For CNN, Soledad O’Brien fact-checks the Republican claim that Obama is cutting Medicare benefits, and finds that it’s incorrect.
Excellent work by O’Brien here in holding Sununu accountable to reality. You can view the original interview at the CNN web site.
A friend of mine put this list together. It’s useful in figuring out who Paul Ryan is. Re-posted here with permission.
Paul Ryan
Voted NO on allowing human embryonic stem cell research
Voted YES on terminating the Home Affordable mortgage Program
Voted NO on modifying bankruptcy rules to avoid mortgage foreclosures
Voted NO on additional $825 billion for economic recovery package
Voted NO on monitoring TARP funds to ensure more mortgage relief
Voted NO on $60B stimulus package for jobs, infrastructure, & energy
Voted NO on revitalizing severely distressed public housing
Voted NO on regulating the subprime mortgage industry
Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman
Voted YES on making the PATRIOT Act permanent
Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage
Voted YES on banning gay adoptions in DC
Voted NO on letting shareholders vote on executive compensation. (Jul 2009)
Voted YES on allowing stockholder voting on executive compensation. (Apr 2007)
Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes
Voted NO on expanding services for offenders’ re-entry into society
Voted NO on funding for alternative sentencing instead of more prisons
Voted YES on more prosecution and sentencing for juvenile crime
Voted YES on prohibiting needle exchange & medical marijuana in DC
Voted NO on $40B for green public schools
Voted NO on additional $10.2B for federal education & HHS projects
Voted NO on $84 million in grants for Black and Hispanic colleges
Voted YES on opening Outer Continental Shelf to oil drilling
Voted YES on barring EPA from regulating greenhouse gases
Voted NO on enforcing limits on CO2 global warming pollution
Voted NO on tax credits for renewable electricity, with PAYGO offsets
Voted NO on tax incentives for energy production and conservation
Voted NO on tax incentives for renewable energy
Voted NO on investing in homegrown biofuel
Voted NO on removing oil & gas exploration subsidies
Voted NO on raising CAFE standards; incentives for alternative fuels
Voted NO on prohibiting oil drilling & development in ANWR
Voted NO on starting implementation of Kyoto Protocol
Voted NO on protecting free-roaming horses and burros
Voted NO on environmental education grants for outdoor experiences
Voted YES on deauthorizing “critical habitat” for endangered species
Voted YES on speeding up approval of forest thinning projects
Voted NO on four weeks of paid parental leave for federal employees
Voted YES on requiring photo ID for voting in federal elections
Voted YES on restricting independent grassroots political committees
Voted YES on decreasing gun waiting period from 3 days to 1
Voted NO on expanding the Children’s Health Insurance Program
Voted NO on giving mental health full equity with physical health
Voted YES on allowing electronic surveillance without a warrant
Voted NO on restricting employer interference in union organizing
Voted YES on zero-funding OSHA’s Ergonomics Rules instead of $4.5B
Voted NO on strengthening the Social Security Lockbox
Voted NO on extending AMT exemptions to avoid hitting middle-income
Voted NO on paying for AMT relief by closing offshore business loopholes
Voted YES on retaining reduced taxes on capital gains & dividends
Voted YES on making the Bush tax cuts permanent
Voted YES on terminating funding for National Public Radio
Voted NO on establishing “network neutrality”
Seems like a lot of people don’t know much about Paul Ryan and his plans. Here’s a bit of reading if you want to learn more.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has extensive analysis of Ryan’s budget plan and what it would entail. It’s worth posting this short summary from their overview:
“The new Ryan budget is a remarkable document — one that, for most of the past half-century, would have been outside the bounds of mainstream discussion due to its extreme nature. In essence, this budget is Robin Hood in reverse — on steroids. It would likely produce the largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top in modern U.S. history and likely increase poverty and inequality more than any other budget in recent times (and possibly in the nation’s history).”
Ezra Klein’s morning Wonkbook has a primer on Ryan. He links to a long New Yorker profile written by Ryan Lizza that is well worth a read, as well as three interviews of Ryan by Klein himself.
