Paul Ryan Fails — The Truth

The Washington Post

By Jonathan Bernstein

Posted at 11:56 PM ET, 08/29/2012

It was, by any reasonable standards, a staggering, staggering lie. Here’s Paul Ryan about Barack Obama:

He created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report.  He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.

“They.” “Them.” “Them.” Those words are lies. Because Paul Ryan was on that commission. “Came back with an urgent report.” That is a lie. The commission never made any recommendations for Barack Obama to support or oppose. Why not? Because the commission voted down its own recommendations. Why? Because Paul Ryan, a member of the commission, voted it down and successfully convinced the other House Republicans on the commission to vote it down.

That wasn’t the only bit of mendacity – lazy mendacity, incredibly lazy mendacity – in Ryan’s speech. Twitter lit up as soon as he started telling the story of the Janesville auto plant that Barack Obama didn’t save – a plant that, it turns out, closed before Obama was president. And of course there’s the infamous cuts to Medicare that Ryan lambasted Obama for without happening to mention that those very same cuts were in Paul Ryan’s own budget. Yes: absolutely everything in Obamacare is an abomination, says Paul Ryan, except for (as he forgets to mention) the cuts to Medicare that he supports – and yet he still singles that part out to use as an attack.

It isn’t even true in some symbolic or abstract way. The real truth is that Paul Ryan completely rejects the approach of that commission – because it includes tax increases along with spending cuts – while Barack Obama has, while not endorsing the exact plan that Ryan shot down, basically endorsed the commission’s approach. Nor was this a side point; Ryan’s complaint about Obama on the deficit was absolutely central to his case against the president.

And then there’s the logic of the whole thing. As Seth Masket said, it all comes down to arguing “we must cut entitlements! Obama cutting entitlements is un-American.”  There’s also, as many were pointing out, the plain fact that until January 2009 Paul Ryan faithfully supported all the tax cuts and spending increases which created the deficit problem he’s been so concerned about since January 2009.

But really, the proper response to a speech like this isn’t to carefully analyze the logic, or to find instances of hypocracy; it’s to call the speaker out for telling flat-out lies to the American people. Paul Ryan has had what I’ve long thought was an undeserved good reputation among many in the press and in Washington. It shouldn’t survive tonight’s speech.

Follow Jonathan Bernstein on Twitter and at his blog.

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Romney ‘Still Deciding What His Position On Immigration Is’

Huff Post

Elise Foley  Posted: 05/08/2012 1:06 pm Updated: 05/08/2012 3:17 pm

A Latino-vote outreach program on Tuesday plans to stress to voters that the president has failed on immigration reform and deported a record number of people, said the Republican National Committee’s top Hispanic outreach coordinator.

But so far, it doesn’t have a message on what Republicans would do on the issue themselves, and specifically the plans of presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney. In fact, coordinator Bettina Inclan told reporters, Romney didn’t have his immigration policy mapped out and the RNC would not yet be able to talk about it to Latino voters.

The RNC quickly tried to take back the statement, telling reporters who tweeted it that Inclan’s words were misunderstood — or that she was misquoted. Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for the RNC, said message coordination between the RNC and the Romney campaign is still in its early stages because challenger Rick Santorum only dropped out of the race two weeks ago.

Still, the statement by Inclan seemed to indicate the RNC’s lack of message on immigration, despite an increased effort to turn out Latino voters. Below is the full quote from Inclan, that Kukowski would later say was misconstrued:

I think that as a candidate, to my understanding that he’s still deciding what his position on immigration is, so I can’t talk about what his proposal is going to be because I don’t know what Romney exactly — he’s talked about different issues, and what we saw in the Republican primary is that there’s a diverse opinion on how to deal with immigration. I can’t talk about something that I don’t know what his position is.

A few minutes later, after apparently reading tweets from reporters on the phone and in the room, Kukowski said they were misreporting the statement.

“I want to clear something up. As far as what Governor Romney’s positions are on immigration, that is for him and his campaign to talk about, and they will tell you what their policies are,” she said. “In this room right now, and what we do at the RNC from a Hispanic outreach perspective, is on-the-ground community outreach in the Hispanic community.”

MORE HERE

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Jon Stewart: GOP Bondage Club Scandal (VIDEO)

Jon Stewart Revels In GOP Bondage Club Scandal (VIDEO)

Huff Post- First Posted: 03-31-10 08:31 AM   |   Updated: 03-31-10 08:41 AM

The majority of the news stories covered by Jon Stewart are of a serious tone. So while we get to reap the benefits of his satirical breakdown, he’s got to deal with the weighty stuff. But shouldn’t he get to have some fun, too?

Last night he got his opportunity. Upon hearing the RNC spent nearly $2000 at a lesbian bondage-themed strip club, “The Daily Show” ran with it. A Muppet reenactment, a correspondent totem pole, and Groucho glasses were all included. It was fantastic. Did we mention MUPPET REENACTMENT!??

