An Answer to Moivory’s question on Paul Ryan

It is more than evident that the diseases of misinformation as well as blatant disinformation have taken complete control of Americans in pandemic proportions resulting in vertiginous outcomes. This morning while in the truck I was listening to talk radio as usual. Given it was too late for NPR; I turned to WAOK, a radio station in Atlanta that only promotes talk radio programming.  Unfortunately this episode was all talk, little fact and even less substance. Listening to the host, Mo Ivory, it was reminiscent of something I had read by Daniel Foster. For listening to the host ramble on about Paul Ryan, Romney and President Obama was fit of his description of being “a mélange of relentlessly provocative half-insights garbled by ponderous jargon…delivered by a narrator who seems to delight in [their] unreliability.” For as like Conservative Talk Radio, she too was all venerate in her support of Obama as they are of Conservative stalwarts – since there was nothing said to inform an already dumbed down audience.

First there was the rant that suggested since Romney introduced Ryan as the next President, that it showed he was not prepared and unfit to be President. Although several callers correctly informed her that Obama did the same thing, she asked that they show her proof commenting that they are all hypotheticals and can’t back up what they with facts. Next she attacked a caller who correctly discussed capitalism without a political slant and she cut him off saying that he was trying to make it a republican and democratic issue (she has poor listening skills). After a few statements addressed to vilify Mr. Ryan, asserting that he had ran a state or a budget, another caller confronted her on this and indicated that neither had Obama, since he had not been a governor of a state or balanced a budget (both jobs off the governor). He was attacked as well and here logic then morphed into being in state politics.

None the less her question, which she never supported or answered was would Ryan be a benefit or liability for the November 2012 election. So to assist her I will provide a substantive argument to answer her query and suggest why Ryan will be a liability. I hope if she reads this it will assist her in the future.

If President Obama had any brains, Romney’s selection of Ryan as his running mate would be like a baseball set on a tee. First, his record or lack of record over a thirteen year career in government would be the ball. During the bush years, Ryan voted for and helped to pass Medicare part D (prescription drug benefit) which just happened to be the largest entitlement since the days of FDR and added trillions to the massively underfunded Medicaid/Medicare system.  He was also one of the twenty Republicans who voted for TARP and even pleaded for others in the GOP to follow suit.  Not only did he support the bailout of Wall Street but of the autoindustry as well.

During the Obama administration, many of the issues that most knowledgeable Americans which are so vehemently against and see as a threat to individual as I do – NDAA, ThePatriot Act and Funding for the Libyan war – he voted for and helped get passed. Which reminds me that also under the Bush administration, he voted for the war in Iraq without it being paid for as a supposed conservative fiscal hawk. These are actions that some in the Tea party will not forget or forgive and will likely isolate a majority of independent voters.

Now some may say I am wrong, that his affiliation with the former senator Jack Kemp will do him some good.  I think it will work against him.  See, I remember Jack Kemp, even remember seeing him on Monday Night football playing quarterback for the Buffalo Bills and the LA Rams before that.  He is the complete antithesis of Kemp.  To start with, It was Kemp who noted and informed conservative neocons that the war in Iraq was unnecessary and would only serve to weaken America economically and bea major waste of our resources.  Unlike Ryan, Kemp has been described by some as an “optimistic realist” who authored and passed legislation for years in the congress. Ryan over his tenure in Washington as authored or passed any major legislation on his own. Not to mention I can’t ever recall Jack Kemp ever voting for a tax increase then turn around and say he was against tax hikes – as Ryan’s record reveals.  Plus Jack Kemp looked out for the poor first and was inclusive of both the poor and minorities when authoring his legislation.

Even staying on his budget may be enough for Obama to pounce.  I won’t discuss the stuff most talk about (Medicare/Medicaid, cuts in education, head start and college aid), but will point out that it does include increasing Pentagon spending by $20 billion and overall it is just a plan for facilitating a plutocratic transfer of wealth.  On second thought maybe Obama should shy away from such since his economic proposals do the same? But if he does, he should attack his logic, for Ryan blames majorentitlement programs for our impending fiscal cliff and doesn’t even include the cost of unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (if I take him from what he said in his speech to the Alexander Hamilton Society).

