Paul Ryan's VP Acceptance Speech at GOP Convention
Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan introduces himself to a national audience Wednesday night as he formally accepts his party's vice presidential nomination.
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Paul Ryan today delivered remarks to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida. The following remarks were prepared for delivery:
"Mr. Chairman, delegates, and fellow citizens: I am honored by the support of this convention for vice president of the United States.
I accept the duty to help lead our nation out of a jobs crisis and back to prosperity – and I know we can do this.
I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us, with opportunity for the young and security for the old – and I know that we are ready.
Our nominee is sure ready. His whole life has prepared him for this moment – to meet serious challenges in a serious way, without excuses and idle words. After four years of getting the run-around, America needs a turnaround, and the man for the job is Governor Mitt Romney.
I’m the newcomer to the campaign, so let me share a first impression. I have never seen opponents so silent about their record, and so desperate to keep their power.
They’ve run out of ideas. Their moment came and went. Fear and division are all they’ve got left.
With all their attack ads, the president is just throwing away money – and he’s pretty experienced at that. You see, some people can’t be dragged down by the usual cheap tactics, because their ability, character, and plain decency are so obvious – and ladies and gentlemen, that is Mitt Romney.
For my part, your nomination is an unexpected turn. It certainly came as news to my family, and I’d like you to meet them: My wife Janna, our daughter Liza, and our boys Charlie and Sam.
The kids are happy to see their grandma, who lives in Florida. There she is – my Mom, Betty.
My Dad, a small-town lawyer, was also named Paul. Until we lost him when I was 16, he was a gentle presence in my life. I like to think he’d be proud of me and my sister and brothers, because I’m sure proud of him and of where I come from, Janesville, Wisconsin.
I live on the same block where I grew up. We belong to the same parish where I was baptized. Janesville is that kind of place.
The people of Wisconsin have been good to me. I’ve tried to live up to their trust. And now I ask those hardworking men and women, and millions like them across America, to join our cause and get this country working again.
When Governor Romney asked me to join the ticket, I said, “Let’s get this done” – and that is exactly, what we’re going to do.
President Barack Obama came to office during an economic crisis, as he has reminded us a time or two. Those were very tough days, and any fair measure of his record has to take that into account. My home state voted for President Obama. When he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it, especially in Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory.
A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: “I believe that if our government is there to support you … this plant will be here for another hundred years.” That’s what he said in 2008.
Well, as it turned out, that plant didn’t last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day. And that’s how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight.
Right now, 23 million men and women are struggling to find work. Twenty-three million people, unemployed or underemployed. Nearly one in six Americans is living in poverty. Millions of young Americans have graduated from college during the Obama presidency, ready to use their gifts and get moving in life. Half of them can’t find the work they studied for, or any work at all.
So here’s the question: Without a change in leadership, why would the next four years be any different from the last four years?
The first troubling sign came with the stimulus. It was President Obama’s first and best shot at fixing the economy, at a time when he got everything he wanted under one-party rule. It cost $831 billion – the largest one-time expenditure ever by our federal government.
It went to companies like Solyndra, with their gold-plated connections, subsidized jobs, and make-believe markets. The stimulus was a case of political patronage, corporate welfare, and cronyism at their worst. You, the working men and women of this country, were cut out of the deal.
What did the taxpayers get out of the Obama stimulus? More debt. That money wasn’t just spent and wasted – it was borrowed, spent, and wasted.
Maybe the greatest waste of all was time. Here we were, faced with a massive job crisis – so deep that if everyone out of work stood in single file, that unemployment line would stretch the length of the entire American continent. You would think that any president, whatever his party, would make job creation, and nothing else, his first order of economic business.
But this president didn’t do that. Instead, we got a long, divisive, all-or-nothing attempt to put the federal government in charge of health care.
Obamacare comes to more than two thousand pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees, and fines that have no place in a free country.
The president has declared that the debate over government-controlled health care is over. That will come as news to the millions of Americans who will elect Mitt Romney so we can repeal Obamacare.
And the biggest, coldest power play of all in Obamacare came at the expense of the elderly.
You see, even with all the hidden taxes to pay for the health care takeover, even with new taxes on nearly a million small businesses, the planners in Washington still didn’t have enough money. They needed more. They needed hundreds of billions more. So, they just took it all away from Medicare. Seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama. An obligation we have to our parents and grandparents is being sacrificed, all to pay for a new entitlement we didn’t even ask for. The greatest threat to Medicare is Obamacare, and we’re going to stop it.
In Congress, when they take out the heavy books and wall charts about Medicare, my thoughts go back to a house on Garfield Street in Janesville. My wonderful grandma, Janet, had Alzheimer’s and moved in with Mom and me. Though she felt lost at times, we did all the little things that made her feel loved.
We had help from Medicare, and it was there, just like it’s there for my Mom today. Medicare is a promise, and we will honor it. A Romney-Ryan administration will protect and strengthen Medicare, for my Mom’s generation, for my generation, and for my kids and yours.
So our opponents can consider themselves on notice. In this election, on this issue, the usual posturing on the Left isn’t going to work. Mitt Romney and I know the difference between protecting a program, and raiding it. Ladies and gentlemen, our nation needs this debate. We want this debate. We will win this debate.
Obamacare, as much as anything else, explains why a presidency that began with such anticipation now comes to such a disappointing close.
It began with a financial crisis; it ends with a job crisis.
It began with a housing crisis they alone didn’t cause; it ends with a housing crisis they didn’t correct.
It began with a perfect Triple-A credit rating for the United States; it ends with a downgraded America.
It all started off with stirring speeches, Greek columns, the thrill of something new. Now all that’s left is a presidency adrift, surviving on slogans that already seem tired, grasping at a moment that has already passed, like a ship trying to sail on yesterday’s wind.
President Obama was asked not long ago to reflect on any mistakes he might have made. He said, well, “I haven’t communicated enough.” He said his job is to “tell a story to the American people” – as if that’s the whole problem here? He needs to talk more, and we need to be better listeners?
Ladies and gentlemen, these past four years we have suffered no shortage of words in the White House. What’s missing is leadership in the White House. And the story that Barack Obama does tell, forever shifting blame to the last administration, is getting old. The man assumed office almost four years ago – isn’t it about time he assumed responsibility?
In this generation, a defining responsibility of government is to steer our nation clear of a debt crisis while there is still time. Back in 2008, candidate Obama called a $10 trillion national debt “unpatriotic” – serious talk from what looked to be a serious reformer.
Yet by his own decisions, President Obama has added more debt than any other president before him, and more than all the troubled governments of Europe combined. One president, one term, $5 trillion in new debt.
He created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.
Republicans stepped up with good-faith reforms and solutions equal to the problems. How did the president respond? By doing nothing – nothing except to dodge and demagogue the issue.
So here we are, $16 trillion in debt and still he does nothing. In Europe, massive debts have put entire governments at risk of collapse, and still he does nothing. And all we have heard from this president and his team are attacks on anyone who dares to point out the obvious.
They have no answer to this simple reality: We need to stop spending money we don’t have.
My Dad used to say to me: “Son. You have a choice: You can be part of the problem, or you can be part of the solution.” The present administration has made its choices. And Mitt Romney and I have made ours: Before the math and the momentum overwhelm us all, we are going to solve this nation’s economic problems.
And I’m going to level with you: We don’t have that much time. But if we are serious, and smart, and we lead, we can do this.
After four years of government trying to divide up the wealth, we will get America creating wealth again. With tax fairness and regulatory reform, we’ll put government back on the side of the men and women who create jobs, and the men and women who need jobs.
My Mom started a small business, and I’ve seen what it takes. Mom was 50 when my Dad died. She got on a bus every weekday for years, and rode 40 miles each morning to Madison. She earned a new degree and learned new skills to start her small business. It wasn’t just a new livelihood. It was a new life. And it transformed my Mom from a widow in grief to a small businesswoman whose happiness wasn’t just in the past. Her work gave her hope. It made our family proud. And to this day, my Mom is my role model.
Behind every small business, there’s a story worth knowing. All the corner shops in our towns and cities, the restaurants, cleaners, gyms, hair salons, hardware stores – these didn’t come out of nowhere. A lot of heart goes into each one. And if small businesspeople say they made it on their own, all they are saying is that nobody else worked seven days a week in their place. Nobody showed up in their place to open the door at five in the morning. Nobody did their thinking, and worrying, and sweating for them. After all that work, and in a bad economy, it sure doesn’t help to hear from their president that government gets the credit. What they deserve to hear is the truth: Yes, you did build that.
We have a plan for a stronger middle class, with the goal of generating 12 million new jobs over the next four years.
In a clean break from the Obama years, and frankly from the years before this president, we will keep federal spending at 20 percent of GDP, or less. That is enough. The choice is whether to put hard limits on economic growth, or hard limits on the size of government, and we choose to limit government.
I learned a good deal about economics, and about America, from the author of the Reagan tax reforms – the great Jack Kemp. What gave Jack that incredible enthusiasm was his belief in the possibilities of free people, in the power of free enterprise and strong communities to overcome poverty and despair. We need that same optimism right now.
And in our dealings with other nations, a Romney-Ryan administration will speak with confidence and clarity. Wherever men and women rise up for their own freedom, they will know that the American president is on their side. Instead of managing American decline, leaving allies to doubt us and adversaries to test us, we will act in the conviction that the United States is still the greatest force for peace and liberty that this world has ever known.
President Obama is the kind of politician who puts promises on the record, and then calls that the record. But we are four years into this presidency. The issue is not the economy as Barack Obama inherited it, not the economy as he envisions it, but this economy as we are living it.
College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life. Everyone who feels stuck in the Obama economy is right to focus on the here and now. And I hope you understand this too, if you’re feeling left out or passed by: You have not failed, your leaders have failed you.
None of us have to settle for the best this administration offers – a dull, adventureless journey from one entitlement to the next, a government-planned life, a country where everything is free but us.
Listen to the way we’re spoken to already, as if everyone is stuck in some class or station in life, victims of circumstances beyond our control, with government there to help us cope with our fate.
It’s the exact opposite of everything I learned growing up in Wisconsin, or at college in Ohio. When I was waiting tables, washing dishes, or mowing lawns for money, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life. I was on my own path, my own journey, an American journey where I could think for myself, decide for myself, define happiness for myself. That’s what we do in this country. That’s the American Dream. That’s freedom, and I’ll take it any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners.
By themselves, the failures of one administration are not a mandate for a new administration. A challenger must stand on his own merits. He must be ready and worthy to serve in the office of president.
