Saturday Open Thread [10.27.12]

It’s Batten Down the Hatches Saturday! What are you doing to avoid the panic and get ready for the storm?

Political Literary Prediction of the Day:

“Nevertheless a certain class of dishonesty, dishonesty magnificent in its proportions, and climbing into high places, has become at the same time so rampant and so splendid that there seems to be reason for fearing that men and women will be taught to feel that dishonesty, if it can become splendid, will cease to be abominable. If dishonesty can live in a gorgeous palace with pictures on all its walls, and gems in all its cupboards, with marble and ivory in all its corners, and can give Apician dinners, and get into Parliament, and deal in millions, then dishonesty is not disgraceful, and the man dishonest after such a fashion is not a low scoundrel.” — Trollope, predicting the rise of Romneyism.

Right?

This dishonesty has expanded over the past day or so with our boy Rmoney telling an Ohio crowd that Chrysler was sending Jeep jobs to China.

He is lying about this, of course, and of course it reminds people of the lie he is telling about not letting Detroit go bankrupt. How do I know he is lying? Let’s let the people at Chrysler (they keep a blog!) tell their own story:

October 25, 2012 4:24 PM
There are times when the reading of a newswire report generates storms originated by a biased or predisposed approach.

On Oct. 22, 2012, at 11:10 a.m. ET, the Bloomberg News report “Fiat Says Jeep® Output May Return to China as Demand Rises” stated “Chrysler currently builds all Jeep SUV models at plants in Michigan, Illinois and Ohio. Manley (President and CEO of the Jeep brand) referred to adding Jeep production sites rather than shifting output from North America to China.”

Despite clear and accurate reporting, the take has given birth to a number of stories making readers believe that Chrysler plans to shift all Jeep production to China from North America, and therefore idle assembly lines and U.S. workforce. It is a leap that would be difficult even for professional circus acrobats.

Let’s set the record straight: Jeep has no intention of shifting production of its Jeep models out of North America to China. It’s simply reviewing the opportunities to return Jeep output to China for the world’s largest auto market. U.S. Jeep assembly lines will continue to stay in operation. A careful and unbiased reading of the Bloomberg take would have saved unnecessary fantasies and extravagant comments.

And I’m not sure if this counts as storm preparation, but this song will stay in your brain for awhile. You’re welcome:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp7NZaH9KrY[/youtube]

What interests you today?