Featured Stories
Jeff Flake Really Doesn’t Want You to Vote For Him!
August 13, 2012
By Michael Bryan Confronted with his professed preference that U.S. Senators be selected by state legislators rather than elected by the voters, and the resulting coverage (here, here, here, here, here, right here), Jeff Flake issued a clarification: “I should just mention, on the 17th Amendment, I think it’s better as it reinforces the notion of … Read more
Thoughts From Seattle
August 13, 2012
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A few notes from my week in Seattle (which overall was a great week): I finished one great book and started and finished another. The first, "Watergate: The Hidden History: Nixon, the Mafia, and the CIA," by Lamar Waldron, was a total slog to get through, but fascinating. He connects the plots on Castro, which … Read more
Paul Ryan draws comparisons to Sarah Palin, Dan Quayle
August 13, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Jonathan Bernstein has the first poll numbers out today after Paul Ryan's selection as Willard "Mittens" Romney's running mate, and the overall public reaction is "meh." Paul who? Romney’s choice lags in first polling: The first polls are out on Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan for running mate, and the reaction … Read more
Media villagers complicit in perpetrating a fraud
August 13, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Steve Benen has a terrific post today about how our corporate media villagers and Beltway bloviators (the "very serious people") are complicit in perpetrating the fraud that Rep. Paul Ryan is a "very serious person" and "policy wonk." He is neither. Don't fall for the fraud:
Paul Ryan doesn't help with any obvious demographic except one: political pundits. Commentators tend to love the right-wing congressman, routinely praising him for being "honest," "serious," and "courageous."
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I realize I'm tilting at windmills here. The political/media establishment has decided, practically by edict, that Paul Ryan is a credible wonk whose work must be respected. Proof to the contrary doesn't matter; this characterization is now accepted fact. Why? Because the establishment says it is thus, so stop asking questions.
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Paul Ryan is not a fiscal conservative. He voted for Bush's tax cuts and didn't feel the need to pay for them. Then he voted for Bush's extremely expensive Medicare expansion, and didn't feel the need to pay for this, either. He also voted for Bush's wars, and had no qualms whatsoever about adding the costs the national credit card, letting future generations pay for our national security goals. To top things off, Ryan also voted to bail out Wall Street, and once more decided the costs should just be added to the debt.
This is not the record of "a real fiscal conservative."
The Galt – Gekko 2012 campaign begins with three ‘big lies’
August 13, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Willard "Mittens" Romney campaign has been running a Big Lie propaganda campaign from the very beginning. Now he has a partner in crime with the selection of a running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), who also has a reputation for mendacity.
The "Galt – Gekko 2012" campaign begins with three "big lies." The first big lie: immediately after selecting Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mittens Romney sought to put some distance between himself and his new running mate's unpopular GOP budget proposals (for which all but a handful of members of the GOP Caucus voted for — twice). Romney steps back from Ryan plan.
Romney would have you believe that he is the man calling the shots. This is pure bullshit. Romney's poll numbers were beginning to collapse last week and he came under intense pressure from the Conservative commentariat and right-wing noise machine that he must select their alleged boy genius and Ayn Rand acolyte, Paul Ryan. So Romney acted out of panic and fear of a revolt from the Conservative GOP base.
It may be unprecedented in American history that the nominee of a political party is overshadowed by his vice presidential running mate (a reasonable argument can be made that this happened to John McCain late in his 2008 campaign). Jonathan Capehart writes, Mitt Romney already overshadowed by Paul Ryan:
Ever since Romney tapped Ryan, he has been trying to make it clear he’s calling the shots. On Saturday, Romney’s campaign put out talking points to supporters assuring all that “as president he will be putting together his own plan for cutting the deficit and putting the budget on a path to balance.” On Sunday, when asked by Bob Schieffer if he will learn from Ryan, Romney said, “[O]bviously, I have to make the final call in important decisions.”
But the entire national conversation is about the Ryan budget. And with good reason. First, there’s a lot not to like. Second, and most importantly, despite constantly flogging his 59-point blueprint for the economy, Romney doesn’t have a concrete plan of his own. If he did, his campaign wouldn’t have needed that Saturday talking point, by the way.
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Where Romney was viewed with suspicion by the Republican base, Ryan is beloved. “Mr. Romney’s selection of a running mate sharpens the portrait of the kind of president he wants to be,” The Washington Post editorial noted yesterday. Right now, that portrait looks just like Ryan.
The Tea-Publican establishment forced Paul Ryan on Mittens Romney precisely because of his radical "right-wing social engineering" GOP Budget that would repeal the 20th Century and impose a dystopian Randian world on America. Romney has previously endorsed the Ryan GOP Budget and said that he would sign it if it came to his desk. Romney is going to do as he is told by GOP leadership.
What Pelosi said
August 13, 2012
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by David Safier As soon as Darrell Issa decided he could go after Holder for a failure to turn over documents related to his Fast and Furious investigation, Issa basically abandoned his arguments against the actual program because he had achieved his real objectives: to make Holder, and Obama by extension, look like they have … Read more
Another take on the “Dismantling MAS Vote” question
August 13, 2012
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by David Safier Pamela Powers Hannley wrote a post discussing TUSD School Board candidates, focusing on Kristel Foster. It covered lots of ground, but I want to look at one issue in the post — the question asked of Foster and others by Mark Stegeman: Would you have voted to dismantle MAS rather than let … Read more
The book on Paul Ryan
August 12, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The American Bridge Super PAC has published an opposition research book (scribd) on Rep. Paul Ryan, at a web site it has set up at MeetPaulRyan.com, which features exhaustive research and numerous tracking videos. You will want to read Ryan Lizza's profile of Paul Ryan in the New Yorker Fussbudget: How Paul … Read more
