Daily Fix
Malik Bhago:
Alive & Well in Tampa
T. SHER SINGH
DAILY FIX
Friday, August 31, 2012
I am not an American. I am a Canadian through and through. Therefore, neither a Republican nor a Democrat.
But I do keep an eye on the goings on south of the border. Americans continue to suffer from delusions of grandeur. They still seem to think they rule the world. Even though Uncle Sam’s knee-caps were broken by none other than George W. Bush himself.
So, as a citizen of a world constantly under seige by our American friends - they’re still friends, as always - I have an interest in what goes on under the rubric of “democratic process” in their midst.
In the current mess that the U.S. is in, my sympathies lie with neither the Republicans nor the Democrats. Both appear to be in a conspiracy, together, albeit unknown to them, it appears, to bring down their own country, or even destroy it.
So, when I show my disdain over the shenanigans in Tampa this week, specifically over the silly antics at the Republican National Convention, I want to hasten to add that many of my remarks can easily be transported and seen to apply to the Democrat camp, I’m sure. You’ll see what I mean, when we get to Charlotte, North Carolina, next week.
But I do have my biases, nevertheless. I like to think they are not prejudices. That is, they are not PRE-judices. I believe I have rational and logical and well-thought out reasons for them.
Yes, I am for Obama all the way. No, having seen Romney in action these last few months, including the grand finale last night, I don’t think much of Romney or his crew.
Having got all of these preliminaries off my chest, now let’s talk about the big Republican night last night.
The following are thoughts as they came to mind, in no particular order, as I watched the circus on television:
1 Couldn’t help thinking of the Malik Bhago and Bhai Lalo story all night. Looks like Bhago is alive and well in Tampa and was kicking his heels high these last few days. Nanak? Couldn’t catch a glimpse of him anywhere. Now that I think of it, I bet he took the last flight to Louisiana last Monday. Looking for Lalo, I guess.
2 Here’s what I heard speaker after speaker say: I know you are unemployed and cannot find a job. And it’s true, I am filthy rich and want to get more and more rich, even if it still means no job for you. But I’m here to tell you, I’m very likeable. Romney is likeable. We’re all likeable. If only you knew us a little better.
3 Sh-hh-h-h! Please, let’s not mention George W. Bush at all. So what if he led the Republicans in destroying our economy, so what if he was the reason why the US is stumbling around today. But let’s not mention his name at all. Or the fact that we were his closest buddies. Be a good sport.
4 Lies? Oh, let’s not call them lies. And why are you fact-checking everything I say? Why is it necessary that what we say has to be true? You are not being fair! You liberal pinkos, you.
5 My Daddy wanted to be President. But he lost the election. My mommy wanted to be Senator. But she lost the election. Doesn’t matter how long it takes, we will keep on trying to take over the store. Why? Because that’s where the money is, isn‘t it? No more piddly thieving any more for us.
6 We’re for Freedom of Religion. But, fellas, here are the rules: if you want to join the plunder party, you have to publicly declare yourself a Christian. Unless you are willing to part with a lot of your own money. L-O-T-S! Like the Jews. See, we have a few of them here. There’s one … and there’s another … and …
7 The highlight of the evening - as billed by the organizers themselves - was Clint Eastwood. He was given prime billing, prime time … moments before Romney himself spoke. Sure, Eastwood appeared disoriented and confused, mumbled and stumbled. Certainly captured the right note of senility and dementia in the air.
8 Republicans can’t dance. They strut and they wiggle, they squiggle and they squirm, but they can’t dance to a tune. Not even to country music.
9 Remember, from a mere four short years ago, the Great White Hope? Sarah Palin, of course! Never saw her once. Locked up in a basement somewhere, with duct tape over her mouth? Hm-mm-m! Wonder who we’ll get to see … and not see … at the convention four years from now.
10 The purpose of these conventions used to be to actually vote and elect a leader. This time, we knew for months who it was. So why the need for a convention? People who want to bring about change and help bring America around, just spent a 100 million dollars holding a big party which served no real purpose. Change? What change?
11 What do you and I - well, America and Americans - know now that they didn’t know last Monday, before the convention began? Anything? About Romney? About the Republicans?
12 For a party that wants to be allowed to rule the country again, why did the evening look like we were in pre-Mandela South Africa? A Republican President - Abe Lincoln was his name - once referred to “a government of the people, by the people, for the people“. All I saw was - of the white people, by the white people, for the white people! Is that what Honest Abe meant? Well, pink, really. But you know what I mean.
13 Average age of the crowd seemed to be between 80 and 90. Explains all the IV bottles. And the ambulances parked outside. Every time Paul Ryan walked in, there would be a hush … you could hear the average age dropping instantly by a dozen years! Where are all the young? Not aborted, were they?
14 There were two words that worked like instant aphrodisiacs last night: “money” and “God”. A dangerous combination, if you ask me, when the two come together in the same room, or in the same brain. It’s like TNT, only, this one implodes and leaves no ethics or human decency standing.
15 They were so-o-o concerned, all of them, about creating jobs. They shed tears for the unemployed. A lot of hand-wringing over the plight of the poor. And then, they all went back, after the 100,000 balloons were dropped, to their $22,000 per night suites. To pray, I think … or something like that.
Here … you add your own thoughts. I have over-indulged.
Conversation about this article
1: Gurteg Singh (New York, USA), August 31, 2012, 8:24 PM.
The Romney-Ryan team, like many other politicians, is trying to win this election by gross misrepresentation of facts about Obama. Here is a very interesting excerpt from HuffPost: "According to Fox News columnist Sally Kohn, vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan's speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday 'was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech. On this measure, while it was Romney who ran the Olympics, Ryan earned the gold,' Kohn wrote." In a surprising move, Fox News joined CNN, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post's Wonkblog, and ThinkProgress in publishing a fact-check of the Republican vice presidential nominee's speech, finding that the speech was full of lies and misleading assertions. Kohn, who describes herself as a "progressive voice on Fox News," wrote in her Thursday column that though Ryan came off as likable during his speech, his misrepresentations and omissions "caused a much larger problem for himself and his running mate." In contrast, several Fox News commentators praised Ryan's speech on air after the event, without mentioning his misleading claims, according to Media Matters. In her column, Kohn called out four lies in Ryan's speech. She criticized Ryan for blaming President Obama for the shutdown of a General Motors plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, that actually was closed during the Bush administration. She also knocked Ryan for pinning the blame for S&P's downgrade of U.S. debt on Obama, when Republicans in Congress helped precipitate the downgrade by threatening to refuse to raise the debt ceiling. "The good news is that the Romney-Ryan campaign has likely created dozens of new jobs among the legions of additional fact checkers that media outlets are rushing to hire to sift through the mountain of cow-dung that flowed from Ryan's mouth," Kohn wrote.
2: Rosalia Scalia (Baltimore, Maryland, USA), August 31, 2012, 8:49 PM.
Thank you for telling the truth! We live in a country plagued by madness. Romney reminds me of an animated Ken doll. Ryan? So many lies and a great deal of misinformation in his speech, it's almost scary; for sure, the Zombie Apocalypse has begun already and the zombies attended the RNC convention en masse as their first order of business before they go out and eat up everyone else's brains.