Romney rolls out Ryan for VP

Well it's official. Rmoney caved to the far right extremists and chose "Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver" Paul Ryan for VP. So much for moving to the middle in the general. As expected, Charlie Pierce already won the internets on the commentary.

Paul Ryan is an authentically dangerous zealot. He does not want to reform entitlements. He wants to eliminate them. He wants to eliminate them because he doesn't believe they are a legitimate function of government. He is a smiling, aw-shucks murderer of opportunity, a creator of dystopias in which he never will have to live. This now is an argument not over what kind of political commonwealth we will have, but rather whether or not we will have one at all, because Paul Ryan does not believe in the most primary institution of that commonwealth: our government. The first three words of the Preamble to the Constitution make a lie out of every speech he's ever given. He looks at the country and sees its government as something alien that is holding down the individual entrepreneurial genius of 200 million people, and not as their creation, and the vehicle through which that genius can be channelled for the general welfare.

Which, among other things, means that Paul Ryan, who lies awake at night worrying that The Deficit will come and eat our grandchildren, lives in a house overseen by the National Park Service, which means that he qualifies for a 20-percent investment tax credit for the house he lives in. Of course, his "budget" would largely decimate the NPS, but that would be only those parts of it enjoyed by other people.

Well worth reading in full at the link. And if you want more, take your pick at Memeorandum. Ezra has a pretty good bullet list, but my favorite so far is Think Progress, 12 things you should know about Paul Ryan. Actually, most of us already know those things but good to have the list handy. I expect there will many more additions as the weekend progresses and people dig through their archives.

On the bright side, this should quell any internal uprising at the convention, so I can probably toss my favorite conspiracy theory back into the old dustbin of history. So there's that...

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]