All right, I'll get Paul Ryan out of my system soon enough. But as I get ready for the third trip across the state in three days, I have to get a couple bits of Ryan-mania out of my system.
First, I heard one of the talk-radioheads touting the Ryan choice as an excellent example of putting principle over politics. Romney could have picked Condoleezza Rice for her foreign policy experience, said the radio dude. Romney could have picked Tim Pawlenty for his governing experience. But Romney chose Rep. Paul Ryan to send a clear signal to the right-wing of the party as to where his principles are.
So said the radio right-winger... and I couldn't agree more. Romney could have chosen people with a proven record of getting things done. He could have filled the serious gap in diplomacy and foreign policy skill that he himself manifested on his disastrous trip to England, Israel, and Poland last month. But instead, Romney pick Ryan, for whom taking care of business means passing two bills in thirteen years, renaming a post office and giving himself a tax break on his arrows. The principle enshrined here: we want government that does as little as possible. Granted, that's what a lot of Romney's base wants to hear, but for someone in charge of the world's biggest democracy, it's a recipe for failed policy.
Another radio-shouter said that even if we disagree with Paul Ryan's budget, we have to give him "huge credit" for addressing the problem. Actually, no, we don't. Ask my French students. When they address a problem on a French test and they say grenouille means sandwich, they get zero points.
Paul Ryan gets no credit for proposing the wrong answer (i.e., privatizing Medicare and Social Security). Paul Ryan gets no credit for looking at a sick patient and recommending we amputate the head. We need a President and Vice-President who say yes, we can save Medicare instead of giving up on it. We need a President and Vice-President who are willing to make government work, not surrender to the right-wingers who live in an Ayn-Randian fantasy land where rugged individuals can pave their own roads and build their own schools with guns and prayer.
"Get that? Rand-as-Galt is saying that Satan was leading Adam and Eve down the right path when he goaded them into eating the apple. God was enslaving them, as the fear of God would allow future generations to enslave more people. That's the "controversy." I don't assign any of these beliefs to Ryan, but I'd love to hear him talk about them..." David Weigel, Slate.
Paul ryan sponsered 71 bills and cosponsered 971 bills. He was hardly idle. But no single congressman can sign into law a bill, it takes the house and senate, and then the pres. I thought the left knew that? Oh well, he still has more experience than Obama had before obtaining the office of the president. Keep up your campaign of misinformation. Obama doesn't want you to concentrate on him or his accomplishments, or lack there of. Medicare or SS....anyone banking on that in my generation is highly misguided. Ponzi schemes don't last that long.
Barnes, yer a scream! America a Ponzi scheme? Surely, you jest.
I don't blame you for not mentioning Ayn Rand either, DB. That's a tough road to hoe for Conservatives.
Ryan's sinking your ship and the polls. We'll throw you a life preserver in November and save your Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Dick Cheney hearts Paul Ryan.
"Did I mention that I worship you? And the freaky deaky things you do."
BF will appreciate this the most. Think it will go viral?
http://tinyurl.com/cejqqsc
Both McCain and Romney had a real need to reconnect with their base. Middle of the road enough to look electable but not from a strong position in their own party. Romney got in just because all the other Republicans shot themself in the foot exept Huckaby who as a Baptist preacher found peace with the situation and quit when Obama got bin Laden.
Neither Palin nor Ryan will add new votes. Each is trying to keep votes that were from their own party. That is called 'fundraising' technique.
Pragmatism: getting things done with other people's property. And then take credit for it while telling the working taxpayers that they our worthless dependents of the collective.
--Romney could have chosen people with a proven record of getting things done.
If that's the criteria, Obama has got to be defested, right?
--We need a President and Vice-President who say yes, we can save Medicare instead of giving up on it. We need a President and Vice-President who are willing to make government work,
Again, this means that Obama and Lunatic Biden have got to go, right?
Obama travels to Council Bluffs, reaches across the river...if Nebraska would just unclench her fist:
http://fremonttribune.com/news/local/obama-visits-council-bluffs-reaches-out-to-omaha/article_fdf6e9f0-e61b-11e1-ad6a-0019bb2963f4.html
Is defested similar to refudiated?
I care about Rand as much as I do Wright. The same goes for the IRS and Romney's taxes. They are there to keep you distracted from the topics that actually matter. Jobs, the economy, and our continually growing debt that has the possibility of killing every program we have ever created. No one will have access to Medicare, Medicaid, or SS if we don't cut back spending and fix our tax code.
What are you doing to cut down on wastefulness in your own world, Doug?
--Is defested similar to refudiated?
