Be INFORMED

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Paul Ryan to charge admission to his "town halls"

blue aardvark     Tue Aug 16, 2011

In order to avoid angry interactions with real citizens, Paul Ryan has outsourced the operation of his "town halls". As a consequence, it will cost $15 to gain admission.

Politico

Ryan, who took substantial criticism from his southeast Wisconsin constituents in April after he introduced the Republicans’ budget proposal, isn’t the only member of congress whose August recess town hall-style meetings are strictly pay-per-view.

The others mentioned: Republican Ben Quayle, and Republican Chip Cravaack.

Nothing says Republican to me like only speaking to voters who are willing to pay you for the privilege.

By outsourcing the events to third parties that charge an entry fee to raise money, members of Congress can eliminate most of the riffraff while still – in some cases – allowing in reporters and TV cameras for a positive local news story.

Riffraff. That's you, gentle reader. You are one of ... them. The people who ask questions that haven't been pre-screened. The people who might yell at a Republican for wanting to privatize Medicare so they can cut rich people's taxes.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Saturday Satire: Late Night Talk

"[GOP] campaigns soliciting money know exactly what buttons to push. They send urgent emails with emotional triggers that make you feel part of something bigger. Like Bachmann's 'Join the Fight,' Pawlenty's 'I can't do it alone' and Herman Cain's 'Give me five dollars and I'll punch a Muslim.'"
---Stephen Colbert

"They say the price of gas could soon be under $3 a gallon. Do you know what that means? You can now afford to drive by the house you used to live in, go by the job you used to have, and go see the bank where you used to have money."
---Jay Leno

"New reports say that President Obama’s re-election team is going to try to portray Mitt Romney as 'weird.' They’re also going to try to portray Michele Bachmann as 'Michele Bachmann.'"
---Conan O'Brien

"There's a rumor that Joe Biden called the Republicans terrorists this week. And they were furious about this. They were so upset about being called terrorists, they went out and took the FAA hostage."
---Bill Maher

"A restaurant here in New York is serving a grilled cheese-flavored martini. Or as parents put it, 'Finally, a way to get my kids to finish their martinis.'"
---Jimmy Fallon

"A new poll shows that disapproval of Congress is at an all-time high. Eighty-two percent of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing and the other 18 percent weren’t home when the question was asked."
---Jimmy Kimmel                         Source

 

Labor Unions sitting out 2012 Convention: Obama's Reelection Less Likely

By DSWright   Fri Aug 12, 2011             Original Article

On the heels of a piece that ran overseas - usually a better place to get news about America  - about buyer's remorse among Democrats over Obama, comes another point against the possibility of Obama being successfully reelected.

Labor has had enough of Obama's broken promises:

About a dozen trade unions plan to sit out the 2012 Democratic convention because they're angry that it's being held in a right-to-work state and frustrated that Democrats haven't done enough to create jobs.

But why? This president said he would get his walking shoes on and stand with labor whenever their was a dispute and when the Wisconsin union busting started he.... oh that's right became the coward he always is. Did Obama know he wouldn't have to negotiate with congressional Republicans in Wisconsin?

"There is broad frustration with the party and all elected officials, broad frustration with the lack of a union agenda," said Michael Monroe, chief of staff of the building trades division. "People are looking for outlets to express that frustration."

Well, it's hard to have a union agenda when you are doing Wall Street's bidding and making sure you can protect Bush's tax cuts and keep the defense racket's wars going.

Obama's busy! After his power breakfast he has to eat the middle class for lunch!

The International Association of Machinists, which is not part of the building trades, said it has also decided to skip the convention after participating for decades.

"This is the union that came up with the idea for Labor Day and this convention starts on Labor Day in a right-to-work state," said IAM spokesman Rick Sloan. "We see that as an affront to working men and women across this country."

Of course Obama believes in labor! How else are we going to pay for the Wall Street bailout if we don't slave each day for stagnant wages and piss poor benefits. God, be pragmatic.

But moving from labor to inter-party dissent:

Mr Obama's capitulation to Republicans in the recent tussle over deficit reduction is being seen as the lowest point of his presidency and the latest in a series of blows to the liberal agenda.

Faced with the staunch opposition of the Tea Party contingent of the Republican Party, he agreed to widespread cuts in government spending without winning any revenue increases in exchange.

Not an accident, that Obama caves more than a West Virginia mine - same people own both.

Finding it hard to defend his often listless and repetitive performances, Democratic strategists and commentators are privately agreeing with Republicans and comparing Mr Obama to Jimmy Carter, another Democrat who remains the post-war benchmark for a failed president

Who would have thought to make that reference?

Morris Reid, [a Washington consultant and former Clinton official] added that the president remained a formidable campaigner and fund-raiser and should not be ruled out of the fight in 2012. But he said some Democrats were feeling "buyer's remorse" for selecting the president in his epic battle with Mrs Clinton for the 2008 Democratic nomination.

"The notion everyone is talking about is 'is he Jimmy Carter or will he be a one-term president'," he said.

Everyone is talking about that exept in certain Obamacrat strongholds where some refuse to recognize reality.

An article in the New York Times by Drew Westen, a professor of psychology at Emory University and a specialist in political messaging, summarised the dismay at Mr Obama's performance and was rapidly circulated online by liberals.

"Those of us who were bewitched by his eloquence on the campaign trail chose to ignore some disquieting aspects of his biography: that he had accomplished very little before he ran for president," he wrote.

Yes we did and YES WE CAN make a change. It's not too late.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Friday Funnies: Presidential Jokes

   These are quotes from our past keepers of the White House, with one editorial cartoon from the present thrown in for the hell of it.

During a sound check before a Saturday radio broadcast, Reagan said, "My fellow Americans. I'm pleased to announce that I've signed legislation outlawing the Soviet Union. We begin bombing in five minutes."
Reagan was unaware, however, that the feed was live. Word quickly made its way to the Soviets, who put their military on high alert. Those Ruskies never did have much of a sense of humor.     
Source

''In the next hundred days our bipartisan outreach will be so successful that even John Boehner will consider becoming a Democrat. After all we have a lot in common. He is a person of color--although not a color that appears in the natural world.''                   President Barack Obama, at the 2009 White House Correspondents' Dinner

''What makes him think a middle-aged actor, who's played with a chimp, could have a future in politics?''

—President Ronald Reagan, on Clint Eastwood's bid to become mayor of Carmel

''For seven and a half years I've worked alongside President Reagan. We've had triumphs. Made some mistakes. We've had some sex...uh...setbacks.''

—President George H.W. Bush, in 1988

''In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.''

—President John Adams

''Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.''

—President Ronald Reagan

''If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: 'President Can't Swim.'''

—President Lyndon Johnson

''I must confess I really did not want to be here tonight. But I knew I had to come. That's one more problem that I inherited from George W. Bush.''

—President Barack Obama, at the 2009 White House Correspondents' Dinner