Rep. Ryan Stands His Ground on Medicare Reform

ABC News  "Rep. Paul Ryan is doubling down. In the wake of Tuesday's stunning Republican defeat in New York special Congressional election, the Republican House Budget Chairman says he is determined to fight for his Medicare plan even if it ruins his political career."

From Nealz Nuze :  The Battle Over Medicare  "I want you to take a look at this video."

"Now I want you to take a look at this video."
  
"Does anything stand out to you? They were posted to YouTube on the same day: May 24, 2011. The first video is Rep. Paul Ryan explaining our troubles with Medicare and how he intends to fix it. This morning that video has a little over 24,000 views. The next video is the final performance of some chick on the American Idol finale. That video has 110,300 views. Now I know that Medicare is by no means a sexy issue, but it is an issue that will actually affect your life … especially if you are under 55. The outcome of American Idol makes absolutely zero difference to your life, unless you’re the winner.   Plus this: Want Some Medicare Cost History?

townhall.com/natebeeler

Links from National Review Online:
Ryan 40, Obama 0  "The Senate just finished voting on the Paul Ryan/House Republican budget resolution, as well as the budget put forward by President Obama in February. Both, as expected, were voted down, but only Ryan’s received any votes."
Draft Paul Ryan?  "Congressional Republicans weigh the pros and cons."
Run, Paul Ryan, Run "Perhaps the only guy who can explain the GOP budget should run."

Highlights Of Rep. Ryan's Budget Outline  "Before Nancy Pelosi has even read it she started screeching how bad it is. Can she read? Remember she didn't read Obamacare and told us we'd have to pass it to find out what's in it. Pelosi is screeching and wringing her hands over how the Ryan plan will cause people [to die].

The professional race victims speak out

James Clyburn: Obama’s political problems are due “in large measure” to racism  "A fitting story on a day when Loughner’s back in the news, in case you were ever tempted to believe that the Democrats’ demand for a “new tone” post-Tucson was anything more than a cheap political bludgeon. In fact, Clyburn once offered his own theory about what drove Loughner to kill, and it was, shall we say, distinctly Clyburnesque." Also here.

Obama's Unspoken Re-Election Edge "Conversely, the media hold the president's exceptionalism against Republicans. Here is Barack Obama, evidence of a new and progressive America. Here are the Republicans, a cast of largely white males, looking peculiarly unevolved. Add to this the Republicans' quite laudable focus on deficit reduction and spending cuts, and they can be made to look like a gaggle of scolding accountants."....
"A president who is both Democratic and black effectively gives the infamous race card to the entire left: Attack our president and you are a racist. To thwart this, Republicans will have to break through the barrier of political correctness."  Shelby Steele  This article was read on the Rush Limbaugh show Wednesday.

From American Thinker:  Opposition to Obama due to racism: Clyburn  "Obviously, Clyburn is right. Who could possibly complain about 9% unemployment, non-existent economic growth, creeping inflation, a loss of power and prestige abroad, and a thuggish, expanding, suffocating increase in the power of the federal government except racists like you and me?"  Rick Moran

The Left and ‘Racial Resentment’  "The biggest problems with these two latest attempts — the tea-party study and the Abramowitz post — is that they rely on measures of “racial resentment.” If you’re wondering what that means, it can be translated as “attempts to trick conservatives into giving ‘racist’ answers to survey questions.” You might say that researchers are using “code” to get data they can skew to make the Right look bad.
"Here’s how Abramowitz measured “racial resentment”:"...


Eric Allie via  forgottenliberty.com



MSNBC suspends Schultz for calling Ingraham a 'slut'

Politico  Part of Schultz's remarks: "President Obama is going to be visiting Joplin, Mo., on Sunday but you know what they’re talking about, like this right-wing slut, what’s her name - Laura Ingraham? Yeah, she’s a talk slut. You see, she was, back in the day, praising President Reagan when he was drinking a beer overseas. But now that Obama’s doing it, they’re working him over.” "

Dana Loesch

Ed Schultz: Sorry For Calling You a Slut "When I heard Ed Schultz’s remarks, I heard an angry, older man lashing out at a woman because she thinks differently about politics than he. I heard in him the voice of the many progressive males who send me hatemail daily, telling me I should suffer any number of indignities, some of which I am obligated to report to the police and the cyber crimes division. It’s not just me – every conservative female of my acquaintance with a voice in politics endures the same political cat-calling. It’s despicable."

