Background:
Ducktators: An Ancient Cartoon With Modern Lessons
The Case for Indicting the Murdochs for Treason (*as per The US Constitution)
The Fall Of Educational Standards & Rise Of Child Abuse In the USA Can Be Traced To Texas! (Heart of GOP planning)
War & Glory: Selling War Through The Ages... Illustrated IN Cartoons!
Breaking Down Society & Social Structures Leads To Anarchy AND Violence
World War 2 Resources for Understanding & Dealing With Nazis/KKK/White-Supremists (background on how similar Hitler's policies with those of the GOP!)
Cartoon of Basic Business Structure & Corruption Motivations With The Example Of Rupert Murdoch
Bush's Legacy: Massacres, War Crimes, Neo-Nazi's, Murder & Terrorism
Ronald Reagan: Where free unions and collective bargaining is forbidden, freedom is lost
The Tea Party & Majority of Libertarians Were Co-opted By The Koch Brothers In 2009
Economics Background:
Econ 101 - Overview Of Global "American Dream" Social-Economics Explained In 1950's Cartoons
3 Cartoons Explaining Basic Economics & Business Structures
Cartoon Explaining The Socio-Economic Structure of A Functioning Democracy
Tanks, But No Tanks: Amid steep budget cuts, Al Madrigal investigates a proposed government tank purchase and the military preparedness of Nevada.
The economics of this situation is in this hip-hop video, towards the end...
Hayek VS Keynes Part 2 ...
Fight of the Century, Keynes vs. Hayek from Seo on Vimeo.
Note: $1.2 trillion for an outdated plan that doesn't work! = "In fact, the entire $1.2 trillion dollars that the sequester is supposed to save could be realized by cutting one unneeded, wasteful boondoggle: the $1.5 trillion F-35 fighter program. The F-35, billed as the next generation all-purpose military fighter and bomber, has been an unmitigated disaster. Its performances in recent tests have been so bad that the Pentagon has been forced to dumb-down the criteria. It is overweight, overpriced, and unwieldy. It is also an anachronism: we no longer face the real prospect of air-to-air combat in this era of 4th generation warfare. The World War II mid-air dogfight era is long over" http://the-free-foundation.org/tst3-3-2013.html
At the end of the above video, where you see cronies lighting cigars with money i.e. the people giving each other money while starving the rest of the country is explained now...
Article 3 Section 3 Proof: The GOP's "Paul Ryan Plan" Is Designed 2 Lead USA To War As It Will Be The ONLY Industry!
Paul Ryan Finally Meets a Budget Cut He Hates
Paul Ryan is a budget hawk's budget hawk, never one to believe a government bureaucrat who self-servingly claims that a spending cut will cause real damage to his program and the people it benefits. But there are exceptions:
For some reason, this is known in mainstream circles as being a "deficit hawk."
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) expressed skepticism Thursday that U.S. military leaders were being honest in their budget requests to Congress. “We don’t think the generals are giving us their true advice,” Ryan said during a forum on the budget sponsored by the National Journal. "We don't think the generals believe their budget is really the right budget."Just to be absolutely clear here: if we're talking about a program that helps the poor or the elderly or the sick, Ryan is eager to cut spending. In fact, he's usually eager to be the biggest budget cutter in the room. But if it's a program for the military, he won't accept spending cuts even if the military brass supports them. In fact, he insists on raising their budget.
"You don't believe the generals?" [managing editor Kristin] Roberts asked.
"What I believe is this budget does hollow out defense," Ryan responded...."I think there’s a lot of budget smoke and mirrors in the Pentagon’s budget," Ryan added, saying his proposal was an "honest Pentagon budget."
For some reason, this is known in mainstream circles as being a "deficit hawk."
Why is the GOP and thier pawn Paul Ryan so interested in cutting money from everything BUT the military? Obviously because they want war.
Check out the sham "stimulus" debate in 2009...
When trying to convince people not to do a Stimulus... this was the argument put forward by the Republican National Committee and Fox News i.e. spending leads to a depression... but that's not the best part, the best part is that they were argueing that SPENDING ON WAR (NOT ON PEACEFUL ACTIVITIES) leads to recovery (people seem to have forgotten about that crazy "debate"!)...
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| The New Deal - Jonathan Chait | ||||
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Explanation: That spending is good for an economy shouldn't be debatable. If you have a business and nobody buys your stuff (i.e. if no spending occurs) you will make no money. This is basic economics, even George Bush wanted people to spend to boost the economy, he just wanted it to be ALL on consumer spending while the Government focuses it's spending on war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The debate should be instead on WHAT FORM OF SPENDING SHOULD BE CARRIED OUT. I support peaceful spending activities (done properly, transparently and efficiently), while the GOP and the Paul Ryan Plan goes the other way.
- Moment Of Zen: Colbert Report: Solutions to America's Financial Worries - World War III
European Union Collapse & War-Fueled Recovery
The fastest way to start a European war is to piss off the Germans, so America should kick them in the schnitzels to jumpstart a World War II-style economic recovery.
Historical note: The US Government got out of the last depression, with historically high unemployment rates, by going to War (i.e. World War 3). This solved the economic problem because of the war industry AND the large decrease in population (millions dies storming beaches lined with machine guns, again and again... how long will it just be the drones? There's Iran, Syria to invade and Iraq (to go back into, as Rick Perry said during the debates - Romney was smart enough to stay quite). All the apparatus is there, all the GOP needs is control of the executive branch. There may be contractors in Iraq but the army has drawn down. Libya's attack is over. With the GOP this wil continue. The Libertarians are walking into a GOP-Romney trap by taking the GOP's side in ANYTHING. It's how the GOP works, literally, everything is a lie or half truth designed to take us into war
i.e. No safety nets + depression + war factories + warmongering = WAR ...
Hayek VS Keynes Part 2...
Economics perspective: Manufacturing jobs have become more specialized requiring less labor and more technical expertise ...
i.e. small companies making big ticket items such as fighter jets; this means less people are employed, smaller number of people make huge profits and these huge profits make the economy look like its growing when actually its just a few companies making huge profits benefiting a small group of people.
Note:
1.Senator Bernie Sanders also thinks sending manufacturing jobs abroad is bad economic policy (as he argues here against Alan Greenspan)
2. There are "900 bases in 150 countries"
3. From The Economist: Indeed, the one lesson that can be drawn from the data is that today's strategic priorities can shape deployments for decades to come, long after the original reason for putting G.I.s in a particular region has gone.
Background for following articles is here.
Note: $1.2 trillion for an outdated plan that doesn't work! "In fact, the entire $1.2 trillion dollars that the sequester is supposed to save could be realized by cutting one unneeded, wasteful boondoggle: the $1.5 trillion F-35 fighter program. The F-35, billed as the next generation all-purpose military fighter and bomber, has been an unmitigated disaster. Its performances in recent tests have been so bad that the Pentagon has been forced to dumb-down the criteria. It is overweight, overpriced, and unwieldy. It is also an anachronism: we no longer face the real prospect of air-to-air combat in this era of 4th generation warfare. The World War II mid-air dogfight era is long over" http://the-free-foundation.org/tst3-3-2013.html
Note: $1.2 trillion for an outdated plan that doesn't work! "In fact, the entire $1.2 trillion dollars that the sequester is supposed to save could be realized by cutting one unneeded, wasteful boondoggle: the $1.5 trillion F-35 fighter program. The F-35, billed as the next generation all-purpose military fighter and bomber, has been an unmitigated disaster. Its performances in recent tests have been so bad that the Pentagon has been forced to dumb-down the criteria. It is overweight, overpriced, and unwieldy. It is also an anachronism: we no longer face the real prospect of air-to-air combat in this era of 4th generation warfare. The World War II mid-air dogfight era is long over" http://the-free-foundation.org/tst3-3-2013.html
The man once regarded as the world's most powerful banker has bluntly declared that the Iraq war was 'largely' about oil.
Appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1987 and retired last year after serving four presidents, Alan Greenspan has been the leading Republican economist for a generation and his utterings instantly moved world markets.
In his long-awaited memoir - out tomorrow in the US - Greenspan, 81, who served as chairman of the US Federal Reserve for almost two decades, writes: 'I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.'
In The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, he is also crystal clear on his opinion of his last two bosses, harshly criticising George W Bush for 'abandoning fiscal constraint' and praising Bill Clinton's anti-deficit policies during the Nineties as 'an act of political courage'. He also speaks of Clinton's sharp and 'curious' mind, and 'old-fashioned' caution about the dangers of debt.
Greenspan's damning comments about the war come as a survey of Iraqis, which was released last week, claims that up to 1.2 million people may have died because of the conflict in Iraq - lending weight to a 2006 survey in the Lancet that reported similarly high levels.
More than one million deaths were already being suggested by anti-war campaigners, but such high counts have consistently been rejected by US and UK officials. The estimates, extrapolated from a sample of 1,461 adults around the country, were collected by a British polling agency, ORB, which asked a random selection of Iraqis how many people living in their household had died as a result of the violence rather than from natural causes.
Previous estimates gave a range between 390,000 and 940,000, the most prominent of which - collected by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and reported in the Lancet in October 2006 - suggested 654,965 deaths.
The Paul Ryan plan which has been used in Wisconsin to make it's citizenry less powerful and more like third world country workers... is the only plan the GOP has on the table, i.e. because of bad journalism we now have a debate with a person who is not telling the whole truth while watering down effective policies to be less effective... and on the other side you have warmongers who are literally lying to everyone in ways that are provable
What Paul Ryan is doing is taking a sledgehammer to everything not involved with bombing others...
Earlier this morning I said that since Paul Ryan's latest budget proposal caps revenues and cuts Medicare and Social Security only modestly, this means that "everything non-elderly gets whacked hard."
But what does that mean? Well, it turns out that the Congressional Budget Office has put a concrete number to "whacked hard" here. Medicaid and CHIP (children's healthcare) would decline from 2% of GDP today to 1% of GDP in 2050, and everything else — that is, everything other than Social Security and Medicare — would decline from 12.5% of GDP today to about 4% of GDP in 2050.
This is, to put it mildly, nuts. Defense spending alone amounts to 4% of GDP, and it's vanishingly unlikely that this will ever fall much below 2-3% of GDP. This means that all domestic spending will decline from about 8% of GDP to 1-2% of GDP by 2050. That's prisons, border control, education, the FBI, courts, embassies, the IRS, FEMA, housing, student loans, roads, unemployment insurance, etc. etc. It's everything. Whacked by about 80% or so.
To pass such a radical and unconstitutional (because of the clear attack on "We the people") plan through the Courts...
Simple Proofs That The Economic War On US Citizens Is Being Waged By The GOP (Not Obama)...
Proof 1:
From NY Times: G.O.P. Senators Face Risks Over Proposal on Tax Cuts
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans will press this week to extend tax cuts for affluent families scheduled to expire Jan. 1, but the same Republican tax plan would allow a series of tax cuts for the working poor and the middle class to end next year.
Republicans say the tax breaks for lower-income families — passed with little notice in the extensive 2009 economic stimulus law — were always supposed to be temporary. But President Obama had made them a priority in 2009 and demanded their extension in 2010 as a price for extending the Bush-era tax cuts for two years, and both the White House and Senate Democrats are determined to extend them again.
That sets up a potentially tricky issue for Republicans. They have said they do not want taxes to go up on anyone while the economy struggles to gain altitude, but under their plan, written by Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee, about 13 million families would see their tax refunds reduced, and some would see their taxes increase. (Read More)
Proof 2:
Satire outlining Absudities: World of Class Warfare - The Poor's Free Ride Is Over...
Notes:
A. "We gotta start somewhere... that's a million dollars (that we could save) - in contrast to the 700 billion we could save to reduce the deficit from the rich and unfairly untaxed - i.e. They start with the assumption that this is the only way, so dumb uneducated people who are in love with the anchors, buy it.
B . From fox news: Dont tax the rich but 'broaden the tax base'. Or in other words, don't inconvenience me with a 2% tax increase, make the poor suffer by increasing their tax burden.
C. Taxing the majority (poor) instead of taxing the minority (super rich by comparison) this is the very definition of despotism.
D. Heritage institute (Koch Brother funded) are trying to create the image of poor being wealthy cause they have normal second world amenities, it's not even first world anymore! (i.e. this will lower standard of living in the USA even further).
E. Demonizing (ex. irresponsible animals) the part of society that is suffering from the excess and scamming of certain individuals on wall street etc.
From Forbes: Talking Points for the Class War...
[i.e. how to make the bad stuff of GOP policy sound good to people who only watch one news source with any regularity]
Herein, I provide a service to the right-wing dogmatists and those who’d like to understand them by reproducing the top 10 talking points for preserving the status quo.
- Whenever anyone brings up distributional issues, accuse them of class warfare.
- Never acknowledge the existence of “the rich.” They are “job creators.”
- Tax cuts for the working poor are “budget busters.”
- Tax cuts for job creators are “incentives.” See also “competitiveness.”
- Deficits caused by new spending are harbingers of the apocalypse.
- Deficits caused by tax incentives are signs of enlightened public policy.
- Everyone can succeed in America by working hard.
- Oppose an adequate minimum wage because it kills jobs.
- Oppose tax credits that help minimum wage earners escape poverty, such as the earned income tax credit (EITC), because they let millions of lower-income Americans escape income tax liability.
- Support tax incentives that let job creators escape income tax liability.
Proof 3:
Warren Buffet VS Wealthy FAKE Conservatives...
Watch these video that highlight certain absurdities of the GOP/Paul-Ryan-Plan...
Notice: Fox-News/GOP talk of percentages for the minority group they protect but numerical figures with examples of piles of money when attacking majority interests.
For more proofs go through these overviews of the GOP's platform on the poor and middle class...
FROM Bill Moyers: "So what do you get when you combine Mitt Romney, expensive horseflesh, fancy dinners and a financial scandal in the City of London? An interesting confluence of people and events that once again raises questions about the wealthy Republican candidate’s ability to relate to ordinary Americans and highlights the overwhelming, caustic influence of big money in this year’s presidential race.
It may sound hyperbolic, but the equation is simple: When more people lack health coverage, more people die
I know you are not supposed to write in hyperbole, but sometimes the truth needs to be told. Paul Ryan’s budget, which kills Obamacare and cripples Medicare and Medicaid, would kill tens of thousands of people. Every year.
I have trouble with putting policy glosses on proposals that would deny health care coverage to millions of people and make care much more expensive to millions more. Because when more people lack health coverage, more people die. And when health costs prevent people from getting the care they need, they get more seriously ill.
How many people are we talking about? Estimates of the number of people who will die because they are uninsured vary, from about 500 to 1,000 for every one million who lack coverage. Repealing Obamacare would block promised coverage for 32 million people, so that would mean somewhere from 16,000 to 32,000 each year who will die prematurely. Of course, since some Republican governors and legislatures are not implementing the expansion of Medicaid coverage in their states, some of those deaths are already on their hands.
Which leads us to the Ryan plan for slashing Medicaid. He replaces a program that now entitles low-income people to health coverage with a block grant to states to spend however they want on health care for the poor. The federal government would save money by decreasing what it pays to state governments and states would get to do the dirty work of cutting people’s health care. That will mean fewer people on the program, higher out-of-pocket costs, or a reduction in coverage of medically necessary care. And more people dying who would have lived if they had kept their previous health coverage.
In cutting Medicaid, Ryan is fulfilling the biggest concern that Republican governors say they have when they consider expanding Medicaid under Obamacare. A typical remark came from Arizona Governor Jan Brewer: “As I weighed this decision, I was troubled by the possibility that a future President and Congress may take steps to reduce federal matching rates, leaving states with a greater and greater share of health costs over time.”
News Report:
In a white paper published by the American Constitution Society last year, Lazarus argued that if both go down, “[it] will call into question the constitutional bases for, and hence could trigger copycat challenges to, provisions of other landmark laws and programs, including safety net programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and CHIP (the Children’s Health Insurance Program); civil rights law guarantees against private discrimination by places of public accommodation or in the workplace; federal grant programs in education, transportation, and other large-scale cooperative federalism initiatives; and environmental protection.”
This line of argument assumes that the individual mandate is valid, as many legal scholars agree it is, and so for the Court to overturn it, they would have to invalidate other progressive reforms going back to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, as they are all built on an expansive interpretation of the Commerce Clause. This wouldn’t happen right away, but would come piecemeal through lawsuits against specific regulations over time. As courts applied the Supreme Court’s new precedent, they would chip away at labor, environmental and other regulations, and unforeseeable other programs.
Healthcare Nonsense In A Nutshell
i.e. USA has a market based healthcare approach (good) made by crony capitalists (bad)
Obamacare, brought to you by Johnson & Johnson: When push comes to shove, corporate interests will always have the upper hand in determining public policy (i.e. it was made by a corporation - A CAPITALIST! )
Obamacare architect heads to Big Pharma: Liz Fowler again exemplifies the blurred lines betweenthe healthcare industry and Washington
Big Pharma Allies: Cigna, Aetna, Blue Cross -- they're allies, not competitors, when it comes to stopping a public plan
Lobbyists: Their influence on Washington dates back to the days of Lincoln -- and it only seems to be growing
BTW, An inefficient program isn't the same as a failing program" (more proof of outright, straight-faced, lies):
Isn’t it about time we cut the mike? Failed Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan is still talking—mostly because he’s the chairman of the House Budget Committee. And he’s coming after you, President Obama. “Yes, our budget does promote repealing Obamacare and replacing it with a better system,” Ryan said on Fox News Sunday. The proposed budget will be rolled out later this week. Ryan, we should note, had lunch with Obama at the White House on Thursday.
