Regressive National Convention -- Night 3

I can sum it up in three words:

Oh.

My.

God.

Whomever scheduled the final hour -- the only hour covered by all major broadcast networks, and the hour leading up to Willard's big acceptance speech -- should be fired.  Drummed out of the business. I think jail time may even be appropriate.

Understand that on all nights of the convention, the cable channels -- including CNN, msnbc, Current TV and Fox Noise -- carry multiple hours of the fun and excitement. But that's not what America watches.  Only political geeks -- people who write blogs like this -- watch hour after hour. But most of America watches only the single hour that CBS, NBC and ABC carry, which begins at 10pm eastern. That hour should have been meticulously choreographed.

But no.

Traditionally, just before the nominee speaks, conventions run a produced video showing the "human" side of the nominee -- biking with the kids, walking down the aisle, something to make you laugh, something to jerk a tear, whatever.

Here's where I uncharacteristically say something nice about Willard's campaign: The video they produced was actually pretty good. It almost did make the robotic, uncomfortable-in-his-own-skin Willard look human and -- dare I say it -- likeable. But the idiots running his campaign didn't run it just before he spoke. They ran it a few minutes before 10pm when the networks weren't yet covering the event. So nobody saw it, except the delegates in the room and those watching the cable networks.

Now, for the nightmare...

You know how the Regressive republicans are always griping about how much they hate all those Hollywood showbiz types? Well, they should have stuck with that thought. But no. They invited Clint Eastwood to the last night of their prom.

This was to be the secret mystery guest. But they leaked his identity early in the day. So what was the point? I have no idea.

So the music swells, Eastwood walks out to the podium, the audience jumps to their feet and cheers... and there's an empty chair next to the podium.

Eastwood then does the most embarrassing thing in his entire career -- and if you've seen some of his movies, this is saying something.

He begins talking to the empty chair as if President Obama is sitting in it.  What?!  The babble was so incoherent, rambling and pointless, I actually sat up on the couch in shock and wondered if this could really be happening.

Eastwood asked the chair if getting involved in Afghanistan was a good idea; he wondered if we had asked the Russians how their ten year adventure there worked out. "But we decided to go in there anyway," Eastwood complained.

Excuse me? Did I miss something? Did President Obama get us into Afghanistan?

It got worse. He pretended the invisible president told him to shut up and to "go eff himself." Not once, but twice.

Would you ever imagine President Obama talking like that?

It was demeaning to the office of the president, disgraceful, inappropriate and embarrassing. I've never seen anything so bizarre at any convention. Ever.

Apparently they allowed this confused, angry old geezer to just wing it, with nothing scripted on the Teleprompter.  But they must have known what he was going to do since the prop chair was positioned right next to him.

It was unbelievable.

And THIS was what the country saw during the broadcast hour.

Next up was Mr. "Up and Coming Regressive Republican," Marco Rubio, far rightwing Teabagger from Florida. He apparently was closely watching the festivities on the first night, and took a cue from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.  I say that because he did exactly the same thing -- talked about himself and totally ignored the party's nominee, old what's-his-name. You know, the Mormon guy.

Finally, Willard came out, walking through the crowd, shaking hands as if it was a State of the Union speech, and eventually made it to the stage to read his speech. How was he?   Okay.   That's it.   Wife... five kids...church...blah blah blah.  He said nothing specific about anything. He spent most of his time trying to paint himself as likeable, and then, weirdly, alluded to making military strikes against Iran and standing up to Russia (as if it's our enemy once again). The whole thing was surrealistic.

Unfortunately for Willard, tomorrow everyone will be talking about Clint, not Willard.

Regressive National Convention -- Night 2

Another day, another night of lies, deceit and war mongering.

John McCain addressed the Regressive republican convention on Wednesday night.  He began by repeating the lie about the White House's alleged leaking of the Bin Laden mission. All lies. Read a previous post about it here.

McCain promoted US intervention in Iran, Syria and three or four other Mideast Muslim countries that we haven't already attacked or occupied. Great. Just what the doctor ordered: take what's left of the US military, spread it thinner than it already is, spend more trillions, and piss off more Muslims around the world. Pure genius.

