UPDATED: Right-wing bloggers uncover Obama's Enemies List (And it comes with a seven year warranty!)
May 30, 2009 12:47 pm ET by Eric Boehlert
It's official: This nutty right-wing conspiracy hatched by the blogosphere has gone bust. (I know, right?)
The premise was that Obama personally oversaw which Chrysler dealership were forced to close as part of the company's, government-sponsored restructuring. And since Obama picked which ones got the ax, guess what? He shuttered dealership whose owners gave money to Republicans. It's all part of Obama's ruthless plan to "punish" GOP donors.
Or something.
Trust us, this was a very big deal among right-wing true believers this week even though, as we tried to point out, all the bloggers' dogged research was able to confirm was that car dealers in general give lots of money to Republican politicians. Meaning there's nothing to indicate that the dealerships that survived were big Democratic donors. Clueless bloggers simply confirmed that dealers that got closed had given to the GOP in the past and then deduced the evil connection.
Anyway, the Macomb Daily in Michigan does the (further) honors of debunking this nonsense:
In Macomb County, three dealerships were closed in the Chrysler bankruptcy process and seven were saved. The FEC records show no noticeable difference in the political leanings of the owners of the 10 businesses.
Anthony Viviano, president of the Metro Detroit Dodge dealer's association and owner of Sterling Heights Dodge, which will remain in operation, said politics was never a factor in the process.
"That's just a bunch of baloney," said Viviano, former president of the Detroit Area Dealers Association.
According to the FEC, Viviano donated $4,150 to federal candidates over the past 10 years, with most of the money flowing to former Republican senator Spence Abraham and GOP Rep. Candice Miller. The only deviation was a $500 contribution to Democrat Carl Marlinga's 2002 bid for Congress.
As with every other Chrysler dealer in Macomb, Viviano did not donate to President Obama or any other 2008 presidential candidates.
Uh-oh, Chrysler dealer Vivano is staying open, yet 90 percent of his political donations have gone to Republicans. How did Obama let him slip through the cracks?!
When they go off the deep end on stories like this, I always do the research that ends debunking them and laughing. This is similar to the story making the rounds on rightwing sites about a couple in San Diego who have been holding religious Bible Study group meetings in their home for years. Finally the neighbors got tired of the weekly block clogging the attendees did, and they complained to the cops and the zoning people. The couple were interviewed, it was determined it was a weekly Bible Study, and that's a non-permitted use in a neighborhood when there are an average of 15 non-relatives attending each week.
On the rightwing blogs, however, they turned it into an attack on religion, which it wasn't. They tried to compare it to a yearly Super Bowl party event that might clog the neighborhood's streets - something that happens once a year is not the same as an event that happens every week.
Large religious weekly meetings should be held in public places with off-street parking, not in homes. It is not anti-religion to make that determination, and if the resident couple doesn't like that zoning law, they should get the law changed, not violate it and then whine and carp about getting caught violating it after years of getting away with it.
Accusations about a conspiracy to close only Republican-owned car dealerships should be backed up with facts that look at closed ones versus ones that are going to remain open.
Hypocrisy strikes again - they want to claim that they are for fair treatment, but when they get treated fairly, they ignore the evidence of that fair treatment and claim a conspiracy and demand unfair treatment and special privileges.
I live in Texas and trust me, the right-wing crowds here are actually quite scary in how limited their views are. They can truly only see one side to an issue - it is black or white - and they cannot grasp any gray area that is the belly of the issues we face. They live in constant fear of another terrorist attack when they should be more concerned about the healthcare they are getting (I for one try to teach people how big the death rate from hospital acquired infections are in the United States - go in with a broken arm and never come home).
I cannot believe how much power these right-wingers have given to Obama. I mean to listen to them, Obama is the cause of everything that is wrong in America.
Hello? We just lived through 8 years of a distastrous Presidency and Congress!!!!!
Anyway, this entire thing about Obama closing these places is ridiculous. And another "theory" that should, and only get short shrift, but alas, it does not. It has a life of its own.
Again, if they don't like the zoning regulations that they are violating, then they should petition to change that zoning law.
It doesn't matter what you have an issue with. If you think the law is wrong, then you can go fight to change it too if you'd like. Until it's changed, it's the zoning regulation in place to cover religious meetings, which aren't supposed to impose an undue burden on a residential neighborhood!
Since it turned out that something close to 92% of auto dealers / auto sales lots, etc, etc gave or gives to Republican (read: GOP) interests...
This is as pathetic an attempt at making a mountain out of a molehill as the new internet conspiracy floating out there that Mancow Mueller was not actually water-boarded to prove that that technique was and always has been torture!
Gotta love the right-wing lunatics among us... they don't give up with their collective insanity... and it makes for some good entertainment
Chrysler planned closures at least as far back as February, 2008. That's long before Obama took office, so closures weren't Obama's idea. Here's a link to prove it:
http://www.carseek.com/news/february2008/Chrysler-announces-Project-Genesis/
The White House and Chrysler both deny any White House involvement in choosing who gets closed. The only reason that the wingers believe the White House is involved is a statement from the lawyer for the closed dealerships that while deposing a Chrysler executive he got the "impression" that Chrysler would rather not close the dealerships. The lawyer has no direct statement from anyone that the White House was involved. My link disproves the lawyer's claims that Chrysler didn't want the closures.
Since the White House didn't make the picks, they could not have chosen based on political donations. They didn't even choose at all.
Anyway, the liberal media is just a red herring, and a myth. It's sort of like big foot, or the loch ness monster. There will always be some people who believe the hype, but for the most part, they're being played.
Sit back and ponder this....Two days without Fox News/Rush/SeannietheSissyBoy, etc., etc. There would be mass suicide and riots. No fuel for thinking would scramble the minds of the sheeple. They would be LOST. And by the third day, they wouldn't remember anything, wondering why they all these teabags in thier homes and offices.
They would have to learn to think OUT of the TEACUP