Romney Suggests Good Paying Jobs Are a Measure Of Compassion

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We should measure compassion by how many people are able to get off welfare and get a good paying job." -- Mitt Romney, campaign ad

Is that so?

In my America, getting a job is not a measure of compassion. If it is, Romney implies that workers, blue collar or white, owe our employers much more than the time and labor we do in exchange for a paycheck.

In my America, getting a good paying job is something we train for, qualify for and earn out of respect for our education or experience. Getting a job is definitely a good thing and getting a GOOD paying job is the American Dream. It's opportunity driven by ambition and acquired through good ol' free enterprise. I also don't think my fellow Americans would want their jobs to be granted to them by an employer from out of compassion (such as to get off welfare), or the paycheck we've earned to be viewed as a form of charity. Again, if it is, only someone who views workers as moochers and parasites would expect to be honored as compassionate for paying good wages since it's obviously more than they deserve. Someone like Mitt Romney.

Watch it:



In a new ad narrated with those same Randian codes, Paul Ryan bloviates about a fictional government-controlled society and fabricates a false urgency that "if we act now, we can get this right." What in the world is he talking about? I've said this before. Ryan is living inside Atlas Shrugged and is trying to project our reality into Rand's personal fictional nightmare. Just because he's up front about it doesn't mean he's not certifiable nuts.

The Democurmudgeon takes aim at the Ryan ad. Check it out here.

Government Plays Huge Role In Janesville's Comeback

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Contrary to the Randian machinations of native son Paul Ryan, his hometown of Janesville is finding most of it's economic success through government interaction and for lack of a better word - coercion.

NPR Excerpt:
(Titled: Ryan's hometown and the route back to prosperity)

Janesville is making the same slow recovery that's typical elsewhere. City manager Eric Levitt said the city has added 1,000 jobs in the past 18 months, usually 50-to-100 at a time at existing employers. To foster that comeback, the city hasn't picked the Republican or the Democratic approach, but is using elements of both.

From the GOP: Streamlined permitting and tax cuts have aided in recruitment of new companies, including a medical technology company attracted by a tax break that could be worth as much as $9 million. The manufacturer of isotopes expects to open a new $24 million facility and employ 160 people in high-wage jobs by 2016.

From Democrats: Federal money for retraining assistance is filling classrooms at local vocational schools and colleges. At Blackhawk Technical College, welding programs that run from dawn until midnight six days a week are packed. That's helping address what city officials see as their biggest challenge: a mismatch between companies' expectations and the skills of those looking for work.

I can't imagine Janesville's city manager Eric Levitt (employee, non-elective office) would step any further into this political minefield.

This however weaves nicely with my earlier post referring to Janesville as Juliaville. There's not much to argue with except I find it odd how the writer(s) split the strategy into republican and democrat programs when in truth, both growth plans for Janesville's private sector rely heavily on the helping hand and collective power of government. It is this entire concept of government and the role it plays in society that Rep. Paul Ryan wants to bring to a halt. But keep this in mind - in fiction only.

But a paradox emerges when the story's writer aligns the collectivist power of government with the republican side, and individual empowerment through education for the democrat's strategy. That alignment is absolutely accurate, but it is also the exact opposite from the popular meme distributed by homeboy Paul Ryan and his Tea Party adherents. They claim it is Obama and democrats (particularly progressives) who are stifling growth by using the power of collectivism to expand the role of government into the free markets - thereby picking winners and losers in industry and creating uncompetitive advantages. Conversely, Ryan also tries to stake claim in supporting the empowerment of individuals in order to become productive members of society, when in reality that concept is owned and practiced by democratic progressives. Almost as the writer describes.

Sadly, it is Paul Ryan who seems to be living inside the novel Atlas Shrugged, while his hometown of Janesville has to struggle with growth concepts based in reality.

Having Some Fun With Time and Their "Prophet"

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After I read the first page of Time Magazine's The Prophet, I had to scroll back up to make sure it was Time magazine and not some beta version of a Web based Mad magazine, in no disrespect to Mad magazine.

First thing I thought was, where in the world did they get their information from? The editorial staff of Ryan's hometown Janesville Gazette? The rest of the fluff and fill appears to be regurgitated generalizations from Ryan's public resume and GOP party talking points. God help us. There was no mention of Ryan's rubber stamping of $6 trillion in national deficits during the Bush era. No mention of spending billions on wars without paying for them. No mention of Ryan wanting tax cuts to lessen projected surpluses and no mention of wanting tax cuts to lessen projected deficits. And, the big kahuna of them all, no mention of Ryan's inspiration and reason to enter public office in the first place - Ayn Rand. I guess that's all too negative. His history that is.

Before reading Time's article, I left open the chance that there might be some redeeming quality about Paul Ryan. You know, that somehow they could articulate that possibility in their summary when choosing him among runner-ups in their highly pretentious "Person of the Year" gimmick. But after reading their summary, I now have to wonder whether they were paid a commission to rank him and write the profile because afterall, we are now in an era of corporate media and Ryan does have some big name billionaires in his contribution corner who will do anything to protect their interests.

So lets get this off the ground, it begins...

Time Excerpt:
Here's a curious fact: in a year of political gridlock, when Congress could get nothing done — not even pass a budget — the most influential American politician was House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan.

Let's revisit that curious fact. That during a time of political gridlock when Congress could get nothing done, Paul Ryan was the most influential politician. See any correlation there? You think by chance he had something to do with it all? By chance? Hey, no argument here but, why not give him the "gridlocker" of the year award instead?

Time then brings up when Newt Gingrich denounced Ryan's proposal as "right-wing social engineering."

But it was Ryan who watched with satisfaction as his fellow Republicans forced Gingrich to eat his words...

