This should be all over the news - why isn't it? Paul Ryan LIES - in public, and gets caught. Ryan has claimed repeatedly that he opposed the stimulus and would not take stimulus money. He even went as far as to say that “I’m not one [of those] people who votes for something then writes to the government to ask them to send us money. I did not request any stimulus money.”
Yet the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, and now ABC News have confronted Ryan with letters he wrote to Cabinet members requesting money for two Wisconsin energy conservation projects.
Ryan's response? "They were treated as constituent service requests in the same way matters involving Social Security or Veterans Affairs are handled,” Ryan said in a statement. “This is why I didn’t recall the letters earlier. But they should have been handled differently, and I take responsibility for that."
Yuck.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Ryan Retroactively Discloses ... and MORE
According to Politics USA, Mitt Romney could not be confirmed in a Cabinet position unless he disclosed more tax returns than he has to date. What this means is that we have higher standards for Cabinet officers than we do for the Presidency. Yikes.
But the main thrust of the article is Paul Ryan's "inadvertent" omission from his financial disclosure the existence of a trust worth between $1 and $5 million, with income between $100K and $1 million in 2010.
According to the article,
"The House Ethics folks aren’t worried about Mr. Ryan’s slip, but then we have to remember that the Republicans appeared to want to kill the Office of Congressional Ethics when they took over in 2010. Ethics are for Democrats. Both parties violate ethics rules, but only one party seeks to hold the offenders accountable. Remember the Republican outrage over Tom Daschle’s $140,000 in taxes owed for a car and driver provided by a donor? That inadvertent admission rendered Tom Daschle unfit for a cabinet position."
THIS is what is really divisive, the fundamental philosophy that divides the world into "us" and "them," with vastly different standards for each.
But the main thrust of the article is Paul Ryan's "inadvertent" omission from his financial disclosure the existence of a trust worth between $1 and $5 million, with income between $100K and $1 million in 2010.
According to the article,
"The House Ethics folks aren’t worried about Mr. Ryan’s slip, but then we have to remember that the Republicans appeared to want to kill the Office of Congressional Ethics when they took over in 2010. Ethics are for Democrats. Both parties violate ethics rules, but only one party seeks to hold the offenders accountable. Remember the Republican outrage over Tom Daschle’s $140,000 in taxes owed for a car and driver provided by a donor? That inadvertent admission rendered Tom Daschle unfit for a cabinet position."
THIS is what is really divisive, the fundamental philosophy that divides the world into "us" and "them," with vastly different standards for each.
There is NO Obama Spending Spree
In a May article, 
Forbes points out that Obama has the smallest amount of spending since Eisenhower. Real numbers. Real facts and figures. NO SPIN.
Here is their graph. Read it and weep, Romney.
Forbes points out that Obama has the smallest amount of spending since Eisenhower. Real numbers. Real facts and figures. NO SPIN.
Here is their graph. Read it and weep, Romney.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
HA - Rudy Guiliani thinks Biden is STUPID
The Fix blog on the Washington Post site this morning talked about a speech yesterday by Vice-President Joe Biden:
"Campaigning in southern Virginia on Tuesday, Vice President Biden told an audience that Mitt Romney’s approach to regulating the financial industry will “put y’all back in chains,” a remark that triggered a flurry of Republican criticism, including a sharp rebuke from the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
BIDEN's RESPONSE:
“I got a message for them,” Biden said. “If you want to know what’s outrageous, it’s their policies and the effects of their policies on middle-class America. That’s what’s outrageous.”
Biden is exactly right. It kills me, that ANY Republican - after participating in the most DIVISIVE, PARTISAN session of Congress EVER - has the balls to call what Biden said divisive. Republicans in the House have refused to pass any legislation that would improve the economy and weaken their anti-Obama position. Romney's tax plan explicitly includes tax cuts for the rich. {According to Fox News, an August 1 study released by the Tax Policy Center projects that "taxpayers making more than $1 million would see tax cuts averaging $175,000. Those making between $75,000 and $100,000 would see an average tax cut of $1,800. And those making under $30,000 would see an average increase of $130, according to the report."}
Then again, the chief Republican strategy seems to be to repeat lies often enough that they become perceived as truth
Creepy Republican and former mayor of New York Rudy Guiliani seized on Biden's comment for another round in their on-going adversarial relationship (maybe better characterized as a spat). Here is the video:
Looking at the video, how can you conceivably categorize Biden as stupid? He has survived on his wits for long enough in Washington. Sure, he has Sarah Palin's tendency for verbal gaffes, but he also has a keen intellect to along with it. Get over yourself, Rudy.
