POLITICO Magazine: Jesse Rifkin- ‘Paul Ryan and The Long History of Political Beards’

Source: POLITICO Magazine– Speaker of The House Paul Ryan (Republican, Wisconsin)

Source:The Daily Review 

“Speaker Paul Ryan has only served as Speaker of the House for barely more than a month, but he is already revolutionizing the position in a manner unseen for nearly a century: by growing a beard. Ryan’s facial hair makes him the first speaker to do so since Frederick Gillett in the 1920s.

Above, Paul Ryan and his new beard—or, as some have objected, “scruff”—were all over social media this past week after he posted a picture of the new facial hair paired with a question directed at the U.S. House History Account: “Hey, @USHouseHistory, when was the last time a Speaker of the House sported a beard?”

From POLITICO Magazine

“James Corden take a hard-hitting look at Paul Ryan’s decision to report to work with a beard before paying homage to the hunters heading to Michigan for stripper season.”

Source:The Late, Late Show With James Corden– James Corden, talking about Speaker Paul Ryan’s beard.

From The Late, Late Show With James Corden

When I first saw new Speaker of The House Paul Ryan and his new beard I guess a week ago, I thought: “Great, here’s another political faker wannabe. Someone who wants to fit in with the Millennial hipsters. (Or whoever else) And will follow whatever the current cool fad is.” To be honest with you, I doubt he’s still wearing that beard a month from now. Sure! It will keep his face warm when he goes back to freezing Wisconsin and perhaps help him get through another disappointing Green Bay Packers playoff loss.

But he’s got to deal with both Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and to a certain extent House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, when he needs to him to bail him out on things like getting votes on things that the House Tea Party doesn’t believe in. Like paying for government. (To use as an example) And paying our debts, which is really what the debt ceiling is about. Officially acknowledging that you have a government debt. He’s got to deal with people who are never afraid to crack a joke. Especially when they know that person can’t hurt them or fire them.

All of these leader’s all have quick-wits and sense of humors and he’s friendly with all of them. which could kill him with the Tea Party. The next handshake with President Obama, could cost Speaker Ryan his speakership. Senator Robert Bennet, who at the time at least was one of the most conservative members of Congress, lost his Senate seat in a Republican primary in 2010. Because he was caught shaking hands with Democratic Senator Ron Wyden. They’re all going to take shots at his beard, at least in private. And with Mitch McConnell, those shots might actually come from a gun. He’s from Guntucky after all.

I believe one of the things that Paul Ryan has going for him is that he comes off as real and as someone who Joe and Mary Average can relate to. He comes from a Midwestern Irish-Catholic background, who needed student loans to get through college. Whose had a government job most of his working life. This is not someone who comes off as being better than everyone else who feels he has something to prove. He’s someone who has worked very hard to get where he is, because he’s had too.

Unlike, gee I don’t know, just throwing out a name here, but try George W. Bush. (Just to use as an example) And the Speaker’s beard to me as it does for a lot of guys who aren’t lumberjacks, or rednecks, or bikers, or cowboys, headbangers, football players, it just looks phony to me. And someone who looks like they want to be someone else. Paul Ryan, should be Paul Ryan. A very bright Irish-Catholic guy from Wisconsin whose gotten to the highest point in Congress by being Paul Ryan. Not by trying to convince people he’s someone other than Paul Ryan.

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Chiu Na-Ying: Video: HBO’s The Newsroom: Debt Ceiling Debate

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This post was originally posted at The New Democrat on WordPress

I swear that and I probably believed this when, but in early 2011 when House Republicans just took control of the House of Representatives, that their so-called Tea Party Caucus didn’t know a damn thing about economics. At least fiscal policy, like the national debt and deficit. There’s a good reason why America has never defaulted on our debt and never needed to the International Monetary Fund to manage our government’s financial books. We’ve always had a Democratic Party and Republican Party at least at the leadership level that was smart enough never to risk that.

