Will young woman carry Obama over the top?
"With regards to women's healthcare, look, I'm the guy that was able to get healthcare for all the women and men in my state."
The host, Chris Wallace, parried, "So you're saying, look at Romneycare?" To which Romney replied, "Absolutely. I'm proud of what we did."
In belatedly embracing Romneycare, Romney is trying to make up lost ground on a policy that women are significantly more likely to support than men. By a wide margin, women are more likely to support health insurance requirements than men.
Guardian
Can Romney win losing the majority of woman voters? I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure that this convention is working. That may not be a problem because I am also not sure anyone is watching.
While I’m at it, who was Chris Christie campaigning for?
Trouble is, it is not young women with their push for free contraceptives and abortion services that will get hit, but mature women and mothers of children who are the largest users of health care services who bear the brunt of Obamanomics' income redistribution.
ReplyDeleteRead more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/08/president_obamas_problems_with_women.html#ixzz24uCjjT5h
Obama's own problem with women.
....
Convention needs a ripping speech by Sarah Palin. But, unless she is the mystery speaker, she's been passed over.
I thought all those speeches by the governors were mostly a waste of time.
Hey, Black Elk Speaks --
Deleteblackelkspeaks
If you were to plot the arc of the rise of the Leviathan State, it would precisely follow the arc of the rise of the influence of women in the political process. Ever since women's suffrage brought us such things as Prohibition (the Women's Temperance Movement), unfettered abortion, and homosexual mainstreaming, the tendency of the females among us has been to use the power of government to initiate all manner of pernicious legislation pushing us toward what is rightly called the Nanny State. And the largest number of members of the Marxocrat Party are women. The Progressive Era itself was driven by their sensibilities and inclinations. If we are to ever bring an end to the dark days of totalitarianism engulfing this nation, this connection needs to be recognized by the women among us and reversed.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/08/president_obamas_problems_with_women_comments.html#disqus_thread#ixzz24uEUbEIo
"Young" Women aren't very good voters. White "Married" women are a Good Voting Demographic, and they're going "Romney."
ReplyDeleteObama's probably beat unless he can break through with Seniors, and that's looking problematic.
TAMPA -- Republicans have been chafing at the Democrats' signature 2012 campaign narrative that the GOP has embarked on a "war on women," but they have struggled with how to counter it.
ReplyDeleteOn the first night of their convention here Tuesday, however, the GOP gave an answer. It came in the form of 10 female speakers, including Ann Romney, along with the imparted wisdom from a Sicilian-American woman who passed away eight years ago -- the mother of keynoter Chris Christie.
Ann Romney was hardly coy. “I love women!” she told the appreciative crowd, many holding up “We love Ann” signs. “It's the moms of this nation -- single, married, widowed -- who really hold this country together. We're the mothers, we're the wives, we're the grandmothers, we're the big sisters, we're the little sisters, we're the daughters,” she said in an address designed to portray a more personal side of a presidential candidate often described as stiff.
The most unexpected rebuttal to the Democrats' favorite line of attack came from Christie. “In the autombile of life, Dad was just a passenger. Mom was the driver,” the New Jersey governor told the delegates. Christie credited his mother throughout his speech for instilling in him the values of hard work and tough love. “I was her son,” he said.
The speech by the Republican standard-bearer’s better half was highly anticipated, but the party put forth a diverse roster of female up-and-comers who figure to play integral roles in a presidential campaign tasked with narrowing a sizable gap with women voters.
Republicans had not originally planned to pack the first night with speeches from women, but an intruder with a male name -- Isaac -- condensed the Monday and Tuesday schedule into a single time slot. By the end of the evening, for one day at least, the fallout from Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin’s ruminations about “legitimate rape” was a distant memory.
“We built it” was the theme for the convention’s opening night, riffing on an Obama campaign speech, and women who took the podium spoke about the economy, small businesses and the American Dream. Without mentioning Bain Capital by name, Ann Romney spoke about the business her husband built, even gently needling the president in the process.
But what she really spoke about was love, and how American women work hard -- harder than men, she said -- to keep love alive.
“I'm not sure if men really understand this, but I don't think there's a woman in America who really expects her life to be easy,” she said. “We're too smart to know there aren't easy answers. But we're not dumb enough to accept that there aren't better answers.”
Absent from her was talk, and those of the other female speakers, was any discussion of the issues Democrats reference when they portray their party as more attuned to women’s concerns: access to contraception, abortion rights and equal pay for equal work. Instead, the female orators emphasized Republican economic solutions, implying that women have as much -- or even more -- of a stake in a strong national economy.
Mia Love, mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, and candidate for a U.S. House seat, took to the podium first and brought many members of the crowd to their feet. Love recalled her Haitian parents immigrating to the United States with but a few dollars in their pockets.
“When times got tough they didn't look to Washington, they looked within,” she said. “President Obama's version of America is a divided one -- pitting us against each other based on our income level, gender, and social status. . . . We are not better off than we were four years ago, and no rhetoric, bumper sticker, or campaign ad can change that. Mr. President, I am here to tell you we are not buying what you are selling in 2012.”
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DeletePure kabuki.
I judge people on what they do, not what they say.
Even if these women believe what they say, they won't be making policy in a Romney administration.
More important than the talking points, the sound bites, the generalities, all the vague bullshit that some here soak up like mother's milk, are the specifics. What 'SPECIFICALLY' are you going to do, not say, but actually do?
It's unlikely you will hear anything like that at this convention. No, what you will hear is "Obama bad, Romney Good" and "Trust us." Unfortunately, you will have a bunch of guys like Bob and Doug sitting around gloating that someone has finally said something of significance. Bob might even call it mythical.
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A poor, or single woman who votes Republican should have a lobotomy. Republicans hate them, and would gladly see them starve. And, those women know that, however, they just don't vote. And, the pubs know that.
ReplyDelete"Republicans hate them, and would gladly see them starve."
ReplyDeleteDoofus
Rufus, really, we all know it is the silly season, but, r e a l l y.......
Bob, when your no. 1 budget initiative is cutting food stamps (which mostly go to children,) and Medicaid (which is almost entirely for children, and old people,) and tax cuts for the rich, it's pretty clear who you love, and who you hate.
DeleteThe biggest part of the Pubs deficit-cutting proposal is the complete Gutting of Medicaid.
ReplyDelete2/3rds of those Medicaid Dollars go to the Elderly.
So far, the pubs have managed to keep that out of the public consciousness. It that starts to seep out Obama will win in a walk-away. But, it almost looks like the administration 'team' doesn't even realize it, themselves.
Barefoot, and pregnant - that's the ticket.
ReplyDeleteDon't let'em have birth control, and don't let'em have healthcare, or food, for the baby.
Look at your Senate candidate from Missouri. All a lesbo needs is to suck his dick; then she'll be "right."
I wish that young poor Lady that survived an abortion and the Obama recommended 'Comfort Room' would be able to ask O'killer a question or two at a press conference.
ReplyDeleteYou, yourself, Bob, in your above post, are lamenting "womens' Suffrage."
ReplyDeleteRufus, you know as well as I that most of the Ag Department budget is for various kinds of food assistance, and has been for decades, Republican and Democratic administrations alike.
ReplyDeleteAnd, the pubs bitch about it incessantly.
ReplyDeleteSome mornings you are just impossible.
DeleteBlack Elk Speaks is lamenting women's suffrage. I am just posting. I do want my daughter and wife to be able to vote, believe it or not!
ReplyDeleteBES does have something of a point though, the same one Teresita used to make.
Actually - If we are to ever bring an end to the dark days of totalitarianism engulfing this nation, this connection needs to be recognized by the women among us and reversed. - he is asking the women to wake up and think before they vote.
Shit. What woman would "think," and then vote for her own enslavement, and impoverishment.
ReplyDelete"enslavement"
ReplyDeleteJoe Biden must have been right - back to the chains!
O wait, that was for blacks.
It's starvation for the women!
Which talking point memo are you reading from this morning?
Republicans want blacks in chains and women dead from starvation.
My God!!
And, prohibition too!
No, the pubs pretty much want the women "enslaved," as well as impoverished. Barefoot, and Pregnant. That's always been the pub mantra.
Delete"Cheap" labor.
Breeding cheap labor.
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DeleteLordy, Rufus, your losing it.
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I do think the Pubs better jazz up this convention a bit or they are not going to get much of a bounce out of it.
ReplyDeleteHow can a president presiding over the worst unemployment situation since the Great Depression have no jobs plan for his next term? And why is no one talking about this glaring hole in his campaign?
ReplyDelete.
DeleteMaybe because they would have nothing to compare that plan to anyway. What jobs plan has the GOP offered other than, "Trust us."
The same with the budgest and the debt, no specifics just the general assurance, "Trust us." As for foreign policy, what does "We will have Israel's back" actually mean. The GOP says, "Trust us." Healthcare? "You don't like Obamacare? Neither do we. Trust us." There have only been two things that the GOP has offered up that are specific nd believable, tax cuts for the rich and increased military spending.
We have seen the results of having the GOP in power. We have seen the results of having the Dems in power. Two sides of the same coin. If they don't screw you in one way they will screw you in another.
Why doesn't anyone ask about jobs? The answer is no one gives a shit what either party 'SAYS' anymore. Let me know when someone actually starts 'DOING' something and I might get interested.
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Nobody is going to hire when demand is shitty. And, the demand picture for small, non-exporting businesses is really, really shitty.
