Sensible Erection | Paul Ryan to be Romney's Running Mate

Saturday, 11 August 2012

quote [ Rep. Paul Ryan, according to NBC News and Jon Ward. Good enough for me! I'll have more tomorrow if/when actually hear from the man upon whose (head) conservatives have placed the crown of leadership. ]

I have no idea who this guy is. Bio in extd.

New Yorker Bio here;

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/08/06/120806fa_fact_lizza?currentPage=all

[politics] [by pleaides@7:54amGMT] [+10 Interesting]

Comments

conga said @ 8:04am GMT on 11th Aug [Score:-4]
http://i.imgur.com/xL5Z9.jpg

conga said @ 8:04am GMT on 11th Aug [Score:-4 WTF]

Chop-Logik said @ 8:18am GMT on 11th Aug
uh

pleaides said @ 8:55am GMT on 11th Aug [Score:3 Underrated]
This post was worksafe, arsehat.

CapnSilver said @ 9:13am GMT on 11th Aug [Score:1 Funny]
Argh my wtf mod is in the wrong direction!
I'm so sorry!

pleaides said @ 9:39am GMT on 11th Aug
Don't lose any sleep over it dude :)

papango said @ 9:20am GMT on 11th Aug
Why is the lizard dressed like spiderman?

conga said @ 9:31am GMT on 11th Aug [Score:1 Funny]
i don't know but nobody likes it :(

pleaides said @ 9:35am GMT on 11th Aug
Perhaps the concern is more about where it is rather than what it is. Personally, I think it's bloody disgusting but I'm not the arbiter of the internet.

papango said @ 12:56am GMT on 12th Aug
Well, I have to admit the first thing I thought about Paul Ryan was 'I wonder if his wife has ever had an orgasm? I bet not'. But I try not let the puerile part of myself run too wild and free.

DarkShadowRavenDragonGrrl69 said @ 1:57pm GMT on 11th Aug
It isn't. That's supposed to be armor, it just doesn't quite work in this tweened gif.

DarkShadowRavenDragonGrrl69 said @ 2:00pm GMT on 11th Aug
Oh yeah, that's Lizardman and Ivy from Soul Calibur (II?), drawing by Azasuke Wind.

azazel said @ 3:27pm GMT on 11th Aug
That's definitely not Aeon Calcos (Lizardman), just a generic lizardman; they feature in SC 2-5, albeit are more a joke than anything in 4. By SC5 most of them have died out (no wonder, given how many you kill in 2 and 3).

DarkShadowRavenDragonGrrl69 said @ 8:51pm GMT on 11th Aug
Ah right, that's why I couldn't identify the outfit.

azazel said @ 10:00pm GMT on 11th Aug
Here's a fuckhuge Aeon Calcos: Fuckhuge.

DarkShadowRavenDragonGrrl69 said @ 10:14pm GMT on 11th Aug
Dual axes? Huh? I gotta admit I haven't followed SCV's development at all and haven't even played it but what happened to the sword and shield?

DarkShadowRavenDragonGrrl69 said @ 10:15pm GMT on 11th Aug
Or axe and shield I guess.

azazel said @ 4:54am GMT on 12th Aug
Calcos is a bit special. The rest of the lizardmen are armed with too-large forks and knives.

DarkShadowRavenDragonGrrl69 said @ 6:58am GMT on 12th Aug
Ah, that makes me remember that THE Lizardman wasn't actually playable in 2, just a generic one and they actually changed his design quite a bit for the third one (and the sequels), what with the neck frills and turquoise color palette.

How is SCV by the way? Is Siegfried any good?

azazel said @ 2:07pm GMT on 12th Aug [Score:1 Informative]
SCV is good. Not as good as SC2 (that might be the rose-coloured glasses I'm wearing though), but loads better than 3 and 4. Not too fond of Siegfried (or slow characters in general), I tend to play faster, smaller ones. Given that Xianghua isn't available any longer I went for her daughter instead (Leixia), safe in the knowledge that I'll never be able to pronounce either name.