"Campaigning in southern Virginia on Tuesday, Vice President Biden told an audience that Mitt Romney’s approach to regulating the financial industry will “put y’all back in chains,” a remark that triggered a flurry of Republican criticism, including a sharp rebuke from the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
BIDEN's RESPONSE:
“I got a message for them,” Biden said. “If you want to know what’s outrageous, it’s their policies and the effects of their policies on middle-class America. That’s what’s outrageous.”
Biden is exactly right. It kills me, that ANY Republican - after participating in the most DIVISIVE, PARTISAN session of Congress EVER - has the balls to call what Biden said divisive. Republicans in the House have refused to pass any legislation that would improve the economy and weaken their anti-Obama position. Romney's tax plan explicitly includes tax cuts for the rich. {According to Fox News, an August 1 study released by the Tax Policy Center projects that "taxpayers making more than $1 million would see tax cuts averaging $175,000. Those making between $75,000 and $100,000 would see an average tax cut of $1,800. And those making under $30,000 would see an average increase of $130, according to the report."}
Then again, the chief Republican strategy seems to be to repeat lies often enough that they become perceived as truth
Creepy Republican and former mayor of New York Rudy Guiliani seized on Biden's comment for another round in their on-going adversarial relationship (maybe better characterized as a spat). Here is the video:
Looking at the video, how can you conceivably categorize Biden as stupid? He has survived on his wits for long enough in Washington. Sure, he has Sarah Palin's tendency for verbal gaffes, but he also has a keen intellect to along with it. Get over yourself, Rudy.
President Obama's ad "The Choice" presents the CRUX of the matter
The Obama campaign has produced an ad that calmly, without name-calling, lays out the focal issue of this campaign - the economy - and the choice the voter has to make. Barack Obama doesn't get any better than this.
Old white men trying to make sure that old white men get back in charge
Commonwealth Court Judge Robert E. Simpson, presiding over the case challenging the PA Voter ID law, has refused to grant an injunction to stop the law from being enforced. In an article on Philly.com, his 70 page decision is quoted,
"Smpson said plaintiffs did not establish that "disenfranchisement was immediate or inevitable."
He also said plaintiffs did not prove that denying an injunction would cause "greater injury," and instead noted issuing one now would interfere with election machinery now in motion.
Simpson said the plaintiffs' lawyers "did an excellent job of 'putting a face' to this burdened by the voter ID requirement. "At the end of the day, however, I do not have the luxury of deciding this issue based on my sympathy for the witnesses or my esteem for counsel. Rather, I must analyze the law, and apply it . . . " he wrote."
This ruling comes despite the fact that Pennsylvania Republican House Leader Mike Turzai has publicly admitted that voter identification efforts are meant to suppress Democratic votes in this year’s election and that only 13 cases of in-person voter fraud have been prosecuted in PA in the last 10 years.
The article also quotes one of the Plaintiffs in the case, 93 year-old Viviette Applewhite, as saying,"I just can't believe it ..." Too many people have fought for the right to vote to have it taken away like this. All I want is to be able to vote this November like I always have. This law is just ridiculous."
ROMNEY IS A SPOILED BRAT
An article in the Washington Post cites Romney as saying in a speech, “Mr. President, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago and let us get about rebuilding and reuniting America.” Doesn't that sound just like a kid from your childhood whining after losing a game, or not being picked to be on a team?
That article had some great comments. Here is one series of posts and replies:
11:52 AM EDT
I have to tell you all, I'm in the top 5%, and I am not hurting. My family's income went up by 50% in the past four years. Yes, the value of our house plummeted, but we're not moving, so it's irrelevant. It just means I pay less in property tax. Republican policies put me where I am. Am I grateful? No. Young graduates are un- or under-employed. The roads around me are full of pot-holes. My streets aren't plowed in the winter or swept in the summer. The local library, the local museums are dying ...See More
Same here - my husband and I are also in the top 1% and will be voting for Obama. He's the only intelligent choice. Our lives will not change by paying more taxes, but our nation as a whole will be better off the more teachers, police, firefighters have a living wage and job.