....

 "It was a low point in progressive politics. It was revolting. It’s even more revolting that the same “feminists” who screeched about “slutwalks” were silent on this incident. It’s equally revolting that George Soros blogger Eric Boehlert, who spent that entire week trying to trap people on Twitter in saying something about rape (from memory; if I cared more I would quote him outright) also went silent on this incident." Dana Loesch

This from Hot Air:  "Give him credit: His apology was forthright and seems heartfelt."

Newsbusters has this: "Earlier this month, Schultz “earned” the “Quote of the Year” at the MRC’s 2011 “DisHonors Awards” for screaming on his MSNBC program: “The Republicans lie! They want to see you dead! They’d rather make money off your dead corpse! They kind of like it when that woman has cancer and they don’t have anything for her.” "

The funeral of Col. Elmer Ellsworth; May 25th, 1861

Elmer Ellsworth (1837-1861) "Colonel of Zouaves, Elmer Ellsworth was killed while taking down a Confederate flag in Alexandria, Virginia. Ellsworth was a Chicagoan who was a close friend of President Lincoln's family and accompanied him on his pre-inaugural trip to Washington. He moved into the White House and played regularly with the Lincoln children. He worked in Lincoln's law office in August 1860, assisted him during the fall campaign, and had a clerkship with State Auditor Jesse Dubois. The President was unable to fulfill his wish to form a militia bureau in the War Department and appoint Ellsworth to head it as inspector general. In a letter to Secretary Simon Cameron on March 1, 1861 the President wrote about Ellsworth:"...

ELMER ELLSWORTH AND THE ZOUAVE CRAZE  (Zwahv) "Despite the far-flung fame of the French Zouaves, it is unlikely that the gaudy uniforms of those exotic soldiers would have found such widespread popularity in the American Civil War had it not been for Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth."

Duryée's Zouaves:  The 5th New York Volunteer Infantry;
"The 5th New York Volunteer Infantry, "Duryée's Zouaves," was one of the most renowned fighting regiments of the American Civil War. Their colorful Zouave uniform, precise maneuvers, effectiveness in combat and steady bearing under fire, won them universal respect and recognition. "I doubt whether it had an equal," General George Sykes said of the 5th New York, "and certainly no superior among all the regiments of the Army of the Potomac." Many observers considered the 5th New York to be the best-drilled volunteer unit in the Federal Army. In addition to a casualty list that totalled 211 dead out of 1,508 men borne on the rolls, nine of its soldiers attained the rank of general -- five the full rank, and four by brevet."

Second Battle of Bull Run: Destruction of the 5th New York Zouaves  "...A detailed examination of morning reports, muster rolls and military service and pension records indicates that in their 10 minutes at the vortex of hell, the 5th New York lost 332 men of the approximately 525 engaged. At least 119 of the casualties were killed outright or died of their wounds. The addition of two missing who were never accounted for would bring the death total to 121. It was the greatest battle fatality sustained by any Federal infantry unit in the war.
"The survivors would never recover the esprit de corps that had died with their comrades at Second Bull Run. New recruits would arrive to fill the vacant ranks, but, as Sergeant Mitchell put it, ‘The regiment will never again be the regiment it has been.’"

The Worst of Oprah: Daytime Talk Queen Ends Biased Reign

Media Research Center "But amid all the fawning retrospectives and misty tributes, it's important to remember just who Oprah is, the biased viewpoint she represents and the damage she's done to popular culture." ....

nialloloughlin.blogspot.com

"...the more "uplifting" "Oprah Winfrey Show" has been a more insipid influence, steadily eroding the culture with a combination of weepy emotionalism, New Age spirituality and an embrace of alternative sexualities and gender roles.

