'Toon of the Day: Obama Plays Romney Roulette

"There's a broader lesson to be learned here.  And I -- you know, Governor Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later. And as president, one of the things I've learned is you can't do that. That, you know, it's important for you to make sure that the statements that you make are backed up by the facts. And that you've thought through the ramifications before you make 'em...

Evidently, Governor Romney likes to play Russian Roulette.  As a seasoned hunter from Chicago, which as you know, Steve, is one of the murder capitals of America, I know the odds of a Romney bullet being in the chamber of any gun that I point at my own administration are extremely miniscule.   Let me be clear, I can say, with complete confidence, that I could put an assault weapon -- you know, one of those guns that have cosmetic changes to make them look really, really scary and are racist because they are almost always BLACK -- to my temple and safely pull the trigger without a care in the world because I know that my opponent is wrong, wrong, wrong.  

The attacks on the embassy in Cairo and the consulate in Benghazi were the result of spontaneous uprisings of protestors upset over a “crude” and “disgusting” video, which is offencive to humanity, that got out-of-hand.  It's unfortunate that we have a few more bumps in the road, but Governor Romney's "bullets" from last night and today were just 100% false.  As time goes on, you will see that he is shooting blanks.  That's a fact...Just ask Joe Biden.  He's a fact man."

- President Barack Obama, 60 Minutes (first paragraph), 12 September 2012

**************************************

"With such a serious attack happening on the president’s watch, what the hell was he doing running off to Vegas to do more fundraising? That’s truly despicable."

scalleywag on October 12, 2012 at 8:19 PM

You know how Obama is a better speechwriter than his speechwriters? A better policy wonk than his policy wonks? A better political strategist than his political strategists?

Well, if you promise to keep a secret, I’ll tell you what Obama was doing. I know because I have a special red shoe-phone that has a direct line to Tel Aviv. Obama also happens to be a better secret agent man and trained assassin than ANYONE evah associated with the Mossad.

So, after he was told that the consulate was under attack and the Ambassador was missing, he went to bed because he needed his rest for a really big mission the next day. In the morning, the reason that he cancelled his PDB (this was after his Rose Garden speech) was because the doctors from Walter Reed came to implant his infrared eyeballs, which can see through the skin and identify Al Qaeda blood.

Once he recovered, he jumped into Air White Suburban (sic) One and flew out to Las Vegas to look for the “real killers,” who had been invited and flown in specially. The fundraiser was just a ruse to camouflage his deep-undercover mission.

Look, blowing up the levees is chump change for morons like Shrub and Darth Vader. Killing bin Laden with your bare hands and being a Orenthal James Bond is for the chosen.

"I Support Free Speech 100%...Unless It Hurts Someone's Feelings!!!"

M2RB:  Christina Aguilera

We are beautiful no matter what they say
Yes, words won't bring us down
We are beautiful in every single way
Yes, words can't bring us down, oh, no

Shut up and play nice: How the Western world is limiting free speech

 

 

 By Jonathan Turley 

 

Free speech is dying in the Western world. While most people still enjoy considerable freedom of expression, this right, once a near-absolute, has become less defined and less dependable for those espousing controversial social, political or religious views. The decline of free speech has come not from any single blow but rather from thousands of paper cuts of well-intentioned exceptions designed to maintain social harmony.

In the face of the violence that frequently results from anti-religious expression, some world leaders seem to be losing their patience with free speech. After a video called “Innocence of Muslims” appeared on YouTube and sparked violent protests in several Muslim nations last month, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that “when some people use this freedom of expression to provoke or humiliate some others’ values and beliefs, then this cannot be protected.”

It appears that the one thing modern society can no longer tolerate is intolerance. As Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard put it in her recent speech before the United Nations, “Our tolerance must never extend to tolerating religious hatred.”

A willingness to confine free speech in the name of social pluralism can be seen at various levels of authority and government. In February, for instance, Pennsylvania Judge Mark Martin heard a case in which a Muslim man was charged with attacking an atheist marching in a Halloween parade as a “zombie Muhammed.” Martin castigated not the defendant but the victim, Ernie Perce, lecturing him that “our forefathers intended to use the First Amendment so we can speak with our mind, not to piss off other people and cultures — which is what you did.”

Of course, free speech is often precisely about pissing off other people — challenging social taboos or political values.

This was evident in recent days when courts in Washington and New York ruled that transit authorities could not prevent or delay the posting of a controversial ad that says: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad.”

When U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer said the government could not bar the ad simply because it could upset some Metro riders, the ruling prompted calls for new limits on such speech. And in New York, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority responded by unanimously passing a new regulation banning any message that it considers likely to “incite” others or cause some “other immediate breach of the peace.”

Such efforts focus not on the right to speak but on the possible reaction to speech — a fundamental change in the treatment of free speech in the West. The much-misconstrued statement of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes that free speech does not give you the right to shout fire in a crowded theater is now being used to curtail speech that might provoke a violence-prone minority. Our entire society is being treated as a crowded theater, and talking about whole subjects is now akin to shouting “fire!”

The new restrictions are forcing people to meet the demands of the lowest common denominator of accepted speech, usually using one of four rationales.

Speech is blasphemous
 
This is the oldest threat to free speech, but it has experienced something of a comeback in the 21st century. After protests erupted throughout the Muslim world in 2005 over Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, Western countries publicly professed fealty to free speech, yet quietly cracked down on anti-religious expression. Religious critics in France, Britain, Italy and other countries have found themselves under criminal investigation as threats to public safety. In France, actress and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot has been fined several times for comments about how Muslims are undermining French culture. And just last month, a Greek atheist was arrested for insulting a famous monk by making his name sound like that of a pasta dish.

Some Western countries have classic blasphemy laws — such as Ireland, which in 2009 criminalized the “publication or utterance of blasphemous matter” deemed “grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion.” The Russian Duma recently proposed a law against “insulting religious beliefs.” Other countries allow the arrest of people who threaten strife by criticizing religions or religious leaders. In Britain, for instance, a 15-year-old girl was arrested two years ago for burning a Koran.

Western governments seem to be sending the message that free speech rights will not protect you — as shown clearly last month by the images of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the YouTube filmmaker, being carted away in California on suspicion of probation violations. Dutch politician Geert Wilders went through years of litigation before he was acquitted last year on charges of insulting Islam by voicing anti-Islamic views. In the Netherlandsand Italy, cartoonists and comedians have been charged with insulting religion through caricatures or jokes.