Is that how Ryan felt? A very strange statement indeed.

But this is a hot topic right now. We all know what happened after they made Gingrich eat his words. Soon afterwards, Gingrich's popularity began to steadily climb and looked almost unbeatable ...until they all caught on and ditched Ryan from the topics of the GOP presidential debates.

I might be the only political blogger (forgive me if I'm wrong) who linked Newt Gingrich's ascent to GOP presidential front-runner status when GOP skeletons like bluster-pus John Sununu (former New Hampshire Gov) came out of the crypt defending Ryan against Gingrich over the "Right-wing social engineering" comment. I surmised that if they continue to use Ryan's toxic proposals on the national stage to draw a contrast against Gingrich, Newtie would probably capture 50% of the GOP support base and become unstoppable in the GOP primary. I was right, but they also caught on.

Some bloggers on the Left and Right confidently insisted Romney didn’t make Gingrich’s "mistake." Instead, Romney wholeheartedly embraced Ryan’s plan ...only to find his polling numbers plummet. The fact is, Paul Ryan and his proposals are so politically toxic that they had to eventually ditch him to defend him. Ryan too saw the handwriting on the wall and found himself cravenly scrambling to "Newter" his Kill Medicare proposal to provide political cover for himself and his duped party members.

Soon after the republican party dropped Ryan and his Kill Medicare proposal from the national GOP debates, the obvious happened next. Establishment webloids like Politico giddily started writing Gingrich's obituary. Hey, it's the end of Newt-mentum! Other GOP presidential contenders caught on quickly about the negative effects of the Ryan factor and went through detox immediately. Suddenly, they all want to focus on their one common enemy - Barack Obama. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

Just two days ago, this USA Today article described how GOP criticism of Gingrich continues to mount. However, it's also very telling that in their attacks against him, Ryan's name and his GOP cornerstone proposals are not mentioned even once.

But now, Paul "progressives are a cancer" Ryan has enlisted Democratic Senator Ron Wyden among his victims in an effort to stop the free fall. Think. If Ryan's original budget plan is so good and the cornerstone of Republican policy, why would he suddenly want to change it? Why hide all that award winning success? It's the Holy Grail, right? But why wasn't Romney the front-runner soon after embracing it? My other point here is these establishment politicos and MSM outlets (phony non-partisans) seriously believe Ryan's ideological class war budget proposal will be the political conversation of the 2012 presidential debates. It's still possible, but NOT if Paul Ryan can help it.

Ryan's strange pariah-like popularity is now in free fall, and with a serious democratic contender challenging him on the district home front, he is running in fear and twisting in the winds to remain on the government dole. Don't forget that he's got billionaires seeking their salvation behind him, so the only thing left for him to do is draw in sympathetic democratic dupes to help form a bi-partisan support group for the GOP's cornerstone legislation, proposals that even top GOP presidential candidates had to ditch in order to save. Sen. Ron Wyden should be ashamed of himself for participating in Ryan's senior baiting Medicare killing phony make-over.

Time Excerpt:
What Ryan had this year was the courage to look the future in the eye. It is a seer's work to glimpse around the corner and sound an alarm. And in a democratic republic, it is the job of voters to choose a path away from danger. Ryan would say that all he has done is sound the alarm.

Did Ryan sound the alarm? Let's turn to 2008 when he first introduced his right-wing engineered class war proposal "Roadmap for America's Future." In August of that year, Ryan took questions at an African American Community forum held in Racine, Wisconsin, and in the middle of the forum, he was asked about Racine’s economy. The congressman said he thought the economy will remain in trouble, but that the answer goes back to fuel. He suggested lowering gas prices and reducing inflation as ways to fix the country’s apparent recession. Again, this forecast from The Prophet Paul came just one month before the housing market crashed and Wall Street imploded. He was clueless, partisan and pandering, just like he is today.

Time Excerpt:
He brought an ugly issue out of the foggy realm of think tanks and blue-ribbon panels and dropped it into the middle of the national debate in time to define the next presidential election.

Great. So it was Ryan who courageously brought it out, ...to define the next presidential election. Are you sure?

"I don't think there's anything courageous," Obama charged, "about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it." It was at about that moment, Ryan realized, that he and his plan had become a central issue in the 2012 elections. "That's when the lightbulb went off," Ryan explains. "They were constructing a political plan."

Of course! When Obama speaks the truth in one quick and easy to understand sentence, Ryan builds a conspiracy, "they were constructing a political plan" to make his plan a central issue in the 2012 elections. But we thought Ryan already made his plan the central theme for 2012...courageously I should add.

But I'm confused now. If a Democrat brings an ugly issue out from the foggy realm of our political landscape and drops it into the middle of the national debate, it's a political plot - a conspiracy. But when Ryan does it, it's courage? So, tell me. Was making Ryan's budget proposal a central issue in the 2012 elections Ryan's idea or Obama's? Is it an act of demagoguery and a conspiracy, or an act of courage? Does any of this matter? You bet it does ...for one, Ryan's recent announcement with Wyden gutted the establishment media who have been fawning over Ryan's "courage." They are now left with egg on their faces.

Time Excerpt:
And in a democratic republic, it is the job of voters to choose a path away from danger. Ryan would say that all he has done is sound the alarm.

No doubt, that is what the humble prophet would say. Of course he wouldn't want you to know that he was also the arsonist before he sounded the alarm. That's frivolous non-relevant information and we certainly don't want to confuse the voters when they try to pick the arsonist out from a group of suspects dripping in petrol and sulfur. But that Paul Ryan, "he's the guy," is how Adrian Monk would put it.

The Prophet Paul Ryan. Youze guys are a real hoot. But what could possibly be the sequel to that? The Catholic Church issuing him a "Compassion in Christ" award for his social legislation defending the poor and the weak? That would not surprise me all now.