Really, John? Have you and your fellow Regressives learned nothing in the last ten years? Do we really want Willard Romney and the Kill Medicare Guy, who have no military expertise or experience at all, getting us bogged down in yet another war of choice that the Regressives seem to thrive on?

Next, Paul Ryan, the Kill Medicare Guy -- and Willard's choice to be vice president -- stood at the mic and lied.  Big lies and bigger lies. Huge lies. Lies that never seemed to end.  Lies that were pulled out of a magical, bottomless bag of lies.

A few examples from Lyin' Ryan:

• He 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. Fact is the President is cutting only three things from Medicare: waste, fraud, and overpayment. The money saved does not cut Medicare services. Rather, the savings are put back into Medicare, with free flu shots, cancer screenings, and other preventive measures. Lyin' Ryan's plan cuts $716 billion and transfers it into further tax breaks for millionaires.
• He attacked Obama for failing to keep open a Janesville GM plant that closed a full month before he even took office -- it closed under Bush in December 2008. 
• He blamed President Obama for a credit downgrade that was directly caused by the Regressive republican congress holding the full faith and credit of the US hostage by refusing to raise the debt ceiling last year.
• He admonished the  President for walking away from the Simpson Bowles commission deficit-cutting recommendations when Ryan himself, a commission member, voted against those recommendations.
• He regurgitated the boring, tired lie claiming President Obama said to small business owners, "you didn't build that," when clearly the President was referring to the infrastructure and the entire American system that allowed free enterprise to exist.
• He referred to the stimulus as "cronyism, corporate welfare at its worst." Fact is the stimulus stopped a second Great Depression, and Lyin' Ryan himself requested and begged for his state's share of that dirty, filthy stimulus money.

Really though, it's what we should have expected from the campaign. After all, Willard's own campaign pollster actually said "we're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers."

No kidding. He really said that.  In other words, truth be damned, we'll say what we want. And that's what they've been doing.  Read more here.

Mercifully, there's only one more day of this.

Regressive National Convention -- Night 1

Absolutely LOVED the whole show last night! Glad the circus is going to be in town for 2 more nights! The freak show continues.

Last night, there was not a SINGLE MENTION of our American troops, the 2 longest wars in history, Dick Cheney, and of course the name that shall never be mentioned, George Dubya Bush. Not a word.

If you saw a couple of people of color in that otherwise all white audience, it was only because the delegates from Ron Paul-rich states like Iowa and Nevade were moved up to the rafters so they wouldn't disrupt the corronation. And so the delegates from Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgen Islands were right down front -- despite the fact that none of those territories count.

We did, however, get to see a smiling Mrs Willard Romney, all gussied up in her Costco dress that Willard ironed for her just that morning. Willard was wearing one of a three-pack of shirts that, of course, Costco doesn't sell. But that's part of the nonsense they claimed.

And the silly, incredible pandering continued.

We had to hear about those early days of eating macaroni and tuna fish, as if they didn't have a pot...

Fact is, the Romneys never were those “parents who lie awake at night side by side, wondering how they’ll be able to pay the mortgage or make the rent.” Willard was born to the guy who ran a car company.

"I love you women!" she screamed, because, well, being Regressive, it wouldn't have sat very well had she said "I love women". But do they think screaming "I love you women!" negates their new definitions of rape, Neanderthal abortion rules even in cases of rape or incest, and desire to ban most forms of pregnancy prevention?

Annie's spiel was all about love. Next came Chris Krispy Kreme, who said, in essence, "if it's a choice, screw love, go for respect!"

Does no one check their speeches?!

He then spent 95% of his time talking about himself instead of Willard. After 16 long minutes, he finally mentioned Willard -- you know, the guy who he's allegedly backing for president. This was not a keynote speech at all; it was his 2016 acceptance speech.

