COUPON BOY! COUPON BOY! COUPON BOY! COUPON BOY! COUPON BOY!
The ED Show – Ryan’s attack on women’s health and economic security
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Today’s featured artist from the 80’s-90’s Pattie LaBelle
STIR IT UP
Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.
August 14, 2012 4:03 PMA
Blast From the Disreputable Past
By Ed Kilgore
I’ve been examining my conscience to figure out exactly why the Romney-Ryan campaign’s “Obama killed welfare work requirement” large and continuing series of ads and speech references and talking points enrages me so very much.
Yes, I used to be something of a welfare policy wonk, and know how incredibly mendacious and wrong-minded this line of attack is, and how deeply hypocritical Republicans are for complaining that Obama doesn’t want welfare recipients to work even as they are trying to destroy every single public policy that “makes work pay” for people trapped in poverty. And when Romney’s ads and surrogates claim that the administration’s willingness to entertain state waivers from the specific rules of the 1996 law represent a “gutting” of that law, it does trip across memories of the perpetual willingness of Republicans prior to and ever since 1996 to dump the whole income-maintenance issue on the states with no strings.
But lying and hypocrisy have become standard weapons in Team Mitt’s arsenal, going back to the savage primary attacks on fellow-Republicans, so why does this particular example bother me egregiously?
And then the obvious finally hit me: the Romney campaign is reviving the single oldest tactic of southern reactionaries: race-baiting white working class voters to distract them from the many issues on which this segment of the electorate is naturally unsympathetic to policies that reinforce economic and social privilege. It’s how the Bourbons reasserted control over the Populists in the late nineteenth century. It’s how conservatives undermined southern support for the economic policies of the New Deal and Fair Deal and New Frontier and Great Society. It was ultimately the fulcrum for the realignment of the whole region from the Democratic to the Republican Party.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_08/a_blast_from_the_disreputable039228.php
August 14, 2012 10:02 AM
Entitlements? What Entitlements?
By Ed Kilgore
One way the Romney campaign may decide to cope with the controversy aroused by the choice of Paul Ryan is to pretend he’s been selected for qualities other than those universally associated with him, and changes absolutely nothing about the GOP strategy and message. I got a taste of this yesterday when doing a radio show in which the relentlessly on-message Jennifer Rubin insisted Paul Ryan’s all about jobs-jobs-jobs and not “entitlement reform.” Now comes the Washington Examiner’s Byron York with a peculiar piece from the campaign trail approvingly citing Ryan’s total self-effacement:
On Monday afternoon, in his first solo appearance as Mitt Romney’s running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., answered a question troubling more than a few Republican strategists: Will his campaign be more about the Romney plan for the economy, or the Ryan budget?
The answer is the Romney plan. In a speech before a rowdy crowd at the Iowa State Fair — one that included some loud and determined hecklers — Ryan stuck to the message of jobs, jobs, jobs. In about 12 minutes of high-energy remarks, the words “Medicare” and “entitlements” didn’t even come up. Although press coverage focused mostly on the heckling and not what Ryan actually said, the new candidate was all about creating jobs and restoring prosperity, and not about reforming entitlements.
Now York is enough of a reporter that he couldn’t resist an off-message observation about Ryan’s tack:
If that continues, we might see a campaign in which both Republican candidates seek to downplay their signature achievements — Romney downplaying his Massachusetts universal health care program, and Ryan downplaying the Ryan budget.
The difference is that Mitt Romney spent the better part of five years running away from his record in Massachusetts, backed by vast resources and (at least in the current cycle) shrewdly exploiting the abundant weaknesses of GOP presidential rivalries. Until, well, right now, if Paul Ryan was known for anything other than his budget plan, it was for such equally unhelpful qualities like his fondness for Ayn Rand, his role in pushing George W. Bush into a politically disastrous Social Security privatization proposal, and his unusually hard-core views on cultural issues like abortion.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_08/entitlements_what_entitlements039212.php
The New New Deal
President Obama’s stimulus has been an astonishing, and unrecognized, success, argues Michael Grunwald.
By David Plotz|
Posted Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2012, at 4:30 AM ET
Michael Grunwald, a Time magazine correspondent, this week publishes The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era, a gripping account of President Obama’s stimulus bill. Grunwald writes that the stimulus has transformed America—and American politics—in ways that we have failed to recognize. I interviewed him by email about the book.
Slate: What possessed you to write this book?
Grunwald: I fled Washington for the public policy paradise of South Beach while writing my last book, about the Everglades and Florida, so in 2010 I was only vaguely aware of the Beltway consensus that President Obama’s stimulus was an $800 billion joke. But because I write a lot about the environment, I was very aware that the stimulus included about $90 billion for clean energy, which was astonishing, because the feds were only spending a few billion dollars a year before. The stimulus was pouring unprecedented funding into wind, solar, and other renewables; energy efficiency in every form; advanced biofuels; electric vehicles; a smarter grid; cleaner coal; and factories to make all that green stuff in the U.S.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogation/2012/08/the_new_new_deal_a_book_argues_that_president_obama_s_stimulus_has_been_an_astonishing_success.single.html
Breaking new ground in Chutzpah Politics
By Steve Benen – Tue Aug 14, 2012 3:11 PM EDT.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan intend to end Medicare, replacing it with a private voucher scheme. So, naturally, the first campaign commercial from the Republican ticket since the weekend’s announcement is an attack ad going after President Obama on … Medicare
http://youtu.be/l4gPvToKTWU
In this painfully ridiculous spot, the voiceover tells voters Obama “cut $716 billion dollars from Medicare … to pay for Obamacare.” The ad goes on to say, “So now the money you paid for your guaranteed healthcare is going to a massive new government program that’s not for you.”