"She's called a "pregnant man" "normal." She was involved in comedienne Ellen DeGeneres' coming out as a lesbian in the late 90s and has celebrated DeGeneres' "marriage" to another woman. She's said that Michael Moore's anti-Americanism "resonates" with her, pushed for gun control and gushed over Denmark's socialist welfare state. She's attacked not only Sarah Palin, but Palin's daughter Bristol, while raising millions and campaigning for the man she called "The One," Barack Obama."....

"Then, of course, there's "Becoming Chaz," a documentary following the progress of Sonny & Cher's daughter Chastity in becoming a man ("Chaz"). OWN invites viewers to "Follow Chaz on his deeply inspirational and personal journey.""

Why Larry King Will Never Be President

Ann Coulter  "Luckily, Chris Christie, Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain are all happily married to one, and only one, spouse. But please keep these statistics in mind during the next Republican primary so we don't have to keep pretending to take seriously candidates like Newt Gingrich, Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani."

Great cartoon! Oops-wait just a minute here!

therightreasons.net

Hey, wait a minute! The people on America who want Israel to disarm and go back to the '67 borders are the same people who want the US to give the Southwest back to Mexico! This cartoon may get posted in every faculty lounge in the country.

This Memorial Day, Support Our Fallen Heroes with ‘Tea Are The World’

Lloyd Marcus  "After the TV program honoring Durning and other American heroes, the following program honored great American conscientious objectors.

"Folks, it was quite annoying watching these guys, conscientious objectors, being portrayed as superior human beings while pontificating about the evils of war and why they chose not to participate. I thought, “You guys are free to enjoy success, freedom and spout your crap ‘in English’ because brave men like Charles Durning fought on your behalf. How dare you!”"

Photo: Lloyd Marcus

 Private First Class Charles Durning  "His is a remarkable story of survival. As a 21-year-old infantryman, Private Charles Durning was in the first wave of soldiers to land on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion of Normandy. He was the only man to survive a machine-gun ambush. Despite suffering serious machine gun and shrapnel wounds, Durning killed seven German gunners to survive D-Day.

"Several months later, in Belgium, Durning was stabbed eight times by a bayonet-wielding teenage German soldier. That day, he survived by killing the German with a rock in hand-to-hand combat. Durning recovered from those wounds and was released from the hospital just in time to fight in the Battle of the Bulge, where he was taken prisoner."

Didn't you love him playing Pappy O'Daniel in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" ?

Ryan Hits Obama on Medicare: Panel of Bureaucrats Will Lead to 'Waiting Lists and Denied Care'

The Weekly Standard   "On a day when many pundits and (allegedly) objective news reporters are declaring the Medicare reform Paul Ryan proposed caused the Republican to lose in New York's special congressional election, Ryan is out with a new video defending his plan and attacking Obama's."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJIC7kEq6kw&feature=player_embedded

“The President’s plan is to let a panel of 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats decide how much, or how little, Medicare will pay doctors and which services Medicare will, or will not, pay doctors to provide for their patients‬,”Ryan says.

Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell: Dependency and Votes  "Those who regard government "entitlement" programs as sacrosanct, and regard those who want to cut them back as calloused or cruel, picture a world very different from the world of reality.

"To listen to some of the defenders of entitlement programs, which are at the heart of the present financial crisis, you might think that anything the government fails to provide is something that people will be deprived of.....
"For politicians, giving a man a fish every day of his life is the way to keep getting his vote. "Entitlement" is just a fancy word for dependency.

"As for the scary stories politicians tell, in order to keep the entitlement programs going, as long as we keep buying it, they will keep selling it."

 

The Strange and Contradictory Perceptions of the Obama Speech on Israel: What did the President Really Say?

Ron Radosh "The different responses to President Barack Obama’s speech from the mainstream media show something very revealing: everyone still projects their own assumptions about what Obama means and believes onto the president.... they still put forth their own beliefs and projected them onto Obama."
....
One view:

“[The Obama speech was a] strong reaffirmation of the U.S.-Israel relationship and represented an important and positive change” from his remarks Thursday. “By adding a whole section to the speech that was missing on Thursday, President Obama put himself in line with presidents since Lyndon Johnson who have said again and again, Israel cannot go back to the 1949/1967 lines,” Block said. ‘This is an important and crucial change from what he said last week.”