Christie talked about how his father "put himself through college with the GI Bill." Hey, pal, you  didn't put YOURSELF through college -- WE did. The GI Bill is A GOVERNMENT PROGRAM using government money. He then went on to praise teachers -- the very people who the Regressives like to label "thugs" who need to be laid off, have their salary cut, and have their unions busted.

Christie bragged about all his alleged accomplishments, never stating the facts that in his state, property taxes went up 20% during his term; unemployment is 9.1% in New Jersey -- a point higher than it is nationally; and his state ranked 47% in job creation -- just ahead of Willard's state with a 48% ranking. These clowns are the ones to "fix" the economy?!

And instead of being positive and upbeat, Christie was angry, loud, frowning, shouting and abrasive. Cutaway shots to the Romneys showed Willard looking like he was wondering why this clown was up there at all. And the formerly smiling, "likable" Annie had her usual nasty grimace on her face.

Not one thing made us like Willard or get to know him, or have any CLUE whatsoever about his plans. Nothing.

The freak show continues tonight.

Flip Flopping Willard

No Exceptions for Rape or Incest

 Letter from State Senator Eleanor Sobel printed in the Sun Sentinel:

For the first time in decades, women again find themselves having to defend their individual and most personal rights. Women's issues laid to rest years ago have re-emerged as the Republican Party has moved further to the right in a frivolous attempt to fight our battles of the past.

The fact that these attempts to roll back women's rights that we fought so long and hard for have resurfaced, and Mitt Romney – at the helm of the Republican Party – has failed to elicit an ardent rebuke is disgraceful.

And now, he has doubled down on his out-of-touch, conservative policies by selecting Paul Ryan as his running mate. Ryan led the charge against women, co-sponsoring a bill that could ban in-vitro fertilization, many common forms of birth control – including the pill – and all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest.

He supported letting states prosecute women who have abortions along with the doctors who perform them. Ryan also voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and against repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." His positions are severely conservative.

The outcome of the November election is one of the most critical for American women in my lifetime. There is so much at stake – for the economy, for the middle class, for our relationships abroad and for our children.

But for women in particular, it's that much more important.

Women's medical expenses eat up a greater share of our income, and we're more likely to be employed in low-wage jobs. That means we're less able to afford premium hikes, larger co-pays or supplemental coverage.

Yet in some cases, we have been charged 50 percent more than men for the same health care coverage just because we are women. Isn't America supposed to be the land of equal opportunity?

Before the recession, more than half of women had problems getting care because of costs, and they forwent tests, medicine and other treatments that put their lives at risk.

Now, women are gaining access to a wide range of preventive health services, including mammograms, cervical cancer screenings and birth control, without a co-pay or deductible.

They are seeing their premiums decrease and receiving rebate checks from their insurance companies. And they are no longer paying more just because they are women.

The choice is simple.

President Obama has consistently stood up to Republicans trying to curb women's rights. He reversed the global gag rule, which banned the government from providing aid to international family planning groups that provided abortion information, fought against Republican attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, and continues to stand by a woman's right to choose.

Behind every one of the President's policies is a simple idea: Women should have control over the decisions that affect their health, their lives and their careers.

We have a right to make our own health care decisions, and in spite of recent extreme and incomprehensible attempts to eliminate that right, President Obama has strongly defended it.

He is committed to keeping abortion legal the way that it is today, and to ensuring that we have the security and protection that comes with access to birth control.

In fact, many insurance plans are now required to fully cover birth control as part of women's preventive care. This will help more women make health care decisions based on what's best for their bodies, not their pocket books.

It's a savings worth hundreds of dollars every year.

I know this president has my back and will continue to be a staunch advocate for women.

I know he is the kind of man who will stand up to those who want to take away the benefits and protections that are helping millions of women every day.

On women's issues alone, the Romney-Ryan plan is devastating.

Paul Ryan has led these appalling efforts and Mitt Romney has yet to indicate in any way that he's willing to fight against them.

Eleanor Sobel is a Democratic Florida state senator representing District 31. 

Very well said, Senator Sobel.