What’s remarkable is just how spectacularly dishonest Romney is. It’s like he heard about an award that goes to the lyingest liar who ever lied in the history of liars, and Romney’s so eager to win the award that he’s becoming a parody of himself.
Reality is actually quite simple. Republicans argue that Medicare savings are necessary for the health of the program, and Obama found such savings, without touching Medicare benefits, and while strengthening the financial health of the system. The savings are so sensible, they’re part of Paul Ryan’s Republican budget plan — which Romney has endorsed.
………………………………..
Of course, in the bigger picture, I understand the loathsome strategy — Romney just partnered with the “kill Medicare” guy, so he has to lash out with a massive deception in the hopes that voters are fools. But the ridiculous attack ad not only treats seniors like idiots, it also keeps the Medicare issue right where Democrats want it: up front and center.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/14/13281134-breaking-new-ground-in-chutzpah-politics?lite
Lil Eddie Ryan does NOT want a piece of this:
Vice President Joe Biden jokingly asked voters in Danville, Va., Tuesday if they had Swiss bank accounts, a reference to Mitt Romney’s financial holdings.
“How many of you have a swiss bank accounts?” Biden asked, as the audience laughed. “Raise your hand.”
He continued: “How many of you have significant millions of dollars — we do not know how much — invested in the Cayman Islands?”
“Man, you guys are out of touch.” LMBAO
video at link
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/biden-jokes-to-audience-you-guys-are-out
One of Congress’ most bitter partisans
By Steve Benen – Tue Aug 14, 2012 10:12 AM EDT.
One of the key problems with Paul Ryan’s role on Mitt Romney’s ticket is the scope of appeal — Romney is running on the most right-wing platform Americans have seen in a generation, and then he picked the most right-wing running mate in modern history.
At the very moment one might expect the Republican candidate to expand his appeal to center and American mainstream, Romney is doing the opposite.
To address the problem, the former governor is apparently going to pretend his VP nominee has broad appeal. Indeed, in the introductory speech on Saturday morning, Romney said, “In a city that’s far too often characterized by pettiness and personal attacks, Paul Ryan is a shining exception. He doesn’t demonize his opponents. He understands that honorable people can have honest differences. He appeals to the better angels of our nature. There are a lot of people in the other party who might disagree with Paul Ryan; I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t respect his character and judgment.”
Watching this, I kept thinking, is there some other Paul Ryan in Congress?
Sahil Kapur had a good item on this yesterday.
Mitt Romney has been talking up Rep. Paul Ryan’s bipartisan credentials since he unveiled the congressman as his running mate early Saturday. But the mild-mannered Wisconsinite’s record reveals a near-total absence of Democratic support for his many ambitious proposals, very few of which have won enough support to become law. […]
On the campaign trail in Florida Monday, Romney again praised Ryan for “working across the aisle” to find solutions to the nation’s problems.
The argument belies Ryan’s storied record as a no-compromise conservative ideologue, an approach that has become more rigid during the Obama administration. He has become his party’s visionary on sweeping proposals to remake the federal budget, wedding nearly all Republicans to a blueprint that has failed to win over a single Democrat.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/14/13277325-one-of-congress-most-bitter-partisans?lite
Tue Aug 14, 2012 at 09:35 AM PDT.
The Virtue of Selfishness: Romney, Ryan and Rand+*
The poet and memoirist Maya Angelou wrote this about how to judge a person’s character: “Believe people when they tell you who they are. They know themselves better than you do.” With his selection of Representative Paul Ryan as a running mate, Mitt Romney has told us exactly who he would be as President: a selfish capitalist. A Romney-Ryan White House would elevate selfishness above all else.
Author, philosopher Ayn RandTo understand the values of Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan, it is necessary to understand their intellectual forebear, Ayn Rand. Ms. Rand was one of the most extreme public intellectuals of the twentieth century. As her central creed, she rejected the idea that people in a community should approach each other with charity, compassion, and altruism. According to Ayn Rand, a charitable heart is for suckers. Selfishness is the way to go. Lest you think I am exaggerating, one of Ayn Rand’s important works, a collection of philosophical essays, is entitled “The Virtue of Selfishness,” and it is an extended attack upon the idea of altruism.
Mitt Romney is already well known for his lifelong commitment to ruthless self-enrichment. Governor Rick Perry famously observed during the Republican primary that Mr. Romney devoted his career to the practice of Vulture Capitalism. He would buy up companies and do to them whatever was necessary to extract the most profits for Bain Capital and its investors, even when that meant firing workers, outsourcing jobs, and loading up companies with so much debt that they were forced to declare bankruptcy. When companies would fail, Bain and Mr. Romney often extracted massive profits.
