Peasel Prattle: Flint, Fear and Flux Capacity (Updated)

From the What a CROCK Files

This starts the first of my series of reviews of the “Letters to the Editor” (of the Flint Journal) by one Richard Peasel, former co-worker and co-car-pooler, who is also a rabid right-winger.

This particular letter, published October 1, is SO chock full of lies, distortions, and misrepresentations, I just don’t know where to begin! So I’ll take it step by step.  Peasel uses a rhetorical device which would be described by Bryan White as "concrete examples" which is nothing more than a nice bullet list of lies, distortions and misrepresentations.

Has columnist Andrew Heller borrowed the president’s teleprompters to parrot the president’s speech inaccuracies, or does Andy have a shorter memory than the average American (Sept. 10 column regarding people with short memories voting Republican)?

I could not find the Andrew Heller column to which Rich refers, and assume it means people have short memories with regard to George W. Bush’s record the last eight years before Obama was elected. Like all those things that started with Bush that contributed to the deficits: Bush’s tax cuts, his Iraq/Afghanistan wars, his Medicare Part D, his financial crisis, his bailouts…..or did Rich forget? Because they’re definitely not Obama speech inaccuracies, they’re….FACTS. The financial impact of Bush’s activities is enumerated later in this piece.

Peasel has a lot of nerve criticizing the president’s teleprompters. At least it isn’t Bushspeak. Obama doesn’t say stuff like “I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully," "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family," "Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" Bush was discussing health care when he said, "…. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." Obama has mispronounced a few words, but nothing like this.

First, the “people” are handing Congress back to the Republicans because the Democratic elite think the “people” are politically and financially ignorant, stupid, religious bigots, racists and have little if any memory more than the prior day; ergo, can one blame the “people” for repudiating the president’s policies?

Naturally, Peasel provides absolutely NO evidence that the Democrat elite think the “people” are politically ignorant, stupid, religious bigots and racists. Who exactly are the Democratic elite? I have researched this a great deal and cannot find any quotes or other articles/interviews indicating they feel this way, or is this just Peasel’s opinion?

On the other hand, whose talking points are made to appeal to the fear of people who are politically ignorant (“believe the Republicans--everything is the Democrats’ fault”), financially ignorant (“Keep your government hands off my Medicare!”), religious bigots (Islamophobia) or racists (“Papers Please!”…  "They’re chopping heads off at the Mexico border!”)???  Hint: It’s not the Democrats.

Second, only in the past three months has the presidents focused “like a laser” on the economy. In the other 15 months, the president concentrated on passing health care reform, except when he was on one of his many luxurious vacations while an ever increasing number of Americans move into homeless shelters. ?

Actually most Democrats and other pundits have complained that the president was NOT concentrating on passing healthcare in those other 15 months, and that he left it too much in the hands of Pelosi and Reid. This was because at the beginning of 2010, Obama addressed the country with his “New Year’s Resolution”—“… job creation will be our number one focus in 2010.” And during this election season, while most Republicans are complaining that the stimulus is not creating jobs, the most objective fact-checking site around, Factcheck.com, has found that this is NOT true.

So, people were being forced to move into homeless shelters when Bush was cutting wood down in Texas, or when Reagan rode his horses in Santa Barbara, but that’s okay by Peasel: only when it happens under Obama it’s a terrible thing. And we have a blanket “guilt by association”. Michele goes on ONE “nice” vacation WITHOUT Obama, and now the president is  going on *multiple* luxurious vacations. But let’s get the real facts on which presidents take the most vacation.

**…According to one count, Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush spent more time on "vacation" during their first year than President Obama did. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton spent less time on "vacation." **

Then there's this musing by Peasel:

Third, the Democrats spent more than $3 trillion in the past 18 months, or almost a half million dollars per person, on unemployment.

So what did the Republicans spend: “The unpaid-for spending was on invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan (>$1 trillion), tax cuts primarily for the wealthy ($1.8 trillion), Medicare Part D with no-competition prescription drug industry gifts (about $1 trillion), and the $700B TARP bank bailout (that was by Bush, not Obama). All in all that's about $4.5 Trillion of spending and tax cuts, all on borrowed money. And the interest on that debt is a gift that keeps on adding to the debt.”

Actually, it’s more like $3 Trillion for the wars, so the Republicans have outdone Obama double.  Of course, deficits didn't matter (ask Dick Cheney) until Obama took office.

