Fish out of water

No idea if this photo of Paul Ryan is real or shopped but it clearly needs to be archived for posterity.

Paul Ryan's plan for social Darwinism

Everybody is talking about Paul Ryan's new budget which is pretty much like his old budget, only with more granny starving. I'd sum it up as further slash the taxes on the wealthy, raise taxes on everyone else and pretty much destroy any government program that might possibly increase the life span of the poors, olds and disabled. The man who spent pretty much his whole life dining on the taxpayers' dollar apparently thinks the government is spending entirely too much money keeping these "takers" alive. In his world they don't need so many poors anymore to do the menial work. Hell, we have machines for that now.

If you want the blow by blow analysis, well, there's lots of critiques. Me, I'm not that interested in the details. This abomination is just one more act in the Beltway's theater of the absurd. A meaningless slapstick skit to amuse the Village. Lizzie O'Leary tweeted it best over a year ago:

@lizzieohreally: Budgets are political documents. Authorizations have some relationship with reality. Appropriations are the real deal.

This is just the opening act for Ryan's 2016 bid. A counter to Rand's fabulous filibuster. Which is not to say I don't think, given the power to do so, Ryan wouldn't follow through on it. I don't see a speck of compassion in his zombie eyes.

Paul Ryan rejects reality in election results

Paul Ryan emerged from whatever rock he was hiding under for the last six weeks to announce he's certain it wasn't his agenda that was rejected on election day. No, he just knows that everybody still loves granny starving and his team would have won the damn race if only all those moochers didn't turn out to vote:

In his first interview since losing the election, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) wouldn’t admit that voters rejected his economic vision and instead chalked up President Obama’s victory to a large turnout of the “urban vote.” “I don’t think we lost it on those budget issues, especially on Medicare, we clearly didn’t lose it on those issues,” Ryan to local station WISC-TV. “I think the surprise was some of the turnout, some of the turnout especially in urban areas, which gave President Obama the big margin to win this race.”

This seems to be the GOP party line. Conservatism wasn't rejected, it just couldn't compete with those people who want all the free stuff. I'm sure I don't need to tell you who he means by those people. Turns out they weren't as gullible as he thought they were.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

A Paul Ryan Halloween

Might as well get them used to the system New World Order while they're young...

[cartoon via]

Paul Ryan's fake photo ops

[photo via TPM]

Paul Ryan is a textbook narcissist. He loves his photo ops so much he's willing to bully his way into pretending to wash dishes at a food kitchen without getting permission through the proper channels. Which didn't sit so well with the director of the charity:

Brian J. Antal, president of the Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society, said that he was not contacted by the Romney campaign ahead of the Saturday morning visit by Ryan, who stopped by the soup kitchen after a town hall at Youngstown State University.

He added: “The photo-op they did wasn’t even accurate. He did nothing. He just came in here to get his picture taken at the dining hall.”

Ryan had stopped by the soup kitchen for about 15 minutes on his way to the airport after his Saturday morning town hall in Youngstown. By the time he arrived, the food had already been served, the patrons had left, and the hall had been cleaned. ...

“Had they asked for permission, it wouldn’t have been granted. … But I certainly wouldn’t have let him wash clean pans, and then take a picture,” Antal said.

Ryan's camera trickery caused Mr. Antal no end of grief. His charity depends largely on private donations. They are deliberately non-political, as a church sponsored charity should be. He would have denied any campaign that photo-op, even if it was real. And apparently his donors weren't happy to see the soup kitchen tacitly supporting a political candidate. The charity will probably lose some donors, which of course will hurt their ability to help the poor who need their assistance. But Ryan got his photo and that's all that matters to him. Classic con move.

This reminded me of Ryan's first days on the road as the anointed one. He crashed a tailgating party at an Ohio State University football game to pretend to flip burgers and lost a game of cornhole to an 11 year old because he was too busy posing for the photographers.

From the pool report:

Mr. Ryan moved on to play a game of corn hole with 11-year-old Zachary Wymer. Each scored one point. As he missed a shot, Ryan said, “I missed trying to get the camera guy there,’’ meaning one of the press pool cameramen.

How prissy does he look in this shot anyway? Really don't get this he-man Ryan schtick the media is always swooning over because he lifts weights. Ryan doesn't even look that buff for all the working out he allegedly does. And I look at Paul Ryan's cornhole photo and my gaydar leaps to eleventy. Is it just me?