We’re a full generation apart, Governor Romney and I. And, in some ways, we’re a little different. There are the songs on his iPod, which I’ve heard on the campaign bus and on many hotel elevators. He actually urged me to play some of these songs at campaign rallies. I said, I hope it’s not a deal-breaker Mitt, but my playlist starts with AC/DC, and ends with Zeppelin.
A generation apart. That makes us different, but not in any of the things that matter. Mitt Romney and I both grew up in the heartland, and we know what places like Wisconsin and Michigan look like when times are good, when people are working, when families are doing more than just getting by. And we both know it can be that way again.
We’ve had very different careers – mine mainly in public service, his mostly in the private sector. He helped start businesses and turn around failing ones. By the way, being successful in business – that’s a good thing.
Mitt has not only succeeded, but succeeded where others could not. He turned around the Olympics at a time when a great institution was collapsing under the weight of bad management, overspending, and corruption – sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
He was the Republican governor of a state where almost nine in ten legislators are Democrats, and yet he balanced the budget without raising taxes. Unemployment went down, household incomes went up, and Massachusetts, under Mitt Romney, saw its credit rating upgraded.
Mitt and I also go to different churches. But in any church, the best kind of preaching is done by example. And I’ve been watching that example. The man who will accept your nomination tomorrow is prayerful and faithful and honorable. Not only a defender of marriage, he offers an example of marriage at its best. Not only a fine businessman, he’s a fine man, worthy of leading this optimistic and good-hearted country.
Our different faiths come together in the same moral creed. We believe that in every life there is goodness; for every person, there is hope. Each one of us was made for a reason, bearing the image and likeness of the Lord of Life.
We have responsibilities, one to another – we do not each face the world alone. And the greatest of all responsibilities, is that of the strong to protect the weak. The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves.
Each of these great moral ideas is essential to democratic government – to the rule of law, to life in a humane and decent society. They are the moral creed of our country, as powerful in our time, as on the day of America’s founding. They are self-evident and unchanging, and sometimes, even presidents need reminding, that our rights come from nature and God, not from government.
The founding generation secured those rights for us, and in every generation since, the best among us have defended our freedoms. They are protecting us right now. We honor them and all our veterans, and we thank them.
The right that makes all the difference now, is the right to choose our own leaders. And you are entitled to the clearest possible choice, because the time for choosing is drawing near. So here is our pledge.
We will not duck the tough issues, we will lead.
We will not spend four years blaming others, we will take responsibility.
We will not try to replace our founding principles, we will reapply our founding principles.
The work ahead will be hard. These times demand the best of us – all of us, but we can do this. Together, we can do this.
We can get this country working again. We can get this economy growing again. We can make the safety net safe again. We can do this.
Whatever your political party, let’s come together for the sake of our country. Join Mitt Romney and me. Let’s give this effort everything we have. Let’s see this through all the way. Let’s get this done.
Thank you, and God bless.
Craig
10:12 pm on Wednesday, August 29, 2012
I wasn't planning on watching his speach, but the 9:00 news broke away to cover it. Ryan knocked it out of the park!
He said all the right things, and I believe he is serious about fixing America's ills.
Bren
1:57 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Interesting, Paul Ryan's pay stub says "public service." If you are a government employee, it says [insert expletives of choice here] teacher, security guard, etc.
"Our different faiths come together in the same moral creed. We believe that in every life there is goodness; for every person, there is hope. Each one of us was made for a reason, bearing the image and likeness of the Lord of Life."
I believe it's disingenuous to present one's beliefs in a way that appears to resemble another that it is not (Romney). Ayn Rand was a celebrated atheist and Ryan has been nestled at the teat of her ungodly ramblings for decades. As our pastor said more than once, joining a church doesn't make you a Christian, it's your faith and what is in your heart.
J. B. Schmidt
2:13 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Bren
Are you therefore taking a hard line against, "that in every life there is goodness; for every person, there is hope. Each one of us was made for a reason"? Or simple that we are "bearing the image and likeness of the Lord of Life"?
Also, how are you able to judge the inner beliefs of a man and his faith? Do you then also feel the same about Obama and his 20 year relationship with Reverend Wright, "God damn America"?
Bren
2:31 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
I believe you over-state the relationship between Obama and Rev. Wright.
I believe the statement "bearing the image and likeness of the Lord of Life" suggests that the Mormon concept resembles that of the God of Abraham and Mohammed. Mr. Ruble has outlined tenets of the Mormon faith in other posts.
Romney is a Mormon: he should take the opportunity to educate about his faith. After all, when JFK became the first Catholic president and there was a dust-up about that, the nation survived. But I'm guessing results from the faith-based focus groups are keeping that option off the table at least for now. Romney needs the religious Right to win the election.
Ryan is a Catholic who embraces atheist philosophy. What is there to say about that except "No thank you to Ayn Rand."
J. B. Schmidt
3:06 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Bren
"I believe you over-state the relationship between Obama and Rev. Wright." Right! Yet you understand everything within the hearts of Ryan and Romney.
As for Ryan being a catholic, should he then only accept what is written in the bible and its commentaries? Or should drop Rand and follow religious types like Marx/Lenin down a socialist path? All forms of political philosophy (aside from Theocracy) have people who are atheist. So I will ask you, which political writer should he follow for something that is more catholic in nature?
dee50
7:37 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Romney Camp: We’ll Continue Lying, because it’s Working
“Fact checkers come to this with their own sets of thoughts and beliefs, and we’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers,” Newhouse told BuzzFeed.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/romney-camp-well-continue-lying-because-its-working.html#ixzz24zQGBzfj
SkinnyDude
10:19 pm on Wednesday, August 29, 2012
He makes Obama and Biden look like light weights in the adult conversation.
Keith Schmitz
7:07 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Makes Obama and Biden look like lightweight in the lying department. "We built it" is the most petulant, whiny rant in the history of US politics.
SkinnyDude
10:18 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@ Keith
You feel it slipping away . Obama is a light weight and a failure. The record is clear and he sure isn't bragging about it . I seen Obama's entire quote . Ryan is using it in exactly the right context as Obama stated it .Why dont you go to Chick-fil-a and enjoy a nice sandwich . The liberal philosophy is being exposed and Americans overwhelmingly will reject it .Wait and see...... :)
C. Sanders
10:30 pm on Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Ryan delivers the red meat. "After four years of getting the run-around, America needs a turnaround ...".
Keith Schmitz
7:15 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Yup, a turnaround to the glory years of 2000 to 2008.
J. B. Schmidt
8:00 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Keith
Ryan called out Bush as the wrong path.
James R Hoffa
8:29 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Schmitzy -
Did you even bother to read and/or listen to the speech? Or did you only give attention to the MSDNC commentary that followed the delivery of the speech, as would appear to be the case?
Bren
2:00 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
J.B., Ryan may have said so, but Romney is flirting with many previous Bush advisers. Forget that! I know too many people who have been financially devastated by the first economic crash. We can't return to failed attitudes, policies, and special interest pandering, we just can't.
J. B. Schmidt
2:18 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Bren
Economists are saying there could be another crash with Obama's administration. Not to mention the 15% unemployed or under employed that believe the current president has failed attitudes, policies, and concentrated more on special interest pandering then the recovery of the economy.
Bren
2:35 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
J.B., the bottom fell out of the economy at the end of Bush 43's second term. His policies hastened the destruction but this was a disaster decades in the making. It is illogical to expect recovery to take less than a generation, even in an environment of patriotism and cooperation. We continue to deal with obstruction and private sector greed. Despite that, some progress is being made, more is needed. That's why I believe Obama deserves a second term instead of going back to the disastrous-Bush 43 personnel and policies.
J. B. Schmidt
2:57 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Bren
Which other recoveries lasted a generation that the American people should simply expect this one will also?
Also, when the Democrats took over both houses of congress in 2006, what did they do to keep the US from falling off the economic cliff?
What with in the Romeny/Ryan plan is Bush policy besides the evil tax cuts?
Lastly, as the Obama Administration continues to spend money we as a nation do not have, how can you even consider including the line, "We continue to deal with obstruction and private sector greed", considering there has been more obstruction within the administration then in the private sector? As example, when was the last time Obama felt the it was worth fighting for a national budget? Sure he proposes them, budgets his own party won't vote for, but then he throws in the towel and blames Republicans. It appears to me that it is the Obama administration that is greedy and obstructing.
James R Hoffa
4:02 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
JB owned this debate - no surprise really considering the opposition ;-)
Hoffa's prediction is that Bren will attempt to shift the subject to something irrelevant about a devastating personal life experience that her uncle's roommate in college's third cousin experienced years ago that she will connect to and blame directly on Bush.
Either that, or she'll go back to the old reliable of claiming that Ryan and Republicans in general are owned by the evil ALEC and the Koch Bros. Or maybe a combination!
We'll have to wait and see, or we could just venture over to The Daily Kos to see what the newest talking points are ;-)
dee50
7:38 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Poll: Most say Romney should release additional tax returns
By 54%-37%, they say Romney should release tax returns from additional years. Those calling for more disclosure include 75% of Democrats, 53% of independents and 30% of Republicans.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-07-19/romney-gallup-poll-tax-returns/56333412/1?csp=34news
Bren
3:28 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
J.B., I believe it is disingenuous to measure Obama administration spending alongside those not dealing with the worst recession since the Great Depression. Compare Irving Fisher's analysis of causal factors of the GD with the Great Recession:
-Debt liquidation and distress selling
-Contraction of the money supply as bank loans are paid off
-A fall in the level of asset prices
-A still greater fall in the net worths of business, precipitating bankruptcies
-A fall in profits
-A reduction in output, in trade and in employment.
-Pessimism and loss of confidence
-Hoarding of money
-A fall in nominal interest rates and a rise in deflation adjusted interest rates.
There are dissimilarities between the two world-wide economic events but enough parallel to make the Hoover/Roosevelt administrations the more accurate comparison.
Mr. Hoffa, J.B. owns nothing except (apparently) a short memory.
Here's your heartwarming story: My father was born two weeks before "Black Tuesday," October 29, 1929, the day U.S. stock market prices plummeted. We do enjoy teasing him about being a causal factor of the Great Depression! ; )
J. B. Schmidt
4:34 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
@Bren
True to form, you fail to actually address anything I said. I never compared Obama to anyone. However, since you mention it: It took 43 presidents to bring the national debt to 10 trillion, Obama has added nearly 6 trillion in a short four years. No recession can justify that. Compared to his 43 couterparts, he is the only one to let spending go unchecked for 3 years because his poor leadership fails to put a budget together.
At no point did any economist claim this was as bad as the great depression; hence the american public should expect a faster recovery. You made the point that we should expect this to last a generation and you have yet to prove to me that we should expect that. Please point out why this is so incredibly unfixable, that next generations children will be the first to get their heads above water? I will need info from documented sources, not Bren's encyclopedia like brain.