We don’t know if defaulting on our debt would’ve crashed the economy. But why do we know that, because we’ve never risked that before. The 2010 ten mid-term elections completely changed that. In comes the Tea Party Republicans who the only thing they know about economics is what anarcho-libertarians have told them. Who’ve never run anything at least as it relates to government. Who get these wild ideas that lifting the debt ceiling only means you approve of the national debt and don’t see it as a problem. And are giving Congress and the administration now and into the future permission to borrow and spend more.

The fact all that raising the debt ceiling does is pay the current bills. Our current interest on the debt and allows for the U.S. Government to buy time to pay down its debt with future deficit reduction agreements and economic growth. It is like making it official with a bank what you owe on the loan. So both sides know where they stand. The individual or group knows how much the owe and the bank knows how much they are entitled to. It doesn’t give them permission to add to their debt and put more money on the credit card. The Tea Party still doesn’t get that by in large.

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The Young Turks: Cenk Uygur: ‘President Obama Sets Bear Trap, Republicans Walk Right Into It’

Source:FOX News– Fox News, talking about President Barack Obama.

Source:The New Democrat

“Following President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, where he called on Congress to end discriminatory workplace practices that “belong in a Mad Men episode” Fox News host Martha MacCallum proclaimed on the program American’s Newsroom that women did not want special laws ensuring equal for equal work because they already were compensated “exactly what they’re worth.” On the Fox program, two men, liberal radio host Alan Colmes and Fox News host Tucker Carlson, debated equal pay for women. Carlson assertedthat women actually made more than men if the time they “voluntarily” took off work to raise children was factored in. “The numbers don’t lie,” he insisted…”.* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.”

From The Young Turks

The current Republican governing policy is, “if Democrats are for it, we are against it, even if we are for it, or were once in favor of it”. And even offered it in health care reform a perfect example of that where the Affordable Care Act actually has a lot of good conservative ideas like the health care mandate and the health care market place in it. Which is the main reason why there hasn’t been much compromise in Congress between the House and Senate because when Democrats say okay we’ll agree to that, the House GOP just moves the ball further to get more compromises.

Then instead of Republicans saying okay let’s do that, Republicans just move the ball and say well, “if Democrats are willing to give us this, we can get them to give us this as well and hold off on a deal”. The deficit reduction negotiations are a perfect example of this where Democrats have put entitlement reform on the table and what Republicans is do is to say well, “if they will do that, then they’ll take exactly what type of entitlement reform we are interested in”. Like cutting Social Security benefits to future retirees or cutting benefits to current beneficiaries.

The only goal Republicans have right now is absolute power. And to accomplish this, they need to hold onto the House and 2014 and retake the Senate in 2014. To give them a united Republican Congress and to win back the White House in 2016 as well. While hanging onto Congress and the hard right partisan Republicans in the House and Senate have one clear strategy. “If Democrats are for it, it must be a bad idea even if it is our idea. So we are only going to put policies that are as far to the right as possible to get our partisan right-wing base behind us to avoid primary challenges”.

Which leaves us with gridlock when you have the Republican Leadership saying no to anything that the Democratic Leadership especially in the Senate and White House say yes to. Because now Democrats are in a position where they are only negotiating with themselves. Trying to find more moderate members in Congress to go along with some of these more conservative ideas in broader packages, while not losing any of their more, well lets say progressive members. Instead of negotiating with their own caucus’ in the House and Senate, along with Congressional Republicans.

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Real Time With Bill Maher: Debating The 2nd Amendment

Source:GOP Oversight– U.S. Representative Darrell Issa (Republican, California) on Real Time With Bill Maher.

Source:FreeState MD

“Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) stood up for your constitutionally protected Second Amendment right to bear arms on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.”

From Real Time With Bill Maher

My main point to and response to Representative Darrell Issa and MSNBC host Alex Wagner is both a personal, as well as philosophical argument: anyone who believes any amendment in the U.S. Constitution is absolute, is not a constitutionalist. And anyone who would either throw out the current U.S. Constitution or completely rewrite it and move America towards some type of social democratic government or some type of socialist state, is obviously not a constitutionalist either.

