even among those who find abortion just too, too icky.
scav
@Violet: I’m in the First read it as Yan camp (with some weird multi-cultural people over on the left. Neither of which made sense given what I was expecting.
Corner Stone
@Fraud Guy:
Ryan was elected at 28!!
This is going to be so much fun.
WaterGirl
@Corner Stone: I hate Comcast almost as much as I hate Microsoft.
WaterGirl
@Comrade Mary: It might, if I wasn’t still worshiping the ground you walk on for telling me about Tegaderm all those many moons ago.
Lee
Today’s headline The Dallas Morning News
RMoney is fucked.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Corner Stone:
Someone who was voted “best brown noser” had nowhere else to go BUT Washington (or Bain). The fact that the man has been sucking off the government teet his entire life should tell us something about his IGMFU attitude.
NotMax
From last March (caveat: link goes to The Weekly Standard):
(emphasis added)
NancyDarling
@Violet: Yesterday, Ryan reminded me of a very bad fundamentalist preacher doing an altar call—pleading with us to come to the Ryan/Rmoney light and SAVE America.
raven
@Corner Stone: So when do they hammer Mitt for his Olympic comments again? Now seems like a good time, yo Boris!
Ben Franklin
A bloated Pentagon is all good.
On technology and civil liberties issues, Ryan has generally voted along party lines. Ryan opposed net neutrality bills; voted to extend the Patriot Act’s roving wiretaps and to immunize telecom companies from legal liabilities for cooperating with warrantless government surveillance. He co-sponsored a ban on internet taxes. Ryan initially approved of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which WIRED editorialized would “usher in a chilling internet censorship regime,” but backed down in the face of a pressure campaign from the internet-freedom supporters. Activists on Reddit cheered Ryan’s reversal on SOPA — and appear to have reactivated the Ryan thread now that Romney has tapped him to be vice president.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
I said in an open thread last night that Ryan’s speech (upon being introduced by Romney) reminded me of Jindal’s stinker of a State-of-the-Union-response fiasco a few years ago: boring (here-here, Mike in NC), condescending, and wimpy.
Could Romney be trying to go for the youth vote here? Does he really suppose our Gen X/Y/Z (or whatever they’re called now) really identify with Captain Serious of Wisconsin?
Ryan reminds me a bit of Sean Hannity (he of the oh-so-meaningful eyebrow twitches). Ryan’s posture as he hosted the town-hall meeting a year or so ago suggested a man who clearly thought himself superior and wiser than anyone in the room.
mamayaga
Bwahahahahaha! Apparently Romney’s staff was pretty much united in opposition to Ryan as VP pick, mostly because now Romney now owns the Ryan budget. Way to go, Mr. CEO-Decider-in-Chief!
Hill Dweller
Like Willard, Ryan is about to find out what it’s like in the big leagues.
The Obama campaign is going to systematically break Ryan down, just like they’ve pulverized Willard’s stated qualification to be President.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.): “Could Romney be trying to go for the youth vote here?”
BWAHAHAHAHAAHAHA /*/gasp/*/ /*/catches breath/*/ HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAH
That is all.
FlipYrWhig
@Violet: There was a time-travel action-adventure TV show in the 1980s where the “omni” was the name of the device that sent people back and forth in time. A fine piece of retroactive equipment, you might say. :P
Ben Franklin
@efgoldman:
And where are they getting the increased funding for the Pentagon? Everything is connected, my friend.
NotMax
@FlipYrWhig
That was the short-lived Voyagers!, starring the also short-lived Jon-Erik Hexum.
Older_Wiser
This is how Ryan treats a 71 yr old for objecting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBhdXfCdaA8&t=0s (h/t IM)
Let that bastard try to take down this 71 yr old for objecting to his shit. Get out there, oldsters! Tell this Randian punk how you really feel!