Second, if the Dems understood what was happening as it appears you and ever other liberal did, (and I repeat) when the Democrats took over both houses of congress in 2006, what did they do to keep the US from falling off the economic cliff?
Then please tell me, (and I repeat) What with in the Romeny/Ryan plan is Bush policy besides the evil tax cuts? Since this is claim you also made.
I assume you will not answer these and post something unrelated, but thanks for playing.
J. B. Schmidt
11:54 pm on Wednesday, August 29, 2012
"a country where everything is free but us" This is what the core of this election is about. Stay in your government designated classes for ever to rot under Obama socialism or return to liberty and prosperity.
Keith Schmitz
7:14 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
You people have turned liberty into such a childish word.
J. B. Schmidt
8:04 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Keith
Is that because we couple it with personal prosperity rather than government control?
James R Hoffa
8:26 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Schmitzy -
What is childish is a government that treats its citizens like children - we in the big government don't think that you're smart enough or responsible enough to save your own money for retirement and health care costs, so we're going to forcibly take it from you and your employer and pay it back to you only when and how we deem is appropriate.
You believe in a government that treats its people like little children. We believe in a government that treats its people like true adults, responsible for the consequences of their own actions and decisions in life.
Your comment is so foolishly outrageous that it merits no further comment!
Steve ®
1:01 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
We are almost done with this liberal experiment in socialism.
►College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life. ◄
MrsPeel
2:34 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Spoken by a guy who had a large share of his college education paid for by Social Security Survivor Benefits, while he was busy "pulling himself up by his governement supplied bootstraps". "Socialism sucks", right Paul?
This is the "economic conservative" who voted for the Bush Tax Cuts, which added to the National Debt; and who voted for Medicare Part D, which added to the Debt.
This is the guy who (along with Walker) tries to blame Obama for the shutdown of the Janesville GM plant which took place while GW Bush was still sitting in the White House.
He didn't once mention his affection for the teachings of Ayn Rand in his speech this evening. He used to be quite proud of having her as his intellectual Muse, why not now?
He is also quite pleased with how Medicare helped take care of his grandmother and he seems to be very pleased with how Medicare and Social Security are there for his mother.
He just doesn't want those insurance programs to be there for future generations. His family got theirs so now it is time to screw everybody else.
What a guy.
Richard Head
6:06 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Dealing with economic reality isn't for Socialists - is it? Sure, you can be angry and deny the truth in front of your face, but hey, at least it helps you avoid the reality of a global economy - right?
Geez - look - Gov. Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown must have had an ephiphany:
"We have lived beyond our means," he said. "The chickens are coming home to roost and this is just one in a series of countermeasures that will be required over the next decade."
California Governor Jerry Brown and lawmakers have reached a deal to raise public employees' retirement ages, have them pay more into their pension accounts, and cap retirement payments in a vast overhaul of the state's pension system that he says will save $30 billion.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/29/us-california-pensions-idUSBRE87R13B20120829?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews
Meanwhile in Detroit:
"Detroit police officers received 10% less in their paychecks on Friday even though a Wayne County Circuit judge earlier this month issued a temporary restraining order to block city imposed wage cuts.
Stephens was unable to confirm if or when officers would get back the 10% missing from their paychecks. It is also unclear if the payroll will be corrected in time for officers’ next pay day on Sept. 7."
It sure sucks to run out of other peoples money...
Keith Schmitz
7:14 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Dick Head -- "isn't for scoialists??" Not dealing with a full deck are we?
Why not point out what was wrong with what Mrs. Peel said.
I really don't give a damn about what you think about the pending statement, but it is time we demand that those who can afford to pay higher taxes do it.
Get what's wrong with this picture? Frist responders have to take a pay cut because people like the entitled, self-indulgent Mitt Romney can pay next to no taxes.
Is there somewhere you could go to get your Head screwed on right?
Once someone goes to the socialist charge you know the writer has lost it.
BTW -- what is wrong with socialism.. There are a lot of socialist counties -- Norway, Sweden, etc that are kicking out butts economically.
Speaking of economics, here's a lesson for you - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/23/michael-d-higgins-takes-down-michael-graham_n_1825812.html.
Don Q
8:04 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
MrsPeel,
I will ask you a simple question. How much is enough? My wife and I currently pay approximately 50% of our income to Government. Be it income tax, property tax, gas tax, sales tax or any number of fees that are associated with daily living. We work from January 1 to July for the Government.
We live in a modest bungalow in Shorewood. I drive an 8 year old car. We are NOT part of the 1%. My wife dreams of travel and retirement and I dream of new cars and paying off our mortgage. We are average.
We are realist and know that Medicare, in it present form, will not be available to us. So, we save. If you did not watch Condalezza Rice or Paul Ryan last night, you have your head in the sand. You should be very afraid of the slippery slope that we have been on for the last 10 years. The last four years should have proven to you that Hope & Change is a bumper sticker slogan and not a governmental platform. Paul Ryan is a powerful leader and an economic expert. This will come to light over the next several months. (can't wait for the debates)
President Obama wants to raise my taxes. How long will I have to work for the government next year? How much is enough? It really is a simple question. Can you answer it. You talk about Paul Ryan "screwing" everyone else. I'm wondering who's really doing the screwing here.
GearHead
8:06 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Keith: I hear that socialist bookstore you ran worked great too, until you ran out of other peoples' money.
Ryan
8:07 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Another week, another 374,000 jobless claims... http://www.cnbc.com/id/48840584
yes, Obungo is doing a great job. Schmitzy wants us all living like him, in a van down by the Milwaukee River.
James R Hoffa
8:10 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Schmitzy and Mrs. Peel -
WRONG AGAIN - but did anyone really expect otherwise?
For starters, the Janesville GM assembly plant remained open and working with a largely reduced workforce until June of 2009 in order to fulfill a contract that GM had with then partner Isuzu Motors of Japan. Then Gov Doyle offered GM a $100M+ state tax break all throughout early 2009 in trying to save the plant from closing for good. Under Walker, such tax breaks were available for all businesses in the state - not select top down hand picked winners and losers. Obama, who was then President and dealing with the auto bailout, offered nothing from the federal government in order to save the plant, despite him being the only one who promised the workers "that this plant will be here for another hundred years," if only he was given an opportunity to lead.
Obama was given the opportunity, and took great personal liberty in restructuring the auto bailouts from a straight up interest bearing loan with a defined repayment scheduled, as set up by G W Bush and just as Carter had successfully done with Iaccoca at the helm of Chrysler back in '79, into a behind closed doors smoked filled room deal with the UAW, Italians, and Canadians that has cost the taxpayers billions in losses.
And where was Obama during the WI protests? Didn't he promise to march in the picket lines?
Do your damned homework instead of believing the MSDNC lies hook, line, and sinker!
Chadwick
9:11 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
MrsPeel, I swear you must live in an alternate universe. Social Security isn't socialism; it's part of a retirement system that we pay into. It definitely needs to be fixed because people have paid in less than what they are taking out because of increased lifespans but Ryan is arguing against people taking out of the system without paying anything into it. Your arguments are baseless and contrived. The only thing I ever see you point out on here is grammatical errors from other people. Are you some old english teacher who is mad at the world and watches MSNBC all day?
David Tatarowicz
9:56 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Well said Mrs Peel
Randy1949
10:04 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Chadwick -- Are you arguing against disability for children disabled from birth? True, they didn't pay in, but what are you going to do for people who never had a chance to support themselves? I agree, the definition of 'disabled' needs to be tightened a bit. I don't think a child with ADHD should be a family meal-ticket, and I resent the adults who created their own disabilities with alcohol and drugs.
David Tatarowicz
10:08 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Don Q A Realist would realize that no matter how much you save now, when you retire, or before, if you have a catastrophic illness, and the provisions of Obamacare are repealed, you can be wiped out ENTIRELY within one week of medical care !!
Think about it. Before Obamacare, almost all insurance policies had a 1,000,000 lifetime ceiling. As we grow older, because of our higher standard of living, we are having procedures done that would have been regarded as science fiction 40 years ago.
A knee replacement, a hip replacement, medications for various ailments, they all start eating into that 1 million fast .... then God forbid you get hit by cancer, surgery, chemo, etc .... eventually one of you starts getting a little dimentia, maybe Parkinson's, all these things are either now treatable, or will be treatable, but with zillions of medication costs.
Eliminate Obamacare and you no longer have health screening under Medicare --- you won't know until it is too late that one of you have colon or breast cancer or some other ailment that is very treatable IF detected early.
Depending upon your age, Ryan's plan takes away your Medicare and you get a voucher to pay for private insurance. When you can find a plan that you can afford with the voucher you get, the co pays, and deductibles will be the money your wife was saving for those trips.
Don Q
10:40 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
David,
Thats why its called PERSONAL responsibility. I will save and pay for my insurance. you take care of yourself. Why won't anyone give me a number. HOW MUCH OF MY MONEY DO YOU NEED TO HAVE YOUR COMFORTABLE LIFE?
Randy1949
10:54 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Don Q -- I'm happy for you that you have the income to afford private health insurance. You do realize that if the AHA is repealed there is nothing to stop your health insurance company from dropping you entirely or raising your rates beyond your ability to pay. Income tends to drop sharply when you're sick and unable to work.
Tim
11:09 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Mrs. Peel....Social Securtiy money paid in by his dead Father. Since you're a lefty I know your uninformed but everybody including you would get benefits from your fathers social security if you were of age and going to school. Not a government hand out like you lefties like to recieve. You loon .... prepare yourself for November.
Craig
10:15 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Mrs Peel. Social Security is a Trust fund. It is a lot like buying insurance if you become sick or die, or are fortunate to live long enough to retire. Part of the costs of Social Security is the disability insurance portion. If you become disabled after paying into the program for 16 qualified quarters, you qualify for disability payments. If you die, then there are survivor benefits like you mentioned above. What SSI was never origionally intended for was the welfare program. The $588/mo for children with disabilities and adults who have never worked. Oh, and by the way....didn't we eliminate welfare? This is proof we did not. People drawing from the system who never contributed.
GearHead
7:55 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
I have a thrill going up my leg! Thanks Paul for demonstrating true leadership.
morninmist
1:58 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
You are as much as an embarrassment to WI as Paul Ryan and Mitt are!
Coffee Bean @CoffeeBean26
Mitt Romney & his 533 lies in 30 weeks. All cited http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2012/08/29/mitt-romney-tells-533-lies-in-30-weeks-steve-benen-documents-them/ #WIunion #p2 #p2b #ctl #topprog #fem2 ##RNC #GOP2012 #tcot #twisters
Keith Best
8:13 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
About 100 people came to catch the atmosphere of being at the convention at the Waukesha Campaign Victory Office on Wednesday night, to hear native son Paul Ryan and others address the country. Come out to 1701 Pearl St. for tonight's speech by presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The event starts at 7pm.
