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Saturday… Well… Weekend? Editorial August 11th, 2012
August 11, 2012
By Michael Bryan
I'd like to let you all know that Drinking Liberally will be meeting this week at the regular time and place (Wednesday, 6pm at The Shanty). This week our guest is… Me! I will be presenting the Propositions that will appear on this November's ballot (and a few that might not be…). We'll discuss the pros and cons (where such exists) and a have a few beers. For a preview, or if you can't make it, you can take a look at my 2012 Ballot Prop Guide.
I personally read almost every news source in Arizona – and keep up with national reaction to our politics, as well. I do it to bring you readers of BlogForArizona the Arizona Donkey Feed, which appears on our right-hand sidebar every day (you may also have the Feed emailed to you daily). Sometimes the avalanche of information available in our 24/7 news cycle can be overwhelming. I do generally succeed in keeping the Feed topically restricted to Arizona politics. But it is a lot of noise to sort through, so, I decided I might like to sit down once a week and take some time to look around, and try to get some perspective on the news.
This week, I chose to present an extended rumination on the Jared Loughner plea and the Arpaio trial. I sense some connections that might not be entirely obvious.
Read more after the click…
The Romney double standard: IOKIYAR
August 11, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Steve Benen makes an excellent point about how Romney's pick of a career Washington insider who has never held a private sector job entirely undermines the message he has been using for months against President Obama. Romney's kind of guy?:
For months, Mitt Romney repeated a common complaint about President Obama's professional background: he's spent his life in the political world, not the real world. While Romney's a businessman (notwithstanding 18 years seeking public offices), Obama's never run a business and never run a state. It makes Obama, the argument goes, a poor choice for national office.
Oddly enough, Romney hasn't repeated that line of criticism in a while. I guess we know why.
[Paul Ryan] worked in politics his entire life, beginning as an aide to Sen. Bob Kasten, then working for Sen. Sam Brownback and as a speechwriter to Rep. Jack Kemp. He's known as a relatively ideological politician who has put forward a detailed policy plan to remake the federal government. It's a rather different message about what's important. And how does Romney say the problem with Barack Obama is that he's "never spent a day in the private sector" and then put Ryan a heartbeat away from the presidency?
Indeed, in May, Romney went so far as to say working in the private sector for "at least three years" should be a prerequisite to national office. Now, Romney wants to put Ryan one heartbeat from the presidency, despite the fact that Ryan's adult life bears all of the characteristics of a background Romney disdains.
Newt Gingrich on Paul Ryan’s radical ‘right wing social engineering’
August 11, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Blast from the past: Remember all the way back to May 2011 when the disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had this to say about the Paul Ryan GOP Budget on “Meet the Press”: I don’t think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering. I don’t think imposing … Read more
Peace activist Medea Benjamin on drone warfare (video)
August 11, 2012
by Pamela Powers Hannley
Traditionally, war is a messy business– all that blood, sweat, and tears– not to mention danger, death, destruction, dismembered bodies, human suffering, nightmares, guilt, wasted taxpayer dollars, mounting deficit spending… you know the drill. (Pun intended.)
In recent years, the US military-industrial complex has made war less messy and less dangerous, at least for a select group of American soldiers. Drone pilots sit in secure bunkers and, armed with banks of sophisticated computer hardware, “fly” unmanned killing machines.
Drones– killing machines aimed at faceless targets– AKA fellow human beings– thousands of miles away.
No-muss, no-fuss drone warfare is no less deadly, destructive, or perverse than traditional war. It’s just easier and cleaner– just like playing the same violent video game day after day.
Although you hear about drones in the news, there is never any real analysis or detailed reporting of what the US is doing. Recently, Code Pink co-founder and author of the book Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control Medea Benjamin gave an eye-opening talk to an audience of about 60 Tucson activists. Personally, I was shocked how deeply entrenched in drone warfare Tucson already is. Davis-Monthan, The University of Arizona, Raytheon, and Fort Huachuca all have ties to the drone business. According to Benjamin, Fort Huachuca trains more drone pilots than any other facility in the world.
Last winter, Mayor Rothschild, then Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' office, and the Davis-Monthan 50 held a press conference promoting Tucson and DM as a drone warfare center. (You can see the Tucson Sentinel’s raw raw footage here above and in KVOA’s edited news footage here.) We already have a dearth of good-paying jobs in Tucson that are not connected to the military industrial complex. Why court more
Videos of the Benjamin talk after the jump.