ReplyDeleteObama wants to concentrate on renewable energy, and job training. The pubs have fought him every step of the way.
Rufus, one more, then I'm done about the starvation thingy.
ReplyDeleteThe number one health problem in the United States is obesity
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Obama wants to concentrate on renewable energy, and job training. The pubs have fought him every step of the way.
And the jobs are where, exactly?
Why, in the Dakotas, where the eagles eat well, and the unemployment is by far the lowest in the entire nation, and the oil companies are hiring like gangbusters, good paying jobs too.
Meanwhile, over at Solyndra.....
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DeleteThe other day on that list of things you liked about Romney, one thing mentioned was that his wife wouldn't be on the same crusade as Michelle to curb obesity. In effect you denigrated the effort and made fun of it.
Cute. But now you bring up obesity as an argument, a really stupid argument, for your side.
You have truly drunk the kool-aid.
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Although, I have to admit, it irritates me when the fat lady in front of me at the checkout line pays for five or six two-liters of coca cola with the EBT Card.
DeleteI'm not against curbing obesity. I have a feeling both Ruf and I could use a little of it. I have an excuse though, my hip.
Deleteheh
I just don't like being told by a fat ass Michele that I shouldn't eat so much.
Try again, Quirker.
Say, you could lose a little weight yourself, if I do say so.
Fatass.
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DeleteYour hip?
Naw, I was talking about the fat between your ears.
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DeleteYou blame the messenger; however, unless I'm mistaken her message is directed towards the parents of overweight children.
And while many might consider you an overweight child, I doubt Michelle gives a shit about some fat-assed farmer in Idaho who splits his time between pounding away on the computer and watching squirrels and then gets half his meals at the local casino.
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You see, that's what I'm talking about. There are hundreds of thousands of people working at "good" jobs in the Biofuel, Solar, Wind, Geothermal industries.
ReplyDeleteBut, they're not all concentrated in a state with a population of a little more than a half million.
Solyndra? big whoop. What about the tens of thousands of people busy, right now, in California, alone, installing 2,000 Megawatts of Solar, as we speak.
Wind Towers, and Turbines are being manufactured, and Installed all over America. Tens of thousands more jobs. And all pubs can say is "solyndra."
ReplyDeleteThe pubs have fought ethanol, hammer and tong, and yet, ethanol is $0.50/gal cheaper than gasoline (even during a major drought,) and is relieving us of Importing a Million Barrels of Oil Every Day. but "solydra" didn't work.
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DeleteEthanol? I can't help but note the inconsistancy of your message this morning.
Most of the message this morning has been about the heartless GOP starving women and children, then you turn around and promote current ethanol policy, a policy that not only affects food prices and inflation here but around the world.
Despite the drought?
Lord, you are either ill-informed, inconsistent, or those are merely crocodile tears we see when you speak of starving children and people without insurance, etc. That, or you are so captured by the dream of alternative energy, any kind of alternative energy, that you don't see clearly.
The drought?
Instead of 13 billion bushels we are projected to harvest 10.8 billion bushels. The US sets the worldwide price for corn and that price has doubled hitting an all-time high of $8.29 a bushel. We account for 55% of the world's corn exports. Normally, about 4.5 billion barrels of our corn crop is 'mandated' to go into ethanol. Fortune magazine indicates that since last year more of the corn crop has gone into ethanol than into feed. Corn prices are projected to stay high through next year (I assume because there is less feedstock).
In addition to tires, paper products, soap, pharmeceuticals, and other non-food items, it goes into livestock feed, soft drinks, the peanut butter you were touting yesterday and those alcoholic beverages you like to indulge in. It drives inflation.
Yet, does the government modify its mandate in light of the drought? Hell no.
And Rufus' view of the economics?
On Obamacare, 'sure it may cost money but it's worth it to assure the uninsured are insured.'
On ethanol, 'it may cause people to suffer foodwise, etc. but look at the money we are saving; let them eat cake.'
Whoops, corn flour is used in bakery products. "Well, let them eat Wheaties." Whoops, corn starch ultimately ends up in packaging materials for the box. "Well, sell it to them in a plastic bag." Whoops, the germ oil after further processing ends up in plastics. "Well, damn...hold on a minute, I'm starting to get a headache." Whoops, the germ oil also goes into aspirin and other pharmeceuticals.
Enough with the ethanol meme until we can get a government policy that is flexible and makes sense.
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You continue to spout off about something of which you know "jack-shit," Q. About half of the ethanol refineries Now remove the corn oil (ethanol just uses the starch - sugar, for Michiganders, - remember.?) The only reason they're not all doing it by now is that is that there has been a patent fight, recently settled, about the process.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete"So: In Mitt Romney Canadians could look to a president who would know Canada well, who could speak to Quebeckers in French, who loves the oil patch and whose policies would create Canadian jobs. What’s not to love?
ReplyDeleteEverything, actually. Mr. Romney’s biggest problem, as far as most Canadians are concerned, is that he’s a Republican. Tax cuts for the rich. Sabre-rattling over Iran. Opposing gay rights. Opposing health-care reform. Sabre-rattling over China. Religion in everything. Sabre-rattling over Russia. Loving guns. Opposing abortion. Sabre-rattling over Latino immigration. Liking Rush Limbaugh.
It is true that Canadian politics is polarizing between left and right. It is also true that even most conservative Canadians are appalled at what the Republican Party has become under the baleful influence of the Tea Party.
The Canadian case for Mitt Romney? Maybe there isn’t one after all."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/john-ibbitson-is-there-a-canadian-case-for-mitt-romney-as-president/article4507082/
At least you're not a fatass, Ash. That golf game, and all that sailing over the seas.
Delete.
ReplyDeleteDeuce, where do you come up with these pictures you use on the streams?
Really great stuff, IMO.
Sorry, but I think of you as more an artist than a packaging engineer.
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The so-called ethanol mandate guarantees use of 13.2 billion gallons of ethanol in 2012 and 13.8 billion gallons in 2013.
ReplyDelete2.548s US$ per gallon of Ethanol. Quote updated on Wednesday, August 29, 2012
The September futures contract for wholesale gasoline, known as RBOB, fell about 4 cents to $3.1075 per gallon.
13.2 billion gallons = 307,000,000 barrels.
multiplied by $90 mens that the US did not send the Wahhabis
$27,630,000,000 in 2012.
That's a strategic plus, little matter the rise in price of tortillas or lower grain exports to Charlie Chi-com.
I do recall the mantra ...
"Never Forget"
... in late September of 2001.
Funny that so many folks have.
So, even with high corn prices, ethanol is less expensive than gasoline. Almost fifty cents a gallon cheaper.
DeleteAlmost $28 billion dollars subtracted from the US balance of payments deficit, in 2012.
That is a strategic value, well worth a 3 or 4% rise in some food stuffs.
Little wonder the Wahhabi mouth pieces in the US are foaming.
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DeleteThat's a strategic plus, little matter the rise in price of tortillas or lower grain exports to Charlie Chi-com.
It's good to see you stay true to form, rat.
Unlike Rufus, you don't even pretend to care that current US policy
on ethanol is causing people around the world to suffer. I know I'm cynical but even I don't go that far.
In time of shortage especially, there is no justification for burning food for fuel. IMO, of course.
Wahhabi mouth pieces?
Laughable.
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DeleteSeptember, 2001?
Geez, Bush used it to promote the WOT, now you use it to justify burning corn for food.
Talk about cynical.
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This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteNo, I use September 2001 as justification to end the outflow of cash to the Wahhabi.
DeleteI have long advocated for using other source material for ethanol than corn.
The US, through pressure from the farm lobby, has chosen corn to be the primary first generation feedstock material.
So be it.
Whether Charlie Chi-com has to buy corn from South America or go without, not a strategic issue for the US.
They have survived for millennium on rice, they still can.
We still can move towards an ethanol product based upon switchgrass or sweet sorghum, though switchgrass is much more drought resistant of the two.
We should not compound the error of using the wrong first generation feedstock in the production of ethanol by giving up on ethanol, when the initial policy error becomes obvious. The primary course of action, charted across the energy policies of the last decade ...
... to limit US dependency on foreign energy sources and to lower the price of fuel at the pump, remains constant.
As evidenced by the Canadian example, petroleum products are priced on a global market value.
Ethanol, even that produced by corn, costs less than petroleum.
That produced by switchgrass, which is many times more BTU efficient, would be even cheaper.
Little wonder there is so much opposition to it.
FOX News and the WSJ are both Wahhabi funded.
The GOP is a hand maiden to the oil interests and the Democrats not much better.
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ReplyDeleteRufus, we have seen stories here of Red Cross volunteers from Michigan heading the Mississippi to hand out food, etc.
Now that Isaac has hit land, what are you seeing?
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Seeing double, as usual.
DeleteBeautiful day here in NW Mississip.
DeleteBig Meningitis/West Nile outbreaks in Memphis.
Yeah, both West Nile, And Meningitis.
At my local Wal-Green's they are adverting meningitis shots, flu shots, pneumonia shots, whopping cough shots, and about 4 others.
DeleteI might go for one of those meningitis shots. That shit can be deadly for an older gennulman.
DeleteGasoline demand is picking up a little bit. The last 4 weeks are only down 1% from last year.
ReplyDeleteI think 3rd qtr GDP is going to come in somewhere closer to 2.5% than some are expecting.
"people to suffer!" WTF?