We Have Been Named Time's Person Of the Year!!

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That's right! Time's Person of the Year is The Protester.

Coming in second place was Admiral William McRaven, head of U.S. Special Operations Command and overall commander of the secret U.S. mission that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, followed by Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, whose 81 day secret detention by authorities earlier this year sparked an international outcry.

Coming in fourth believe it or not, was the person most likely to be protested. Paul Ryan!! Although in Wisconsin, Scott Walker has claimed that mantle for the time being.

But Ryan is considered one of the most influential politicians of the year for his ridiculous pseudo-intellectual class war budget that also includes the end of Medicare as we know it, his willingness to kick the can down the road, to destabilize government, drive up the debt, and of course punish the poor in the name of "upward mobility" for not being rich. If you're a member of the One Percent, Paul Ryan is your guy.

Time maintains that the designation is "not an honor" but rather a way to recognize "the most powerful individuals and forces shaping the world." In that case, perhaps Ayn Rand should have been runner-up instead of her loyal subject and worldly messenger Ryan. Ahh well, Paul Ryan ... Ayn Rand. What's the difference?

Anti-American Norquist Unrepentant For Nation's Massive Debt

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Grover Norquist is the guy who collected signatures from many Republicans pledging that they will not vote to raise revenue under any circumstances. He brags that Republicans haven't voted for a income tax increase since 1990.

Believe me. We've noticed.

Politico Excerpt:
“The tax issue is the most powerful issue in American politics” Norquist said to Kroft.

Here I always thought our annual national deficits and snowballing debt was the most powerful issue in American politics.

Politico Excerpt:
“I intend to win. I intend to be part of the whole effort to crush the other team,” Norquist said.

There's something wonderfully compassionate, all inclusive and apple pie about a person wanting to crush the other team, idd'in it?

But don't worry Grover, you are not only a part of the whole effort to crush the U.S. Government and put our economic future in grave danger, you are easily ranked in the top of our nation's worst domestic enemies.

Although Dems tend to blame you for complicating the supercommittee's process, you would be little more than a unknown random person had not those foolishly misguided elected officials signed your idiotic pledge to abandon their fiscal responsibility as outlined in the U.S. Constitution. I blame them first. Without them making that leap, you would be nowhere and America for the past 20 years would have been raising the revenue and paying its bills without saddling our children and grandchildren with this huge mountain of debt. But you did it Grover and we will hold you and those traitors accountable.

You won't have to worry about that.

Catholics: Looking For a Christmas Gift Idea?

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Here's an old idea from Rep. Paul Ryan sure to be a hit today.

There’s nothing more Christian-like about a devout Roman Catholic celebrating that newborn baby laying in the manger than by snuggling up to a warm fireplace early Christmas morning and sharing precious moments from Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” with the entire family. You'll be able to discuss and enjoy such timeless passages like ...

"When one acts on pity against justice, it is the good whom one punishes for the sake of the evil; when one saves the guilty from suffering, it is the innocent whom one forces to suffer."
-Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, Part 2, Ch. 6

and...

"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
-Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, Part 3, Ch. 1

and...

By the grace of reality and the nature of life, man–every man– is an end in himself, he exists for his own sake, and the achievement of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose."
-Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, Part 3, Ch. 7


Reviews

About Jesus Christ and Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand and Jesus Don't Mix

Frum Forum - Rand Crashing The Tea party

"The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand." - Cong. Paul Ryan,

The Mask Comes Off - Happy Halloween!

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TRICK or TREAT, money or eat.

A poor attempt at humor.

---

Check out Rep. Paul Ryan Exposed! for attempting to humor us that the GOP's donor base are friends of the poor.

Booting Wall Street Ryan Should Be Job One

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Why Paul Ryan? You have to ask?

For one, Ryan's hometown of Janesville is typical of the capital exhausted industrial communities in the 1st congressional district of Wisconsin that have had their wealth and potential legislated out from their pursuit of prosperity over the past 30 years.

Last year, local business, labor, education, governmental and health care leaders gathered together and scheduled a once in a lifetime presentation about what they need for economic recovery from the federal government. They proposed a list of eight items totaling $40 million and turned it over to the White House counsel of community recovery, Dr. Ed Montgomery. Rep. Paul Ryan was not present at this event. Instead, he was elsewhere promoting his hyper-partisan GOP recruitment booklet "Young Guns." Yet at Townhalls, he begins his presentation by claiming he's the area's "federal guy," and those are issues he wishes to discuss. I bring this episode up primarily as an example of Ryan's concern and response to the economic suffering and injustice occurring on the Main Streets of his district. Apparently, he's got other priorities.

If you consider Ryan's overall congressional voting record against the working poor and the middle class, his misguided personal ideology based on the fictional writings of anti-American Ayn Rand, his harsh polluting hyper-partisanship, his sycophancy for old money and his ideologically calculated proposals that would turn Social Security and Medicare over to Big Insurance and the capital markets on Wall Street - Paul Ryan is easily the Number One Wall Street Congressman.

Now it is true that Democrats and Republicans have both taken campaign donations from Wall Street just like they have from labor unions, but how many congressional's political philosophy and even further, their entire reason for congressional existence is built on the wealth expansion of the private Wall Street merchants (the few) at the expense of everything public (the many) on Main Street? Two or three perhaps. But make no mistake, Paul Ryan is at the top. He is it! Pat Toomey might be a distant second. Timothy Geithner is up there too but he's not an elected congressman.

Ryan also voted for TARP. But he did so against the 100 to 1 wishes of his district constituency and instead voted with the 1%. People wanted a market based solution, not a government solution to the crisis. He not only voted for it, but he was one of the GOP's top point men pushing for its passage on the Hill.

