People think Bill Clinton is a good liar. He was famous for it! His nickname was Slick Willie; hell, he was impeached for perjury in front a Federal judge, and to borrow from a phrase from First-Among-Equals, ended up ‘guilty as hell and free as a bird”. That doesn’t sound like a very good liar to me. He’s a convicted liar. He’s still standing. That certainly doesn’t qualify as a good liar; that just means that his whole life is a lie, that he lies incessantly, and that he stays one step ahead of his last lie.
Now Barack Obama. There’s a good liar, precisely because he doesn’t have a reputation as being a liar. The reality is that every word that appears on that teleprompter is a poll-tested lie. They are lies, regardless of whether or not the actual statements could plausibly be argued to be “true”, because the intent when spoken by Obama is to deceive the overwhelming majority of the people who hear the statements. If the intent is to deceive, and the vast majority of people who hear the statement are deceived, it is a deception, it is a lie. That makes Barack Obama a liar, and he is very, very good at it. Always with the teleprompter, to make sure he is using exactly the right individual words and phrases. Lies fall apart when pressed, so they never let him be pressured. They grant an audience to journolists like George Stephanopolous, to yokel news talking heads, Town Halls with college students, FaceBook on 420. No follow-up, no drilling down, no pressing; no chance to unravel any of the lies.
For now a list of some of the conflation lies; you’ll hear these incessantly as the Democrats implement Cat Food 2012:
illegal alien with legal immigrant
public education with education
tax reductions with spending increases
an 87 year old SS/Medicare/Drug Plan beneficiary in the audience who will be completely unaffected by the Ryan Plan with the 54 year olds who will be the first to participate
the rich with someone making $201,000 a year.
public employee union with union
the rich with a hand built business employing 15 people and pre-tax netting $300,000 a year.
“birthers” with anyone who would like documentary information on Barack Obama on any subject before 2008
Feel free to add more & other categories. We can probably get to the point where we can analyze an Obama speech with something like “He started with a shout out, then drove right into a Strawman-3, swung into a False-Choice 11, and then came on hard with a barrage of Conflation- 3, -7, -11, and back to -3 again.”
I’m off to run some errands. But re: the post, don’t forget the more philosophical conflations: fairness with equality of outcome; “fair share” with soaking the minority to pay for the majority; “tolerance” and “civility” to mean “shut up”; “transparency” as a way to defeat free speech and render the First Amendment risible.
And so on.
It’s who he is. It’s who they all are.
Less than 2% of business owners will be affected by the expiration of Bush’s tax cuts.
New meme going around about how the rich get a free ride on SS taxes after $106,000
Paul Ryan’s plan will change medicare as we know it.
Each year, on or around April 15, I find a well-dressed stranger, pull a gun on him, and take his wallet. I remove half his cash, record his credit card numbers, and then return his wallet to him, but not before calling him a rotten rich bastard.
When I get home, I order a ton of goodies using his credit card numbers, ’til they’re all maxed out. Then I take all the cash and goodies and give 80% of it to my friends, keeping 20% for
myselfadministrative overhead.Every Democrat I talk to agrees that I’m an amazingly charitable person. Can’t say as much for the rotten greedy bastards who always seem so reluctant to hand over their wallets.
It’s like the Feudal system. Our overlords need more, so we’re just going to have to make due with less Squid.
then drove right into a Strawman-3, swung into a False-Choice 11, and then came on hard with a barrage of Conflation- 3, -7, -11, and back to -3 again
“So the new prisoner shouts out “37!” … dead silence. Hey, some guys just can’t tell a joke.”
Barack Obama was capable of lying before he learned to speak.
“Spending reductions in the tax code.”
“It’s a rebuilding year, but we’re laying an excellent foundation for winning the playoffs down the road.”
“I did NOT have sex with that Armadillo!”
Thanks Pablo that one really sets a new low in language manipulation.
“at some point you’ve made enough money” vs the politically connected rich…somehow those cats never seem to have made enough
This one isn’t Obama’s, but: equating the entire 2001 & 2003 tax code changes with “Bush Tax Cut”, and then attributing the entire cost of the whole package with tax cuts to the top 1%.