WATCH:

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Sexual Freedom Group: After A Night At A Bondage Nightclub- ‘The RNC Is Hypocritical’

Sexual Freedom Group Charges RNC With Hypocrisy

Huff Post- Sam Stein

First Posted: 03-30-10 09:57 AM   |   Updated: 03-30-10 10:36 AM

One of the leading organizations advocating for sexual openness and freedom is charging the Republican National Committee with hypocrisy in the wake of revelations that a RNC staffer spent nearly $2,000 on a night at a bondage-themed nightclub.

Jeffrey Montgomery, a founding member and spokesperson for the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, who has lobbied extensively to promote the idea that sexual freedom is a human right, charged the RNC and its chairman, Michael Steele with duplicity for posturing as moral purists at the same time that they were indulging their esoteric, voyeuristic impulses.

“I think, from our standpoint, the issue isn’t that he was at this club and spent all that money. If one can afford that, it is not such a big deal. It sounds like a fun club. The problem, of course, is that the RNC is hypocritical,” Montgomery said. “I really doubt we would be talking about this issue if he got reimbursed for a weekend poker tournament or a Final Four basketball game… but because he happened to go to a sex club or whatever the definition is, once again the RNC finds itself in this hypocritical position of having one of their own leaders involved in a thing they would otherwise be worked up about. That’s the problem here.”

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Ray McGovern on Torture, Warren Rudman, & Dick Cheney

Torture? Rudman to the Rescue

By Ray McGovern
May 6, 2009

The announcement in mid-March that CIA Director Leon Panetta had picked former Sen. Warren Rudman to act as CIA “liaison” with the Senate Intelligence Committee during its “review” of interrogation and detention practices has drawn virtually no criticism from the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM).

Yet, it is a dead give-away as to how congressional leaders plan to go through the motions for a year or so, and then let everyone off the hook.

More

In the months leading up to 911

Warren B. Rudman was involved in the defense of Papa Bush in concert with Darth Cheney on the Iran Contra affair in the 1980’s, and we now see him resurrected to defend Cheney on the torture issue. Rudman is now 78 years of age, but has the necessary ties with the Corporate Government to make him a faithful allay to Bu$hco.

Rudman retired, as co-chair, from Raytheon on May 8, 2006.

The U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century (USCNS/21)

AKA: the Hart-Rudman Commission or Hart-Rudman Task Force on Homeland Security, was chartered by Secretary of Defense William Cohen in 1998 to provide a comprehensive review of US national security requirements in the 21st century. USCNS/21 was tasked “to analyze the emerging international security environment; to develop a US national security strategy appropriate to that environment; and to assess the various security institutions for their current relevance to the effective and efficient implementation of that strategy, and to recommend adjustments as necessary”.

Released on 31 January 2001, USCNS/21 is the most exhaustive review of US national security strategy since the National Security Act of 1947. USCNS/21 was released in three distinct phases. The first phase, New World Coming: American Security in the 21st Century, anticipates the emerging international security environment within the first quarter of the 21st century and examines how the US fits into that environment. The second phase, Seeking a National Strategy: A Concert for Preserving Security and Promoting Freedom, proposes a new US national security strategy based on the anticipated threats and conditions outlined in the first phase report. The third phase, Roadmap for National Security: Imperative for Change, recommends changes to the US government’s structure, legislation, and policy to reflect a new national security strategy based on the anticipated 21st century international security environment.

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Steele: We Were Getting High On Power ‘Drinking That Potomac River Water’

Steele: Americans don’t trust the GOP because we were ‘getting high’ ‘drinking that Potomac River water.’

Think Progress-  By Amanda Terkel at 12:54 pm

Yesterday, RNC Chairman Michael Steele spoke to his party faithful in LaCrosse, WI. Steele tried to claim that moderates were welcome to his “big table” party, but said that in order to join him for dinner, they had to first silence their own opinions and agree with him and other far-right Republicans:

“All you moderates out there, y’all come. I mean, that’s the message,” Steele said at a news conference. “The message of this party is this is a big table for everyone to have a seat. I have a place setting with your name on the front.

“Understand that when you come into someone’s house, you’re not looking to change it. You come in because that’s the place you want to be.“

Steele also talked about why the GOP had fallen out of favor with the American public. It’s not that the country is “less conservative,” he said. “It’s that our credibility with them is shot. It’s that we left them along the side of the road on our way to drinking that Potomac River water, getting high on power and influence and forgetting how we got where we are.”

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RNC Chair Steele: ‘No Reason, None, To Trust Our Words Or Our Actions At This Point’ (VIDEO)

RNC Chair Steele on his own party: ‘No reason, none, to trust our words or our actions at this point.’»

Think Progress- By Matt Corley at 6:22 pm

On Glenn Beck’s Fox News show this evening, Beck told RNC Chairman Michael Steele that conservatives are “pissed” at Republicans because they don’t “expect socialism” from them. “Why should we even think twice of pulling a lever again?” asked Beck. Steele responded that he was right and that voters have “no reason” to trust the GOP “at this point”:

STEELE: Yeah, no, Glenn. I’m not gonna, look, I’m not going to soft pedal this with you. I’m not going to try to blow smoke either. The reality of it is, you are absolutely right. You have absolutely no reason, none, to trust our word or our actions at this point. So, yeah, it’s going to be an uphill climb.