Ryan is also the guy who rubber stamped party-line annual deficits totaling almost $6 trillion during the Bush error and who boldly, almost mockingly so, defies everyone in his district except the top 5%. Yet, he wins re-election again and again. By comparison, Russ Feingold not only voted against TARP, he voted to end it twice afterwards and authored the Control Spending Now Act, which would have taken unspent Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds and use them to pay down the debt. Hello Tea Party? Feingold, far more fiscally responsible than Ryan can ever dream to be and courageous enough to cast principled constitutional votes that frequently rankled Wall Street and his own party, lost to a corporate driven empty suit by the name of Ron Johnson. It doesn't defy logic because once an elected official takes a balanced legislative approach in dealing with the rigged Wall Street status quo - they're finished politically. Alan Grayson was another one. Toast. Wall Street and their corporate media enablers crushed Feingold and Grayson with the help of the Tea Party, of all people. Ryan in the meantime appears to freewheel on by.

So Ryan voted for and promoted the Big Bank bailouts. Some might argue that TARP was justified. Perhaps so, but only providing that the same level of economic justice was distributed across Main Street America. It wasn't. In addition, not a single person has been indicted or convicted for destroying over twenty percent of our personal net worth, so there was a gaping absence of social justice as well, and those are just two of the many reasons why we have ongoing protests today. Again, Paul Ryan seems to get a pass on this.

After Ryan completed his now infamously known ideological manifesto "Roadmap for America's Future," he submitted it first to the barons on Wall Street for their approval before presenting it his constituents. Now, I can understand some might not read too much into that, but his "Roadmap" deals with our most important personal health and national economic stability programs - Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. These three cornerstones of American Exceptionalism belong to the American people - not the profit-takers on Wall Street to decide their fate over. But Ryan belongs to Wall Street. In my view, Ryan submitting his Roadmap proposal to Wall Street for approval before to his constituents was extremely symbolic of where his loyalty is placed.

In fact, Ryan belongs to Wall Street so much that when the U.S. Government was teetering on default due to the crisis fabricated by Republicans, he again went straight to his masters on Wall Street for advice and consent. He, along with Eric Cantor, issued a report that Wall Street would be just fine with the US flirting with default for a few days. Never mind the wishes of the American people.

But his ideologically-driven budget manifestos take the cake. I can't think of any other congressman out of the House or the Senate that has proposed to legislate more theft of private capital under the conveyance and auspice of the U.S. Government to the merchants on Wall Street than Paul Ryan. No one. So, this is where the Occupy Wall Street/99 Percent movement should come into play. Crack pot ideas designed to sell out America should be exposed and their authors should be called out and banished, not applauded. Time is of the essence.

Previous RNR Feature: Post 9/11: Faces Of Debt

Related Reading:

Let's Put Paul Ryan Back Into The Wisconsin Backwoods Where He Belongs

CNN Puts Lipstick On Ryan's Pig

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In what I describe as one of the lamest interviews ever put on by a "professional" news organization, the CNN newsroom participated in what can be accurately described as little more than a image enhancement and calibration campaign masterfully scripted by Rep. Paul Ryan.

CNN Newsroom Sub-title
Rep. Paul Ryan has become popular by pushing the unpopular stance on entitlements. CNN's Gloria Borger profiles him.

No doubt about it, Ryan gave them a tube of lipstick and CNN knew exactly where to apply it.

During the interview, Ryan discombobulated as he described himself as a "messenger" and then claimed he gave up "fear" for Lent. Let me explain.

The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, repentance and self-denial — for the annual Christian commemoration beginning on Ash Wednesday and culminating with Easter. During Lent, modern day practicing Roman Catholics oftentimes will make a personal sacrifice such as fasting or temporarily give up a treat or habit they might usually enjoy. But here's the trick. Ryan says, "I gave fear up for Lent this year." But how does one give up "fear" as a sacrifice? Even CNN's Bolger curiously asks, "how do you do that?" In Ryan's case however, much of what he can show for in the political arena has been built on demogoguery and fearmongering. Ryan thrives and relishes in it so much that had he said he was giving up "fearmongering," people who know his bully style would understand his loss and not question his personal Lenten sacrifice.

Ryan now appears to be in the midst of re-booting his Randian-corrupted Christian morality by dropping hints of his religiosity in recent interviews. The NY Times reported that Ryan is reading the “Read and Learn Bible” to his 6-year-old son and during this CNN interview, he subtly dropped another hint by announcing his sacrifice for Lent. Beyond Ryan's purposely religious remarks, he then frames himself as a fearless "messenger" courageously defending himself against undeserved attacks by Democrats and the Left.

CNN Excerpt:
"There's sort of a shoot-the-messenger strategy these days," he added. "I'm the messenger, and you can't fear that if you are who you are." It's a pattern for Ryan, who has grown in popularity by pushing the unpopular, a fairly unconventional route.

We know who Ryan is. No one in Congress has fear mongered, mocked and demagogued our safety nets or mischaracterized the American Way more than Congressman Ryan. No one. Before he embarked on his crusade to destroy Medicare, previous messages he delivered over the past five years were...

Ryan equated American labor unions to Saddam Hussein's brutal Ba'ath Party.

He joined Glenn Beck in calling progressives a cancer.

Ryan also admitted to voting for TARP not on the nuts and bolts of the proposal, but claimed by supporting it, he was saving capitalism from a hallucinatory fascist liberal statist agenda he channeled onto President Obama. Wow, demagoguery - thy name is Paul Ryan.

Interestingly, CNN left these few minor inconveniences out of their select profiling of the congressman.