ReplyDeletePEOPLE don't eat field corn. We export as much field corn to Asia as we use for ethanol (after accounting for the DDGS.)
The Asians feed it to cattle, and the cattle are Eaten by Rich Asians.
If we used that exported corn for ethanol gasoline would be even cheaper, and more poor Americans could afford to make a living (and, feed Their children.)
Sell that fucking Exxon Stock, Quirk; it's turning you stupid.
That is to say, people eat feed corn second hand.
DeleteExxon holds up better than Solynda stock.
DeleteOr GM, which I hear is nearing bankruptcy again.
Keep the Exxon stock, Quirk. Take a look at John Deere while you're at it. It's always solid.
Stay away from windmill stocks.
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DeleteMore nonsense, Rufus.
I explained to you the economics of corn and its effect in countries like Egypt and Africa before.
You would take joy in telling Oliver Twist there was no more soup.
(I have to admit I stole that from someone. I was saving it for rat but he actually started making a little more sense upstream.)
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Q, a pig knows more about Christmas than you know about corn in Africa. You could take all the corn we export to Africa, and put it in the back of your SUV.
DeleteThey could raise a gazillion tons of corn in Africa, but they don't have the transport (oil) to get it to market. Africa needs ethanol, not field corn.
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DeleteRight, Rufus, just as you explained to us a while back that the only thing that Egypt imports is wheat. That was right before I pointed out that Egypt is the fifth largest importer of US corn. And, by the way, Egypt is in Africa. And so is Morocco, the 9th largest importer of US corn.
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Yes, and Egypt, and Morocco, also import DDGS. You could put that amount in your other SUV.
DeleteQ, when you get down to 6th, and 9th largest importer of corn . . . well, those aren't real impressive numbers.
Reminds me of all those Iraqi mosques - "It's the 1,397th most Holy Site in all of Shia, Iraq" . . . . .
AND, whatever the amount of U.S. corn they're importing, it's Not to feed the folks. It's to fatten cattle for "Porterhouses for the Patriarchy." or somesuch.
Deletepoor people don't eat field corn, Q.
Oh, and YOUR bread is made from Canadian Durum Wheat.
Oh, but just to clarify my thinking one more time,
DeleteI really Don't give a flip about the "poor peeps" in Egypt. Or Africa. Or Mongolia. Or the Sudenland. Or Bolivia. Or Canada. Or Israel. Or (just pick a freakin' country.)
We got problems "rat'chere."
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DeleteOh, excuse me Ruf.
I called you a little uppity but now I see where I got that wrong.
The developing countries, you know the ones that have made the most progress over the last decade or so, they finally get a little coin in their pocket and instead of eating the usual goat decide they would like a little chicken or beef, damn, you're right, that is getting downright uppity.
Liberal elitism.
Fuck the world, fuck it that in Egypt it takes 40% of income for their food. We have problems right here. Right. That gasoline is $4 per gallon? That's out problem. Looney tunes. That's why I can't take you seriously with your holier-than-thou rants about insurance and food stamps.
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Brutha, Puhleeze. You don't give a shit about "Egypshuns." Or, Somalilanders.
DeleteIf you did you would probably know that S. Africa had a hell of a corn crop last year. But, guess what? They couldn't get it to Johannesburg. They don't have much in the way of Trucking, and the one rail line was making too much hauling coal to bother with corn.
I don't pretend to give a fuck about furriners. Never have.
I don't even care much about you.
My worry is "my" kids,and My kids are Americans. Them Somalilanders will have to worry about their own good selves.
But, back to the meat of the subject. POOR PEOPLE DON'T EAT FIELD CORN, AND THEY DON'T EAT BEEF. And, if we export any field corn to Swaziland it is for use as cattle feed (said cattle to be eaten by the Rich.)
I just got back from the grocery store. I paid $3.68/lb for Hamburger meat.
ReplyDeleteI didn't check, today, but last a whole chicken was $1.25/lb.
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DeleteAnd it should be, if you can believe the analysts.
Cattle and chicken farmers are expected to slaughter more and more of their stock because of the high cost of corn and other feedstocks. This should drive down the prices of beef and chicken in the short run but lead to far higher prices in the future.
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Oh, and I know you think it sounds good to say the U.S. "Sets" the global price of corn, but that's silly.
DeleteLast year China bought a ton of Eastern European Corn. Why? Because they undercut the U.S. price.
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DeleteSilly?
Not according to the USDA study I posted a link to a few weeks back.
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Trouble with ethanol is what you gain in price you lose in MPG. Pretty much of a wash.
ReplyDeleteAs to the Republicans never voting for ethanol, I posted the official vote on some energy/ethanol bill in the Senate. You can go ahead and guess how the farm state Republicans voted.
Democrats may be more behind it, I don't know, but the Pubs aren't far behind, many of them
In an appropriate engine (one with a high compression ratio) you get better mileage from ethanol than you can dream of from using gasoline. Ethanol is 114 Octane, remember?
DeleteMaybe that's why every time they have an X-Prize type competition the winning vehicle is running on E-85.
Why do you guys embarrass yourselves mouthing off, ignorantly, on something you know nothing about, and in the full knowledge that there's someone on the site that does?
DeleteI'm flummoxed.
For instance, did you ever ask yourselves "why, upon adding 10% 114 Octane Ethanol the octane rating of your gasoline Stayed at 87?"
DeleteNow that you've thought about it, would you care to guess?
Or, would you just assume I'm telling you the truth when I say that the oil companies left out the ingredients that raised that 84 octane RBOB (that is 90% of your present fuel) to 87 Octane
"In an appropriate engine"
DeleteMy engine must not be "an appropriate engine", but it is a brand spanking new engine, just an inappropriate one.
And, the manual says, don't use ethanol unless you have to, over E-10, cause if you do, soon your engine will be "permanently inappropriately damaged", or some such. Then where the hell are you? Out in the middle of Nevada, I suppose.
Fact is, it is really hard to find gas without ethanol. And if you do, you really pay. I think my wife knows of one place around here.
DeleteE10, dimwit would mean ...
DeleteIn 2011, the United States consumed about 134 billion gallons1 (or 3.19 billion barrels) of gasoline, a daily average of about 367.08 million gallons (8.74 million barrels).
That ethanol consumption could reach 13.4 billion gallons.
Which is the mandated level, and not hurt a thing.
If you've bought the wrong car, tough love for you.
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DeleteI'm flummoxed.
Not the exact words I would have used.
Why do you guys embarrass yourselves mouthing off, ignorantly, on something you know nothing about, and in the full knowledge that there's someone on the site that does?
Pompous, pedantic, intellectually arogant, smug, supercilious, maybe a little uppity, and oh yeh, probably a little flummoxed and confused.
As for the X-Prize, you live in an X-Prize reality, Rufus-world. You look at cutting edge and assume you can achieve mass production of those results overnight. You fail to realize it just doesn't happen that way.
You are the fool on the hill, looking down from your lofty perch at the brooding mass of ignorati below and are flummoxed.
Yeh, I can believe that.
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As for that owners manual, they're messing with your head. All new cars are compatible with Ethanol blends up to 85%. All they need is a computer re-flash.
DeleteBTW, most auto company boards are ate up with members from the petroleum industry.
One reason the oil industry has fought E-15 so vehemently is most people will probably get Better mileage with E-15 than with the ten percent blend. The chemistry gets "interesting," but E-10 is about the most inefficient ethanol blend there is.
Having said that, if you want to know what your mileage would be if they hadn't removed the more expensive high octane ingredients from your gasoline, just fill up with mid-level. That is, basically, 86 Octane, and ten percent ethanol.
Come on Quirk, Ruf doesn't have a mean bone in this body. Not that you said he did. He just gets a little carried away sometimes.
DeleteVisionaries do that.
"uppity"?
DeleteI stand with Ruf there. Of the things I've thought Ruf might be, uppity isn't one of them. Not even 'a little'.
You best watch your language or you will be accused of internet slander!
Obama is toast -
ReplyDeleteDemocracy Corps poll shows Romney up 15 among independents
POSTED AT 12:41 PM ON AUGUST 29, 2012 BY ED MORRISSEY
Via Suitably Flip and RCP, the latest poll from James Carville’s Democracy Corps should have the sirens wailing over at Team Obama. The topline numbers show Barack Obama with a two-point lead over Mitt Romney, 49/47, down from a 4-point lead in July. The new sample is D+6 at 38/32/28, only a slight change from July’s D+5 at 38/33/25, a margin-of-error change from one poll to the next (which is true of the topline change, from 50/46, as well). However, there are a couple of big red flags in the data that hint at a much different race than what the toplines represent.
First, take a look at the independent vote for the race, which in this format is the fourth column:
That’s a 15-point lead for Romney among independents, 53.4/38.0. Fifteen points. Just to remind everyone, in the D+7 turnout of 2008 in a Democratic wave election, Obama won independents by eight points, 52/44, on his way to a seven-point victory overall. That’s a 23-point shift in this key demographic, way outside the margin of error, and it’s hard to square that with a two-point Obama lead now.
Nor is that the only problem in the demos. Take a look at the gender gap, which Obama won by a combined 14 points in 2008. Romney wins men by 3.5 points now (Obama edged John McCain by one in 2008), and Obama only leads by 6.7 points among women, 51.7/45.0. That’s a combined gender gap of 3.2 points, a drop of ten points in this measure from 2008.
If Obama loses independents outside of the margin of error and only gets a gender gap within the MoE, he’s toast.
