Zombie-Eyed Kid Starver Paul Ryan

Attention poor people:  did you know that allowing your kids to eat free or reduced price lunches at school means you simply don't love your kids enough to work more hours to be able to afford meals?  (And why don't you love your children enough to make lunches for them, you horrible scum?)

Speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference, the former Republican vice presidential nominee argued that conservatives should let Democrats be the “party of personality,” while “we will be the party of ideas.”

“I’m optimistic about our chances because the left, the left just isn’t out of ideas, they’re out of touch,” he explained. “Take Obamacare — not literally, but figuratively here, okay? We now know that this law will discourage millions of people from working. The left thinks this is a good thing.”

Ryan insisted that liberals were only offering people “a full stomach and an empty soul.”

He then told a story of a “young boy from a very poor family” who received free lunches at school “from a government program.”

“He didn’t want a free lunch,” Ryan insisted. “He wanted his own lunch, one in a brown paper bag, just like the other kids.”

“He wanted one, he said, because he knew a kid with a brown paper bag had someone who cared for him. This is what the left does not understand.”

 Of course, what the right doesn't understand is that being poor doesn't mean you love your children any less, but that notion that whoever has the most stuff means you have the most love is pretty much the entire raison d'etre of modern conservative parenting:  If you were truly loving and deserving parents with good values and moral standards, you wouldn't be poor in the first place.

Oh, but here's the best part of the story:  It's 100% nonsense.  Even much-maligned WaPo "Fact Checker" Glenn Kessler dropped the dreaded "Four Pinocchios" rating on Ryan's story in less than 24 hours.

It turns out that Ryan stole the story from Wisconsin's GOP Department of Children and Families head Eloise Anderson.  Oh but it gets worse:

But the story doesn’t end there. Wonkette, a satiric blog, wondered if Anderson’s story was actually derived from a 2011 book titled “The Invisible Thread,” by Laura Schroff, which is a book about a busy executive and her relationship with an 11-year-old homeless panhandler named Maurice Mazyck. His mother was a drug addict, in jail, who had stolen things and cashed in food stamps to pay for drugs. At one point, Schroff offers to bring Mazyck lunch every day so he won’t go hungry.

And worse:

This actually seemed a little strange. Could the tale told in congressional testimony really be drawn from a book? It did not make much sense in part because Schroff and Mazyck are partnering with a group called No Kid Hungry to help end childhood hunger in the United States. One key part of the program is connecting hungry kids with federal programs such as school lunches and food stamps. The group also opposed Ryan’s 2013 budget for its proposed reductions in the food stamp program.

And worse.

Here at The Fact Checker, we often deal with situations in which people misspeak. We certainly don’t try to play gotcha. But this is a different order of magnitude. Anderson, in congressional testimony, represented that she spoke to this child—and then ripped the tale out of its original context. That’s certainly worthy of Four Pinocchios.

But what about Ryan? Should he get a pass because he heard this from a witness before Congress? It really depends on the circumstances. In this case, he referenced the story in a major speech. The burden always falls on the speaker and we believe politicians need to check the facts in any prepared remarks.

In this case, apparently, the story was too good to check. We appreciate he is regretful now. But a simple inquiry would have determined that the person telling the story actually is an advocate for the federal programs that Ryan now claims leaves people with “a full stomach and an empty soul.” So he also earns Four Pinocchios.

And this guy will almost certainly be running for President.  The guy is such a scumbag that, in order to attack free school lunches for poor kids, he stole a story from another Republican who stole the story first from an author who was pointing out how badly poor kids need things like school lunches.

And the best part:

This story recounted an incident from more than 25 years ago. 

When Paul Ryan was still in high school.

Presumably eating a school lunch.

Think about that for a moment.

Out-FOX-ing FOX News

The Perpetual Right-Wing Outrage Machine has to always be running, and FOX News has apparently become too mainstream for some.  The fringe wants in on the billions, and that means a new cable network with maximum wingnut, headed by Newsmax's Chris Ruddy.

