Friday News Roundup - Domestic
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-08-31/friday-news-roundup-domestic
The Republican National Convention wrapped up in Tampa, Fla., with speeches by GOP candidates Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. A federal court found evidence of discrimination in new Texas voting maps drawn by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature. Consumer spending and personal income both rose in July. And astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died in Cincinnati, Ohio. James Fallows of The Atlantic, Laura Meckler of The Wall Street Journal and syndicated journalist Steve Roberts join Diane for analysis of the week's top national news stories.
Guests
James Fallows
national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine.
Laura Meckler
White House correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.
Steve Roberts
syndicated columnist and journalism professor at The George Washington University.
Friday News Roundup Video
The panel discussed what it meant to have actor and director Clint Eastwood deliver a speech at the Republican National Convention. James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic, called it a "surreal monologue." George Washington University professor Steve Roberts said Eastwood's speech was borderline vulgar and changed the tone of the convention. The Wall Street Journal's Laura Meckler said the most remarkable part was that the speech came on during primetime television.
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George W. Bush has not been at the Republican National Convention this past week . And the Republicans hope like hell you don’t notice that! Bush's very existence belies two of the most critical selling points of GOP nominee Mitt Romney's presidential campaign: That tax cuts for the rich will create jobs, and that Romney is bringing a fresh new approach that can turn the country's fortunes around.
What they want to go back to is exactly what Bush did then, and that didn't work, Romney's economic proposals are exactly the sorts of things that resulted in the economic declines in 1928 and 2008.
Republicans want to try it again, but they don't want to remind people of that fact by having Bush around. Better just to pretend it didn't happen! As far as the GOP convention is concerned, there might never have been a second Bush presidency.
Romney also seems to be following a Bush-like path on foreign policy. The neo-conservatives who enjoyed so much influence under Bush seem to be rested and ready to take the helm under a Romney administration. His foreign policy advisors read like a “who’s who” list from Bush. He’s more likely to go for war with Iran than Obama and we can't afford another war. We couldn't afford the two we just had.
There's not much good to say about the Bush years. The tax cuts and spending increases led to big deficits. And the financial meltdown made it seem no one was at home supervising Wall Street. Better just to pretend it didn't happen!
The T-Party/Republicans haven`t changed at all.
"George W.Bush keep America safe with his 8 years in office".
"Don`t let the proof be a mushroom cloud".
"Tax cuts pay for themselves"
Knee deep B S then,and a promise to continue.
Save Medicare by killing it ?
Double military spending and the debt goes down?
Trillions more in tax cuts for the wealthy,will make the Golden Showers on workers wonderful.
How could I have forgotten those "Mission Accomplished",or "good job Brownie" moments????
It smells like victory!
Clint Eastwood has you boys quacking in your diapers.
The Invisible Man
How would it be to be the first African American President, a Man who has risen to the pinnacle of power of the most powerful nation in human history, representing a people who were once slaves in that nation and still be an invisible man? Tonight, with extraordinary sadness, I watched an icon of confrontation mock a president, a people, and a nation.
Where was the honor of political battle and confrontation, the battle of ideas, the competition for the future of a great nation? President Obama is not an invisible man or an incompetent nice guy. Right or wrong, he represents America striving for the future. It dishonors the history of our nation to simply say I should be president, because of who I am is always better than the invisible man.
The invisible man, the foreign interloper, presented as coming from somewhere else is the embodiment of American aspirations. How is it the party, whose ideology has cast aside Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt for Ayn Rand, Leo Strauss, and the Austrian School, believes in their supremacy is greater than all those Americans who President Obama represents.
Tonight, as a white American, I may have begun to feel a small portion of what many “Invisible Americans” have felt for generations.
How is it that, for the past 3 1/2 years, the GOP has been telling us that government doesn't create jobs, yet now they tell us that Mitt Romney will create 12 million new jobs in 4 years?