——————————————————————————–
There is nothing illegal about these practices. But there is nothing admirable about them either. Many Americans go into business in order to build something — they make money while also creating jobs and contributing to their communities. Just so, some venture capitalists approach their work with the spirit and desire to strengthen institutions at the same time they make a profit. That was not Bain Capital. As Americans have learned more about how Mr. Romney made his money at Bain, Mr. Romney has talked about Bain less, apparently discovering that “I didn’t break the law” is not much of a message. With questions still unanswered about how much or how little Mr. Romney paid in taxes on his hundreds of millions of dollars in Bain profits, the Romney campaign has become desperate to change the conversation.
Enter Paul Ryan. The selection of a running mate always makes a splash, and Representative Ryan is having his moment in the spotlight. Youthful, handsome, with blue eyes and a quick mind, Mr. Ryan has created a flurry of excitement on the far Right. But Mr. Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan has ensured that the focus of this election will remain squarely on the values that both men would bring to the White House. And Mr. Ryan has told us what his governing value would be: Ayn Rand’s brand of Selfishness.
Paul Ryan has identified Ayn Rand as his greatest inspiration. Her work has shaped his thinking more than any other single person, throughout his career in politics. Mr. Ryan has made campaign videos extolling the work of Ayn Rand, saying that Rand’s writings are “sorely needed” in today’s America. According to Paul Ryan, Ayn Rand “more than anyone else” understood “the morality of Capitalism.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/14/1120035/-The-Virtue-of-Selfishness-Romney-Ryan-and-Rand
Tue Aug 14, 2012 at 10:17 AM PDT.
The Underlying Narrative That Will Cause Romney To Lose+*
The Christian fundamentalist right will never admit it, but in terms of actual beliefs and practice, and not just lip service, the Romney/Ryan ticket is a deeply anti-Christian ticket. It’s about self and ego over all others. But it’s not just anti-Christian. The Romney/Ryan ethic is antithetical not only to Christ’s teachings, but to Judaism’s core precepts, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, most other religions, and most non-religious ethical systems.
For example, utilitarianism’s core principle is the greatest good for the greatest number. Now it can get very complex, as my friend Neil the Ethical Werewolf (a philosophy professor) has explained to me, but the core principle generally does not say that selfishness (the greatest good for me and screw you Jack) is the defining principle. Kantian systems tend to look at the good of the action and not at its consequences the way utilitarians do. Now I’m way out of my league here, so I’ll stop. The point is that most major non-religious ethical systems reject egoism as the defining principle. (Randian Objectivism is not a major system, and laughable in the field, but Ryan loves it and Romney lives it.)
Most religious and ethical systems of thought seek to balance the egoism of self with compassion for others and (with respect to religions generally) the idea of a power (God) or precepts greater than mere self-seeking. Something more than the self is the name of the game. For many, it is God and a conception that “I am not God” is deep within both Judaism and Christianty (the First Commandment)
For Romney and Ryan, the self is their God. Their entire lives and philosophies are blasphemous in the eyes of the Lord in Christian and Judaic thought. (also Islam, and Buddhism is all about not-self, which is considered to be an illusion) And that is a problem for folks who are voting, even if they do not always consciously notice this. They feel it. It hits home in a deep way.
Note how Obama keeps talking about “we are our brother’s keepers; we are our sister’s keepers.” He talks about how we are one nation, a community. Patriotism itself is an aspect of not-self. When a soldier risks his life for his or her nation, it’s not all about self. (This is why McCain never approached the negatives Romney has)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/14/1120071/-The-Underlying-Narrative-of-the-2012-Campaign-the-Cult-of-Self-v-Compassion-for-Others
HOLLERING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A solution to a problem that’s ‘virtually nonexistent’
By Steve Benen – Tue Aug 14, 2012 9:29 AM EDT.
Ask Republican policymakers why they support voter-ID laws, and they’ll occasionally admit it’s because they’re trying to rig elections and prevent voters they don’t like from participating in their own democracy. But most of the time, they hide behind a talking point: “voter fraud.”
At the surface, a reasonable person might find the argument credible if he or she weren’t aware of the facts. To hear GOP officials tell it, there’s a legitimate fear that someone might show up at a voter precinct under false pretenses, perhaps pretending to be someone they’re not. If, however, voters are forced to obtain, purchase, and show a voter ID card for the first time in American history, the threat of fraud effectively disappears.
Whenever this comes up, someone like me rudely points out, “Voter fraud is imaginary,” to which Republican respond, “No, this actually happens.” Who’s right? Well, it turns out, fraud does occur — it’s just extraordinarily infrequent.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/14/13276665-a-solution-to-a-problem-thats-virtually-nonexistent?lite
http://twitter.com/utaustinliberal/status/235408299015692288/photo/1
LOL Where’s that pic with Romneyhood with that field of cows?
Political AnimalBlog
August 14, 2012 9:15 AM
The GOP Pros Agree: Ryan a Bad Idea
By Ed Kilgore
I noted yesterday that leaks from within Team Mitt expressing bafflement about his decision to make Paul Ryan his running-mate probably reflected a combination of spin (“you know Mitt, he’s such a spontaneous, independent cuss”) and CYA. But there’s a substantial Burns/Haberman/Martin piece up at Politico today that looks beyond what the Romney campaign is putting out and suggests a strong consensus of GOP political pros don’t like this move at all:
In more than three dozen interviews with Republican strategists and campaign operatives — old hands and rising next-generation conservatives alike — the most common reactions to Ryan ranged from gnawing apprehension to hair-on-fire anger that Romney has practically ceded the election.