A look at GOP Hypocrisy (Satire):
Money Talks - The Haves & the Soon-to-Haves
John Hodgman explains that the haves are creating an exclusive world of luxury and privilege for the soon-to-haves to have -- soon.
Money Talks - Men of a Certain Wage
Moneyed American John Hodgman defends his people against America's attack on the wealthy.
Money Talks - The Maopets & Wealth on Film
With ALL the jobs being sent abroad and ALL the Government healthcare jobs gone, there will be just one place left to work... the military (also see first video above)... the following is an image proof followed by news report proofs...
- the GOP Republicans have been demonizing anyone who opposes their warfare plans (to the point of demonizing whole segments of the population).
Over the past 10 years, more than 20,000 American children are believed to have been killed in their own homes by family members. That is nearly four times the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The child maltreatment death rate in the US is triple Canada's and 11 times that of Italy. Millions of children are reported as abused and neglected every year. Why is that?
Downward spiral
Part of the answer is that teen pregnancy, high-school dropout, violent crime, imprisonment, and poverty - factors associated with abuse and neglect - are generally much higher in the US.
Further, other rich nations have social policies that provide child care, universal health insurance, pre-school, parental leave and visiting nurses to virtually all in need.
In the US, when children are born into young families not prepared to receive them, local social safety nets may be frayed, or non-existent. As a result, they are unable to compensate for the household stress the child must endure.
In the most severe situations, there is a predictable downward spiral and a child dies. Some 75% of these children are under four, while nearly half are under one.
Geography matters a lot in determining child well-being. Take the examples of Texas and Vermont.Texas prides itself in being a low tax, low service state. Its per capita income places it in the middle of the states, while its total tax burden - its willingness to tax itself - is near the bottom.Vermont, in contrast, is at the other extreme. It is a high-tax, high-service state.
Paul Ryan's "War" On Old people/Seniors, Poor Families & Children (or so it seems, have you seen the Stats on Texas? Rick Perry keeps cutting child services and children keep getting worse off - including the sequester, coincidence? Hell no Perry wanted it - all he does is pray. God only helps those who help themselves, or so the saying goes, so whatever Rick Perry is doing it isn't Christian... in the trues sense of the word... but considering the evidence outlined here, morality isn't a really big concern of his - Perry Repeatedly Cut Child Abuse Prevention Funding As Texas Battled Rising Levels Of Abuse).
Background: From Salon: Paul Ryan’s not so nice
Romney campaign surrogate John Sununu says the top candidate's positions will guide the ticket"
... BUT doesn't specify IN WHAT WAY EXCEPT THAT PEOPLE OVER 55 WILL BE FINE... i.e. if you are 54 you will be screwed and living on the streets (or on somebody's charity) in 6 years. Unless the GOP is able to raise the retirement age. If you are younger than 54 then just do the math to figure out when you will have to move to the streets. It's easy. For example, if you are 50 you have 10 years before you move onto the streets and so on. NOTE: With sequester this process just got fast tracked or at least open to being fast tracked. In the next 3 years every old person could be on a voucher program if the GOP is still in the House and are able to take the Senate. A new age of social chaos will truly begin.
In addition to this they raised retirement age (i.e. you have to work till you're 70 and then you get a "voucher" i.e. it's like saying "Here's your gold watch. Thank you for your years of service. Now get out of my office.")...
GOP: Raise Retirement Age To 70
From BillMoyers.Com: Nuns on the Bus
Video: ‘Nuns on the Bus’ Visits Paul Ryan’s Office
June 20, 2012A group of nuns led by Sister Simone Campbell is driving from the small towns of the Midwest to the urban centers of the East to protest the House Republican budget authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). Yesterday, they brought their message to Ryan’s door, visiting the congressman’s office in his home town of Janesville, Wisconsin. There, Sister Simone spoke with members of Ryan’s staff and greeted supporters gathered outside.
From Mother Jones: The Bishops' War on Women, Nuns, and...Paul Ryan?
When the US Conference of Catholic Bishops declared war on the Obama administration on religious freedom grounds, the GOP was right there with them. Republicans cited the bishops' complaints as they blasted the administration's contraception mandate in health care reform, and gave the bishops a prominent platform on the Hill to air their grievances. When the Obama administration declined to award a new contract to the USCCB to serve clients of human trafficking, as it had been for the past five years, GOP members of Congress came out swinging.
In September, the bishops lost a $19 million contract to provide services to trafficking victims after refusing to make accommodations so that their clients could have access to a full range of reproductive health services. (Read this story from the latest print issue of Mother Jones for all the particulars.) The lost contract was just one more piece of evidence the bishops invoked to prove that the Obama administration discriminates against religious groups and follows an "ABC—anybody but Catholics" policy, and House Republicans were happy to parrot that charge as well. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) held a marathon hearing in December in which GOP members took ample time to accuse the administration of being anti-Catholic and to come to the defense of the bishops' organization.
But even as GOPers have been piggybacking on the USCCB's skirmish with the White House, they seem to have forgotten that the Catholic organization is hardly a Republican proxy. Even though they may align with Republicans on contraception, abortion, and gay rights, the bishops have traditionally been much more in sync with the Democrats. The bishops supported the nuclear freeze movement during the Reagan era, have consistently opposed the death penalty, and backed comprehensive immigration reform.
Despite some GOP claims that the Pope himself has said that the national debt is a moral hazard, the party leaders seem to have missed the part where the church has said that debt is bad because it hurts the poor. USCCB has been a leading advocate for debt relief in Third World countries because the bishops believe debt has to be relieved in a way to help the poor, not simply to placate bankers and rich people.
So Republicans seemed a little taken aback, when, in the midst of the USCCB's showdown with the Obama administration (and women, including nuns), the group took aim at the GOP for backing draconian cuts to government programs for the poor. The source of the controversy dates back to a an interview House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) gave to the Christian Broadcasting Network earlier this month, in which he suggested that his Catholic faith had inspired him to draft a budget that takes an axe to social welfare programs:
Through our civic organizations, through our churches, through our charities, through all of our different groups where we interact with people as a community, that’s how we advance the common good, by not having Big Government crowd out civic society, but by having enough space in our communities so that we can interact with each other, and take care of people who are down and out in our communities
In response to these comments, as well the broader Ryan budget, the bishops have sent a series of letters to House GOP leaders criticizing the plan for the dire impact it would have on the poor and disadvantaged. Contrary to Ryan's insistence that the budget is in keeping with Catholic tenets, the bishops insist that many of the budget choices are actually immoral.
Those principles are very, very important, and the preferential option for the poor, which is one of the primary tenants of Catholic social teaching, means don’t keep people poor, don’t make people dependent on government so that they stay stuck at their station in life, help people get out of poverty, out into a life of independence.
Now that the bishops are taking on the House leadership, top GOP lawmakers, including House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), have suddenly decided that the USCCB doesn't really represent the church or all its bishops, and thus, they are free to ignore it. "These are not all the Catholic bishops, and we just respectfully disagree," Ryan told Fox News last week. The argument didn't fly so well with the USCCB, which shot back in The Hill that the group does, in fact, represent all the bishops.
In this clip, Ryan reasonably argues against increasing funding for Medicaid, the federal health care program for the poor...
From Salon: What you need to know about Ryan’s budget
Rep. Paul Ryan is at the top of the GOP. Here's what you need to know about the budget that got him there
Mitt Romney’s pick of Rep. Paul Ryan for his vice-presidential nominee will reopen the debate on the Budget Committee chairman’s all-important budget proposal. Ryan’s budget, a massive 10-year plan that makes fundamental changes to a host of critical government activities, has been twice approved by the Republican-controlled House on party-line votes, while the Democratically controlled Senate has rejected it. Romney has said he will propose his own budget plan, but he has repeatedly praised Ryan’s plan in the past, so it stands to reason that the plans will look similar. Here’s what you need to know about the Ryan budget.
First, and perhaps most important, the budget would drastically change social safety net entitlement programs, shifting them away from the guaranteed benefit programs we know today to voucherized plans. The idea is to give people more flexibility on healthcare and retirement savings, but the effect could be far more severe. For Medicare, Ryan’s plan phases out the single-payer system that currently exists and replaces it with a “premium support system,” which essentially provides seniors with subsidies to purchase their own healthcare. But the vouchers are indexed to the growth of the economy, plus a little bit, while the cost of medical care has historically grown at much faster rates, meaning that over time, the vouchers will fall increasingly short of meeting the medical cost needs of seniors. This will save the government money, but shift costs back to seniors and undermine the original goals of Medicare.
On Social Security, Ryan’s budget is vague, but he released a separate plan that called for a semi-privatized scheme. Ryan, like many Republicans, paints an overly bleak picture of the safety net program’s finances in order to justify massive cuts. But Social Security is not going broke, so it starts from a false premise. Voters rejected a privatization scheme when George W. Bush pushed one because it makes the system far less stable, exposing retirement savings to the volatility of the markets, and can disproportionately help the wealthy.
Secondly, on taxes, Ryan’s budget would likely again disproportionately help the wealthy. Like Romney’s tax plan, it doesn’t state this outright, but clearly has to have this effect. As Seth Hanlon, a tax policy expert at the liberal Center for American Progress explained, “It’s a matter of simple math. Any tax plan that purports to hold revenues steady while massively cutting taxes for the rich must make up the lost revenue by raising taxes on people who are not rich.” Ryan calls for cutting taxes on the wealthy and others, but doesn’t explain how to make up the difference.
The Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, found that Ryan’s budget would give people that make more than $1 million a year an additional $265,000 tax cut, on average, on top of the $129,000 cut they get from the budget’s extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. Meanwhile, Ryan does nothing to close the loopholes that could generate some of the revenue to make up for his new revenue losses from tax cuts on the wealthy, such as the roughly $4 billion a year in tax breaks oil companies get.
Because it fails to raise revenues, the Ryan budget would also shift costs to state and municipal governments, which are already struggling after being hammered during the recession. These governments would thus be forced to raise their own taxes to meet the increased demand, effectively laundering tax increases so Ryan doesn’t get blamed for them.
Third, the Ryan budget makes trillions of dollars in cuts over 10 years. These disproportionately hurt poor people. According to analysis from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 62 percent of Ryan’s cuts come from food stamps, Medicaid and a handful of other programs aimed at helping the most vulnerable in society.
And finally, a significant portion of the rest of his cuts come from education, both K-12 and higher ed. The plan groups education with several related programs into one budget function, which would together be cut by about 20 percent from FY 2012 levels. So we don’t know exactly how much Ryan’s budget would cut from education yet (that would come later in the appropriations process), but it appears significant.
The program would also slash funding for Pell Grants, refocusing the program on “truly needy” students. This would likely deprive a huge swath of students in the middle who are too poor to qualify for grants but not wealthy enough to afford college outright. There are other cuts as well to higher education and financial aid.
Perhaps it’s no surprise then that Romney has been quick to distance himself from the budget, even while embracing its author. His campaign distributed talking points to reporters today stating, “Gov. Romney applauds Paul Ryan for going in the right direction with his budget, and as president he will be putting together his own plan for cutting the deficit and putting the budget on a path to balance.”
From Mother Jones: "If Paul Ryan Knew What Poverty Was, He Wouldn't Be Giving This Speech"
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House budget committee, knew some Catholics were spoiling for a fight with him Thursday when he was scheduled to speak at Georgetown University, a Catholic institution. Nearly 90 faculty members and administrators sent him a letter expressing concerns with his recent comments that his proposed budget, which includes massive spending cuts to programs for the poor but not a single tax increase, was inspired by his Catholic faith.
"I am afraid that Chairman Ryan's budget reflects the values of his favorite philosopher Ayn Rand rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ," said Father Thomas Reese, a fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown, in a press release Tuesday. "Survival of the fittest may be okay for Social Darwinists but not for followers of the gospel of compassion and love."
The complaints seemed to resonate with Ryan. On Thursday, he went on record denouncing Ayn Rand, who believed altruism is evil, brushing off his well-documented obsession with her as a teenage romance. Ryan told the National Review's Robert Costa: "I reject her philosophy. It's an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person's view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas. Don't give me Ayn Rand."
During his speech, though, Ryan didn't back away from any of his budget proposals, which would dramatically reduce the number of people on food stamps and radically scale back Medicaid, the health care program for the poor. Instead, he championed such proposals as a means to liberate the poor. Calling the budget "hardly draconian," he said:
Our budget builds on the historic welfare reforms of the 1990s—reforms proven to work. We aim to empower state and local governments, communities, and individuals—those closest to the problem. And we aim to promote opportunity and upward mobility by strengthening job training programs, to help those who have fallen on hard times. My mentor, Jack Kemp, used to say, "You can't help America's poor by making America poor."
During the Q&A session that followed, where Ryan fielded questions submitted by students, he insisted that welfare reform had brought down child poverty rates. The claim is false, especially in Ryan's home state. According to the most recent data, the child poverty rate in Wisconsin jumped 42 percent between 2000 and 2010. The suffering would have been more significant but for the large increases in federal food assistance that Ryan wants to scale back. Welfare reform is more likely a contributing factor to child poverty, not a solution to it, making it a dubious model for for combating poverty "at its roots," as Ryan said he wants to do.
That's why Catholics at Georgetown, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and other Catholic organizations were so outraged when Ryan told a Christian TV show earlier this month that his budget was wholly in keeping with Catholic teachings and practically endorsed by the Pope himself, whom Ryan told the students Thursday was down on debt. His speech was protested on Thursday by Catholics who are in the trenches with the people who would suffer from his budget proposal. They were folks who work at soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and other social-service agencies run by Catholic organizations, who see first hand the complexities and needs of the poor.
On hand to emphasize that point after the speech was the "GOP Je$us," who read from the "Me-Attitudes," to parody Ryan's so-called Catholic-inspired budget.
He proclaimed:
Blessed are the rich, the reign of this world is ours. The rich rule the world, and the rest suffer and die, often in misery. Do not let this be you my brothers! Easier to use your riches to genetically engineer very small camels that can fit through the needle's eye…
Blessed are the violent and the invincible, the proud and the powerful, the domineering and oppressive. We can have it all! And let our status of power be the proof that we are deserving of the fruits of the labor of the middle class and poor…
Blessed are those who show no mercy. No mercy to the poor, to women and children, the elderly and the homeless, victims, outcasts, enemies, refugees, the hungry, the undocumented, the unborn, those on death row, those who are different, those we don’t like. And of course, those who happen to be in the way of what we want…
Blessed are the warmakers. Yea I say unto you, if we were not making war, we could not be said to be making much. That is what China is for! Lo, the Lord looked at China and said "Let it be the worlds factory floor," and it was good…
James Salt, the executive director of Catholics United, which organized one of the protests outside the hall where Ryan was speaking, told gathered reporters that his group was there because "the dignity of the poor should be at the forefront of our minds." Taking a dig at Ryan's attempts to cast his budget as a boon for poor people, Salt noted, "If Paul Ryan knew what poverty was, he wouldn't be giving this speech."
You can't apply one solution to ALL problems!
[Obama's Speech] Have A Cold? Take Two Taxcuts, Roll Back Some Regulations...
... and call us in the morning! (From DNC 2012: Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Convention (TEXT))
Obama is referring to the GOP's solution to EVERY economic problem i.e. tax cuts and less regulations... which allows corporations to take over more of American resources AND more of the American Government (AND it constitutes economic war and thus treason was per Article 3 Section 3 of the US Constitution) - That's why the GOP's loudest supporters are all high school dropouts, plumbers, electricians, Neo-Nazi's and local village idiots - politely called 'blue collar workers, of which I was one for about 10 years - But I'm educated and only ended up as a waiter as a means to an end... and then found out that the GOP had erased ALL means of moving up in society for everyone EXCEPT those who already have money and very high US Government/Corporate connections, such as Romney with his 37 million pocket money gift with which he started his "small" business of destroying other businesses. An idea he probably got from Pretty Woman.
The Republican's economic policies are not economics, they aren't even rational. They are taking half of Ron Paul's talking points - see below - (who BTW, has put some basic economics together with his philosophy to present a workable package. Ron Paul isn't an economist and can't adapt to changing economic circumstances. He is simply outlining how to get things back to the US Constitution for better Government). The GOP Republicans took half of what Ron Paul said and are pushing that. The people supporting Ron Paul hear one or more of his policies being parroted by the GOP and think they will at least get something done right... but this is because those people don't know the basics of economics or accounting! If half of Ron Paul's policies are applied WITHOUT the OTHER half the countries economy WILL be in ruins.
Note: Some of the GOP high school drop outs are actually college dropouts but like to make themselves look good/better by saying they did "some college" which means they went to college for a few months and got drunk (but they can't actually say that as it looks bad on thier resume! Fox News actually gives them advice on this through Frank Luntz etc.)...
(Source: Washington Post)
For example, Ron Paul want's ALL taxes gone... as he has for 30 years, (i.e. the GOP has been using half his argument for 30 years and created a CULT of bad economics around it - That means that the GOP's current economic position are not even remotely realistic, they are IDEOLOGICAL). So the GOP is pushing for that part of Ron Paul's plan while leaving out the part that makes no taxes economically feasible - see military withdrawal and departments to cut below - [i.e. I think that eventually taxes would come back but would be lower and better discussed if the environment is right... which won't happen till top leaders of the GOP have been properly indicted for thier crimes as they are constantly trying to destroy the US and it's Constitution (people such as Grover Norquist) - as their behavior over the last year has made abundantly clear.]
The following is a point by point outline of where the GOP's fake economics has been derived from and changed from Ron Paul's Hayekian economics stance...