Watch it:

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RNC Chair Michael Steele: Government Jobs Aren’t Real Jobs (VIDEO)

RNC chair: Only real jobs are those business creates

Raw Story- David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Sunday February 8, 2009

Most state governors, including many Republicans, are strongly behind a stimulus bill that will fund government projects to put large number of people back to work and get the economy moving again.

“It comes at a time when we need it,” Florida’s Republican governor, Charlie Crist, recently stated. “People need jobs. It’s about jobs, jobs, jobs.”

However, newly-elected Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele believes that government-funded jobs don’t count as real employment because “a job is something that a business owner creates.”

“What this administration is talking about is ‘making work.’ … It’s not a job,” Steele explained during a Sunday appearance on ABC’s This Week. “It ends at a certain point. … These road projects that we’re talking about have an endpoint. … There’s no guarantee that there’s going to be more work when you’re done that job.”

ABC host George Stephanopoulos objected, “We’ve seen millions and millions of jobs going away in the private sector, just in the last year.”

MORE HERE

This video is from ABC’s This Week, broadcast Feb 8, 2009.

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Lincoln = Republican = Just Like Me, Sean Hannity = Awesome!

Sean Hannity christened the new Colmes-less show with a predictably ridiculous segment in which he claimed that President-elect Obama has been engaged in an on-going attempt to hijack Abraham Lincoln’s legacy from — seriously — the modern Republican Party.

HANNITY: And in Your America tonight, Barack Obama is doing everything he can to convince Americans that he is the rightful inheritor of Abraham Lincoln’s legacy. […] First, at the top, I just remember that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.

The red flag here? He “just remembers” the part about Lincoln’s party affiliation. This indicates that everything else about Lincoln is therefore processed through the doofwerks of Hannity’s America, inside which reality and universally accepted facts are mercilessly sculpted, oversimplified and kneejerked into bloody submission, and thus ejecting through the ass-end an easy-to-digest-but-insanely-wrong deductive equation: Lincoln = Republican = Just Like Me, Sean Hannity = Awesome!

Lincoln was indeed the first Republican president. Good job, Hannity! Erudite! More about the history of party affiliation presently, but to somehow suggest that President-elect Obama is trying to steal Lincoln all for himself, or for Hannity to imply that Bush Republicanism is the same as Lincoln Republicanism is about as realistic as suggesting that Lincoln survived the assassination as is currently alive and lurching around — top hat and all — through the forests of the upper Midwest like a lanky, undead sasquatch. Then again, Hannity once dedicated an entire segment of his show to the existence of demons walking among us. I’m not suggesting Hannity believes that Lincoln is still alive, but it wouldn’t be shocker given his belief in goblins and the like.

Regardless, he’s clearly unable to fathom why this particular moment in American history calls to mind the spirit and legacy of Abraham Lincoln. This is nothing short of miraculous given the ubiquity of all things Kearns-Goodwin-y. Incidentally, the “Mortal Kombat vs. The Team of Rivals” video game tie-in is pretty sweet. The Seward “Pantaloons of Chaos” move (X, X, Up, Down, B, B, Y) is totally indefensible — especially against that punk Liu Kang.

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Michael Connell: Was His Plane Crash An Accident?

The Intriguing Death Of Top GOP Consultant Michael Connell

Huffington Post- Thomas B.  Edsall

December 25, 2008 10:01 PM

At 3:31 PM Friday, December 19, Michael L. Connell, a top Internet consultant for the Republican National Committee and for the Bush and McCain presidential campaigns, left Washington from the small airport in College Park, Md. Alone at the helm of a single engine Piper Saratoga, Connell’s flight plan anticipated arrival at his hometown Akron-Canton Airport in a little over two hours, at 5:43 PM.

Instead, about three miles short of the Akron-Canton Airport, Connell’s plane crashed to the ground in an upscale section of Lake Township, killing Connell instantly. “I was standing in the kitchen and I looked out the window and all I saw was fire,” Taylor Fano told The Akron Beacon Journal. “It took out the flagpole and the cement blocks surrounding the flagpole . . . . It skidded across the driveway and right in-between a line of pine trees and a small fence around an in-ground pool.”

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the accident and has not yet filed a report, but there was no immediate evidence of wrong-doing or sabotage.

Nonetheless, Connell’s death provoked a groundswell of commentary among conspiracy theorists on the web, including Larisa Alexandrovna, Raw Story, Velvet Revolution, ePluribus Media, and TheZoo.

The most common unsubstantiated allegation on these sites is that Connell was about to provide crucial information in the case of alleged vote fraud in the 2004 Ohio presidential contest, and that that information would implicate Karl Rove and others in the Bush administration. Just last month, Connell was deposed in the ongoing case, King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association v. Blackwell. According to accounts of the November 3rd deposition, Connell denied any knowledge of attempts to fraudulently manipulate 2004 Ohio vote counts.

MORE HERE

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