Clint Eastwoods performance last night; odd, strange, shamefull. If a prominent Democratic celebrity had done the same thing Republicans would be outraged. By the way, the only instance I recall of a politician telling someone to go f himself was the infamous foul mouth Dick Cheney, on the floor of Congress.
These comments represent a bunch of victims looking for their mommy to come and wipe their noses and dry their tears. This is politics and your man is losing big time because he is a failed leader that was never qualified for the job in the first place. You should have voted for Hillary!
Given the brazen lies that Paul Ryan spouted in his acceptance speech, there is no way I could ever support this team. If elected, we will be exposed to four years of constant lies from these two. They are fit to clean the toilets of the White House only.
LauraH wrote: "Given the brazen lies that Paul Ryan spouted in his acceptance speech"
Put some red meat out there, what lies would that be? The Janesville GM plant were I live, that closed when Obama was in office!
"Put some red meat out there, what lies would that be? The Janesville GM plant were I live, that closed when Obama was in office!"
Here ya go....I'll give you the truth on this one. You conservatives think that if you repeat a lie often enough that the stupid people of America will simply believe it.
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2012/aug/29/paul-ryan/did...
Ryan lies: "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."
Did Obama make such a promise as a candidate and break it after becoming president?
Actually, the plant closed before he even took office.
Also from Politifact ( I know, I know, that liberal resource!)
"Ryan said Obama broke a promise to keep a Wisconsin GM plant from closing. We found no evidence that Obama ever explicitly made such a promise. More importantly, the Janesville, Wisc., plant shut down before he took office. We rated the claim False."
Our best man on it -
First, get educated man or don't get anywhere near a polling booth come November. I have come to expect exaggerations from all candidates but Ryan's lies are brazen.
From Salon:
His most brazen lie accused President Obama of “raiding” Medicare by taking the exact same $716 billion that Ryan and the House GOP notoriously voted to slash. It was stunning.
He hit him for a credit-rating downgrade that S&P essentially blamed on GOP intransigence. He claimed that all taxpayers got from the 2009 stimulus was “more debt,” when most got a tax cut (and the stimulus is known to have saved between 1.4 and 3.3 million jobs). He derided the president for walking away from the Simpson Bowles commission deficit-cutting recommendations when Ryan himself, a commission member, voted against those recommendations.
He blamed Obama for a deficit mostly created by programs he himself voted for – from two wars, tax cuts, new Medicare benefits and TARP.
“College grads shouldn’t have to live out their 20s in childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters.” He didn’t mention that he opposed legislation to keep student loan rates from doubling. His remarks about his childhood were slightly moving. He talked about losing his father at 16. He never mentioned the Social Security death benefits that let him go to an out-of-state school. Occasionally he seemed to be going after swing voters, rather than his hard-right base, taking a more in sorrow than anger tone about Obama’s failings. Then he’d mix things up with nastiness and lies.
“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.” Ryan’s budget decimates programs for “those who cannot defend or care for themselves.”
Teece Bowman wrote: "Actually, the plant closed before he even took office"
assembly work at the Janesville Assembly until April 2009,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janesville_GM_Assembly_Plant
Teece Bowman wrote: "Also from Politifact ( I know, I know, that liberal resource!)"
The why bring it up?
57 workers until April of 2009! What, four months into Obama's tenure....are you kidding me. What a joke. It is still a lie. The plant was slated to be closed long before Obama had anything whatsoever to do with decision making. If anyone should or could get blamed for this it would have to come with the previous administration, but I'm not going to go that far.
The American automobile industry has been in trouble for a long long time.....
April 2009.....what a joke!
"The why bring it up?"
Because it is patently false. Politifact and the Truth-O-Meter takes both sides to task and calls them out as they see them. I was just looking at Truth-O-Meter, they site several examples of falsehoods being stated by both sides. It so happens that there are many more stacked up on the Republican side simply because the Republicans a lying left and right. I'd said it is by a margin of 3 to 1 this past week.