National numbers are still meaningless.
DeleteWe are having fifty State elections, not a national one.
When Obama loses in the State polling, he'll be toast.
Otherwise it don't mean nothin'.
There appears to be no change in the State by State races.
DeleteObama still has 221
Romney still has 181
Toss-ups are still at 136
Without the toss-ups
Obama is at 332
Romney has 206.
Intrade Odds has it Obama 56.7 with at Romney 43.5
69 days to go
And, of course, we have about 8 or more swing states where the polls are close.
DeleteSo, the man is saying: "
If Obama loses independents outside of the margin of error and only gets a gender gap within the MoE, he’s toast."
In those states, of course, which lose the election for Obama.
In California or New York it isn't going to matter, the independents and the gender gap.
While Carville presents "Bad News" to promote turn-out.
DeleteThat is SOP for James.
Jame Carville is out rallying the troops, with scare tactics.
DeleteHe has always done that.
If you fall into his trap, proves you're a dimwit.
That is a very strange poll.
DeleteI'm not going to go into all the reasons it's strange, but it is strange.
Carville is a strange man, and a turd too.
DeleteI'm not sure that bad news rallies the troops. In fact, I recall reading a couple places that polling showing Obama considerably ahead was meant to 'rally the troops', that good news rallies the troops.
That you didn't know this other alternative point of view shows you are a dimwit.
Yahoo bureau chief: The GOP is happy to have a party while black people drown
ReplyDeleteRuf's talking point for tomorrow.
While ...
ReplyDeletePresident's Job Approval
Rasmussen Reports 8/26 - 8/28 1500 LV approve 50 disapprove 50 Tie
I don't know what the "Swing" county is in Ohio, but the guys one the "election desks" know; and, they'll know, when the cameras crank up for "election night coverage," who has won the election.
ReplyDeleteIf Obama wins either Ohio by +3 or more, or Fla by any amount the election is over.
If Romney wins Ohio, that means he's also won Fla. And, the election is over.
The only way I can see it being interesting is if Obama seems to be winning Ohio by 2, or less.
Anyone that is not for free food and condoms for all, hates everyone.
ReplyDeleteVote Obama, join the Rufus Brigade for free everything.
The insight in these comments is in a death spiral.
(Climbing Toward a Socialist Utopia in RufusWorld tm.)
You are forgetting free ethanol. And free votes for anybody too, illegals welcome.
DeleteThe swing counties in Ohio are in the south and south west I think. There are about five of them.
ReplyDeleteIf Romney wins Wisconsin, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida he may be able to just slip through without Ohio. Though he probably needs Colorado and New Hampshire to do it, I forget for sure right now. But, he can win without Ohio.
If I have to pay higher taxes I want it to go to some poor gal, not so Mitt Romney can pay nothing.
ReplyDeletebullhit
DeleteBullShit.
DeleteThe residency program to train doctors has, for decades, largely been financed by Medicare. Back in 1997, when Medicare costs were skyrocketing, Congress passed the Balanced Budget Amendment. Among its many provisions to control Medicare cost growth, it included a hard cap on how many residencies it would fund.
ReplyDeleteThat residency cap remains in place right now. It is a lot of the explanation for why we have too few doctors.
Medical schools are holding back on further expansion because the number of applicants for residencies already exceeds the available positions, according to the National Resident Matching Program, a 60-year-old Washington-based nonprofit that oversees the program.
“The training programs know that they are not now able to train the numbers of physicians that are going be needed,” said Tom Price, a Republican congressman from Georgia. “We need to be proactive on this as opposed to reactive. We’re actually already later than we should be in addressing the issue.”
How to Fix the Doctor Shortage
Not a bad deal; poor ol' ruf, he and de other taxpayers pay $145,000.00 for them Doctors to do their Residencies, an' then, they go and become Doctors, join the AMA, and preach to poor ol' Rufi how they don' wanna treat all them poor peepuls n that Obama Socialist Healthcare system - cause, it don' pay enuff, don't ye see?
Kud one o these bastuds at least "kiss me" ever now and then?
Sluggish global growth has eased the world's once-surging demand for Chinese goods this year, and the head of the world's biggest shipping line believes the slowdown suggests more permanent challenges to China's export sector.
ReplyDeleteIn an interview Wednesday, Søren Skou, head of the container-shipping division of Denmark's A.P. Møller Maersk A/S, said the Chinese market is facing fundamental changes. "It's pretty clear China is losing competitiveness in a number of industries," he said, adding that China is "by far the most important market for what we do."
On paper, Isaac appears to be a less powerful than Katrina, a Category Three storm, with wind-speeds of 130mph, which caused roughly $80bn worth of damage and led to the death of more than 1,800 people. But because it’s moving slowly, the storm is dumping colossal amounts of rain in relatively concentrated areas.
ReplyDeleteIt won’t be possible to gauge the true extent of damage and flooding until later today, when Isaac is scheduled to move northwards through Louisiana, reaching Arkansas by tomorrow and Missouri on Saturday.
The clean-up operation will also focus on restoring electricity to the region, where 570,000 people, including 150,000 residents of New Orleans, are without power - in a part of the world where summer temperatures regularly top 100 degrees.
In the spring of 2000, a bicycle cop in Arlington, Virginia stopped 19-year-old Lundy Khoy and asked her if she was carrying any drugs. "Having been taught to trust the police," Khoy writes of the experience, "I answered honestly."
ReplyDeleteShe told the cop that she had seven tabs of ecstasy, and that she planned to sell them to pay back some money she took from her mom.
...
Her country is now telling Lundy Khoy she has to leave.
Drug Charge
We should not forget that John Harris of the Politico, who asked the stupidest and most irrelevant questions of any moderator during the GOP Primary debates, is married to the former head of NARAL in Virginia.
ReplyDelete...
We should not forget any of this because I do not believe it is any accident that today the Politico has a big story from John Harris about race in the 2012 election.
The welfare attacks came up suddenly from the Romney campaign, which said little about the issue when Obama’s administration changed policy to let states seek waivers on the work requirements. The Romney welfare ads, which have been on heavily in battleground states, prominently feature Bill Clinton signing the welfare reform bill into law.
...
It is far too much to be a coincidence that the Politico and NBC have ties, sometimes in the same bed, to Democrat and leftwing activists and then hop out of bed on the same page as the Democrats’ talking points.
On this day in 1966, the Beatles played their last concert. The performance was held at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
ReplyDeleteI'm pro choice
ReplyDeleteCarlin is disgusting.
DeleteGood to hear from you MeLoDy!
DeleteThanks for the Carlin bit!!
Bonehead social conservatives!!!
Disgusting?
DeleteWould you adopt a baby from a woman who was raped by a black man addicted heroin?
I didn't think so.
Based on the data released today by the BEA, private-sector real GDP increased by 2.31% in the second quarter this year (at an annual rate), following growth of 3.1% in Q1 2012, 5.5% in Q4 2011 and 2.3% in Q3 2011. Over the last year, private-sector real GDP increased by 3.3%, following 3.1% in the previous year, and both of those growth rates are close to the average growth rate over the last 65 years of 3.26% since 1947 (see updated chart).
ReplyDeletePublic-sector real GDP declined by -0.89% in the second quarter of 2012, and by -2.3% over the last year. Here's how the 2.3% annual decline in public-sector GDP breaks down: Defense spending fell by 4%, non-defense federal spending declined by 2% and state and local spending decreased by 1.6%. The -2.3% annual decrease in Q2 public-sector GDP is the seventh consecutive quarter of a year-over-year contraction in public-sector GDP, which hasn't happened since the early 1970s.
Maybe the Private Sector Is "doing fine."
Actually, it's not, but the "big bidness" end of it is.
Great! Melody is here. Now I can take a nap.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Great Link. :)
About that Carville poll: For the numbers to work out Obama would have had to get 6 votes out of the 28 Independents, All 38 of the Dems, and 7 of the 32 Pubs.
ReplyDeleteHe would have had to get a higher percentage of the Pub voters than of the "independent" voters.
21.88% vs 21.4%
Like I said, Strange Poll.
Top executives of General Electric Co., one of the world's largest companies, are urging countries such as the U.S. and Australia to open their doors wide to Chinese investors to help boost financing for critical infrastructure needs.
ReplyDeleteIn an interview, GE Vice Chairman John Rice said broader Chinese investment could fund transportation infrastructure such as bridges and airports in the U.S. and developing countries. GE, which had sales of $147.3 billion last year, provides products including aircraft engines, railroad cars and roadway lighting in 150 countries.
Ryan is kicking ass.
ReplyDeleteThis boy is setting the barn on fire.
ReplyDelete.
DeleteReally?
Any specifics?
.
Yes, second line was about jobs, none around. Got right to the topic.
Delete.
DeleteReally.
Any specifics?
.
No one is good enough for you, Quirk.
DeleteCondi gave a good speech.
That's all I heard, just got home, but it was enough.
DeleteHe said we don't much time. Ain't that the truth.
DeleteNow I'm reading the transcript.
DeleteThe kids are happy to see their grandma, who lives in Florida. There she is- my Mom, Betty.
You couldn't even come close to that, Quirk.
Specifics - even names names -
DeleteThe 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.
And there is more -
DeleteObamacare 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.
How specifically right he is, too.
And -
DeleteObamacare, 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.
Who else has talked specifically about our credit rating, huh?
Even talks specific numbers -
DeleteYet 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.
.