In this article, and elsewhere in the conservative chattering classes, there’s a lot of unfocused talk about the clarity Ryan brings to the GOP message, and the excitement he inspires among conservative activists. That’s all entirely true, but perhaps a bit besides the point, as one GOP op told the Politico reporters:
Another strategist emailed midway through Romney and Ryan’s first joint event Saturday: “The good news is that this ticket now has a vision. The bad news is that vision is basically just a chart of numbers used to justify policies that are extremely unpopular.”
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_08/the_gop_pros_agree_ryan_a_bad039211.php
Just getting around to seeing this. What an ASSCLOWN, SUNUNU; he can’t handle anything off script. Calling the POTUS a thief.
Romney and Ryanomics: Bad Deal for Working Class
By MARK THOMA, The Fiscal Times
August 14, 2012
Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan as his running mate makes abundantly clear that the upcoming presidential election presents a choice between two very different views on the role of government in the economy. Republicans believe that smaller, less intrusive government and the reduced tax burden that smaller government allows, particularly for the wealthy, are the keys to robust economic growth.
Democrats do not share the Republican vision of a smaller government, and they are particularly opposed to cuts to social insurance programs such as Medicare and Social Security that are generally at the forefront of Republican proposals to reduce the size of government. Democrats want to preserve existing social insurance programs and perhaps even expand them in this era of increasing uncertainty. They also want to make sure that everyone – including the wealthy – pays an equitable share of the taxes required to support the government programs that we provide.
The debate on this topic should be welcomed. We need to figure out how much government we desire as a nation, and how to pay for it. But the debate must be based upon facts. The discussion should not be driven by politicians hoping to satisfy ideological desires through misinformation, false promises, and misplaced blame for our economic problems. Unfortunately, that’s a pretty good description of how the debate on this topic has gone so far during the presidential campaign, particularly what we’ve heard from Romney, Ryan, and other politicians on the political right.
Read more at http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2012/08/14/Romney-and-Ryanomics-Bad-Deal-for-Working-Class.aspx#jAhd0TmeLLpVgh2t.99
http://twitter.com/utaustinliberal/status/235388314335715328/photo/1
BWA HA HA HA
Crystal Bull: Obama’s Second Term Revealed!
Tue Aug 14, 2012 2:00 PM EDT.
Here’s a nice safe way to attack President Obama: go after him for what might happen if he is re-elected in November. You know, what if? Let’s pretend.
Such is the vision of one John Hawkins, a “professional blogger who runs Right Wing News” who has written a super helpful column called “7 Things to Expect If Obama Is Elected to a Second Term.” Luckily for America, John Hawkins, the “professional blogger who runs Right Wing News” has secret knowledge into the nefarious inner workings of President Obama’s brain and knows exactly what will transpire during the tragic years 2013-2017. To wit:
1.America’s credit rating slides further
2.The middle class will see massive tax increases
3.Gas and energy prices will be dramatically higher
4.Obamacare goes into effect
5.The Supreme Court moves to the left
6.Get ready for open borders
7.Gun control will be a priority
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/14/13277973-crystal-bull-obamas-second-term-revealed?lite
and of course, Nobody knows nothing…
LOL
sure…I believe that.
……………………..
Rome police bust massive marijuana plantation under Bank of Italy
Tipped off by the strong smell wafting into a suburban street, police in Rome have discovered a massive underground marijuana plantation in a disused railway tunnel built by Mussolini.
Police seized 340kg of marijuana – with a street value of €3m (£2.36m) – from the plantation, which was lit by powerful halogen lamps and hidden behind a legitimate mushroom-growing business at the entrance to the tunnel. A fake wall had been built with revolving breeze blocks to conceal the marijuana plants.
The scale of the 4,000m³ plantation, which contained 1,000 plants, a drying room for harvested plants and a vacuum-packing machine, has led investigators to suspect one of Italy‘s mafia groups was behind it – possibly the Neapolitan Camorra.
We wore masks when we entered in to stop our heads spinning, I have never seen anything like it,” said Stefano Corsi of Italy’s tax police, which mounted the raid.
Built in the 1930s under the Tor Pignattara neighbourhood and close to underground vaults used by the Bank of Italy, the 800m stretch of tunnel was part of Mussolini’s redevelopment of Rome, but was never used due to the outbreak of the second world war.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/14/rome-police-bust-massive-marijuana-plantation-under-bank-of-italy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story%29
Game of Thrones’ author rips ‘Republicans and Teabaggers’ for voter suppression
The author behind HBO’s popular Game of Thrones series recently blasted “Republicans and their Teabagger allies” for what he called “ongoing attempts at voter suppression” by enacting voter photo ID laws in various states.
“I would be remiss if I do not at least make passing mention of how depressed, disgusted, and, yes, angry I’ve become as I watch the ongoing attempts at voter suppression in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Iowa, and other states where Republicans and their Teabagger allies control key seats of power,” George R.R. Martin wrote on his blog on Saturday.
