Sometimes, bullet points arrive on lists dressed to the nines, in full metal jackets, but hit home so hard, you'd swear those talking points were all being done by hollow points, and worse.
Or so you might think -- for people who still do, from time to time, think.
Sample clips of this ammunition:
*** The Romney tax plan flow chart, simplified for dummies: If you earn more that $200,000, your taxes go down; if you earn less than $200,000, your taxes go up.
You'd think that would be it, right there, show over -- but, no go: we've blown through half a billion dollars in ad shouts and we're nowhere close to the media carpet-bombing that will signal the end-time in this eternal election cycle. Makes you wonder what else could be done with this money, than shove around lies, bald lies, and partial truths.
*** The Ryan budget plan calls for cutting $11 billion from veteran spending.
Despite all its "Support Our Troops" rhetoric, the GOP never learns. In 2005, Bush under-funded the VA by a billion dollars, and the agency stayed open only via an emergency spending bill. The GOP wants to go this route again, making 45,000 vets wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan go on that ride.
*** The female body has ways to shut down pregnancy in cases of legitimate rape.
Rep. Todd Akin (R-Missouri) has joined Romney in the foot-tasting contest, telling a local TV reporter that in cases of "legitimate rape," as he calls it, pregnancy rarely occurs because "the female body has ways that try to shut that whole thing down."
It's not a first for Akin. He joined with Paul Ryan last year as an original co-sponsor of the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," which introduced the country not only to the warped term, "forcible rape," but to the duo's insistence that only pregnancies arising from "forcible rape" should be allowed abortion.
This Act also clearly demonstrated their incredible lack of human empathy and humane consideration of rape victims in any other category: statutory or incest, or for victims who were drugged or of limited mental capacity.
*** Is $100 million enough to let the buyer pick a Veep?
A veteran GOP consultant, Roger Stone, says it's enough, and that it's already occurred, with the Koch brothers purchasing a slot for Paul Ryan by promising to give $100 million for "independent expenditure" on the GOP ticket.
Knowing that Republicans are impressed by heaps of money, and the ability to manipulate people emotionally rather than factually, is anyone shocked or surprised? One thought: When you've already bought and paid for an entire movement, like Teabaggery, what's a slot on a ticket?
*** Hard to believe that some politicians can be so wrong for the people, the country, and the times -- and yet, hordes of people continue to believe they're right.
Case in point: How about a candidate who ...
- boosts taxes on the poor and the middle class while cutting them for the rich?
- scraps Social Security and Medicare?
- creates a budget that would kill 4 million jobs in 2 years?
- completely eliminates Pell Grants for a million students?
- votes to end funding for Planned Parenthood, where 97% of services focus on women's health, and only 3% of services involve abortion?
- is in favor of allowing insurance companies to discriminate by gender?
- votes against equal pay for women?
- supports letting states prosecute women who receive abortions, as well as the doctors who provide them?
- supports $40 billion in subsidies for big oil -- even while having stakes in companies that would benefit from those subsidies?
- sponsors an amendment that would legally grant the same rights to a fertilized egg as to a person?
- blames Obama on the closure of an auto plant that actually shuttered under Bush?
- denies requesting stimulus funds -- until proof turns up that he specifically requested those same funds?
These are among the many attributes and bragging rights claimed by Paul Ryan. (Attention, Koch brothers: You paid $99 million too much for him -- probably more!)
*** Romney says 63% of voters are "small-minded" for wanting proof that he's paid that whopping 13% in taxes every year, as he's said.
Last week, RNC Chair Reince Preibus called that same percentage of voters "ridiculous" for daring to ask for proof from someone who has flip-flopped more than a cheap beachwear- sandal tester, and stretched the truth more often than, well, a politician.
Romney told NBC "there's nothing we're hiding," but that revealing more would "only give Democrats more ammunition."
Come again? You don't want to show more information because there's more proof in there that can used against you? Willard, you're such a big tease.
*** Medicare will be replaced with a voucher system under the Ryan plan.
Where to begin -- let's see: If you had a heart attack, were hit by a bus, or simply had an accident, would you rather have actual healthcare, or a coupon good for 20% off healthcare?
This sort of question used to be called a no-brainer -- until common sense no longer was, and voters demonstrated they had no brains. Common sense still isn't, and voters will prove it again in less than three months.
Heavy munitions, and big holes in logic, these, for mere bullet points.