Yet, through all of these unprovoked public declarations of war against Progressives, Labor and the President, it is Ryan who paints himself up not as a remorseful perpetrator of demagoguery, but as a victim of his target's push back and then sympathetically refers to himself as the "messenger."

Masterful.

Excerpt: (April, 2010)
Ryan (R-Regressive) -- "What I'm trying to do is indict the entire vision of progressivism, and its important to flush progressives out into the field of open debate."
Beck (R-Regressive) -- "I love you."

Related:

Paul Ryan - Scott Walker With a Smile

Paul Ryan Is Not Who You Think

Ghouls On Parade

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This would have been better suited for my Halloween posting, but Republicans couldn't wait.

There has been a deafening silence from the Republican candidates onstage and off during the party debates after their base of supporters sickeningly applauded the execution of 243 people, cheered letting the uninsured die as a matter of personal responsibility and freedom, then booed an American soldier serving his country because he is gay.

Some of us might still want to believe the ghoulish audience responses at the GOP presidential debates were just mischievous anomalies. Not in my book. This is the soulless "new norm" Ayn Rand mentality the American public will soon have to come to grips with including her growing congressional cabal of brazenly anti-American adherents.

So, where were the condemnations from the Republican base? What happened to the religious Right that was such a powerful force during George W. Bush's presidency? Whatever happened to the compassionate Conservatives?"

Time swampland Excerpt:
In the wake of the debt-ceiling debate, young voters might find it hard to believe that just ten years ago, “compassionate conservative” was a mantle worn with a straight face by many GOP leaders. In fact, you could argue that George W. Bush split the independent vote with Al Gore in 2000 because of his image as a compassionate conservative. Now, of course, in the era of the kick-ass-and-kill-programs Tea Party, few Republicans who value their careers would run as a touchy-feely politician. But is compassionate conservatism dead, or just mostly dead?

Marvin Olasky, widely credited as the author of compassionate conservatism and editor of the conservative evangelical magazine WORLD, is still around. And he’s displeased enough with the GOP’s current leadership to rebuke them for embracing the individualism of Ayn Rand.

I don't believe this abrupt "change of heart" has anything to with the national budget or the temperament some Conservatives deem necessary to implement austerity measures. Those soulless outbursts at the debates are the genuine hallmarks of a bold-faced people who are out to destroy almost every edifice in the contemporary American way of life, our Judeo-Christian religion, our modified government regulated capitalism and our rule by the majority will. There is no other way around it.

So when your stomach turns at the sound of somebody fiendishly cheering on death, suffering and misery, chances are high you've encountered either a mentally deranged person who needs to be forgiven, or a cold and calculating Ayn Randing Republican who deserves no pardon.

Obama tackles ghouls: Busted Perry, criticizing him as "a governor whose state is on fire, denying climate change." Obama also poked at the audience reactions at recent GOP presidential debates. Read more here>>>.

Video: Democratic Party Ad on the GOP's lack of leadership at the debates.

GOP Base Fulfilling Rand's Anti-American Doctrine

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In this short video, Ayndroidian House Speaker John Boehner announces that the job creators, otherwise known as Rand's ubersmenschenian "producers," are officially on strike.

Crooks and Liars Excerpt:
I think it's safe to say that John Boehner just admitted that corporate interests, in collusion with the Republican party, are intentionally sabotaging the United States economy in order to gain even more political power and strip everyone else of theirs.

What I absolutely believe Republicans are, the Paul Ryan's, the Ron Johnson's, Rand Paul's, Ron Paul's, John Boehners, the Jim Jordan's and John Campbell's just to name a few in Congress, are enemies of American society and everything our Constitution is founded on. As more evidence of their contemptible message continues to trickle in daily, Americans will begin to get a more mainstream glimpse of the GOP's and Tea Party's true intentions. It is exactly as Mike Wallace so eloquently put in a question to Ayn Rand back in 1959.

Personally, I think this is the biggest story and battle of our times.

Additional Reading:

Ayn Rand & GOP Budget vs. Judeo-Christian Morality

The Rotary Club and Paul Ryan: Low-Brow and Self-Serving

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Paul Ryan was on the hotseat at the Whitnall Park Rotary Luncheon where the general public was invited to pay $15 to hear him speak. After opening his speech with "I'm a Federal guy and ...we have a debt crisis," which was his way of saying "keep district issues out of this," at least a dozen brave citizen heroes angry over local joblessness immediately called the congressman out on his tax cuts/debt crisis voodoo economics and demanded to hear about his job proposals. Well, he has none. But the anger was right at the surface for many and in some cases boiled right over.

Unfazed by their hardship, Ryan continued, "Most of our debt in the future comes from our entitlement programs," when suddenly a brave new world senior couldn't resist any more bullshit from the detached and emotionally cold congressman and spoke out, "Hey! What is this you're trying to pull?"

Watch it:



After the senior is tackled and taken to the floor, the immature congressman then mocks the man's predicament "I hope he's taking his blood pressure medication," which gets a hearty "ho, ho" laugh from the disappointingly low-brow Rotarian crowd. The fact that Rotary club members seem to think it’s funny to crack jokes about 71 year-olds being tackled to the ground for daring to speak their mind to the congressman is simply disgusting. We already knew Paul Ryan has no shame, but the Rotary Club? This definitely raises some questions about this once proud and benevolent institution.

Rotary Foundation Mission statement:
The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty.

The Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world.

Rotary officials should have made some effort to stand with their invited guests and make some adjustments allowing each a minute or two to speak to the congressman. That would have gone a long way to lowering the temperature. Plus, it's not like any of this came as a surprise. They knew well in advance this luncheon with the embattled congressman could be rough around the edges. Instead they threw their mission statement in the trash can and became intolerant and combative.