In reality, one-third of the cost is tax cuts to the upper bracket, one-third is adjustments to the AMT to keep it from swallowing the entire tax base, and one-third is interest on the previous two items’ cost.
So, rule of thumb is to remember to divide by 3.
Connections that don’t get made, though: paying your fair share and this.
“Obamacare won’t reduce your quality of care” vs the waivers handed out to avoid a reduction in the quality of care…but mostly just for the politically connected
“Bush rushed to war” vs “Obama acted decisively in Libya”
“Gitmo is illegal” vs “Gitmo is necessary”
I despair.
The Liar-in-Chief, with a whopper of a Strawman Lie just yesterday
If we had a press instead of journolists, they might ask Obama or his flacks to identify anyone, anyone advocating this position. And when they couldn’t, they would report that Obama was lying.
The wealthy already pay a hugely disproportionate amount of the taxes, but that isn’t enough for Teh Won. Take all their money, O!, and see what happens then.
Frelling Idiot.
Any tax rate less than 100% is a tax expenditure in Obama Nation.
School House Rock will be coming out with a new lesson called “Conflation Station.”
Check your local PBS listings for broadcast times.
Connections that don’t get made, though: paying your fair share and this.
Other connections that don’t get made:
1) “Sometimes you just have to recognize that you’ve made enough money.”
B) Soros spends millions buying the government, and reaps billions from his investment.
iii) KOCH BROTHERS!!1!!eleventy!!
motionview,
Obambi and his lackeys aren’t even trying to hide their contempt for taxpayers anymore, because the MBM is so completely in their camp they know they will not be challenged.
We have another 1980 election coming next year, except there’s no Reagan.
You’re right Spiny, they know we’ve reached the benefit-taker / tax-payer tipping point and now they are just shoveling money out the door, lying through their teeth, and relying on their PT Barnum model of the American public to plow through to 2012. The Won has a much easier job than PT of course; Barnum didn’t enjoy a press that testified to the magnificence of the egress.
motionview,
When most of the comments at a site like NRO are left-wing statist jackasses, you know there’s a chance that strategy might even work.
o_O
I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
That was a bit of a whopper right out of the gate.
i listen to baracky’s speech to savor the lies. sometimes i play back the soothing “oceans receding” speech for it’s mendacious lightness or the “greatest oratory on racial matters evah” phila. speech also from 2008 for the hip hoppiness of the cynical flavor of grandma being run over.
BHO – 2006
Pretty good trick to lie while telling the truth.
OT: Turns out that it’s Friday night.
So, Kyuss vs Fu Manchu vs The Disciplines.
I’m gonna say it’s a tie.
You know what’s a terrible idea? Torturing yourself for a month with insane diet and exercise and then going out drinking. I’m hammered after three beers. Truthfully, I was kind of drunk after the first half a pint.
Heh. I’ve been there.
Want a pro tip? Fiber pills. No calories and they soak up booze just like your pre-bar food did.
Um…Ummm….Ummmmmmm….People think I’m a deep thinker! Anybody got a waffle?
Abe, I feel your pain. But, mine is more due to my getting older. My problem is I still remember the college days, but am nowhere near my playing shape of my college days. Keep om keeping on my New York PWer!
bh, you serious? I could use advice like that. Though I am regular like a mother fucker, so fiber isn’t necessarily neeeded :)
Works like a charm, OI.
I regularly drink (like an Irishman) with just cucumbers and protein shakes in my stomach. Take like six of those fiber pills right beforehand and you’re good to go.
Thanks, bh. I’m damn near out of body fat, but this will be a useful tip for the next time I turn myself into a beached whale over the winter.
Pretty good trick to lie while telling the truth
And they plan ahead for it geoffb. They will look you on the eye and say that Obamacare “cuts the deficit” by a trillion dollars. A huge Big Lie, a very important one for the Dems, and in fact the first Big Lie Plouffe released during the rollout on the Sunday shows a few weeks back. Of course when you account for 10 years of revenue, 6 years of expenditures; double counting some money, and pretending you will not eventually support the the $500B “doc fix”, the lie falls apart.