Not everyone is blessed as we are., and to quote another "community organizer" "Whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do it for Me"
Not everyone is blessed as we are., and to quote another "community organizer" "Whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do it for Me"
Nick Hanauer the self made millionaire even made a video ( it's on YouTube ) about this. He is only going to buy so many cars, so many pair of shoes and so many washing machines and can only go out so often. We need millions of people to do these things over and over. That would create jobs and boost the economy.
Thanks to all of you. I'm not even close to the 1% or 5%--retired public school teacher--but even I can afford to pay more taxes. I have everything I need, most of what I want, and enough to give a bit to charity. But what would gratify me most is to see everyone with a job that pays a living wage.
Friday, July 20, 2012
What is this Election ABOUT???
Two recent articles I like because they explain just what is the crux of the 2012 presidential election.
The first is an opinion piece on the "Politically Astute" blog on Phillyburbs.com called "Should we go at it alone or get through this together?" Blogger Tim McCann writes,
"As a nation, we have long been headed toward a showdown of two competing ideas on the role of government in
McCann's conclusion:
"Republicans' solutions strike me as mean-spirited and un-American. If Republican ideas were so good, why would they have to pass laws that could result in hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians not being allowed to vote because they do not have the right papers (sounds Kafkaesque, right?). Why would they feel the need to lie to Americans to sell their ideas (death panels, the ACA cuts Medicare benefits, gay marriage will ruin families - all nonsense)"
A second article in a similar vein is an opinion piece by Fareed Zakaria in the Washington Post called"What voters are really choosing in November." Zakaria's premise:
"The presidential campaign has gotten so heated over the attacks and counterattacks from the Obama and Romney campaigns that it’s easy to forget that larger issues are at stake in November. That’s unfortunate because, beneath the froth, there is an important ideological debate to be had about
Zakaria's conclusion:
"Both views have merit. It would make for a great campaign if our nation had a sustained discussion around these ideas. Then the election would produce a mandate to move in one of these directions ... In other words, the great shift in the U.S. economy over the past 30 years has not been an increase in taxes and regulations but, rather, a decline in investment in human and physical capital. President Obama has real facts and a strong case — which makes it all the more depressing that his campaign has focused on half-truths and weak arguments."
Both articles highlight the failing of our 2-party system as it exists now. Each party is so focused on scoring off the other, that the critical goal of finding the best person to solve the country's problem has been lost. An actual debate based on facts cannot take place because each side is too politically welded to its position to be able make concessions or compromise to reach agreement.
You didn't build that ... FACT CHECK = TRUE
Take a look at this video on Fox News.
The panel of 3 people discuss whether or not President Obama's statement "You didn't build that ..." was taken out of context.
The panel of 3 people discuss whether or not President Obama's statement "You didn't build that ..." was taken out of context.
First, as is the norm with Fox, not one of the panelists is impartial, their conclusion is pre-determined by their political opinions.
Second, "that". I believe Obama was referring to bridges, roads, all the things he mentioned in the previous sentence. It's a lot simpler than people make it out to be. Just like Ann Romney's "you people" was referring to the media, IMO. Over-thinking to fill 24 hour news cycle strikes again.
Third, watching this video, one thing became immediately apparent to me. The analysts on the panel are either unable or unwilling to understand President Obama's complex thought process. The point Obama makes is that nothing occurs in a vacuum. On the surface, you see a successful business. BUT, if you have the ability to ANALYZE, SYNTHESIZE, and EXTRAPOLATE, you see below the surface and beyond the immediate focus to a myriad of support structures and systems that all contribute to a business' success. The President's point is that investment in these structures and systems is ESSENTIAL for American business to thrive. This is irrefutable. Mitt Romney's position - that businesses should not be taxed because they create jobs - is demonstrably flawed. Just look at the banking industry, the oil industry, and the pharmaceutical industry for examples of how record-breaking profits have failed to restore the US economy.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
David Cook and the PS 22 Chorus
How much fun to watch David Cook interact with these kids. Too bad he is so overdressed in a 3-piece suit and tie. Love watching Neil answer questions, too. I wasn't too impressed with "The Last Goodbye" when I first heard it, it sounded an awful lot like Daughtry's "No Surprise" to me. But after watching this video, I'm liking it a lot more. "Rolling in the Deep" and part of "Living on a Prayer" videos are on the NY Daily News page.
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