Even the Obama administration supported the passage of a resolution in the U.N. Human Rights Council to create an international standard restricting some anti-religious speech (its full name: “Combating Intolerance, Negative Stereotyping and Stigmatization of, and Discrimination, Incitement to Violence and Violence Against, Persons Based on Religion or Belief”). Egypt’s U.N. ambassador heralded the resolution as exposing the “true nature” of free speech and recognizing that “freedom of expression has been sometimes misused” to insult religion.

At a Washington conference last yearto implement the resolution, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton declared that it would protect both “the right to practice one’s religion freely and the right to express one’s opinion without fear.” But it isn’t clear how speech can be protected if the yardstick is how people react to speech — particularly in countries where people riot over a single cartoon. Clinton suggested that free speech resulting in “sectarian clashes” or “the destruction or the defacement or the vandalization of religious sites” was not, as she put it, “fair game.”
Given this initiative, President Obama’s U.N. address last month declaring America’s support for free speech, while laudable, seemed confused — even at odds with his administration’s efforts.

 
Speech is hateful

In the United States, hate speech is presumably protected under the First Amendment. However, hate-crime laws often redefine hateful expression as a criminal act. Thus, in 2003, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a Virginia Ku Klux Klan member who burned a cross on private land. The court allowed for criminal penalties so long as the government could show that the act was “intended to intimidate” others. It was a distinction without meaning, since the state can simply cite the intimidating history of that symbol.

Other Western nations routinely bar forms of speech considered hateful. Britain prohibits any “abusive or insulting words” meant “to stir up racial hatred.” Canada outlaws “any writing, sign or visible representation” that “incites hatred against any identifiable group.” These laws ban speech based not only on its content but on the reaction of others. Speakers are often called to answer for their divisive or insulting speech before bodies like the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

This month, a Canadian court ruled that Marc Lemire, the webmaster of a far-right political site, could be punished for allowing third parties to leave insulting comments about homosexuals and blacks on the site. Echoing the logic behind blasphemy laws, Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley ruled that “the minimal harm caused . . . to freedom of expression is far outweighed by the benefit it provides to vulnerable groups and to the promotion of equality.”

Speech is discriminatory

Perhaps the most rapidly expanding limitation on speech is found in anti-discrimination laws. Many Western countries have extended such laws to public statements deemed insulting or derogatory to any group, race or gender.

For example, in a closely watched case last year, a French court found fashion designer John Galliano guilty of making discriminatory comments in a Paris bar, where he got into a cursing match with a couple using sexist and anti-Semitic terms. Judge Anne-Marie Sauteraud read a list of the bad words Galliano had used, adding that she found (rather implausibly) he had said “dirty whore” at least 1,000 times. Though he faced up to six months in jail, he was fined.

In Canada, comedian Guy Earle was charged with violating the human rights of a lesbian couple after he got into a trash-talking session with a group of women during an open-mike night at a nightclub. Lorna Pardysaid she suffered post-traumatic stress because of Earle’s profane language and derogatory terms for lesbians. The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal ruled last year that since this was a matter of discrimination, free speech was not a defense, and awarded about $23,000 to the couple.

Ironically, while some religious organizations are pushing blasphemy laws, religious individuals are increasingly targeted under anti-discrimination laws for their criticism of homosexuals and other groups. In 2008, a minister in Canada was not only forced to pay fines for uttering anti-gay sentiments but was also enjoined from expressing such views in the future.

  

Speech is deceitful

In the United States, where speech is given the most protection among Western countries, there has been a recent effort to carve out a potentially large category to which the First Amendment would not apply. While we have always prosecuted people who lie to achieve financial or other benefits, some argue that the government can outlaw any lie, regardless of whether the liar secured any economic gain.

One such law was the Stolen Valor Act, signed by President George W. Bush in 2006, which made it a crime for people to lie about receiving military honors. The Supreme Court struck it down this year, but at least two liberal justices, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, proposed that such laws should have less of a burden to be upheld as constitutional. The House responded with new legislation that would criminalize lies told with the intent to obtain any undefined “tangible benefit.”

The dangers are obvious. Government officials have long labeled whistleblowers, reporters and critics as “liars” who distort their actions or words. If the government can define what is a lie, it can define what is the truth.

For example, in Februarythe French Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a law that made it a crime to deny the 1915 Armenian genocide by Turkey — a characterization that Turkey steadfastly rejects. Despite the ruling, various French leaders pledged to pass new measures punishing those who deny the Armenians’ historical claims.

The impact of government limits on speech has been magnified by even greater forms of private censorship. For example, most news organizations have stopped showing images of Muhammad, though they seem to have no misgivings about caricatures of other religious figures. The most extreme such example was supplied by Yale University Press, which in 2009 published a book about the Danish cartoons titled “The Cartoons That Shook the World” — but cut all of the cartoons so as not to insult anyone.

The very right that laid the foundation for Western civilization is increasingly viewed as a nuisance, if not a threat. Whether speech is deemed imflammatory or hateful or discriminatory or simply false, society is denying speech rights in the name of tolerance, enforcing mutual respect through categorical censorship.

As in a troubled marriage, the West seems to be falling out of love with free speech. Unable to divorce ourselves from this defining right, we take refuge instead in an awkward and forced silence.



Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University.

Beautiful - Christina Aguilera

Don't look at me

Every day is so wonderful
Then suddenly, it's hard to breathe
Now and then, I get insecure
From all the pain, I'm so ashamed

I am beautiful no matter what they say
Words can't bring me down
I am beautiful in every single way
Yes, words can't bring me down... Oh no
So don't you bring me down today

To all your friends you're delirious
So consumed in all your doom
Trying hard to fill the emptiness
The pieces gone, left the puzzle undone
That's the way it is

You are beautiful no matter what they say
Words can't bring you down
You are beautiful in every single way
Yes, words can't bring you down, oh, no
So don't you bring me down today...