Comedian Bill Engvall who is about as redneck and Tea Party populist as anyone can be (if you don’t believe me, just ask him or watch his comedy routine) had the best point about the 2nd Amendment during this clip when he said that he believes in the right to self-defense and wants the ability to defend himself and his family. But there should be some real limit to how many guns that any American should be allowed to own and what types of guns that Americans should be allowed to own. Which to put it simply: he believes in commonsense gun control. The redneck standing up for the U.S. Constitution.

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The Daily Beast: ‘Michele Bachmann’s Most Outrageous Comments’

Source:The Daily Beast– former U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann. (Republican, Minnesota) The only public service that Michele Bachmann ever did was not running for reelection. She did Minnesota a big favor there.

Source:FreeState MD

“Never one to shy away from a tendentious (or just blatantly false) statement, the Tea Party Congresswoman has witnessed her fair share of controversy. From virulent anti-gay sentiment to borderline McCarthyism, watch Bachmann’s worst.”

From The Daily Beast

Some people may think George W. Bush is the Democratic Party’s favorite punching bag. But the fact is President Bush has been out of office for over four years now (thank God) and he’s looking pretty good compared with today’s GOP.

This is a little difficult for me because that’s like coming up with best plays that Larry Bird ever made playing basketball. Or the best passes that Joe Montana ever thrown, or the best home runs that Hank Aron ever hit and so-fourth. Also I don’t live in Representative Bachmann’s House district or state, thank God, otherwise I would’ve moved or been kicked out of there, whatever came first. And I’m not in Congress myself so what I hear about her is from the national media or from blogs. But I can limit it two or three as someone who follows politics closely and has big annoyance when it comes to political hypocrisy and contradiction.

When Representative Bachmann announced for President in the summer of 2011, as I and every other blogger and comedian were celebrating about all the new material that was going to come our way free of charge and at her expense coming from Michele herself, she announced she was in favor of two constitutional amendments. One was to outlaw pornography and the other was to outlaw same- sex marriage both at the federal level. Keep in mind this coming from someone who calls herself a constitutional conservative. Also keep in mind this coming from someone who knows as much about conservatism and the U.S. Constitution as a fish knows about Wall Street.

During Representative Bachmann’s four month presidential campaign she also came out against big government. Well, that makes sense because that’s an issue she knows a lot of about with all of her positions in support of big government. Michele has a habit of bashing things she’s in love with, well, take big government to use as an example. And claiming to love and support things that she says she loves. Take well the U.S. Constitution to use as an example.

What if I were a Republican today, first of all I would ask myself why am I a Republican today and if I could answer that question and I was still a Republican, I would want George W. Bush back leading the party. And prey that he learned something from all of his dumb mistakes as President and didn’t repeat them. Because GWB looks like a God compared with today’s Republican Party and Michele Bachmann represents the intelligence and information gap in the Republican Party. And why they can’t win elections they are supposed to win easily going in.

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ABC Evening News: ‘March 1972, Campaign News’

Source:ABC News– anchor Howard K. Smith.

Source:The Daily Journal

“In this rare clip, One of Nixon’s primary challengers drop out, the Republican accuse AT&T of not making the Democrats pay phone bills, African Americans have their own convention Jesse Jackson makes an apprentice, also news on Northern Ireland.”

From E-Fan

One way to sum up the 1972 Democratic presidential primaries, is to say it went to the guy who was damaged the least and not to the best candidate. Because there was really never any real danger to President Nixon losing reelection. But about how big of victory he would get and what he would do with it.

The Democratic race for president between Senator’s George McGovern, Ed Muskie, Hubert Humphrey and others, was great TV and very interesting. And a very good look inside of the Democratic Party was between its establishment Center-Left, that Senator Muskie and Senator Humphrey represented and the more social democratic New-Left that Senator McGovern represented in 1972.

The story about the Black Panthers (a New-Left socialist and communist group interested in the state of the African-American community) was interesting. They were in and outside of the Democratic Party back then and much further left of the NAACP which is more of a progressive Center-Left civil rights organization who are definitely tied to the Democratic Party as their supporters are.