Note 1: Top down economics and supply side economics AND trickle down economics is the SAME THING.
Note 2: Ron Paul doesn't cut medicare OR Social Security... he ONLY talks about the philosophy of dependance (which I have argued that he shouldn't be talking about as it sends across the wrong message, i.e. people think hes supporting removing medicare and social security as a part of his economic plan which is inaccurate.) He's trying to get kids working on thier own visions to make it through the American Dream and not become life long dependents - BUT doesn't cut ANY safety net - I was working on my own solution that doesn't involve cutting any safety net EVER but then discovered the GOP isn't looking for solutions. (They are just following the time honored Southern tradition of blaming everything on the black man AND getting away with it... when they SHOULD be in prison)... PLUS, society is what it is. McDonald's burgers don't cost 5 cents anymore and nobody wants thier own elderly in thier houses much less the poor and needy... SO GET OVER IT AND ADJUST TO MODERN TIMES IN THE WEST. Also, the cuts he wants to implement occur ONLY after a reduction in military abroad - He doesn't explain it well though as the following video will show... Reich - 7 min 45 sec - "I wish I could be as optimistic as Ron Paul as the capacity of the country to just pull money out of national defense and bring it home and give it to consumers as tax breaks; it all sounds good but, I tell ya, I dont know too many Republicans who want to take money out of national defense" http://youtu.be/iWFsQrYX5mA
Ron Paul and Robert Reich On Larry King
Video Notes:
Approx 3 min - Robert Reich, the bailing out the banks is a version of trickle down economics and it doesn't work (with the credit crunch that followed, this is true. If banks had started helping the consumers rather than stopping loans when they had made a huge profit on the money creation process through loans then this would have worked. But they didn't. They made a huge profit off assets that never existed, kept all the extra money that was made over the money created through the loans and sat on it. The fact that the money just went to the banks and its top employees proves that this actually was trickle down economics AND corruption in action)
At 4 mins: When no one is spending, the government is the spender of the last resort. In the Tarp plan there was no outflow and spending ended, thus a 'stimulus' was needed. Then, it turns out, the stimulus wasn't set up with infrastructure building or economic growth in mind, even the financial crisis of 2008 wasn't dealt with.
Ron Paul: Even manufacturing bombs can increase the GDP (True. Tiny companies can make huge profits making a countries economic growth positive even while its poverty rate and income inequality rate increases - see proof below).
Ron Paul-Approx 6:30 - I want to bring money from abroad and let it flow here (in America)
Reich - 7 min 45 sec - "I wish I could be as optimistic as Ron Paul as the capacity of the country to just pull money out of national defense and bring it home and give it to consumers as tax breaks; it all sounds good but, I tell ya, I dont know too many Republicans who want to take money out of national defense"
Reich - It took the second world war to show everybody Keynesian was right. you gotta spend, and if you gotta go into debt to get people back to work that's better than not doing it.
My Take: Robert Reich admits bringing back troops would take care of the budget problem. I agree in principle with Reich on properly applied Keynesian economics to boost economic growth and stabilizing the job market (Ron Paul might say I have been trained by FED economists and he would be right as far as at least one of my past professors goes). However, I would like to point out that the Obama Administration applied basic economics ideas of macro-economics so badly that it screams corruption, at least, in a third world country. The occupy wall street movement might suggest that this view is shared by many in America as well.
Note 3: - Ron Paul's plan of cutting 1 trillion involves removing DUPLICATE departments. I.e. The States already have a department of commerce, education etc. ... there is no need for a Federal section for these departments as it's a waste of money and leaves open MANY opportunities for corruption... as this outline proves... "Why Ron Paul's Plan of Cutting 5 Departments/Cabinet-Posts Is Reasonable."
Note 4: "News footage from 2007 mixed with other video that documents the origin of the modern day Tea Party movement and those responsible for it. It was started in 2007 from the grassroots by Ron Paul supporters for his 2008 Presidential Campaign. After gaining momentum it was co-opted by certain Republicans with help from Fox News and other corporate entities. It's no longer the spontaneous decentralized movement that it once was though Ron Paul's message of limited government and a return to the Constitution is still at it's core (but ONLY as a trick to fool the tea partiers)" http://youtu.be/6bNiDx7qTjA
The Tea Party Started In 2007 And Ron Paul Is The Godfather
News Report Confirmation: The Koch Brothers are worth $50 billion. They’ve bankrolled the Tea Party, the campaign against climate change science, and entire university departments to advance their right-wing agenda. The newest item on their shopping list: their own Center for American Progress. http://thinkprogress.org/media/2012/01/05/398169/the-1-solution-koch-brothers-bankroll-right-wing-thinkprogress-clone/?mobile=nc
Note 5: Even though the Tea Party was stolen from Ron Paul AND his message was perverted by creeps such as Paul Ryan, the tea party "conservatives" - i.e. plumbers, electricians, Neo Nazis etc. - STILL wanted ANOTHER traitor on the Republican ticket. Now there should be no qualms about indictments as we are ONLY faced with warmongering traitors (as per article 3 section 3 of the US Constitution), such as Glenn Beck who promotes violence AGAINST Americans for political gain.
Related Blog Posts:
Hitler's Minions In Texas! Are Noe-Nazi's The USA's Answer To The Holocaust?http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/hitlers-minions-in-texas-are-neo-nazis.html
"God's Christian Warriors" With Scriptural Proofs http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/gods-christian-warriors-with-scriptural.html
U.S. claims Jewish settlements are an obstacle to peace, but continues to give Israel generous foreign aid http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/us-claims-jewish-settlements-are.html
The Fall Of Educational Standards & Rise Of Child Abuse In the USA Can Be Traced To Texas! http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/the-fall-of-educational-standards-rise.html
3 Cartoons Explaining Basic Economics & Business Structures http://economics-proofs.blogspot.com/2013/04/5-cartoons-explaining-basic-economics.html
Cartoon of Basic Business Structure & Corruption Motivations With The Example Of Rupert Murdochhttp://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/04/cartoon-of-basic-business-structure.html
Background:
Bush's Legacy: A Bill Moyers documentary exploring how mainstream media failed to question the war in Iraq http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/bushs-legacy-bill-moyers-documentary.html
US TV News Media: Echo Chambers http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/us-tv-news-media-echo-chambers.html
US TV News Media: Fox News Echo Chambers http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/us-tv-news-media-fox-news-echo-chambers.html
Breaking Down Society & Social Structures Leads To Anarchy AND Violence http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/breaking-down-society-social-structures.html
A Daily Show Introduction to Bill O'Reilly (Includes News Reports & Analysis!) http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/a-daily-show-introduction-to-bill.html
From Bill Moyers: How big money and big media have coupled to create a ‘Disney World’ of democracy http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/from-bill-moyers-how-big-money-and-big.html
US TV News Media: Echo Chambers http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/us-tv-news-media-echo-chambers.html
US TV News Media: Fox News Echo Chambers http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/us-tv-news-media-fox-news-echo-chambers.html
Breaking Down Society & Social Structures Leads To Anarchy AND Violence http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/breaking-down-society-social-structures.html
Bush's Legacy: Massacres, War Crimes, Neo-Nazi's, Murder & Terrorismhttp://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/bushs-legacy-massacres-war-crimes-neo.html
BBC-Guardian Exposé Uses WikiLeaks to Link Iraq Torture Centers to U.S. Col. Steele & Gen. Petraeus http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/bbc-guardian-expose-uses-wikileaks-to.html
Bush's Legacy: New Iraq Oil Law To Open Iraq’s Oil Reserves to Western Companieshttp://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/bushs-legacy-new-iraq-oil-law-to-open.html
Bush's Legacy: Fired Army Whistleblower Receives $970K for Exposing Halliburton No-Bid Contracts in Iraq http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/bushs-legacy-fired-army-whistleblower.html
Bush's Legacy: Dahr Jamail Returns to Iraq to Find Rampant Torture and a Failed State Living in "Utter Devastation" http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/bushs-legacy-dahr-jamail-returns-to.html
Bush's Legacy: Ten Years Later, U.S. Has Left Iraq With Mass Displacement & Epidemic of Birth Defects, Cancers http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/bushs-legacy-en-years-later-us-has-left.html
Breaking: Iraq Spies Lies Exposed! & Tony Blair Ignores His Own Spy Agencies! http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/breaking-iraq-spies-lies-exposed-tony.html
Democracy Now! Iraq War Timeline Recaps a Decade of Independent Reporting on Occupation and Protest http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/democracy-now-iraq-war-timeline-recaps.html
CNN: Drones killing innocent Pakistanis, U.N. official says http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/cnn-drones-killing-innocent-pakistanis.html
The Halliburton Agenda: The Politics of Oil and Money http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/the-halliburton-agenda-politics-of-oil.html
The Iraq Effect (2007): New Study Finds 600% Rise in Terrorism Since US Invasion of Iraq http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/the-iraq-effect-2007-new-study-finds.html
WORK-IN-PROGRESS
Article 3 Section 3 of the US Constitution;
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
Evidence for "War On Citizens" as per Article 3 Section 3:
As per article 3 section 3 of The Constitution;
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
"The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations, has been the victim."
George Washington
George Washington
Romney's Convention Speech Destroyed: How Low Will He Go?
All of Mitt Romney's words are in italics my comments are in bold - in many cases I have just added a link to a previous blog post that proves my point beyond a doubt.
RNC 2012: Mitt Romney speech to GOP convention (Full Text)
Full text of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s remarks to the Republican National Convention on Aug. 30 in Tampa , as prepared for delivery. (i.e. he used a Teleprompter!)
Mr. Chairman, delegates. I accept your nomination for President of the United States of America.
I do so with humility, deeply moved by the trust you have placed in me. It is a great honor. It is an even greater responsibility.
Tonight I am asking you to join me to walk together to a better future. By my side, I have chosen a man with a big heart from a small town. He represents the best of America, a man who will always make us proud – my friend and America’s next Vice President, Paul Ryan.
In the days ahead, you will get to know Paul and Janna better. But last night America got to see what I saw in Paul Ryan – a strong and caring leader who is down to earth and confident in the challenge this moment demands.
Related Blog Post: Proof of Paul Ryan's Corruption And Thus The Reason For His Lies
I love the way he lights up around his kids and how he’s not embarrassed to show the world how much he loves his mom.
But Paul, I still like the playlist on my iPod better than yours.
Four years ago, I know that many Americans felt a fresh excitement about the possibilities of a new president. That president was not the choice of our party but Americans always come together after elections. We are a good and generous people who are united by so much more than what divides us.
Related: Mitt Romney calls for an end to divisiveness... by insulting Chicago!
Other divisive activities by Mitt Romney's GOP and the Gop's Fox News (calling EVERY liberal a Nazi just like recommended in the "Screw-tape Letters" by C.S. Lewis! - This approach is outlined here.)...
1. Bill O'Reilly Defends His Nazi Analogies.
2. 24 Hour Nazi Party People.
3. Glen Beck's Nazi Tourette's Syndrome.
Moment Of Zen: Glenn Beck agrees with the CIA... that Osama should attack America!!!!
When that hard fought election was over, when the yard signs came down and the television commercials finally came off the air, Americans were eager to go back to work, to live our lives the way Americans always have – optimistic and positive and confident in the future.
What REALLY happened was an all out war by the Koch Brothers on Obama through Fox News (see Nazi examples above), some of there activities and Fox News infomertial promotions can be found here... The Koch Brothers ARE Waging War On Obama & The Rights Of US Citizens...
One fascinating tactic (which should NEVER work in an educated society) was the recasting of Government activities authorized by the Constitution as "Socialism" and anchoring a ton of fear and anger to it through Glenn Beck and his associates (see Nazi example links above), to Communism and Nazism. So now the whole of the Fox News viewership is willing to lie to defeat 'the evil liberal traitors trying to destroy America'! Ironically, the ones they follow ARE trying to destroy America! These same polices have already torn up Greece! (but the US still has many solutions and are NOT close to becoming like Greece). There are easier solution to the debt crisis than to increase the military while cutting everything else!
Overview of "Socialism" by The Colbert Report (backed by news sources)
That very optimism is uniquely American.
It is what brought us to America. We are a nation of immigrants. We are the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the ones who wanted a better life, the driven ones, the ones who woke up at night hearing that voice telling them that life in that place called America could be better.
They came not just in pursuit of the riches of this world but for the richness of this life.
Freedom.
Freedom of religion.
Freedom to speak their mind.
Freedom to build a life.
And yes, freedom to build a business. With their own hands.
Related to 'We built that': Mitt Takes One Of Obama's Comments Out Of Context & Makes It His Campaign Strategy!
This is the essence of the American experience.
We Americans have always felt a special kinship with the future.
When every new wave of immigrants looked up and saw the Statue of Liberty, or knelt down and kissed the shores of freedom just ninety miles from Castro’s tyranny, these new Americans surely had many questions. But none doubted that here in America they could build a better life, that in America their children would be more blessed than they.
But today, four years from the excitement of the last election, for the first time, the majority of Americans now doubt that our children will have a better future.
It is not what we were promised.
Video: The Romney campaign asks Rick Scott to downplay Florida's job gains since they only help Obama
"Bad economic news is great news for Mitt Romney, so conservatives must drag everyone down in the dumps to get America back on track."
i.e. Romney's test of truth telling = "If it ain't broke, insist that it is..."
Technically, you were promised change and hope. He gave you hope and tried to make some changes. But Obama was a coward and got stopped by the GOP who put all thier resources into halting the US Economy and removing it's industrial base {i.e. sent jobs abroad through outsourcing/off-shoring - in which Mitt Romney's company participated... which may be one of the reasons he's STILL(!) hiding his taxes}
[UPDATED] Barack Obama VS Mitt Romney, Bush, Cheney & Other Such Corporations/People...
Every family in America wanted this to be a time when they could get ahead a little more, put aside a little more for college, do more for their elderly mom who’s living alone now or give a little more to their church or charity.
Every small business wanted these to be their best years ever, when they could hire more, do more for those who had stuck with them through the hard times, open a new store or sponsor that Little League team.
Every new college graduate thought they’d have a good job by now, a place of their own, and that they could start paying back some of their loans and build for the future.
This is when our nation was supposed to start paying down the national debt and rolling back those massive deficits.That’s how I was brought up.
A simple solution to roll back the deficit which was ignored in favor of Paul Ryan (i.e. rather than this simple solution, the solution the GOP went with cuts EVERYTHING except war spending!). The GOP's solution involves war to help the economy! (That's not a solution that's a crime!)
This was the hope and change America voted for.
It’s not just what we wanted. It’s not just what we expected.
It’s what Americans deserved.
You deserved it because during these years, you worked harder than ever before. You deserved it because when it cost more to fill up your car, you cut out movie nights and put in longer hours. Or when you lost that job that paid $22.50 an hour with benefits, you took two jobs at 9 bucks an hour and fewer benefits. You did it because your family depended on you. You did it because you’re an American and you don’t quit. You did it because it was what you had to do.
Funny. Plain, 'in your face 'hypocrisy and lies...
But driving home late from that second job, or standing there watching the gas pump hit 50 dollars and still going,...
Oil Speculation Bubbles Are Pushing Up Oil Prices
(i.e. you can ONLY move the price of oil up with a ton of money which Obama doesn't have but the Koch Brothersand Mitt Romney do!)
...when the realtor told you that to sell your house you’d have to take a big loss, in those moments you knew that this just wasn’t right.
Well, the housing bubble was created by the FED and Bush...
But what could you do? Except work harder, do with less, try to stay optimistic. Hug your kids a little longer; maybe spend a little more time praying that tomorrow would be a better day.
I wish President Obama had succeeded because I want America to succeed. But his promises gave way to disappointment and division. This isn’t something we have to accept. Now is the moment when we CAN do something. With your help we will do something.
The GOP also spent a great deal of time stopping Obama from doing anything. They LITERALLY made it thier public policy to oppose Obama at all costs (having thier base convinced by Glenn Beck and the rest of Fox News that Liberals are like communists Nazi's is what gave them the confidence to pull such a farce! - see proofs above.)
Now is the moment when we can stand up and say, “I’m an American. I make my destiny. And we deserve better! My children deserve better! My family deserves better. My country deserves better!”
So here we stand. Americans have a choice. A decision.
To make that choice, you need to know more about me and about where I will lead our country.
I was born in the middle of the century in the middle of the country, a classic baby boomer. It was a time when Americans were returning from war and eager to work. To be an American was to assume that all things were possible. When President Kennedy challenged Americans to go to the moon, the question wasn’t whether we’d get there, it was only when we’d get there.
The soles of Neil Armstrong’s boots on the moon made permanent impressions on OUR souls and in our national psyche. Ann and I watched those steps together on her parent’s sofa. Like all Americans we went to bed that night knowing we lived in the greatest country in the history of the world.
God bless Neil Armstrong.
Tonight that American flag is still there on the moon. And I don’t doubt for a second that Neil Armstrong’s spirit is still with us: that unique blend of optimism, humility and the utter confidence that when the world needs someone to do the really big stuff, you need an American.
My dad had been born in Mexico and his family had to leave during the Mexican revolution. I grew up with stories of his family being fed by the US Government as war refugees.
Accepting Government help? Related: Mitt Takes One Of Obama's Comments Out Of Context & Makes It His Campaign Strategy!
My dad never made it through college and apprenticed as a lath and plaster carpenter. And he had big dreams. He convinced my mom, a beautiful young actress, to give up Hollywood to marry him. He moved to Detroit, led a great automobile company and became Governor of the Great State of Michigan.
