A fair-minded loved one from Redondo received the following "balanced" if unenthusiastic endorsement of Mitt Romney for president. It arrived here in Boston, where the 6 o'clock news on all major networks are currently showing pro-GOP ads over Democratic ads at what appears to be a 5-to-1 ratio.
If ads matter in Boston, Romney/Ryan will win New Hampshire, and Scott Brown will keep Ted Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat representing Massachusetts.
Here's the Romney endorsement:
http://www.tylernewton.com
And here's my reply:
Compared to Tea Party rants, this seems indeed relatively balanced & fair, and relatively enjoyable to read.
However: Maybe it is a measure of how frustrated Bitesfromedwin has become with despicable GOP tactics, that this blog does not agree with it.
In fact, at this point, Bites sees it as Fair-mindedness in Sheep's Clothing -- far more dangerous in misleading people than right-wing extremists' junk.
In fact, at this point, Bites sees it as Fair-mindedness in Sheep's Clothing -- far more dangerous in misleading people than right-wing extremists' junk.
Let me give just one example:
The writer seems willfully blind to experts' assessments about Romney's tax plan, which the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center demonstrated as patently false! This annoyed the GOP so much, that they got GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell ["My #1 goal as Senate Minority Leader is to make Obama a one-term president!"] to get the TPC report thrown out!
Sometimes, baloney gets packaged as nonpartisan reasonableness.
This surfaced in the 1st Obama/Romney Debate.
This surfaced in the 1st Obama/Romney Debate.
Note Romney's technique [it can disqualify you in formal debating] called "Spreading":
"Romney used a debate technique called Spreading. Climate deniers and creationists use it to cram falsehoods as arguments into what sounds like a rational discussion. In a classic debating competition, spreading is illegal and gets you disqualified from a debating match. Spreading is purposeful lying by flooding or dominating a debate with false information based on a rational statement. The faster your argument is presented, the less people can respond. The points are short and nonspecific and don't add up. The listener and moderator literally can't follow what the person is saying to even get their arms around the message to respond. The person then dives in again very quickly with more. It's a way for a less intelligent person to appear smart. I've worked with climate scientists on how to respond to such mind-numbing claptrap. The other name for it is a Gish Gallop. Duane Gish who was a creationist came up with it to argue with science. Talk over the other person with your lie, as if it's the truth. Fox News was built on it."
In my perhaps by-now warped-by-frustration opinion, the Tyler Newton endorsement of Romney, above, is ingenuous at best, and "spreading" at worst.
"Romney used a debate technique called Spreading. Climate deniers and creationists use it to cram falsehoods as arguments into what sounds like a rational discussion. In a classic debating competition, spreading is illegal and gets you disqualified from a debating match. Spreading is purposeful lying by flooding or dominating a debate with false information based on a rational statement. The faster your argument is presented, the less people can respond. The points are short and nonspecific and don't add up. The listener and moderator literally can't follow what the person is saying to even get their arms around the message to respond. The person then dives in again very quickly with more. It's a way for a less intelligent person to appear smart. I've worked with climate scientists on how to respond to such mind-numbing claptrap. The other name for it is a Gish Gallop. Duane Gish who was a creationist came up with it to argue with science. Talk over the other person with your lie, as if it's the truth. Fox News was built on it."
In my perhaps by-now warped-by-frustration opinion, the Tyler Newton endorsement of Romney, above, is ingenuous at best, and "spreading" at worst.
To reward the GOP with a Romney endorsement is nothing less than giving in to 4 years of blackmail.
I know, I know -- this is Paul Krugman again. But his words almost exactly describe & explain the biggest reason why Tyler Newton's "fair-minded" endorsement of Romney is frustrating in the extreme.
By the way, as I write this, Romney ads, and Scott Brown ads, in sheer numbers, are absolutely
creaming Obama's & Elizabeth Warren's spots.
You can thank the Supreme Court's notorious 5-4 Citizens United ruling of 2010 for enabling wealthy Republicans like Sheldon Adelson & the Koch Brothers to buy control of our federal government. And if Hollywood had as much money & power, then Citizens United would have bought the election for Obama & Elizabeth Warren.
It totally sucks.
And back to the language of Tyner Newton's "endorsement": "Does the Obama/Romney choice even matter?"
Well, in foreign affairs, consider how we are still trying to dig ourselves out of the consequences of GWB's neo-con "Get Saddam Hussein for Daddy Bush" war -- which also made us shift our focus in March 2003 from a nearly defeated Taliban in Afghanistan.
And, in domestic affairs, consider how GWB's policy of economic deregulation at home enabled the obscene housing bubble & crash, with full Big Bank & Wall Street collusion, while the SEC stood cluelessly & toothlessly by, and federal rating agencies like Moody's, and Standard & Poor, not only stood by, but actually gave Triple-AAA ratings to wildly inflated housing mortgage junk bonds!
That's why, for me, the "Tyler Newton" endorsement is fair-mindedness-in-sheep's-clothing.
It is a difficult pill to swallow -- as "balanced" as it seems.
Also, one has to consider the source.
It is a difficult pill to swallow -- as "balanced" as it seems.
Also, one has to consider the source.
Will a reader fill us in? Who IS "Tyler Newton"? He appears to be a young businessman. He calls his
business-oriented blog "The Dynamist."
business-oriented blog "The Dynamist."
hey tyler 'fig' newton is a futurist and past prepster.. also leading greenwich metaphysician and bloggist. you gotta clear the tracks
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