Newsmax, which had revenue of $104 million in 2013, up from $85 million the year before, is perhaps best known for its namesake, 200,000-circulation monthly magazine. A conservative reimagining of the traditional newsweekly, Newsmaxpublishes political stories such as “President Obama’s Outrageous Power Grab” and ads for gold coins and hearing aids. For conservative politicians, making aNewsmax cover is an important stamp of validation. Newsmax.com, launched in 1998, before the magazine, is the most trafficked conservative site on the Web, with more than 11.5 million visitors in January, according to ComScore (SCOR). On a recent morning, the featured posts on the home page were “Obama Intel Reforms Threaten US Security,” “GOP Poised to Retake Senate as Disillusioned Democrats Depart,” and “Bomb-Strapped Islamists Threaten ‘Present’ at Olympics.” Ruddy has amassed a 5 million-person e-mail list, one reason Republican presidential candidates stop in to see him.

What’s remarkable about Ruddy’s prominence in the Republican media establishment is that he isn’t even a Republican, and Newsmax isn’t a conventional media company. Ruddy has taken Newsmax’s boomer audience, average age 54.7, and figured out how to sell it far more than political news. Newsmax, the corporation, is a smorgasbord of political, health, and financial information, self-help books, and even vitamin supplements constantly pushed through the website and e-mail lists. This eclectic array of products—the company made $46 million in subscription revenue from its 17 newsletters and $6 million from vitamin supplements in 2013—makes Newsmax less of a news business and more of a strange hybrid of the Heritage Foundation and Amway. It was Amway founder Richard Devos who suggested to Ruddy that Newsmax could sell supplements to his middle-aged audience.

Here's the kicker:

Ruddy is registered as an Independent and is more moderate than the rhetoric typically espoused by his media properties. He has become friends with Bill and Hillary Clinton and won’t rule out supporting Hillary for president in 2016. All of which makes his latest ambition, to build a TV network that he believes will challenge the conservative news monopoly of Fox News, either a misguided fantasy or a cunningly disruptive business plan.

If you ever needed proof that politics is 100% about the money, Chris Ruddy is it.

And this guy is going to make a mint.

This June, Ruddy plans to launch NewsmaxTV, a 24-hour cable news channel that will be, he says, a kinder, gentler Fox. “Our goal is to be a little more boomer-oriented, more information-based rather than being vituperative and polarizing,” he says. Ruddy says he can make NewsmaxTV profitable entirely through advertising and selling Newsmax’s consumer products over the air. It’s the same business model that’s been successful for QVC, Home Shopping Network (HSNI), and numerous televangelists, but no one has tried it in cable news. He’s quick to add that he doesn’t need to beat Fox News, he just needs to shave off a little of its audience—particularly those conservatives who feel Fox has drifted too far to the right. “If we take 10 to 15 percent of the Fox audience,” he says, “and they are making $1 billion a year, then we are going to be hugely profitable.”

Yep.  And the suckers of the far left and far right will flock to these guys.

StupidiNews!

• Ukraine's government is rejecting a vote by lawmakers in the country's Crimea region to secede and join the Russian Federation.
• The FBI is investigating whether Senate Intelligence Committee staffers removed classified documents in order to release information critical of the CIA in a report.
• Cerberus Capital Group will buy California-based Safeway supermarkets in a deal worth $9.4 billion in order to merge the chain with Cerberus-owned Albertson's.
• In a 385-23 vote, the House passed a $1 billion aid package to the Ukrainian government in order to provide loan guarantees and financial stability.
• Sony PlayStation division head Jack Tretton will step down as CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America after 19 years helming the console's rise in the US.

Last Call For Doom And Gloom

If Charlie Cook and his team at the National Journal are right about the 2014 midterms, the question isn't "Will the GOP win the Senate back" but  "How close to a 60 vote filibuster-proof majority will they get?"

At this point, eight months before the Nov. 4 election, it’s hard to see a lot of good news for congressional Democrats.

No matter how you look at it, the House seems out of reach. Today, Republicans appear a bit more likely to gain than to lose seats; it would take a cataclysmic event for Democrats to score the net gain of the 17 seats they need to take the majority.