Mitt Romney supported closing down the car factories in Detroit so they would be even less jobs so he could lie about Obama more? I'm pissed off with Obama as well, but I don't make up lies! ... Or maybe Mitt was just trying to fulfill his party's plan of ONLY spending on war NOT on peace. i.e.
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
Explanation: That spending is good for an economy shouldn't be debatable. If you have a business and nobody buys your stuff (i.e. if no spending occurs) you will make no money. This is basic economics, even George Bush wanted people to spend to boost the economy, he just wanted it to be ALL on consumer spending while the Government focuses it's spending on war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The debate should be instead on WHAT FORM OF SPENDING SHOULD BE CARRIED OUT. I support peaceful spending activities (done properly, transparently and efficiently), while the GOP and the Paul Ryan Plan goes the other way.
We were Mormons and growing up in Michigan; that might have seemed unusual or out of place but I really don’t remember it that way. My friends cared more about what sports teams we followed than what church we went to.
My mom and dad gave their kids the greatest gift of all – the gift of unconditional love. They cared deeply about who we would BE, and much less about what we would DO.
Unconditional love is a gift that Ann and I have tried to pass on to our sons and now to our grandchildren. All the laws and legislation in the world will never heal this world like the loving hearts and arms of mothers and fathers. If every child could drift to sleep feeling wrapped in the love of their family – and God’s love -- this world would be a far more gentle and better place.
Mom and Dad were married 64 years. And if you wondered what their secret was, you could have asked the local florist – because every day Dad gave Mom a rose, which he put on her bedside table. That’s how she found out what happened on the day my father died – she went looking for him because that morning, there was no rose.
My mom and dad were true partners, a life lesson that shaped me by everyday example. When my mom ran for the Senate, my dad was there for her every step of the way. I can still hear her saying in her beautiful voice, “Why should women have any less say than men, about the great decisions facing our nation?”
I wish she could have been here at the convention and heard leaders like Governor Mary Fallin, Governor Nikki Haley, Governor Susana Martinez, Senator Kelly Ayotte and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
As Governor of Massachusetts, I chose a woman Lt. Governor, a woman chief of staff, half of my cabinet and senior officials were women, and in business, I mentored and supported great women leaders who went on to run great companies.
I grew up in Detroit in love with cars and wanted to be a car guy, like my dad. But by the time I was out of school, I realized that I had to go out on my own, that if I stayed around Michigan in the same business, I’d never really know if I was getting a break because of my dad. I wanted to go someplace new and prove myself.
Those weren’t the easiest of days – too many long hours and weekends working, five young sons who seemed to have this need to re-enact a different world war every night. But if you ask Ann and I what we’d give, to break up just one more fight between the boys, or wake up in the morning and discover a pile of kids asleep in our room. Well, every mom and dad knows the answer to that.
Those days were toughest on Ann, of course. She was heroic. Five boys, with our families a long way away. I had to travel a lot for my job then and I’d call and try to offer support. But every mom knows that doesn’t help get the homework done or the kids out the door to school.
I knew that her job as a mom was harder than mine. And I knew without question, that her job as a mom was a lot more important than mine. And as America saw Tuesday night, Ann would have succeeded at anything she wanted to.
Like a lot of families in a new place with no family, we found kinship with a wide circle of friends through our church. When we were new to the community it was welcoming and as the years went by, it was a joy to help others who had just moved to town or just joined our church. We had remarkably vibrant and diverse congregants from all walks of life and many who were new to America. We prayed together, our kids played together and we always stood ready to help each other out in different ways.So some of us had this idea that if we really believed our advice was helping companies, we should invest in companies. We should bet on ourselves and on our advice.
And that’s how it is in America. We look to our communities, our faiths, our families for our joy, our support, in good times and bad. It is both how we live our lives and why we live our lives. The strength and power and goodness of America has always been based on the strength and power and goodness of our communities, our families, our faiths.
That is the bedrock of what makes America, America. In our best days, we can feel the vibrancy of America’s communities, large and small.
It’s when we see that new business opening up downtown. It’s when we go to work in the morning and see everybody else on our block doing the same.
It’s when our son or daughter calls from college to talk about which job offer they should take….and you try not to choke up when you hear that the one they like is not far from home.
It’s that good feeling when you have more time to volunteer to coach your kid’s soccer team, or help out on school trips.
But for too many Americans, these good days are harder to come by. How many days have you woken up feeling that something really special was happening in America?
Many of you felt that way on Election Day four years ago. Hope and Change had a powerful appeal. But tonight I’d ask a simple question: If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn’t you feel that way now that he’s President Obama? You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.
The President hasn’t disappointed you because he wanted to. The President has disappointed America because he hasn’t led America in the right direction. He took office without the basic qualification that most Americans have and one that was essential to his task. He had almost no experience working in a business. Jobs to him are about government.
I learned the real lessons about how America works from experience.
When I was 37, I helped start a small company.
Romney: Bain a “small company”
The GOP candidate says he started a "small company" ... with $37 million
My partners and I had been working for a company that was in the business of helping other businesses.
Notice at approx 2 min 50 sec into the video at this link you will see... = Bain capital made a huge profit AND steered the company into bankruptcy... if you destroy a company to make money how can you trust that person with the economy of a country? I'm sure destroying the US economy (or even the global economy) will be profitable to some people.... do you really want to hand the reins of the presidency to a person who comes from the greed and lack of compassion side of capitalism? - They(Bain Capital) don't even have to use thier own money to destroy a company AND make money off of that!
While CEO of Bain Capital, Mitt Romney bought and resold a telephone directory company for 25 times as much, earning the enmity of Italian shareholders
So we started a new business called Bain Capital. The only problem was, while WE believed in ourselves, nobody else did. We were young and had never done this before and we almost didn’t get off the ground. In those days, sometimes I wondered if I had made a really big mistake. I had thought about asking my church’s pension fund to invest, but I didn’t. I figured it was bad enough that I might lose my investors’ money, but I didn’t want to go to hell too. Shows what I know. Another of my partners got the Episcopal Church pension fund to invest. Today there are a lot of happy retired priests who should thank him.
That business we started with 10 people has now grown into a great American success story.But today, the time has come to turn the page.
Success story, Yes. American? No. (i.e. what Romney is doing is UNconstitutional capitalism)
Some of the companies we helped start are names you know. An office supply company called Staples – where I’m pleased to see the Obama campaign has been shopping; The Sports Authority, which became a favorite of my sons. We started an early childhood learning center called Bright Horizons that First Lady Michelle Obama rightly praised. At a time when nobody thought we’d ever see a new steel mill built in America, we took a chance and built one in a corn field in Indiana. Today Steel Dynamics is one of the largest steel producers in the United States.
Wow! Mitt had a couple of successes! That's why he's still there, that's all Fox News must be telling their listeners!
These are American success stories. And yet the centerpiece of the President’s entire re-election campaign is attacking success. Is it any wonder that someone who attacks success has led the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression? In America, we celebrate success, we don’t apologize for it.
We weren’t always successful at Bain. But no one ever is in the real world of business.
True: Mitt Romney Took Bailouts & Made Money From Abortions!
That’s what this President doesn’t seem to understand. Business and growing jobs is about taking risk, sometimes failing, sometimes succeeding, but always striving. It is about dreams. Usually, it doesn’t work out exactly as you might have imagined. Steve Jobs was fired at Apple. He came back and changed the world.
It’s the genius of the American free enterprise system – to harness the extraordinary creativity and talent and industry of the American people with a system that is dedicated to creating tomorrow’s prosperity rather than trying to redistribute today’s.
That is why every president since the Great Depression who came before the American people asking for a second term could look back at the last four years and say with satisfaction: “you are better off today than you were four years ago.”
Except Jimmy Carter. And except this president.
This president can ask us to be patient.
This president can tell us it was someone else’s fault.
This president can tell us that the next four years he’ll get it right.
But this president cannot tell us that YOU are better off today than when he took office.
Sure he can. I can prove it easy (get it? Or do I have to explain this in detail as well?)...
Image Source: Geeky chart from Steve Benen -- new jobless claims still at four-year low, even with upward revisions
(Note that the 4 year low is referring to 2008... when Bush was in charge)
America has been patient. Americans have supported this president in good faith.
Today the time has come for us to put the disappointments of the last four years behind us.
To put aside the divisiveness and the recriminations.
On Divisiveness of Fox News (repeated, in case yall didn't get it, - i.e. this comment by Mitt was JUST for Fox News... the rest of us have to catch up by evening the scales... the ONLY way to do that is to expose Mitt Romney COMPLETELY for the Neo Nazi that he is)...
1. Bill O'Reilly Defends His Nazi Analogies.
2. 24 Hour Nazi Party People.
3. Glen Beck's Nazi Tourette's Syndrome.
Moment Of Zen: Glenn Beck agrees with the CIA... that Osama should attack America!!!!
To forget about what might have been and to look ahead to what can be.
Now is the time to restore the Promise of America. Many Americans have given up on this president but they haven’t ever thought about giving up. Not on themselves. Not on each other. And not on America.
What is needed in our country today is not complicated or profound. It doesn’t take a special government commission to tell us what America needs.
What America needs is jobs.
Lots of jobs.
In the richest country in the history of the world, this Obama economy has crushed the middle class. Family income has fallen by $4,000, but health insurance premiums are higher, food prices are higher, utility bills are higher, and gasoline prices have doubled.
Oil Speculation Bubbles Are Pushing Up Oil Prices
Today more Americans wake up in poverty than ever before. Nearly one out of six Americans is living in poverty. Look around you. These are not strangers. These are our brothers and sisters, our fellow Americans.
PROVEN: Barack Obama Is NOT Waging Class Warfare BUT The GOP & Fox News ARE...
His policies have not helped create jobs, they have depressed them. And this I can tell you about where President Obama would take America:
Simply a lie...
Image Source: Geeky chart from Steve Benen -- new jobless claims still at four-year low, even with upward revisions
The job losses under Bush reached a crescendo and ever since the stimulus (i.e. spending of peaceful activities as opposed to war activities - see below) the jobs has been growing EVERY month!
Then he just starts lying like crazy!...
His plan to raise taxes on small business won’t add jobs, it will eliminate them
His assault on coal and gas and oil will send energy and manufacturing jobs to China;
EXCLUSIVE: Romney Invested Millions in Chinese Firm That Profited on US Outsourcing
His trillion dollar cuts to our military will eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs, and also put our security at greater risk;
His $716 billion cut to Medicare to finance Obamacare will both hurt today’s seniors, and depress innovation – and jobs – in medicine.
And his trillion-dollar deficits will slow our economy, restrain employment, and cause wages to stall.
To the majority of Americans who now believe that the future will not be better than the past, I can guarantee you this: if Barack Obama is re-elected, you will be right.
I am running for president to help create a better future. A future where everyone who wants a job can find one. Where no senior fears for the security of their retirement. An America where every parent knows that their child will get an education that leads them to a good job and a bright horizon.
And unlike the President, I have a plan to create 12 million new jobs. It has 5 steps.
First, by 2020, North America will be energy independent by taking full advantage of our oil and coal and gas and nuclear and renewables.
Romney is basing his economic plan on the 1800's!:
Climate Change + Oil, Fracking, Earthquakes, Tsunami's, & Alternative Energy Solutions.
Second, we will give our fellow citizens the skills they need for the jobs of today and the careers of tomorrow. When it comes to the school your child will attend, every parent should have a choice, and every child should have a chance.
Third, we will make trade work for America by forging new trade agreements. And when nations cheat in trade, there will be unmistakable consequences.
Fourth, to assure every entrepreneur and every job creator that their investments in America will not vanish as have those in Greece, we will cut the deficit and put America on track to a balanced budget.
And fifth, we will champion SMALL businesses, America’s engine of job growth. That means reducing taxes on business, not raising them. It means simplifying and modernizing the regulations that hurt small business the most. And it means that we must rein in the skyrocketing cost of healthcare by repealing and replacing Obamacare.
Today, women are more likely than men to start a business. They need a president who respects and understands what they do.
And let me make this very clear – unlike President Obama, I will not raise taxes on the middle class.
Either Romney is lying OR he's throwing EVERYTHING the GOP has said over the last 4 years under the bus... but then we are back to the whole idea of 'just trust mitt'. Why should we when no evidence is offered of anything except lies & corruption to the point where Romney has been proven to be sending jobs abroad (offshoring/outsourcing), and even making money off of abortions? GOP's plan to raise taxes on the middle class have been clear from the start...
PROVEN: Barack Obama Is NOT Waging Class Warfare BUT The GOP & Fox News ARE...
As president, I will protect the sanctity of life. I will honor the institution of marriage. And I will guarantee America’s first liberty: the freedom of religion.
From Mother Jones: Romney Invested in Medical-Waste Firm That Disposed of Aborted Fetuses, Government Documents Show
President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. MY promise...is to help you and your family.
Related: The GOP Is Trying To Cover Up Paul Ryan & It's Party Platform By Saying 'Just Trust Mitt'!
I will begin my presidency with a jobs tour. President Obama began with an apology tour. America, he said, had dictated to other nations. No Mr. President, America has freed other nations from dictators.
Every American was relieved the day President Obama gave the order, and Seal Team Six took out Osama bin Laden. But on another front, every American is less secure today because he has failed to slow Iran’s nuclear threat.
"God's Muslim Warriors: Iran" & The Results of Bad Foreign Policy...
In his first TV interview as president, he said we should talk to Iran. We’re still talking, and Iran’s centrifuges are still spinning.
President Obama has thrown allies like Israel under the bus, even as he has relaxed sanctions on Castro’s Cuba. He abandoned our friends in Poland by walking away from our missile defense commitments, but is eager to give Russia’s President Putin the flexibility he desires, after the election. Under my administration, our friends will see more loyalty, and Mr. Putin will see a little less flexibility and more backbone.
We will honor America’s democratic ideals because a free world is a more peaceful world. This is the bipartisan foreign policy legacy of Truman and Reagan. And under my presidency we will return to it once again.
You might have asked yourself if these last years are really the America we want, the America won for us by the greatest generation.
Does the America we want borrow a trillion dollars from China? No.
The US had to "borrow" a trillion dollars from China because the people that Mitt was bragging about being connected to in 2002 were busy destroying the economy...
How The Fed and Top Government Officials Destroyed the US Economy
Does it fail to find the jobs that are needed for 23 million people and for half the kids graduating from college? No.
Are its schools lagging behind the rest of the developed world? No.
And does the America we want succumb to resentment and division? We know the answer.
The America we all know has been a story of the many becoming one, uniting to preserve liberty, uniting to build the greatest economy in the world, uniting to save the world from unspeakable darkness.
Everywhere I go in America, there are monuments that list those who have given their lives for America. There is no mention of their race, their party affiliation, or what they did for a living. They lived and died under a single flag, fighting for a single purpose. They pledged allegiance to the UNITED States of America.
That America, that united America, can unleash an economy that will put Americans back to work, that will once again lead the world with innovation and productivity, and that will restore every father and mother’s confidence that their children’s future is brighter even than the past.
That America, that united America, will preserve a military that is so strong, no nation would ever dare to test it.
That America, that united America, will uphold the constellation of rights that were endowed by our Creator, and codified in our Constitution.
That united America will care for the poor and the sick, will honor and respect the elderly, and will give a helping hand to those in need.
That America is the best within each of us. That America we want for our children.
If I am elected President of these United States, I will work with all my energy and soul to restore that America, to lift our eyes to a better future. That future is our destiny. That future is out there. It is waiting for us. Our children deserve it, our nation depends upon it, the peace and freedom of the world require it. And with your help we will deliver it. Let us begin that future together tonight.
PROVEN: Besides Lofty Words, Mitt Romney Has NOTHING To Offer...
(except maybe a ton of platitudes and lies! If that rocks your boat then you're NOT an American.)*******More Fact Checks...
Factchecker: Obama did not go on ‘apology tour’ http://wapo.st/RsjyW5
Romney's 12 million job promise 'a fairly safe bet' (for ANY President if they let the economy continue as it is) http://wapo.st/ODBksD
The truth? C’mon, this is a political convention http://wapo.st/OIP1GR
Fact checking Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech at the GOP convention
In his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination, former governor Mitt Romney focused more on his biography than his policy positions. But there were moments when his facts went awry or were missing important context.
Let’s take a tour through the rhetoric.
“And unlike the president, I have a plan to create 12 million new jobs.”
This sounds like a pretty bold statement, especially considering that only two presidents — Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton — created more than 12 million jobs. Romney, in fact, says he can reach this same goal, in just four years, though the policy paper issued by his campaign contains few details. It is mostly a collection of policy assertions, such as reducing debt, overhauling the tax code, fostering free trade and so forth.
But, in fact, the number is even less impressive than it sounds. This pledge amounts to an average of 250,000 jobs a month, a far cry from the 500,000 jobs a month that Romney once claimed would be created in a “normal recovery.” In recent months, the economy has averaged about 150,000 jobs a month.
The Congressional Budget Office is required to consider the effects of the so-called “fiscal cliff” if a year-end budget deal is not reached, which many experts believe would push the country into a recession. But even with that caveat, the nonpartisan agency assumes 9.6 million jobs will be created between 2013 and 2017. (This is a revision downward; CBO had estimated 11 million in January.)
But Moody’s Analytics, in an August forecast, predicts 12 million jobs will be created by 2016, no matter who is president. And Macroeconomic Advisors in April also predicted a gain of 12.3 million jobs.
In other words, this is a fairly safe bet by Romney, even if he has a somewhat fuzzy plan for action. We have often noted that presidents are often at the mercy — or are the beneficiary — of broad economic trends, and Romney’s pledge appears to be an effort to take advantage of that.