In addition to all that you wrote, now it's officially in the Regressive republican platform for their convention next week: They are officially against legal, Constitutional abortion WITH NO EXCEPTION FOR RAPE OR INCEST.

So this means that if a woman is raped in a parking garage, not only did she have to endure the horror of her life at that moment, but now the government is forcing her to take her rapist's pregnancy to full term.

And how about a 14 year old girl raped by her 40 year old uncle? Same thing. NO EXCEPTION FOR RAPE OR INCEST.

The nutjob, Mr Legitimate Rape, now has his far rightwing extremist fringe idiocy built right into the Regressive platform. With his bizarre notion that a woman's body can magically "shut the whole thing down in the case of rape" through some magical ejection button the world's gynecologists have yet to discover, it establishes therefore, that IF YOU ARE PREGNANT, IT WAS NOT FROM RAPE, or it would have been "magically shut down."

So there's no need for exceptions for rape and incest.

What century is this again?

This is what Ryan, the Kill Medicare Guy, has been promoting for years. No exception.

Now let's hear the righties whine, "But-but-but there's no War on Women in the republican party."

FORWARD! OBAMA 2012.

Willard Mocks Himself

Funny parody spot using Willard's own (slightly edited) voice.

Regressive Republican Jackass of the Week Part 3

Couldn't resist another entry after seeing this idiot on The Ed Show on msnbc.

Hank Williams Jr.

If you didn't already know he's a far rightwing Teabagger and an anti-American, unpatriotic Obama-hater, here's what he said today:

At the Iowa State Fair, Williams bashed Obama to a crowd saying, "We've got a Muslim president who hates farming, hates the military, hates the U.S. and we hate him!" 

ABC News story here. 

You almost have to feel sorry for him, being dumb as a box o'rocks and having only one memorable song, from 40 years ago: the Monday night football theme.

Next time a Regressive innocently asks, "why do you think republicans are racist / hate the president / are stupid..." etc, you can point to this genius's quote.

And when one of them claims there's no "war on women," refer to the post below this one.

They make it so easy, don't they?

Regressive Republican Jackass of the Week Part 2

So many Regressive Republican jackasses, and only 52 weeks in a year...

Meet Missouri Republican Representative Todd Akin. This is a House member who wants to unseat well-loved, 6-year incumbent Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill.

Todd thinks there are different levels of rape. He used the term "legitimate rape," which I guess means that other kinds of rape are not to be taken seriously, the resulting pregnancy from which is not to be terminated through abortion.

Even worse, he apparently knows more magical facts about the human body than most gynecologists. He actually said, “First of all, from what I understand from doctors, [pregnancy from rape] is really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." See? The female body somehow knows that that particular pregnancy was caused by "a legitimate rape" and will therefore "shut the whole thing down!" Like magic.

You don't know whether to laugh or cry.

President Barack Obama, during an appearance Monday afternoon in the White House briefing room, also condemned Akin's remarks.

"The views expressed were offensive. Rape is rape," said Obama. "And the idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we're talking about doesn't make sense to the American people. And certainly doesn't make sense to me."

This was such a hugely stupid comment of such astronomical proportions that even fellow Regressives wouldn't defend it, calling it "wrong, offensive, and indefensible."  Several have told him to abandon his bid to run against Senator McCaskill.

So far, "Mr. Legitimate Rape" has doubled-down and refused to quit the race.

Regressive Republican Jackass of the Week

The "Kill Medicare Guy," Willard Romney's vice-presidential pick, Paul Ryan.

This is a guy who presents himself as a great budget cutting deficit hawk. Yes, there's no one who can chop a budget into little tiny pieces better than the Kill Medicare Guy, is there?  Of course not! That's what the Regressive mouthpieces keep telling us, and that's what the lazy news media reports.

But the fact is the Kill Medicare Guy was really the Big Spender Guy who voted FOR both unwinable, unpaid for wars, the unpaid for prescription drug scheme, and the giant tax cuts for millionaires. All of these were put on the national credit card, and they account for the majority of the US's debt today.

But that's not all.