No matter what we do
(no matter what we do)
No matter what we say
(no matter what we say)
We're the song inside the tune
Full of beautiful mistakes

And everywhere we go
(and everywhere we go)
The sun will always shine
(sun will always shine)
And tomorrow we might wake on the other side

We are beautiful no matter what they say
Yes, words won't bring us down
We are beautiful in every single way
Yes, words can't bring us down, oh, no
So don't you bring me down today

Oh, yeah, don't you bring me down today, yeah
Don't you bring me down ooh... today 

Pic of the Day: The Irony of Socialism

Say It Ain't So, Uncle Joe: Fack-Checking Joe Biden

 M2RB:  Roger Daltrey

  

Say it ain't so, Joe, please
Say it ain't so
I'm sure they're telling us lies Joe and I've got a right to know

They told us are hero has played his last trump card
He doesn't know how to go on.
We're clinging to his charm and he turned and smiled
But the good ole days are gone.

The army and the empire may be falling apart
And the money had gotten scarce
One man's word held the country together
But the truth is getting fierce.

Say it ain't so, Joe, please
Say it ain't so
That's not what I want to hear Joe and I've got a right to know

Don't worry.  If Bidumb said it, it probably isn't.

“And by the way, at the time we were told exactly — we said exactly what the intelligence community told us that they knew. That was the assessment. And as the intelligence community changed their view, we made it clear they changed their view.” 

- Joe Biden, at the debate

On the morning of the 12th of September — that would be the morning after the evening President Obama had been briefed that there was an ongoing assault on the Benghazi consulate and the Ambassador was missing and went to bed to get his beauty sleep – the President was told that Stevens and 3 others were dead…evidently, he did not answer the 3 AM phone call or his staff didn’t think it was important enough to tell him…he canceled his PDB and made a statement in the Rose Garden.

The significance of his statement is that, standing next to him, was one Hillary Clinton – THE SECRETARY OF STATE.  

Now, why is this important?

The Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Charlene Lamb, has already testified that she was able to follow what happened “in almost real time” from a command centre in Washington. She KNEW what had happened. 

Do they really think that we are stupid enough to believe that the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State did not tell the Secretary of State what she witnessed “in almost real time” from a command centre in DC and the Secretary of State didn’t tell the President of the United States before she joined him in the Rose Garden for his address to the nation?

Really?

"On Iraq, the president said he would end the war. Governor Romney said that was a tragic mistake, we should have left 30,000 — he ended it. Governor Romney said that was a tragic mistake, we should have left 30,000 troops there."

- Joe Biden, debate

Per the NYT:

"All American forces were to leave Iraq by the end of 2011, the departure date set in an agreement signed by President George W. Bush and Mr. Maliki in 2008. Even so, Mr. Obama left the door open to KEEPING TROOPS IN IRAQ to train Iraqi forces if an agreement could be negotiated.

Convening a videoconference on Oct. 6, 2010, Mr. Biden and top American officials reviewed the options. The vice president favored a plan that would keep Mr. Maliki as prime minister, but  which involved installing his main rival, Mr. Allawi, leader of the Iraqiya bloc, near the top of the pyramid. To make way for Mr. Allawi, Mr. Biden suggested that Mr. Talabani, an ethnic Kurd, be shifted from the presidency and given another position. “Let’s make him foreign minister,” Mr. Biden said, according to the notes of the meeting.

“Thanks a lot, Joe,” Mrs. Clinton said, noting that Mr. Biden had cast the Foreign Ministry as a consolation prize.

Mr. Biden also predicted that the Americans could work out a deal with a government led by Mr. Maliki. “Maliki wants us to stick around because he does not see a future in Iraq otherwise,” Mr. Biden said. “I'LL BET YOU MY VICE-PRESIDENCY MALIKI WILL EXTEND THE SOFA,” he added, he added, referring to the Status of Forces Agreement the Obama administration hoped to negotiate.

James B. Steinberg, the deputy secretary of state, questioned whether Mr. Biden’s plan would make the already inefficient Iraqi government more dysfunctional.

Admiral Mullen sent a classified letter to Mr. Donilon that recommended keeping 16,000 troops.

The attempt by Mr. Obama and his senior aides to fashion an extraordinary power-sharing arrangement between Mr. Maliki and Mr. Allawi never materialized. NEITHER DID AN AGREEMENT THAT WOULD HAVE KEPT A SMALL AMERICAN FORCE IN IRAQ TO TRAIN THE IRAQI MILITARY AND PATROL THE COUNTRY'S SKIES. A plan to use American civilians to train the Iraqi police has been severely cut back. The result is an Iraq that is less stable domestically and less reliable internationally than the United States had envisioned."

In the end, Biden's plan was rebuffed by the Iraqis and the SOFA was not extended.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/world/middleeast/failed-efforts-of-americas-last-months-in-iraq.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 

"Governor Romney said that was a tragic mistake, we should have left 30,000 -- (Obama) ended it. Governor Romney said that was a tragic mistake, we should have left 30,000 troops there.. But we are leaving. We are leaving in 2014."

- Joe Biden, debate

Evidently not.   Marc Grossman, the State Department's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, has said that the point of the upcoming negotiations is to agree on an extension of the U.S. troop presence well past 2014, for the purposes of conducting counterterrorism operations and training and advising the Afghan security forces.  Some U.S. military officials have said the plan is to keep 25,000 American troops in Afghanistan past 2014, but Grossman insisted that there is no number yet and the 25,000 figure quoted in reports is speculative.   Grossman was speaking on a panel at the annual summit of the International Stability Operations Association in Washington. Also on the panel was Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy, who said that the State Department would need U.S. military troops in Afghanistan to protect them and help them well past 2014. 

"And by the way, that program (Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Stimulus Act of 2009), again, investigated. What the Congress said was it was a model. Less than four-tenths of 1 percent waste or fraud in the program. And all this talk about cronyism. They investigated and investigated, did not find one single piece of evidence. I wish he would just tell -- be a little more candid."

- Joe Biden, debate

 Untrue.  

"The government’s chief spending watchdogs have already secured nearly 600 convictions and judgments against people and companies accused of misusing stimulus funds and have a whopping 1,900 investigations currently open into possible wrongdoing, officials say."

http://www.washingtonguardian.com/stimulating-investigation
 


 

"But number two, the Iranians are -- the Israelis and the United States, our military and intelligence communities are absolutely the same exact place in terms of how close -- how close the Iranians are to getting a nuclear weapon. They are a good way away. There is no difference between our view and theirs...When my friend talks about fissile material, they have to take this highly enriched uranium, get it from 20 percent up, then they have to be able to have something to put it in. There is no weapon that the Iranians have at this point. Both the Israelis and we know -- we'll know if they start the process of building a weapon."

