he'd just get away with it. I think he assumed he'd just get a pass, yet again, because he's learned VERY well that he can go on Pox Noise and say anything he wants and they'll just fall to their knees say "Hosanna!" and start lighting incense to him and praising him as the Great White Wonky Hunky Hope. We never even saw the word "Lie" or "Liar" or "Lying" actually used in print before, or online, or on the lips of newspeople, anchors, reporters, segment producers, commentators, editorialists, bloggers, and more. Never. ALL THROUGH the miserable deceitful-to-the-bone-marrow dubya years. All Through Those Years, NOBODY except for us "radical lefties" and other assorted "Commie-types" here on DU and elsewhere in the progressive underground called it what it was - LIES. The "L" word. It was taboo. One simply did not say such things about "our" "President." The closest anyone dared come was "a prevaricating President?" Or "not completely true," or "less than honest," or "the President misspoke" or some other fig-leaf phrasing - ANY verbal contortions anyone could come up with to avoid having to say bush/cheney and that whole cabal - ALL were lying through their teeth, pores, and every imaginable secretion.

And now, look at the aftermath of Lyin' ryan's CONvention speech. Hard to count all the times we've heard and seen people on-camera and on radio, in print and on the internets, actually call his lies just that: LIES. I can't believe how many times I've seen the "L" word flung about so freely.

That's a welcome change. Surprising. But welcome. I'd just about lost hope that republi-CONS would ever be called out, widely and publicly. Not with Pox Noise and assholes like limbaugh always turning the volume up on high and outshouting any other viewpoint.

And that, alone, should tell us something: the lies are SO flagrant and SO ridiculous and SO embarrassing that they simply cannot be ignored or glossed over anymore.

That's a MOST welcome change.

You make a good point. But there aren't millions of Richie Rich clones and Thurston Howell III clones for them to marry and have horses and mansions and all the high-priced health care that money can buy for their ailments without having to worry about bankrupting the family, and at least two Cadillacs to drive at a time.

In the same way, it's just not realistic to tell people that "all you have to do is Start A Business!!!!!" Hello? Not everybody in America is cut out to start a business. Not everybody in America is cut out to come up with an original idea or money-making plan or newly-invented better mousetrap, on which they can start and build a business. Is that really the answer? Just everybody go out and Start A Business!!! What? Sign up for Amway? Hey, that doesn't work either. That's no easy or magic quick-fix by ANY stretch of the imagination.

I know because for a few days, long ago, out of curiosity, my husband and I investigated Amway. A nice Mormon couple in that neighborhood at the time, with stars and dollar signs in their eyes and high hopes in their hearts, tried to recruit us. And they used the same well-researched and time-tested sales pitch that all the hopefuls use to try and snare more hopefuls with big dreams. All it is - is a legalized Ponzi scheme. The only people who work their way into that Promised Land of Pie-in-the-Sky are the guys who got in at the beginning and could find all kinds of people on whom they'd build their own pyramid - with them at the top. Everybody else who gets in after that - struggles to find their way to the top of ANY pyramid. My mind totally shut off to this crowd when one of their big shot "success stories" started talking about how they don't like regulations in business (Strike One), and then I heard one of our sponsors on the phone during an official organizer-sales pitch visit to our house, telling the person on the other end that she was with "new downline." Honey, we're HUMAN BEINGS here. Not some nameless, faceless, impersonal, "new downline." So I therefore spent about six or seven minutes in the rarified status of "new downline." Later on, learning that it was the dick devos people and CONservatives and knuckledraggers and fast-talkers and pie-in-the-sky'ers who make it sound SOOOOOOO easy to get rich by selling all this stuff.