Yes, it means defeated AND disinfected.
Cory, I'm glad that you picked up that it is indeed the Ryan-Romney ticket since Ryan was introduced by Mittens as the "Next President of the United States." Did Mit make a gaffe or was he actually being serious? No one really knows when you have a bad case of foot in mouth disease like Mittens does...LOL!
I am concerned about.the debt too.
Which is why I am against "fixing the tax code" in the way Ryan suggests which would take Mitts 14% tax rate down to 0.82%. The Ryan and Romney tax plans will result in huge growth of both the deficit and the national debt.
Cory have you seen Charles Lane's op ed in the Washington Post today? Another out of touch guy with a keyboard. His computer may or not be wired but the question is, is Mr. Lane plugged into reality. Obviously since he expresses joy over the Ryan pick and thinks seniors will be just fine someone needs to check his catfood.
Just an observation, Eddie Munster does have Ayn Rand's beak!
-Is defested similar to refudiated?
-Yes, it means defeated AND disinfected.
Is this word - defested - one that you invented and only in your vernacular?
Cross-pollination:
http://intelligentdiscontent.com/2012/08/14/ryan-and-social-security/
Really? Paul Ryan rarely seen at Mass:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2012/08/paul-ryan-surprises-a-catholic-parish-by-actually-going-to-mass/
Larry,
This was not in his hometown and I think the comment reflects on the person who was surprised and not the Ryan's. And, the comment could more be from enthusiasm and shyness.
The Ryan's go to Mass weekly, his wife is active in the home parish.
Ryan shy? Selling aluminum siding?
No the person who was quoted in the article Larry referenced may have been out of kilter to say "he was surprised Ryan came to Mass."
So, let me get this straight. Ryan identifies Ayn Rand as the ursprung of some political ideas and he is now responsible for every word she ever wrote. Obama sits in a church for 20 years and doesn't even have to defend its obvious message? Just pick a horse and ride it.
Ryan running from Rand would be as dishonest as Obama abandoning the (W)Right Reverend. I expect nothing more (or is it less?)
Brother Beaker, I see daylight. Barack Obama never spoke of reading and rereading Reverend Wright's sermons to make sure the assumptions underlying his policy choices were correct... at least not that I recall. Barack Obama didn't require his staff members to attend Reverend Wright's church or study his teachings.
I will not hold Ryan responsible for every word Rand wrote. I will hold Ryan responsible for the words he himself said about Rand.
How can a person sitting in a church list4ning to a minister be compared in any way with a man selecting quotations from a text that he says shaped his political ideas? The Duh chorus seems to be over-rehearsing.
I guess some people go to church to have their ideas validated, and to be with people that are like them. To be in lock step with the pastor and the church gives them some needed psychological lift. I pity people like Brother Beaker, because they ain't Christians.
For all the bullshit spewed about Reverend Wright, I suspect Jesus would be far more at home in that church than most others. Wright, after all, invited in the sinners, including LOTS OF WHITE PEOPLE. That's right. Dumb shit Republicans never really understood that Wright's church was one of the few churches in America that was multi-ethnic. I look at most of the fundy churches on TV and see very few black people. What's that about? it ain't any sort of Christianity that Christ would recognize.
--I suspect Jesus would be far more at home in that church than most others
Under similar circumstances, Jesus ransacked the Temple. No need to suspect anything--there are first-hand accounts in the New Testament.
JC would have condemned the race-hating sewage spilled in Wright's "church"; JC would have also condemned the "Rev." Wright for his adultery with a church staffer, whom he later fired, and his life of copious luxury.
I seriously doubt JC would feel at home in that den of evil.
Jesus was gay.
--I guess some people go to church to have their ideas validated,
What I hear in my church makes me uncomfortable.
--To be in lock step with the pastor and the church gives them some needed psychological lift.
I know of no church attendee who agrees with her pastor or church 100% of the time. I am very familiar with scores fo people who do not attand or have changed churches BECAUSE of what occurred or what was said in their [former] church.
--I pity people like Brother Beaker, because they ain’t Christians.
I pity people who are so intolerant and bigoted to know who is qualified to be or not to be a Christian.
It's one thing to be ignorant--it's quite another to put it in writing for all to see.
-Barack Obama never spoke of reading and rereading Reverend Wright’s sermons to make sure the assumptions underlying his policy choices were correct
Barry Obama couldn't have cared less about what was going on in Wright's church. Barry's presence there was all about developing black street cred.
and it worked: Obama owns the black, the woman, and the intelligentsia votes.
Boycott Israeli products, country code UPC 729:
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/08/16/232599.html