What’s changed is that Democrats’ chances of holding onto their majority in the Senate is looking increasingly tenuous. There are now at least 10, and potentially as many as 13, Democratic-held seats in jeopardy. By contrast, only two GOP seats are in any meaningful danger, and that number hasn’t changed in six months.

In other words, Cook is predicting the GOP getting 58 seats if everything breaks their way.  That would put them in range of 60, especially if such a crushing margin caused Maine Independent Angus King to flip from caucusing with the Dems.  That would be 59.  And if you believe that, well, remember 2012?

Things are starting to look grisly for Senate Democrats. President Obama’s approval ratings average 41 percent, basically where President George W. Bush’s poll numbers were at this point before his own disastrous 2006 second-term, midterm election. And the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature legislative and policy achievement, is now even more unpopular than it was in October and November of 2010, when Democrats lost 63 seats, control of the House, and a half-dozen Senate seats. It doesn’t help that midterm electorates tend to be older and whiter than in presidential elections. Obama’s current job-approval ratings are also worse than they were in October and November of 2010.

The two most likely legislative land mines for Republicans to step on between now and Election Day have been defused: The government is now funded, and Congress won’t need to lift the debt ceiling between now and November. As a result, it is not clear where the kind of break that Democrats need could emerge.

On the other hand, Cook believes President Obama is "radioactive" and that the Democrats are doomed anyway.

Of course, they were doomed to lose the Senate in 2012, too.  And in 2016, it'll be the Republicans who have to defend their Senate Tea Party gains from 2010 in states like Ohio and Illinois.  If the Dems can hold out in November, 2016 is looking really good.

But in order to do that, we need people to vote in November.

Grayson's Got To Go If This Is True

If these allegations of domestic violence are true, then there's no place for Rep. Alan Grayson in the Democratic Party of 2014.

A judge has granted a temporary protective injunction against U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson after his wife filed paperwork accusing the Orlando congressman of shoving and injuring her during an incident this past weekend.

Lolita Grayson's petition for the injunction, dated Monday, says her husband pushed her against a door, causing her to fall to the ground, during a confrontation Saturday at their home on Oak Park Road near Windermere.

In a statement, Alan Grayson's press secretary, Lauren Doney, wrote that the allegations "are absolutely false, completely unfounded, and clearly designed to vilify and harm Congressman Grayson."

"Congressman Grayson firmly denies Ms. Grayson's frivolous accusations," the statement said.

The incident comes just less than two months after Lolita Grayson filed a divorce petition stating that their marriage of nearly 24 years was "irretrievably broken."

Grayson denies the allegations and says a staffer there was a witness.

Juan Lopez, the congressman's director of constituent services, told the Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday that he was present at the Grayson home Saturday and watched the incident from about 15 feet away.

Lopez said Alan Grayson never shoved or struck his wife: "Absolutely not .... It's just unfortunate that this is happening and that she would say something like this."

I understand divorces are messy, emotional, and wrenching experiences.  That's no excuse.  If Grayson did this to his wife, he's lost the privilege of representing anyone in public office, period.  Grayson has every right to fight this in court, but he knows if this is true or not.

Either way, he owes his constituents an explanation, so let's hear it.

The Kroog Vs. The Poverty Trap

Paul Krugman on GOP Rep. Paul Ryan's austerity budget, 2014 edition being a load of crap:

How so? Well, Ryan et al — conservatives in general — claim to care deeply about opportunity, about giving those not born into affluence the ability to rise. And they claim that their hostility to welfare-state programs reflects their assessment that these programs actually reduce opportunity, creating a poverty trap. As Ryan once put it,

"we don’t want to turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency, that drains them of their will and their incentive to make the most of their lives."

OK, do you notice the assumption here? It is that reduced incentives to work mean reduced social mobility. Is there any reason to believe this as a general proposition?

The answer of course is "no".
 

In fact, the evidence suggests that welfare-state programs enhance social mobility, thanks to little things like children of the poor having adequate nutrition and medical care. And conversely,of course, when such programs are absent or inadequate, the poor find themselves in a trap they often can’t escape, not because they lack the incentive, but because they lack the resources.