“I will begin my presidency with a jobs tour. President Obama began with an apology tour.”
This is one of Romney’s signature lines, but in a lengthy column last year, we tracked down every statement Obama uttered that partisans claim was an apology, and concluded that each one had been misquoted or taken out of context. His comments overseas were not much different than those of his predecessor, President George W. Bush.
Indeed, on several occasions Bush apologized to foreign governments for actions taken by U.S. soldiers, such as for the shooting of a Koran or prisoner abuse in Iraq. “I told him I was sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners and the humiliation suffered by their families,” Bush said at a news conference with Jordan’s King Abdullah.
Despite earning Four Pinocchios for this claim for months, Romney keeps saying it.
“Does it [the economy] fail to find the jobs that are needed for 23 million people and for half the kids graduating from college? No.”
Romney is referring to an Associated Press survey earlier this year that concluded that about 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor’s degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed. This was the highest level in 11 years, since the dot-com bust in 2000.
“A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don’t fully use their skills and knowledge,” the news agency said. “Young adults with bachelor’s degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs — waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example — and that’s confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.”
Romney often cites this fact but is generally careful to include the phrase “underemployed.” His phrasing in his speech might have led viewers to believe that 50 percent of college graduates cannot find jobs at all, which is incorrect.
“His trillion-dollar cuts to our military will eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs, and also put our security at greater risk.”
Romney here attributes planned cuts to the military entirely to Obama, but they actually are the result of a 2011 budget deal between Obama and congressional Republicans, which avoided a default on the national debt.
Leaders agreed to include additional automatic cuts to the military as an incentive to reach a broader budget deal, but a congressional “supercommittee” failed to reach an agreement. Obama has proposed raising taxes on the wealthy to end the impasse, but congressional Republicans have rejected that proposal.
“Unlike President Obama, I will not raise taxes on the middle class.”
Romney appears to be referring to mandates in the health-care law, but overall Obama has cut taxes broadly for the middle class. He has extended Bush tax cuts, included a “Making Work Pay” credit in the stimulus bill, and reduced payroll taxes by two percentage points in the past two years.
Obama has called for raising taxes on people making more than $250,000 a year.
“His $716 billion cut to Medicare to finance Obamacare will both hurt today’s seniors, and depress innovation — and jobs — in medicine.”
Republicans have repeatedly used variations of this line, but as we have noted it is not factually correct.
This $700 billion figure comes from the difference over 10 years (2013-2022) between anticipated Medicare spending (what is known as “the baseline”) and the changes that the law makes to reduce spending. The savings mostly are wrung from health-care providers, not Medicare beneficiaries — who, as a result of the health-care law, ended up with new benefits for preventive care and prescription drugs.
While it is correct that anticipated savings from Medicare were used to help offset some of the anticipated costs of expanding health care for all Americans, it does not affect the Medicare trust fund. In fact, the Obama health-care law also raised Medicare payroll taxes by $318 billion over the new 10-year time frame, further strengthening the program’s financial condition.
“Family income has fallen by $4,000, but health insurance premiums are higher, food prices are higher, utility bills are higher, and gasoline prices have doubled.”
Romney mixes in a number of correct claims here — such as the fact that incomes have kept falling since the recession officially ended in June 2009 — with one misleading statistic: “Gasoline prices have doubled.”
Gasoline was an average of $1.83 a gallon the day before Obama took the oath of office, but that was because of the economic crisis. Exactly four years ago, the average price was $3.67 — not much different than today’s price of $3.72. Gas prices had plunged after the collapse of Lehman Brothers sparked the crisis, reaching $1.59 a gallon by the end of December. So the dip was largely a temporary aberration.
No, Obama Didn't Steal Money From the Medicare Trust Fund
Bob Somerby says I've failed him. Yesterday I wrote about Mitt Romney's claim that Obamacare had cut Medicare spending by $716 billion over the next decade, but I failed to answer these two questions:
- Did Obama steal, rob, siphon, take or remove $716 billion
from the Medicare trust fund? - After stealing that money, did he spend it on Obamacare?
Slightly longer answer: Money that's paid into the Medicare system — which comes mainly from payroll taxes, premiums, and general revenue — goes into Medicare's two trust funds. Money that's paid out to doctors and hospitals comes out of the trust funds. So there are only two ways you could "rob" money from the trust funds: you could reduce taxes going in or you could increase money being paid out. Obamacare does neither of these things. In fact, it reduces reimbursement rates to hospitals, which means that it improves the financial health of the trust funds because less money is flowing out. In particular, after Obamacare was signed into law in 2010, the Medicare trustees estimated that it had extended the life of the HI trust fund by 12 years.
So why is Romney saying this? Beats me. I guess his team decided that "taking money from the Medicare trust fund" sounded more heinous than "reducing spending on Medicare." The latter actually has the virtue of being true, but that doesn't count for much these days.
Question #2 is actually a little trickier. It's unquestionably true that Obamacare reduces spending on Medicare, which allows us to spend more on Obamacare without changing our overall budget level. But does that mean we're taking money from Medicare to spend on Obamacare?
Here's an analogy. Suppose I have income of $100 per month, and I normally spend $50 on rent and $50 on food. Then I negotiate a lower rent with my landlord. Now I spend $45 on rent and $55 on food. Did I take money from the rent to spend on food?
I'd say no: I still have the same apartment, after all, and it's not as if I'm going to be short when the rent comes due this month. On the other hand, I'm definitely not using my newfound savings on my apartment. I'm using it to buy bananas and ham sandwiches. I guess you can make up your own mind what you'd call that.
- Did Obama steal, rob, siphon, take or remove $716 billion
from the Medicare trust fund?Barack Obama Releases 12 Years Of Taxes. Mitt Released JUST Two!
... and even the taxes Mitt Romney has released, are incomplete!
What sort of business would make a man so embarrassed as to only release one/two year of taxes (and even that's not complete). Obama has released 12 YEARS of taxes! Mitt, at least release taxes going back to the 90's, when you were in political office, it's only a tenth on your life. Afterall, this is the Presidency of the United States you are running for, you gotta be transparent to show the people you are who you say you are and NOT a crook. I believe Mitt Romney may not a crook (though, at this point, that possibility is extremely slim)... but there are standards that have to be maintained if you are running for the Presidency from a background of business ESPECIALLY WHEN YOUR BUSINESS BACKGROUND IS YOUR WHOLE CAMPAIGN!!!!!!!!!!!
Click here To View: "President Obama and Vice President Biden: 12 Years of Tax Returns"
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Is his business legit? He started it with a ton of money... what did he do with it? Why did he need bailouts? Has he even made money ethically? (We already know he was making money off of aborted fetuses, i.e. pre-born babies)...
Romney: Bain a “small company”
The GOP candidate says he started a "small company" ... with $37 million
AMPA – Everybody loves small-business owners and tonight Mitt Romney will pretend to be one. “When I was 37, I helped start a small company,” his speech reads, according to excerpts released early. ”That business we started with 10 people has now grown into a great American success story. Some of the companies we helped start are names you know,” he adds. The section comes just after Romney extolls the virtue and industrious of the small-business entrepreneurs.
Of course, the “small company” he refers to is Bain Capital. Bain was started with $37 million in initial capital, much of it raised from wealthy foreign donors. The company was spun off of Bain & Co., an unquestionable giant in the massive international consulting industry. The company quickly invested millions in other companies and grew rapidly, and has $66 billion under management, as of January.
“Small” is obviously a relative term, but considering that the average start-up cost for small business is as low as $10,000, or 1/3,700 of what Romney started his company with, he may be taking some serious poetic licensee.
The funny thing is that Bain Capital, i.e. Mitt Romney's company, claims to enable business and job creation through it's investment (which is a lie, even Rick Perry called what Romney does "vulture capitalism"). Anyways, now you can say to Romney "What? You didn't create jobs! The other business did. You just enabled them to hire". This might even be true, we just need Romney to release his companies records so we can confirm that he actually created jobs (something he still hasn't done but everyone in the media seems to have forgotten) AND we need his taxes to confirm that he actually made his money morally. We know that Congress does insider trading legally so saying you made money legally means nothing. It's HOW you made money that matters (i.e. Obama isn't attacking success, he's attacking Mitt Romney's supposed success).
This is what we know about Bain Capital...
Mitt Romney touts his experience at Bain Capital as a strength, but not the experience with leveraged buyouts.
Notice at approx 2 min 50 sec = Bain capital made a huge profit AND steered the company into bankruptcy... if you destroy a company to make money how can you trust that person with the economy of a country? I'm sure destroying the US economy (or even the global economy) will be profitable to some people.... do you really want to hand the reins of the presidency to a person who comes from the greed and lack of compassion side of capitalism? - They(Bain Capital) don't even have to use thier own money to destroy a company AND make money off of that!!!!!!
Where did Romney get all his wealth? It can't be from honorable means if he refuses to show more than 2 years of taxes... especially when he was bragging about how much money he could get from Washington in 2002.
Karl Rove is busy trying to make people think they shouldn't try to learn anything more about the GOP presumptive nominee's financial past...
From Salon: Super PAC to the rescue: American Crossroads, the super PAC connected to Karl Rove, is breaking new post-Citizens United ground by dropping $8.8 million on new ads defending Mitt Romney, instead of attacking President Obama. The new round of ads, which will be the first to refer to Romney directly, will defend his record at Bain Capital against scrutiny from liberals and the press. Because of a quirk in campaign finance law, much of Romney’s money can’t be used until after he officially becomes the nominee at the convention, so Crossroads is stepping in. The ads will call attacks on Bain “misleading, unfair and untrue.”
Background to understand how Karl Rove is paying to hide Mitt Romney's taxes... Bill Moyers & Senator Bernie Sanders On Corporate Money In PoliticsBackground on Karl Rove... Dick Cheney and Karl Rove - The Brains Behind George W. Bush
About Mitt Romney's EIGHT Cayman Tax Shelters...
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Related financial weirdness...
Mitt Romney has millions of dollars saved in offshore Cayman Islands tax shelters
- Holds a reported $33 million in the Caribbean British territory's accounts
- Offshore banking could be one reason Romney is withholding his tax returns
- Newt Gingrich reported 31 percent tax on his income -- in line with the top tax bracket
Romney Invested Millions in Firms That Pioneered High-Tech OutsourcingEXCLUSIVE: A government document shows that at Bain he held a $54 million stake in companies that manufactured electronics in China and Mexico for US firms
From MotherJones: "Yet evidence has emerged that undermines this claim and that suggests Romney may have made a false statement on this disclosure form (which would be a potential felony punishable by a $50,000 fine and up to a year in jail). Now there's another indication that Romney's break with Bain wasn't so clean—and this is according to Romney himself. Last week, the Huffington Post reported that Romney, in sworn testimony during a 2002 Massachusetts hearing to determine if he met the residency requirement to run for governor, declared that he had remained on the board of a company in which Bain was an investor."From Maddow Blog
Mitt Romney's campaign is still wrestling with when he left Bain Capital. Over the weekend, they tried saying he "actually retired retroactively."
Romney's Account of His Departure From Bain Undercut by...Romney Testimony
In a previously unreported remark, Romney indicated he went through a "transition" at Bain after heading to Utah in February 1999.And these documents challenge Romney's claim that he left Bain Capital in early 1999.
Moment of Zen...
Mitt Romney uses an age-old ruse to explain how his time at Bain Capital wasn't a conflict of interest, and selectively releases his tax returns as required by law...
Notice At 50 seconds: A young Mitt Romney (from many years before he decided to run for the Presidency, obviously)... tells his blind trust what it can OR cannot do.
The ONLY Statistic & Fact ON Jobs & Unemployment That Matters In 2012 For The USA.
The housing bubble was created by the FED and Bush, which led to the largest job loss in history UNDER GEORGE BUSH'S WATCH... Obama has almost got us back to where we were before Bush and his Wrecking Crew, i.e. ...
Image Source: Geeky chart from Steve Benen -- new jobless claims still at four-year low, even with upward revisions
(Note that the 4 year low is referring to 2008... when Bush was in charge)
AND...
As for why jobs haven't come back in full from the largest job loss in history under Bush's watch... can be explained by JUST one Federal Policy which was SPED UP under Bush's Watch (i.re. off-shoring/outsourcing)...
More GOP Hypocrisy...
EXCLUSIVE: Romney Invested Millions in Chinese Firm That Profited on US Outsourcing
Outright Campaign Lies
Mitt Romney Took Bailouts & Made Money From Abortions!
Mitt Romney On Abortions (For and Against!)...
Notice that at 1 minute and 25 seconds Romney was FOR Abortion and then Became Governor and became against abortion (he has a very long record of not keeping his words... calling these "flip-flops' is being way way way too nice to his past! (though this CNN documentary takes a major step forward. Hopefully it's not a decoy or something that will be shoved under the run to become a part of the internet. Now Romney says he will support Abortion DESPITE the fact that his party platform doesn't allow it and Todd Akin and Paul Ryan LITERALLY co-sponsored bills.... this is one of thier policies in action (or derived from thier work)... "The GOP's Party Platform Supports A Rapists Baby EVEN BEFORE Conception/Pregnancy!"
Mitt Romney making money from aborted fetuses (i.e. dead pre-born babies)...
And these documents challenge Romney's claim that he left Bain Capital in early 1999.
Earlier this year, Mitt Romney nearly landed in a politically perilous controversy when the Huffington Post reported that in 1999 the GOP presidential candidate had been part of an investment group that invested $75 million in Stericycle, a medical-waste disposal firm that has been attacked by anti-abortion groups for disposing aborted fetuses collected from family planning clinics. Coming during the heat of the GOP primaries, as Romney tried to sell South Carolina Republicans on his pro-life bona fides, the revelation had the potential to damage the candidate's reputation among values voters already suspicious of his shifting position on abortion.
Mitt Romney Taking Bailouts...
1. Proof of Mitt Romney TAKING a bailout from The Rolling Stone...
See the FDIC documents detailing Mitt Romney's federal bailout: http://bitly.com/Rmui8g
2. PROOF THAT MITT ROMNEY HAS CONNECTIONS TO... ARE THE VERY PEOPLE WHO LENT OUT TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS (THIS IS PART OF THE REASON WHY HE'S HIDING HIS TAXES SO DESPERATELY FOLKS!)...
VIDEO: In 2002 Mitt Romney touted D.C. connections, ability to get millions of taxpayer dollars from federal gov’t
Back in March, ABC reported the following, but it’s likely that fewer people were paying attention, so, it’s time to revive the story:
In a long-forgotten tape from the 2002 Massachusetts governor’s race obtained by ABC News, Mitt Romney is seen touting his Washington connections and his ability to get millions of taxpayer dollars from the federal government.
Gasp! What a commie socialist!
“I am big believer in getting money where the money is,” Romney says on the video, “The money is in Washington.”
Just one more example of his blatant hypocrisy.
Alternate Video Site - FROM ABC:
In a long-forgotten tape from the 2002 Massachusetts governor’s race obtained by ABC News, Mitt Romney is seen touting his Washington connections and his ability to get millions of taxpayer dollars from the federal government.
“I am big believer in getting money where the money is,” Romney says on the video, “The money is in Washington.”
Where did Romney get all his wealth? It can't be from honorable means if he refuses to show more than 2 years of taxes... especially when he was bragging about how much money he could get from Washington in 2002 (see above).
From Salon:
Mitt’s many mansionsReporters need to start asking Romney about the crisis we face in our housing markets
Housing is a topic that Mitt should know something about. After all, his father, George, served as the nation’s housing secretary during the Nixon administration. And Mitt currently owns three homes, according to Zillow.
- In 1989, Romney bought a seven-bedroom, 6.5-bath home in upscale Belmont, a Boston suburb. The 6,434 square foot house is situated on 2.44 acres. With his kids grown, Romney sold the house in 2009 for $3.5 million — 293 percent more than the purchase price of $890,000 twenty years earlier. (This is the kind of job-creating entrepreneurship that — along with inheriting his father’s fortune — made Romney a rich man). The following year Romney — the former Massachusetts governor who needed a local address in order to run for president — bought a two-bedroom, 2,100 square foot townhouse in Belmont for $895,000.
- Romney’s weekend vacation estate, which sits on Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, N.H., includes a three-story, six-bedroom, 5,400 square foot main house, plus an additional guest house, that are worth an estimated $10 million.
- In 2008, Romney purchased a $12 million, 3,000 square foot beachfront Spanish-style villa, with unobstructed views of the Pacific Ocean, in tony La Jolla, California. Last year, over the objections of his neighbors, Romney filed an application with the city to bulldoze the single-story beachfront home and replace it with a 12,000 square foot two-story home, including a split-level four-car garage equipped with an elevator for his cars.
In other words... Besides Lofty Words, Mitt Romney Has NOTHING To Offer...