This is a guy who bad mouthed President Obama's stimulus, saying it would not create jobs and would worsen the economy.

That didn't stop him from writing at least 3 letters begging for his state's share of that very same stimulus money. When presented with this fact, his natural instinct was to lie and deny it. But then when it became known throughout the media, he decided to claim he didn't know anything about it. Someone on his staff must have written those letters. But that is your signature on them, isn't it, Paul?

Rachel Maddow explains it all...

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Now They're Trying to Swift Boat Pres Obama

The modern day Regressive republican party, using the tactics employed for several presidential campaigns by Karl Rove, has come down to using three basic tactics to win elections when they cannot do so by popular support of the American people of the concepts they represent.

(a) Suppress the vote,  limiting typically Democratic voters access to sufficient voting machines, sufficient early voting days, or forcing them to suddenly present never-before required government-issued picture ID's.

(c) Spread blatant lies about your opponent.   We've seen this done many times already from the Willard Romney campaign. They have purposely and maliciously edited a tape last year, in which then-Senator Barack Obama quoted the McCain Campaign. Obama stated, "the McCain Campaign actually said, and I'm quoting, if we keep talking about the economy we will lose." They cut the first half of the sentence to pretend that Obama himself was saying "if we keep talking about the economy we will lose."

In another ad, the President said that building a business is not a solo effort. He mentioned inspirational teachers, roads, bridges, and all of the infrastructure that made your business possible. Physically pointing at the "words" he just said, he stated, "if you have a business, you didn't build that," meaning you didn't build all the infrastructure that made it possible. Watch it here.

More recently an ad falsely claims that a bill the President signed would dump the work requirement for welfare, when not only is the requirement still there, but more power was given back to the states to enforce it -- which is what many Regressive republicans, including Willard Romney, requested.

(c) Project your candidate's foibles onto your opponent.   This was done in 2004 when they "Swift boated" Senator John Kerry. You may recall that Senator Kerry was a war hero who actually went to Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star, the Silver Star, and three Purple Hearts.  Despite official US Navy records to the contrary, Senator Kerry was accused of inappropriately being given these high military honors. This was, of course, to counteract the fact that the Regressive presidential candidate, George Dubya Bush, who was gently placed into the Champagne Unit of the Texas National Guard, never completed his training there, but rather got drunk and went AWOL in Alabama, never to return to complete his service.  

Their candidate failed at military service while the Democratic candidate served in Vietnam and was awarded several military honors. The Swiftboating attempted to convince voters to believe the exact opposite -- that Kerry was anti-military and a phony, while George Dubya Bush was somehow a military hero.

Now, a small group of far rightwing Teabagger-supported Obama-haters are trying to Swiftboat him, pretending that the President "leaked" info about Osama bin Laden's death for "political gains."

According to CNN's National Security Analyst and author of Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden -- From 9/11 to Abbottabad.:

Obama and his national security team made every effort -- successfully -- to keep the intelligence about bin Laden a closely held secret for almost a year, from the time they first identified what they believed might be the al Qaeda leader's hideout in the city of Abbottabad, Pakistan, in August 2010 until May 1, 2011, when the raid was launched to kill him.

The raid itself was conducted as a covert operation under the overall direction of then-CIA Director Leon Panetta.

I have written a book about the hunt for bin Laden during the course of which I was the only journalist granted access by the Pakistanis inside the compound in Abbottabad where bin Laden was killed. I also spoke on the record about the hunt for bin Laden with a variety of current White House, Pentagon and intelligence officials, as well as former Defense Department and CIA officials familiar with aspects of the story.

None of them divulged classified information about the bin Laden operation. Indeed, they went to great pains to avoid doing so.

What precipitated the operation going public was not Obama's announcement of the raid but the crash of one of the Black Hawk choppers used in the raid, which turned what had hitherto been a covert operation into a very public event.

Pakistani journalists started arriving at bin Laden's Abbottabad compound soon after the helicopter crashed and started filing stories about the mysterious helicopter and its oddly shaped tail rotor. An Abbottabad resident even tweeted about the unusual sound of helicopters flying over the city in the middle of the night.