DeleteAll I asked for was specifics. I didn't see the speech other than a few lines on the news. Same for Condi. What I saw was pretty flat from both of them.
However, you and Deuce indicate it was a real barn-burner. All I asked for was an explanation for what made it so good. I assume there was the mandatory castigation of Obama and/or his policies. That's a given. Likewise, I'm sure he said the GOP would do a good job if given another chance. That also is a given.
However, if the speech was so great, there must have been some special moments in it for you, key points, his delivery, his passion. Fill me in.
You mentioned he jumped on jobs right away. Did he give any clue as to how they plan to create more jobs?
I hadn't expected a barn burner from Ryan. What did I miss?
.
I only caught the first of it.
DeleteHere, read it yourself -
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CVN_PAUL_RYAN_TRANSCRIPT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-29-22-43-56
and imagine it delivered by some great Roman or Greek orator!
.
DeleteImagine it delivered by some great Roman or Greek orator?
As opposed to Paul Ryan you mean?
.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Delete.
DeleteSo you didn't actually see the speech and you only saw the transcript after stating how great the speech was.
Thanks, Bob. I guess I'll wait for Deuce to get back to me.
Your a peach.
:)
.
It will fall to Marco Rubio, the popular Hispanic US senator from Florida, to introduce Mr Romney tonight. In a meeting with delegates earlier he too referenced religion.
ReplyDelete"Mitt Romney is a special human being. You look at the way Mitt Romney has lived his life as a father, as a husband, as a grandfather, as a leader in his church and his community.
I mean, he is a role model for what all of us hope our kids will grow up to be." He predicted that the likeability gap between Mr Romney and Mr Obama that has shown up in the polls will narrow after the convention's close.
I just watched Scott Walker inhilate a bunch of those liberal assholes on MSNBC. It was fucking beautiful. Some lardass blowhard and that fucking worthless piece of shit Al Sharpton. I am still laughing.
ReplyDelete.
DeleteHmmm.
Lardass blowhard. Had to be Chris Matthews.
.
No, it was a bigger lardass. :-)
DeleteIf Obama loses this election they will have to put Matthews (and Rufus) on suicide watch.
DeleteI'd hate to see Rufus go, but the devil can have Matthews.
DeleteI love watching liberals getting their panties in a wad. They get in such a snit. It is soooo cute!
ReplyDeleteThe conference is being held under tight security, and officials have warned dissenters not to contemplate public protests that might "embarrass" the nation's leadership.
ReplyDeleteBan met Wednesday with both Ahmadinejad and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. There was no word on what was discussed.
Whether Ban will broach other controversial topics — such as Iran’s disputed nuclear program — remained to be seen.
I was listening to a fellow today who knew his stuff about Iran.
ReplyDeleteIf they get the nukes, a real danger is if/when the people rise up, and the Revolutionary Guard feels the gig is up. They will be controlling the nukes.
They may figure, what the hell.
And, Ahmadinajad isn't a cleric. Their writings say the clerics are the enemy. That the clerics will sell out. If the clerics are reasonable from our point of view, they are unreasonable from the point of view of bringing the Mahdi. The military, radicalized, and especially the Guard, control the nukes.
This is a recipe for disaster.
People often say, what they need is an uprising, a new government, but it's possible that might be the worst possible thing. Pushing the Guard to say, what the hell, we have nothing to lose.
So he said. If I think of his name I will post it. Very interesting guy, used to work moderately high up in the Pentagon.
.
DeleteWas it Dale?
.
Dale is just getting over pneumonia. Nearly died. I don't think he is paying his usual attention to geo-politics and Iranian intrigue right now. He at least would understand there may be a real problem, even if you don't, which is obviously the case.
DeleteI will do my best to think of the guy's name. It was very interesting. It may have been on Lars Larsen. I'll check. In a continuing effort to bring you up to speed.
As always, on your behalf -
DeleteMichael Rubin resident scholar at AEI and a former Pentagon official
If you go to The Lars Larsen Show, Quirk, you too can vote --
DeleteThe Heritage Foundation
Quick Poll
Should insurance companies cover circumcisions?
Yes
No
Kind of issue I know you'd be deeply concerned about.
I can't find how to access Mr. Rubin's chat with Mr. Larsen at this time.
You are probably good at that sort of thing. I leave it to you.
The question really ought to be, should insurance companies pay for a botched circumcision?
DeleteShouldn't it?
.
DeleteBest wishes to Dale, hope he's better soon.
As for the circumcision, that's a toughy. I'll have to sleep on it.
.
.
DeleteBob, you can't just change the question like that when I am getting ready to sleep on it.
Geez.
.
.
ReplyDeleteWho else has talked specifically about our credit rating, huh?
No, one. They are all too embarassed by that bi-partisan clusterfuck.
Here's what Ryan said back in August,
“We’re coming up to a deadline we all must recognize: default,” said Representative Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the Budget Committee. “Both parties got us in this mess; both parties are going to have to work together to get us out.”
As it turned out, they dicked around with it for so long that even after they agreed to raise the ceiling, the rating was still lowered.
.
Well at least he was honest, and was trying. Obama was golfing, and didn't give a shit one way or the other.
Delete.
DeleteAn honest politician, what will they think of next?
Good night, Bob.
.
Actually, Obama was most likely pleased, as he is doing all he can to harm the country.
DeleteHe will be pleased when Iran has 35 nukes. While he has plans to take our total down to zero.
Mr. Rubin also said that the Israelis may well strike in October, thinking they might get some support then, which they fear they would not if Obama is re-elected. He spoke about the munitions stockpiled in Israel supplied by us and which they need and to which we have the key, and that Obama would probably have to give them access, before he is re-elected, if he is. After the election, all bets are off, the Israelis fear. Makes some sense to me.
See there, Quirk, another reason to vote Romney. He picked an honest Vice-Presidential candidate!
DeleteYou have no excuse now.
Goodnight Quirk, goodnight Sam, goodnight Chet, goodnight David, as Doug used to say.
Goodnight Doug, goodnight Rufus, goodnight Gag, goodnight deuce, goodnight all!
Watching the Ryan replay. Fuck, he did kill it.
ReplyDeletePaul Ryan: Winner
ReplyDeleteBy: Erick Erickson (Diary) | August 29th at 10:51 PM | 10
RESIZE: AAA
He did what he had to do — convince independent voters that it is okay to like Obama, okay to have voted for Obama, and okay to want to replace Barack Obama. His speech was not for the GOP. His speech was for independents.
Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney know that as the Democrats amp up the negativity, they have to give independents an incentive to keep independents in the race and for them. Paul Ryan succeeded.
Back in 2009, Rush Limbaugh addressed CPAC. The media covered it live, hoping it would damage the GOP. Instead, his off the cuff remarks put the Democrats on defense for months. He made the case that we have to support individuals over the collective, small government over big government, and choice in life (outside of killing kids) over one size fits all mandates.
Republican leaders shied away from those themes until the tea party came along and seized them. GOP leaders still shy away from them. Remember, the weekend Paul Ryan was picked, the GOP leadership was apoplectic that they’d now lose because of Medicare.
Instead, the GOP is now winning on the issue.
Tonight, Paul Ryan brought Rush Limbaugh’s CPAC themes full circle into the next generation with a youthful, smiling face that makes it hard for the Democrats to attack. He related to women, to moms, to small businesses, and to families. Paul Ryan made multi-generational points that it is time for a change. He used his personal story to introduce himself and bolster his claims. He made the argument that we must support individuals over the collective. He made the point that we must cut the federal government. He made the point that people should not be dependent on one size fits all federal programs and mandates.
He appealed to independents and the base. He remains one heck of a pick for Mitt Romney.
Paul Ryan is a winner.
A friend emailed me that if women really were as shallow as the Democrats claim and only think about their lady parts, by 11pm they all wanted Paul Ryan. Game over.
Barack Obama’s campaign had several weeks to define Paul Ryan and failed. Now Paul Ryan just defined himself in a way that resonates with swing voters.
By the way, do I get to point out what horse shiitake mushrooms it is that the media is declaring Paul Ryan’s speech full of half-truths when they rarely do that to Barack Obama’s campaign speeches? Seriously, this was a campaign speech of big ideas and the media would denigrate it by screaming that Paul Ryan left out key details when, in fact, they weren’t really relevant to the big ideas or themes and some just weren’t added because of time. Meanwhile, Barack Obama claims Obamacare will solve our national debt problems and the media goes blind in the bathroom to his flat out lies.
The truth of this election is that it is showing just how in the tank for Obama the vast majority of the media really is. They should be embarrassed, but first they have to get their messiah re-elected.
.
DeleteGeez, Bob, this is pitiful. Can't you see that?
By the way, do I get to point out what horse shiitake mushrooms it is that the media is declaring Paul Ryan’s speech full of half-truths when they rarely do that to Barack Obama’s campaign speeches? Seriously, this was a campaign speech of big ideas and the media would denigrate it by screaming that Paul Ryan left out key details when, in fact, they weren’t really relevant to the big ideas or themes and some just weren’t added because of time.
Translation:
How dare the media question the half-truths (read lies) that Ryan used in his speech. This was a campaign speech, a real barn burner, why would you ask him to tell the truth? That would only slow up the narrative. Key details? Who has time for key details? Ryan was dealing with 'big ideas', almost mythological, on a Randian level (I couldn't help adding the last two) and the media insists upon bringing in the mundane concept of the truth.