DarkShadowRavenDragonGrrl69 said @ 5:34pm GMT on 12th Aug
Back in SC2 I had at least 6 or so characters I absolutely loved to play, most of them fast ones like Talim, Cassandra, Sophitia and Link thanks to them reducing Siggy to just a costume change for Nightmare. But he was definitely my "main" ever since SCI and he only got better with all the stance switches in 3.

DarkShadowRavenDragonGrrl69 said @ 5:53pm GMT on 12th Aug
Or wait, I think I'm getting my SCs mixed up again. That WAS Nightmare in SC2 with all the stance switches. Man, it's probably been 6-7 years since I've put any serious time into one of those games.

damnit said @ 2:21am GMT on 13th Aug
A-fucking-men.

I like the series, but nobody can touch SC2.

I was a serious Voldo player. Then they changed his mechanics in 3 and 4. I tried 5 at Otakon, and it's totally different.

SnappyNipples said @ 11:06pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:1 Insightful]
Feet are all wrong, those are feet for roosting on limbs and not the running feet of a raptor .

pleaides said @ 10:00am GMT on 11th Aug
OK, I've changed it back to worksafe.

assbastard said @ 10:16am GMT on 11th Aug [Score:1 Informative]
If people are using Sensible Facial and have interpret links into pictures, it still shows up in the first comment.

pleaides said @ 10:19am GMT on 11th Aug
*Sigh* thanks for the heads up, I'll change it back.

pleaides said @ 9:55pm GMT on 11th Aug
OK, SFW again.

conga said @ 9:30am GMT on 11th Aug
troll?? it's clearly a lizard you guys

SE HR said @ 2:08pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:2 Funny]
Conga, please join me in my office. Have a seat.

rangerx said @ 7:42pm GMT on 12th Aug [Score:-4]
Yeah, so technically, it should have "hemipenes" for hot cartoon DP action.

conga said @ 8:04am GMT on 11th Aug
ok then

CapnSilver said @ 9:14am GMT on 11th Aug
I'd hesitate to call you a dickhead for that, but not for particularly long.

conga said @ 9:22am GMT on 11th Aug [Score:1]
watch your language, this post is worksafe

spazm said @ 9:26am GMT on 11th Aug
Ooooh, touchy!

brat#3 said @ 9:56am GMT on 11th Aug
Just make sure it's on a worksafe area or we'll have to report you for harassment to SE's HR department.

(This should be comment 20 to get rid of the Bad Post of Bad Touching.)

brat#3 said @ 9:56am GMT on 11th Aug
Damn. Oh well.

spazm said @ 4:24pm GMT on 11th Aug
Get your filthy hands out of my HR department!

spazm said @ 8:32pm GMT on 11th Aug
...although...

Continue... little bit to the left... yes, to the le... ah yessssss... right there!

Ankylosaur said @ 8:15am GMT on 11th Aug [Score:2]
"I have no idea who this guy is."

Paul Ryan is the pal of Ron Paul's son, Rand Paul; but unlike Paul, who likes Ayn Rand, Ryan prefers all things Papal.

Clearer now?

Kat said @ 8:17am GMT on 11th Aug
What about PayPal?

zenviper said @ 2:06pm GMT on 11th Aug
Paul Ryan. Title: EMEA Compliance Director, PayPal

sanepride said @ 3:45pm GMT on 11th Aug
Might actually be worse than 'papal'.

eggboy said @ 9:48am GMT on 11th Aug [Score:4 Informative]
Paul Ryan voting record

Don't know why I care as I'm not american, but this cunt voted the crazy option every chance he got, and basically hates the internet.

azazel said @ 12:25pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:1 Informative]
Sooo... I did that VoteMatch quiz, and got matched up with Ralph Nader at 75% social and 83% economical.

azazel said @ 12:27pm GMT on 11th Aug
I'm also matched 0/17% with Mitt Romney.