Bill Moyers has a page of links to Paul Ryan backgrounders, including several posts by Moyers on Ryan’s budget proposal, “The Path to Prosperity 2012“.
It’s important to note that Romney claims that his budget proposal is not exactly the same as Ryan’s, but I believe they are similar in one important respect: neither one has budget math that adds up. Both rely on hypothetical spending cuts that the candidates will not specify, making it impossible to fully appreciate the impact these Republican plans would have. I suspect that is working as intended, to keep us from understanding just how bad the Republican plans would be for the middle class and the poor. So please look past their rhetoric and study the reality behind the men.
Updates as new info is found:
Igor Volsky at Think Progress has Twelve Things You Should Know About Candidate Paul Ryan. The one thing that stands out for me is how extreme Ryan is on the abortion issue. He actually submitted legislation in the House that would declare fertilized eggs to be persons under the law, the sort of legislation that is so far right it was rejected in Mississippi, and twice has been rejected in my home state of Colorado. Amanda Peterson Beadle adds Five Reasons Why Paul Ryan is Bad for Women’s Health. In addition to the abortion issue, he doesn’t want birth control funded in insurance plans.
Jamelle Bouie at The American Prospect offers us Five Things to Know About Ryan’s Plan for America.
And it’s important to remember that Romney/Ryan are ripping on Obama for the cuts to the privatized Medicare Advantage plan, but those same cuts are included in Ryan’s budget, too. And Republicans in the House and the Senate voted to approve that.
AP fact-checks Romney/Ryan’s claims during their announcement speeches, and finds that they lied a lot.
At at the Wonkblog, Suzy Khimm points out that Ryan has proposed harsh cuts to Medicare in particular. Republicans don’t much care about the middle class, but they really hate poor people.
Sometime later today NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will attempt to land the newest Mars Rover, Curiosity. After 253 days and 352 million miles in space, Curiosity will go through an impressive but terrifying landing procedure, and if all goes well will begin its task of spending one Martian year (687 earth days) performing various scientific investigations.
At the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, I saw a recreation of one of the earlier Rovers and I was surprised at how large they are. Even the earlier ones were as tall as I am. Curiosity is larger still, over 7 feet tall and 9 feet wide, and at take-off it weighed almost 9,000 pounds. Here’s a picture of Curiosity.
More information than you probably want or need at the links above. Live conversations with the engineers happen periodically at Ustream. You can bet that I’ll be glued to whatever information sources I can find this evening, with high hopes for a successful landing.
A friend tipped me off to this great interactive map of US Congressional Districts. I love being able to view different states up close and see where their Representatives are from. I also like watching the shift from 2010 to the new 2012 districts based on the last census and whatever political maneuvering the states have gone through. My own district (will be CO-7) is very different than the one I’ve been in the past ten years (CO-2). Anyway, it’s a great tool.
Hmm… embed isn’t working. You can see the map here.
One day about nine years ago, after Fabrice and I had lost a kitten to FIP, we were told about two kittens who had been abandoned on a corner down in Denver. Someone picked them up and took them to a nearby shop, and a (now former) Rockies member saw them and posted on the Well that they needed a home.
They came to live with us. Blue had white fur with black spots and Jamey, named in honor of a friend, turned out to have very long Maine-coon-type fur, which he was unfortunately allergic to so we learned to have him trimmed every spring.
In spite of that, he was strong and healthy for the most part, and as loving and gentle a cat as I’ve ever known. This morning I walked upstairs and found him lying dead in the living room. The vet believes he had a stroke*.
He’d been fine when I saw him an hour before, so this was an utter shock. Fabrice and I are in deep mourning. His sister Blue and his adversary, our other cat Katy, live on.
Goodbye, Jamey, our beautiful boy. We will miss you and think of you with love always.
Just moved to a new host, and took a day to get the old content in. I’ll be playing with the site design. Don’t be alarmed!
ETA: I seem to have lost a bunch of photos. They may or may not ever show up again.
