Because it works.

When Paul Ryan delivered his address to the Republican convention, many commentators – even one from the Fox News organization – pointed out that it was quite possibly the biggest pack of lies ever delivered by a politician since Joe McCarthy’s 1950 speech in West Virginia. Some would have given McCarthy the nod for truth on the grounds that he appears to have actually believed that the phantoms no one else could see in the State Department were actually there. Of course, Ryan also believes that he ran a sub 3-hour marathon so it is quite likely that he too has a rich fantasy life where he has a little 28 room, 11-bath cottage in Galt’s Gulch. The thing is that although facts like how fast you have run a marathon or whether your budget will ever be balanced without dismantling Medicare, Social Security, Food Stamps may seem to have a liberal bias, they can have an equally conservative bias if you happen to be conservative and even more so if you are numbered among the “antennas to Heaven” crowd of uber-Christian conservative Christians (like the ones in Todd Snider’s song. Consider, if you will, the humble condom.

When I was in high school (Class of ’69) condoms were hard to obtain if you were a high school student. This often led to comical exchanges between drug store clerks who mistook a request for “some rubbers” as a request for pull-on overshoes especially when the clerk would ask “What size?”. So many young men were forced to fall back on those obtainable (in 5 “vibrant” colors) from vending machines in the men’s rooms of a local gas station and sold “for prevention of disease only”. Now, of course, they have their own aisle at Wal-Mart, Target, and at least 3 feet of shelf space in most grocery stores. Okay, maybe not in your town but here in Snake Collich, Pennsyltucky it’s difficult to avoid them. Clearly, the local merchants have decided that making condoms available to young people is good for business. After all, they not only reduce unwanted pregnancies, they also reduce the spread of serious, life-threatening diseases. What’s not to like about condoms? That’s the liberal point of view – it focuses on the end result which is judged to be a good one. If you are of the opposite opinion which starts with the firm opinion that anything which reduces the risk of extra-marital, hetero-sexual hanky-panky is in and of itself bad because extra-marital sex of any kind (including the non-hetero variety) is evil and therefore making condoms difficult to obtain was a good thing and the current ease of access is due to the moral decline of our nation and that in order to return to a state of moral order, condoms and any other form of birth control, must be controlled.

A recent study (you can read it here if you’re prone to insomnia) looks into this matter more closely and concludes that conservatives tend to believe that condoms simply don’t work. The study put it this way: “..the more participants endorsed the belief that condom education was morally wrong even if it prevented pregnancy and STDs, the less they believed that condoms were effective at preventing these problems, and the more they believed that promoting condom use encouraged teenagers to have sex.”

Republicans lie all the time and get away with it is because their core constituency is just like Elder Price (in The Book of Mormon) who “just believes”. Even when the news media points out that Paul Ryan is lying, his followers continue to believe him.

Don

Sam in Kyle

Over the years each First Lady has had a cause. We have Lady Bird to thank for much of the beauty we see along our roadways. Betty Ford championed rights for women and Rosalyn Carter highlighted those with mental disabilities. Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” was as big a flop as her husband’s presidency but it was still an effort. Barbara Bush and Laura Bush both championed literacy, sadly with lackluster results in their immediate family. For Hilary Clinton, her cause was health care and Michelle Obama’s is childhood obesity.

So if by some hideous fate Ann Romney ends up as First Lady what will her cause be? She’s already announced that she will be working to prevent teen drug use. Yet, judging by this article, her efforts may well be directed toward torturing young drug users into submission. Romney has a long history of being involved in “rehab” schools for teens—not just any institutions, but “tough love” ones with disturbing reputations for abuse.

Bain Capital acquired CRC Health in 2006. Although Romney had left the company by then, he still receives money from the profits. Three Bain partners sit on the board; two have donated $500,000 to his super PAC. Among the allegations against the clinics are that, “children have died of neglect under their care as the pressure that Bain exerts on the company to make a profit filters down to their patients.”

Robert Litchfield, a major Romney fundraiser and fellow Mormon, is the founder and board member of the World Wide Association for Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS). Among the allegations brought against the school by former patients are that, “Staff routinely locked teens in dog cages, sexually and physically abused them, starved them, and emotionally brutalized them.”

Another major Romney supporter is Melvin Sembler, a “Florida strip-mall magnate who was a national fundraising chair for Romney in 2008 and is again a Florida State Co-Chair for Romney’s finance committee.” Sembler’s drug rehab clinics, Straight Inc., had a long reputation for abuse including one young girl who, “testified to being beaten, raped, locked in a janitor’s closet in pants soiled by urine, feces, and menstrual blood…”

“You can trust Mitt; he loves America,” said Ann this week at the world’s largest Klan rally. This must be what is called ‘tough love’ really, really ‘tough love’. And even though Mitt has a well-deserved reputation as a flip-flopper, I have no doubt that he and Paul Ryan will treat our nation exactly the way his friends treat teen drug users.

One of the really cool things about being a delegate is that you get free stuff, literally stuffed. I got a tote bag with a cute stuffed donkey in it.

Today was Carolina Fest Day and me and ole Bubba met Fenway Fran in downtown Charlotte for an obscene display of fried food and everything you can imagine with OBAMA written on it for seven city blocks. Ole Bubba got interviewed by Fox News and told them that there were more minorities in one block of Charlotte today than there was at the entire GOP convention. If you hear that hell froze over, flip on Fox News and see Bubba.

About a block down the street, MSNBC had a whole set up instead of just interviewing people on the street.

I will be attending my second party in a few minutes. National conventions are busy places and, Honey, my tired is starting to hurt.

So now I’m bonafide. This is Kate and me making sure people know where we’re from.

And here’s my papers. Fenway Fran made the oh so classy necklace they are hanging from.

We spent the afternoon hugging people from Texas who arrived safely and our fearless leader, Gilberto Hinojosa, will arrive this evening. He fell off his bicycle and is still healing up.

We heard some rumblings about our volunteers in training being held up at the stadium because somebody is protesting. The price of democracy.

I get my delegate credentials in a couple of hours so I have time to bring you up to date. Bubba and I got here last night amid much wet midget people running around overloaded on ice cream and moose ears. It seems that the Texas delegation is staying at a water theme park on Labor Day weekend. It’s a nice place but a magic show with rug rats covering the floor did not lend itself to adult celebration.

The big talk here (Montana is also staying here) is what a delightfully charming disaster the Republican convention was. Seriously, after Clint Eastwood left the stage, they qualified for FEMA help. After Rubio left the stage, some optioning “Four More Years” signs for the the Romney campaign just lost his life savings.

After Romney left the stage, they turned out the lights because the Party is over.

So this morning, they gave us this nifty little convention guide that fits in your wallet. It folds out with the convention schedule and maps and the bus routes.

Like me on Facebook for more adventures.

Caucuses start tomorrow!

Paul Ryan is a stinker. A fibbing stinker.

Now he’s become Rosie Ruiz with a strange haircut.

Ryan’s claim of an under three hour marathon turned out to be a honkin’ lie.

Turns out that Ryan’s three hour marathon turned out to be over four hours and was called The Grannies Marathon. And it was 20 years ago. He hasn’t run since then. Except, for course, for now – when the truth his chasing his butt.