Fourth, the rest of the world’s economies are magically growing while America’s famous productivity continued its downward spiral in the “summer of recovery.”

I have not heard that any of them are growing. Again, no evidence or facts cited: at the very least he could have listed a single one. I guess he can’t deal with the fact that some of these countries with growing economies are “commie”  or have universal healthcare (which almost every industrialized nation has). Because that would make Peasel and the Republicans look pretty silly since they claim such things are job killers.

Fifth, regulatory oversight has now become a financial straitjacket ensuring a lethargic economy.

Why doesn’t Peasel call it for what it really is  Lawlessness.  Bush allowed lawlessness by non-enforcement or very lax enforcement, and had flat to negative job creation; that pervert Clinton had strong oversight and created 23 million jobs—maybe we need a perverted Democrat again.  Democratic tax increases on the wealthy led to a boom and Republican tax cuts for the wealthy and not-paid-for spending led to a bust.  But Peasel knows he’s better off ignoring those pesky facts.

And by the way, Rich, did regulations get in the way of the subprime crisis, or the gulf oil spill, or the mining accidents in West Virginia?

Sixth, our great presidential leader is in constant flux with the fat cat bankers, evil insurance industry, greedy Wall Street, overbilling doctors, heartless drug companies, tricky creditors, ominous oil industry and class warfare.

And before Obama, George W. Bush, our great presidential leader, was in a constant flux with the fat cat bankers, evil insurance industry, greedy Wall Street, overbilling doctors, heartless drug companies, tricky creditors, ominous oil industry and class warfare. Oh....AND the greedy subprime loan industry and greedy CDS players enabled by Phil Gramm, and people like Kenny Lay of Enron…that is, before going on one of his many, many vacations, of which he took a lot more than Obama.  [Note:  I'll stand corrected and take this out if I can find a letter to the editor where Peasel complains about these same things with Bush].

So keep fluxing, George W. Bush and the Republicans have so much capacity for fluxing they could collectively be a flux capacitor and go Back to the "Bush Years" in a modified DeLorean.

The president’s foreign policy consists of persistent apologies for American insensitivity or America’s human rights exploitation.

Yes, I remember how much Peasel loved Hillary (and Bill!).  Enough said.

If President Bush took the economy to the edge, then President Obama is pushing America over the edge. That feeling of a high is not stimulus, but the freefall into a bottomless pit of debt. To Mr. Heller’s chagrin, there is still one 18-month magic fix available to Americans , commonly known as a voting booth.

We’ve been in the bottomless pit of debts since the early 2000’s, and the Republicans aren’t going to bring us out either. Before I answer here, I’ll say: I bet $100 if Congressman Dale Kildee (a pro-life Democrat representing the Flint area) is running, he’ll be voted back in. So much for the voting booth in Flint.

But anyway, to repeat part of that Paul Hugenberg post:

It won’t be possible for the conservative right to reduce our deficit, and the economy drivers of wages, savings, and debt need 3-4 years to recover to pre-bust levels. Therefore, the Republican Wonder Years of 2011 and 2012 will bring us to a presidential election where the promises of the 2009 and 2010 conservatives can’t be met. The GOP will win the battle this November, but because THEY CANNOT WALK THEIR TALK, the war will be lost in 2012.

In this case, “either the GOP was so naive to believe that we didn’t have an issue in 2008 (and thus voted against the Stimulus), or it was too spineless to ask for a bigger stimulus. No matter, the choice between naive or spineless is a Hobson’s choice. Neither gets you anywhere you want to be.”  Republican monetarist policy had brought the Fed Funds rate down to almost zero, and there was nothing else left but Keynesian “stimulus” to try to bring the economy back.  The huge amount of borrowing during Bush’s tenure is now suddenly *important* with Obama. It’s now the Republicans’ luck that the economy needs several years to recover, and Obama made the mistake of setting “deadlines” that the GOP is not only holding him to, but making  a campaign centerpiece.  Unfortunately it's going to take longer than the Republicans will hold office, because the reality is there is no magic fix at the ballot box.  Nothing Peasel suggested is going to fix anything, ever.

Postscript:  It appears the M-Live website has a moderator or website administrator who caught my "11 paragraphs in a single paragraph" and corrected it to show the original 11 paragraphs.  Many thanks.