Walker
8:50 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
"It began with a housing crisis they alone didn’t cause; it ends with a housing crisis they didn’t correct."---Paul Ryan.
And because the Dems couldn't fix in 4 yrs. what the GOP broke in 8 yrs. quickly enough we should put the GOP back in charge to do it again!!!
J. B. Schmidt
8:58 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Walker
I am glad you are able to comment with ZERO understanding of the housing market collapse. It started back in Carter Administration and both parties nursed it into the bubble it was in 2009. It was nice to see a Democratically controlled congress do nothing except protect Freddie and Frannie as the economy went off a cliff.
In truth Obama has done nothing of note to correct the problem.
Chadwick
9:15 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Walker, What the GOP broke in 8 years? Seriously? If you are this lost please don't vote as you are doing a disservice to the entire country. Check out the bill passed in 1998 by Frank. The entire govt is responsible for this mess but it started with liberals pressuring banks to give loans to people who shouldn't have qualified. Please get some facts before spewing liberal propoganda.
Ryan
9:15 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Your understanding of the housing crisis and general business acumen is what I expect from an MSNBC viewer. The housing crisis was caused by the CRA and the FED, I could go into further detail, but my father always warned me about casting pearls before swine.
Randy1949
9:15 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@J.B. -- If the housing crisis began with the Carter administration and you're arguing cause and effect, why did it take three decades to come to fruition? I maintain that the practice of bundling mortgages and selling them off as investment opportunities had more to do with it than simply allowing an average Joe to buy a house in a red-lined neighborhood.
James R Hoffa
9:24 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Randy1949 -
Cause and effect appears quite elementary here - if those who had taken out loans not defaulted on them and actually performed on the promises they made after being given the opportunity to experience the American dream of home ownership, the crisis never would have happened, would it?
Randy1949
9:41 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@JRH -- I agree. But some of those defaults were for McMansions, not homes in 'those' neighborhoods. And the two defaults I know of were people had unpredictable changes in economic circumstance. They would have paid their mortgages on time if they had been able to. No one expects to lose a job or get laid off.
These mortgages were profitable enough to become an investment opportunity, and I think some iffy ones were issued in the spirit of them remaining profitable even with a foreclosure. All those month of interest, and you could take back a house that was worth a mint. It works until the whole thing goes in the toilet.
And don't look at me. I look at my house as a place to live rather than an investment or a piggy bank to borrow on. What did I see here a few months ago but an article by a banker about taking out equity loans to pay for home improvements or whatever. Isn't this the attitude that got us into trouble in the first place?
Walker
10:10 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
You sheep are too funny. If you read the article instead of jumping down throats you would see it is a direct quote from Ryan himself. Nothing but blind followers. Does the kool-aid taste that good?
James R Hoffa
10:13 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Randy1949 -
And McDonalds convinces us daily that their offerings provide a nutritious and well balanced meal.
At what point does it become the consumers' responsibility to distinguish between subjective puffery and objective reality? Certainly, the old adage of 'if it sounds too good to be true...' should apply!
But no - you prefer the government to treat us all like children and protect us from our own stupidity via stringent regulation. Once again, the plight of the idiots takes precedence over the freedoms of all. Come on!
And a responsible home buyer would NOT have purchased with borrowed capital premised upon their current employment situation, but rather on what they could afford if they were to unexpectedly find themselves in a less desirable income situation in the future, just as Hoffa did. Even if Hoffa was reduced to two minimum wage jobs, one full and one part time, he'd still be able to pay the mortgage and all the monthly bills without issue.
It's called being financially responsible and doing what's necessary to perform on the promises you make to others, which goes to character and integrity.
There are no reasonable excuses as to why mortgage home buyers default on their obligations! Wake up!
David Tatarowicz
10:15 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Walker The Big Myth is that the Housing Crisis was somehow separate and distinct from the Bank Crisis, the Wall Street Manipulations, and the Exotic Investment Instruments, that the brokers selling didn't even understand.
The precursor of course was the Saving and Loan debacle that should have taught us that we better damn sure keep the financial regulations that were started as a result of the Great Depression, be kept in tact.
They weren't, a few people became Billionaires from manipulating the smoke and mirrors, and the middle class guy or gal who was sold the bill of goods on re-fi, in a churning and burning by the mortgage brokers and the syndicates putting the bond packages together, got the blame.
Shame.
Chadwick
10:16 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Walker; we are arguing the point that you added to the quote; jeez, have a cup of coffee and wake up.
Randy1949
10:23 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@JRH -- If everyone was like you and me, there wouldn't have been a housing bubble because no one would have been buying those McMansions with the granite counters. But where the government should have stepped in was by not allowing banks to make iffy loans and then sell them to unsuspecting patsies. That's the sort of regulations the government should be doing. Just like after 1929 they passed a regulation that you actually had to have the money in hand to purchase stocks. I'm not sure if that rule still stands, but it should.
James R Hoffa
10:26 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@David -
Could you please explain to me what is so difficult to understand about the term 'adjustable rate,' and why you apparently think and feel that it was beyond the comprehension of the typical "middle class guy or gal?"
And what exactly did the typical "middle class guy or gal" use the money realized from the HELOC or re-fi for? It obviously wasn't used to pay down their mortgage obligation, was it?
Come on - are you serious?!?!
So in other words, the government should regulate everything to the standard of assuming that the mass of its citizenry are a bunch of stupid idiots. Why do you have such a low opinion of your fellow Americans?
Thanks!
J. B. Schmidt
10:51 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Randy
It all started with the Community Reinvestment Act under Carter where the government got involved in 'encouraging' banks to loan money to people that should have had a loan. It snowballed from there into the risky lending practices we saw just before 2009. At every point we see the government sticking nose into the private sector attempting to make outcomes fair within home ownership. Even while the warning signs of a Freddie and Frannie were becoming apparent Barnie Frank defended them as sound entities.
James R Hoffa
10:51 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Randy1949 -
I'm not asking, nor do I expect everyone to be like us. I simply expect people to accept and deal with the consequences of their actions/decisions, instead of expecting the whole to constantly bail out realized mistakes of their foolishness.
Under the new philosophy embraced by the popular culture of our society, in which everyone participating must receive some sort of award, there's little opportunity to build the kind of character that made this nation what it is today.
What the government shouldn't have done was bailed out the companies that voluntarily took on too much risk. Most of the Wall Street players that you and others constantly point the finger at never even wanted the TARP loans - team Paulson/Geithner/Bernanke forced them down Wall Street's throats with threats from the SEC and FDIC. And most of the Wall Street players have repaid their TARP loans with interest.
The problem, and the greatest loss to taxpayers, was realized primarily in four companies - Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, and GM. All government intervention effectively did was to pick and choose who survived and who was left to fold on their own.
As for stocks, most brokerage houses offer the opportunity of interest bearing leveraged trading for merely maintaining a certain minimum balance in one's trading account. Hoffa's Scottrade account offers a 2:1 leverage purchase opportunity, but that doesn't mean that Hoffa has to use it.
Randy1949
11:00 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@J.B. Schmidt -- I think you meant 'should NOT have had a loan' and that's bull. The practice was called red-lining -- refusing to insure or approve mortgages for houses in certain neighborhoods, which just led to more urban blight. It was racist to the extreme.
Your 'snowball' didn't hit the ski-resort until almost thirty years later when the banks started getting creative with the mortgages.
J. B. Schmidt
11:21 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Randy
Thanks for correcting me.
Urban blight is caused by the residents and not by banks. My guess is that people in those neighborhood default at a significantly higher margin those that live around your ski hill. Is protecting your bank from lenders unable to pay bad?
The Community Reinvestment Act had been bastardized numerous times between 1989 and 2005 by both parties. So the original Carter Act was not the cause; however, it propped the door open for more government intrusion. Such as banks making bad loans to people who couldn't afford them at the direction of the government and then bundling the crap loans and selling them to the quasi-governmental Freddie and Frannie in order to protect themselves.
At times you libs need to remember that the world wasn't all peaches and gum drops before W.
Randy1949
11:31 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@J.B. -- You're welcome. And again, you know nothing of the situation that originally prompted the act. Urban blight is caused by inhabitants who have no stake in keeping up the neighborhood. It is caused by absentee landlords who don't maintain their property. Mortgages were being denied to people who were good credit risks and wanted to own their own homes in their own neighborhoods. The result was gentrification and the resurgence of neighborhoods that had fallen into decay.
Some of us 'libs' remember more of the world as it was before George W. Bush than you do. It was not peaches and gumdrops for some people. I never said it was.
James R Hoffa
11:43 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Randy1949 -
Why is it always the landlords fault, and not the tenants?
The Chicago Housing Authority projects are a perfect example. Originally, they housed Italian and Irish immigrants, and the properties were beautifully maintained by the tenants who had formed community pride organizations in the project neighborhoods.
Then, a people of a different ethnic/racial background overwhelmingly moved into the projects - and from there, they went downhill fast, despite the CHA and the federal government pumping more money than ever before into maintaining those properties. Things eventually got so bad, that the feds forced the CHA to tear them all down. Clearly, the residents were the problem - not the landlords! Otherwise, how did the Italians and Irish make them work so well with so little public dollars being spent on the maintenance and upkeep of those projects?
Care to try again?
joanne
11:49 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
"Mortgages were being denied to people who were good credit risks and wanted to own their own homes in their own neighborhoods."
prove they were good credit risks
Randy1949
11:53 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@JRH -- It's the fault of both, but surely even you would agree that it's a landlord's responsibility to make repairs, since that's included in the rent. Should you have to pay rent and fix your own roof? And don't you agree that a ratio of homeowners in a neighborhood keeps things up?
I'm well aware of the mess Cabrini Green became.The high-rises are gone, but the townhouses remain. The same happened with Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis, and the common factor was high-rises, too many people sharing the same hallways and elevators. No one had a sense of personal space, and those areas fell into disrepair.
Are you against home ownership, JRH?
Randy1949
11:56 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@joanne -- Prove they weren't. Red-lining was done by neighborhood not individual.
J. B. Schmidt
12:00 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Randy
Of course, the big evil banks should be forced to take risk.
Its the fault of the high rise? Should we then expect the towers of condos in along the lake shore to become the next Milwaukee ghetto? Those people that lived in those projects would have allowed their houses to fall apart as they did those high rises.