Moleculor said @ 5:48pm GMT on 11th Aug
Zero of seventeen percent? What about the other 83 percent?

azazel said @ 6:14pm GMT on 11th Aug
0% agreement on social issues, 17% on economical issues.

Bek said @ 3:32pm GMT on 11th Aug
Also matched to Nader. Shame the guy gets completely marginalized in national politics.

Sorry, did I say shame? I mean microcosm of everything that is wrong with our political system.

sanepride said @ 7:18pm GMT on 11th Aug
That quiz is crap. The questions are badly worded and many are irrelevant to the 2012 issues and their candidate list was out of date even a year ago.

azazel said @ 9:56pm GMT on 11th Aug
Are you trying to ruin my date_

azazel said @ 9:57pm GMT on 11th Aug
-_ +?
stupid american keyboard layout.

sanepride said @ 10:11pm GMT on 11th Aug
It's for your own good. Nader's a little old for you.

willrogers said @ 9:57am GMT on 11th Aug [Score:3 Insightful]
One of my favorite things about Paul Ryan is that he spent years and years being a diehard Randite, even forcing all of his staffers to read her awful books, especially Atlas Shrugged, but now he claims he's no longer a Randite because of her atheism and hatred of religion. Of all the things to hate about Ayn Rand, that's probably the least troublesome and offensive.

It's like hating Hitler because of his mustache or because he did that little half-heil instead of the full thing, but not because of the Holocaust or all the wars he started.

sanepride said @ 4:04pm GMT on 11th Aug
In fact Ryan is still a huge devotee of Rand, but he has specifically disavowed her atheism.

hellboy said @ 6:44pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:3 Underrated]
So he's everything that's obnoxious about libertarianism AND everything that's obnoxious about religion. What a delightful fellow.

sanepride said @ 7:11pm GMT on 11th Aug
That's why the tea party folks like him.

puravida said @ 1:02am GMT on 12th Aug
That's funny, because that's the only part I really liked about Ayn Rand's books.

Someone should really glean all the atheist aspects of her books and popularize them. They're actually pretty awesome.

hellboy said @ 6:54pm GMT on 11th Aug
He's also a bloodsucking vampire.

arrowhen said @ 8:01pm GMT on 11th Aug
Who has yet to respond to allegations that he raped and murdered a girl in 1990.

bbqkink said @ 7:52pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:1 Funny]
Meet Paul Ryan: Climate Denier, Conspiracy Theorist, Koch Acolyte

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Mitt Romney’s vice-presidential pick, is a virulent denier of climate science, with a voting record to match.

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

Ryan has voted to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from limiting greenhouse pollution, to eliminate White House climate advisers, to block the U.S. Department of Agriculture from preparing for climate disasters like the drought devastating his home state, and to eliminate the Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E):

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/11/677051/meet-paul-ryan-climate-denier-conspiracy-theorist-koch-acolyte/

sanepride said @ 8:01pm GMT on 11th Aug
Not exactly shocking. That just puts him in line with the current GOP mainstream.

bbqkink said @ 8:18pm GMT on 11th Aug
And with Romney ..ahh sorta

Mitt Romney Goes Climate Change Skeptic

As recently as June, Romney acknowledged a human impact on climate change, and even advocated for reducing emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases. But by August, candidate Romney was saying that he didn’t know whether or how much humans were contributing to global warming. And at fundraiser in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Thursday, Romney reportedly put forth a still different view.

“My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet,” he said, according to CBS. “And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us.”

http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/10/29/mitt_romney_flip_flops_on_climate_change_global_warming.html

sanepride said @ 10:12pm GMT on 11th Aug
Sure, but we already know that Mitt has no fixed ideology or belief.

bbqkink said @ 10:55pm GMT on 11th Aug
That is what makes this choice a big deal. Romney now has a spine..not his but yes a spine. He has picked a philosophy that he will now have to defend and justify. I don't know if he can be he will have to try.