There are two quick and easy solutions for deficit spending that Barack Obama CAN implement
1. Why Ron Paul's Plan of Cutting 5 Departments/Cabinet-Posts Is Reasonable.
&
2. Base reduction i.e. we have 900 bases 150 different countries - We have enough weapons to destroy world 25 times!
(Don't be silly. Nobody needs 900 military bases if they aren't already at war. This is just nuts ESPECIALLY WHEN WE HAVE REAL PROBLEMS )
Notice that with the sort of technological advances in missile speed and technology, 900 bases is so outdated that people supporting such a plan are either planning a global takeover or are so old they must be retired:
Paul Ryan's psychological background (explaining how he could endorse such a plan... all he may have made are graphics which attract the dufflepuds):
Paul Ryan's views are based on a Communist Russia born and educated women who was so traumatized by her experiences that she hates community/society at all levels and believes no one deserves love if they are weak (anti-Christ views?). Anyways, the following links explain Ayn Rand (what I've blogged so far)"
Background:
Morgan Freeman on the tea party, racism and Obama
Racism 1 - North-South Cultural Division in The USA
Racism 2 - North-South Cultural Division in The USA
Racism 3 - North-South Cultural Division in The USA
KKK/Nazis: The Rise of Right-Wing Militias in America (They Are IN The Tea Party)
The way I feel about Piers Morgan (probably because of the Ron Paul coverup in the primaries) is how the GOP must feel about Obama, i.e. when Piers Morgan started with his media sensationalism I wanted him deported as well. He is British. If he doesn't understand the Constitution he should leave. In the same way the GOP, composed mostly of white males and Southerners, sees Obama as a person from Africa so they want him to go back but it's politically incorrect to say so. In other words, they see him as a son of a slave NOT an American citizen. that is why black people and minorities will always vote for him... cause they know racism when they see it:
Republican Minority Outreach: Larry Wilmore advises Republicans not wanting to appear racist to not say racist things(they can't do that because they are in denial about their racism)...
Learn about the Republican's "Southern Strategy":
- Southern strategy
In American politics, the Southern strategy refers to the Republican Party strategy of winning elections in Southern states by exploiting anti-African American racism and fears of lawlessness among Southern white voters and appealing to fears of growing federal power in social and economic matters (generally lumped under the concept of states' rights).
Newt is using the "southern strategy", i.e. playing on racial prejudice in the South (that mean's he's lying) to win an election...
Satire: The Great Available Panel John Harwood, Katrina vanden Heuvel and David Cassidy share their thoughts on Newt Gingrich's sex appeal, Mitt Romney's wealth and Connecticut's tacos...
The Colbert Report
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Fear-mongering is Newts specialty...
Satire: Tip/Wag - Liberal Dictionary & Newt Gingrich Alert The American Heritage Dictionary's lexicowards redefine an offensive term, and Newt Gingrich thinks of new ways to make Americans afraid...
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
To get an idea of how toxic the rhetoric in the South has gotten ...
GOP's radioactive anti-Obama rhetoric
(CNN) -- The debates this presidential primary season have been less like Lincoln-Douglas than former heavyweight champ Buster Douglas -- punch-drunk pugilism, providing entertainment and some great upsets along the way.But for all the excitement of the fights, there is a civic cost to the radioactive rhetoric that gets thrown out to excite the conservative crowds.It's not just that the most irresponsible candidates can play to the base and get a boost in the polls, while more sober-minded candidates like Jon Huntsman fail to get attention. The real damage is to the process of running for president itself. Because when low blows get rewarded, the incentive to try to emulate Lincoln -- holding yourself to a higher standard -- is diminished. And one barometer of this atmospheric shift is in the increasingly overheated rhetoric by candidates attacking the current president. This serial disrespect ends up unintentionally diminishing the office of president itself.Look, I know that politics is a full-contact sport: Elbows get thrown and egos get bruised. But ask yourself if Ronald Reagan ever called Jimmy Carter a socialist or a communist on the stump. Sure, there were deep philosophical and policy disagreements between them, and Carter was called a failed president many times. But there was a lingering respect for the office that retained an essential bit of dignity. It was only the far-right fringe who indulged in the kind of rhetoric we now hear routinely from presidential candidates.Best part? Newt Gingrich's obvious racism proves that using the racially charged "southern strategy" is right up his alley...
Indecision 2012 - Black to the Future Some may quibble with the idea that Newt Gingrich must enter into the bowels of the inner city to explain to black people the power of the paycheck...
News Report: Gingrich to black people: paychecks, not food aid...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Thursday he is willing to go before the NAACP and urge blacks to demand paychecks, not food stamps.Gingrich told a town hall meeting at a senior center in Plymouth, N.H., that if the NAACP invites him to its annual convention this year, he'd go there and talk about "why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps." He also said he'd pitch a new Social Security program aimed at helping young people, particularly African-American males, who he said get the smallest return on Social Security. Gingrich routinely lambasts President Barack Obama as the "best food stamp president in American history." He also has spoken previously about welcoming an invitation from the NAACP to speak and has been critical of GOP candidates who have not accepted such an invitation. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had no immediate comment on Gingrich's remarks. His campaign spokesman, R.C. Hammond, said the former Georgia congressman has often said the GOP needs to be inclusive of all Americans. "He has said since he became a presidential candidate that any Republican should always accept an invitation to speak to the NAACP on any topic," Hammond said.
The following will show that Newt Gingrich is a well-known racist and is thus not even suited to be out in public representing the Republican party in any way except to embarrass and humiliate the Republicans in the upcoming general election...
Newt Gingrich Janitor Idea Won't Solve Jobs Crisis During Monday night's Republican debate in South Carolina, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich continued to promote his controversial strategy to fight both child poverty and the jobs crisis: New York City janitors who make "an absurd amount of money" should be fired and replaced by poor schoolchildren, he said. "You could take one janitor and hire 30-some kids to work in the school for the price of one janitor," Gingrich said. "And those 30 kids would be a lot less likely to drop out. They would actually have money in their pocket." The idea captures Gingrich's spin on two popular right-wing economic claims: Union workers are overpaid and the poor simply need to work harder to improve their lives. In South Carolina, Gingrich didn't define an "absurd amount of money," but earlier this month he said, incorrectly, that an entry-level janitor gets paid twice as much as an entry-level teacher. Not only do Gingrich's calculations assume janitors earn much more than they actually do, his theory is deeply flawed, and would likely harm impoverished communities, not help them, researchers say. The top salary for a New York City public school cleaner -- who generally does the type of work that Gingrich imagines schoolchildren might do -- is $37,710, or $18.13 an hour, according to the Service Employees International Union, which represents all 5,000 janitors. Divided among 30 kids, that would be some $1,257 a year, or a little over $24 a week. Meanwhile, the starting salary for a first-year teacher with no advanced degree is $45,530, more than a cleaner. It's true that some workers classified as janitors make a decent living (by New York City standards): Custodial engineers in the New York City public school system can earn a top salary of $114,000 a year, but they start around $56,000 a year, and they work as supervisors -- not "entry-level" janitors. Along with supervising other custodians, their job responsibilities include repairing heating and electrical equipment and inspecting buildings. The work requires a high school diploma, or equivalent, along with years of experience, according to the New York City Department of Education. Either way, if any of those janitorial positions were filled by schoolchildren, labor experts point out, the U.S. would have one less decently paying job.
Previous Statement by Newt Gingrich (News Report):“Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works,” the former House speaker said at a campaign event at the Nationwide Insurance offices. “So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash,’ unless it’s illegal.”
News Report: Gingrich to black people: paychecks, not food aid...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Thursday he is willing to go before the NAACP and urge blacks to demand paychecks, not food stamps. Gingrich told a town hall meeting at a senior center in Plymouth, N.H., that if the NAACP invites him to its annual convention this year, he'd go there and talk about "why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps." He also said he'd pitch a new Social Security program aimed at helping young people, particularly African-American males, who he said get the smallest return on Social Security. Gingrich routinely lambasts President Barack Obama as the "best food stamp president in American history." He also has spoken previously about welcoming an invitation from the NAACP to speak and has been critical of GOP candidates who have not accepted such an invitation. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had no immediate comment on Gingrich's remarks. His campaign spokesman, R.C. Hammond, said the former Georgia congressman has often said the GOP needs to be inclusive of all Americans. "He has said since he became a presidential candidate that any Republican should always accept an invitation to speak to the NAACP on any topic," Hammond said.
One response...
Why Won’t Black People Let Newt Gingrich Help Them? Those are the white people, and the good ones (the good ones are the black people that Newt isn’t talking about. You know, the exceptions to the rule). Why the difference? You think it’s because of skin color, but it’s not. As Newt has explained, time and again, it’s because black people haven’t learned how to work. That sounds racist, but he’s not saying they can’t work, or don’t want to work, but that America (and more specifically, liberals) haven’t taught them how to work. Newt’s a historian, remember, and black people do have a history of disproportionate poverty and unemployment that white people don’t. My fellow liberals attacked Newt Gingrich when he made a series of factual observations about black children, and the example their parents set for them. First, he sensibly recommended that 9-12 year-old children in “poor neighborhoods” (you know what that means, right? “Urban?”) should clean toilets so they would learn to “show up on Monday.”
When most people see Gingrich... they see a lying, racist.
To understand what kind of polices the South and thus The GOP-Republicans are going to implement, all you gotta do is see what GOP supporters are implementing now and how they are doing it (Note: Mexican-American's are 'Latinos')...
Tucson's Mexican-American Studies Ban
Al Madrigal travels to Arizona, where the powerful evidence of hearsay convinced the Tucson school board to ban Mexican-American studies programs.
NEWS REPORTS FROM DEMOCRACY NOW;
Ex-Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman Speaks Out on Karl Rove, Witch Hunt Hours Before Returning to Jail
Don Siegelman, the former governor of Alabama, returns to federal prison today to resume his six-and-a-half-year sentence on a controversial bribery conviction that has been compared to a political...September 11, 2012 | Story"Effective Evil" or Progressives’ Best Hope? Glen Ford vs. Michael Eric Dyson on Obama Presidency
As President Obama accepts the Democratic nomination to seek four more years in the White House, we host a debate on his presidency with Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report and Michael Eric Dyson, professor...September 07, 2012 | StoryComedian, Author Baratunde Thurston on Vote Suppression & Romney’s 0% Support from African Americans
A recent poll by NBC and the Wall Street Journal found zero percent of African-American voters support Mitt Romney, compared to 94 percent supporting President Obama. Critics say Republicans have lost...August 28, 2012 | StoryRomney Invokes "Birther" Controversy with Dig at Obama
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney waded into the so-called "birther" controversy over the weekend with a dig at President Obama. Speaking in his home state of Michigan, Romney...August 27, 2012 | Headline"The Real Romney": Veteran Reporter Michael Kranish on Mitt Romney’s Embrace of GOP’s Rightward Turn
Boston Globe reporter Michael Kranish is the co-author of the recent book, "The Real Romney," which examines the political trajectory of presumptive presidential candidate Mitt Romney and...August 27, 2012 | StoryObama Admin Challenges Arizona Anti-Immigrant Law While Overseeing Unprecedented Mass Deportations
We get an update from Colorlines.com reporter Seth Freed Wessler about hearings Wednesday before the U.S. Supreme Court on Arizona’s notorious anti-immigrant law known as SB 1070. The case could...April 26, 2012 | StoryRick Perry Questions Legitimacy of Obama's Birth Certificate
In political news, Republican presidential hopeful Gov. Rick Perry is schedule to unveil his proposal today to reform the tax code by giving taxpayers an option to pay taxes under the current code...October 25, 2011 | HeadlineTrump: "Very Proud of Myself" for Obama Birth Certificate Disclosure
One of the most prominent so-called "birthers," real estate tycoon and prospective Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, took credit for pressuring the White House to finally release...April 28, 2011 | HeadlineNAACP Report Ties Tea Party to Militia and Racist Groups
Less than two weeks before the midterms elections, the NAACP has published a new report that exposes what it calls links between various Tea Party organizations and racist hate groups in the United...October 20, 2010 | Story"Tea Party in Sonora": Ken Silverstein of Harper’s Says Arizona is Laboratory for Radical GOP Policies
A new article by Harper’s Magazine Washington editor Ken Silverstein argues that Arizona has become a laboratory not just for immigration policy, but a broad range of issues. It’s a place,...July 15, 2010 | StoryDennis Kucinich and Ralph Nader: A Discussion on Healthcare, Politics and Reform
Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio announced on Wednesday he would switch his vote on the Democrat-led healthcare reform bill and support the legislation even though it does not create a public option....March 18, 2010 | StoryGOP, Right-Wing Pundits’ Misinformation Fuels Hysteria at Democrats’ Public Forums on Healthcare Reform
Opponents of President Obama’s healthcare plan continue to disrupt town hall meetings held by Democratic lawmakers. We speak with Stanley Zuber, a registered nurse who attended a town hall in Pennsylvania...August 13, 2009 | Story
using 'unsubstantiated rumor' is standard fare for the GOP Republicans...
Notes/Summary:
1. Republican 'purity test' is basically 'anti-Obama',
2. Republicans believe unsubstantiated rumors,
3. No compromise on the debt ceiling,
4. Republicans have a record of re-naming bad things to sound good.
BTW, A GOP purity test? The "Resolution on Reagan's Unity Principle for Support of Candidates" outlines 10 conservative principles the group of signees wants potential candidates to abide by. The principles include support for: (1) Smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama's "stimulus" bill (2) Market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare; (3) Market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation; (4) Workers' right to secret ballot by opposing card check (5) Legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants; (6) Victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges; (7) Containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat (8) Retention of the Defense of Marriage Act; (9) Protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and (10) The right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership "President Ronald Reagan believed, as a result, that someone who agreed with him 8 out of 10 times was his friend, not his opponent," the resolution states. But if a candidate disagrees with three of the above, then the group wants the RNC to withhold financial assistance and an endorsement from that candidate.
To understand why Latino's have been attacked so hard by the GOP-Republicans, you have to understand their standard party political strategy, which all of them (except Ron Paul) use...
GOP-Republican: The Southern Strategy
The Southern Strategy is the policy of the Republican Party in the United States to gain political support in the Southern section of the country. Politically, the concept generally uses themes traditionally supported by residents of the Southern states to win election in those locations. Since segregation continued well into the late 20th century in the region, the Republican Party officially attempted to utilize this wedge issue as a way of garnering support for their political faction in these states. In addition to the issue of segregation between white residents and African Americans, the party also utilized Southern values of religion, gun control and a distrust of counterculture to win votes.In the 1950s and 1960s, the Republican Party generally opposed desegregation and the Civil Rights Movement. This stance caused a major shift in the voting practices of the African American community to the support of the Democratic Party, the faction which helped legislate laws such as the Voting Rights Act. Party officials, specifically President Richard Nixon's political strategist Kevin Phillips, understood that in order for the Republicans to win the Southern states, they needed to focus their attention on the Caucasian population.The implementation of the Southern Strategy by the Republican Party represented a major shift in political power in the region. Since the Civil War, the Democratic Party was the primary force in the South due to its support of the region during Reconstruction. In addition, the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln was seen as the primary instigator of the war by most Southern residents. Between the 1950s and the early 1980s, the South shifted to major support for the Republicans. At the same time, much of the North and the West became a major supporter of Democrats.In other words, the establishment Republicans (i.e Newt, Mitt, Santorum - those following standard party policy) are using the natural racism of the South (see background above) to get votes. This racism has been fanned by the GOP and Fox News to a point where it has become extremely toxic.Basically, the South sees black people like they did in the days when the Constitution was first written...
From Fareed Zakaria:
The chart below shows the number of prison inmates per capita in the United States compared with other major countries. The incarceration rate in the United States is more than three times that of Iran, six times that of China, and ten times that of Japan. (Source: The Economist via blogs.cfr.org/lindsay)...
Investigating prisoner abuse will be a political food fight, and that is messier than torture. (03:31)
The Colbert Report
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Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
"Another chart on America's prison population from GOOD Magazine showing U.S. incarceration rates per 100,000 over time."
So what do we want to accomplish as a society, a bunch of poor people getting drunk and depressed? That's dumb. To begin with there aren't any medical services, no mental health services, no stress management services... just alcoholism. The ones that smoke the extra expensive (cause it's illegal) stuff get thrown in jail. Maybe crazy would be a better word than dumb.
From Bill Moyers for Martin Luther King Day
Bill Moyers Journal: Bryan Stevenson and Michelle Alexander from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.
Bryan Stevenson and Michelle Alexander on Injustice Two talented lawyers who’ve dedicated their careers to fighting inequality, Michelle Alexander and Bryan Stevenson, join Bill Moyers on the Journal to examine justice and injustice in America 42 years after King’s death.
Alexander believes that King would be deeply troubled by the remaining inequality in America. As she tells Bill Moyers, “I think Martin Luther King would be thrilled by some of the individual progress of African Americans, but stunned, absolutely stunned and saddened, by the state of African Americans as a whole today.”
Stevenson adds that to reach King’s dream, America must address the causes of poverty, “I think in America, the opposite of poverty is justice. I think there are structures and systems that have created poverty, and have made that poverty so permanent, that until we think in a more just way about how to deal with poverty in this country, we’re never gonna make the progress that Dr. King envisioned.”
Both believe that America’s policies of mass incarceration continue the cycle of poverty. America is the largest jailer on the planet, with 2.3 million people behind bars. But the policy of mass imprisonment, unique among industrialized nations, disproportionately affects minorities, especially African American men. One in 100 adults in America is behind bars, but one in nine African American men aged 20 to 34 is behind bars. Much of this arises from the “war on drugs.” According to Human Rights Watch, African American adults have been arrested at a rate 2.8 to 5.5 times higher than white adults in every year from 1980 to 2007. Yet, according to government statistics, African Americans and whites have similar rates of illicit drug use and dealing.
IS BARACK OBAMA BEING... THREATENED OR BLACKMAILED?!?!?!?!?!
This has been documented in mainstream media through a comedy news channel =
Notice what the members of the crowd are shouting, especially at approx 2 mins into the following video: "You are the Anti-Christ"
(i.e. spreading rumors to drive Neo Nazi's angry enough to kill on thier own and become "martyrs")
Origins of Military Trained Domestic Terrorists...