Ryan pretty much jokes and shrugs his way through the rest of the luncheon. Apparently, he thinks he can propose legislation straight out of anti-American Ayn Rand's dark fictional world of labor exploitation, wealth worship and selfishness, and decent compassionate Americans are expected to take it all laying down with smiles on their faces. Rotary Club members too have seemingly abandoned their mission statement for the sake of a few dollars. Shame on them.

Very sad indeed.

Lots more below:

Politicusa - Constituents arrested for asking questions at Paul Ryan Luncheon

Uppity Wisconsin - 71 Year Old handcuffed and arrested at Paul Ryan meeting

Blogging Blue - Paul Ryan Trilogy

DailyKos - Paul Ryan Takes A Cheap Shot At An Elderly Man

Would Paul Ryan Have Signed The Declaration Of Independence?

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From the moment I started blogging here in July of 2006, I knew Paul Ryan and others with the same ideological bent were destroyers of American exceptionalism and on a collision course with our nation's social compact that was initially forged with the last sentence in the Declaration of Independence. It reads...

— And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Many economic experts have warned that our national debt today has the immediate potential of destroying America financially and otherwise. There has been a steady stream of references and slogans describing our nations' debt as "entering the abyss," "doomsday," an "economic apocalypse," "heading off a cliff," and we're at the "final crossroads." I think Congressman Ryan would even agree with those assessments.

Yet, when our Founding Fathers stood at the abyss against the King of England during the birth of our nation, they laid out in exact and certain terms what the proper course of action is expected from the colonies. They knew individual sacrifices must be made and that wealth would be confiscated and destroyed. When Lewis Morris of New York was about to sign the Declaration of Independence, story has it that his brother strongly advised against it, warning that he could lose all of his property and wealth for the sake of others with much less to lose. But Morris told his brother, "Damn the consequences, give me the pen."

The Founders did not have to take that route. Many of these men were relatively wealthy in their own right with businesses and property for the times. They could have listened to Morris's brother and kept their worldly possessions in exchange for capitulating to the king. Or they could have declared their independence without that last sentence "mutually pledging their lives and fortunes." They could have said we're a nation of individuals, it's "every man for himself" and may the best man win. They easily could have. But they did not.

Being the last sentence in the Declaration of Independence makes it even more important as the shaping stone for the coming Constitution. THAT is the foundation of our country and that is why I strongly believe today that many of the Tea Party Republicans following the doctrine of Ayn Rand, and that includes Paul Ryan, would never sign that document of independence.

Those words "we mutually pledge" to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor when they were standing at the abyss, are not the words of cowardly men with their tail between their legs who exist for their own sake, that his responsibility is only to himself, or that he must not sacrifice himself for others. They didn't say we pledged enough already. Yet, what would the founders think of us today if they knew that they were willing to give their lives and fortunes for the birth of a country that two hundred years later would face a debt crisis where its inhabitants would not mutually pledge those selfless virtues again to defend or stop the nation from entering another abyss?

Heck, we have congressmen who won't even eliminate tax loopholes on the wealthiest individuals and corporations even if it would keep us from going over the fiscal cliff, unless they drop the tax rates to loopholed levels. They're willing to pledge less - that's the extent of their sacrifice.

Ayn Rand's retarded ideology along with Ryan's attempt to reshape our government and its purpose of existence away from the founders compact and into an abstract creation based on Rand's novels are not only anti-Christian but also inherently un-American. We are a compassionate country built on sharing and sacrifice, not by choice, but by declaration.

Ryan's Worship Of Selfishness and Immorality Ain't Rand with Catholicism

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Although this is old news among Wisconsin's political bloggers, there has been some renewed buzz around the Web in religious forums about Congressman Paul Ryan's proclaimed adoration for the regressive human doctrine of anti-Christian atheist Ayn Rand.

America: The National Catholic Weekly Excerpt:
It’s an appropriate topic during Holy Week. Gerson outlines the conflict between Christianity and Rand’s “Objectivism” which could not be more fundamental. In Rand’s words, her ethics held “that man exists for his own sake, that his own happiness is his highest moral purpose, that he must not sacrifice himself for others, nor sacrifice others to himself.” She disdained the Cross: “It is in the name of that symbol that men are asked to sacrifice themselves for their inferiors.”

Congressman Paul Ryan is a Rand devotee. He calls her “the reason I got involved in public service” and requires his staffers to read Atlas Shrugged. Indeed Ryan’s celebrated budget proposal reads like it was written by John Galt himself. It is one grand shrug of the wealthy--combining further upper income tax cuts with slashes to Medicaid and the conversion of Medicare to a shrinking voucher.

It is worth noting that Ryan is Catholic.

Being Is Good Blog Excerpt:
Ayn Rand liked greed, immorality (an oversimplification since she was really just amoral), selfishness, hedonistic and predatory people, really bad novels of the kind she wrote...and she hated Christianity and morality (as it is presented in the Gospels), altruism of any kind, good literature (she despised Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, etc.), and the common man and woman whom she believed were societal parasites. She viewed kindness as a weakness, and would have despised Mother Teresa and probably thought Machiavelli was overly charitable.

It is no wonder then that Ryan's "Path To Prosperity" is built on Rand's economics claiming that collectivists of wealth should not be burdened with the debt or welfare of the rest of the population. Thus, Ryan insists on giving those with the most accumulated wealth easy new 1040s with loopholed tax rates already factored in allowing society's "producers" to operate unfettered by government regulation and taxes that subsidize the nation's best interests. Selfishness, for centuries considered a vice, under Ryan and Rand is projected as a virtue.

