Substance and Style

M2RB:  Black-Eyed Peas

Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema

Yo', whatever happened to the values of humanity
Whatever happened to the fairness in equality
Instead of spreading love we're spreading animosity
Lack of understanding, leading us away from unity

That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' under
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' down
There's no wonder why sometimes I'm feelin' under
Gotta keep my faith alive till love is found
Now ask yourself

Where is the love?
Where is the love?
Where is the love?
Where is the love?

Father, Father, Father, help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love?

 

By Deroy Murdock

For his running mate, presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney wisely selected the distinguished House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.). In essence, this is the first major decision of a Romney administration. It is a superb one.

Ryan refreshingly combines a command of the substance of public policy with the style needed to communicate free-market solutions in an appealing fashion. Unlike the last Republican vice-presidential nominee, Ryan will have no problem speaking persuasively and specifically about the federal Leviathan’s every activity and expenditure.

Agree or disagree with him, no one can accuse Ryan of lobbing platitudes around Washington. Instead, he has authored the last two budgets adopted by the House of Representatives. Harry Reid and his Democratic majority must justify the fact that the Senate killed both of these budgets, unanimously defeated President Obama’s last two spending plans, and illegally has refused to pass any such blueprint of its own since April 29, 2009. Ryan’s Path to Prosperity would put Washington on a diet — if not the crackers-and-tap-water menu it deserves, at least not Team Obama’s free-of-charge, come-one-come-all, 24-hour gourmet smorgasbord.

Ryan is ideally suited to battle the Left on Medicare, a battle they surely will try to turn into Gettysburg 2012. They will accuse Romney and Ryan of wanting to gut Medicare, unplug sick seniors from their intravenous drips, and force them to dehydrate in the sun-drenched parking lots of eldercare centers across America. In the most vile, despicable, and revolting political ad since Lyndon Johnson notoriously intimated that Barry Goldwater would kill a flower-picking little girl in a thermonuclear exchange, liberals showed a Ryan-like congressman hurling an old lady from her wheelchair into a ravine, surely to her death. Democrats likely are crafting commercials that will make the throw-Granny-off-a-cliff spot look like Ryan’s family album.

To that, Ryan will respond: First, no one over age 55 will be affected by any proposed changes to Medicare. Second, just as every member of Congress does now, those under 55 will have the option — if they wish — to purchase health plans that reflect their tastes and preferences, rather than a single plan dictated by our masters in Washington. Third, based on their economic needs, the federal government will provide financial assistance to help them buy such coverage. The rich will get less help; the poor will get more. Fourth, any senior who finds this unattractive is welcome to remain in Medicare as we know it.

Absent such reforms, Ryan will explain, it won’t be Granny going over the cliff. It will be the entire Medicare system — with the rest of the federal budget and much of the American economy tumbling soon thereafter.

Ryan also will be able to expose Obama and the entire Democratic Left for their monumental, breathtaking hypocrisy on Medicare. Any Republican who suggests saving $100,000 in Medicare expenses by replacing Kleenex with generic tissue would be accused of launching a pneumonia pandemic against seniors.

Meanwhile, to finance Obamacare, Democrats swiped $500 billion (with a b) from the Medicare Trust Fund and plopped it into Obamacare’s coffers. This half-trillion-dollar robbery from Medicare occurred with no one on the Left calling 911 to report this crime. Indeed, they cheered it on.

Even more fraudulently, Team Obama simultaneously dedicates these (un)Affordable Care Act funds to underwrite future Medicare benefits.

“So,” Rep. John Shimkus (R., Ill.) asked Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at a March 3, 2011, House hearing, “are you using it [the $500 billion] to save Medicare, or are you using it to fund health-care reform? Which one?”

Secretary Sebelius admitted: “Both.”

“So,” Shimkus responded, “you’re double-counting.”

Ryan is perfectly prepared to educate Americans on the Democrats’ cynical thievery and, finally, put them on defense on Medicare.