Tea Party Patriots heart Ryan-[Romney] ticket
August 11, 2012
by
by David Safier The Tea Party Patriots have embraced the Ryan-[I guess we have to take]Romney ticket: Tea Party Patriots welcomes the selection of Paul Ryan as the Vice-Presidential running mate for Governor Mitt Romney. With this selection, Governor Romney and the Republican Party make it clear that they have accepted the Tea Party Patriots … Read more
Democrats ready to run against Paul Ryan plan ‘to end Medicare as we know it’
August 11, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
So Tea-Publicans in their ideological zeal have forced Willard “Mittens” Romney to pick their alleged boy genius and Ayn Rand acolyte, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), as his shadow president.
These geniuses do know that Democrats were planning to run against the Paul Ryan GOP Budget “to end Medicare as we know it,” don’t they? The ads almost certainly have been cut already and are just waiting for the GOP convention to roll out. It is Phase II for the fall campaign.
Why Tea-Publicans forced Romney to pick the GOP’s “Flim-Flam Man” on the budget that wants to end Medicare as we know it is beyond me.
Here is a quick repost of some earlier posts that explain why. NY-26: GOP loses referendum on Rep. Ryan plan to end Medicare as we know it:
Kathy Hochul ought to send Paul Ryan a thank-you note.
Hochul pulled off a long-shot victory Tuesday in the heavily Republican 26th Congressional District largely by vowing to save Medicare. Hochul found political gold in Ryan plan – Donn Esmonde – The Buffalo News:
The spending plan proposed by Ryan, Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, would — among other things — change the face of Medicare, the government-run health care program for senior citizens. Announced in mid-April, it immediately handed Hochul a point of attack.
* * *
“Medicare seemed to be the key issue,” said Jim Campbell, chairman of UB’s political science department. “Hochul recognized it as a potential vulnerable spot for Corwin.” Largely because Medicare was thick in the mix, the ripples of the special election — as evidenced by the national play the race got — extend far beyond the 26th District.
Hochul and her allies pounded Corwin’s backing of the plan to, as they put it, “end Medicare as we know it.” For Hochul, concerns about Ryan’s plan helped her to connect with senior citizens — whose propensity to vote made them a vital bloc in a low-turnout special election.
Democrats have already run a campaign on the Ryan GOP Budget and won in a heavily Republican district.
Atlas Wanked: Paul Ryan is just another wingnut ideologue
August 11, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Blast from the past: Howie Klein reminds teabaggers why they aren't going to like Paul Ryan: Paul Ryan's is one of Wall Street's most devoted partisans on Capitol Hill, a veritable lobbyist inside Congress for all of their interests. Teabaggers don't like politicians who voted for the irresponsible Bush bank bailouts? Ryan didn't … Read more
Conservatives force puppet Romney to pick Paul Ryan as his shadow president
August 11, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Romney campaign is inept. Who announces their selection of a running mate late on a Friday night after most of the nation's newspapers have already gone to print? The answer is "nobody." A campaign does a well orchestrated roll out of its VP selection. This is an act of desperation to change the subject after a very bad summer for Romney.
It also exposes a very weak candidate who is not his own man. The Wall Street Journal, Weekly Standard, National Review and a host of right-wing pundits and bloviators all instructed Romney this week that he must choose the GOP's alleged boy genius and Ayn Rand acolyte, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). Conservatives are going back to the model of Dick Cheney as the shadow president and George W. Bush as his wooden boy puppet. Paul Ryan is whom they want for shadow president, and Willard "Mittens" Romney will be his wooden boy puppet. Norquist: Romney Will Do As Told—David Frum:
[Conservatives] have reconciled themselves to a Romney candidacy because they see Romney as essentially a weak and passive president who will concede leadership to congressional conservatives:
All we have to do is replace Obama. … We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don't need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. … We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don't need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate.
The requirement for president?
Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States. This is a change for Republicans: the House and Senate doing the work with the president signing bills. His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared.
Acknowledging his role as wooden boy puppet, Mittens Romney made a telling gaffe this morning by introducing Paul Ryan as "the next president of the United States." Romney will do as told.