Obama has tried to make this a choice election, boy howdy it is now. Romney has conceded that much at least. There will be no more ducking issues.

This also has an effect on the Senate races. Now the GOP senators will either have to defend the T-party line or cut Mitt lose. Should keep the Senate Blue.

Speaking of keeping things blue Pennsylvania and Virginia just turned from purple to dark blue. Florida just got a light shade of blue and Wisconsin just turned from light blue to purple. Iowa just went from purple to slightly red.

bbqkink said @ 11:25pm GMT on 11th Aug
Ryan's Medicare plan is the one that has got most of the atention because of his voucher idea that does.. End medicare as we know it. By taking it from a guaranteed government program to a here hope you can get by on this subsidies program. All be it in the near future.

But the one that is really going to scare the shit out of old and soon to be old is the DRASTIC cuts in Medicaid. Which come immediately.

The plan for Medicaid has received less attention but is no less sweeping in its scope. Ryan would send the program back to the states in much the same way welfare was transformed in 1996, cutting $750 billion over 10 years.

"Ron Pollack, executive director of the health care consumers group Families USA, has warned that the block grants to states would amount to a 33% cut by 2021.

The Center for Medicare Advocacy has called the GOP health care rationing. The Center for American Progress has warned that 16 million seniors and people with disabilities would face higher costs or risk losing Medicaid coverage."

That is the program that pays for nursing home care for the ..Not Rich.
If anything scares old people it is nursing home care.

bbqkink said @ 11:48pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:1 WTF]
This election will come down to this..which side of the fence.

sanepride said @ 2:32am GMT on 12th Aug
The balconies with the private pools are pretty nice, but who the hell wants a view of the slums?

papango said @ 2:47am GMT on 12th Aug [Score:5 Insightful]
Interesting fact. People that rich can't actually see poor people. To them, that looks like a nature reserve.

willrogers said @ 3:21am GMT on 12th Aug
They really don't have much of a choice. Places like Rio are so densely packed as it is that it's not really possible to never see the favelas. This is why the government actually tried to make them look nicer by giving them fresh coats of paint in pastels and similar colors so they wouldn't frighten away tourists.

I have several friends who are from Mexico City and they all attest to the extremely close proximity between very wealthy areas and some of the poorest areas of the city.

smoug said @ 3:22am GMT on 12th Aug [Score:1 Underrated]
That seems well within shooting/throwing/molotov/etc range too.

sanepride said @ 5:21am GMT on 12th Aug
Definitely olive-pit spitting distance.

Barnabas_Truman said @ 6:14am GMT on 12th Aug
Will the day be won by the side of the fence that knows that the Republicans have their best interests in mind? Or by the side of the fence that, inexplicably, has been convinced that the Republicans have their best interests in mind?

Well crap.

SnappyNipples said @ 6:30am GMT on 12th Aug
Those might not be slums at all. many small towns in Korea have this look of primitive house construction. Most slums would probably not use ceramic tile roofs as such. Also you might notice in the middle there are three cars parked at one house. I used to have my own hooch in Korea and would pay rent with american cartoons of cigarettes and bottles of booze. Its probably cheap to live there and privacy is at a premium. It looks primitive, but you do not know what it might be like inside those dwellings. This brings back memories. Judging how things are fenced it looks to be multiple compounds. The buildings on the streets, those are assorted shops. Now looking at the hotel? Notice it is slightly dilapidated by the poor lawn care at the bottom, and most importantly those private pools are in poor shape with the balcony plant life being pretty squalid. Really, if the right side of the picture is an example of their elites then they're doing it all wrong.

SnappyNipples said @ 6:32am GMT on 12th Aug
*cough* cartons of cigarettes

sanepride said @ 4:42pm GMT on 12th Aug
Looks like corrugated metal roofs to me.

ahPook said @ 9:44pm GMT on 11th Aug
How is this not +5?