The word militant is perfect for the Black Panthers, because that is what they were. And at the very least were linked and associated with known terrorists and criminals. And were accused of being part of terrorists acts in the 1970s. They were looking for a much more radical direction for the African-American community than the NAACP.

Apparently big business’s and other special interests on the Democratic Party and Republican Party was also a big issue in 1972. Of course it was which is why I still don’t know why Congress has never passed a full-disclosure law on all federal candidates and incumbents. Actually I do, because neither Democrats, or Republicans want to disclose who contributes to their campaigns. Because a lot of those contributors are controversial and Democrats and Republicans don’t want to officially be associated with groups like that. But that along with ending gerrymandering completely is the only way you weed out corruption in American politics. Because of how liberal our First Amendment is.

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The Daily Beast: John Avlon, Meghan McCain & Mike Moynahan- ‘Real Housewives of the CIA’

Source:The Daily Beast– John Avlon, Meghan McCain & Mike Moynihan.

Source:The Daily Journal

“As new details emerge about Gen. David Petraeus’ affair with Paula Broadwell, Meghan McCain, Michael Moynihan, and John Avlon debate the scandal’s potential repercussions, on today’s NewsBeast.”

From The Daily Beast

Sounds like a real reality TV show in the works, perhaps Meghan McCain will produce it. You heard that here first. As far as David Petraeus and his sex scandal, I guess this is the clincher that American politics and government is never boring and why we have a political junky industry. And for so-called Progressives today ( I’m being too nice with the word Progressives ) I guess who believe that America should be more like France, well we are when it comes to our public officials and how they live their personal lives.

Political junky, is no longer just a hobby for unemployed politicians who can’t seem to win another public office and keep losing. And spend all of their free time, which is really all of their time, especially if they have a Congressional pension, watching C-SPAN, CNN, MSNBC and FNC. But a way for writers and pundits to make their living. To tell Americans how much they don’t know about American politics and government.

As far as Benghazi, if it wasn’t for that story, what would House Republicans do? At least some of them like Speaker John Boehner, are smart enough to know they can’t repeal ObamaCare in this Congress with a Democratic Senate and Democratic President, that the law is named after. Most of them probably never have any attention of leaving Congress, at least the House of Representatives. So they don’t want to work with Senate Democrats to pass anything constructive that President Obama might actually sign. And risk being primaried and having to go home and work for a living. Like washing cars, or hosting radio talk shows, teaching gym in high school, or whatever they were doing in 2009 before they decided to run for the House. So all they have left in their one page playbook that a five-year could read is a bogus (to be too nice) Benghazi investigation.

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Bill Maher: ‘My New Rule for Todd Akin and the Republican Party’

 

Source:Huffington Post– Real Time With Bill Maher.

Source:The Daily Journal

“Republicans would like to pretend like Congressman Akin’s substitution of superstition for science is a lone problem but it’s not: they’re all magical thinkers, on nearly every issue. 

New Rule: If your entire party tries to get rid of you, and you stay in, you can’t talk about how easy it is for a woman to push a stupid prick out of her body.

I don’t want to waste another second thinking about Todd Akin, and his theory that you can’t get pregnant unless your eggs are asking for it. Here’s the only thing you need to know about Todd Akin and human anatomy: he’s an asshole. What I want to talk about is how it’s not a coincidence that the party of fundamentalism is also the party of fantasy. When I say religion is a mental illness, this is what I mean: it corrodes your mental faculties to the point where you can believe in tiny ninja warriors who hide in vaginas and lie in wait for bad people’s sperm.” 

From the Huffington Post 

I think to understand Todd Akin you have to understand the Missouri U.S. Senate race between Senator Claire McCaskill and Representative Todd Akin. Representative Akin, probably represents a very rural, redneck even heavily Protestant district, where his positions on rape and abortion are not just mainstream, but perhaps considered expected.

The problem that Representative Akin is that even if part of Missouri looks like South Carolina and the capital of the Bible Belt, Missouri is essentially a swing state. Where you can’t be very far-right and can’t be far-left at all and expect to win statewide there. Representative Akin, might be able to get away with saying that women shouldn’t be allowed by law to wear tight outfits in public and work out of the home in his district, but not statewide.