“It is one thing to attempt to win elections,” he continued. “But trying to do so by denying the most basic and important right of any American citizen to hundreds and thousands of people, on entirely spurious grounds… that goes beyond reprehensible. That is despicable.”
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He added: “The people behind these efforts at disenfranchising large groups of voters (the young, the old, the black, the brown) are not Republicans, since clearly they have scant regard for our republic or its values. They are oligarchs and racists clad in the skins of dead elephants.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/14/game-of-thrones-author-rips-republicans-and-teabaggers-for-voter-suppression/
Texas shooter’s stepfather: ‘He was crazy as hell’
After authorities identified the man who killed two people and wounded several others in a College Station, Texas shooting Monday, the shooter’s stepfather said the gunman was “crazy as hell.”
According to KPRC-TV, 35-year-old Thomas Caffall opened fire on Brazos County Constable Brian Bachmann while Bachmann was serving him an eviction notice at his home near the campus of Texas A&M University.
Police say Caffall also shot and killed 43-year-old Chris Northcliff and wounded another unidentified officer and another civilian, 55-year-old Barbara Holdsworth, who was in critical condition as of late Monday night. Bachmann and Caffall both died in the hospital Monday.
Caffall’s stepfather, Richard Weaver, told the station his family was devastated by Caffall’s actions, but that they hoped he would kill himself before he commit this kind of atrocity.
“He was crazy as hell,” Weaver said. “At one point, we were afraid that he was going to come up here and do something to his mother and me.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/14/texas-shooters-stepfather-he-was-crazy-as-hell/
Romney surrogate to CNN host: ‘Put an Obama bumper sticker on your forehead’
The chairman of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s national steering committee on Tuesday angrily shouted for a CNN anchor to “put an Obama bumper sticker on your forehead” after she tried to fact check Republican claims about Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) plan to overhaul Medicare.
CNN’s Soledad O’Brien pointed out to Romney surrogate John Sununu that the candidate’s plan would turn Medicare into a voucher system much like the budget proposal offered by his vice presidential pick, Paul Ryan.
“It’s sounds awfully like the Paul Ryan Medicare plan,” O’Brien noted after reading details from Romney’s website.
…………….
“I understand that this is a Republican talking point because I’ve heard it repeated over and over again,” O’Brien observed. “These numbers have been debunked, as you know, by the Congressional Budget Office. … I can tell you what it says. [Obama’s plan] cuts a reduction in the expect rate of growth, which you know, not cutting budgets to the elderly. Benefits will be improved.”
“Soledad, stop this!” Sununu shouted. “All you’re doing is mimicking the stuff that comes out of the White House and gets repeated on the Democratic blog boards out there.”
“I’m telling you what Factcheck.com tells you, I’m telling you what the CBO tells you, I’m telling you what CNN’s independent analysis says,” the CNN host explained.
“Put an Obama bumper sticker on your forehead when you do this!” the frustrated surrogate shot back.
“You know, let me tell you something,” O’Brien said. “There is independent analysis that details what this is about. … And name calling to me and somehow by you repeating a number of $716 billion, that you can make that stick when [you say] that figure is being ‘stolen’ from Medicare, that’s not true. You can’t just repeat it and make it true, sir.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/14/romney-surrogate-to-cnn-host-put-an-obama-bumper-sticker-on-your-forehead/
Representative Ryan’s Far-Right Agenda: The Media Can’t Take the Truth
By Dean Baker
In principle the country faces a choice this fall between a moderate conservative, President Obama, and Governor Romney, an extreme conservative who wants to privatize Social Security and Medicare and eliminate most of the services that the public expects from the federal government. The reason why this choice only exists in principle is that the media have worked hard to conceal Representative Ryan’s extreme positions from the public. Now that Governor Romney has implicitly embraced these positions by selecting Representative Ryan as his vice-presidential nominee, it remains to be seen whether the media will does it job.
First, in spite of all the name-calling about President Obama being a Kenyan socialist, he has pushed an agenda that most Republicans would have been comfortable with 20 years ago. His health care plan was put forward by the conservative Heritage Foundation in 1992, before Governor Romney put it in place in Massachusetts. His Wall Street reform leaves the too-big-to-fail banks bigger than ever, even after they helped to inflate a housing bubble, the collapse of which brought the economy to its knees.
And, running large deficits in a downturn was a practice that Obama could tie to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and both Bushes. It would be difficult to find a policy pushed by our Kenyan socialist president that would make a Nixon Republican unhappy.
Read on
http://www.nationofchange.org/print/24031
found this in the comments at Balloon Juice:
piratedan Says:
so what do we have, a rich kid who’s been handed everything his life, easy access to cash and power. Probably doesn’t even see most of us as people. he picked a guy who has been so beholden to the system that he’s ready to rig the game so that no one else can follow in his footsteps.
They see an America where those on top, stay on top, they don’t give a shit about you or your kids or your parents, just consume, add to their pocketbooks and keep allowing them to make sure that no one finds common cause. Screw the environment, screw our national pride or the american dream. Those are just abstract things to them, after all, they own some pristine lands where they don’t have to worry about any of that, the rest of it are the hopes and dreams they’ll attempt to twist and corrupt to keep people from seeing the truth or setting one bunch against the other.