Barnabas_Truman said @ 8:18am GMT on 11th Aug
Maybe they're hoping the young libertarians will hear "Paul Ryan" and think "Ron Paul."

Ankylosaur said @ 10:14am GMT on 11th Aug
That's all well and good, but does he send little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America when he winks at the camera?

Ebichuman said @ 11:51am GMT on 11th Aug
If we're just going for homophonic similarity, I personally would have offered RuPaul as the better choice.

brat#3 said @ 9:55am GMT on 11th Aug
For some reason I just read an article by Karl Rove that declared Romney to not be behind, but ahead.

I will stay tuned for water to be declared dry, fire to be declared cold, and mountains to be declared valleys.

sanepride said @ 6:29pm GMT on 11th Aug
It's a reasonable pronouncement from the political adviser to George W. Bush, the greatest, most competent president of the modern era.

incpenners said @ 9:20pm GMT on 11th Aug
Who beat your guy, twice.

willrogers said @ 9:45pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:1 Funny]
If I were you, I wouldn't open up the can of worms that is the 2000 presidential election. SCOTUS stopping the vote recount in a state controlled by Republicans and with one candidate's brother as governor leading to that candidate's victory, especially when the other candidate won the popular vote, isn't "beating" anyone.

GordonGuano said @ 10:35pm GMT on 11th Aug
And if you can get re-elected after losing the World Trade Center because you'd rather spend a month and a half clearing brush on your fake ranch than pay attention to a screaming security apparatus, Obama should win by (another) landslide.

sanepride said @ 9:46pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:1 Funny]
*lost popular vote in 2000, declared president by 5-4 Supreme Court decision.

And we know how well his two terms turned out. Is Romney willing to say his name out loud yet?

Barnabas_Truman said @ 4:14am GMT on 12th Aug
Beat MY guy? I wanted Dean, dammit!

dualscimitars said @ 9:46pm GMT on 12th Aug [Score:2 Insightful]
Thanks for perfectly summing up the attitude of your party, Republicans, more concerned with winning elections than actually governing the country.

Go play in traffic.

pleaides said @ 10:15am GMT on 11th Aug [Score:2 Informative]
Thought I'd pass this on; "My favorite #PaulRyan fact: He wants to cut the federal program that got him through college after his father died."

and:" The part of Paul Ryan's Wikipedia page that said he "received Social Security survivor's benefits until he turned 18" has been removed."

pleaides said @ 11:57am GMT on 11th Aug
This from Sir Salman Rushdie; "The 1% ticket. Mitt Shrugged & chose "Ayn" Ryan, a disciple of Objectivism, aka Selfishness. Oh: and he tied his dog to the roof of his car"

DarkShadowRavenDragonGrrl69 said @ 1:52pm GMT on 11th Aug
Wow, isn't Rushdie just full of it with those shitty allusions? It's even worse that it's coming from an accomplished writer. "Ayn Ryan", haha, great one, Sal!

erich wiess said @ 12:57pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:-1 Bad]

bbqkink said @ 4:45pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:-1]
It must sound strange to you that someone in the other party would actually say let's look at the idea's you have and see what we can agree on.

sanepride said @ 5:15pm GMT on 11th Aug
Well in fairness it was a trap. Obama gave Ryan this great nod of respect and then proceeded to totally trash him and his budget plan- on multiple occasions, in public with Ryan at least once sitting right there in the front row. It was a harsh schooling for Ryan in serious politics.

stereobreadsticks said @ 1:23pm GMT on 11th Aug
http://blog.aarp.org/tag/paul-ryan/

So that's Florida for Obama then.

sythe said @ 1:32pm GMT on 11th Aug
Nope, Florida and Ohio will be secured via ballot rigging and probable dem voter suppression

schatten00777 said @ 2:17pm GMT on 11th Aug
Thanks, Rick Scott!