And man those six-pack abs, the women will eat it up. Rush Limbaugh (giggle) will love it.
How stupid is this guy; or, more to the point, how stupid does he think we are?
.
He's a liar, and a con man.
ReplyDeleteI suppose he didn't mention that his plan leaves the Obama cuts to providers intact?
Did he mention that his devastation to Medicaid will kick hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of the elderly out of nursing homes?
Did he mention that he'll raise YOUR Taxes while lowering Mitt Romney's?
Did he mention that his plan, by necessity, takes away your Home Mortgage Deduction, and child deduction?
Did he mention that he has given exactly Zero specifics on how he would balance the budget while giving the Mitt Romneys of the world another $4.5 Billion in tax cuts?
What kind of idiots listen to a speech, and come out praising disingenuity, and evasion, no matter how verbose the delivery? Oh, I remember now, all them wimmin thinking about their "private parts."
You people are out of your minds.
FALSE
ReplyDeleteA GM plant in Ryan’s district shut down on Obama’s watch – From Ryan’s speech:
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.
The plant shut down in June 2008, when George W. Bush is president. Ryan says it had not yet shut down Obama was elected, that Janesville was “about to” lose the factory at the time of the election. This is false, as Ryan knew in 2008 when he issued a statement bemoaning the plant’s closing.
The stimulus was the biggest expenditure in government history – The stimulus, Paul Ryan writes, “cost $831 billion – the largest one-time expenditure ever by our federal government.” This is false any way you cut it. By comparison, the Congressional Research Service estimates (pdf) that World War II cost $4.1 trillion in 2011 dollars. That was the biggest one-time expenditure ever, not the stimulus. Ryan is simply incorrect.
ReplyDeleteThe Affordable Care Act increases taxes on millions of small businesses – Paul Ryan declared that the Affordable Care Act would impose “new taxes on nearly a million small businesses.” The Act changes taxes for small businesses in three ways. It provides a tax credit (pdf) to subsidize insurance coverage for which between 1.4 and 4 million small businesses are eligible. It imposes a tax on medical device manufacturers, of which there were only 5,300 (pdf) in the United States in 2007. Finally, it imposes an employer mandate on businesses that do not provide coverage, which will not affect (pdf) businesses with under 50 employees. Most small businesses, then, get a tax cut, and the number of small businesses facing tax increases is about five thousand, far under a million. Ryan’s claim is just false.
The stimulus was full of fraud – “The stimulus was a case of political patronage, corporate welfare, and cronyism at their worst,” Ryan boomed. No it wasn’t. According to TIME’s Michael Grunwald, whose new book The New New Deal is the definitive history of the stimulus, only 0.0001 percent of stimulus funds were wasted on fraud. Grunwald quotes the stimulus’ head watchdog, Earl Devaney: “We don’t get involved in politics, but whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, communist, whatever, you’ve got to appreciate that the serious fraud just hasn’t happened.” Even in the notorious case of Solyndra, House Republican investigation chair Darrel Issa found no evidence of undue political influence. Ryan is wrong to say that the stimulus was unusually corrupt or devoted to political patronage.
The Affordable Care Act was a government takeover – ”We got a long, divisive, all-or-nothing attempt to put the federal government in charge of health care,” Ryan stated. Nope. The Affordable Care Act greatly expands private insurance rather than implementing a truly government-run insurance system, like those in Canada and Australia, or a government-run hospital system, like that in the United Kingdom. As Jonathan Oberlander, a health policy expert at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, put it, “The label ‘government takeover’ has no basis in reality, but instead reflects a political dynamic where conservatives label any increase in government authority in health care as a ‘takeover.’”
ReplyDeleteObama doesn’t have a debt plan - On the debt, Ryan says, “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.” Wrong again. President Obama has released a comprehensive debt reduction plan (pdf), in response to the brewing debate in Congress. You don’t have to like it but Ryan is incorrect in stating it doesn’t exist.
ReplyDeleteAnd, this one is just about the most disgusting lie of all:
ReplyDeleteObama didn’t support Bowles-Simpson’s report – “[Obama] created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report,” Ryan stated. “He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.” But the bipartisan debt commission itself didn’t come back with a report. There were not enough votes to agree upon recommendations, in part due to opposition from committee member, er, Paul Ryan. The statement misleads viewers by implying that Ryan supports the proposal, when he aggressively opposed it, and by using the third person to avoid noting that Ryan was on the commission and voted no.
Obama caused the debt downgrade – Paul Ryan said in his speech that Obama’s presidency “began with a perfect Triple-A credit rating for the United States; it ends with a downgraded America.” This implies that Obama was responsible for Standard and Poor’s downgrading of U.S. debt. That is false. In its report announcing the downgrade, S&P was clear that blame rested with House Republicans for making the debt ceiling increase conditional on deficit reduction. “The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective,and less predictable than what we previously believed,” the report reads. “The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy.” It also faults Congressional Republicans for “continu[ing[ to resist any measure that would raise revenues.”
ReplyDeleteObama added more to the deficit than any other president – “President Obama has added more debt than any other president before him,” Ryan stated. As Ezra has explained, the vast majority of this debt was due either to the Bush tax cuts or the Iraq war, and only a tiny sliver due to the stimulus and other recovery measures. It is misleading to imply that Obama’s policies are primarily responsible for the size of the deficit.
Ezra Klein - Wonkblog, there's more
Paul Ryan is just about the sleaziest, piece of shit politician to come along in my lifetime. Go ahead, Party of Stupid tm, show'em just how gullible you really are.
DeleteI doubt he picked up many votes from people that can read, however.
Jist them wimmin that think with their privates.
Fucking Idiocy.
And, if they weren't convinced they probably just need to suck Ryan's buddy Todd Aiken's dick. That'll get'em right.
DeleteYou are becoming a sick, sick man.
DeleteOh, and the serial liar also denied, several times, taking stimulus money, until someone did an FOI request on his ass.
ReplyDeleteThen he suddenly "remembered."
This boy is scum - cute scum, but scum.
ReplyDeleteEzra's WonkBlog…"Maniacally stupid. Rotten to the core. A chronic embarrassment to liberalism."
The stimulus wasn't the biggest one time expenditure - .......World War II was.....says the Wonkblog
btlowery
3:48 AM PDT
I think that you should redact the false claim regarding the GM plant and issue a correction.
The plant in Janesville fully closed in April 2009, months after Obama came to office, according to this local newspaper article: http://gazettextra.com/news/2009/feb/19/gm-plant-l...
More facts, less bias, in your fact-checking please.
In December 2009, Klein wrote an article in the Washington Post, stating that Senator Joe Lieberman was "willing to cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in order to settle an old electoral score", because Lieberman "was motivated to oppose health care legislation in part out of resentment at liberals for being defeated in the 2006 Connecticut Democratic Primary".[19] Klein based his estimate on an Urban Institute report that estimated that 22,000 people died in 2006 because they lacked health-care insurance.[20] This article was criticized by Jonah Goldberg of the National Review, who called it a "silly claim".[21] Charles Lane, also of the Washington Post, described Klein's article as an "outrageous smear". But EJ Dionne, also of the Washington Post, agreed with Klein's claim, saying that "Klein is right that there is not a shred of principle in Lieberman's opposition".[22] Klein later said he regretted the phrasing[23] and his position is that despite universal coverage, the social determinants of health are still powerful predictors that, on average, ensure the lower socioeconomic classes die sooner than those with more income and education.[24][25]
Klein was the scum dude that started and was behind the infamous, nefarius JournoList.
The first two nights of the Republican National Convention ended with stirring, rousing speeches. They just weren’t stirring, rousing speeches that made much sense as endorsements of Mitt Romney.
ReplyDeleteChris Christie and Paul Ryan hit the same themes. We have hard choices facing us. We need leaders who won’t flinch before those choices. Leaders who won’t be deterred by the polls. Leaders who won’t compromise their principles. Leaders who won’t duck the tough issues. Leaders who won’t hide the hard truths.
That description arguably works for Christie and Ryan. That’s their brand, even if it’s selectively applied. But whether you love Romney or you hate him, do these lines really sound like a description of him? Is his political history really that of a bold, poll-defying, truth-talker?
Ryan was emphatic in his speech. “So here is our pledge. We will not duck the tough issues,” he promised. “We will lead. ”
Christie was no less forceful. “It’s easy for our leaders to say, ‘Not us, not now’, in taking on the really tough issues,” he said on Tuesday. “And unfortunately we have stood silently by and let them get away with it. But tonight, I say enough.”
Here is what Romney, so far in this campaign, has said. No changes to any entitlement programs for any seniors for the next 10 years. No specifics on how quickly his Medicare vouchers will grow for future seniors. No specifics on which tax breaks he’ll eliminate in order to offset the multi-trillion dollar cost of his tax cuts. No specific plan naming the cuts he’ll make to reach his $7 trillion target. No specifics on how he’ll equalize tax treatment of employer and individual health care. It is a campaign based on the principle of “not us, not now.”
“Real leaders do not follow polls,” Christie continued. “Real leaders change polls.”
And perhaps they do. But so far, the Romney campaign appears to have followed quite a number of polls.
In 2009, Romney wrote an op-ed for USA Today in which he advised President Obama to apply “the lessons we learned in Massachusetts” to his health-care reform. Among those lessons was that “using tax penalties, as we did, or tax credits, as others have proposed, encourages ‘free riders’ to take responsibility for themselves rather than pass their medical costs on to others.” That is to say, among those lessons was to include an individual mandate in the plan. Romney later said the mandate was “unconstitutional.”