I hate these fuckers and everyday that I watch them operate makes me understand the French and Russian and even Chinese revolutions just a bit better
SPOT ON! That’s why “Lil Eddie Munster” Ryan smsirked when those brave ladies asked him about what he plans to do with their MEDICARE, and security dragged them out of the vicinity. then the lil slickster commented on how they must not be from Iowa or Wisconsin. TURD
There is no limit in how low they will go…
By Dennis G. August 13th, 2012
One thing is clear about Mitt Romney: he will do what he is told to do.
He is frightened by Grover, Rush and the rest of the wingnuts. He walks the earth in fear of his next beating. When they tell him to jump, he jumps—end of story. It is impossible to name a single time when he ever stood up to the crazies in his Party. It never happened and it never will. Romney is a coward.
Last week they demanded that he pick zombie eyes as his running mate. Mitt jumped and acted so quickly that the announcement and roll out was a sloppy and botched affair.
They want him to lie shamelessly about President Obama and so he does, constantly. Mitt is more afraid of wingnut disapproval than he is of any fact checker. He’ll embrace any lie as long as as it stops the crazies from hitting him for a moment or two.
The nutters hated McCain for failing to launch an aggressive race-baiting attack on President Obama. In wingnutopia it is a crime that a black man ever became President. McCain decided that this line of attack was a gutter so foul that even he was not willing to crawl through it. The wingnuts never forgave him for that and remain convinced that a campaign rooted in mobilizing white fear and race anxiety is their best and only path to victory.
Mitt Romney has bought into this strategy hook, line and sinker. He lacked the backbone to say no.
And so he has jumped into the swamp of racist code-talking with gusto. It is 2012 and yet, Mitt Romney is basing his campaign on race-baiting rhetoric about welfare pulled from the toxic swamp section of American history.
No surprise. The selection of the cat food voucher man as his number two has changed the race into a choice of competing visions for the future of America. When folks learn the details behind any of the Romney/Ryan plans, they hate them. And so, race-baiting is all that Romney has left.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/08/13/there-will-not-be-a-limit-in-how-low-they-will-go/
Gov. Chrispy Creame Christie to deliver keynote at GOP convention
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will deliver the keynote address that launches the Republican National Convention in two weeks, telling USA TODAY he plans to make an “emphatic” argument on behalf of GOP approaches and shared sacrifice to face the nation’s biggest challenges.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-08-14/chris-christie-republican-keynote/57040918/1
Reposting this here too:
Posted at 04:44 PM ET, 08/13/2012
TheWashingtonPost
Key Senate nominations tomorrow highlight GOP strategy
By Jonathan Bernstein
Two important Senate primaries tomorrow remind us that the Tea Party wing cost the Republican Party dearly in 2010, and will likely cost it a bit more in 2012 — while at the same time making sure that Republicans who are elected are solidly conservative and display no interest in making deals, even to get their policy priorities enacted.
In Connecticut, a fairly solid Democratic state, Republicans are poised to reject moderate former member of the House Chris Shays and stick with professional wrestling entrepreneur Linda McMahon, who lost her 2010 bid for the Senate. Democrat Chris Murphy would be favored either way, but Shays might have given him a solid challenge; no one really expects McMahon to do so.
Wisconsin is different: it’s a swing state, and the Democratic candidate, Tammy Baldwin, is a member of the House who might be a bit too liberal for the state. Former Gov. Tommy Thompson might be a slim favorite, but he has to survive a primary first against three candidates: businessman Eric Hovde, arch-conservative former member of the House Mark Neumann, and Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald. The polling is inconclusive — Fitzgerald appears to be the longshot, but anyone could really win this one.
We all know the story here: Conservatives have made a deliberate choice to push for the most conservative nominee in state after state, regardless of the consequences for November. That’s almost certainly a sensible choice in Texas and Utah; it’s a lot more risky, however, in places such as Wisconsin (although it worked there in 2010), and it’s even more damaging in states such as Connecticut. And an ideologue-only nomination policy may also scare a lot of potentially strong candidates from entering in the first place; that could be why Florida Republicans will be nominating someone who is generally viewed as a weak challenger tomorrow to potentially vulnerable Sen. Bill Nelson.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/key-senate-nominations-tomorrow-highlight-gop-strategy/2012/08/13/65f51968-e57d-11e1-9739-eef99c5fb285_blog.html#pagebreak
They Won’t Get Away With It
by BooMan
Tue Aug 14th, 2012 at 09:06:53 AM EST
As I mentioned last night, the selection of Paul Ryan has left House Republicans defenseless. This morning, Politico joins the choir, citing at least three dozen Republican operatives who don’t want to be on the record. But in the midst of dishing out their doom and gloom, they tell us their best-case scenario.
Strategists across the party call that the absolute best-case scenario for the Romney campaign and everyone else involved: President Barack Obama gets forced into a policy debate on ground where Republicans are most comfortable, Republicans counterpunch hard on the Affordable Care Act and Democrat-approved spending reductions in Medicare, and Romney roars into November with an energized Republican base behind him.
Longtime GOP presidential strategist Charlie Black conveyed that view of the race: “We have plenty of time and money and four debates to air out this Medicare reform issue. And I think we win on it when we air it out.”