LauraH wrote: "His most brazen lie accused President Obama of “raiding” Medicare by taking the exact same $716 billion that Ryan and the House GOP notoriously voted to slash"
Obama does seek to take $716 billion from Medicare to pay for the
"affordable care act". The rest is your spin out of context!
LauraH wrote:"He hit him for a credit-rating downgrade that S&P essentially blamed on GOP intransigence. He claimed that all taxpayers got from the 2009 stimulus was “more debt,” when most got a tax cut (and the stimulus is known to have saved between 1.4 and 3.3 million jobs)"
It was blamed on a total government failure not just the GOP. Last time I checked B.O. was the president who failed to LEAD. The job numbers are subjective, it has also been proven that just handing people cash would have been more efficient.
"The Janesville GM plant were I live, that closed when Obama was in office!" is not true. See the Janesville Gazette article on 6/3/2008 announcing closing.
LauraH wrote: "He derided the president for walking away from the Simpson Bowles commission deficit-cutting recommendations when Ryan himself, a commission member, voted against those recommendations."
The recommendations were just that recommendations, This was Obama's deficit commission, he formed and then ignored it. It was created as a illusion to fulfill a campaign promise to cut the deficit in half in his first term. As POTUS he is supposed to lead isn't he.
LauraH wrote: "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.” Ryan’s budget decimates programs for “those who cannot defend or care for themselves.”
Who's lying now?
M Wrote:
"The Janesville GM plant were I live, that closed when Obama was in office!" is not true. See the Janesville Gazette article on 6/3/2008 announcing closing.
Yeah but, there were still 57 workers in there in April so Ryan wasn't lyin! And then O came in and those workers were taken out back and shot!
Next thing you know the right will be accusing Obama of being responsible for the kidnap of the Lindbergh Baby.
Ryan "never mentioned the Social Security death benefits that let him go to an out-of-state school." Reminds me of Ayn Rand getting Social Security & Medicare (McConnell via Wikipedia). LOL
How could he lead with such an intransigent congress who vowed from day one to do everything in its power to bring him down.
You obviously do not understand how this government works. I'd love to see a parlimentary system replace what we have now.
M wrote: "See the Janesville Gazette article on 6/3/2008 announcing closing"
Teece Bowman wrote: "Because it is patently false."
The Janesville plant closed April 23rd 2009, SEE above.
Obama on the Jainsville plant
"I know that General Motors received some bad news yesterday, and I know how hard your Governor has fought to keep jobs in this plant. But I also know how much progress you’ve made – how many hybrids and fuel-efficient vehicles you’re churning out. And I believe that if our government is there to support you, and give you the assistance you need to re-tool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another hundred years. The question is not whether a clean energy economy is in our future, it’s where it will thrive. I want it to thrive right here in the United States of America; right here in Wisconsin; and that’s the future I’ll fight for as your President."
I http://mrctv.org/blog/politifact-lies-about-paul-ryan-and-janesville-gm-...
Wishful thinking.
LauraH wrote: "You obviously do not understand how this government works. I'd love to see a parlimentary system replace what we have now"
Yes I know you hate this country as founded and will say anything to change it, that's exactly why your man is losing.
Now that the big show is over, the Easter Bunny believers are out in droves. LOL
Mitt Romney promises seem to be the same as Gilligan made in his dream on Gilligan's Island: "I promise this, that and the other thing" (and the crowd goes wild)
'“If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn’t you feel that way now that he’s President Obama?” Mr. Romney said.'
With 42 consecutive months of the official unemployment rate above 8% (much higher for the real figure which is well above 10%) and GDP growth under 2%, is Obama kidding when he deserves another four years? This remark by Romney just about summed up Obama's failure as our president and sewed up Romeny's victory in November!
The Irony about are you better off than 4 years ago is who has been running around saying that Union workers are making too much? Who has been advocating the elimination or downsizing of the civil services.
Obama FAILED. Period.