- Joe Biden, debate

Untrue.  As Netanyahu stated in his speech before the UN,  "Iran has completed the first stage of uranium enrichment and are 70% of the way there.”  He further stated that Iran will breakout by next summer.    Obvious, the Israelis and the United States, our military and intelligence communities are NOT absolutely the same exact place in terms of how close -- how close the Iranians are to getting a nuclear weapon. The Israelis do NOT believe that the Iranians "are a good way away."  Finally, there ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY IS A "DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OUR VIEW AND THEIRS."

"Who you believe, the AMA, me, a guy who's fought his whole life for this, or somebody who would actually put in motion a plan that knowingly cut -- added $6,400 a year more to the cost of Medicare?" 

- Joe Biden, debate

An AMA committee just approved a Ryan-esque Medicare reform plan.

 “The [AMA] policy identifies changes that must be made to strengthen the traditional Medicare program (i.e., restructuring beneficiary cost-sharing, including modifying Medigap rules, and changing the eligibility age to match Social Security) and expresses support for giving beneficiaries a choice of plans for which the federal government would contribute a standard amount (i.e., a ‘defined contribution’) toward the purchase of traditional fee-for-service Medicare or another health insurance plan approved by Medicare. The Council firmly believes that implementing a defined contribution system, with strong regulatory protections for patients, is a responsible and feasible approach to strengthening the Medicare program.”

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/aroy/2012/10/16/key-ama-committee-endorses-paul-ryan-like-defined-contribution-reforms-for-medicare/

“Look, I was there when we did that with Social Security in 1983. I was one of eight people sitting in the room that included Tip O’Neill negotiating with President Reagan. We all got together and everybody said, as long as everybody’s in the deal, everybody’s in the deal, and everybody is making some sacrifice, we can find a way.”

- Joe Biden, debate

1.

“(I was) one of five people — I was the junior guy — in the meeting with Bob Dole and George Mitchell when we put Social Security on the right path for 60 years.”

- Joe Biden, Meet The Press, 29 April 2007

2.   Jake Tapper:  Tapper: “But according to the historical record, Biden was not one of the small group of people in ‘the room,’ or in ‘the meeting’ — nor was he even a key player in reforms.”

"Martha, if we just did one thing, if we just -- if they just allowed Medicare to bargain for the cost of drugs like Medicaid can, that would save $156 billion right off the bat."

- Joe Biden, debate 

In fact, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that such a change “would have a negligible effect on drug spending.”

"There's not one Democrat who endorses (Medicare reform with a defined contribution or premium support)..And he said he does no longer support (Ron Wyden)...Who disavows it.(Rivkin)..."

- Joe Biden, debate

"There's not one Democrat who endorses (Medicare reform with a defined contribution or premium support)":  Lie.  Erskine Bowles does.

"And he said he does no longer support (Ron Wyden)":  Lie.  

"I do know, however, that because we worked together, Paul Ryan now knows more about the Medicare Guarantee and protecting seniors from unscrupulous insurance practices than he did before. If that is reflected in his budget this year, as someone who has been fighting for seniors since he was 27 years old, I think that's a step in the right direction."

- Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Preserving the Medicare Guarantee: Why I've Been Working with Paul Ryan, 19 March 2012

"Who disavows it.(Rivkin)...":  Lie.

“Dr. Rivlin emphasized that defined contribution amounts should be sufficient to ensure that all beneficiaries could afford to purchase health insurance coverage, and that private health insurance plans should be subject to regulations that protect patients and ensure the availability of coverage for even the sickest patients.”

“That’s why I said we will get to the bottom of this. You know, usually when there’s a crisis, we pull together. We pull together as a nation. But as I said, EVEN BEFORE WE KNEW WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO THE AMBASSADOR, the governor was HOLDING A PRESS CONFERENCE — was holding a press conference. That’s not presidential leadership.” 

- Joe Biden, debate

Huh?

Tuesday, about 6 AM, before the attack in Benghazi (all times Eastern): BLAMES VIDEO

Tuesday, about 6:30 PM, in Twitter message, U.S. Embassy stands by statement

Tuesday, 10:08 PM: Clinton Confirms Death of One American in Libya (BLAMES VIDEO)

Tuesday, 10:10 PM: Politico reports Obama Administration disavows Embassy Statement

Tuesday, 10:24 PM: Romney criticizes Administration’s response

Wednesday, 7:22 AM: President Confirms Death of the Ambassador and Three Others

Wednesday, 10:17 AM, ROMNEY’S FIRST PRESS CONFERENCE

“Americans woke up this morning with tragic news and felt heavy hearts as they considered that individuals who have served in our diplomatic corps were brutally murdered across the world. This attack on American individuals and embassies is outrageous, it’s disgusting. It breaks the hearts of all of us who think of these people who have served, during their lives, the cause of freedom, and justice and honor. We mourn their loss and join together in prayer that the spirit of the Almighty might comfort the families of those who have been so brutally slain.

    FOUR DIPLOMATS LOST THEIR LIFE (sic)….”America will not tolerate attacks against our citizens and against our embassies. We will defend also our constitutional RIGHTS OF SPEECH and assembly and religion…

    I also believe the Administration was wrong to stand by a statement sympathizing with those who had breached our embassy in Egypt instead of condemning their actions. It’s never too early for the United States Government to condemn attacks on Americans, and to defend our values. THE WHITE HOUSE FINALLY DISTANCED ITSELF LAST NIGHT FROM THE STATEMENT, saying it wasn’t ‘cleared by Washington.’ That reflects the mixed signals they’re sending to the world.”

    - Statement of Mitt Romney, 12 September 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/09/12/us/politics/libya-statements.html

“We will be no part of a voucher programme.”

- Joe Biden, debate

Surprise! Obama's HHS pilot programme to send 2 million poor seniors from Medicare into … “voucher” programmes

http://nationaljournal.com/healthcare/obama-more-flexible-on-medicare-than-rhetoric-suggests-20120908?page=1

"(Romney said about the auto industry) let it go bankrupt."

