August 14, 2012

The Obama Campaign Calls Romney a Hypocrite For Outrage Over Biden Remark

Tired of playing games, the Obama campaign has called out Mitt Romney for his hypocritical outrage over Joe Biden’s in chains remark.

The Obama campaign had a strong response for Mitt Romney’s latest attempt to avoid talking about the issues.

Here is the statement from Obama For America:

For months, Speaker Boehner, Congressman Ryan, and other Republicans have called for the ‘unshackling’ of the private sector from regulations that protect Americans from risky financial deals and other reckless behavior that crashed our economy. Since then, the Vice President has often used a similar metaphor to describe the need to ‘unshackle’ the middle class. Today’s comments were a derivative of those remarks, describing the devastating impact letting Wall Street write its own rules again would have on middle class families. We find the Romney campaign’s outrage over the Vice President’s comments today hypocritical, particularly in light of their own candidate’s stump speech questioning the President’s patriotism. Now, let’s return to that ‘substantive’ debate Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan promised 72 hours ago, but quickly abandoned.

The Romney campaign has been doing their best to gin up outrage over Biden’s, “in chains” remark today. In fact they are trying to get any controversy going that doesn’t involve discussing how Mitt Romney feels about Paul Ryan’s record, Ryan’s budget, Ryan’s stance on Medicare, or Paul Ryan in general.

more: http://www.politicususa.com/obama-campaign-calls-romney-hypocrite-outrage-biden-remark.html

August 14, 2012

Daily Caller Reporter Admits No Evidence For Anti-Holder Claims Highlighted By Article He Wrote BLOG

Daily Caller reporter Matthew Boyle published an article trumpeting a book's inflammatory claim that Attorney General Eric Holder ordered raids against medical marijuana dispensaries in California in order to distract from the failed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Operation Fast and Furious. But during an interview on NRA News last night, Boyle admitted that there was "not really any evidence" to substantiate the claim.

Boyle's article is largely a regurgitation of allegations made in an excerpt released from the forthcoming book Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana - Medical, Recreational and Scientific, authored by Martin A. Lee. In fact, his article is so reliant on Lee's claims that quotations of the author comprise nearly two-thirds of the 708 word piece.

But on Monday, Boyle acknowledged on NRA News that "there is not really any evidence" to support Lee's claims, only "coincidental ... timing." Indeed, Lee's allegation that "The Justice Department green-lit a scorched earth campaign against medicinal cannabis in order to placate law enforcement and control the damage from the Fast and Furious scandal by deflecting attention to other matters" seems to be based solely on the fact that four federal prosecutors in California announced the raids the same day Holder sent a letter to Issa "defending his handling of the Fast and Furious affair."

Boyle has a long history of spurious and false reporting on Operation Fast and Furious. The Daily Caller was accused by Holder last year of ginning up a campaign to oust the Attorney General.

more:http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/08/14/daily-caller-reporter-admits-no-evidence-for-an/189349

August 14, 2012

Rep. Ryan Voted for the Auto Bailout Before He Was Against It

Rep. Paul Ryan, running mate of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, voted in December of 2008 to lend billions to General Motors and Chrysler. His vote puts him at odds with Romney and spotlights the difference in political needs of a sitting congressman versus an out of work governor.

Ryan was one of 32 Republican members of the House of Representatives who voted that year to lend money to the automakers from an already appropriated pot of money for the Department of Energy to make loans to automakers to aid in the development and manufacture of more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Ryan, a fiscal hawk, has said on different occasions that he did not want to see the automakers go bankrupt because, under a traditional bankruptcy, thousands of GM UAW retirees in his district could lose their benefits. Ryan's district includes Janesville, Wis., which was home to a GM plant that shuttered in 2008.