In has been shown that today's Neo Nazi Soldiers get out and often become domestic terrorists'...
The GOP Republicans have been demonizing anyone who opposes their warfare plans (to the point of demonizing whole segments of the population).
Basic Video Clip Proofs...
1. Bill O'Reilly Defends His Nazi Analogies
2. 24 Hour Nazi Party People
3. Glen Beck's Nazi Tourette's Syndrome
4. Glenn Beck agrees with the CIA... that Osama should attack America!!!! (i.e. Glenn Beck advocates killing US Citizens to get his way)
In Response to DIRECT Questions the GOP is talking like this...
Despite dodges, Romney, Ryan haunted by extremist record
Rachel Maddow points out the clear political and policy connections between the Romney ticket and the extreme, absolutist anti-abortion movement, and encourages the political media to hold Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to account for their legislative deeds and political associations instead of taking them at their word as they try to distance themselves from their own record...
i.e. they just gave away the fact that they aren't allowed to speak because they are what they are. See updates below.Notice that To Kill A Mocking Bird is a fiction book ABOUT the South well AFTER the civil war. Notice where the black people are. In the deep South the fear of the black man (from old white women) STILL exists. Seeing blacks as lower than them to a point where there is no shame in calling people 'other black' and 'our blacks' ('our blacks', I think, was famously used by Ann Coulter). To Kill A Mocking Bird is a MUST READ to understand the South, for outsiders.
Excellent example of Southern "Justice" (NON-Fiction):
“Anatomy of Injustice”: Death in a small town
Note: In To Kill A Mocking Bird, at the end, the all-white jury ruled to have the black guy killed. Notice Mitt Romney's strategy is to blame everything on the black guy EXACTLY like To Kill A Mocking Bird!There was even a book by John Grisham covering this Southern Tradition in his own way (can't remember the name but it was an excellent book).
Basically, the theme of half of the book is how a black man is always guilty...
About The South...
Innocent killed for crimes, especially if they are of a hated minority, is normal in the Southern United States of America. The top leadership has no shame and the same morality as feudal lords who rape thier slaves for fun. Hell, they even made that thier party platform. Only a Southerner Feudal Lord Party (In this case Arizona, whoes Republican candidate turned out to be an actual Nazi!) could possibly have the balls, in today's modern world, to actually protect rapist babies before they are even conceived AND literally put it on the Party Platform ... and then shut-up so the women wouldn't find out!
1. "Graves' brother, Arthur Curry Jr., has always insisted that Graves was home with him the night of the murders. "There is no justice, especially here in Texas. Had he done that and I knew it, I could not have hid the truth knowing that someone's family was in torture," says Curry. Graves has not been given an execution date. His lawyer is seeking a new trial."
2. "The Death Penalty Information Center keeps an "Innocence List" which names incarcerated people who have been exonerated since 1973. There are 119 to date. The criteria for inclusion on the list are: "In order to be included on the list, defendants must have been convicted and sentenced to death, and subsequently either: a) their conviction was overturned and they were acquitted at a re-trial, or all charges were dismissed; or b) they were given an absolute pardon by the governor based on new evidence of innocence."
How can a large segment of a 21st Century population... IN A FIRST WORLD COUNTRY .. believe something like this (these aren't rational people)...
Moment Of Zen: Notice what the members of the crowd are shouting, especially at approx 2 mins into the following video: "You are the Anti-Christ"
From The Christian Post: Is Obama the Antichrist?
Urban Legends from About.com = Barack Obama Is the Antichrist
Explanation: Rush Limbaugh & GOP's strategy is to take baseless, unresearched rumor as fact.
Interesting fact: Many members of the Nazi's found a home in the confederate South. We know very little of their activities as many were weapons scientists in Germany and since WW2 the United States has something called a "National Security Act/Bill". Whose sole purpose seems to be to increase militarism.
Note: This whole birther thing was started and continues to be the strategy of the brain child of the last administration, Karl Rove. Rove likes to drone on then say stuff like "The fact that Obama was not born in Hawai". i.e. at approx 7 minutes and 40 seconds into this video of Karl Rove on Fox News. Which GOP dufflepuds & Neo Nazis etc. see as a code and/or confirmation of what they already knew or weren't quite sure of till just then. With 9/11having been emotionally traumatizing and people's sense of security getting attached to the leaders of the last administration, especially the believers in a "Crusade", this is tantamount to mind control.
1. Undeterred, Missouri House Passes Birther Bill
The Washington Post is out with a new survey suggesting that the number of Americans who doubt President Obama's citizenship has fallen dramatically. One week after releasing his long-form birth certificate to the public, just 10-percent of Americans say Obama was "likely" born abroad, down from 20-percent a year ago. That's progress, I suppose, but 10-percent is still a little high, and it's clear that some people are simply unwilling to let the conspiracy die.
Yesterday, for instance, the Missouri House of Representatives passed its birther bill, designed to protect the state from allowing any non-citizens to appear on the presidential ballot. Per the measure: "When certifying presidential and vice presidential nominees and requesting that such nominees be placed on the ballot, the state committees of each political party shall provide verifiable evidence of identity and proof of natural born citizenship."
When I spoke with the bill's sponsor, GOP Rep. Lyle Rowland, early last month, he emphasized that he's not a birther. "You know when I first started, reporters and other people were getting after me because I did this because of President Obama," Rowland said. "And as I told all the other reporters, it's not about President Obama. I believe the man is President of the United States and has met the qualifications for the presidency."
To that point, the Missouri bill is not as hysterical as some of the other proposals that have been introduced (there's no long-form requirement, for instance). But it's born out of the same hysterical climate, in which prominent conservatives sought to propogate a myth that the President was a foreign agent involved in an elaborate conspiracy to defraud the Republic. Missouri's provision, which is part of a broader package that includes a new voter ID law, still has to pass the Senate and win the approval of Republican Governor Jay Nixon.
Yesterday, for instance, the Missouri House of Representatives passed its birther bill, designed to protect the state from allowing any non-citizens to appear on the presidential ballot. Per the measure: "When certifying presidential and vice presidential nominees and requesting that such nominees be placed on the ballot, the state committees of each political party shall provide verifiable evidence of identity and proof of natural born citizenship."
When I spoke with the bill's sponsor, GOP Rep. Lyle Rowland, early last month, he emphasized that he's not a birther. "You know when I first started, reporters and other people were getting after me because I did this because of President Obama," Rowland said. "And as I told all the other reporters, it's not about President Obama. I believe the man is President of the United States and has met the qualifications for the presidency."
To that point, the Missouri bill is not as hysterical as some of the other proposals that have been introduced (there's no long-form requirement, for instance). But it's born out of the same hysterical climate, in which prominent conservatives sought to propogate a myth that the President was a foreign agent involved in an elaborate conspiracy to defraud the Republic. Missouri's provision, which is part of a broader package that includes a new voter ID law, still has to pass the Senate and win the approval of Republican Governor Jay Nixon.
Meaning to hard core believers from GOP: We think the liberals are faking Obama's birth certificate so we will make sure this doesn't happen again. Now we must beat Obama through the political system.
2. Rick Perry on Birtherism: Just Kidding!
Rick Perry's brief moment as a birther has ended. The Texas governor and GOP presidential candidate has officially backtracked from earlier controversial comments suggesting that he thought it was possible that President Obama might not have been born in Hawaii. At a fundraiser in Florida Wednesday morning, Perry claimed that when he said that stuff about Obama, he was "only kidding around." Perry's quick end to his flirtation with "birtherism," the movement of kooky activists who've spent the past three years challenging Obama's citizenship, came just in time, it seems, to put some distance between Perry and guys like Darren Huff.Huff is a Georgia birther and Oathkeepers member who was arrested last year for trying to carry out a "citizens arrest" of some court officials in Monroe County, Tennessee. Their offense? Refusing to indict Obama for not being a citizen. On Tuesday, Huff was convicted of a federal firearms offense in connection with the episode and is awaiting sentencing.
The case got its start when, last year, birthers issued a nationwide call to support Tennessee birther Walter Fitzpatrick III, who had appeared before a Monroe County grand jury in December 2009 and asked them to indict "Barry Sotero," as the birthers call Obama. After failing to win the indictment, he began waging a small war on courthouse officials, as well as the grand jury foreman, whom Fitzpatrick tried to arrest. Court officials pressed charges against Fitzpatrick for the harassment and he was eventually charged with assault and resisting arrest. In April 2010, Fitzpatrick had an arraignment hearing, and his supporters called for birthers everywhere to storm the courthouse to conduct more citizens' arrests. Huff showed up to support the cause, but he was intercepted by the FBI, which apparently had been keeping tabs on him. In his possession were a loaded Colt .45 in a hip holster, and an assault rifle with more than 200 rounds of ammo in his truck. Not only did Huff get arrested, but Fitzpatrick lost his trial and last month ended up being sentenced to six months in jail for his crimes.
Folks like Fitzpatrick and Huff have been on the Secret Service's radar for quite a while, as I reported last year. And they are just one example of why the GOP establishment desperately doesn't want to the party associated with the birthers, as evidenced this week when everyone from former Florida Governor Jeb Bush to Karl Rove to Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour clamored to decry Perry's birther comments. Apparently, even Republican nuttiness has its limits.
Meaning to hard core believers from GOP: The liberals can't accept the truth. So I'm gonna say I'm kidding. You guys (GOP) should understand and follow me.
Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and other 2012 contenders don't think Obama was born in Kenya—they're just saying he's not one of us.
Mitt Romney has tried to be the adult in the 2012 GOP race. He hasn't echoed the extreme rhetoric of other Republican presidential wannabes or that of his party's tea party base. In mid-April—before President Barack Obama eviscerated the birther movement by releasing his longform birth certificate (and ordering the raid that killed Osama bin Laden)—Romney declared he would have none of that birther nonsense: "I think the citizenship test has been passed. I believe the president was born in the United States." Yet the former Massachusetts governor is still playing footsie with a popular conservative meme: Obama's not really one of us.His most recent effort to cast Obama as an outsider didn't draw much media notice. It occurred last week, during Romney's much-watched speech on health care. The political class focused on his refusal to apologize for the health care plan (with mandates!) that he enacted in Massachusetts and for his attempt to bash Obama's health care overhaul, which was similar to Romney's Mass-Care. Overall, the reviews weren't positive. Romney didn't satisfy his right-wing critics. Nor did he put the issue to rest. He will have to explain again—and again and again.
Yet Romney did take the occasion to widen his assault on Obama beyond health care. During his speech, Romney used a PowerPoint presentation. And toward the start, he zeroed in on broader themes. His first slide noted that "the American Experiment" poses a choice—"Government or People?"—and that "'Free Enterprise' propels America to world leadership." Romney's point: Obama's health care initiative was un-American, for it enlarged the federal government's role in the health care system and forced policy upon the states. But Romney went further than debating the details of Obama's reform. The fourth slide made a fierce pronouncement:
The Obama Administration fundamentally does not believe in the American Experiment.That's a rather grand criticism. Romney didn't truly define the "American Experiment." But to many it might seem that the biracial son of a Kenyan and a Kansan, who rose to become the first African American president of the United States, would presumably appreciate such a thing. Yet here was Romney saying that the president doesn't understand the country he governs. (Romney, in another slide, also branded "Obamacare" a "government takeover of health care"—a description that Politifact.org branded 2010's lie of the year.)
Romney was engaging in what can be called otherism, a big cousin to birtherism. Otherism can be more virulent than birtherism (Obama is a secret Muslim socialist!) or more subtle (Hey, this Obama guy just doesn't get America), but the main contention is that somehow he's not a true American. It's not a matter of his birth records, but of his attitude.
Newt Gingrich has helped set a benchmark for otherism. Last year, he opined,
Anti-Obama otherists have wrapped themselves in the flag of American exceptionalism, contending that Obama is different because he doesn't believe that the United States is special and superior to other nations. Last summer, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who at the time was mulling a bid for the GOP's 2012 presidential nomination, told Politico that Obama's "worldview is dramatically different than any president, Republican or Democrat, we've had… He grew up more as a globalist than an American. To deny American exceptionalism is in essence to deny the heart and soul of this nation." (In March, Huckabee, Ã la Gingrich, claimed, wrongly, that Obama had grown up in Kenya and had thus absorbed an anti-colonialist sentiment that prompted him to have a "very different view" of the British than "the average American.") In November, former GOP Sen. Rick Santorum, another 2012 wannabe, told College Republicans at American University, "America is exceptional, and Americans are concerned that there are a group of people in Washington who don't believe that any more."
Romney has toyed with this theme, writing a book entitled, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness. In it, Romney slammed Obama for apologizing for "American misdeeds, both real and imagined." (Romney didn't explain what was wrong with apologizing for real misdeeds.) His bottom-line message: Real Americans don't apologize. And the obvious conclusion is that if Obama does apologize, he's not a you-know-what.
During a speech at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in February, Romney explained further: "I don't apologize for America because I believe in America!" (The exclamation point was in the text of the speech.) The inverse of Romney's logic—if it can be called that—was that Obama doesn't believe in America. Romney didn't state it explicitly, but otherism is all about creating or bolstering this kind of an impression. Romney did say that "under the pressure of a crisis, people turn to what they really believe," and he noted that when the economy hits a crisis, "the president and his fellow liberals turned to Europe for their answers… Theirs is a European-style solution to an American problem. It does not work there, and it will never work here!" (Perhaps Romney should ask GM.)
Birtherism is (was?) fundamentally about delegitimizing Barack Obama—proving him a complete fraud. (It's been hard not to assume there was a racial component to the endeavor.) Yet the birthers, dependent on conspiracy theories, were easily done in by basic facts. Seen as reality-denying extremists, the birthers became a drag upon the GOP; only Donald Trump would embrace them fully—and that hardly turned out well.
Yet otherism continues and thrives. This line of attack is far more in sync with routine political practices. Otherism can be advanced with hints and suggestions. It comes in different guises. It can be gussied up with other questions: Does Obama really believe in America the Experiment, or America the Exceptional? The strategy is to fuel suspicion, not prove a conspiracy. But the goal is the same: to encourage voters to believe Obama is not a real American.
The key audience for otherists, though, is not the general public. Obama, according to the polls, remains popular, even when voters disapprove of his policies or his handling of key matters. But many tea partiers and other conservatives do view Obama as an interloper and harbor deep fears about him and his agenda. GOP presidential contenders and party leaders need to appeal to these sentiments, and some, no doubt, seek to exploit them. Otherism offers a way to do so.
Unlike birtherism, otherism remains quite useful to the Republicans. Not even the adults of the party can resist its ugly temptations.
Meaning to hard core believers from GOP: We can't even tell the truth anymore. Them damn liberals! Well, he's not one of us. [Hint]Newt Gingrich has helped set a benchmark for otherism. Last year, he opined,
What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]? That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior... This is a person who is fundamentally out of touch with how the world works, who happened to have played a wonderful con, as a result of which he is now president.In other words, Obama was more Kenyan than American. Asked about this comment during his disastrous Meet the Press appearance this past Sunday—days after he had announced his presidential bid—Gingrich bobbed and weaved, first noting that "the comment was made in reference to a book" (as if that was mitigation). He then remarked, quite accurately, that "one of the tests on this campaign trail is going to be whether I have the discipline and the judgment to be president. I think that's a perfectly fair question." But Gingrich didn't retract the remark or explain how it was justified.
Anti-Obama otherists have wrapped themselves in the flag of American exceptionalism, contending that Obama is different because he doesn't believe that the United States is special and superior to other nations. Last summer, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who at the time was mulling a bid for the GOP's 2012 presidential nomination, told Politico that Obama's "worldview is dramatically different than any president, Republican or Democrat, we've had… He grew up more as a globalist than an American. To deny American exceptionalism is in essence to deny the heart and soul of this nation." (In March, Huckabee, Ã la Gingrich, claimed, wrongly, that Obama had grown up in Kenya and had thus absorbed an anti-colonialist sentiment that prompted him to have a "very different view" of the British than "the average American.") In November, former GOP Sen. Rick Santorum, another 2012 wannabe, told College Republicans at American University, "America is exceptional, and Americans are concerned that there are a group of people in Washington who don't believe that any more."
Romney has toyed with this theme, writing a book entitled, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness. In it, Romney slammed Obama for apologizing for "American misdeeds, both real and imagined." (Romney didn't explain what was wrong with apologizing for real misdeeds.) His bottom-line message: Real Americans don't apologize. And the obvious conclusion is that if Obama does apologize, he's not a you-know-what.
During a speech at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in February, Romney explained further: "I don't apologize for America because I believe in America!" (The exclamation point was in the text of the speech.) The inverse of Romney's logic—if it can be called that—was that Obama doesn't believe in America. Romney didn't state it explicitly, but otherism is all about creating or bolstering this kind of an impression. Romney did say that "under the pressure of a crisis, people turn to what they really believe," and he noted that when the economy hits a crisis, "the president and his fellow liberals turned to Europe for their answers… Theirs is a European-style solution to an American problem. It does not work there, and it will never work here!" (Perhaps Romney should ask GM.)
Birtherism is (was?) fundamentally about delegitimizing Barack Obama—proving him a complete fraud. (It's been hard not to assume there was a racial component to the endeavor.) Yet the birthers, dependent on conspiracy theories, were easily done in by basic facts. Seen as reality-denying extremists, the birthers became a drag upon the GOP; only Donald Trump would embrace them fully—and that hardly turned out well.