- Joe Biden, debate

 
Um, GM & Chrysler DID go bankrupt.
  

“This President doesn’t bluff.”

 - Joe Biden, debate

 
“Eric (Cantor), don’t call my bluff.” – President Barack Obama

"That would (bipartisanship) — that would be a first for the Republican Congress...That’s coming from a Republican Congress working bipartisanly, 7 percent rating? Come on."

- Joe Biden, debate

Congress has two chambers:  The House of Representatives and the Senate.  The last time that I looked, Harry Reid, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, was a Democrat.

"There are people that are concerned (about the timeline for withdrawal) but not the Joint Chiefs. That was their recommendation in the Oval Office to the President of the United States of America.  I sat there. I’m sure you’ll find someone who disagrees with the Pentagon. I’m positive you’ll find that in the military. But that’s not the case here."

- Joe Biden, debate

Lie. The Joint Chiefs did NOT recommend a timeline. In fact, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a House hearing that he supports THE PRESIDENT'S PLANS, but Mullen said they are "MORE AGGRESSIVE AND INCUR MORE RISK THAN HE CONSIDERS PRUDENT."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/23/mike-mullen-obama-afghanistan-troop-withdrawal_n_882938.html

While we are at it, let's look at what some Democrats have said in the past about telegraphing exit dates to enemies...

"A deadline for pulling out will only encourage our enemies to wait us out. It would be a Lebanon in 1985, and God knows where it goes from there."

- Senator JOE BIDEN, remarks to the Brookings Institution, 21 June 2005

"I don't believe it's smart to set a date for withdrawal. I don't think you should ever telegraph your intentions to the enemy so they can await you."

- Senator HILLARY CLINTON, 22 September 2005 via "Clinton II: parsing Clinton's history on Iraq," National Journal's The Hotline, 13 February 2007

"As far as setting a timeline that's not a wise decision, because it only empowers those who don't want us there."

- Senator HARRY REID, remarks to the National Press Club, 31 January 2005  



++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“Let’s all calm down a little bit here...Iran has no weapon to put an atomic bomb in."

- Joe Biden, debate

A few points...

1.  Iran does has Shahab missiles and Sajjil missiles- the Sajjil-2 is a medium-range missile of about 2,200 km or 1,375 miles when carrying a 750-kg warhead, capable of hitting our assets in the Middle East or any of our allies in the regime (although admittedly it’s rather inaccurate) and it is working on more sophisticated delivery systems, including those newfangled things called "ships."

2.  Biden is basing his statement on what he has been told by the intelligence community, yet...

A.

"Fateful decisions will be made in the days and weeks ahead. At issue is nothing less than the fundamental question of whether or not we can keep the most lethal weapons known to mankind out of the hands of an unreconstructed tyrant and aggressor who is in the same league as the most brutal dictators of this century."

- Senator Joe Biden, about Saddam Hussein's WMD,  12 February 1998

B.  

“[Saddam Hussein is] a long term threat and a short term threat to our national security.  We have no choice but to eliminate the threat. This is a guy who is an extreme danger to the world.  He must be dislodged from his weapons or dislodged from power.” 

- Senator Joe Biden, Meet The Press, 26 September 2002

C.

"The weapons inspectors said he had them. He catalogued—they catalogued them. This was not some, some Cheney, you know, pipe dream. This was, in fact, catalogued. They looked at them and catalogued. What he did with them, who knows? The real mystery is, if he, if he didn’t have any of them left, why didn’t he say so? Well, a lot of people say if he had said that, he would’ve, you know, emboldened Iran and so on and so forth." 

- Senator Joe Biden, Meet The Press, 29 April 2007

D.  But then, "Bush lied.  People died." or based his decision to invade Iraq on "faulty intelligence."

E.  "Our intel on Libya was faulty."

F.  According to our intel, Iran doesn't have delivery-system capacity....

So, we are supposed to cherrypick when to believe the intelligence community!

3.  There's much focus on Israel in relation to Iran's nuclear weapons programme and, while Iran's threat is gravely real, there is another issue that I haven't seen discussed...and it doesn't have anything to do with a nuclear Iran sparking a nuclear arms' race in the ME, possible disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, or the price of oil.

Iran doesn't need a delivery system capable of hitting the US to get us involved in a war even if you could care less about Israel.   All it has to do is hit any member of NATO, such as Turkey, and we are automatically involved in a war.  As should have been a reminder, NATO recently said that should a war breakout between Turkey and Iranian-backed, Syria, its members WILL defend the Turks...and guess who supplies the majority of troops and materiel to NATO?  Yep. 

"The ayatollah sees that there are 50 percent fewer exports of oil. He sees the currency going into the tank. Iran is more isolated today than when we took office. It was on the ascendancy when we took office. It is totally isolated."

- Joe Biden, debate

 Untrue.  Russia's government-run weapons manufacturer, Rosoboronexport, is supplying equipment, including the Tor-M1 missile defence system, for Iran's missile programme.   Further, according to Ruslan Pukhov, an expert Russian foreign policy and leader of the director of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow, which is aligned with Vladimir Putin, if Assad's regime in Syria regime is removed by force or Putin doesn't approve of the outcome of a "peaceful transition" to a new government, Russia will resume it sales of S-300s to Iran.

In 2010,  China built an entire missile plant in Iran to produce the Nasr-1 anti-ship cruise missile and has sold $312 million worth of arms to the country in violation of the UN sanctions.  Most of the weapons transfers involved sales of Chinese anti-ship cruise missiles, including C-802 missiles that China promised the United States in 1997 would not be exported to Iran.

While the junior oil minister of India, RPN Singh told Hillary Clinton that Indian refiners would decrease Iranian oil purchases by 11% this year, the largest refineries have tripled their imports despite Western sanctions against Iran that came into effect in July, 2012.


Finally, on the issue of total isolation, Venezuela, North Korea, et al, are still doing business with Iran.

As for Iran's currency, oil sales are transacted in US dollars and the country is sitting on a tremendous amount of American currency.  It has enough reserves to hold its own for quite a long time.  So while it is true that the Iranian rial has tremendously weakened, it would be erroneous to assume that a currency collapse in Iran would mean the end of the Ayatollahs. 