The Todd Akin’s of the Republican Party represent not just the Bible Belt in Congress and in America, but the Saudi wing of Congress and America as well. A population of the country that might like bashing Islāmic terrorism and claim to be against it. But endorse a country like Saudi Arabia’s policies when it comes to social policy and women’s issues. Where women on a good day might be second-class citizens in their own country, but generally are treated as property of their men. They can’t even decide how to dress themselves in public, can’t drive a car, risk getting the death penalty if they cheat on their spouses, or boyfriends and I could go on, but I don’t want to be accused of sending anyone into a depression. That is the lifestyle and how the Christian-Right wants to see for American women in the land of the free. And that is where Todd Akin comes from.

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Russia Today: The Alyona Show- Michele Bachmann Wants To Ban Porn’

Source:Russia Today– Alyona Minkovski on Representative Michele Bachmann. I guess President Vladimir Putin doesn’t like Representative Bachmann either.

“RT (formerly Russia Today) is a Russian state-controlled[1] international television network funded by the federal tax budget of the Russian government.[15][16] It operates pay television channels directed to audiences outside of Russia, as well as providing Internet content in English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, and Russian.

RT is a brand of TV-Novosti, an “autonomous non-profit organization” founded by the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti in April 2005.[10][17] During the economic crisis in December 2008, the Russian government, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, included ANO “TV-Novosti” on its list of core organizations of strategic importance to Russia.[18][19][20] RT operates as a multilingual service with channels in five languages: the original English-language channel was launched in 2005, the Arabic-language channel in 2007, Spanish in 2009, German in 2014 and French in 2017. RT America (since 2010),[21] RT UK (since 2014) and other regional channels also produce local content. RT is the parent company of the Ruptly video agency,[5][6][7] which owns the Redfish video channel and the Maffick digital media company.[8][9]

RT has been described as a major propaganda outlet for the Russian government and its foreign policy.[2] Academics, fact-checkers, and news reporters (including some current and former RT reporters) have identified RT as a purveyor of disinformation[42] and conspiracy theories.[48] UK media regulator Ofcom has repeatedly found RT to have breached its rules on impartiality, including multiple instances in which RT broadcast “materially misleading” content.[55] RT’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan compared the channel to the Ministry of Defence and stated that it was “waging an information war, and with the entire Western world”.[16][56] In September 2017, RT America was ordered to register as a “foreign agent” with the United States Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.[57] RT has been banned in Ukraine since 2014,[58] and in Latvia[59] and Lithuania[60] since 2020.”

From Wikipedia

“Michele is the first 2012 Presidential Candidate to sign the “The Marriage Vow: a Declaration of Dependence upon Marriage and Family.” In it there are several issues when it comes to protecting the Institute of Marriage, you must always be against same sex marriage. And no one is for sexual abuse or slavery, or forced anything. But she’s for total banning of porn?! All forms of it?! Take a look.”

From The Alyona Show

In other Onion worthy news, I actually agree with the Alyona Minkovski on something. Which tells me, it’s time for another head examination. I generally only listen to Alyona to see what Far-Left conspiracy theorists are up to. And if there’s anything I can do to help them. Suggest certain medicine, a good shrink, perhaps a mental institution.

But from time to time (about as often as oceans are dry and Lindsay Lohan is sober) the Alyona produces a good story that’s actually worth listening to and watching (and not just for entertainment value) and should be taken seriously. Actually, I tend to like and respect Alyona. It’s her politics where we tend to differ.

Back in July when Michelle Bachmann (perhaps better known as the Iron Lady at her mental Hospital)  made pornography and same-sex marriage her key issues. That is what happens when she is off her medicine.

Hopefully Michele is back now getting the help she badly needs at her institution. And perhaps she is now running for President and away inside her mental hospital, where she’s a resident. But during her time (as an escaped mental patient) she and Rick Santorum took the same pledge, to outlaw pornography. If the Pope were to convert to Islam and Ron Paul were to declare himself now as a Socialist and only then would Michele or Rick might have an ice balls chance in hell of winning the presidency.