Those “Democrat-approved reductions in Medicare” were all in Ryan’s Budget. Every Republican in a tough reelection fight this year voted for those Republican-approved reductions in Medicare. The Republicans are seriously left with nothing but a plan to accuse the Democrats of supporting reductions in Medicare funding that they all voted for.
The “I voted against it (in ObamaCare) before I voted for it (in Ryan’s Budget)” argument is always a giant loser. But this lie is especially bad because it doesn’t even have any underlying merit. The suggestion is that it is okay to destroy Medicare’s guaranteed benefit because everyone in Congress voted for reductions in subsidies under Medicare Advantage. That doesn’t logically follow at all.
It doesn’t balance out. You can’t blame Democrats for doing what you have down yourself, especially when you are totally mischaracterizing what you all have done. But that is the Republican strategy. Romney told that lie just yesterday.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/8/14/9653/88902
NYT comments section (which is much better than some of the “articles” being written):
dc lambert
Romey and Ryan may have a ” philosophy of self-reliance, personal responsibility and fiscal discipline” but that is ALL they have. I can have a ‘philosophy’ of running the marathon but if I sit on my couch all day and call myself a marathon runner while yelling at my wife to get herself in shape, then what would you call me? And if I ran on a platform of actually being a marathoner, then what would call me?
Romney – born rich, propped up and supported at every juncture, never fearing poverty or even failure (Daddy & his friends to the rescue) is about as ‘self reliant’ and full of ‘personal responsibility’ as my dog, who also imagines herself ruler of the universe. And Ryan, who went to college on social security, imagines he ‘did it all himself’ like my 5 year old who once imagined he steered the amusement park boat when it was actually on a track. He proudly talked about it for years, my 5 year old–how he ‘steered the boat himself,’ how good a captain he was. Until he grew up.
Our leaders ‘create their own reality’ just like my 5 year old, never growing up and actually accepting true responsibility or self-reliance, which is a responsibility to self and others and the society that helps create you and support you, and a reliance on the self as well as others, understanding that we are all interconnected, that there really is a track we all built under that water.
I ‘ve pointed out that Eddie Munster Ryan has a problem with American Nuns…Lawrence O’Donnell didn’t forget it either.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755883/vp/48654868?__utma=5875948.1602051804.1343326918.1344947107.1344949562.21&__utmb=5875948.1.10.1344949562&__utmc=5875948&__utmx=-&__utmz=5875948.1344949562.21.8.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)&__utmv=5875948.|8=Earned%20By=cable%7Cmsnbc%20tv%7Crachel%20maddow%20show%7Crachel%20maddow%20show=1^12=Landing%20Content=Original=1^13=Landing%20Hostname=maddowblog.msnbc.com=1^30=Visit%20Type%20to%20Content=Earned%20to%20Original=1&__utmk=184342050#48655193
The politics of drought
By Steve Benen – Tue Aug 14, 2012 8:30 AM EDT.
Ordinarily, Congress easily passes an agriculture bill called the “farm bill,” but that was before the worst Congress ever. This year, the Democratic Senate approved the measure, but House Republicans are blocking it, despite the assistance it would provide to drought-stricken farmers.
Yesterday, President Obama was in Iowa, one of many states hard hit by the drought, and reminded voters of legislation that needs to pass. “Unfortunately right now, too many members of Congress are blocking the farm bill from becoming law,” Obama said. “I am told that Gov. Romney’s new running mate, Paul Ryan, might be around Iowa the next few days — he is one of the leaders of Congress standing in the way. So if you happen to see Congressman Ryan, tell him how important this farm bill is to Iowa and our rural communities.”
The comments apparently rankled House GOP leaders.
On its website and in an email Monday, House Speaker John Boehner’s office said President Obama needs to take personal responsibility for the drought ravaging the Midwest.
Obama, “continues to blame anyone and everyone for the drought but himself,” reads a release from Boehner’s office posted online and distributed to reporters Monday. The quote was attributed to Boehner himself in a Financial Times story. The online post and the press release came from Boehner spokesperson Kevin Smith.
Now, opinions can certainly vary when it comes to the president’s strengths and weaknesses, but Boehner seems to have taken admiration of Obama’s powers to a whole new level — the House Speaker seems to think the president can singlehandedly create drought conditions.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/14/13276054-the-politics-of-drought?lite
Maddow points out that the tax return thing isn’t going away for Willard, especially now that it’s been calculated that the Romney/Ryan budget plan would have him paying less than ONE PERCENT IN TAXES.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48654803
Lawrence O on those ROMNEY-RYAN TAX RETURNS
Rewriting Romney-Ryan on tax returns
By The Last Word Staff
Tue Aug 14, 2012 12:10 AM EDT
Picking a GOP running mate has not swept Mitt Romney’s tax return issue under the rug, at least here at The Last Word.
The Republican ticket indicated they will only each release two years of their tax returns, at most. That goes against years of precedent in presidential politics. But that can happen, only if the presidential debate and vice presidential debate moderators go along with it.
In the Rewrite, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell encouraged viewers to tell the debate moderators you want them to ask Romney-Ryan why they are hiding their tax returns.
VIDEO: http://thelastword.msnbc.com/
Rachel Maddow explains Paul Ryan’s background with the Privatizing Social Security scheme.