Iran's economy actually grew last year by 2%.  Its GDP is projected to contract by 0.9% this year, which while recessionary, is far from what is being experienced by countries such as Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, etc.  Hell, the US' economy is only growing by 1.3% and, if the idiots in DC do not address the fiscal cliff, the most conservative estimate is a 10% correction in the stock market....in other words, a double-dip is almost a certainty.

"The president has met with Bibi [Netanyahu] a dozen times....This is a bunch of stuff."

- Joe Biden, debate

He has met with him less than a half a dozen times; however, President Obama will face off with the heavyweight, Jon Stewart, for the 6th time on Thursday, 18 October 2012.  

 

"But it shouldn’t be surprising for a guy who says 47 percent of the American people are unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives. My friend recently in a speech in Washington said '30 percent of the American people are takers.'  These people are my mom and dad — the people I grew up with, my neighbors. They pay more effective tax than Governor Romney pays in his federal income tax."

- Joe Biden, debate

No, they do not.  Based on the most recent IRS data for 2009, the average tax rate (after deductions) paid by all Americans is 11 PERCENT. It is also clear that millionaires pay an average of 25%, while virtually every taxpayer earning under $100,000 pays an average rate of no more than 8% of their income in taxes.

88 percent of all taxpayers pay 8 percent or less of their income in income taxes. 

Which gets us back to Mitt Romney’s effective tax rate of 14%, after deductions. This rate is still higher than the average rate paid by taxpayers earning up to $200,000. There are about 136 million taxpayers who have adjusted gross incomes less than $200,000, or 97% OF ALL TAXPAYERS. SO EVEN WITH AN EFFECTIVE TAX RATE OF 14%, ROMNEY STILL PAID A HIGHER AVERAGE EFFECTIVE RATE THAN 97% OF HIS FELLOW AMERICANS. 

The average rate is skewed due to millionaires, who pay rates on income from employment like athletes and executives. It is not evidence that Romney pays less than the average taxpayer. 

Source: IRS 2009 Data, Table 1.2 http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/09in12ms.xls

"With regard to the assault on the Catholic Church, let me make it absolutely clear.  No religious institution—Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital—none has to either refer for contraception. None has to pay for contraception. None has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact. That is a fact."

- Joe Biden, debate

“This is NOT a fact."

- The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops


http://www.usccb.org/news/2012/12-163.cfm

"You know, I heard that death panel argument from Sarah Palin. It seems that every vice presidential debate, I hear this kind of stuff about panels."

- Joe Biden, debate

Who knew that Obamacare with its IPAB board had been introduced as legislation and/or passed while Joe Biden was a Senator in 2008 and debating Sarah Palin in the Vice-Presidential Debate?

In fact, I bet Biden is tired of debating the individual mandate in Vice-Presidential debates, too, especially since his running mate opposed it in 2008.

"The congressman here cut embassy security in his budget by $300 million below what we asked for."

- Joe Biden, debate

Ryan's budget proposal did not cut $300 million from embassy security. It called for a 19% overall decrease in non-defense discretionary spending, but does not even mention embassy security. The cut does not have to affect every programme equally. For example, in 2012, we gave a grant of $444.1 million to Big Big & Co, who have said that they do not need subsidies. That money could have been used to increase embassy security.

Also, 4 days after the administration denied additional security to Libya, including the request of continued usage of a DC-3, it authorised a new electric charging station and Chevy Volts the American Embassy in Vienna, which is located in the country where Obama claims they speak "Austrian."

Also, it is absolutely impossible for the House to cut ANYTHING when the Senate hasn't passed a budget in 1,253 days and the President hasn't signed it. 

On 14 September 2012, President Obama released the long-awaited “sequestration report,” detailing the cuts the White House would make to the budget under last year’s Budget Control Act if no deal is reached in Congress.

And there, buried on page 136, is the White House’s proposed cuts to “Embassy Security, Construction, and Maintenance.” $129 million. That’s a full 8.2 percent of the possible sequestrable amount. It’s a massive slash of the budget for our embassies, consulates, and security abroad.

http://images.politico.com/global/2012/09/120914_omb_report_sequestration.html


Additionally, from CNS,  the State Dept. Confirms: Marines on 9/11/12 Were Protecting U.S. Embassy--in Barbados

When terrorists attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11 of this year and killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, there were no U.S. Marines deployed in Libya to defend U.S. diplomats, diplomatic facilities and classified information and equipment.

However, says the State Department, a Marine Security Detachment was deployed on that day to carry out those duties at the U.S. Embassy in Bridgetown, Barbados.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/state-dept-confirms-marines-91112-were-protecting-us-embassy-barbados

"The recession] came from this man [Ryan] voting to put two wars on a credit card, at the same time, put a prescription drug plan on the credit card, a trillion dollar tax cut for the very wealthy….I was there, I voted against them. I said, no, we can’t afford that. He did…"

- Joe Biden, debate

Biden voted FOR BOTH WARS.  He also voted FOR including prescription drugs under Medicare in 2000, FOR cloture for Bush's Medicare Part D (before voting against the bill on the floor when it was already going to pass because of 11 other Democrats), FOR expanding the enrollment period for Medicare Part D,  AGAINST means-testing for the prescription drug benefit, AGAINST Medicare means-testing, and even AGAINST medical savings acounts.

It is also of note that "Lunch Bucket Joe" voted FOR Reagan's 1986 tax cuts, which reduced the top marginal rate from 50% to 28%.

Besides, none of this had anything to do with the recession.  If it had, revenues would have been going down and the deficit going up before the recession hit and that is simply not the case.  FY 2007 saw record revenues for the Treasury and a deficit of $163 billion -- the second smallest of Bush's presidency.

 "What we did is we saved $716 billion and put it back -- applied it to Medicare."

- Joe Biden, debate

Lie.   According to the CBO, the "savings" is double-counted and the money they cut “would be used to pay for other spending and therefore would not enhance the ability of the government to pay for future Medicare benefits.”

http://www.pdfdownload.org/pdf2html/pdf2html.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbo.gov%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fcbofiles%2Fftpdocs%2F113xx%2Fdoc11376%2Fryanltrhr4872.pdf&images=yes

 "Iran is not closer to a nuclear weapon and the Obama administration was not asked for more security by personnel in Libya prior to the 9/11 attacks."