A Very Stange Argument for Romney
In February, Romney said, “The president tells us that without his intervention things in Detroit would be worse. I believe that without his intervention things there would be better.” In April, under fire for opposing the auto bailout, Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney’s top communications adviser, said, Romney’s “position on the bailout was exactly what President Obama followed. I know it infuriates them to hear that. The only economic success that President Obama has had is because he followed Mitt Romney’s advice.”
ReplyDeleteTonight, Ryan said Obama didn’t do enough to “correct” the housing crisis. Romney’s initial position on housing was, “Don’t try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom.” Later, he said, “The idea that somehow this is going to cure itself by itself is probably not real. There’s going to have to be a much more concerted effort to work with the lending institutions and help them take action, which is in their best interest and the best interest of the homeowners.” The campaign never released an actual housing policy.
DeleteDuring the debt ceiling debate, Romney remained silent for months on end. Critics — including on the right — joked that he’d joined “the Mittness protection program.” Then, after the deal was struck and Congress was about to vote, he released a statement saying, “while I appreciate the extraordinarily difficult situation President Obama’s lack of leadership has placed Republican members of Congress in, I personally cannot support this deal.” It is hard to see that episode as either a display of tough leadership or indifference to polls.
DeleteIndeed, it’s difficult to think of a single issue where Romney has defied the polls to tell his party something they didn’t want to hear. He raised his hand when Bret Baier asked the participants at a Fox News debate whether they’d oppose a deal that include $10 in spending cuts for every $1 in taxes. He backed off his once strongly stated belief that global warming was caused by humans. He moved from being pro-choice to pro-life, and from holding “progressive” views to being “severely conservative.”
DeleteJune 3, 2008 – GM decides to close the Janesville plant, announcing that production will end by 2010, after months of rumors it might close. The press release declares, “Janesville, Wisconsin, will cease production of medium-duty trucks by the end of 2009, and of the Tahoe, Suburban and Yukon in 2010, or sooner.” Senators Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, both Democrats, and Paul Ryan, whose House district includes Janesville, write the company urging it to reverse the decision.
September 2008 – Paul Ryan flies to Detroit to urge GM to reconsider its decision to close the plant. According to the Los Angeles Times, he pitched “a $224-million proposal that included roughly $50 million in state enterprise zone tax credits, local government grants worth $22 million and major contract concessions from the United Auto Workers union local.” Throughout, Ryan frequently speaks with GM chief Rick Wagoner.
Oct. 11, 2008 – Barack Obama comments on the Janesville closing. He does not promise to prevent the closing-in-progress, but instead declares he will “retool plants like the GM facility in Janesville” (emphasis mine) as president. Regardless of one’s views of the auto bailout, it has saved facilities like the Janesville one, if not the Janesville one in particular.
November/December 2008 – Congress weighs a bailout of GM and other automakers. One proposal, backed by Ryan and 31 other House Republicans, but not Mitt Romney, would have provided $15 billion in bridge loans. The bill passed the house but was not picked up by the Senate. The Bush administration declines to use TARP funds to rescue automakers, but approves a bridge loan on Dec.19, too late to save the Janesville plant.
Dec. 23, 2008 – Lacking a bailout, the plant closes. The plant holds a “final goodbye ceremony” as it builds its last SUV. In a statement to MSNBC, GM confirmed that the plant “was idled” in December. But — and this is where it gets confusing — winding down a plant takes time.
April 21, 2009 – The Janesville plant builds its last medium-duty truck and shuts down its last assembly line, completing the shutdown process started in June 2008.
In short, the Janesville shutdown commenced in June 2008. Once it was clear that aid wasn’t forthcoming in November, actual assembly lines were being shut down by December. It is true that Paul Ryan tried to get the Obama administration to save another plant, in Kenosha, which the Obama administration failed to do. Attacking Obama for that is fair. But hitting him for Janesville is dishonest. The first assembly line stopped rolling in December 2008. Workers unfurled banners declaring the “Last Vehicles Off the Janesville Line” at a “final goodbye ceremony,” The plant was closing regardless of what Obama did.
This is a very strange dispute, in a way. Mitt Romney wrote an op-ed in the New York Times under the title “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,” and now his campaign is trying hard to fault Obama for not bailing out automakers aggressively enough. Not only that, but after the campaign’s repeated denunciation of the Obama administration for “picking winners,” Ryan is faulting Obama for not “picking a winner” not just among companies, but among plants. He’s attacking Obama for not using the government to micromanage GM’s affairs.
Chronology of the Plant Closing
The article also quoted Ryan Donmoyer, a reporter for Bloomberg News, comparing members of the Tea Party movement to Nazis.
ReplyDeleteThis is typical JournoList, aka Urinalist, stuff. The founder of Urinalist is Ruf's 'source' above. Out of business now, the have been followed by "Cabalist".
Disregard anything Ruf quotes today. He is distraught.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JournoList
Here is typical of how they roll --
James Taranto observed that one JournoList contributor, Spencer Ackerman of The Washington Independent, stated "If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they've put upon us. Instead, take one of them — Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares – and call them racists".[13]
Have you noticed a similarity with the tactics of Rufus lately?
The playing the race card.
The class war-fare card.
The politics of personal destruction.
The evil card.
etc.
Rufus is really no longer responsible for his own conduct. He is not his old self any longer.
If anyone here at the Elephant Bar has been a perpetrator of "The politics of personal destruction" it has been the bib "b".
ReplyDeleteHis playing of the birthed card, an apt example.
As to "The playing the race card" his call for the selective abortion of black babies, in November of 2008, says volumes to that issue.
The big "b" is responsible for his conduct.
Ah, here we go folks -
ReplyDeleteFact checking Rufus/Dufus on his fact checking -
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/08/30/fact-checking-the-factcheckers-on-ryans-speech/
Turns out of course Rufus is full of shit as usual.
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ReplyDeleteWhile out and about today, I have been picking up bits and pieces of the various speeches from last night. In their totality, they reminded me of this quote from a Romney pollster,
“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,” he said.
Well, that's pretty clear. Why let a good speech be hampered by facts?
I could find some qualified high school debaters, give them a week to play around with the internet, bring them back and have them deliver a more truthful 'and' effective speech than any of the dumbos on the stage last night.
Lord, did anyone hear Pawlenty's comedy schtick? Man, that was painful.
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ReplyDeleteFor anyone who is interested, the following story from Rolling Stone Magazine outlines Romney's career at Bain. There is also an additional story you can get at the site that describes how he blackmailed the FDIC into giving them a government bailout when his company was facing bankruptcy.
Greed and Debt
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I thought the speeches were mostly really shitty, excepting Rice, Love and Ryan.
DeleteMan, everybody had shoveled sheep shit in their youth, worked through college, and had dirt poor immigrant parents or grandparents - all salt of the earth e'er one!
Maybe tonight will be better.
Who is tonight's mystery speaker?
Quirk! Who's finally come round.
Look for him to plead for donations to his private account somehow, something about his new free enterprise start-up.
Delete(NEWSER) – Three federal judges unanimously rejected Texas' voter ID law today, saying that it imposes "strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor." Since racial minorities are more likely to be poor, the judges ruled that the law violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The judges, who were appointed by George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton, called the law "the most stringent in the nation," worse, for example, than an Indiana version held up by the Supreme Court, the AP reports.
ReplyDelete(NEWSER) – Paul Ryan's speech last night may have been rousing, but accurate it was not. Ryan is being lambasted today for what Sally Kohn of Fox News calls "an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech." Here's what the critics are saying:
ReplyDeleteRyan said Obama broke a promise by not saving a GM plant in Janesville, Wis. But PolitiFact could find no evidence that Obama explicitly made such a promise and, more importantly, the plant closed before Obama was even sworn in.
Ryan chastised Obama for creating a bipartisan debt commission and doing nothing with its findings. But as Talking Points Memo points out, Ryan was on that commission—and voted against it, as did the panel's other Republicans.
Ryan attacked Obama for the S&P's downgrade of America's sovereign credit rating. Which is rich, writes Brett LoGiurato of Business Insider, because the S&P specifically said that it downgraded the rating "because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues."
He repeated the Romney campaign's frequent assertion that Obama "funneled" $716 billion out of Medicare to pay for ObamaCare. Actually, the Affordable Care Act reduces payments to health care providers, not Medicare's budget.
In another oft-repeated distortion, Ryan said Obama wanted to credit the government with the private sector's successes. "That isn't what the president said. Period," Kohn writes.
The speech also gave Mitt Romney credit for bringing up household income as governor of Massachusetts. That's only half-true, PolitiFact rules: Adjust for inflation, and income actually decreased.
Near the end, Ryan described protecting the poor as the "greatest of all responsibilities." According to TPM, two-thirds of the cuts in his budget proposal come from programs that help the poor.
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DeleteIn another oft-repeated distortion, Ryan said Obama wanted to credit the government with the private sector's successes. "That isn't what the president said. Period," Kohn writes.
Kohn is wrong. But next week is 'Beat on the Dems' time.
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Maybe Kohn was referring to those levees that are keeping all those New Orleans businesses open.