And - HELLO!!!! - some people just aren't cut out for that kind of thing. Frankly, A LOT of people just aren't cut out for that kind of thing. That's neither good nor bad. That's just how it is in REALITY-LAND. Not everybody is a salesman or saleswoman. And of those who are salesmen or saleswomen, not everybody's all that great at it, or successful. Certainly not successful enough to get within miles of the kind of life and lifestyle that mitt romney enjoys. Not everybody can try selling Amway at home or Mary Kay or Arbonne or Avon or Tupperware and make a big success out of it, and build that big pyramid organization underneath them from which they can take cuts of everybody else's sales activity. Not everybody can make even a MODEST success out of it. DAMN! I saw that Mormon couple recruit an elderly black gent - a true war hero, who was actually one of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. And he got into it with both feet - with VERY little money to buy in. And they told him, as they told us and everybody else at those meetings and house parties - just give 'em this tape - of one of our big-ass successful Amway leaders - and let 'em listen. WE do the work FOR YOU! And all you have to do is write up all the orders and rake in the cash! It's EASY!

And. It. Is. NOT. Easy!!!!!!!!!!!

It broke my heart to see this old gentleman, who lives in V.A. housing in West L.A., struggling week after week to try to make those pie-in-the-sky dreams come true for himself, and hustle up his own "downline." He couldn't. There aren't that many gullible, easy marks, available for prospecting. It's Just. NOT. There. And my husband is wonderful but he's no salesman, either, so I knew it wasn't for us. I was busy trying to raise kids and juggle the rest of my career before I finally gave up on it and retired so I could focus 100% on the kids while they were still young. Fortunately, we got out REEEEEEAAAALLY early. Actually didn't even get all the way in before we ran for the hills.

We gave it a try. One of my favorite one-liners is "like they say on NPR - 'All Things Considered'!" Well, we considered it for a few days. Got just inside the door. Looked around. Turned around and got back out in a hurry.

SO glad this whole concept is gaining traction!

Yeah, dude, YOU're the guy who lies all the time whenever he makes a speech! Why should we listen to you?

There honestly is NO other concise, or accurate, or truthful way to explain why romney and ryan and their entire campaign and SuperPAC pals relentlessly stick to talking points that have been repeatedly and publicly PROVEN to be false.

I mean, it's even gotten so bad that the "L" word (Lie) and its many versions are now, frequently being utterly openly, in the media, on camera, certainly online (where we've called 'em "liars" for years already). The words "Lie," "Liar," "Lying," and "Lies" are actually being used. How many times have you seen collections of those four terms used in columns and commentaries in major newspapers and on the air, on cable - EVERYWHERE people were talking about and analyzing paul ryan's CONvention speech?

I remember during the dubya years when lies flowed like tap water from that White House and Pentagon, and the BEST any newspaper or commentator or editorialist would dare try would be some wussy weasel wording like "the President prevaricates..." Or some other fancy-ass word that few people use in ordinary day-to-day conversation so that's the only way you can get away with saying bush LIED without pissing off a few hundred thousand CONs, especially the ones with the microphones. Besides, who knew what "prevaricates" means, anyway?

That was a HORRIBLE time. SHAMEFUL!!!!!! History won't be kind - and shouldn't. How fitting, then, that accurate historical references like Goebbels, be hauled out again now, to apply - correctly and QUITE fairly - to the lies of the GOP.

Perhaps they believe it makes 'em sound smarter. Could they do anything more than rattle off the few usual suspects and buzzwords? Probably not. That would require independent thinking without tip-sheets, talking points blast-faxes, and their own personal home TelePrompTer set - Pox Noise.

Unfortunately, the comparison is completely reasonable and accurate. How long has it been since we, just even here at DU, started noticing the "1984-speak" emanating from the other side of the aisle? How war really was peace. How giving more to the rich actually helped the poor. How economic enslavement was freedom. How foxes could skillfully, nobly, and selflessly guard hen-houses. How CONservatives were somehow compassionate. Now we're getting more versions of all that baloney plus restricting women's choices is actually helping them, and rolling back voting rights yields true liberty and justice for all.

Glad you're here, and it's good that you pointed it out, yet again. Sometimes those Nazi references actually do apply, they're not cheap tabloidy scare tactics or exaggeration for the sake of stirring up the base. Sometimes they're just plain freakin' TRUE.

Tired, Old, Imaginary, and Empty.

Very good, SleeplessinSoCal!