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts who had no skin in the game except for his desire to run for president in 2012, advocated for just such a traditional bankruptcy in 2008 and specifically said the union and retirees should take their lumps with bondholders. In the end, the Obama White House directed a tax-payer financed rescue of the auto industry that committed some $85 billion to reorganize GM and Chrysler, as well as provide liquidity to parts companies and the automaker finance arms. The U.S. Treasury has said that the final bill to taxpayers after the loans to GM and Chrysler has been repaid and when the U.S. sells its remaining 26 percent stake in GM should be about $25 billion.

more; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kiley/paul-ryan-auto-bailout_b_1776576.html

August 14, 2012

Romney goes on offensive on coal in Ohio - he retroactively opposes strong regulations

By Brian Montopoli Topics Campaign 2012
Cardinal Plant, a coal-fired power station near Brilliant, Ohio. (Credit: CBS News/Brian Montopoli) (CBS News) Mitt Romney today will attack President Obama over what Republicans have cast as his "war on coal," arguing, in the words of a campaign spokesman, that the president's "disastrous energy policies" have meant fewer jobs and higher energy costs.
Romney is set to appear outside a coal mine in the Eastern Ohio town of Beallsville, an Appalachian town where coal has long provided an economic lifeline to residents. He plans to argue that, pandering to environmentalists, Mr. Obama has put in place unnecessary regulations that have cost coal jobs. The argument is central to the GOP's attempt to win the crucial swing state.

Last month, CBSNews.com traveled to Steubenville, Ohio - an hour north of Beallsville - to examine the Republican argument. Ohio Republicans say Environmental Protection Agency regulations mandating reduced mercury and other emissions are largely responsible for the closure of six coal-burning power plants in the state. They also note a January 2008 comment by the president that building a coal plant will bankrupt the builder because "they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted." Democrats, citing Mine Safety and Health Administration figures, note in response that coal jobs in Ohio are up 10 percent under Mr. Obama.

There is a clear difference between Romney and Mr. Obama on the issue, though Romney's record has changed over the years. Romney now opposes strong regulation of the coal industry and argues that carbon emissions should not be subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act. As Massachusetts governor, however, he lauded carbon emission limits and at one point stood outside a coal plant and said, "I will not create jobs or hold jobs that kill people, and that plant, that plant kills people." He also backed a regional cap-and-trade system, which would reduce carbon pollution by imposing caps on emissions and allowing companies to buy and sell pollution permits, before backing off of that position.

more:http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57492864-503544/romney-goes-on-offensive-on-coal-in-ohio/

August 14, 2012

Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney and the GOP's push for theocracy

Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney and the GOP's push for theocracy


8:00 a.m. EDT, August 14, 2012

Rep. Paul Ryan made a curious and troubling statement in his roll out as the Republican vice presidential candidate. He said "our rights come from God or nature, not from government." As a member of this government for the last dozen years, I am certain he bases this statement on something.

It is certainly not the Constitution. You know, that document that lays out how this government works. Nowhere in that document is God mentioned. It talks about the separation of church and state in the establishment of religion clause. Perhaps he would refer to the Declaration of Independence. That was a declaration of war against England, not a document of government. It said God has endowed us with certain inalienable rights. The word "certain" is important. It didn't say, endowed us with "every" right. Be that as it may, let's get back to what Mr. Ryan said.

"Our rights come from God, not from government". Really? Did the right to bear arms come from God? No, it is in that document of government called the Constitution. Did the right for African Americans and women to vote come from God? No, it is in the Constitution. If a woman is raped and gets pregnant with that rapist's baby, does the right for that woman to get an abortion come from God? No, it is legal due to a Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutional right to obtain such a procedure. On this one, Mitt Romney supports the resolution that would take away that right. And finally, does the right to avoid paying income taxes in this country by stuffing your money in a Swiss bank account come form God?

more:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-paul-ryan-constitution-letter-20120814,0,7601915.story

August 14, 2012

Police in suburban Chicago probing attack on Islamic school

CHICAGO | Mon Aug 13, 2012 7:06pm EDT
(Reuters) - Police in suburban Chicago on Monday were investigating an attack on an Islamic school that disrupted Sunday night prayers but caused no injuries or damage.

Deputy Chief Pat Rollins of the Lombard Police Department said a soda bottle filled with chemicals was thrown at the College Preparatory School of America, a private Islamic school located about 20 miles west of Chicago, around 11:30 p.m. Sunday night.

The device exploded, causing a loud bang that startled worshippers gathering for Ramadan prayers, but no one was hurt and the school was not damaged, Rollins said.

Even so, Rollins said investigators were "treating this very seriously." He asked anyone with any information about the attack to contact Lombard Police Department.