It wasn't much of a leap for reporters to ascertain that these helicopters had particular features that had prevented them from being detected by Pakistani radar.

Soon after the SEALs had raided the Abbottabad command, Pakistani officials on the ground were interrogating bin Laden's wives and children at the compound who told them that bin Laden had just been killed. None of this was going to stay secret for long.

Indeed, it was Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan's top military officer, who sped up the Obama administration's announcement of the raid. A few hours after the raid, Kayani told his American counterpart, Adm. Mike Mullen, "Our people need to understand what happened here. We're not going to be able to manage the Pakistani media without you confirming this. You can explain it to them. They need to understand that this was bin Laden and not just some ordinary U.S. operation."

Mullen then told Obama and his national security team, "Kayani has asked for us to go public," which swayed Obama to announce the raid sooner than was planned. (Obama wanted to wait for 100% DNA confirmation that it was bin Laden. At the time of the president's announcement about the raid the confirmation was at 95%.)

During his speech to the nation and world, Obama did not divulge the name of SEAL Team Six, saying only that a "small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability."

In addition, you may remember watching President Obama deliver jokes at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner, smiling and acting as if nothing important was happening -- at the exact moment the most crucial operation of his presidency was being played out in Pakistan. To read more, click here.   (Thanks Jim, for the link.)

Willard Picks a Running Mate! [Yawn]

Usually when there's bad news, politicians elect to release it during the traditional "news dump" time of late Friday afternoon, when nobody's paying attention.

Willard Romney's news release announcing his vice presidential running mate was made at an even worse time -- overnight Friday night during an Olympics weekend! But the actual announcement was made Saturday morning around 9am.

So who is this guy? It's Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee. He's the author of the Ryan Budget Plan, otherwise known as the Kill Medicare Bill. This highly controversial bill would end Medicare as we know it. Medicare is one of the most successful, best loved programs any US Congress has ever passed. Ryan's plan would change Medicare into a voucher program, where seniors would stop getting government backed Medicare and instead, receive a voucher with which they could purchase health insurance.

In essence, this would be telling an 80 year old who may be suffering from a whole list of ailments, "here's a coupon. Good luck finding an insurance company that will take you. And if it's not enough, or the money runs out, too bad. You're on your own."

Let's remember that during the Regressive republican primaries, Newton Gingrich called Ryan's Medicare plan "right wing social engineering."

His Ryan Plan would also lower the tax rate of the richest Americans to 25%. The top tax rate is currently about 35%, four points lower than it was during the highly prosperous Clinton years, when millionaires and billionaires made a ton of money and still paid 39% in income taxes.

He'd extend the Bush tax cuts for the richest 2 percent, but not President Obama’s cuts for those who earn the least. Here's a chart, compiled by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which shows the skewed distribution:

Make more than $1 million? Get a tax cut of 12.5%.      Make less than $10,000? Your taxes go up!

How to make up the shortfall? That's easy. Privatize Medicare and Social Security, leaving retirees' income to the volatile whims of the financial market; raise taxes on 95% of Middle Class America, and still end up increasing the debt by $4 trillion in ten years. Many unspecified spending cuts would also go into effect.

Privatizing Social Security and turning it over to Wall Street is extremely risky. Had the plan been in effect during the 2008 financial crisis, millions of seniors' benefits would likely have been decimated.

Wikipedia states, "The 2012 Ryan budget also received criticism from elements of the Catholic Church, specifically from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and from faculty and administrators of Georgetown University. In its letter to Rep. Ryan, the group of Georgetown faculty and administrators criticized the Ryan budget as trying to "to dismantle government programs and abandon the poor to their own devices," going on to say that Catholic teaching "demands that higher levels of government provide help — "subsidium"— when communities and local governments face problems beyond their means to address such as economic crises, high unemployment, endemic poverty and hunger." 

Paul Ryan appears to be the tough, deficit-cutting hawk, yet he voted FOR the Bush tax cuts, FOR the Iraq War and FOR the $800,000,000,000 Wall Street bailout, all tremendously increasing the national debt.