If Obama wanted to play dirty, he could use the Reverend Wright card and hit below the belt for Ryan’s firm belief in the philosophical views of Ayn Rand. In her 1943 novel “The Fountain head” (if you all recall or ever read it), the in the end of the book the main character blows up a home for mentally retarded orphans.  If this is too low for Obama, then attack him on his profiting on insider information to avoid the 2008 crash.  According to an article published in the Richmonder Newspaper, Ryan was part of a closed door meeting with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and other congressional leaders on September 18, 2008 that informed the congress of the impending economic collapse and to get them to pass the TARP legislation.  The article continues: “on that very same day Paul Ryan sold shares of stock he owned in several troubled banks, and reinvested the proceeds in Goldman Sachs, a bank that the meeting had disclosed was not in trouble.” They even provide a link of PDF files of his transactions.

Now I could continue but in summary, the point is that Obama should have no problem dealing with a Romney-Ryan ticket if he has half a brain. Thus he being selected as Romney’s running mate is more of a liability in the bigger picture than an asset.

CLASSIC: Ron Paul vs. Paul Krugman on Bloomberg TV - April 30, 2012

shadow boxing

Point of order: 1] Was kind of hurt when i write about relationships I get more comments than when I write about loot or the economy. 2] Congrats Chipper Jones.

I just took the last 50 minutes or so reading the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. I knew something would have to be on paper today, before the Asian markets opened. I’m really disappointed in this and I am willing to point fingers at both the GOP and the Democrats. First it aint comprehensive and there is no assurance we will be compensated after the said five years outlined in the bill. Im still confused, i mean why do I gotta bail out folks for there intentional disregard of the law, why am i being punished for others stupidity? Fuck insuring Wall street, substituting our tax dollars for more worthless paper in the form or insurance premiums. Am I that stupid? Then if the big willie we put over the loot to watch the corporations, decide to steal or do foul wall street shit, the bill dont even allow for the judicial branch to intervene. Cant even take folk to court. Now that is Bush-esque (loving the bankers, speculators over the regular folk). Dont even talk about dealing with laws that put us in this place like the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 . Rejected a stock transfer tax of 2.5% that would have made Wall street pay for some of this. It still promotes the wealth up to the top jones.

In a few words, this is a piece of shit. They say it is needed, that this legislation is necessary for the survival of the American financial market. They say that some action must be taken I just don’t know if this is the action required to fix the problem. They talk as if it is the do all and be all to deal with our economy. But I don’t see it, I mean; they don’t even know if it will work, at least I don’t. Add to that that if it doesn’t, what will be next.

My problem if passed or not, it is still a 50% chance it will still get worse. I just don’t know how u can come to a dollar figure for a bail out and u don’t know the real value of said assets that the bail out targets. It like paying protection money to a gangster or the Mob; knowing as long as other mobsters are out there, if they aint around (or bought up) they can’t provide no protection at all. From what I read, don’t say nothing about how to deal with the additional 230 billion this will add to the national debt alone and it won’t be effective until January 2010.

Then these sneaky bastards did all of this behind closed doors as if the folks who gone have to foot the bill, me don’t need to know how they plan to spend my loot. So much for state rights, guess they don’t exist anymore. It aint rocket science, Goldman was likely on the other side of the default swaps and these swaps in general were nebulous if they existed at all. All I can see that this bill does is cover up the past stupidity of our elected leaders – it covers up their actual legislative failures.

Like I say, they act like this will work or that they know it will, I aint so sure. I figure two things are possible. The first is a run on the dollar at home, im sure a few more banks gone topple over. I mean 57% of our treasury bonds, in the form of debt is own by foreigners. We can’t stop them, say like OPEC nations from getting together, what makes us so sure them folk wont hook up and be like,” let’s stop buying US Treasury bonds and lets sell them all?” And the way I understand Treasury bonds, they the mid point between what we spend as a country and what we save. Number two would be as I have written before – deflation and ask Japan how that shit can be.

I really think that they should have let the economy fall, then regular folks who don’t care, or who wont read the 106 page bill would have to start saving and get they shit together. Like I said they say it is gone work, I just don’t see it as being that certain. I do know that we some resilient folk – after all we still Americans but them folk on capital hill is way out of touch and out of line for this. I guess that’s what Meth was methaphorically describing in Shadow Boxing. Welcome to the shadow government. And Im gone read it again a few more times, i had to stop shit made me mad jones. vote