The Roman Catholic Church too should have a big problem with Paul Ryan and other Catholics who have proclaimed their strong devotion to Ayn Rand. Christians could only imagine with a sunken heart, how the likes of an irreligious Paul Ryan or Ayn Rand would have viewed Jesus Christ had they been alive during his time on Earth. According to the Faithful - Christ died for us - In our stead; to save us from death. He took our place; and by dying himself on the cross, saved us from dying eternally in hell. I can hear Rand saying at the the foot of the cross, "this man was irresponsible and had no self-esteem. Anybody who would sacrifice one's only reality – one's individuality – for a reality other than the self, is necessarily self-destructive and therefore immoral. This man on the cross is a fool," with the intellectually delinquent Ryan nodding in agreement.

Rand YouTube Videos

Ayn Rand on Woman's Place In Society

Rand On Religion

Mike Wallace Interview 1959 Pt.1

Mike Wallace Interview 1959 Pt.2

Mike Wallace Interview 1959 Pt.3

Ayn Rand Suckled On the Government Teat

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The latest on Congressman Ryan's hero, Ayn Rand, who was known for her self-righteous philosophical assaults against government aid and collectivism.

Boingboing Excerpt:
Noted speed freak, serial-killer fangirl, and Tea Party hero Ayn Rand was also a kleptoparasite, sneakily gobbling up taxpayer funds under an assumed name to pay for her medical treatments after she got lung cancer.

An interview with Eva Pryor, a social worker and consultant to Miss Rand's law firm of Ernst, Cane, Gitlin and Winick verified that on Miss Rand's behalf she secured Rand's Social Security and Medicare payments which Ayn received under the name of Ann O'Connor (husband Frank O'Connor).

I felt this comment hit the spot just right.

mgfarelly - As delicious a hypocrisy as this is, I can't take pleasure in gloating at someone's financial/medical struggles, even someone as philosophically bent as Rand. The real sadness here is her deluded adherents and fans, with their "Going Galt" mantra. Their demands to slash and burn any form of social safety net will leave them, and their children and grandchildren, more vulnerable than Rand herself.

But what can you expect from a philosophy founded entirely on selfishness and greed?

Tea Party, Paul Ryan Win Big with Obama Tax Cut Deal

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Right-wing hammer head, Charles Krauthammer, thinks President Obama pulled off the swindle of the year against Republicans for striking a tax cut deal that will serve as a massive stimulus that Obama would have never achieved otherwise under the new GOP house majority.

NY Times Excerpt:
It will pump a trillion borrowed Chinese dollars into the U.S. economy over the next two years - which just happen to be the two years of the run-up to the next presidential election. This is a defeat?

Seriously, borrowing a trillion dollars from China just to tweak up economic indicators is a victory for Obama? Granted, the Republicans will now have some skin in the economy but this is clearly a messaging gamble on both sides. If the economy picks up substantially, Republicans will say trickle-down still works - if the economy remains relatively flat or nosedives - they'll say Obama's Keynesian economics is a disaster. But no matter what direction the economy takes if this tax cut package is enacted, nobody will take their eyes off off of the big elephant in the room - the exploding national debt. Krauthammer ignores that reality and even implies the Obama tax cut deal makes a mockery of the Tea party's debt-averse persona.

NY Times Excerpt:
Obama is no fool. While getting Republicans to boost his own reelection chances, he gets them to make a mockery of their new found, second-chance, post-Bush, Tea-Party, this-time-we're-serious persona of debt-averse fiscal responsibility.

Utter nonsense. Obama's tax cut deal almost but not quite satisfies the Tea Party's "taxed enough already" mantra. They would actually want more and deeper tax cuts. Just ask them - ask Paul Ryan if he would like to see even deeper tax cuts. Remember rule number one of Tea Party economics: tax cuts don't create deficits, spending does. Obama's tax cuts will give the new House budget writing director, Rep. Paul Ryan, added impetus to serve up a platter of massive domestic spending cuts that will of course include Medicare and Social Security. This despite Ryan's counter-intuitive expectations he reasoned to support the original Bush tax cuts nearly seven years ago - his expectation that tax cuts will actually bring in more revenue. It won't apply this time.

Enjoy those tax cuts while you have them, working poor and middle-class, because you're in for a major ass-whupping later from the hands of Tea Party republicans such as Paul Ryan. Mark my words.

Conservative Brooks: Ryan's Mentality Poisons Discussion

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As reported over the weekend, President Obama's fiscal commission failed to get enough votes for its horrific plan to cut Social Security, lower taxes for corporations and the wealthy, and to encourage outsourcing. The committee voted 11 to 7 in favor, but 14 votes were needed to send the plan to Congress.

Rep. Paul Ryan voted against the commission's final draft, but of course for all the wrong reasons. Simply put, Ryan thought the proposal was not extreme and "cat food" enough to his liking and used the commission's high profile and publicity as another opportunity to demonize the President when he said, "the plan accelerates and entrenches ObamaCare." Ryan's response was nearly identical to the reasoning he eventually admitted to after he voted for TARP.

Contrary to some reports, Ryan did not consider the nuts and bolts of the TARP bill, but instead "voted against his principles" out of his own hallucinatory fear that by not doing so, Obama would use the market failure as reason to sweep in a fascist liberal statist agenda that he actually channeled onto the President. As with the debt commission, Ryan once again exposes his permanently damaged mentality and pickled fixation with Obama. Others are beginning to notice.

One such other is conservative columnist David Brooks. Brooks, ever the compromising propositioner, even compromises his own perspective by admitting he has few policy fights to pick with the ideologically damaged congressman. During a debate last week at the American Enterprise Institute with Ryan, the one over-riding factor Brooks identified was Ryan's mentality to polarize the discussion as a battle between two starkly different choices, two extremes - the Republican's free market democracy against the Democrats cradle-to-grave socialist welfare state. Both obviously false narratives, Brooks concluded that it is journalistically wrong (a nice way of saying intellectually dishonest) to assume Democrats want to create a European welfare state.