- Joe Biden a/k/a resident at the bottom of the Rabbit Hole, at the debate

  

"Let me tell you what was a good idea. It was a good idea, Moody’s and others said that this was exactly what we needed to stop this from going off the cliff. It set the conditions to be able to grow again. We have, in fact, 4 percent of those green jobs didn’t go under. It’s a better batting average than investment bankers have. They have about a 40 percent…"

 - Joe Biden, debate

In Obamaworld, 4% > 40%.  Great.

BTW, Joe, did you agree with Moody's when they downgraded the creditworthiness of the United States for the first time in history?

    ‘I always say what I mean.’

    - Joe Biden, debate

“When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, ‘Look, here’s what happened.’”
 
- Joe Biden, vice-presidential nominee, interview with Katie Couric, 2008


“How they can justify … raising taxes on the middle class that has been buried the last four years?”


- Joe Biden,  2 October 2012 (The last 4 years he and Obama have been in charge)


“[Obama is] the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

- Joe Biden, 2007, evidently African-Americans didn't take showers or speak articulately until Barack Obama arrived on the scene.


 “'Dey gonna put y’all back in chains.”

- Joe Biden, 2012, on what will happen to blacks if Republicans win


 "My dad respected Barack Obama - would've respected Barack Obama if he'd been around."

- Joe Biden, Democratic National Convention acceptance speech, 6 September 2012


"I would tell members of my family, and I have, I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places right now. It's not that it's going to Mexico, it's that you are in a confined aircraft. When one person sneezes, it goes everywhere through the aircraft. That's me."

—Vice President Joe Biden, when asked on NBC's Today Show what he would tell his relatives if they wanted to fly to Mexico.  White House press secretary Robert Gibbs later commented, "If people felt unduly alarmed for whatever reason, we would certainly apologize for that," 30 April 2009


"If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, there's still a 30% chance we're going to get it wrong."

- Joe Biden, speaking to members of the House Democratic caucus who were gathered in Williamsburg, Va., for their annual retreat, 6 February 2009


"Am I doing this again? ... My memory is not as good as Justice Roberts'."

- Joe Biden, alluding to Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, who flubbed a line during Barack Obama's presidential oath the previous day, before swearing in members of his senior staff. Obama, standing nearby, shook his head disapprovingly and gave Biden a stern poke, 21 January 2009


"Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be Vice President of the United States of America. Let's get that straight. She's a truly close personal friend. She is qualified to be President of the United States of America. She's easily qualified to be Vice President of the United States of America. Quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me. But she's first rate."

-  Joe Biden, suggesting Obama's former rival Senator Hillary Clinton might have been a better choice for the Vice President than him at a rally in Nashua, N.H., 10 September 2008 


"I'm told Chuck Graham, state senator, is here. Stand up Chuck, let 'em see you. Oh, God love you. What am I talking about. I'll tell you what, you're making everybody else stand up, though, pal."

- Joe Biden, telling Missouri state senator Chuck Graham to stand up at a campaign rally, before realizing that Graham is confined to a wheelchair, 9 September 2008


"In Delaware, the largest growth of population is Indian Americans, moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."

- Joe Biden, captured on C-SPAN's "Road to the White House" series, trying to bond with an Indian-American supporter. A Biden spokeswoman later said, "The point Senator Biden was making is that there has been a vibrant Indian-American community in Delaware for decades," 17 September 2006


"I started thinking as I was coming over here, Why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university?"

— Joe Biden, during his first presidential run, lifting passages and even gestures from a speech by Neil Kinnock without giving credit to the leader of the British Labour Party.

Biden's problems continued when C-SPAN footage surfaced two weeks later showing Biden inflating his academic record at law school. (His claims included one that he finished in the top half of his class at Syracuse Law School; he graduated 76th of 85.) Though he later called the accusations of plagiarism "much ado about nothing," he dropped out of the race on Sept. 23.


 “Now these guys pledge that they’re gonna de-fund Planned Parenthood, which under law cannot perform any abortions."

- Joe Biden, 12 October 2012


"Folks, I can tell you I've known eight presidents, three of them intimately." 

--Joe Biden, 22 August 2012


"My mother believed and my father believed that if I wanted to be president of the United States, I could be, I could be Vice President!" 

--Joe Biden, campaigning in Youngstown, Ohio, 16 May 2012 


"His mom lived in Long Island for ten years or so. God rest her soul. And- although, she's- wait- your mom's still- your mom's still alive. Your dad passed. God bless her soul." 

--Joe Biden, on the mother of Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, who is very much alive, Washington, D.C., 17 March 2010 


"An hour late, oh give me a f**king break." 

–Joe Biden, caught on a live mic speaking to a former Senate colleague after arriving on Amtrak at Union Station in Washington, D.C., 13 March 2009 
 

"Look, John's last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number-one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs." 

-Joe Biden, Athens, Ohio, 15 October 2008 


“You don’t know my state. My state was a slave state … my state is the 8th largest black population in the country."

- Joe Biden, 2008, Delaware was not a slave state


"Look, John's last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number-one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs."

- Joe Biden, 2008


"This is deadly earnest.  How they can justify -- how they can justify raising taxes on the middle class that's been buried the last four years. How in the lord's name can they justify raising their taxes with these tax cuts?"

- Joe Biden, who has been Vice-President for the last 4 years, 3 October 2012

Nevertheless, Biden ALWAYS means what he says…

"I've been in that country...up in an airplane...sometimes in a helicopter..."

- Joe Biden, debate

"Ladies and gentlemen, where are we now? Where are we now? If you want to know where Al Qaeda lives, you want to know where Bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me," Biden said. "Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are."

- Joe Biden

"The superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan where my helicopter was forced down…John McCain wants to know where Bin Laden and the gates of Hell are? I can tell him where. That’s where Al Qaeda is. That’s where Bin Laden is. It’s not in the country of Iraq."

- Joe Biden

In February 2008, Biden — along with Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. — was on a chopper that made an emergency landing in the mountains of Afghanistan.

A snowstorm had forced them down.
 
No one was injured, and the Associated Press reported at the time that "the senators and their delegation returned to Bagram Air Base in a motor convoy, and left for Turkey.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2008/09/the-story-behin/ 

Hey, didn't Joe "Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive - and you can put that on a bumper sticker!" Biden advise Obama NOT to authorise the attack on bin Laden?

Yes.