Thank goodness I was stopped at a red light. I would have been frozen in my tracks for several seconds if the light had turned green. I don't even know who or what I might have accidentally driven into, if I'd been moving at that moment. I COULD NOT BELIEVE MY EARS. But by God he said that. I was shocked, stunned, and utterly stupefied! I literally couldn't believe what I was hearing. That poor woman had been the victim of the most horrible, grisly slasher-murder in local history, and this was all paul harvey could say about her. This was all that grabbed his attention, or made an impression on him. That she said some swear words on the line to 911, when this violent, wife-beating beast was in a full-lather, top-of-his-lungs rage just a few steps away, about to break her door down?!??!!?!? And that's ALL he could say???????????

And that tape was chilling as hell, especially since we all knew how that story ended. You could HEAR him. You could hear his voice in the background, bellowing and raging, screaming obscenities at her at full volume, pounding on her door trying to break it open, and she's cowering in the corner, trying to call 911. And there was ol' paul harvey on the radio, moralizing in his holier-than-thou way about how dreadful it was that she uttered a couple of swear words.

I developed a seething hatred and revulsion for paul harvey on that day, and I've never gotten over it.

I thought he was fairly harmless until the whole OJ calamity in 1994.

Then one afternoon he was on, and he focused on the 911 call Nicole Simpson had made when OJ was outside her house (after they'd split up), raging, bellowing, and banging on the door, trying to break the door down and get in at her. You could hear him in the background as she struggled to keep her composure while talking to the 911 operator. You could hear the fear and desperation in her voice. And she said a couple of four-letter words in her panic and terror.

So guess what paul harvey had to say about that?????????

He carried on, describing it, didn't play any excerpt or part of the 911 recording - that by then had become famous.

And his comment at the end of it was - "what a shame that such a beautiful young woman should use such foul language!"

WTF?????????????????????????????????????????????

MAN! I remember sitting there at a stoplight just gaping at my car radio!!!! I couldn't believe what I'd just heard!!!!!!

Then and there, I signed off of paul harvey for life. That's ALL he could come up with? What a shame that SHE used foul language???????

OMG!!!!! He was worth LESS-THAN-NOTHING to me after that, and ever since.

I love photos like these - close up and the wide shot. That reception looks pretty sincere, unlike some I saw when dubya was prancing around military bases.

This man never served, either. But he's got more compassion and respect for our troops, and has paid more attention to their issues, than any of his GOP predecessors I can think of at the moment.

And frankly, I don't think ANY president serves our troops OR cares about their issues - who insists on sending them to an unnecessary and fabricated war for ulterior motives about which he never once was honest, unnecessarily putting their lives in danger and squandering American good will around the world.

something - where they see it a LOT: "these people will run into a fucking building for them and they still get disrespected."

That's what makes me boil!

Picking on firefighters and police officers and other first responders, and teachers, the human infrastructure of our whole society!!! Those are the "bridges," the "highways," the "tunnels," and "levies" and more. Their work and their presence is foundational, supporting the whole damn society. The WHOLE THING! It ALL depends on these people. Your very life depends on these people. Literally. And that includes the teachers, who become first-line guardians for our kids if there's an emergency during school hours and the student body has to be secured.

It is an OUTRAGE (YES I'm yelling) that these people, the backbone of our civilization, are so disrespected. How when the bad guys start wanting to nickel and dime us, they start with these. HOW DARE THEY!!!!

It's not just an outrage, it's downright UNPATRIOTIC. It's un-American! It's totally foreign and - speaking in a language the bad guys will clearly understand, "other."

I seriously do not understand why anyone would vote republi-CON by now, except the really rich and the really bent, or ignorant, or maybe they're the same thing. They AREN'T in favor of ANYTHING that enhances, supports, or secures the greater good. And I mean GREATER, as in the whole country, not just this little sliver of the population that is doing well enough for themselves that they don't need any extra help. They're the crowd that's so hell-bent on actually taking rights AWAY, whether it's from women or minority voters. That one alone is a stunner for me. It's so anti-American I truly can't believe I see organized and state-sanctioned voter suppression and nullification in my own country. I just can't believe that is so. And who's in charge of that? NOT the Dems!

The whole thing just leaves me completely bewildered.