Yet otherism continues and thrives. This line of attack is far more in sync with routine political practices. Otherism can be advanced with hints and suggestions. It comes in different guises. It can be gussied up with other questions: Does Obama really believe in America the Experiment, or America the Exceptional? The strategy is to fuel suspicion, not prove a conspiracy. But the goal is the same: to encourage voters to believe Obama is not a real American.
The key audience for otherists, though, is not the general public. Obama, according to the polls, remains popular, even when voters disapprove of his policies or his handling of key matters. But many tea partiers and other conservatives do view Obama as an interloper and harbor deep fears about him and his agenda. GOP presidential contenders and party leaders need to appeal to these sentiments, and some, no doubt, seek to exploit them. Otherism offers a way to do so.
Unlike birtherism, otherism remains quite useful to the Republicans. Not even the adults of the party can resist its ugly temptations.
4. Texas Birther Rep.: More Study Needed
This morning, in an attempt to end, once-and-for-all, the right-wing conspiracy that he is not eligible for office, President Barack Obama released his long-form birth certificate from the state of Hawaii. "The President believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn't good for the country," the White House said in a statement.But those distractions won't be going away anytime soon. I just got off the phone with Texas GOP State Rep. Leo Berman, sponsor of his state's birther bill, and a vocal proponent of the idea that the President was not born in this country. Berman, who has explained previously that he gets much of his news via "YouTubes," was not aware of the White House's release when I called him up, but his initial reaction more or less set the tone: "I wonder why it took them almost two years to release that? That seems kind of strange."
I sent Berman the White House's statement and a copy of the certificate, and after a few minutes he called back ready to talk. "If this is the true birth certificate, I'm very happy to finally see it," he said. But today's news didn't answer his lingering doubts; if anything, it raised even more questions. Berman was comparing the White House release with another birth certificate he said was from Mombasa, Kenya. "There are two hospitals [in Honolulu] at the time and neither hospital will claim him," Berman said. "Today, if you have a hospital where the president was born they'd probably take the room where he was born and make a shrine out of it." Plus, the Kenyan certificate just seemed more compelling: "When I look at the one from Kenya, there is a British lord who is the clerk for registering all births in Kenya at that time." He added, "The one from Mombasa even has a footprint on it. Like a human footprint."
Berman also raised concerns that the listed address for Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, was false, and that the attendant's signature might be a ruse as well: "The name of the person certifying the doctor, David A. somebody. Looks like S-M-I-L-N or something. Smilin? Where it says the 'signature of attendant.' I wonder if he's still living?" He also suggested that Obama benefited from outside assistance in getting into Columbia—echoing, in part, an allegation made by Donald Trump. "I don't know who paid for it," he explained.
Berman said he has no plans to drop his bill but wasn't optimistic it would become law. "I don't think it's going anywhere," he said. "I don't think our governor wants to cause any disruptions. He wants to go on with the usual campaign issues."
The birther hysteria won't go away because in many ways the birther movement really isn't about the birth certificate. The birth certificate was a sort of gateway drug, but the good stuff, the really good stuff, came much deeper down the WorldNetDaily rabbit hole—Faith2Action's Janet Porter, for instance, trumpeted the idea that President Obama is (or was) a Soviet spy. That would explain, for example, how he got into such good schools despite being, as Donald Trump and Berman have alleged, a total dunce. If you accept the premise that Barack Obama's rise to the top has been aided by nefarious foreign nationals and/or domestic radicals, the matter of a piece of paper from the state of Hawaii really isn't going to change things that much. That's just science.
Meaning to hard core believers from GOP: There is dissent within the party. Some say 'lets just say he's not one of us and leave it at that, OK?' and the other side is saying, 'no, we won't give up telling the truth'.Berman said he has no plans to drop his bill but wasn't optimistic it would become law. "I don't think it's going anywhere," he said. "I don't think our governor wants to cause any disruptions. He wants to go on with the usual campaign issues."
The birther hysteria won't go away because in many ways the birther movement really isn't about the birth certificate. The birth certificate was a sort of gateway drug, but the good stuff, the really good stuff, came much deeper down the WorldNetDaily rabbit hole—Faith2Action's Janet Porter, for instance, trumpeted the idea that President Obama is (or was) a Soviet spy. That would explain, for example, how he got into such good schools despite being, as Donald Trump and Berman have alleged, a total dunce. If you accept the premise that Barack Obama's rise to the top has been aided by nefarious foreign nationals and/or domestic radicals, the matter of a piece of paper from the state of Hawaii really isn't going to change things that much. That's just science.
5. GOP Platform Calls for Nuking What's Left of McCain-Feingold Law
At this time during the last presidential campaign, the Republican Party's campaign finance law opponents were in something of a pickle. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was their nominee; the tough law banning so-called soft money bore his name; and so, during the 2008 election, the GOP platform couldn't take a rhetorical buzzsaw to the laws curbing the flow of campaign cash into elections.There's no such problem for Republicans at the 2012 GOP convention. James Bopp, Jr., an influential lawyer who's made a career out of demolishing campaign finance laws, said in a recent interview with the Indianapolis Star that the GOP's 2012 platform will call for gutting what's left of the McCain-Feingold law—namely, the ban on unlimited, unregulated, soft money given to political parties.
The platform, Bopp suggests, will read like a wish list for haters of campaign finance restriction:
Four years ago, he watched with distaste as his party nominated Sen. John McCain as its presidential nominee. With McCain leading the ticket, Bopp said, "we couldn't write in (the platform) that we opposed McCain-Feingold. And we sure as hell couldn't endorse it, so we didn't say anything about campaign finance."
This time, he said, the platform calls for the repeal of the last vestiges of the McCain-Feingold law and opposes passage of the so-called "Disclose Act" in Congress. It would require advocacy groups making more than $10,000 in campaign-related expenditures to disclose contributors who had donated more than $10,000.
What Democrats call basic good government, Bopp sees as an attempt to stifle advocacy groups by making them report donors for ads that run as far as 18 months before an election.Josh Orton, political director at Progressives United, the nonprofit founded by former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) to fight the influence of corporations in politics, blasted the GOP's campaign finance plank. "McCain-Feingold closed the door on a corrupting system of unlimited money," Orton says. "By advocating its repeal, Republicans are proving that they don't just tolerate corruption in politics, they actually embrace it."
Meaning to hard core believers from GOP: Your fearless leaders are putting all thier wealth into saving yall. Be grateful.
*********
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NOTE:
Former President Bill Clinton DESTROYS The GOP-Republicans & Few Remember!
"People ask me all the time how we got 4 surplus budgets in a row. I always give a one-word answer: Arithmetic" -- Bill Clinton
(Image Taken Of Politifact From Here.)
Clinton, explaining GOP lies on Obama's welfare record: "Nobody ever tells you what really happened. Here's what happened."...
Watch President Clinton Deliver Nomination Address at the DNC
About the Republican's strategy of 'you didn't deliver us from the recession we created fast enough'...
i.e. GOP Policy is like this quote...“Whatever he says, let his inner resolution be not to bear whatever comes to him, but to bear it 'for a reasonable period'--and let the reasonable period be shorter than the trial is likely to last. It need not be much shorter; in attacks on patience, chastity, and fortitude, the fun is to make the man yield just when (had he but known it) relief was almost in sight.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape LettersRead more about the mind set Bill Clinton is referring to here = http://explorer9360.xanga.com/767523106/gods-christian-warriors--the-beginning-of-the-end-for-christianity/
About these new GOP Republicans...
President Clinton: "If you want a you're-on-your-own, winner-take-all society, you should support the Republican ticket."He means this literally and I agree with him. The GOP-Republicans used election fraud with Ron Paul and Mitt Romney's "Bain Capital" has been proven to be "VULTURE CAPITALISM", as Rick Perry called it (i.e. because they destroy companies for profit, occasionally saving a company but mostly not).
[Note for Bill Clinton: I need your help with this = [9-11] The World Trade Center's Cross Has Demolition Cuts On It! It must be from WTC 7!]
Key fact checked out for all of history! ...
President Clinton: "What’s the jobs score? Republicans 24 million, Democrats 42 million!""Since 1961 … our private economy has produced 66 million private-sector jobs. So what's the jobs score? Republicans 24 million, Democrats 42 (million)."
Bill Clinton on Wednesday, September 5th, 2012 in a speech to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.Bill Clinton says Democratic presidents top Republican presidents in job creation
Former President Bill Clinton addresses the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.Are Democratic presidents better than Republican presidents at job creation? Former President Bill Clinton said so -- forcefully -- in his speech to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.
"Since 1961, for 52 years now, the Republicans have held the White House 28 years, the Democrats 24," Clinton said. "In those 52 years, our private economy has produced 66 million private-sector jobs. So what's the jobs score? Republicans 24 million, Democrats 42 (million)." In the packed convention hall, it was one of the night’s biggest applause lines.
In 2010, we checked a similar claim from Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who said that Democratic presidents "have been considerably more effective at creating private-sector jobs." After crunching the numbers back to President Harry Truman, we found that jobs did indeed grow faster under Democratic presidents when adjusted for a president’s years served in office. So we rated the claim True.
Clinton’s claim at the convention was worded differently, so we quickly re-crunched the numbers based on his specifications.
Let’s cut to the chase. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, here are the net increases in private-sector employment under each president, chronologically by party:
Republicans
Richard Nixon: Increase of 7.1 million jobs
Gerald Ford: Increase of 1.3 million jobs
Ronald Reagan: Increase of 14.7 million jobs
George H.W. Bush: Increase of 1.5 million jobs
George W. Bush: Decline of 646,000 jobs
Total: Increase of 23.9 million jobs under Republican presidents
Democrats
John F. Kennedy: Increase of 2.7 million jobs
Lyndon B. Johnson: Increase of 9.5 million jobs
Jimmy Carter: Increase of 9.0 million jobs
Bill Clinton: Increase of 20.8 million jobs
Barack Obama: Increase of 332,000 jobs
Total: Increase of 42.3 million jobs.
So Clinton is right. But we’ll bring up a few points worth noting.
This does not include government jobs
The combination of private-sector jobs and public-sector jobs is a broader measurement of job creation than private-sector alone. But excluding government jobs would presumably hurt Democrats more than Republicans, given the two parties’ historical stances toward the role of government. The fact that Democrats finished so far ahead despite taking government jobs off the table makes it a more impressive accomplishment.
The Democrats didn’t benefit from population growth
For our previous story, Brookings Institution economist Gary Burtless calculated that the U.S. working-age population actually grew slightly faster under Republican presidents, also making the Democratic accomplishment more impressive.
Presidents deserves less credit for the good times and less blame for the bad times
It's a truism of politics that when things go well, the president generally gets too much credit, and when things don't go well, the president usually gets too much blame. Shouldn't the Republican Congress of 1995-2001 get a share of the credit for Clinton's robust job growth? Shouldn't the Democratic House that served under Reagan? Most experts would say yes and yes.
Since we published our previous story, we have changed our policy: We now factor into our ratings whether the politician or party deserves credit or blame for the statistical trend being analyzed. In this item, though, we will not factor in credit or blame, because both parties have had presidents serve during the time we looked at, meaning that both parties would have benefited and suffered in roughly equal proportions.
It’s unclear how much this finding says about our political and economic systems
Job creation for each president depended to a certain extent on timing, external factors and luck. And as Yale political scientist David Mayhew pointed out for our previous story, conclusions drawn from a relatively narrow data set -- in this case, just 12 postwar presidencies -- need to be taken with a grain of salt.
Our ruling
Clinton’s figures check out, and they also mirror the broader results we came up with two years ago. Partisans are free to interpret these findings as they wish, but on the numbers, Clinton’s right. We rate his claim True.
Bill Clinton even got Paul Ryan on his hypocrisy!...
Says U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan attacked the president for "the same amount of Medicare savings that (Ryan) had in his own budget."
Bill Clinton on Wednesday, September 5th, 2012 in a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.
Clinton says Ryan attacked Obama for Medicare cuts reflected in Ryan's own budget
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Former President Bill Clinton addresses the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.Bill Clinton used his nominating address at the Democratic National Convention to respond to the Republican critiques leveled at President Barack Obama during the GOP’s Tampa convention. But there was one attack in particular, he said, that "takes some brass."
"When Congressman (Paul) Ryan looked into that TV camera and attacked President Obama's Medicare savings as, quote, the ‘biggest coldest power play,’ I didn't know whether to laugh or cry," Clinton said in his Sept. 5, 2012, speech in Charlotte, N.C. "Because, that $716 billion is exactly, to the dollar, the same amount of Medicare savings that he had in his own budget.
"You gotta give one thing, it takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did."
Today, Medicare operates as a government-run health insurance plan for Americans over age 65. Ryan, the Republican nominee for vice president, is the head of the House Budget Committee and the architect of a plan to dramatically restructure Medicare. His idea is to eventually move Medicare toward private insurance companies by giving people a set amount to buy their own health insurance plans.
The new system would be for people who are under age 55 now, and it would give them voucher-like credits to buy traditional fee-for-service Medicare or competing private insurance plans. (The credits are sometimes called "premium support.")
The Republican response to attacks on the Ryan plan has been to attack back, saying President Barack Obama has cut "$700 billion" out of Medicare. And the Democratic response to that: Well, Ryan’s plan cuts that amount, too!
For this check, we’re looking at Clinton’s claim that Ryan attacked the president for "the same amount of Medicare savings that (Ryan) had in his own budget."
We recently checked a similar claim from Obama campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter that "Paul Ryan protected those cuts in his budget." We’re applying what we learned to Clinton’s remark.
$700 billion in Medicare cuts?
There are cuts and then there are CUTS. Neither Obama nor his health care law literally "cut" a dollar from the Medicare program’s budget.
Rather, the health care law instituted a number of changes to reduce the growth of Medicare costs. At the time the law was passed, those reductions amounted to $500 billion over the next 10 years. Time’s passage has only boosted that number.
What kind of spending reductions are we talking about? They were mainly aimed at insurance companies and hospitals, not beneficiaries. The law makes significant reductions to Medicare Advantage, a subset of Medicare plans run by private insurers. Medicare Advantage was started under President George W. Bush, and the idea was that competition among the private insurers would reduce costs. But in recent years the plans have actually cost more than traditional Medicare. So the health care law scales back the payments to private insurers.
Hospitals, too, will be paid less if they have too many re-admissions, or if they fail to meet other new benchmarks for patient care.
Still, the overall Medicare budget is projected to go up for the foreseeable future. The health care law tries to limit that growth, making it less than it would have been without the law, but not reducing its overall budget. So claims that Obama would "cut" Medicare need more explanation to be fully accurate. In the past, we’ve rated similar statements Half True or Mostly False, depending on the wording and context.
Because Medicare spending gets bigger every year, the cost-saving mechanisms in the health care law also get bigger. Also, it takes a few years for the health care law’s savings mechanisms to kick in. In fact, the effects of time are the main reason the $500 billion number has turned into $700 billion.
The Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan agency with expert staff that generates projections about how laws affect the federal budget and economy, determined in 2011 that the federal health care law would reduce Medicare outlays by $507 billion between 2012 and 2021. In a more recent estimate released this year, the CBO looked at the years 2013 to 2022 and determined the health care law affected Medicare outlays by $716 billion.
Does the Ryan budget include the same savings as the health care law?
Now onto our second question: Does Ryan’s budget include those same reductions in Medicare spending? The short answer is yes.
Here’s what Ryan said in an interview with George Stephanopolous of ABC News in June, before his selection as Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s running mate:
Stephanopoulos: "You know, several independent fact-checkers have taken a look at that claim, the $500 billion in Medicare cuts, and said that it's misleading. And in fact, by that accounting, your budget, your own budget, which Gov. Romney has endorsed, would also have $500 billion in Medicare cuts."
Ryan: "Well, our budget keeps that money for Medicare to extend its solvency. What Obamacare does is it takes that money from Medicare to spend on Obamacare. ..." (Read the full exchange.)
So Ryan confirmed his budget includes the Medicare savings.
The Romney campaign got questions on this point the day after Cutter’s remarks that "Paul Ryan protected those cuts in his budget," and issued a statement saying that Romney intended to fully repeal the federal law, including the savings for Medicare.
"Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have always been fully committed to repealing Obamacare, ending President Obama’s $716 billion raid on Medicare, and tackling the serious fiscal challenges our country faces," said Lanhee Chen, Romney’s policy director, in a statement reported by NBC News. "A Romney-Ryan administration will restore the funding to Medicare, ensure that no changes are made to the program for those 55 or older, and implement the reforms that they have proposed to strengthen it for future generations."
Cutter, though, was talking about the Ryan budget, as was Clinton. We should point out that the Ryan budget is a congressional resolution that doesn’t have the force of law. And its plan for Medicare hasn’t been turned into legislation that could be analyzed in detail by the CBO.
Still, Ryan himself said his plan did include the same reductions in future spending that were part of the federal health care law. He explained a few days after Cutter’s remarks that it was only because Obama’s reduction "was already in the baseline," the Wall Street Journal reported. "We would never have done it in the first place." The article points out, however, that the budget assumed reversal of other Obama spending decisions.
So it was a choice to leave the reductions in place, likely because both sides agree on one point: Medicare spending is growing too rapidly, and it needs to reined in.
Our ruling
Clinton said that Ryan attacked the president for "the same amount of Medicare savings that (Ryan) had in his own budget." Clinton is correct that the Ryan budget plan included cost savings that were part of the health care law. Just recently, the Romney campaign backed away from that plan, saying Romney’s plan would restore the spending that the health law is set to curtail, such as extra funding for private insurers under the Medicare Advantage plan.
Still, Clinton was right about the Ryan plan. We rate his statement True.
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