DeleteWhile the strong dollar may be a loser for most people, it does offer large benefits for people like Mitt Romney, Robert Rubin, and other members of the 1 percent. These people are all heavily involved in global business, and their money goes further when buying into China, India, and elsewhere when the dollar is stronger.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, there are retail companies like Walmart that have set up low-cost supply chains in the developing world that depend on an overvalued dollar. Do you think they want to see the price of the goods they purchase overseas rise by 20 percent when measured in dollars? The same applies to manufacturing companies like General Electric, which produces most of what it sells in the United States overseas.
There is even a class dimension to the news coverage of the issue. Leading national reporters (and congressional staffers) like to take vacations in Europe and other foreign countries. Do you think they want to pay 20 percent more for these trips? That would be like a tax increase, and we know how wealthy people feel about tax increases.
All of this means that when it comes to issues that will have a large impact on the living standards of ordinary working people, there is not even a debate in this election. We will probably be arguing over the status of the Bush tax cuts for the rich for at least another decade; meanwhile, the elites in both parties will be doing everything they can to ensure that most people have no taxable income.
Romney Promises Fed Chair That Will Screw Workers
Romney's statement about the Fed fits in the latter category, because he said that he would pick a chair who supports a "strong dollar." The implication is that he wants the Fed to run policies that keep the dollar overvalued relative to other currencies, making U.S. goods uncompetitive in international markets.
DeleteThe arithmetic on this is fairly simple. If the dollar is 20-percent above its proper value, then it means that prices of goods produced in the United States are effectively 20-percent higher than those of goods produced in other countries. This strong dollar effectively makes imports 20-percent cheaper than goods produced in the United States. That naturally means that we will purchase more goods produced in Mexico, China, and other countries and fewer goods produced in the United States.
On the flip side, this strong dollar means that our exports are 20-percent more expensive to people in other countries than would otherwise be the case. This is equivalent to putting a 20-percent tariff on everything that we export. Needless to say, this will seriously depress our exports to the rest of the world.
The overvalued dollar is by far the main reason that we have a $600-billion (4 percent of GDP) deficit with the rest of the world. This deficit implies a loss of more than 6 million jobs, the vast majority of which would be in manufacturing.
Imagine how different the labor market would look today if we suddenly had an additional 6 million jobs, most of which were in manufacturing. Workers would have vastly more bargaining power on the job. Many could move from lower-paying jobs in retail or elsewhere in service sector to higher-paying jobs in manufacturing. Even the workers who remained in the service sector would benefit from having a large number of additional job openings in manufacturing, because employers would know that workers had better paying options and therefore would have to pay higher wages to retain workers.
Did you know Obama has overseas accounts and investments?
ReplyDeleteI'd like to read about that; do you have a li'l linky-poo?
DeleteAt least the Republicans didn't open their convention with two hours of muslim prayers, as the Muslo-Democrats are said to be planning to do.
ReplyDeleteMy posts are taking half the time.
ReplyDeleteTry Ann Coulter, Ruf, she is the one who mentioned it yesterday.
aren't taking
DeleteNah, if I want some kind of crazed opinion I'll go to Ann Coulter. For facts? Naw.
ReplyDeleteClosed mind!
ReplyDeleteI read all the crap you posted from the Urinal Journal guy.
http://www.redstate.com/2012/08/30/press-fact-checkers-lemmings-to-their-own-death/
ReplyDelete.
DeleteI wasted my time reading the same type article you posted above from Hotair. The post complained about how unfairly Ryan was being treated by the Fact Checkers but then the only example that it talked about was the GM closing, a nothing story.
Lying liars lie. All politicians lie. Ryan lies.
There are lies of omission as well as lies of commission. If you look up the wordLIE in the thesaurus, you will see comparable words like calumny, deceit, misrepresentation, distorion, evasion, as well as, one of your favorites, myth. Ryan uses them all with facility.
He does it with a squeaky-clean face, although; I must admit, with a rather irritatingly squeaky voice too.
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You didn't have to; no one had a gun to your head (I don't suppose, anyway.)
ReplyDeleteOh well, Annie is good for a few chuckles (actually, I kind of admire the gal,) I guess it wouldn't hurt to go take a look at the old con-lady.
Being around the pubs nowadays is like wandering into a "pick-pockets convention."
I went to her website, nothng about it there.
DeleteRelease No. 0287.12
ReplyDeleteContact:
Office of Communications (202) 720-4623
Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Announces Grants to Support Beginning Farmers and Ranchers across 24 States
New, Expanded Efforts Underscore USDA's Commitment to Young, Beginning and Socially-Disadvantaged Farmers
BOONE, Iowa, Aug. 30, 2012-Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced more than $18 million in grants to organizations across 24 states that will help beginning farmers and ranchers with the training and resources needed to run productive, sustainable farms. Under the Secretary's leadership since 2009, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has driven a number of efforts meant to spur interest in agriculture and provide the necessary support to young, beginning and socially-disadvantaged producers. At the Farm Progress Show today in Boone, Iowa, Vilsack said investing in beginning farmers, ranchers and producers is not only a smart investment, but one that is vital to our nation's national and economic security.
"In the past few decades, U.S. agriculture has become the second most productive sector of the American economy thanks to farmers adopting technology, reducing debt, and effectively managing risk," said Vilsack. "Last year, America's farmers, ranchers and producers achieved record farm income and record exports. To protect and sustain these successes, we must continue to build an agriculture industry diverse and successful enough to attract the smartest, hardest-working people in the nation. These grants will help beginning farmers and ranchers overcome the unique challenges they face and gain knowledge and skills that will help them become profitable and sustainable."
USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) awarded the grants through its Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) established through the 2008 Farm Bill. In his June 30, 2010 testimony before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry, the Secretary reminded Congress of the need to attract thousands of new producers in the coming years as American farmers and ranchers continue to age. Vilsack urged members of Congress to address this critical need when drafting a 2012 Food, Farm and Jobs bill. That legislation remains unfinished, while the current Farm Bill is set to expire on Sept. 30, 2012.
USDA makes BFRDP grants to organizations that implement education, training, technical assistance and outreach programs to help beginning farmers and ranchers, specifically those who have been farming or ranching for 10 years or fewer. At least 25 percent of the program's funding supports the needs of limited resource and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, as well as farm workers who want to get a start in farming and ranching.
In the first year of USDA's Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, three-year grants supported training for 5,000 beginning farmers and ranchers. In 2011, grants supported training for more than 38,000. For example, the Appalachian Sustainable Agricultural Project in Western North Carolina has directly assisted 865 farmers across 20 rural counties. Of the total participants, 46 percent were women. In addition, a group of seven organizations is working in rural communities in Arkansas and Oklahoma to educate, train, and foster mentorships for a variety of target groups, including military veterans. In the first year, the project created 32 mentorship opportunities and completed 12 internships with experienced farmers.
BFRDP will provide $18 million in funding this year, the fourth year of the program. Future funding is dependent on congressional reauthorization. For more information on the BFRDP program, and for a list of fiscal year 2012 awards, visit www.nifa.usda.gov.
European officials have expressed hope that China will deploy significant amounts of its mammoth foreign-exchange reserves—currently at $3.2 trillion—to invest in the EU's bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility. China has been a regular buyer of bonds issued by the EFSF and the sovereign debt of various euro-zone nations, but the level of investments remains unknown.
ReplyDeleteAs part of the business package unveiled on Thursday, Airbus—a unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. EAD.FR -0.54% —committed to invest $1.6 billion in an aircraft assembly plant in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, and Volkswagen signed a deal to invest $290 million in a plant in Tianjin to make auto parts.
Ms. Merkel on Friday was scheduled to visit an Airbus production plant in Tianjin, where the company assembles A320s.
But in Syria's darkest hour, a little bit of real truth has bubbled to the surface. Two nights ago, Bashar al-Assad gave his most important interview in months – he would fight on, he said, and the battle for Syria was far from over – to the private Dunia station.
ReplyDeleteCar bombs, body parts, screaming victims, are now a daily part of the evening news. When a Dunia journalist, interviewing a badly wounded woman after the Daraya massacre, delayed paramedics who were trying to take her to hospital, Syrian viewers were so outraged that the channel was later forced to edit the interview out of its coverage.
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On the government "side", there are now seven television channels, one dedicated to news and another to drama, a channel which friends tell me has lost some of its appeal over recent months. With real drama on the news, who wants the theatrical version?
The White House is not directly refuting a Navy SEAL account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden even though it contradicts some of the details the Obama administration provided in the days following the successful mission.
ReplyDelete...
When asked about the apparent contradictions, White House spokesman Jay Carney said some of the information coming out in the immediate aftermath of the raid was "incomplete" and the White House subsequently provided clarification.
Paul Ryan sat down with Bret Baier on tonight’s Special Report to talk about his buzzed-about speech given last night at the RNC in Tampa, Fla. The vice presidential nominee responded to fact-checkers saying his remarks weren’t entirely truthful.
ReplyDeleteThe Wisconsin congressman also weighed in on his off-script moment that got a hefty laugh from the crowd when he took a jab at Mitt Romney’s music sensibilities. Will his presidential running-mate return the jab tonight?
Husband says to wife, "My Olympic condoms have arrived
ReplyDelete.... I think I'll wear Gold tonight."
Wife says, "Why not wear Silver and come second for a change."
Aug. 30 is American tennis player Andy Roddick's 30th birthday. He plays today in the second round of the U.S. Open, a grand-slam tournament he won in 2003.
ReplyDeleteIt's bad when you realize your garbage can goes out more than you do.
ReplyDeleteThat's what my doctor told me. Said I had to form a farmer's coffee group, and I have too!
ReplyDelete