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

When Irish eyes are smiling

The VP debate last night was being billed as the "Thrill in the Ville." It lived up to its billing for me. I didn't want it to end. I got the feeling neither did Joe Biden. He was clearly enjoying his freedom to Hulk smash Paul Ryan's pathetic lies as they popped up. Felt like watching the kids play whack-a-mole at the arcade. And Joe Biden won all the prize tickets.

This of course, dismayed fully half of the on-air punditry. Much pearl clutching and gasping for air on the fainting couches about the heinous incivility of derisive laughter. It totally ruined their pre-written script for Old Joe the Gaffer versus the Whiz Kid of the GOP. Their whimpering was largely drowned out by the rousing cheers of newly heartened liberals in my seating section. Indeed, the collective sigh of relief from the left blew the roof off their newly constructed house of dark despair and let in the light again.

As might be expected, Charlie Pierce has the best telling of the Fall of the Mighty Paul Ryan:

On Thursday night, Biden dragged out the old Paul Ryan — and, I would argue, the real Paul Ryan — and put him on display, and he made the new Paul Ryan own him. ...

The ideas [Ryan] could explain were bad enough, but the profound ignorance he displayed on Thursday night on a number of important questions, including when and where the United States might wind up going to war next, and his blithe dismissal of any demand that he be specific about where he and his running mate are planning to take the country generally, was so positively terrifying that it calls into question Romney's judgment for putting this unqualified greenhorn on the ticket at all. Joe Biden laughed at him? Of course, he did. The only other option was to hand him a participation ribbon and take him to Burger King for lunch.

The GOP's whiz kid ended up looking like all kid, no whiz. I was reminded of those movie scenes where the wise, vaguely amused older guy is holding a little enraged kid at arm's distance, while the kid wildly flails at the air.

Unclear how much any of this will matter generally, but if it did nothing else but restore joy and some semblance of serenity on my social nets -- that's good enough. [Getty photo via Holly Bailey tumblr]

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Paul Ryan seeks cash at the ATM of politics

Over the weekend, Paul Ryan held a few fundraisers in the big money enclaves of Connecticut where the rich Republicans talk like Tea Partiers:

Ryan was introduced by Howard Morgan, a member of the event's host committee from Darien, who is president of Branford Chain, a New York City-based marketer and distributor of marine equipment. Like many of the Romney's wealthy Fairfield County fundraising bundlers, Morgan has a background in private equity.

"The vice president is a reflection of Mitt Romney's judgment and, God, his judgment is great," Morgan said. [...] "When it comes to the individual, I know no one like Paul Ryan, who trusts individualism over collectivism, who knows that the American people are going to take back this country and make it great again," Morgan said.

And by great he means, Rmoney/Ryan will increase their tax breaks and re-open the capitalist casino on Wall Street so they can all make tons of money again without being bothered by those pesky regulations which get in the way of gaming the markets. Plus, good old zombie blue eyes will wrench those deadbeat working poor off the government teat and make them suffer for their bad choice to be born without white privilege advantage.

Interestingly, the Romney campaign didn't release any fundraising totals. Rumor has it the big money is drying up. That could explain the relatively cheap price tag for this one, with tickets running $1k - $10k. At that bargain rate, Ryan only gave a ten minute speech. The "guest list was said to include New York Jets owner Woody Johnson" who told the press at a different event a Romney/Ryan is more important to him than having his own team win. I'm told with the way his sports team is deteriorating, he's likely to lose on both counts.

Addendum: Forgot I had a photo of a small but determined group of protesters outside the fundraiser. Also many photos at the link.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Baby, baby Paul Ryan is out of time

Have to give Chris Wallace some credit here for trying to pin down Paul Ryan on the math of his secret, very serious, tax plan. But the Exalted Grand Wizard of Wonkiness can't be bothered with the details:

RYAN: It’s revenue neutral. [...]

WALLACE: But I have to point out, you haven’t given me the math.

RYAN: No, but you…well, I don’t have the time. It would take me too long to go through all of the math. But let me say it this way: you can lower tax rates by 20 percent across the board by closing loopholes and still have preferences for the middle class. For things like charitable deductions, for home purchases, for health care. So what we’re saying is, people are going to get lower tax rates.

And he's never going to have time to explain the numbers. You just wouldn't understand. Math is for wonks, not "you people." Just take his word for it.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

For Paul Ryan, it's about individualism vs. collectivism

This is a bit too obscure to make a noticeable difference in the campaign, but illuminating. A Catholic website delves into an old speech by Paul Ryan where he makes his disdain for Medicare and Social Security explicit:

This isn’t from a secret video, it’s from the untranscribed portion of Ryan’s 2005 speech at the Atlas Society’s “Celebration of Ayn Rand.” It fits well with the Romney video because it makes clear that middle class entitlements, “so called defined benefit programs” such as Social Security and Medicare ARE an explicit strategic target because they are collectivistic, socialistic and foster dependency.