JoyfulA
@Mike in NC: It was AP and near the top of Comcast news this morning, with pictures of these bright orange houses Bain polluted in a tourist town. http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-politics/20120811/US.Romney.Steel.Mill/
Of course, one person with a ruined house plans to vote for Romney—-
Bruce S
Never thought that I could trust Erik Erickson to do our work for us. Love the graphic. Can I got a bumper sticker version to put next to my “Obama 2012”? I think it illustrates perfectly the very large stone Romney now has hanging around his neck and which will inevitably sink him.
Violet
@mamayaga: Oh, that’s hilarious. How many of the rats are going to be fleeing from the sinking SS Romney/Ryan and how early? Place your bets now, ladies and gentlemen!
Hill Dweller
@JoyfulA:
Of course they are. Voting Republican is all about self-identity for way too many people in this country. No amount of facts will sway them.
bemused
I expect several books will be written about the Romney campaign in the future. I just hope at least one gets all the facts on the inside story. It has to even more crazy on the inside than what we were are seeing on the outside.
scav
@Violet: Could just be ham-fisted messaging about how this choice wasn’t imposed on Lord Rombott by the lowly insurgent peons as Lookie! he isn’t even amenable to heeding his council of nobles like us! I’m not sure I really believe he’s assembled a team around him that would put up much of an opposition to anything the LRbott decides: wouldn’t they be entirely too busy trying to second guess where he’s going so as to arrange for the proper career-enhancing pompoms?
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
Hey, danah gaz @ #78… I did not mean to earnestly suggest that appealing to the youth vote was Romney’s plan, but I’m really trying to figure out who Ryan is supposed to appeal to. I read the BooMan link provided by Iamh35 (# @51). Lots of folks listed there for whom Ryan won’t be providing, if you will, an ideological lap dance. I suppose Ryan more or less cements Romney’s choice for the far-right… not that they were likely to vote for anyone else anyway.
To paraphrase BooMan’s point, Ryan won’t bring in centrists, won’t bring in the LGBT or abortion-rights vote… he won’t especially appeal to women, Latinos, etc. He may well scare off a lot of the AARP brigade. He sure won’t get the VPILF vote that Palin got. I’m stymied. It seems a very dubious choice for VP.
CW in LA
@WaterGirl: I have AT&T Uverse and I got the same shit. Fuck NBC.
WaterGirl
@scav: My first thought is that what we’re seeing is “Hey, don’t blame me. I have a reputation to protect.”
Then I wondered about what you mentioned, maybe this is to prove that no one strong-armed Mittens. The last couple lines in the article I read sounded like they were trying to prove what a strong leader Romney is.
But I finally went with “don’t blame me”. These guys don’t want this to be their last campaign ever.
Valdivia
@Hill Dweller:
I think they will be very clever about it. They have to keep on Romney, but make the digs at Ryan. I think the strategy to say: hey he is a nice guy, but also the ideologue from Congress works. That’s what Obama did this afternoon.
mamayaga
@scav:
“Everybody was against [Ryan] to start with only Romney for,” said one top Republican, who is skeptical of the choice and griped that Romney’s top advisors have “been giving Mitt everything he wanted in this campaign.”
So, yes, the campaign staff as toadies and yes-men is one good explanation. Since Mitt does not have any underlying principles of his own, his making this decision himself suggests he was taking direction from outside the campaign — the Bill Kristols of the world, I guess. That just confirms what we’d already guessed about the choice. But the distancing of advisors and staff from the decision one day after the announcement shows a general awareness that it wasn’t the stroke of genius the Village will want to paint it as.
Corner Stone
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.):
Maybe he can do some really good Fancy Pageant walking!
scav
@WaterGirl: Could they have learned to do two things at once? Good for them if so! Whatever it is, I don’t think it’s a healthy pulse from a campaign running on all cylinders.
Jennifer
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.):
That’s easy-peasy. The Villagers, who recognize him as a fellow traveller in the Faux-Very-Serious crowd.