Paul Ryan is the candidate of choice for working-class conservatives who think millionaires have suffered enough.

Interesting how both Willard Romney and Paul Ryan stood in front of the battleship the USS Wisconsin, using it as a military prop, despite the fact that neither of them has served a single day in the armed forces.

And neither has any foreign policy experience whatsoever.

Paul Ryan is one of the leaders of the most hated congress in American history, a congress that has the lowest approval rating since polls began measuring such things.

And yet, doesn't it all seem familiar? An older, boring Regressive republican candidate that no one is excited about chooses a younger, splashy, fringe, rightwing extremist vice presidential pick to excite the republican base, but who will be divisive with moderate republicans and independents, and who will do more harm than good to the ticket.  See what I mean? Put glasses and a big wig on Ryan and you have Sarah Palin, albeit with a bit more of a brain.

And we all know how that ended.

But Ryan is raw meat for the far rightwing Teabagger crowd just the same -- the very Teabaggers who used to scream, "get your government hands off my Social Security and Medicare," ironically the two programs Ryan would cut and destroy the most.

So, righties, enjoy your Paul Ryan Jubilation Weekend. But remember, no presidential campaign is ever won based on a vice presidential pick. On Monday, you'll still be stuck with the moderate liberal from Massachusetts you can't stand, who came up with the shining model for Obamacare -- the program you despise more than anything. And on Monday, when all the Ryan hoopla dies down, America will still be demanding 10 years of tax returns from your secretive, sneaky, liar of a candidate who paid a much lower income tax rate than you did, when he bothered to pay income taxes at all.

FORWARD!  Obama 2012.

Willard Will Raise Your Taxes

Willard Romney wants to give even more tax cuts to his friends the millionaires and billionaires. For this to be "revenue neutral tax reform," that means only one thing: taxes must rise for middle class Americans to make up for those cuts at the top.

From the Tax Policy Center:

Our major conclusion is that any revenue-neutral individual income tax change that incorporates the features Governor Romney has proposed would provide large tax cuts to high-income households, and increase the tax burdens on middle- and/or lower-income taxpayers.

Top 8 Reasons

Willard: What Are You Hiding?

Good News

• Consumer confidence rose last month to 66%, as gas prices dipped and the housing market improved

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-31/u-s-consumer-confidence-index-unexpectedly-rose-correct-.html

• Democrats will probably include, for the first time ever, support for same sex marriage as a plank in the party's platform. This will mean EQUALITY AND FAIRNESS FOR ALL and force far rightwing Teabag Regressive republicans to campaign on promoting discrimination.

• Former President Bill Clinton will have a primetime speech scheduled during the Democratic convention. That means the current and most recent Democratic Presidents will show solidarity and strength. Obama has turned around the Bush Depression from LOSING 750,000 JOBS a month to 29 months of job growth. Clinton's 8 years provided 23,000,000 new jobs.

• But Neither George Dubya Bush nor Dick Cheney will appear at the Regressive convention. Their 8 disastrous years will not be mentioned during Willard's prom. And the Airhead from Alaska has been told she will not speak at the convention either. 

Smart move.

Pres Obama Leads in 3 Swing States

(CBS News) President Obama leads Mitt Romney among likely voters in Ohio and Florida - and has a double-digit lead in Pennsylvania - according to a Quinnipiac University/CBS News/New York Times poll released this morning.

The poll, conducted from July 24-30, shows Mr. Obama leading his presumptive Republican challenger 53 percent to 42 percent in Pennsylvania. The 11-point lead results largely from independents, who favor the president by 22 points, and women, who favor the president by 24 points.

Mr. Obama holds a six-point lead in Ohio, 50 percent to 44 percent, a state where he holds a campaign event later today. His lead here is also due in large part to women, who back him by a 21-point margin. Romney leads by ten points among Ohio men, and seven points among Ohio whites.

In Florida, Mr. Obama also holds a six point lead, 51 percent to 45 percent.