A Paul Ryan Post

By John Ballard

This is my Paul Ryan post. Rather than a string of entries about Paul Ryan, I have decided to just have one and add to it as the days pass.

? 8/11  This list from the Milwaukee paper looks like a good place to start. (Links at the source.) 
As they say, you can't make this stuff up! 

Interest group rankings

• American Conservative Union: 92% lifetime score (2011) 


• American Civil Liberties Union: 0% (2011) 


• The John Birch Society: 70% (2011) 


• Citizens Against Governmental Waste: 95% (2010) 


• League of Conservation Voters: 20% lifetime score (2011) 


• National Journal: Conservative Foreign Policy score: 57% (2011) 


• National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund, guns rights positions: A (2010) 


• AFL-CIO, labor positions: 28% (2011) 


• Alliance for Retired Americans: 6% lifetime score (2011) 


• NETWORK, a National Catholic Social Justice Lobby: 25% (2012) 


• Family Research Council, social issues: 90% (2011) 


• Vietnam Veterans of America: 100% (2011) 


• National Organization for Women: 13% (2008) 


• National Federation of Independent Business: 90% (2011) 

Source: Project Vote Smart

?  "One of US Republican VP pick Paul Ryan's favourite pastimes involves shoving his fist down the throats of giant catfish."

Rep. Paul Ryan loves noodling catfish  (June 9)

Ryan said he planned to head to Oklahoma on Sunday and take his children fishing on Lake Texoma, then indulge in another favorite activity in the afternoon: "I'm going to go out with some of my Okie friends, and I'm going to do something that I've been doing for a number of years, and that's called noodling catfish.

"And I want to say something to you Texans - because you understand freedom, you now legally recognize a man's right to catch a catfish with his own bare hands."

How Stuff Works...

If you're lucky, a catfish will swim out and, in an attempt to defend its nest or escape, will bite you. Some catfish may just nip at your fingers, but others will clamp onto your entire hand. Although catfish don't have super-sharp teeth, those teeth are plentiful. They curve inward, and noodlers say they feel like coarse sandpaper. The sandpaper feeling alone might not be so bad. But after a catfish clamps down on something, it tends to spin, which can rub your skin raw.

If the fish doesn't clench your hand, you'll need to pull open its mouth to get a good grip. Then, wiggle your fingers to work them into the fish's gill cover, the respiratory area on the sides of the fish's head. Grabbing it by the gills makes it more difficult for the fish to bite you during a struggle. It also helps you hold on a bit tighter. Once you get a firm hold on the fish, pull that prize to the surface. A flathead catfish could weigh anywhere from 20 to 50 pounds (9 to 22.7 kilograms) or more, so this is no small task.

More gory details at the link. Get ready, Mr. Biden. 

?  Widow's peak -- Wikipedia 

A number of fictional people have a widow's peak. In stories and on film this trait is often associated with a villain; Count Dracula is an example. Eddie Munster - from the television program "The Munsters" - also had this distinctive hairline. Another villain depicted as having widow's peak hair is The Joker from "Batman" comic books and films.Hannibal Lecter is described as having one in the novels that feature his story. Villainous Natasha Fatale from "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show" has a widow's peak.

? Social Security Personal Savings Guarantee and Prosperity Act of 2005
Read. Blink. Read again. Is he serious? #HeadDesk

Roubini: "Gutting Social Security with privatization rather than reforming it sensibly is demented as equity returns have been 0% for the last decade."

 

 

? Climate Denier, Conspiracy Theorist, Koch Acolyte

A favorite of the Koch brothers, Ryan has accused scientists of engaging in conspiracy to "intentionally mislead the public on the issue of climate change." He has implied that snow invalidates global warming.

? Meet Janna Little Ryan, Who Wants To Be America's Second Lady
She's a former Washington, D.C. lawyer and lobbyist with deep roots in Oklahoma Democratic politics. Her husband, Rep. Paul Ryan, just became Mitt Romney's running mate.

==> This is not a hit piece. It's an excellent survey of Mrs. Ryan's backstory -- respectable educational and professional (if politidcal) roots. 

? 8/12 Paul Ryan: Randian poseur
Salon -- Mitt Romney couldn't have chosen a better example of the fakery at the heart of today's GOP By Joan Walsh

...Paul Ryan represents the fakery at the heart of the Republican project today. It starts with the contradiction that Mr. Free Enterprise has spent his life in the bosom of government, enjoying the added protection of wingnut welfare benefactors like the Koch brothers. If Herman Cain is Charles and David Koch's "brother from another mother," as he famously joked, Ryan is the fourth Koch, swaddled in support from Americans for Prosperity and other Koch fronts. The man who wants to make the world safe for swashbuckling, risk-taking capitalists hasn't spent a day at economic risk in his entire life.

? Less than twenty-four hours after the announcement of the Ryan pick I am thinking about another presidential election offering a famous "Choice, Not an Echo" in 1964. A Google search turned up a delightful link featuring part of Barry Goldwater's website announcing in his own words his decision to run for president against LBJ. As in this year's election the famous book by that title describes "how the liberal 'Rockefeller Republican' wing of the Republican Party had manipulated the Republican Party's choice of nominees in several elections to nominate people like Wendell Willkie and Dwight Eisenhower, and called on conservatives to rally against the liberal wing and offer a true conservative for the nomination."

Does this ring any bells?

I've always stood for government that is limited and balanced and against the ever increasing concentrations of authority in Washington. I've always stood for individual responsibility and against regimentation. I believe we must now make a choice in this land and not continue drifting endlessly down and down for a time when all of us, our lives, our property, our hopes, and even our prayers will become just cogs in a vast government machine.

I was once asked what kind of Republican I was. I replied that I was not a "me-too" Republican. That still holds. I will not change my beliefs to win votes. I will offer a choice, not an echo. This will not be an engagement of personalities. It will be in engagement of principles.

I believe that we can win victory for freedom both at home and abroad. I believe that we can be strong enough and determined enough to win those victories without war. I believe that appeasement and weakness can only bring war. I've asked and will continue to ask: Why Not Victory-why not victory for sound, constitutional principles and government-why not victory over the evils of communism?

I'm convinced that in this year 1964 we must face up to our conscience and make a definite choice. We must decide what sort of people we are and what sort of world we want-now and for our children.

My candidacy is pledged to a victory for principle and to presenting an opportunity for the American people to choose. Let there be a choice-right now and in clear, understandable terms. And I ask all of those who feel and believe as I do to join with me in assuring both the choice and the victory.

And choose we did. That year the electorate buried Mr. Conservative in a historic landslide. 

And wouldn't you know, there at the bottom of the screen, was an advertisement for the Romney-Ryan campaign. 

You can't make this stuff up.