Michele and Rick both argued over who singed the pledge first to outlaw pornography and same-sex marriage and return America to the 1950s. Michele Bachmann finally won the debate, by saying: “Ha! I Singed it first” Nanny nanny boo boo stick your head in dog doo.” How you come back from that? This is the state of the Republican Party right now. This is what you have to do to be nominated for president there.

These are the issues that drive the modern Republican Party right now, like cabbies drive car: Yeah, we might have 8.5% unemployment, a 15T$ national debt and budget deficit approaching 2T$ and rising costs of living, but it’s your positions on these that are the issues that only 10% of the country cares about, that the Far-Right of the Republican Party cares about.

The Far-Right-Wing of the Republican Party, a small percentage of the country at large, but big enough that the Republicans still needs them to win, because of their inability to bring voters from outside of this small community into the party. These issues won’t put anyone back to work, except for people who fight against these things like on the Christian-Right, but lay off more people or put more people in prison that currently work in the adult entertainment industry. And Republicans will just drive up our national debt and put more people out of work in the process.

You can also see this post at FreeState MD, on Blogger.

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C-SPAN: Washington Journal With Susan Swain- Christopher Hitchens & Tom Davis (1996)

Source:CSPAN– British writer, columnist, author, political satirist Christopher Hitchens.

Source:FreeState MD 

“Hosted by Susan Swain. Rep. Thomas Davis and Mr. Hitchens talked about current issues including the re-election of President Yeltsin and issues pertinent to the Clinton and Dole campaigns. Credit to:CSPAN.”

From CSPAN

To put it simply: the best way to help poor people move to the middle class and become self-sufficient and not need public assistance for their daily survival, is to give them temporary financial assistance and child care, so they can survive in the short-term, yes, but to move them out of poverty, they need education to give them an opportunity to get their GED or go back to high school, as well as go to college like a technical school, so they can get the education and skills that they need, so they can get a good job to support themselves and their family’s. And then finally job placement, help them find a good job that they are qualified for. So they can support themselves and their family’s on their own and no longer need public assistance.

Along with deficit reduction and balancing the Federal budget, Welfare reform of 1996, is President Bill Clinton’s biggest achievement. It moved millions of people who would probably still be on Welfare Insurance today or working multiple minimum wage jobs just to barely survive today.

Had it not been for the 1996 Welfare To Work Law, millions of people who were on Welfare Insurance twenty years ago, now have good jobs today and some of them even own their own business’s or manage a business.

Then Governor Bill Clinton who made Welfare reform a big part of his 1992 presidential campaign, didn’t make a big push to pass a bill out of Congress his first two years. When he had a Democratic Congress, including a forty-seat majority in the House.

Even though President Clinton had good ideas on Welfare reform, like education, job placement, and child care, so these single parents could leave the home to go to school or look for work, his calculation was probably that he would never get the votes at least in the House, because the Far-Left flank in the Democratic Party there would never go along with a bill that had time limits for Welfare deficit reduction, the crime bill, Family Medical Leave and of course the nightmarish debacle of health care reform. All things he passed in his first two years except for health care reform.

It took a Republican Congress for President Clinton to finally incorporate his ideas as well as Republican ideas to make it law. And it was by far the best legislation that a Republican Congress in modern times has ever passed.

What we tried in the 1930s and 1960s with anti-poverty programs, where you essentially just give low-income low-skilled people money and expect nothing from them, that the “cycle of poverty” would just go away on its own, clearly did not work.

Sixty-years later poverty was still a big problem in America which is why it was reformed. But in the 1990s we finally saw record reductions in poverty down to as low as 13%. One of those reasons being the economic expansion of that decade. But if you’re low-income and low-skilled, you won’t see the benefits of any economic expansion. Which is a big reason why Welfare reform was so important, because it empowered low-skilled people to get the skills that they need to get themselves out of poverty and into the middle class.

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