Knowing that Romney’s own staff didn’t want him sheds light on the why. My guess? Romney picked him out of desperation to try to get the Villagers to back off talking about what a trainwreck his campaign is. That, and the teatards – I think the other half of the desperation angle is that he was seriously beginning to worry that he might not come out of the convention with the nomination, after all, so disliked he is by the base.
scav
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.): Haven’t read piece Iamh35 linked yet, there is also possibly the all-important (to Rmoney), cash-flow qualification. Wasn’t Rmoney looking at earning potential and even setting earning goals when evaluating VP candidates? Could that be a bit of a clue? [Jennifer on the Villagers is good too, and similar in that actual votes is way down on his list of must-have-items. odd that.]
@mamayaga: and I think that the raising campaign cash might be one underlying principle that Rmoney can rightfully claim.
Wild speculation, of course! but the whole things like reading the mind of a severely delusional drunk on a LSD high. my ESP doesn’t have the rated shields. My general impression is of infighting between at least 3 competing camps, possibly more in the COP arena, which probably explains my not finding hints of a single consistent guiding mastermind, especially with the toddler You Can’t Make Me tendencies of their presumptive leader.
WaterGirl
@scav: “Could they have learned to do two things at once? ”
You know, I had considered that for just a moment, too and then thought “nah” and went with “don’t blame me”.
Seriously, we might get the post-election tell-all book during the campaign, one page at a time, every day.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
Maybe you’re right, Scav (# @97), but I’d have thought that cash was not a genuine concern for Mittens and Co., as they appear to have deep-pocket money flowing in.
Maybe Jennifer is on to something: maybe the Villagers are interested in maintaining the horse race narrative, and Ryan gives them something to pundit-ize over….
scav
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.): well, to any sane person it might appear they’re pretty comfortably supplied with cash, but we’re talking the Gazillionaire Crushed by 13% or less taxes crowd. Practically speaking, they seem to run more Meet the Donors Dinners than actual meet the mere voters events. THey certainly needed immediate media chum. It is a puzzle this.
J.S. Rank
Great comment Annie Laurie !
Willard is so dumb, he don’t know that Paul has had multiple BF’s
Of course, he ( PR ) lied in the interview process.
I don’t care if he’s Bi , or bearded. I care that he’s a lyin’ hypocrite.
Julia Grey
Too many folks will read this as “Romney will pay 82% income taxes.”
Really. They will. I’m not joking.
It should read, “Romney will pay LESS THAN 1% in income taxes under the Ryan/Romney Budget Plan,” because there are lots and lots of people in this country who are, um, not so good with decimal points. Math-challenged, as it were.
Somebody get this point to the Obama campaign, stat. Quit saying 0.82%. Say, “LESS THAN ONE PERCENT.”
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
You’re probably right, Scav. Has anyone ever conducted a study on greed and the uber-wealthy? I can’t imagine sitting on, say, $400,000,000 and worrying about how I (and my fifty ensuing generations) will survive. FSM, we humans are fearful things….
Mike in NC
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.):
Google the name “Hetty Green” to see how insane they can be. Seems to be all too common.
NotMax
@Mike in NC
Heh. Hadn’t thought of ol’ one-dress Hetty for years and years.
Thanks for that.
Julia Grey
Oh, JEEEEEBUS, yes, especially in the South.
A self-respecting white person simply does not vote Democratic, because Everybody Knows that is the BLACK party!
WereBear
@Mike in NC: When all you care about is money, there is never enough.
Violet
@Julia Grey:
Absolutely right. The added bonus of using the “Less than one percent” framing is that it ties it to the 1% and 99% Occupy framing that people are already familiar with.
Hungry Joe
@Julia Grey: You beat me to it. Yes: Say “Less than one percent,” because .82 percent has an 8 in it and 8 is one of the biggest numbers, so hey, maybe that means Romney will be paying a lot, right?
***SIGH***
“Less than one percent” it is.
fuckwit
And the campaign has chosen as its theme song: “Kill the Poor” by the Dead Kennedys.