James R Hoffa
12:09 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Randy1949 -
Of course the landlord should have to make repairs, but not due to damage caused overwhelmingly by either actions or in-actions of the tenants - which is overwhelmingly the case in most of the neighborhoods that you describe.
And the high-rise aspect of the project buildings had nothing to do with their demise - the Irish and Italians made them work well without trashing them, just as residential high-rises work in most major modern cities across the world. In fact, the breeze-way plan that many of the project high-rise extension buildings were built according to gave a greater sense of personal space and open-air freedom vs mere enclosed hallways. So please - spare the intelligent and thinking crowd of that line of crap!
The demise of those buildings solely lies at the fault of the tenants that dominated those projects starting in the 1970s - it's that simple! Even when they were given something for nothing from the taxpayers - they trashed it! Granted they weren't luxury condos, but why should the government provide anything more than the bare necessities? The Irish and Italians were thrilled and treated them like gold. But not the most recent inhabitants - why?
Beggars can't be choosey - except in this country apparently! Honestly, what more can you say?
Let's get real - please?
GearHead
1:27 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Randy 11:31 am. "Urban blight is caused by inhabitants who have no stake in keeping up the neighborhood. It is caused by absentee landlords who don't maintain their property. Mortgages were being denied to people who were good credit risks and wanted to own their own homes in their own neighborhoods."
Randy gets it wrong again. Urban blight is caused by crime, which motivates people to move out of a crappy neighborhood. Less desirables move in, and many homeowners are stuck watching a death spiral. Landlords cannot by themselves resurect a bad neighborhood. But lending 125% LTV to a new "homeowner" whose only qualification is being able to fog a mirror held under their nose doesn't help, either. The lions share of those loans went into neighborhoods that were not redlined. We saw this coming. I know of what I speak. Most who lost their homes had no business owning a house in the first place, and are back to renting. It was idiotic to lend to irresponsible people. But I can't blame them for buying in the first place, if someone was willing to lend them the money. Who wouldn't buy in that case? So relaxed lending standards are responsible for the blight occuring in your neighborhood by any foreclosed housing, not absentee landlords. But you see a racist behind every tree, don't you? I'm not buying it.
Randy1949
1:40 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@GearHead -- Urban blight is caused by a lot of things -- white flight, black middle-class flight, absentee landlords, crime, you name it. There's no blight in my neighborhood, thank you very much, but we're seeing the handwriting on the wall in my son's neighborhood, where my family has owned a house since 1920.
Just don't blame the original Community Reinvestment Act for the 2008 mortgage crisis.
GearHead
3:08 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Randy: there is blight in every neighborhood wherever there was a foreclosure, because that impacted the value of all of our homes. Those in my or your neighborhood never got boarded up, but the impact still remains. And yes, the CRA had everything to do with this. There was no such thing as derivitive investment paper, until that monstrosity got invented, during the Clinton years, to make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t. The derivitives were only the first dominos to fall... ultimately taking down the rest of the house of cards.
Craig
10:25 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
J.B.Schmidt is 100% correct with his statements regarding mortgage failures. Carter got it started, and nearly every Administration since Carter has expanded upon it. McMansions and Jumbo Loans we added to the mix under Clinton. This was a heavy weight to tip the scales and cause collapse of everything.
Michael McClusky
9:32 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Ryan says he wants to uphold the Constitution. Well, that's refreshing. The Democrats want to trash it to make everyone equal. La-la land. It doesn't work!
oak creek resident
10:27 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@ Keith Schmit
Keith, please stop posting your ignorant comments, and get back to what you do best:
Scam taxpayers out of dollars while you run a business into the ground!
No wonder you hate America. You cannot compete in the real world, so like Obama and his friends, you'd rather lower the bar and make everyone suffer equally.
What a small, disgusting petty man you are.
Walker
11:27 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Please don't leave the confines of OC.
Nick Poulos
11:11 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
It's really a shame that you all wasted an hour or your precious lives listening to more Ayn Randian-infused twaddle: there really was an awful lot to do other than listen to predictable distortion, lies, empty promises, and more from the disappointment of Wisconsin. And the name-calling goes on: what a treat!
James R Hoffa
11:30 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Nick -
So why are you wasting your time commenting on something that you deem as little more than a waste of time in itself?
Wisconsin is leading the revolution back to fiscal sanity - Walker, Ryan, and Priebus are at the forefront of the dream team. Meanwhile, the great liberal state of Illinois had their credit rating downgraded yet again and the Chicago teachers union threatening to strike a week into the new school year. Yeah, your version of government is really doing better than the new conservative vision, isn't it?
BTW - The first instance of name-calling on this board was done by Schmitzy, "childish," and in case you didn't realize it, he's on your side!
J. B. Schmidt
11:31 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Nick
I find it interesting that you point out naming calling after referring to Ryan's speech as "Ayn Randian-infused twaddle" filled with "predictable distortion, lies, empty promises".
It would appear that only Obama supports are evolved enough to understand the deeper meaning within Obama's "predictable distortion, lies, empty promises" as Ryan's "Ayn Randian-infused twaddle" factually pointed out.
As a conservative knuckle dragger I believe this thread was made better by your post, thank you.
GearHead
11:35 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Nick: "distortion, lies, empty promises..." You're sounding jealous! Could it be the brilliant mind-picture painted by that fading Obama poster in your house? Talke about a bitter clinger - trying to catch yesterday's wind one last time?
joanne
11:48 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Better hour spent listening to Ryan than one of your babblings at your part time job as a rent a teacher at UW M.
Bob McBride
12:05 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Nick wasted G-d knows how much of his time repackaging his usual talking points and would like you to waste another 5 minutes of yours reading it.
http://shorewood.patch.com/blog_posts/what-to-do-on-convention-night-with-no-cable
You're welcome, Nick.
dee50
7:36 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Nick,
EXACTLY!
Randy1949
12:07 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@J.B. -- @Randy
"Of course, the big evil banks should be forced to take risk."
Not to consider some people more risky than others.
"During the heyday of redlining, the areas most frequently discriminated against were black inner city neighborhoods. For example, in Atlanta in the 1980s, a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles by investigative reporter Bill Dedman showed that banks would often lend to lower-income whites but not to middle- or upper-income blacks." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining
"Its the fault of the high rise? Should we then expect the towers of condos in along the lake shore to become the next Milwaukee ghetto? Those people that lived in those projects would have allowed their houses to fall apart as they did those high rises."
People own their condos, which kind of proves my point.
J. B. Schmidt
12:21 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Randy
You specifically called the high-rises and proximity to other people as the cause of the dysfunction. Not the lack of ownership. I am sure I could find numerous rental facilities that lack the dysfunction found in the inner city to prove my point.
Home ownership cannot be a blanket assumption with regards to home maintenance. There are parts of Stallis and the Milwaukee's south side with higher home ownership then in the inner city and yet the houses are in disrepair.
I do believe that discrimination was already illegal 1977, wasn't it? Shouldn't we have addressed that rather then demand that banks make bad loans in an attempt to stop discrimination?
Randy1949
12:34 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
No, I did not. I said it was the lack of sense of ownership of the common spaces and the units. Condo owners own their units and they 'own' the hallways and other areas in common. They also have a condo association to discourage bad behavior.
I'm beginning to sense you feel that only certain people have the right to own homes.
Discrimination in housing and employment was illegal back then, but the economic discrimination behind red-lining wasn't, as you can see from my quote above.
J. B. Schmidt
12:48 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Randy
"the common factor was high-rises, too many people sharing the same hallways and elevators. No one had a sense of personal space, and those areas fell into disrepair."
You said it, not I.
Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, and national origin. Why could have not enforced this?
Our freedoms like the dinosaurs are being lost, crushed and fossilized as the government continues to add layers of bureaucratic strata on top of the constitution.
I am against home ownership to those who cannot prove they can pay. If you have a steady source of income, limited debt and job stability then you should be able to purchase a house. The size of your loan be based on the risk you pose to the lender.
Randy1949
12:58 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@J.B. Schmidt -- And here is what I am basing it on: "Despite decay of the public areas and gang violence, Pruitt–Igoe contained isolated pockets of relative well-being throughout its worst years. Apartments clustered around small, two-family landings with tenants working to maintain and clear their common areas were often relatively successful. When corridors were shared by 20 families and staircases by hundreds, public spaces immediately fell into disrepair.[17] When the number of residents per public space rose above a certain level, none would identify with these "no man's land[s]" – places where it was "impossible to feel ... to tell resident from intruder"" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruitt%E2%80%93Igoe
Human being behave better when they have a sense of ownership and control.
"If you have a steady source of income, limited debt and job stability then you should be able to purchase a house."
And this quote proves that people with that ability were denied loans based on their race and the area in which they wished to purchase: "For example, in Atlanta in the 1980s, a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles by investigative reporter Bill Dedman showed that banks would often lend to lower-income whites but not to middle- or upper-income blacks." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining
James R Hoffa
1:47 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Randy1949 -
Shouldn't people receiving public housing benefits just be thankful and take pride in the fact that they have a roof over their head?
If they want to feel a sense of ownership, then shouldn't they work hard and save up in order to be able to actually do so for real on their own? Wasn't that the idea behind public housing in the first place - to use it as a temporary stepping stone to help people get back on their feet? That's what the original Irish and Italian immigrants in Chicago did.
Instead, you now have generations of government dependents living solely in public housing projects or with section 8 vouchers - it's an absurd abuse of the program and a perversion beyond what was originally intended. So why do we continue to allow it?
And your answer is to provide these people with something even nicer so that they can feel a sense of ownership?!?!
Again, only in America, because of people like Randy, can beggars be choosey!
It really is quite astonishing!
Randy1949
1:56 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@JRH -- Of course they should be grateful for a nice place, and they should be able to save for a place of their own, and that requires getting a mortgage for a house they can afford, which might be in one of those neighborhoods you weren't able to get a mortgage in before 1977 and now we're back where we started.
J. B. Schmidt
2:08 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Randy
I am not in favor of discrimination by race only by risk. As I have pointed out it was already illegal to Redline. Why did we not punish those responsible rather than create the CRA as another level of government.
Are you propagating the exact lie that Ryan pointed out in his speech. "Listen to the way we’re spoken to already, as if everyone is stuck in some class or station in life, victims of circumstances beyond our control, with government there to help us cope with our fate. "
morninmist
12:09 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Ryan looked and acted cocky and smug during his misleading speach.
Spud Lovr @SpudLovr
Wisconsin paper's editorial slams #PaulRyan for GM "lie," using "hometown as a prop." http://ow.ly/dlP7e #wiunion #RNC2012 #GOP
...True. Obama spoke the words that Ryan quoted. But Ryan’s clear suggestion that Obama — or his policies — had something to do with the plant closure was a lie.