The speech has been hidden in plain sight on the Atlas Society website, which offers only apartial transcript. This omits several revealing passages that illuminate Ryan’s philosophy as it relates to policy priorities.

Ryan describes Social Security and Medicare as “collectivist” and “socialistic.”

Ryan’s strategic plan: privatize Social Security and Medicare in order to convert people from “collectivism” to believers in a “capitalistic individualistic” philosophy. So that there will be “more people on our team” who “won’t listen to” Democrats.

This isn't new policy for Ryan. His Roadmap to Middleclass Ruin is riddled with more oblique references to the same thing. Nothing surprising here except how well he's managed to delude the elderly into thinking he intends to protect the program.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Ryan lied, journalism died

To be fair, there's a whole lot more fact checking and pushback going on in the legacy media than I expected to see, but the people who really need to know won't see it unless it's on teevee. And TPM doesn't find much fact-checking on the cable news:



As Atrios would say, journamilism at its finest. And as Greg Sargent points out -- again:

This sort of thing, by the way, is exactly what the Romney campaign is banking on: that influential reporters and news outlets will prove unable to keep up with the sheer scope and volume of falsehoods the campaign uncorks daily, or just won’t care enough to reckon with what’s actually going on here. Again, this is a test: what should media figures do when one campaign has decided that there is literally no set of boundaries it needs to follow when it comes to the veracity of the assertions that form the foundation of its whole argument?

Obviously, they all should be pushing back immediately and calling the liars out to their faces at every interview. That's the test. One the teevee media is all too likely to fail. Sadly, their failure will be all of ours if the GOP is allowed to take over the country again based on unchallenged, shameless dishonesty.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

No Horatio Alger story here

Paul Ryan's "just a working class stiff who found the American Dream" schtick reminds me a lot of when Scott Brown ran for the Senate. Brown successfully pulled off a "good old boy" scam by driving into rallies in a pick up truck, just like the all the old cranky Yankees that vote GOP because they hate hippies, gays and lazy colored people. He didn't even drive it around himself. Somebody would deliver it close to the venue and he would take the wheel from there.

In any event, Ryan's "humble roots" are just as big a crock:

And yet Ryan, 42, was born into one of the most prominent families in Janesville, Wis., the son of a successful attorney and the grandson of the top federal prosecutor for the western region of the state. Ryan grew up in a big Colonial house on a wooded lot, and his extended clan includes investment managers, corporate executives and owners of major construction companies. [...]

But there was also more to it than work. Ryan's rise to political power and financial stability was boosted by family connections and wealth. The larger Ryan family has repeatedly helped the candidate along in his career, giving him a job when he needed one and piling up tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.

Not to mention marrying a high priced corporate lawyer from a very wealth family. And the hundreds of thousands in trust funds from his own family.

I have more at the Detroit News so won't bother to repeat it here. All I'll add is, the GOP base is so easily swayed by fakery, it's pathetic.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

The Romney Bunch

New DNC video. It's clever. Not sure it would play with the 23 undecided voters left in this country. Certainly won't change the minds of the 27%ers. Hell, they won't even get it. But it's perfect for the base.



[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Unraveling Paul Ryan's career in 23 seconds

I missed this bobblehead show where the Mayor of Atlanta, Kasim Reed, summed up Paul Ryan's clown act perfectly and almost made Peggy Noonan's head explode, judging by the the look on her face.



Okay, so maybe Peggers was just trying to suppress a wine induced fart. But she clearly was not amused.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

When Paul Ryan loved stimulus spending

Filed under IOKIYAR, what a difference a decade makes. I mean, let's just review Congressman Ryan's vigorous defense of stimulus spending in a previous life:

“What we're trying to accomplish here is the recognition of the fact that in recessions, unemployment lags on well after a recovery has taken place,” Ryan said at the time. “We have a lot of laid-off workers, and more layoffs are occurring. And we know, as a historical fact, that even if our economy begins to slowly recover, unemployment is going to linger on and on well after that recovery takes place.”

Ryan’s advocacy of stimulus spending wasn’t limited to Washington, either. When he returned home to face constituents, he used similar language to make the case for the Bush stimulus bill. “You have to spend a little to grow a little,” Ryan told constituents at a town hall in Wisconsin in January 2002, according to the Journal-Times, a local newspaper. “What we're trying to do is stimulate that part of the economy that's on its back." [...]