The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on the FBI to open a hate crime investigation into the attack, the second incident in the Chicago area in recent days.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/13/us-usa-crime-mosque-idUSBRE87C15A20120813

August 13, 2012

Paul Ryan: The Gloves Are Off

Paul Ryan: The Gloves Are Off

This is going to be short, but it's not going to be sweet.

Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate is nothing less than an across the board endorsement of Ryan's radical budget proposal and, in my opinion, constitutes an outright declaration of war against the American people.

Paul Ryan's budget plan is an direct attack upon the American people, upon the indigent, the poor, the mentally ill, the out of work, the disenfranchised.

It's also a declaration of war against the working class, the middle class, and anyone who aspires to becomea member of the shrinking middle class.

Mitt Romney selected Ryan because he knows himself weak among hard right economic voters, the voters who have embraced Ryan's budget proposal in the belief that it will strangle "Washington" because it will.

more:http://open.salon.com/blog/sagemerlin/2012/08/12/paul_ryan_the_gloves_are_off

August 13, 2012

Op-Ed: A view of the 2012 GOP Ticket

Confronting lingering right-wing skepticism about his conservative pedigree, Mitt Romney’s safe and uninspired campaign just took on a much harder edge as he opted for free-market ideologue Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his Vice-Presidential nominee.

Americans will now be able to see, with unequivocal clarity just what the Republican Party has in store for them.

Ryan, along with his head of the GOP ticket are the perfect corporate stooges. Back in 1999 he voted in favor of repealing the Glass–Steagall Act which regulated banking. He wants to keep tax-cuts for the rich and tax-breaks and subsidies for corporations, but not for the average citizen. He represents the end of public education and the expansion of the prison industrial complex. He wants to privatize Social Security by handing it over to risky Wall Street investors.

The Tea Party’s mania surrounding Ryan is the latest example of Republicans with selective amnesia as Ryan was part of Tom Delay’s spend all congress. He voted for all of the Bush’s unfunded budgets and tax cuts for the top one percent of income earners. He voted for their federal intrusion into public education thru the No Child Left Behind act, also without funding. He voted for the massive Bush Medicare Part D expansion. Ryan actually voted with the Bush Administration’s agenda of unprecedented expansion 94% of the time.


Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/330714#ixzz23ScrcOFW

August 13, 2012

Mitt Romney’s constitutional amendment would bar Paul Ryan from the presidency LOL!

Three years ago, Mitt Romney proposed a constitutional amendment that would say “the president has to spend three years working in business before he becomes president of the United States. Then he or she would understand that the policies they are putting into place have to encourage small business to grow.”

As Andrew Kaczsynski notes, that provision would disqualify Paul Ryan, who has spent his life working for the government, first as a congressional staffer and then as a congressman.

To be clear about the point here, I think this reflects how dumb Romney’s proposed constitutional amendment is, not Ryan’s fitness for the presidency. It also reflects Romney’s tendency to take positions strategically without carefully considering their long-term impact. When he made that comment, was it really so difficult for him to imagine naming a vice president without business experience? That would, for instance, disqualify career military men, like Gen. David Petraeus.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/13/mitt-romneys-constitutional-amendment-would-bar-paul-ryan-from-the-presidency/

August 13, 2012

Des Moines Register: Romney’s Welfare Attack False.

Des Moines Register: Romney’s Welfare Attack False


On the same day that VP candidate Paul Ryan plans to attack President Obama for taking the work requirement out of welfare, the editorial board of the Des Moines Register, the state’s largest paper, called the welfare attacks false.

“Everyone agrees Americans collecting ‘cash welfare’ should meet work requirements. And they do,” the editors write. “A recent policy tweak to the program by President Barack Obama’s administration does not undermine that. Yet Mitt Romney can’t pass up this one.”

It continues:

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee wants voters to conjure images in their minds of freeloading moms sitting on couches watching big screen televisions. And he wants voters to think the president is helping them do just that.

Then there is reality.

Only about 15,000 Iowans actually receive a meager monthly check from Uncle Sam. Collecting an average of $334 a month for less than two years probably is not covering utilities and school clothes, let alone putting anyone on Easy Street. Requirements are so stringent, the program that once served more than 14 million Americans now helps only about 4 million.

more: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/iowa-paper-calls-romney-welfare-attack-false