The government that was not there to support the Janesville workers was the administration of George W. Bush. GM announced and implemented the closure of the plant during Bush’s presidency.
When a newly elected President Obama rushed to save the domestic auto industry, and perhaps to renew the prospects of shuttered plants like the one in Janesville, the man whose campaign Ryan is now propping up wrote an op-ed titled: “Let Detroit (and, presumably Janesville) Go Bankrupt.”
And since we’re on the subject of government failing the workers in Paul Ryan’s hometown, surely it is relevant to bring up the congressman’s repeated votes for free-trade agreements that members of Janesville’s United Auto Workers Local 95 warned would undermine and ultimately shutter their workplace......
Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/editorial/editorial-paul-ryan-rewrites-janesville-s-history/article_bdb0ca80-f298-11e1-9e59-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz253Aar8yJ
Steve ®
12:15 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Don't cry
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/08/obama-has-millions-of-fake-twitter-followers/1#.UD-fXJbfJ8E
►70% of Obama's crowd includes "fake followers,"◄
James R Hoffa
12:41 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@morninmist -
Leave it to you to confuse confidence with appearing cocky.
Examples of being cocky are when the President said to his partisan opponents - "elections have consequences," "I won," and laughing about how "shovel ready was not as shovel ready as we expected."
Also leave it to you to spread bogus LIES:
The GM assembly plant in Janesville produced light and medium trucks pursuant to a contract with then GM partner Isuzu Motors of Japan up until June of 2009. The plant finally fully idled during Obama's administration, the man who promised the workers of that plant that if given a chance, he'd keep it open for a hundred more years.
NAFTA predates Ryan's tenure in the House, so what FTA's are you referring to exactly?
BTW - The UAW fully backed, endorsed, and supported NAFTA, just as they also did the recent Korean FTA, so why are you lying about this?
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/01/business/uaw-wants-trade-payoff-in-jobs.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
http://workinprogress.firedoglake.com/2010/12/09/uaw-backed-nafta-style-korea-free-trade-to-reward-the-administration-for-good-behavior/
Not to mention that the Janesville plant closed before the vote in the House ever took place on the Colombian and Korean FTAs. I also haven't heard of any GM plans to establish a truck assembly plant in Colombia.
Do your homework instead of being a liberal stooge!
James R Hoffa
3:52 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@morninmist -
Still waiting for you tell us what trade agreements that Ryan voted in favor of, that the UAW opposed, that caused the Janesville GM assembly plant to close.
Steve ®
12:10 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Did MSNBC show any speakers of color last night?
Randy1949
12:20 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@JRH -- I think you need to do a little reading on the history of the Cabrini Green projects.
"The Irish and Italians were thrilled and treated them like gold. But not the most recent inhabitants - why?"
Nope, the Irish and Italians inhabited the rowhouses: "According to the CHA, the early residents of the Cabrini row houses were predominantly of Italian ancestry.[4] By 1962, however, a majority of residents in the completed complex were black. Crime and radical culture change drove whites from the complex over the following decade; by the 1970s, its population was almost entirely black." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabrini%E2%80%93Green
Not so coincidentally, 1962 was the year the last of the high rise complexes were completed. The first high rise was built in 1957. The row houses had been there since 1942 and are still standing.
James R Hoffa
1:01 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Randy1949 -
I'm well aware of the history of the CHA projects, including Ida B Wells, Harold Ickes, Robert Taylor, Stateway Gardens, etc - not just Cabrini. The original inhabitants of the high-rises were the predominantly white Italian and Irish immigrants, who took great pride and care not only of the row-houses, but also the high-rises. They were almost completely driven out of the projects by the time the final high-rise extensions were completed.
And while the Cabrini rowhouses are still standing, after a couple rehabilitation efforts by the CHA, the Ida B Wells and other larger row-house projects on the South side were completely demolished due to being trashed by the most recent inhabitants of such projects.
Watch the Henry Louis Gates exploration video of the projects and you'll see why they failed. In Ida B Wells, residents refused to plug rat holes on their own accord, expecting the CHA to do it for them. There are also numerous videos on YouTube of residents tagging (graffiti) the buildings and intentionally destroying the public property.
As I said before, the taxpayers give them something for nothing and they trash it. Only in America, because of people like you, can beggars be choosey!
Randy1949
1:09 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
What's your point, Hoffa -- that white people know how to take care of their houses and black people don't?
This conversation didn't start with 'something for nothing'. It started with the ability of a middle class black (or white) person to buy a home with a mortgage in certain 'urban' areas. As in, own it and pay for it. That's good for a neighborhood in the long run.
James R Hoffa
1:36 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Randy1949 -
That is not Hoffa's point at all and you knew that before you even made such a comment!
The issue Hoffa was disputing was in relation to your comments about slumlords. While indeed there are some slumlords out there, they are not as widespread as you and others contend them to be.
Most of the time, and especially in the neighborhoods you referred to, landlords are forced to accept less than ideal tenants because of federal anti-discrimination laws, even though the real reasons making such tenants less than ideal have nothing to do with any constitutionally prohibited discriminatory practices.
Once in, these people tend to cause a great deal of damage to the rental properties and are extremely difficult and costly for a landlord to get rid of. Watch the film Pacific Heights (1990) for a perfect example of this.
As most of these people don't have a pot to piss in and live on government assistance, any recourse for redress by the landlord is futile. To maintain the properties in the condition that you expect, and then have to lease out to such less then desirable tenants, quickly becomes a money losing venture. Many landlords try to balance this as well as they can while still maintaining a fair profit, but people like you prefer to label them the bad guys and call them slumlords.
Instead, why not blame the tenants who trash and run down such properties with such indifference?
That's the Hoffa point!
tom munson
12:36 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
The Young (Ryan) v the Useless (Obama/Biden)
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/315425/young-vs-useless-touch-gipper-john-fund
Rascal99
12:37 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
So, apparently the hyper-religious GOP is ok with the sin of lying. Funny how that works.
morninmist
2:00 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
And Paul tells the lies in front of his children on national TV!
James R Hoffa
3:50 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@morninmist -
Obama always lies in front of his children, whether they're on television or not!
morninmist
12:37 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Walker needs new talking points.
http://democurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-real-scott-walker-melted-down-on.html
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
The Real Scott Walker Melted Down on National TV!
In what was supposed to be a quick in and out interview with Scott Walker, about Paul Ryan's "powerful" speech tonight, turned out to be anything but.
The divide and conquering hero, Scott Walker, went into melt down mode under questioning. Walker panicked, backtracked, fabricated, played the victim and finally smarted off to MSNBC hosts on national television. Take a good look, Walker's rage and deep seeded authoritarian nature does not react well to questions and then followup questions.
Two quick points; Walker must have been on something when said flat out Obama promise the plant in Janesville would still be open. Jaw dropping:
Walker: "Barack Obama promised the people in Janesville that that plant would still be open."
James R Hoffa
1:12 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@morninmist -
The MSDNC hosts comprise the LIARS - not Walker. Walker held his ground and was not intimidated or bullied by the talking over of Sharpton, Schultz, O'Donnell, et al.
That's what's called real leadership!
When are you going to admit that the MSDNC hosts were wrong about the Janesville GM plant closing? Light and medium duty truck assembly continued after Obama was sworn in. My father, a UAW electrician, worked at the plant in March of 2009.
Are you, MSDNC, and other liberals calling my father, GM, the UAW, the AP, the Janesville Gazette, the Milwaukee J/S, etc liars?
I think you've finally overdosed on the kool-aide if you can't even recognize and admit the truth about this story - or non-story to anyone with half a brain, as it is!
Shame on you for calling 100's of UAW autoworkers liars!!! Have you no dignity? Of course not - silly question ;-)
morninmist
1:22 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Hoffa
I thought last night was about the same as this tweet--that this national stage was no place to have his children. They saw and heard their father tell lies and half truths. Shame on Ryan.
Herny Stoner @stophrtngusa
A man, who brings his mother, wife & children to Nat'l Stage & tells blatant lies in front of them, is not a man. #p2 #UCantHideUrRyanLies
Walker
1:24 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
From Milw j/s:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/79145747.html?ipad=y
James R Hoffa
1:50 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@morninmist -
By that standard, Obama should have given his daughters up for adoption when they were born.
Seriously, you may want to visit a mental health professional as soon as possible!
Bren
7:59 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Here's a good analysis from NPR of what Obama actually said (including speech excerpts and plant timelines). http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/08/30/160320776/janesville-debate-dissecting-ryans-claim-obamas-promise-the-facts
Ryan is relying on voter laziness to not fact-check. It's too bad that we have to do this but spin has been a part of politics since George Washington.
My question: Obama has stated that he would work to try to reopen plants like Janesville, which fundamentally closed in December 2008. What has Scott Walker done to initiate discourse with the Obama administration to make Janesville a priority? This is probably not on his ALEC to-do list, unfortunately.
Thanks for providing the link to Walker without an ALEC script. Grimly hanging on to his memorized talking points and going on the attack ("You can keep talking over me") when he realized MSNBC hosts wouldn't take his rapid-fire babble as Gospel as they do on FOX. Another proud moment for Wisconsin. Sigh.
morninmist
12:54 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Paul was an embarrassment to WI last night.
PFAW Wisconsin @PFAW_WI
Johnathan Bernstein calls out Ryan RNC speech "telling flat-out lies to the American people." http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/paul-ryan-fails----the-truth/2012/08/29/bbfe1eac-f254-11e1-b74c-84ed55e0300b_blog.html #p2 #WIunion #peoplefor
...Paul Ryan fails -- the truth
By Jonathan Bernstein
It was, by any reasonable standards, a staggering, staggering lie. Here’s Paul Ryan about Barack Obama:
He created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.
“They.” “Them.” “Them.” Those words are lies. Because Paul Ryan was on that commission. “Came back with an urgent report.” That is a lie. The commission never made any recommendations for Barack Obama to support or oppose. Why not? Because the commission voted down its own recommendations. Why? Because Paul Ryan, a member of the commission, voted it down and successfully convinced the other House Republicans on the commission to vote it down....
James R Hoffa
1:15 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@morninmist -
"Paul was an embarrassment to WI last night."
Only to you and your fellow lemmings.
Greg
1:25 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
misty, Are you a Bears or Vikings fan. You are the type of person who always roots against the home team, you are nothing but a bore.
GearHead
1:41 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@morninmist: You just embarassed yourself now by trying to trash a boy scout and truly upstanding statesman. But then everyone has a talent. Your's is a special one.
morninmist
3:36 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Gear..
Boy -scouts should not tell lies in front of their children.