I mean, think about it: Do you really believe that making conditions harsh enough that poor women must work while pregnant or while they still have young children actually makes it more likely that those children will succeed in life?

The answer to that is no as well, but that's why Republicans immediately jump from this national policy argument to individual shaming and blaming of the single mother in question and respond with some increasingly awful variation of "She's the one who doomed the child to a lack of social mobility.  Bitch should have either kept her legs closed or married the kid's father.  Why should the taxpayer pick up the tab for that bad decision?"

And then these moral beacons of caring nod and shrug and pat themselves on the back, because Tough Love.  We can never have a debate over the fallacy of "hard work = success" because we're too busy stuck in the fallacy of  "unmarried women having sex = cause of all social ills".

StupidiNews!

• Israeli Defense Forces have intercepted a cargo ship that contained an Iranian shipment of "advanced weaponry" for militants in Gaza.
• A new gene therapy that blocks the transmission of HIV by eliminating the immune system protein that the virus needs to enter healthy T-cells may be a breakthrough in fighting AIDS.
• High-level diplomatic talks between the US and Russia in Paris have not yet yielded any solutions to stabilizing Ukraine.
• A California jury has handed down a conviction on 22 counts of corporate espionage in the case of Walter Liew, a DuPont consultant who stole company secrets to sell to China.
• Scientists have measured the spin of a quasar six billion years old, marking the first time a super-massive black hole has been measured in a galaxy other than our own.

Last Call For The Party Of Last Century

The latest Washington Post/ABC News poll shows overwhelming support in America for same-sex marriage:

Half of all Americans believe that gay men and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll in which a large majority also said businesses should not be able to deny serving gays for religious reasons.

Fifty percent say the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection gives gays the right to marry, while 41 percent say it does not.

Beyond the constitutional questions, a record-high 59 percent say they support same-sex marriage, while 34 percent are opposed, the widest margin tracked in Post-ABC polling.

This includes 53% support in the 33 states that don't currently allow same-sex marriage.  This debate should be effectively over (and in some ways it is).  And yet, as Greg Sargent points out, the GOP will remain firmly against same-sex equality.

Republicans are alone here: They oppose legal gay marriage by 54-40; and they don’t believe the “equal protection” clause guarantees the legal right to marry by 54-38. Majorities of independents and moderates are in the Yes camp on both.

Note the religious breakdown: White evangelical Protestants overwhelmingly oppose gay marriage, by 66-28. By contrast, white non-evangelical Protestants support it by 62-27, and white Catholics support it by 70-26.

When your base is made up of "God hates gays" bigots who justify their stupidity via religion, you become the party of fanatics.  My advice is to evolve or perish, but of course they don't believe in evolution, either.

Republicans are even more out of touch on the subject of increasing the minimum wage.

Even groups that are not congenial to the idea have been unable to find opposition. Reason, the self-styled magazine of “free minds and free markets,” which espouses libertarian views, conducted a poll in December that found 72 percent favoring a minimum wage increase, with just 26 percent opposed. In that survey, 88 percent of Democrats joined 70 percent of independents and 55 percent of Republicans in supporting a higher minimum wage.

The Republican argument against raising the minimum wage is that it's immoral because it destroys jobs.  If that were true, Washington State, which has the highest state minimum wage at $9.32 an hour, would have a terrible job creation record as thousands of jobs were destroyed, yes?

Only, surprise...the opposite happened.

In the 15 years that followed, the state’s minimum wage climbed to $9.32 -- the highest in the country. Meanwhile job growth continued at an average 0.8 percent annual pace, 0.3 percentage point above the national rate. Payrolls at Washington’s restaurants and bars, portrayed as particularly vulnerable to higher wage costs, expanded by 21 percent. Poverty has trailed the U.S. level for at least seven years.

It's like Republicans are basically wrong about everything or something like that.

Cowardly Senate Dems Block DOJ Civil Rights Head Nomination

No pleasant way around this:  Senate Democrats folded like absolute cowards on the nomination of Debo Adegbile's nomination to head the DOJ's Civil Rights division.