 

 Didn't he vote to cut off funding for American troops while they were on the ground in Vietnam?

Yes.

  

Didn't he vote against the Gulf War and for the Iraq War that he claimed in the debate that he voted against?

Yes.

 

Didn't he say that we should divide Iraq into three countries, which, evidently, unlike "nation-building" is not "imposing our values" on other people?

Yes.

 

AFTER SEPTEMBER 11th, JOE BIDEN SUGGESTED SENDING $200 MILLION TO IRAN, "NO STRINGS ATTACKED," AS A GESTURE OF GOOD FAITH TO THE ARAB WORLD.

“At the Tuesday-morning meeting with committee staffers, Biden launches into a stream-of-consciousness monologue about what his committee should be doing, before he finally admits the obvious: ‘I’m groping here.’ Then he hits on an idea: America needs to show the Arab world that we’re not bent on its destruction. ‘Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran’ Biden declares. He surveys the table with raised eyebrows, a How do ya like that? look on his face.”

Michael Crowley, “Rhetorical Question,” The New Republic, 22 October 2001

 http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/rhetorical-question


The "foreign policy genius" is so smart that -- apart from his ludicrous idea of sending the nutters $200 million with "no strings attached" as a "goodwill gesture" after 9/11 -- he doesn't even know that Iran is NOT Arab. It's Persian...and much of the Arab World loathes Iran. 

More to come....

Mr Vice-President, I didn't serve with Lloyd Bentsen. I didn't know Lloyd Bentsen. Lloyd Bentsen wasn't a friend of mine. Mr Vice-President, you're no Lloyd Bentsen.

The Left can't discern the difference between a devastating, rapier debate performance and an obnoxious, condescending, oafish, undignified, disrespectful, off-his-meds, buffoonish meltdown.

Trust me, most women have had the displeasure of either working for a Joe Biden or having a drunken one paw her in a pub and the instinctive, guttural reaction is anything but attractive or swaying.

While Paul Ryan missed so many obvious opportunities, the one thing that his performance -- like Romney's debate -- allowed the public to see that he was anything but the blood-dripping-from-his-teeth, granny-killing radical that over $200 million in negative ads by Team Obama had attempted to make him out to be.  He was knowledgeable, calm, prepared, respectful, and measured.

I found this and consider it trustworthy:

Biden’s Frequent Falsifications on Medicare and Tax Reform

By Avik Roy

When it came to health-care and tax reform, nearly everything that came out of Vice President Biden’s mouth was untrue. Here’s an incomplete list:

1. Biden repeated the false talking points — as did moderator Martha Raddatz (!) — about the Romney Medicare plan exposing seniors to higher costs. In fact, the Romney plan is explicitly designed to ensure that seniors are not exposed to any additional costs.

2. Biden repeated the false talking points about Obamacare’s $716 billion in Medicare cuts not being real cuts, because they allegedly don’t cut “benefits.” Indeed, the ratio of Obamacare’s Medicare cuts to “new benefits” is 15 to 1.

3. Biden claimed that Democratic senator Ron Wyden opposes the Wyden-Ryan Medicare reform plan. Wyden opposes the House GOP budget, because it repeals Obamacare and block-grants Medicaid, but rest assured that Wyden still supports the Wyden-Ryan plan. And that plan is actually to the right of Romney’s plan, because Wyden-Ryan contains a hard cap on Medicare spending growth (GDP + 1 percent) whereas Romney’s plan contains no growth cap.

4. Biden claimed that having the government directly negotiate drug prices under Medicare Part D would save taxpayers “$156 billion right off the bat.” In fact, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that such a change “would have a negligible effect on drug spending.”

5. Biden claimed that Paul Ryan’s House budgets would “knock 19 million people off of Medicare.” This is an entirely made-up figure. Not a single person would lose their Medicare coverage under Ryan’s budgets, and not a single person would under Romney’s plan either.

6. Biden repeated the long-debunked claim that Romney seeks a “$5 trillion tax cut,” when in fact Romney’s tax proposal is designed to be revenue-neutral. Furthermore, Biden claimed that there is a study from AEI supporting his claims. “The American Enterprise Institute study [says that] taxes will go up on the middle class,” claimed Biden. There is no such study. Two AEI scholars, Matt Jensen and Alex Brill, have in fact made the opposite case.

For those who enjoy getting in the weeds, I have more details over at my Forbes blog.

— Avik Roy is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and the author of The Apothecary, the Forbes blog on health-care and entitlement reform. He is a member of Mitt Romney’s Health Care Policy Advisory Group. You can follow him on Twitter at @aviksaroy.

Say It Ain't So, Joe - Roger Daltrey


Say it ain't so, Joe please
Say it ain't so
That's not what I want to hear Joe and I've got a right to know.

Say it ain't so, Joe please
Say it ain't so
I'm sure there telling us lies Joe please tell us it ain't so.

They told us are hero has played his last trump card
He doesn't know how to go on.
Were clinging to his charm and he turned and smiled
But the good ole days are gone.

The army and the empire may be falling apart
And the money had gotten scarce.
One mans word held the country together
But the truth is getting fierce.

Say it ain't so, Joe please
Say it ain't so
We pend our hopes on you Joe and there ruining our show.

(Guitar Solo)
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/r/roger_daltrey/say_it_aint_so_joe.html ]
(Ooo Baby)
Don't you think where going to get back
(Ooo Baby)
Don't you think where going to get tired
Where going to get burned
Where going to get learned
Where going to get turned
Where going to get burned
Where going to get burned
Ooo learn
Turn
Burned
Ooo burned
Yea.....

Say it ain't so, Joe please
Say it ain't so
That's not what I want to hear Joe please tell us it ain't so
Say it ain't so, Joe please
Say it ain't so
I'm sure there telling us lies Joe and I've got a right to know

They told us are hero has played his last trump card
He doesn't no how to go on.
Were clinging to his charm and he turned and smiled
But the good ole days are gone.

The army and the empire may be falling apart
And the money had gotten scarce
One mans word held the country together
But the truth is getting fierce.

Say it ain't so, Joe please
Say it ain't so
That's not what I want to hear Joe and I've got a right to know

Say it ain't so, Joe please
Say it ain't so
They keep on telling us lies Joe please tell us it ain't so

Say
Say it ain't so
Say it ain't so
Cause I've got a right to know