Part 1
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48654715
Part 2
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48654749
Paul Ryan not only has been a full participant in the GOP War on Women, but he’s been a General. Rachel Maddow explains.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48654635
REPOST
Romney stumbles badly on Medicare
By Steve Benen – Tue Aug 14, 2012 8:00 AM EDT.
When Mitt Romney chose — or was told to choose — Paul Ryan as his running mate, he had to realize he’d be pressed on Medicare. After all, the far-right House Budget Committee is widely recognized as the guy who wants to end Medicare and replace it with a voucher program. Romney and his advisors surely knew questions about this were coming, and had some time before Saturday’s announcement to come up with their position.
Apparently, Team Romney hasn’t come up with much.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-Z6xsRkaMw&feature=player_embedded
Romney was in Miami yesterday — where there are apparently a few senior citizens — and fielded several questions about the differences between his Medicare plan and that of his running mate. The Republican presidential hopeful struggled badly.
“[M]y plan for Medicare, it’s very similar to his plan for Medicare, which is do not change the program for current retirees or near retirees, but do not do what the president has done, and that is to cut $700 billion out of the current program,” Romney eventually said.
Let me try to explain this in a way Romney will understand: if the Romney plan is the same as the Ryan plan, and the Ryan plan includes Obama’s Medicare savings, then the Romney plan includes the same Obama policy that Romney is condemning.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/14/13275485-romney-stumbles-badly-on-medicare?lite
Top Ten differences between White Terrorists and Others
1. White terrorists are called “gunmen.” What does that even mean? A person with a gun? Wouldn’t that be, like, everyone in the US? Other terrorists are called, like, “terrorists.”
2. White terrorists are “troubled loners.” Other terrorists are always suspected of being part of a global plot, even when they are obviously troubled loners.
3. Doing a study on the danger of white terrorists at the Department of Homeland Security will get you sidelined by angry white Congressmen. Doing studies on other kinds of terrorists is a guaranteed promotion.
4. The family of a white terrorist is interviewed, weeping as they wonder where he went wrong. The families of other terrorists are almost never interviewed.
5. White terrorists are part of a “fringe.” Other terrorists are apparently mainstream.
6. White terrorists are random events, like tornadoes. Other terrorists are long-running conspiracies.
7. White terrorists are never called “white.” But other terrorists are given ethnic affiliations.
8. Nobody thinks white terrorists are typical of white people. But other terrorists are considered paragons of their societies.
9. White terrorists are alcoholics, addicts or mentally ill. Other terrorists are apparently clean-living and perfectly sane.
10. There is nothing you can do about white terrorists. Gun control won’t stop them. No policy you could make, no government program, could possibly have an impact on them. But hundreds of billions of dollars must be spent on police and on the Department of Defense, and on TSA, which must virtually strip search 60 million people a year, to deal with other terrorists.
http://www.juancole.com/2012/08/top-ten-differences-between-white-terrorists-and-others.html
STRAIGHT, NO CHASER.
‘Cornerboys’ and the cube farm
By Will Femia – Mon Aug 13, 2012 7:21 PM EDT.
On Friday Rachel mentioned this blog post by my colleague Zachary Roth and shared a bit of video of 101-year-old Lenora Carey who faces the prospect of not being able to vote unless she can get her paperwork taken care of to satisfy new voter ID requirements in Pennsylvania. The video was produced by Alex P. Kellogg and Evan Puschak, and as it happens, Evan is my cube farm neighbor so we enjoyed the virtual company of Ms. Carey (particularly her concern for the “cornerboys”) for a few days while Evan edited the video.
The whole package is worth watching:
Earlier this year, PA republicans passed a law requiring all voters to show a picture I.D. at the polls. A state estimate found that over 750,000 Pennsylvanians don’t have an I.D., and therefore are at risk of being disenfranshised. MSNBC’s Lean Forward went to Philadelphia on August 3rd, to talk to a few of them.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/13/13264492-cornerboys-and-the-cube-farm?lite
the coupons are hilarious!!
on point, but hilarious!!!
Good Morning, Ametia and Everyone :)
Romney and Ryan’s disdain for the working class
By Eugene Robinson, Published: August 13
The Washington Post
Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate underscores the central question posed by this campaign: Should cold selfishness become the template for our society, or do we still believe in community?
Romney wanted the election to be seen as a referendum on the success or failure of President Obama’s economic policies. Instead, he has revealed that the campaign is really a choice between two starkly different philosophies. One could be summed up as: “We’re all in this together.” The other: “I’ve got mine.”
This is not about free enterprise, and it’s not about personal liberty; those fundamental principles are unquestioned. But for at least the past 100 years, we have understood capitalism and freedom to exist within a larger context — a complicated, real-world, human context. Some people begin life at a disadvantage, and it’s in the national interest to open doors of opportunity for them. Some people make mistakes, and it’s in the national interest to create second chances. Some people are too young, too old or too infirm to care for themselves, and it’s in the national interest to secure their welfare.
This sense of the balance between individualism and community fueled the American Century. Romney and Ryan apparently don’t believe in it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/romney-and-ryan-are-overlooking-the-underclass/2012/08/13/63e917ea-e579-11e1-8f62-58260e3940a0_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions