Category Archives: Politics

All things Political

PAUL RYAN CONTINUES TO RUN FROM THE TRUTH

Posted on by
Reply

After his convention speech, even FOX news commentators and other Republican talking heads took Representative Paul Ryan to task for not being completely (or even slightly) factual in his statements to the GOP delegates and the viewing audience. Paul Ryan lied. In subsequent interviews, he’s doubled down on his lies. He has lied about his lies.

FACT CHECK ON PAUL RYAN CONVENTION SPEECH:

I thought it was particularly humorous (yet pathetic) when he lied about his marathon time. He insinuated that he was a marathon runner, and that his best time was under three hours and he had only stopped due to having a back problem.

Then the truth came out, Mr. Ryan had only ran one marathon in his entire life, when he was twenty and his time was four hours one minute. Respectable for a one and only marathon for a twenty-year-old. Of course, forty-year-old Sarah Palin’s time kicked Paul’s ass. As I’ve posted before, as someone who actually trained to run marathons (yes plural) and being middle-aged, I took particular notice of this. But hell, Paul is a liar and in the grand schemes of things, this his harmless. Afterall, the issues involving his budget numbers (which he says he hasn’t really ran yet) and his Medicare plan’s impact on the elderly, and a whole host of other government related issues require more scrutiny and attention to honesty, than his ONE AND ONLY Marathon time.

But what is he saying now? He’s claiming that he is such a fitness buff, so athletic, he only has 6 percent body fat. Wow! That is interesting.

Now as it turns out, this came out in 2010 when he was being asked about his cult-like addiction to the P90X cult. Paul Ryan does appear susceptible to cults. The Ayn Rand cult to mention only one. Of course he now says he’s really not that “in to her” and it’s all been over-blown by the media. I mean, when the media plays audio of him speaking to people about how Ayn Rand convinced him to get into politics, or how he admits having his aides read Ayn Rand, etc: it’s hard to tell where the truth lies.

But back to this body fat issue. Just to be factual here so there is no mistake (yes the Romney/Ryan campaign won’t be bothered with Fact Checkers) Olympic Athletes, professional Marathon Runners, full-time athletes (not Nimrod’s who spend time at home with P90X and a bad back) average about 9.5 percent body fat. The average man averages about 17 to 24 percent body fat. Hell, Tony Horton, the founder and most avid user and preacher of P90X has 9 percent body fat.

Paul Ryan is skinny, he’s fit, but he’s no Olympian and clearly doesn’t do an Olympian workout. If he did, he wouldn’t have time to be in Congress, not voting on job bills, or not working legislation through that would aid America out of this recession, he wouldn’t even have the time to vote on misogynist legislations to legally define life at conception and force women to undergo transvaginal ultra-sounds for abortions.

Snark aside, yet again, Paul Ryan is lying.

His continued lying can only be psychological. Maybe there is no intent to deceive the American people about his bills and his budget. Maybe he can’t help himself but to lie about everything. The lies certainly don’t get him anywhere; especially when they are so easily disproven by even those on his side. He gains nothing materially or ideologically from these lies. They in fact detract from his ideological views.

Only pure idiots and intellectually lazy people would fall for this crap. Wait a minute, I forgot about the Tea Party. My bad.

Well, it will appear that Paul Ryan will continue to lie about everything. His politics, his personal life and anything else that happens to come his way. I posted a while back about Pathological Liars with an homage to Jon Lovitz’ Tommy Flanagan character. Maybe after Paul loses in November, both his Veep position and his House seat, he can get together with Jon and co-chair Pathological Liars Anonymous. Problem is, we all already know he is a pathological liar.

Who’s Voting and does this explain GOP policy and voter suppression?

Posted on by
Reply

First some numbers. I know some of you just love numbers.

According to the US Census Bureau in 2008 around 71% of eligible voters were registered to vote and of these, only 63.6% actually voted in that election.