The U.S. Senate narrowly defeated President Obama's nominee to oversee the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division due to Republican and law enforcement objections to the role he played in the defense of convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Only 47 senators, all Democrats, voted to advance Debo Adegbile's nomination while 52 senators voted to block him, including 7 Democrats. Vice President Biden presided over the vote in the event he could break a tie, which was unnecessary after Democrats failed to muster enough support.

The Democrats voting to block the nomination were Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, John Walsh of Montana, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Chris Coons of Delaware. Coons, Pryor, and Walsh all face re-election this year. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also voted against the nomination in the end, but only for procedural reasons that will allow him to bring it up again if he so chooses.

Adegbile's defeat occurred even after Senate Democrats last year unilaterally changed the Senate rules on judicial and executive nominations to lower the threshold from 60 to a simple majority of votes to end a filibuster. He is the first Obama nominee to lose on the floor over Democratic opposition.

Scary black man defended a scary black man in a trial.  That's the entire reason these cowards wimped out.

In a statement, Coons said he did not doubt Adegbile's qualifications but that he could not overcome concerns about his ability to do the job. "I was troubled by the idea of voting for an Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights who would face such visceral opposition from law enforcement on his first day on the job," he said, "The vote I cast today was one of the most difficult I have taken since joining the Senate, but I believe it to be right for the people I represent."

And you're the king of cowards, Chris Coons.  Delaware is a safe blue state, and you bought into the FOX News smears like a fool. Black voters have a long memory, friend.  You're about to find out how long.

Same goes for Bob Casey in a blue state like Pennsylvania.

I am so tired of this nonsense.

The Grand Obama Derangement Theory

The Power Line brain trust takes a crack at a uniting theory justifying Obama Derangement Syndrome in order to explain away why the President is both a domestic tyrant who must be brought low and a foreign policy milquetoast who nobody pays attention to.  Paul Mirengoff complains that the ideas are not mutually (and comically) exclusive.

Obama’s core stated foreign policy objectives are to keep the U.S. out of war and to transform America’s image from that of unilateralist bully to a nation that plays well with others. Thus, it makes plenty of sense that Obama would behave internationally in ways that most conservatives would find feckless and/or timid.

Now, if Paul Mirengoff had written only this paragraph, he'd have a point.  Since conservatives are all about idiotically invading countries and costing us tens of thousands in troops, millions of ruined lives, and trillions in taxpayer dollars, President Obama's reasonable notion that such a policy may not be the best idea really does come across as "feckless and/or timid" to these credibility-free numbskulls.  Alas, he keeps going right into the teeth of the derpstorm.

The real question for conservatives who note the stark difference between Obama’s domestic and international posture is not whether they are being inconsistent but whether they are missing a unifying theme. The unifying theme would be an ideological aversion to the United States sufficient to cause Obama to (1) push for the radical transformation of the nation’s domestic policy through unlawful methods and (2) weaken the nation internationally by declining to assert American influence or even willfully ceding influence, including to our adversaries.

To recap, it's 2014, the sixth year of the man's second term, and the right still hasn't gotten past 2007's "Obama obviously hates America!"schtick.  And then he ends by invalidating his original complaint:

The question, in other words, is whether Obama behaves as he does in foreign affairs because he is naive or because he understands how the world works and simply wants the U.S. to have much less say about it.

The fact that Obama effectively plays domestic hard ball might cause some to tilt — Milbank style — in favor of the second explanation. But there is considerable naivety in the substance, if not the style, of Obama’s domestic policy.

In order to explain away why the Feckless Tyrant Theory is not a oxymoronic mess, he gives you the Stupid Supervillain Theory.

Exeunt, stage reality.

StupidiNews!