"Others have pointed out, however, that if read carefully the Obama speech in fact did not say that Israel was right to refuse to negotiate with a Palestinian state that has signed an agreement with Hamas. That in fact, he went on in his speech to argue that despite this reality, they must do so because peace is a necessity that cannot be put on the backburner because of the new alliance. That is, indeed, the essence of Obama’s approach — to take back what he just said one sentence after he said it, so that both sides will find the kind of reassurance that they seek."
Another view:

...one must look at how the Palestinian Authority took Obama’s speech: did they see it as one friendly to Israel, as the president’s supporters claim? Look no further than the statement released by chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat: that they would not resume peace negotiations unless Israel accepts the ’67 border guidelines mentioned by the president. In other words, what might be determined in final status negotiations is now, according to Fatah, to be accepted first as a starting point before negotiations are to take place! What should be then negotiated?

Is it a trait of Democrat presidents, that their every sentence must be parsed to figure out what they really meant?

Corrupt Language Breeds Bad History and Bad Policy  "As the history of communism and fascism both illustrate, modern political tyranny has relied on fabricated history to legitimize its claims and actions, and such history in turn relies on the debasement of language. Nowhere is this axiom more evident than in the conflict between Israel and the Arabs — so much so that, as Obama’s recent remarks about Israel show, the false history and its false vocabulary are now taken for reality and made the basis of policy."....
"The misleading and false language used to describe the conflict between Israel and the countries that have tried to destroy it obscures the actual causes of Arab hatred of Israel, which in turn creates bad policies pursuing false solutions. A Palestinian state will not bring peace to the region, for the simple reason that a critical mass of Arabs does not want Israel to exist." Bruce S. Thornton  (Emphasis added.)

politicalhumor.about.com

Obama, Israel, and the Politics of Narcissism

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Pajamas Media "President Obama’s much publicized speech (May 19, 2011) to the Arab world created a new dimension in presidential character — the passive narcissist. Seldom, if ever, has any president been so infatuated with his own words at the expense of reality."

....

"Obama took office and quickly betrayed the Czechoslovaks and the Poles. He is a man who feels guilty about the pursuit of American national interests, who acts as if the dismal state of the Arab and Islamic world is our fault and not theirs. He cannot tell friend from foe. His betrayal of Israel is first and foremost a betrayal of America, a refusal to adhere to George W. Bush’s agreements on Jerusalem in exchange for the Gaza withdrawal. What confidence can nations have now in the continuity of American policy?

"Our concern should not be for Israel but for ourselves. We have elected a narcissist, naive and incapable, mesmerized by his own words echoing from the teleprompter, who is squandering our strategic interests in the Middle East with the same abandon that he squandered our strategic interests in Eastern Europe."
Even if we elect a president competent in world affairs, other nations will wonder if his- or her- commitments will have any lasting value; what if this nation then elects another Obama after that president?  What nations will ever again trust in the wisdom of American voters and our bipolar choices?

comicallyincorrect.com

Obama and the Arab Spring

STRATFOR  "Obama appears to have reached three conclusions about the Arab Spring:"

It represented a genuine and liberal democratic rising that might replace regimes.
American opposition to these risings might result in the emergence of anti-American regimes in these countries.
The United States must embrace the general idea of the Arab risings but be selective in specific cases; thus, it should support the rising in Egypt, but not necessarily in Bahrain

...."But Obama’s foray into Israeli-Palestinian affairs was not intended to be serious; rather, it was merely a cover for his broader policy to reconstitute a coalition of the willing. While we understand why he wants this broader policy to revive the coalition of the willing, it seems to involve huge risks that could see a diminished or disappeared coalition. He could help bring down pro-American regimes that are repressive and replace them with anti-American regimes that are equally or even more repressive."