Atop his substance, Ryan also brings style to the ticket. Ryan is Congress’s handsomest member, and his youthful energy and general exuberance are infectious. His smiling optimism will make it very hard for Democrats to portray him as a nasty, cold, heartless Granny killer. While Senator Rob Portman (R., Ohio) looks like someone with an Excel spreadsheet where his heart is, Ryan indubitably has ventricles and an aorta in his chest. Try as they will, Democrats will struggle to twist Ryan into the vicious caricature into which they often transform Republicans.

Ryan also can talk tough without being mean. His speech this morning in Norfolk, Va., before the USS Wisconsin deftly offered solid hits on Obama’s record without the snarls that might rattle independents or fragile centrists.

Ryan smoothly refuted Obama’s notorious slap at job creators. As Ryan put it today: “If you have a small business — you did build that.”

He nicely threw Obama’s entire class-warfare theme back into the president’s face.

As Ryan said: “We Americans look at one another’s success with pride, not resentment, because we know, as more Americans work hard, take risks, and succeed, more people will prosper, our communities will benefit, and individual lives will be improved and uplifted.”

Ryan concisely critiqued Obama’s entire approach as president and contrasted it with his and Romney’s plans. As Ryan stated: “We won’t duck the tough issues . . . we will lead! We won’t blame others . . . we will take responsibility! We won’t replace our founding principles . . . we will reapply them!”

In naming a running mate with intellect, gravitas, seriousness of purpose, courage, charm, and communications skills, Romney’s recruitment of Ryan recalls another Republican “R” — Reagan.


— New York commentator Deroy Murdock is a Fox News Contributor, a nationally syndicated columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service, and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University.




  Where Is The Love? - Black-Eyed Peas

What's wrong with the world, mama
People livin' like they ain't got no mamas
I think the whole world addicted to the drama
Only attracted to things that'll bring you trauma

Overseas, yeah, we try to stop terrorism
But we still got terrorists here livin'
In the USA, the big CIA
The Bloods and The Crips and the KKK

But if you only have love for your own race
Then you only leave space to discriminate
And to discriminate only generates hate
And when you hate then you're bound to get irate, yeah

Madness is what you demonstrate
And that's exactly how anger works and operates
Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight
Take control of your mind and meditate
Let your soul gravitate to the love, y'all, y'all

People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)

Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love, the love, the love

It just ain't the same, always unchanged
New days are strange, is the world insane
If love and peace are so strong
Why are there pieces of love that don't belong

Nations droppin' bombs
Chemical gasses fillin' lungs of little ones
With ongoin' sufferin' as the youth die young
So ask yourself is the lovin' really gone

So I could ask myself really what is goin' wrong
In this world that we livin' in people keep on givin' in
Makin' wrong decisions, only visions of them dividends
Not respectin' each other, deny thy brother
A war is goin' on but the reason's undercover

The truth is kept secret, it's swept under the rug
If you never know truth then you never know love
Where's the love, y'all, come on (I don't know)
Where's the truth, y'all, come on (I don't know)
Where's the love, y'all

People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)

Where is the love (The love)?
Where is the love (The love)?
Where is the love, the love, the love?

I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder
As I'm gettin' older, y'all, people gets colder
Most of us only care about money makin'
Selfishness got us followin' our wrong direction

Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema

Yo', whatever happened to the values of humanity
Whatever happened to the fairness in equality
Instead of spreading love we're spreading animosity
Lack of understanding, leading us away from unity

That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' under
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' down
There's no wonder why sometimes I'm feelin' under
Gotta keep my faith alive till love is found
Now ask yourself

Where is the love?
Where is the love?
Where is the love?
Where is the love?

Father, Father, Father, help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love?

Sing with me y'all:
One world, one world (We only got)
One world, one world (That's all we got)
One world, one world
And something's wrong with it (Yeah)
Something's wrong with it (Yeah)
Something's wrong with the wo-wo-world, yeah
We only got
(One world, one world)
That's all we got
(One world, one world)