Walker
1:05 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
http://www.jsonline.com/news/usandworld/national/fact-check-ryan-takes-factual-shortcuts-in-speech14898048670841759c6755a7cabfd5d5-167957646.html
morninmist
2:43 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
cr @brokenwing2005
BREAKING: Paul #Ryan rushed to Tampa #hospital after his #pants burst into #flames #LyinRyan #p2 #dem #Romney2012
Rees Roberts
2:39 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Here is more feedback:
http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/106730/ryan-most-dishonest-convention-speech-five-lies-gm-medicare-deficit-medicaid
and
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/30/fox-news-sally-kohn-paul-ryan_n_1842580.html?1346336378&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009
Your welcome
GearHead
3:17 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Say what you want, Rees, but between Romney and Ryan we will have this president thing locked up for the next generation. And the Democrat party will likely become a minor sideshow party for a generation as well. You will get a good look at that next week, when they run away from their record and turn up the class warfare. Utterly predictable, and ultimately a failing strategy.
morninmist
3:45 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
This has a nice jingle to it---sadly!
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Lyin' Ryan
http://thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com/2012/08/lyin-ryan.html
Bren
7:30 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Gear, what you are eagerly hoping for might not have the results you want. Tipping the scales too far in either direction does not advance democracy.
Rees Roberts
2:41 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Oh and one more:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/08/30/paul-ryans-speech-in-three-words/#ixzz251rvLkSe
morninmist
3:01 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
OUCH
I did not expect those last 2 descriptors of Ryan's speech to come from Fox!!
morninmist
3:26 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
PolitiScoop @PolitiScoop
Sorry Paul Ryan! Even Fox News Isn’t Buying It http://www.politiscoop.com/us-politics/wisconsin-politics/1502-sorry-paul-ryan-even-fox-news-isn-t-buying-it.html via @PolitiScoop
Tampa – Last night Paul Ryan was awarded a gold medal by Fox News and it wasn’t for delivering blunt honesty in such a way that made it palatable to the American public. Instead, the award was given for the number of lies Ryan told during his prime time speech.
Fox Contributor, Sally Kohn writes:
On the other hand, to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to facts, Ryan’s speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech. On this measure, while it was Romney who ran the Olympics, Ryan earned the gold.
Kohn went on to fact check Ryan:......
James R Hoffa
3:46 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Rees and Misty -
Notice how the linked to section of the Fox News websites clearly state 'OPINION?'
So, have you adopted this opinion as mirroring your own, or are you deceitfully trying to pass these opinions off as hard objective facts?
The alleged lie about GM has already been fully debunked. And many of the others are a matter of context - by not including disclose of his own past plan doesn't invalid the fact that he was telling the truth about Obama, does it?
Please, I realize that this may be hard work to some, but can't we try thinking for ourselves for a change instead of blindly accepting what those in the media would have us believe to be true?
Shouldn't we be posting links to primary source facts instead of others analysis and opinions?
Let's wake up!
Walker
3:52 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
The alleged lie about GM has already been fully debunked! ByJimmy! Get over it people!
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/politifact-checking-out-ryans-claims-146m9fr-167983866.html
LOL!!!
dee50
7:25 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Hoffa,
There you go again with your spin.....Please share with us where the BLATANT lie by the Republicons regarding GM was debunked....I will be waiting!
James R Hoffa
11:29 am on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
@dee50 -
1) Obama gave a speech at the plant in Feb of 2008.
2) GM decided to close the plant in June of 2008.
3) Obama doubled down on his 'promise' to plant workers in October of 2008. He specifically cited the Janesville plant.
4) Obama won the election in November of 2008.
5) Heavy duty and retail truck production ended in Dec of 2008.
6) Obama was sworn into office in January of 2009.
7) Under Obama's bailout, other plants that had been closed or slated for closure re-opened or remained open.
8) Employees remained working in Janesville, turning out light and medium duty commercial trucks, fulfilling a contract with then partner Isuzu Motors of Japan, until June of 2009.
Obama was definitely trying to sell HOPE to the autoworkers, that if they supported his nomination, that he would CHANGE their situation. That's the only honest assessment that any reasonable person can draw about the original speech and the double down by Obama.
And if the plant has workers turning out a finished product, I don't see how you can't call that plant anything but being OPEN during the Obama administration. To say that it was closed is an insult to those workers who produced those final vehicles and it radically changes the definition of the word 'closed.' By that standard, any factory not producing three shifts a day 24-7-52 is considered closed or shut down. That just doesn't make any sense.
So tell me, who's spinning here?
James R Hoffa
11:31 am on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Obama's statement in October of 2008:
"This news is also a reminder that Washington needs to finally live up to its promise to help our automakers compete in our global economy. As president, I will lead an effort to retool plants like the GM facility in Janesville so we can build the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow and create good-paying jobs in Wisconsin and all across America."
Remember, the GM announcement to close the plant occurred in June of 2008, so this statement was made after that announcement.
Clearly, the word 'like,' used in such context, meant 'such as,' otherwise why mention creating good paying jobs in Wisconsin, unless Obama was planning to keep Janesville closed and build a new plant in Wisconsin, which would just be plain STUPID and why would anyone need to "retool" a brand new plant?
I don't know about you, but to Hoffa, it sure sounds like Obama was pitching to the Janesville and similarly situated autoworkers to vote for him in the HOPE that Obama's victory might CHANGE their situation.
Honestly, how could you conclude otherwise? Please explain.
James R Hoffa
11:33 am on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
"The U.S. Treasury -- which is part of the Obama administration -- has owned a sizable stake in GM since 2009, so, presumably, if the president and Treasury had wanted to take a more activist role to reopen Janesville, it could have. After all, the administration called for and got the firing of then-CEO Rick Wagoner."
Obama had influence to do things period! And if he didn't, then why the need for the cars czar and his supporting staff? Why did we the people need to pay their salaries if they had no power to do anything? If Obama had no power, then why didn't he just follow Carter's successful model of bailing out Chrysler back in '79 under Iaccoca with a straight up interest bearing loan with a defined repayment scheduled, whereby the taxpayers would have recovered 100% of their investment plus a little interest, just as Bush was setting up the bailout to be?
Instead we needed the Obama hanky panky deal with the UAW, Fiat, and Canadians - WHY???
And why aren't you upset over that the fact that over $25B taxpayer dollars were lost in the way Obama insisted upon structuring the bailout, while Fiat, the UAW, and private investors are allowed to now profit at the people's expense?
I thought liberals hated giving taxpayer money to select special interests / corporatists?
Obama screwed you out of tax dollars so others could profit and it's the GOP that wants to screw people?
You're spinning more than records were in a '70's roller-disco!
dee50
12:40 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
@Hoffa,
Catch up on current events! This morning your lying Ryan double backs on his LIES! It's amazing how many times the Republicans say I'm sorry that's not what I meant, I made a mistake, or you misunderstood me when they get caught LYING. ....Oh my, the web we weave when we try to deceive!
RYAN GOES REVISIONIST: I WASN'T BLAMING OBAMA FOR GM PLANT CLOSURE
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Fact check: Paul Ryan at the RNC
Below is a link from USA today regarding LAYN RYAN. You Republicans have lost the character issues regarding these two men and for you who defend them doesn't show much about you as well.......Hoffa, it must be really difficult to try to defend these clowns when there is so many reputable fact checkers showing us the R&R's true colors!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-08-30/paul-ryan-fact-check-republican-convention/57432326/1
James R Hoffa
1:22 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
@dee50 -
What Ryan says today is consistent with his speech remarks. He never blamed Obama for the GM plant closure:
"When he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it, especially in Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory. A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: “I believe that if our government is there to support you … this plant will be here for another hundred years.” That’s what he said in 2008. Well, as it turned out, that plant didn’t last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day. And that’s how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight."
What he did blame Obama for was providing a false sense of HOPE that if autoworkers backed Obama in the election that he would CHANGE their situation. There's a big difference. Are you libs really so set in your ideology that you can't see the truth here? Otherwise, please quote the part of the speech wherein Ryan directly blamed Obama for the closure. You can't, because he didn't.
I care about the FACTS. And your failure to address a single question that I posited to you shows that you cannot defend against the FACTS.
Otherwise answer Hoffa's questions. Prove Hoffa wrong. And explain why the bailout had to cost taxpayers over $25B while Obama handpicked crony special interests are allowed to profit.
Waiting!
dee50
1:57 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
@Hoffa,
Here is your response and READ!
Since When Did Paul Ryan Become a Liar?
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/09/since-when-did-paul-ryan-become-a-liar.html
James R Hoffa
2:07 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
@dee50 -
I'm asking you to think for yourself instead of constantly allowing others to do the thinking for you.
Hoffa has outlined the undisputed FACTS, provided an analysis, and asked you to answer questions.
You refuse to answer Hoffa's questions and instead refer me to other people's opinions that call themselves 'fact checkers' while failing to properly account for all the available facts and offering a subjective opinion.
Hoffa is not concerned with other people's opinion - he is concerned only with the objective FACTS.
If what you're saying is that you do not know how to think for yourself, well, that's pretty sad, isn't it?
dee50
2:19 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
@Hoffa,
I research and research and then come up with my opinions based on FACTS! You on the other hand disregard facts if they don't agree with your opinions. I am sick and tired of going back and forth with someone like yourself who has to defend the pathological liars of your party! The End.....
James R Hoffa
2:27 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
@dee50 -
Put up or shut up - show us where Hoffa's facts are wrong.
dee50
7:19 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
The Most Dishonest Convention Speech ... Ever?
http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/106730/ryan-most-dishonest-convention-speech-five-lies-gm-medicare-deficit-medicaid
dee50
7:23 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/08/30/paul-ryans-speech-in-three-words/?fb_action_ids=4607456023807&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=timeline_og
Fox! Well that's it, if Fox says it's so then it must be true. Right Republicans!
dee50
7:40 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
12 Things You Should Know About Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan
1. Ryan embraces the extreme philosophy of Ayn Rand.
2. Ryan wants to raises taxes on the middle class, cut them for millionaires.
3. Ryan wants to end Medicare, replace it with a voucher system.
4. Ryan thinks Social Security is a “ponzi scheme.”
5. Ryan’s budget would result in 4.1 million lost jobs in 2 years.
6. Ryan wants to eliminate Pell Grants for more more than 1 million students.
7. Ryan supports $40 billion in subsidies for big oil.
8. Ryan has ownership stakes in companies that benefit from oil subsidies
9. Ryan claimed Romneycare has led to “rationing and benefit cuts.
10. Ryan believes that Romneycare is “not that dissimilar to Obamacare.
11. Ryan accused generals of lying about their support for Obama’s military budget
12. Ryan co-sponsored a “personhood” amendment, an extreme anti-abortion measure.
I will ad # 13........