Of these:

69.1% of Men were registered of whom only 61.5% voted

72.8% of Women were registered of whom 65.7% voted

72% of Whites were registered of whom 64.4% voted

69.7% of Blacks were registered of whom 64.7% voted

55.3% of Asians were registered of whom 47.6% voted

59.4% of Hispanics were registered of whom 49.6% voted

Of those with less than 8 years of schooling 49.1% were registered of whom 38.1% voted

Of those with high school or GED education 64.1% were registered of whom 54.9% voted

Of those with some college 75.3%  were registered of whom 68% voted

Of those with bachelors or above, 82.7% were registered of whom 78.9% voted

Of those employed 72.8% were registered of whom 65.7% voted

Of those unemployed 64.1% were registered of whom 54.7% voted

Of those not in the labor force, 68.3% were registered of whom 60.3% voted

As for those of voting age who are registered and vote in national elections for President and US Representatives:

Only 57.1% voted for President and only 53.3% voted for their US Representative in 2008.

In 2010, only 37% of voting age people voted for their US Representative.

What do these numbers indicate?

First thing that jumps off the page for me is the fact that the more educated you are, the more likely you are to register and vote. What I didn’t realize, and actually runs counter to what I have believed, if you are working, you ARE MORE LIKELY to register and vote. Whites and Women are more likely to register and vote than are males and minorities. What I didn’t show you; however, is that the numbers of minorities registering and voting has been increasing. The biggest number that came out from this investigation is that despite the percentile of people of whatever denomination voting in an election, only a portion of them actually vote for President, and even fewer vote for their US Representative.

That is fascinating. Anyone who understands basic US Civics knows that nothing can happen in this country in terms of domestic policy unless it starts in the House of Representatives. The current popularity of the House is at 9%. But what do you expect when only 37% of the people old enough to vote in 2010 voted for a House member. As a result, we ended up with one of the worst Congress in history. If you don’t vote, you get what you deserve.

Other studies and polls have shown that the more educated you are, the more likely you are to vote for progressive causes and candidates. As we see, the more educated you are the more likely you are to register and vote. So is it any wonder that the GOP representation in Congress would want to make higher education harder to come by slashing funding for Pell Grants, increasing interest rates for College loans, etc. We are graduating fewer and fewer people from College these days. This isn’t what the Founders intended. In fact, in keeping with the whole concept of a Government of and by the People, they knew that only a well-educated populace could govern. Early in our history most advanced college education was in fact free or nearly free of charge. Tax payers supplemented tuition costs for those who went to college. Over time, these programs were slashed from state budgets and we are where we are today.

Now the numbers for those employed actually registering and voting more often than those unemployed, but still trying to find work. Is this why Congress won’t lift a finger to promote job bills? Possibly, but I still wouldn’t discount the possibility that they stall on job creation in order to stagnate the economic growth of the country and blame the President for it.

Polling is showing that the President has more support from Women, Blacks, Hispanics and other minorities by ever-growing margins than Mitt Romney and the rest of the GOP have. This makes perfect sense considering the misogynist and anti-minority legislation coming from these people. Looking at the numbers of those who actually register too, it makes even more sense.

The saddest numbers in this presentation from my point of view isn’t that only 71% of our nation even bothers to register and vote in some of the elections in the land, but it’s that just 57% take the time to vote for their President and even fewer vote for the Representative in Congress. It shows an increasing apathy towards our government that our Founders wanted us to lead via the ballot box. People complain about Congress and the President of either party, yet less than two-thirds take the time to vote for their leadership. Is it voter apathy? Considering the increasing partisan tone of our elections that is a fair bet. Maybe it’s by design. A GOP strategist Paul Weyrich (who went on to create and lead ALEC) once said, “We don’t want everyone voting…”

Government of the People and by the People requires the People to get involved and at the very least study the issues and candidates and vote. When you don’t, you end up with the mess we have today with a Congress of whom only 37% of the nation voted for stalling the entire nation’s growth out of this recession. This is where we need to be more like Europe and other countries that make voting mandatory.

If you are not willing to take the time to vote, then don’t go crying about lack of democracy in this nation because you have already abdicated that and deserve control of an Oligarchy that many on the right are trying to install, possibly by design, via their policy and voter suppression. Get out and get active and for God’s sake, REGISTER AND VOTE FOR YOUR DEMOCRACY DEPENDS ON IT.