• In Texas primary results, Wendy Davis secured the Democratic nod for Governor, and GOP Sen. John Cornyn easily survived a primary challenge from Tea Party Rep. Steve Stockman.
• The California couple who found $10 million in buried gold coins may have to return them to the US government as they appear to have been stolen from the San Francisco mint.
• President Obama's budget proposal paying for expansion in infrastructure and education through corporate taxes has already been pronounced "dead on arrival" by Republicans.
• Chinese Premier Li Keqiang says the country's government will "declare war" on Beijing's massive smog problem.
• Internet startup Flexcoin, which purported to have resolved the security issues with Bitcoin hackers, was immediately robbed of all currency and forced to shut down.

Last Call For Dinosaur Steve Blowing It Again

Just another reminder that while my Gov. Steve Beshear is 100% right about Obamacare, he still would be a Republican in just about any other state on LGBTQ equality issues.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) announced Tuesday that his state will appeal a federal judge's ruling that the state must recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.

Beshear's decision comes after state Attorney General Jack Conway (D) announced earlier in the day that he would not appeal the ruling, calling banning gay marriage "discrimination." Beshear will instead hire outside legal counsel to handle the appeal.

Conway and Beshear last week asked the judge for a delay in order to decide whether to appeal and/or to give themselves time to figure out how to implement the law.

The judge's decision was made official last week but was originally made two weeks prior -- the latest in a string of recent and significant legal rulings in several states on the subject of gay marriage.

And despite Jack Conway for once doing the right thing, Dinosaur Steve comes along to screw it up.  Because Kentucky Democrats are the most dysfunctional state Democratic party in the country.  Kentucky will still have to be dragged kicking and screaming into equality, more so than I think any other state.

The decision of Beshear and Conway garnered national headlines Tuesday but will likely fade when the statewide races begin in 2015, said Paul Whalen, Campbell County Democratic Chairman. Whalen thinks Conway’s decision is the right one, and that gay marriage will become accepted in the future.

“I guess we do have an interesting dichotomy here in the state,” Whalen said. “Once things get settled down in regards to same sex marriage, people won’t be too excited about it. They’ll just shrug. I don’t think it will be that much of a big deal in another 18 months.”

You keep telling yourself same-sex marriage won't be fought tooth and nail (and firearm) in Kentucky.  Meanwhile, Democratic party officials here in Kentucky wonder why Mitch McConnell keeps winning easily.  At least one person is clued in however:

Beshear said he chose to appeal because "legal chaos is real" if a delay is not issued in the case while it is appealed.

Others, such as former Covington City Commissioner Shawn Masters, see Beshear’s decision as designed to not taint the political future of Beshear’s son, Andy Beshear, who will run for attorney general in 2015. Masters is openly gay.

“It’s a case of political posturing as far as I’m concerned,” Masters said. “He wants to get his son elected and thinks this is the avenue to go. If he digs deep in his heart, he knows this is the wrong avenue to be taking. I’m very disappointed in the governor’s decision.”

Now we just need Alison Lundergan Grimes's eventual mealy-mouthed non-statement to complete the Profiles In Courage segment of the show tonight.

Forget it, Zandar.  It's Kentuckytown.

The Return Of The Granny Starver

If you have any doubt what GOP control of the Senate would mean in 2015, it would entail the GOP putting Paul Ryan's budget on President Obama's desk and saying "sign it or else".  Robert Costa pulls no punches:

Ryan and his aides are unsparing in how they take the hammer to current federal policies. On page after page, the report casts a critical eye on how the government administers money to the poor and related bureaucracies, using a bevy of academic literature and federal studies as evidence.

Ryan said the crux of the report is the conclusion that federal programs need to be entirely reimagined, with more than tweaks or axed appropriations, and that legislation this year should move toward broader solutions that solve what he thinks are structural weaknesses in how the government supports the poor.

“Because these programs are means-tested — meaning that benefits decline as recipients make more money — poor families face very high implicit marginal tax rates,” the report says. “The federal government effectively discourages them from making more money.”

During the Clinton years Republicans demanded that programs had to be means tested to make sure that Cadillac-driving welfare queens weren't magically buying T-bone steaks on Uncle Sugar's dime and getting rich.

Now in the Obama years, means-testing means the welfare queens are poor and staying poor because it "discourages them from working".  So now "reforming" these programs means scrapping them entirely.