Before exiting the debate, Ryan once again chose to demarcate the sides as two stark choices while touting his side as the "centrist coalition" that is forming will result in further isolation of the progressive left. With that, we can assume Ryan believes those that oppose his views are the only extremists in the debate.

Brooks observations of Ryan's "mentality" and polarizing narratives are captured in two segments in the video below.



Or watch the full debate here. (48 minutes long)

"the choice of our debt is so massive,...so massive...that it will bury the next generation with a crushing burden of debt"
-- Rep. Paul Ryan, Dec.2, 2010 at the American Enterprise Institute

Now kindly get out of the congressman's way while he votes to extend the deficit ballooning tax breaks for the wealthy.

Schakowsky Offers Alternative to Simpson-Bowles Deficit Reduction Plan.

Also check out Democurmudgeon's Ya' think Paul Ryan's so Smart? Think Again. David Brooks Exposes Ryan as an Extremist.

Selfishness Is a Virtue?

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If we create a society where there is no personal moral obligation to help a penniless or starving person (assuming that we can afford to help), why would a society absent of morals bother to create laws preventing people from growing wealth by starving the people?

Ayn Rand Nutters Explain Their Morals

Crony Capitalism Crushes The Opposition

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How Crony Capitalists Pick The Winners

Wednesday's Janesville Gazette front-page headlines read, Republican star on the rise with a picture of Paul Ryan pasted in the middle.

No argument here. It's true. Even though the writer seemed puzzled and stretched a bit to find mainstream reasons for Ryan's rising star within his party, the hard truth is the republican party is a party of extremists. That's for sure. Ryan is so far right, that anybody even slightly right of center no matter how moderate or conservative could be painted as a Socialist. Heck, Ryan voted for TARP because he feared Socialism would have taken root if he hadn't. What Tea Partier could argue with that? No TARP equals socialism. Argue the point amongst yourselves! The slippery congressman has a knack for disarming nearly anyone with any lame excuse he can think of. Some have respectfully referred to his slippery-ness as "charisma."

Ryan, like Rand Paul, Ron Johnson and a host of other radicals flying under the dirty GOP banner espouse the retarded ideology of Ayn Rand. This is where they believe, among a string of other bizarre thoughts, that at least 95% of Americans are parasites leeching off of the so-called producers. They're mostly afraid that a government comprised of the people and by the people might actually be "for the people." The parasites that is, the 95 percenters. The Randers are running for public office not because they give a rat's ass for the will of the people's constitution, but because they want to protect the privileges their collective wealth policies have bought. How they have been able to leverage the few at the expense of our representative democracy is the trick. Paul Ryan not only excels at this exercise, he does it with an almost natural innocence.

Just as disheartening is when Democrats claim they need a candidate with boatloads of stupid money to defeat a premier crony capitalist like Paul Ryan. But it is a testament to the reality of just how deeply entrenched money has become in our government. That's what it comes down to in politics nowadays. So you want to run against an incumbent? Either party will endorse anyone who can BYOB (bring-your-own-bling). Just ask a sucker like Ron Johnson.

To the average citizen class, these BYOB candidates should look like one rotten egg trying to displace another. But those days of silly American idealism appear to be long gone. Even with a viable non-moneyed grassroots candidate with the right message, I fear the local democratic parties just don't have the thousand man army to work door-to-door delivery for twenty weeks for any candidate in the 1st Congressional District. Because that's what it would take to have any chance to defeat a machine politician like Ryan. Even then it would be close.

In fact, I would go as far to say that if you're a candidate who honestly wants to separate corporate influence from government, publicize that notion, and reject corporate or PAC money to support your campaign - you've absolutely positively doomed your chances for public office. This is the number one reason why Republicans expect to win big in November. They (and some democrats are on board) have successfully painted anyone who opposes the moneyed influence of corporate-state partnerships as anti-business, and since you oppose corporate-state partnerships, then you must obviously be anti-job. If you're still lucky enough to be standing after that, you'll finally be taken down as a parasite or a commie socialist. Even your family might disown you.

So, I don't blame Paulette Garin one bit when I read she hasn't committed to run against Ryan. Against all odds, corporate representatives like Paul Ryan have captured the electability market and those odds appear to be growing better. When only millionaire businessmen and ideological extremists that coddle Washington insiders and corporate interests are the only candidates deemed electable by the parties, and the media and eventually the constituency lay down, it's too late.

We're not in the process of losing our country - we've already lost it. Probably for good.

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Beck: Social Justice is Socially Unjust

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ABC News Excerpt:
On his radio and television shows, Beck suggested any church promoting "social justice" or "economic justice" merely was using code words for Nazism and communism. "I beg you look for the words social justice or economic justice on your church Web site," he said. "If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. ... Am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!

The Fox News rodeo clown's recent perverted attack against social and economic justice reminded me of this interview from 1959 of Ayn Rand with Mike Wallace.

Ayn Rand Against Force Of Justice



The Ayn Rand videos with Mike Wallace or Phil Donahue on Youtube are particularly worth watching if you want to sneak a peek at the bizarre moral contradictions behind the marketing and philosophy currently undermining the socially benevolent fabric of our country. Instead of dealing with positive solutions to our ever imperfect governing democracy, Rand cultists such as Beck and our own congressman Paul Ryan intend to divide the nation with their wrong-headed definition of collectivism against their own wrong-headed definition of individualism in what can be described as a mission to fulfill Ayn Rand's self-deluded moral heresy. In the meantime, they don't care if they take down Christianity, the rule of law or anyone else who gets in the way.

Church Uses Marquee To Speak Out Against Beck.