Too bad Chris Wallace heard that Big Lie twice in the first 5 minutes of Plouffe’s interview and responded with ….a Gibson
I like the meta kick you’re on, mv.
What’s the meta tag for this particular political meta to go along with Jeff’s literary Brautigan/Pynchon meta or the general pw (codename: dolphin in a pea coat) self-referencing?
I sorta like Cat Food. But, it’s your thing.
“Turns out that it’s Friday night.”
Yup, and not just any Friday night Mr!
Time to Church up Outlaws
First answering a question with a question:
Then the answer:
(In recognition of the original Outlaw;)
Schmolitics ist depressing. Musics for the peoples!
Music!
Is this Good Friday material, Danger?
I just tend to assume that all jam bands are talking about Jesus. DMB, OAR, Dispatch. They’re all pretty strict on that “hey man, be cool” front.
Oh. One of the songs I linked is kinda sorta obliquely mean to a Jesus people. This song, first word is Jesus, – in a good way – though admittedly sung by a heroin addict.
Rondo was a fucking stud tonight. So was Ray Allen.
We sorta have to link this then, don’t we? When we’re confused and not quite sure? Sure we do.
(Sorry, it can’t be a cliche if it wasn’t a cliche back when it was a new song that I really liked back when I was young.
Jesus, this dead junkie, and that other dead junkie from Blind Melon agree with me. Don’t fight it.)
I don’t cry when my dog runs away.
Don’t get angry at the bills I have to pay.
My daughter has been watching Lemonade Mouth for the last couple nights. My eyes and ears are bleeding.
The fucking Lakers get every damn whistle. Complete BS.
Throwin in a little funk to keep the party rollin:
Mandisa come on!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8fPeLerWJ0
ENJOY !
I will not be moved
Well JD,
at least there was no beer butt bongs in that one so I guess we should be grateful;)
I feel like I’ve been rick rolled. Lemonade mouth is actually a thing?
This can’t bode well.
I think Lemonade Mouth needs to collaborate with Rebecca Black for some pure musical awesomeness.
I figured you would be on some mellow meds for the foot injury and could stand anything.
Oh and happy belated Earth Day to all.
“Earth Day”, the lie that Congress gave it’s own agency and celebratory day in memorial.
How about
with
OMG, bh linked Kyuss last night and I missed it.
Here’s me linking stuff a tad mainstream, but the new foo fighters is excellent. My favorite song so far.
The mother says now baby boy
You’re gonna have to choose
There’s good and evil, love and greed
And they’re all inside of you
And just as sure as gravity
No one escapes the law
‘Cause there’s just one way
That we can stand
Too many ways to fall
So when you wake up in the bushes
Passed out on the lawn
And suddenly it dawns on you
That mother wasn’t wrong
It all comes back like déjà vu
You just can’t help but recall
‘Cause there’s just one way
that we can stand
Too many ways to fall
I want you to close your eyes and imagine a president who tells you that windmills will end out dependence on foreign oil. Imagine a president who has reduced our oil exploration but takes credit for his predecessors exploration numbers. Then imagine a president who tells truckers to trade in their Kenworths and start pulling their trailers with Chevy Volts. Then imagine a president who tells mothers to kill 60% of their children and trade in their minivans for a Priuses.
.
.
.
.
.
Now…..imagine that president is white.
h/t Matthew McConoughy
taking both sides of an issue *with* being fair and thoughtful
ruthless references to one’s own relatives (as racists, as undeserving of the health care they receive late in life, etc.) *with* being fair and thoughtful
calling people stupid *with* being fair and thoughtful
I must say I’m looking forward to having our own lingo!
Apparently there is some growing dissatisfaction.
Well Slart if that guy would just demonstrate a little passion….
I happened to be in Malibu a few months back and saw a number of Obama Blue bumper stickers the the line “We Still Believe”. Wasn’t that the X-Files credo?
http://www.yourdailymedia.com/video/watch/1832/
Just for Danger …. ENJOY !
