Obama As Bogeyman

My old friend Ed Wallace titled his weekly piece in the Star-Telegram as "Bias", and he did so because of the number of emails he receives complaining about bias in the news - which would mean something if they were from people actually connected to reality. So Ed decided to focus on an article published in American Thinker [which means it's probably just the opposite] written by William Tate. Tate did an analysis of a 45 page report by the Inspector General's office that assessed how the Auto Task Force conducted itself with the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies. The title of Tate's article: "Race Played Role in Obama Car Dealer Closures".

Yup, the Darkie's gonna get you Whitey for all those generations spent on the plantation! That's a claim that plays well among the willfully ignorant, especially in the 80 percent of the 1,300 most rural counties of America where Obama lost the vote in 2008. [Conservatives seek only what sells, not what's true.] Tate goes on to point out: "Ultimately, close to half of all of the GM dealerships identified for termination were in rural areas." Ergo, Obama was getting those rural rednecks back for not voting for him! [Conservatives suspect such tactics, of course, because those are their own].

I'll let Ed take it from here:

True, the report shows that GM closed many of its rural dealerships. But they were stores selling fewer than 50 cars a year and not showing real strength in wholesale parts operations - meaning their service business was also lagging. In the end, GM decided to keep open just nine of the 394 rural dealerships slated to close for lack of volume.

However, the most telling line of the entire report puts to shame all that Tate has incorrectly concluded on this matter. The line, on page 11, reads, "SIGTARP found that the Auto Team was not involved in determining which dealerships to close." (Italics mine. - EW)

There you have it. Obama and his task force did not choose any dealership to close; executives at GM and Chrysler did it all.

So, if the Auto Task Force did not hand-pick which stores to terminate, then there was no payback for rural areas, no payback against Republican dealers and no racism involved. In fact, anyone who followed that story when it first broke, or knew how GM and Chrysler were selecting the dealerships to close, knew that party politics were not a factor at all.

I buy Italian anyway

So Tate's entire article is a blatant lie, one which could have been easily fact-checked by anyone who had bothered to read the IG's report, like Ed did. But like almost all news, it's the first impression that's lingers most, not the correction posted the next day. Propagandists know this so the goal becomes to get the story out the door, enflame the masses, and watch the truth go up in smoke. Ah, if only those poor pitiful bastards knew the same fate awaits them.

Ed goes on to further analyze the IG report and falsities of the article but what he does not do is ask the far more disturbing question: Why did Tate ever think he could get away with this in the first place? You see, there always have been and always will be liars who live among us willing to say anything if they see - rightly or wrongly - a benefit in it for themselves. It's not whether liars exist or not is the problem, it's when they are listened to is the problem.

Hitler did not invent anti-Semitism. It was rampant in Germany and openly deemed a socially acceptable concept long before his rise to power. He merely tapped into that lie as a means of gaining control. But what do you think now when you hear someone propagate Zionist conspiracy theories of Jews controlling the world and other crap like that? We think the person is a nut, deluded, and needing of mental help - a description that applies to Hitler as well. The difference between an ensuing holocaust and a "get thee to an asylum" statement is how seriously we take the lie.

I started this holocaust...

So when I see the liars among us getting bolder and bolder, I know we're in trouble.

It used to be when one's face was covered in crumbs and one's fingers smudged with chocolate one did not declare to one's mother, "I have no idea who ate the last cookie." There was a certain fear factor of not being believed and a painful accountability sure to follow. But the Last Cookie Eaters brazenly strut around today not bothering to clean their face or wash their hands of evidence to their crimes. No, they merely attack the accuser. "Who are you to question me, Mom?"

And America, a nation of mommies literally horrified of bare breasts, swear words and bad hair days, does not want that question to be asked of her. So just as the remaining few still holding faith in the truth brand the liars as outlaws, so must we must we brand those who enable them as outlaws as well; those who stand idly by in the hopes of being spared the liar's venom, of having the demonization turned back on them. Tell me, America, what is it you know about yourself that makes you fear that so?



As far as Obama goes, he truly represents us as a people: decry those who do evil but do nothing to stop them. And that's why he ran the strongest campaign, he knew we wanted the status quo kept but done in the name of change, to admit no wrongdoing and not wipe the crumbs of war, greed and untruths from our faces. But lies are like parasites, once they take hold it's either you or them, there's no living with them. It's no act of kindness to let the lie live, it's suicide.

And that is what America has become: a nation of perverts, living in a bubble growing larger every day, praying to our gods it does not pop like we know it will - as all bubbles must. As a politicial pervert, Obama sees political reality as the true reality, and reality itself - the welfare of people - as unrealizable fantasy. Our wars are good and our killings just. Our economic system is good and its suffering just. We need change nothing, no course to correct. Those statements are the true fantasy. And for those not on the receiving end of it, it's just a big fucking yuck.

...and I'm continuing it!

So is Obama the bogeyman? Why yes, he is. We each are responsible for rising someone so feckless to power, for protecting our lies. By failing to repudiate war, we lay the groundwork for more war. By failing to repudiate greed, we lay the groundwork for more inequality. And when time comes to pay the piper and finally feel the inescapable pain we have so richly sown, you'll get no fucking sympathy from me. Nobody said you had to believe a lie.