Maybe it takes getting personally hurt by these jackals before the people who call themselves "conservative" wake up to what the Republicans are really all about these days. Bob Lutz discovered this the hard way when the Masters of Deception finally hit his baby in an attempt to create some more manufactured outrage, ala Solyandra, over the Volt. It seems that Rush and the propaganda machine at FOX caught the attention of Lutz when they started in on their usual bash-any-Obama-success-story with flat-out lies standard spiel, and Bob wasn't too happy with that. Check out the Forbes article where Lutz lays out the facts on the Volt and then proceeds to start a fire of his own:
But who the hell cares about facts when you’re in O’Reilly’s self-described “No Spin Zone?” (The fine print might as well read, “We said ‘no spin,’ not ‘no deliberate misstatement of facts.’ ”) What on Earth is wrong with the conservative media movement that it feels it’s OK to spread false information, OK to damage the reputation of perhaps the finest piece of mechanical technology our country has produced since the space shuttle, OK to hurt an iconic American company that is roaring back to global pre-eminence, OK to hurt American employment in Hamtramck, Mich., as long as it damages the Obama administration’s reputation?
While as a conservative Republican I may well share the goal, I deplore the means employed to attain it. The conservative cause damages itself, destroys its credibility through the expedient spreading of untruths. The public will figure it out.
Um, Bob? They do this with everything. Every issue facing the public. They lie. All the time. The majority of the public has pretty much figured this out, but as long as your corporate buddies keep feeding this 24/7 media machine and the attack dogs in Congress with cash, the lies will continue. And if you want to get really upset, just check out the Congressional hearings:
GM's Akerson stood up for the Volt, saying that the fire that's caused so much commotion only happened "after putting the battery through lab conditions that no driver would experience in the real world," according to his prepared remarks. Strickland said NHTSA "pulled no punches" in the Volt fire investigation – which recently ended after finding the Volt to be a safe car – but Issa was having none of it. He told Strickland: "I hear you, I don't believe you."
You can find the official Congressional website about the hearing (which includes a video of the entire session) here. The subcommittee's staff report, "Government Motors: A Preliminary Report on the Effects of Bailouts and Politics on the Obama Administration's Ability to Protect American Consumers" is available as a PDF. Be careful when reading it, though, as it starts by subtly misleading the reader.
Subtly? What was subtle about that title? The political agenda is very apparent right from the start, and your taxpayer dollars are paying for it, too. And guess what folks, it worked. Volt sales fell in January, and now GM has to scramble to mitigate the damage of the lies of the GOP. Let's hope it doesn't cost anyone on the line or in the battery factories their job.
GM abandoned this month its sales target of 45,000 Volts in the United States for 2012, saying instead it would match "supply to demand."
It should be obvious from the political campaign this year - the Republicans don't care about the truth. The Republicans don't care about American ingenuity. The Republicans don't care about American jobs. The Republicans certainly don't care about you if you are in the way of their ultimate goal of taking back power.
Why in God's name would anyone vote for that?