13. RYAN LIES< LIES<LIES<LIES<LIES
Nick Poulos
9:39 am on Monday, September 3, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/opinion/Krugman.html?src=recg
"Paul Ryan’s speech Wednesday night may have accomplished one good thing: It finally may have dispelled the myth that he is a Serious, Honest Conservative. Indeed, Mr. Ryan’s brazen dishonesty left even his critics breathless."
James R Hoffa
10:38 am on Monday, September 3, 2012
@Nick -
Paul Krugman is a super biased liberal hack. Only stooges like you care about his opinion.
Keith Best
1:22 pm on Monday, September 3, 2012
America has a clear choice, Obama/ Biden with 4 more years of failing policies, or America's Comeback Team of Romney/ Ryan.
Mitt laid out a 5 Point Plan to get the economy growing and put people back to work. Obama offers 42 straight months of unemployment over 8% and more Americans out of work than when he took office. "Hope and Change" have faded.
Paul Ryan said "we can do this" and Mitt Romney showed us how.
Obama was a nice experiment but high expectations from a first term senator who spent most of that first term running for another office, were never met. Time for a real change.
dee50
10:25 am on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Some but not all of the Presidents accomplishments:
1. The banks were failing---fixed
2. GM was going bankrupt: fixed
3. Iraq was draining the bank--fixed
4. Oil was gushing in the Gulf--fixed
5. OBL was still planning acts of terror--dead
6. All of his deputies were still planning attacks--80% dead
7. The stock market was at 6500--now at 12,400
8. Insurance companies could dumped customers when they get sick--stopped
9. Credit card companies could trick customers--stopped
10. And most of all, he has recovered 4.3 million of the 8 million jobs we lost in the Bush depression.
Obama is one of the greatest CRISIS presidents of all time!!
Carbon Bigfuut
10:57 am on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
1. The banks were failing---fixed > Mostly at consumer expense.
2. GM was going bankrupt: fixed > And in the process, money was stolen from the rightful owners of the company.
3. Iraq was draining the bank--fixed > Thanks to GW Bush for creating the schedule on this.
4. Oil was gushing in the Gulf--fixed > ???
5. OBL was still planning acts of terror--dead > Obama didn't want to do this, but convinced by his staff to kill OBL.
6. All of his deputies were still planning attacks--80% dead > Continued actions planned from the Bush administration.
7. The stock market was at 6500--now at 12,400
8. Insurance companies could dumped customers when they get sick--stopped > This was put into place prior to Obamacare.
9. Credit card companies could trick customers--stopped > Tricked? Please define.
10. And most of all, he has recovered 4.3 million of the 8 million jobs we lost in the Bush depression. > then why is unemployment still higher that during Bush's term?
Obama is one of the greatest CRISIS presidents of all time!! > Hey, that's funny! What comedy club are you working at?
dee50
12:08 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
@Carbon,
You rebuttals are weak! You give Bush credit while he was out of office for half the things I listed, but then again I am guessing you don't BLAME Bush for any of the mess that Obama inherited when he got in office.......TYPICAL.
Carbon Bigfuut
2:13 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Dee, your arguments were weak, so I kept the responses simple enough so that you would understand them.
MrsPeel
6:13 pm on Monday, September 3, 2012
Where are Rmoney and Lyin'Ryan coming back from? Have they been gone? Oh wait, I know Ryan was busy running his sub-three minute Grandma's Marathon and reading his copy of Ayn Rand for Dummies; however he doesn't believe in her crap anymore, but he did when he did.
James R Hoffa
6:38 pm on Monday, September 3, 2012
About as intelligent as one of morninmist's re-posted tweets!
dee50
10:27 am on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Romney and Ryan the pathological liars!
Republicans don't care if R&R lie, they would still vote for them if they were donkeys with an R after their names! Great values those Cons have!
dee50
1:55 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Formal Complaint to FCC re WISN and WTMJ
"This is an urgent complaint for the failure of Milwaukee radio stations WISN and WTMJ to comply with the Zapple Doctrine. "
"Starting May 9th, the first day of what has become known as the Scott Walker recall campaign, members of the Media Action Center Wisconsin monitored the five local Talk Radio programs aired in prime day parts in the Milwaukee radio market.
The shows include those hosted by Mark Belling, Vicki McKenna, and Jay Weber on WISN, the 50,000 watt radio station licensed to Clear Channel, and Charlie Sykes and Jeff Wagner on WTMJ, the 50,000 watt radio station licensed to Journal Communications. Both stations are called "News Talk" by their corporate owners. Both reach far beyond the city of their license, into most of the state of Wisconsin and beyond."
"According to the FCC, programs must meet three tests to be considered "bonafide news." The program must be regularly scheduled, producers must be in control of guests and content, and the program must be non-partisan, not supporting any candidates.
All five programs meet the requirements of being regularly scheduled and having producers in control of guests and content. The question remains whether the programs are non-partisan and not supporting candidates. The monitoring showed that on this test, all five programs failed, some more spectacularly than others."
http://www.mediaactioncenter.net/p/formal-complaint-to-fcc-re-wisn-and.html
dee50
1:55 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Wisconsin be careful with what you read and hear and research, research, research!
James R Hoffa
2:22 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
@dee50 -
Again, you're not thinking for yourself - instead you're allowing the Daily Kos and other liberal groups to do the thinking for you. It's quite sad really!
First off, the stations are News/Talk. Second, the talk shows do not purport to be hard news. Third, the shows at issue are non-partisan and do not specifically support any particular candidate - they instead analyze situations from an ideological perspective.
Thom Hartmann, Randi Rhodes, Bill Press, Alan Colmes, Stephanie Miller, Mike Malloy, Jeff Santos, Ed Schultz, etc all do the exact same thing on the public airwaves. So how come there's no complaint against any of those shows?
The so-called formal complaint is partisan and biased!
This is just plain stupid - censor conservative talk but allow progressive talk to continue. Yeah, that seems really fair to Hoffa all right!
You liberals really are anti-American in your ideology, aren't you? You support trying to silence those who you don't agree with. What happened to freedom of speech?
dee50
2:27 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
@Hoffa,
Here I will post this again........Here I will give you a hint, read the last line!
"According to the FCC, programs must meet three tests to be considered "bonafide news." The program must be regularly scheduled, producers must be in control of guests and content, and the program must be non-partisan, not supporting any candidates.
James R Hoffa
2:47 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
@dee50 -
Apparently your reading comprehension is even poorer than originally suspected, so I will post this again:
"Third, the shows at issue are non-partisan and do not specifically support any particular candidate - they instead analyze situations from an ideological perspective."
Bren
2:58 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Michael Powell (son of Colin) was chair of the FCC between 2001 and 2005. During his tenure he back a change in media ownership regulations that allowed the mega groups to expand deeper into markets. Previously there had been a limit to the number of stations that one organization could own, for the obvious reason of diversity (content/bias).
I cannot speak to the number/degree that Limbaugh, Fox, Beck, et al viewers believe that they are watching/hearing a news program, same with networks like MSNBC and shows like Maddow, Ed, Hardball, etc. I would recommend independent research about any topic discussed on these shows as the information may be parsed/incomplete, etc.
I'm more concerned about ensuring diversity in opinion/views, and that actual objective news is reported during what is identified as a news broadcast. Allowing companies like ClearChannel to dominate mid-size markets such as Milwaukee is a concern because the majority of listeners are listening to ClearChannel products and that increases the opportunity for bias.
Michael McClusky
2:35 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
CNN reported last week that a book was being pulled from all bookstores without explanation. The book, "Jefferson Lies" was a book I actually paged through. Apparently, the Democrats have been going around misrepresenting his life, bellefs and writings to fit their own agenda. This book was there to refute their allegations. Now it has been pulled from all bookstores. I wonder why.
James R Hoffa
2:52 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
@Michael -
This has nothing to do with government censorship. The publisher recalled the book over complaints of historical inaccuracies. A private publisher is free to do whatever it wishes - this is after all still America, isn't it?
So what's your point?
Bren
3:11 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Mr. Hoffa's right, Michael. A number of conservatives have also raised questions about this book, citing omission of factual information in shaping arguments (specifically Jefferson's views of Christianity, etc.).
A scholarly work must stand up to peer review. Another controversial book, "Killing Lincoln," written by Bill O'Reilly, may not be sold at the Ford Theatre/Park Services (it is in the gift store however) for the same reason. According to the Washington Post, more than 125 books have been written about the Lincoln assassination, only 8 by "professional historians." http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/bill-oreillys-lincoln-book-banned-from-fords-theatre-because-of-mistakes/2011/11/11/gIQAhJpyFN_story.html
In no way does this detract from the work of amateurs but to advance the subject the research must stand up to expert scrutiny.
Michael McClusky
3:08 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
I am not talking about government censorship. What I am talking about is some of his presentations must have really Teed the wrong people off. I did read through it you know. For instance, the crux if the book was about Jefferson's central theme in his political philosophy was Liberty, pure and simple. Various Democrats have been using the word equality out of context to convey the message that every one should live their lives equally. He did not believe in that at all.
Bren
3:35 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Michael, according to the linked article, Jay W. Richards asked 10 conservative professors to review The Jefferson lies. An excerpt of responses include:
"Glenn Moots of Northwood University wrote that Barton in The Jefferson Lies is so eager to portray Jefferson as sympathetic to Christianity that he misses or omits obvious signs that Jefferson stood outside “orthodox, creedal, confessional Christianity.” A second professor, Glenn Sunshine of Central Connecticut State University, said that Barton‘s characterization of Jefferson’s religious views is “unsupportable.” A third, Gregg Frazer of The Master’s College, evaluated Barton’s video America’s Godly Heritage and found many of its factual claims dubious, such as a statement that “52 of the 55 delegates at the Constitutional Convention were ‘orthodox, evangelical Christians.’” Barton told me he found that number in M.E. Bradford’s A Worthy Company."
Here's a link to that article, if helpful. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/exclusive-historian-david-barton-responds-to-critics-amid-jefferson-lies-book-controversy/
Sometimes a book is just not that good, Michael. I'd rather focus on the freedom of religious belief that our Constitution affords instead of trying to undermine the Founders' intent.
morninmist
3:24 pm on Wednesday, September 5, 2012
As usual Thom does an excellent job:
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Lyin' Ryan the talk of the Nation
http://democurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2012/09/lyin-ryan-talk-of-nation.html?spref=tw
Here's Thom Hartmann dissection of Paul Ryan's endless stream of lies at the Republican National Convention. Thom's real point though is just as important; Ryan wouldn't have tried pulling his convention speech fast one on the American public, if the press had a history of doing its job.