Geoffb – even industrial strength painkillers could not take the hurt out of Lemonade Mouf.
bh, What’s the meta tag for this particular political meta to go along with Jeff’s literary Brautigan/Pynchon meta or the general pw (codename: dolphin in a pea coat) self-referencing?
I’m just a simple caveman mathematician….
I sorta like Cat Food. But, it’s your thing.
Every time Obama, Plouffe, Axelrod,Schumer,Durbin,Van Hollen, Wasserman-Schultz open their mouth I see Cat Food 2012 in action, and it’s clear they decided on that strategy right after the 2010 elections, if it wasn’t their plan all along. To me that is a campaign that is systematically, fundamentally based on lying. Viewing the American people as stupid suckers, lying to them, and then taking power to advance progressivism, with the favorite imagery of these left-wing liars being conservatives wanting Grandma to eat cat food. They’ve been using it since the 70’s at least.
However, I don’t know that all of that comes to mind when other people hear Cat Food 2012. I’m definitely open to a better descriptor.
And I must say I’m glad the Left is taking this approach. Timidity, and particularly ceding the terms of the debate, as a response to the Cat Food attack plan leads to absolute certain defeat. The staunch on our side we have to hope will stay staunch; the careerists on our side will be faced with the stark choice of getting staunch or losing.
Wait! Wait! WAIT!
Are you trying to tell me that Barack Obama is an unapologetic liar?
Aww, C’mon. He is the Lightgiver! Jesus lives again through Him!!!!! Why should he have to lie and pay off at least fifty one per cent of the population to get re-elected? He is just so…..heaven sent!
I have to wash my underwear every time I think of his celestial benevolence….
That is Obama’s “gift“. Or I should say that his gift is that he grew up with the apparent ability to convince everyone he agreed with them while never really taking a side or expressing an opinion once his words were parsed.
He could make those, in the academe, the left, and even a majority of the nations voters, take his words and wrap their own sense of his intent around them to truly believe that he was with them on every issue that mattered to them. He of course was not and his actual intent was to make that process happen. His “gift” is the ability to lie to everyone on every side of an issue and make them believe the lie, a different individually tailored lie for each one. All built on the same signs at the same instant. If it was a movie it would be titled “The Gulling.”
This works only to the extent that he can refuse to take any action on any issue. Voting “present” is necessary to keep the lie alive. Our/his press has labored mightily as the heart-lung machine for Obama’s gift. That that life support is breaking down at last is the only “hope” I’ve seen in this administration.
What. Teh. Fuck?
My space? Seriously? This guy needs to be laughed out of anything remotely resembling a publicly conducted professional life.
I’ve heard that Barack Obama could turn world on with his smile.
It has also been conjectured that Mr. Obama “can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile.”
Truly, he is Kwisatz Haderach.
In an effort to save the environment, I’ve greatly reduced my “the” footprint.
Mostly for the wholly unearned sense of moral superiority it gives me. And “the childern”, musn’t foget them.
Barack Obama actually has bought the world a Coke, and has been keeping it company ever since.
That, my friends, is magic.
Don’t know what is more disturbing; the fact that JD posted that or that he apparently bookmarked it for future reference;)
Or that I have clicked on it 6 times since. Or that I know all the words? Or that I did it at karaoke this weekend.
oh what fun
link
f((k libs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRjItDLnAwc
I did it at karaoke this weekend
Are you and Danger both talking about the same video (the one in #62)?
‘Cause if so… dude!
Beer enemas and karaoki? JD is clearly in need of an intervention;)
If I didn’t know better, I’d think Ogletree was calling Obama “Barack the Magic Negro”.
Well, it’s you, boy, and you should know it. With each glance and every little movement you show it.
I never said it was appropriate.
Charles J. Ogletree Jr., another Harvard law professor and a mentor of Mr. Obama, said, “He can enter your space and organize your thoughts without necessarily revealing his own concerns and conflicts.”
Isn’t this the kind of shit that Jake Shannon, renowned polymath and goat buggerer, claims to be able to do?
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but as I remember the novel, only a man could become The One Who Can Be Many Places.
link