“We've got to get the engine of economic growth growing again, because we now know because of recession, we don't have the revenues that we wanted to, we don't have the revenues we need, to fix Medicare, to fix Social Security. To fix these issues we've got to get Americans back to work,” Ryan said. “Then the surpluses come back, then the jobs come back. That is the constructive answer we're trying to accomplish here on, yes, a bipartisan basis.”

Back then Congressman Ryan was all about creating jobs and helping the unemployed. Fast forward to the present day and now the same policy is simply dangerous and unacceptable socialism that creates a culture of dependency.

I've already done a longer post at Detroit News on this one, so I won't repeat my commentary here. I'll just add, if overdosing on hypocrisy was fatal, these guys would all be dead.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Tweet of the day

This is a couple of days old but deserves more acclaim than it got on my twitter feed.

Rob Whisman: AS ANYONE ELSE NOTICED "VICE PRESIDENT PAUL RYAN" IS AN ANAGRAM OF "EVIL PUP RECITES AYN RAND"

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Chaos at first Ryan rally

Didn't expect to see Paul Ryan get heckled in Iowa at his first solo appearance on the campaign trail of tears. WaPo's Felicia Sonmez tweets from the scene: "Absolute chaos here at Ryan event. Protesters keep shouting stop the war on the middle class. Ryan keeps going." Stage was rushed. Protesters arrested. Video at the first link.

Meanwhile, Ryan has already mastered the art of dodging the press:

Ryan spoke for only 13 of the customary 20 minutes on the soapbox stage and did not take any questions.

As reporters walked alongside him asking questions — including about the region's devastating drought — Ryan declined to answer most of them, saying, "We can play 'stump the VP later.'"

Probably be taking unscripted questions about when hell freezes over. Meanwhile, the twitter tells me his first ritual tongue bath solo interview will be conducted by Brit Hume. Just another "bold" choice. Unclear as to when the campaign will let him venture into more challenging territory. At the moment I see more cancelled appearances in Florida in his immediate future.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Romney keeps Ryan out of Florida

Team Rmoney was stomping in my territory this morning. Great turnouts at the two rallies here in redneck country. They loves them some Paul Ryan in these parts. Of course, to put into context, I know some of these people. I've been to dinner parties with them. I've even conducted my own personal poll. Granted it was a small pool of respondents, but fully 60% of them wish Sarah Palin was running for President. Because she's smart and a plain talker. Made of that what you will. Still a great reception for Rmoney/Ryan here even though they pissed off the old people by running some 90 minutes late all day and keeping them waiting in dangerously hot, stifling warehouses.

But big late minute changes to the intinerary tell the larger story of Romney's "bold" cave-in to the hard core cons of the base. They're skipping the Triangle stop here, where the voting tallies come in reliably blue and suddenly, Paul Ryan won't be going to Florida after all. They're sending him to the Iowa State Fair to commune with the giant butter cow instead.

The campaign claims this has nothing to do with Ryan's Roadmap to Middleclass Ruin which calls for the destruction of Medicare as we know it and transforming it into an underfunded voucher system in order to pay for mega-tax breaks for the wealthy. Spin seems a little weak though considering this unfortunate headline in the Miami Herald today.

Florida voters are already wary as they deal with their buyer's remorse for electing the mega-rich, Medicare defrauder Rick Scott as governor. Rmoney was already struggling in that usually reliable Republican stronghold. Thinking Ryan won't make the GOP ticket an easier sell.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Every dog has its day

The twitter is telling me Mitt finally had a good day on the campaign trail. Hell the crazy base was so happy he picked Paul Ryan, they hardly noticed when Mitt endorsed the rival to their preferred Tea Party primary pick for governor in Virgina. Not that Mitt didn't quickly walk it back and proclaim an express wish that his friend wins was not actually an endorsement.

In any event, Ryan wowed the crowds at the rallies this afternoon. Reading my tweet stream tells me, Ryan is the new Palin, only with not as good legs and a better vocabulary. And judging from the report of a guy in the crowd shouting, "Obama is a poverty pimp" at every pause in the speeches, Ryan brought the faithful into the fold. In fact, it would appear, just like Palin, they like Ryan better than Rmoney.

Don't think that's escaped the Mittster's notice. This after-rally photo of "papa" Romney on the bus tells me he knows it and he's not really that happy about it. Guess now he knows how McCain felt.

[original photo]

I'm not inclined to rain on their parade today. Let them enjoy their moment basking in the enthusiam of the crowds. Storm clouds on the horizon will arrive soon enough. Willing to guess, Ryan will ultimately go down as the second worst VP pick in recent history.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]