According to the report, Head Start, a federal program for early-childhood education and nutrition, is “failing to prepare children for school,” and “a consolidated, well-funded system would be better.”

Medicaid, which provides health coverage to low-income families, is the object of a sharply worded review. “Medicaid coverage has little effect on patients’ health,” the report says, adding that it imposes an “implicit tax on beneficiaries,” “crowds out private insurance” and “increases the likelihood of receiving welfare benefits.”

Head Start and Medicaid have to go.  Time for block grants, which means states can use the money however they want to, and that of course means "not for the poor".

Ryan also huddled with Iain Duncan Smith, a former leader of Britain’s Conservative Party. Smith is well known in the United Kingdom for his attempts to better connect conservatives with the poor.

“We’ve been paying very close attention to the Tories and their think tanks,” Ryan said. “They’ve done a lot of work already, and we can learn from their experience, both their mistakes and their successes, so we can rework our welfare system and get people out of poverty and onto lives of self-sufficiency and dignity.”

Remember, what Republicans mean by "self-sufficiency and dignity" is "working more than 40 hours a week, with no minimum wage, with overtime pay replaced by 'comp time' that your employer never has to actually let you have, for an employer who can fire you for any reason without recourse, for a rent payment that takes up the vast majority of your income."

And if the GOP wins control of the Senate, the Ryan Austerity plan becomes the budget.

Rand Paul, Constant Blockhead

It wouldn't be a week without my duly elected US Senator Rand Paul making an ass out of himself by pitching a tantrum and blocking President Obama from carrying out something Congress already approved.

When a bipartisan Senate panel last week lambasted Swiss bank Credit Suisse for helping rich Americans evade billions in taxes, some watching the high-profile hearing couldn’t help but notice an elephant in the room.

That is, Sen. Rand Paul.

The connection? Paul for years has single-handedly blocked an obscure U.S.-Swiss tax treaty that lawmakers, prosecutors, diplomats and banks say makes the difference between U.S. law enforcement rooting out the names of a few hundred fat-cat tax evaders — and many thousands more.

Kentucky’s tea party darling says the treaty infringes on privacy rights. But his critics say Paul’s hold just hamstrings the Justice Department’s tax evasion work.

“Credit Suisse is ready, at this moment, to provide the additional information about Swiss accounts requested by U.S. authorities but has been unable to do so because the U.S. Senate has not yet ratified the protocol,” said Credit Suisse CEO Brady Dougan at a hearing on the topic Wednesday — just after admitting his institution helped Americans evade taxes.

Just another reminder that Rand Paul has been blocking President Obama's ability to conduct foreign policy for years.  Harry Reid could force a vote to override Paul's block and hasn't.  But Republicans would have to block that override vote too, so what's the point?

“These are people that are alleged, not convicted of doing anything wrong,” Paul said a few weeks ago. “I don’t think you should have everybody’s information from their bank. There should be some process: accusations and proof that you’ve committed a crime.”

In other words, we can't go after tax evaders' financial information without definitive proof of tax evasion, which we would need financial information for.  The best part is that the Swiss want to help us because tax evasion is hurting them financially as well, but since Paul is blocking ratification of the agreement, they can't lift a finger.  Here's the real issue though:

Paul’s protest is also linked to his abhorrence of the soon-to-take-effect Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which will force foreign banks to disclose U.S. account information to the IRS, and domestic banks to reciprocate to other nations’ revenue departments.

And of course Rand Paul wants to repeal that legislation entirely because the "privacy rights" of criminals hiding billions of US taxpayer dollars is more important.

StupidiNews!

• Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations told the Security Council Monday that Russia had moved at least 16,000 troops into the country already.
• Australian climate scientists warn the country is in for more massive heatwaves like 2013 as temperatures will continue to rise.
• Japan's banking regulators are urging the country's smaller regional banks to merge as the country's population decreases.
• President Obama expressed optimism that a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians is still possible at a White House meeting with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
• At least one Chicago-based bank is warning customers to stop paying for taxi fares with plastic after a security breach at a payment processor may have compromised thousands of credit cards.