sanepride said @ 4:26pm GMT on 11th Aug
'dem voter suppression'? Seriously?

schatten00777 said @ 5:04pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:2 Informative]
Rick Scott has been pushing to remove a bunch of people from the voter registration list, under the claim of voter fraud. These people are largely poor, minority, and tend to vote for Democrats. Additionally, Rick Scott has moved to limit the time period for early voting, predominantly used by blacks, which also tend to vote for Democrats. This is on top of the Republican push for photo identification for voting. People without photo ID are typically young, poor, and minority - and tend to vote for Democrats. So yes, dem voter suppression.

sanepride said @ 5:29pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:1 Insightful]
OK, my mistake. I read that comment as voter suppression by the dems, not of the dems. Which is indeed the actual intent of the voter ID laws.

backSLIDER said @ 8:31pm GMT on 11th Aug
Ha, I read it as "them voter suppression" with a southern twang.

bbqkink said @ 5:23pm GMT on 11th Aug

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

sanepride said @ 1:46am GMT on 12th Aug
Just for you erich:

Pennsylvania Voter ID law is a blatant attempt to suppress the vote

Omegaphobic said @ 1:57pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:4 Underrated]
Year of the Bastard?

props for those who get the reference

assbastard said @ 2:46pm GMT on 11th Aug
yo

assbastard said @ 2:32am GMT on 12th Aug [Score:1 Informative]
FALSE OF ME!

graham said @ 3:27am GMT on 12th Aug
:o

assbastard said @ 4:27am GMT on 12th Aug
How could you, Grahammy? How could you?

GordonGuano said @ 6:47pm GMT on 11th Aug
I already have a bottle of tequila with a cockroach in it. Some grenades would be nice.

ENZ said @ 7:39pm GMT on 11th Aug
I had thoughts during '08 than Sarah Palin was being set up as a Vita Severn. I then realized those running the campaign that year weren't smart enough to pull something like that.

eggboy said @ 12:38am GMT on 12th Aug
I remember that, you're what got me to read it for the first time. Thanks.

swiggy said @ 2:44am GMT on 12th Aug
Palin would've had to have been smart to be a Vita Severn.

Asscheeks Akimbo said @ 7:44pm GMT on 11th Aug

wenchgirl said @ 7:45pm GMT on 11th Aug
Just reread them all last week. Got sorta violent. Fortunately the only weapons available are nerf weapons. Many of them. And much ammo. No comment on the drugs.

GordonGuano said @ 7:59pm GMT on 11th Aug
Oh, for a real-life bowel disruptor!

zsander said @ 7:45pm GMT on 11th Aug
Yeah, but Joshua Schreiber Freeh would still be a better veep than Paul Ryan. . .

gunthar said @ 3:08pm GMT on 11th Aug
I don't trust a man with two first names.

ahPook said @ 9:50pm GMT on 11th Aug
Yes I agree with this. Double first-named people are shifty.

RhesusMonkey said @ 3:50pm GMT on 11th Aug
I'm amazed you don't know who he is - have you not heard of The Ryan Budget? It's that guy.

sanepride said @ 4:23pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:1 Underrated]
I'm willing to bet there are plenty of Americans who are unfamiliar with the Ryan budget. Even registered Republicans.
I am continually impressed though with the Aussies and Kiwis on this site who know more about US politics than most Americans.

incpenners said @ 9:23pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:-1 Unworthy Self Link]
Could you introduce me to the Obama budget?

I mean, the one that passed the Senate?

papango said @ 9:31pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:2 Insightful]
Your talking points have been sent through to you then. I'm sure you'll be keen to get down underneath this comment and address bbgkink's specific issues with the Ryan budget. I won't keep you.

sanepride said @ 10:54pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:1 Informative]
It's a trick question btw. Senate Republicans introduced a highly condensed and distorted 'version' of Obama's budget which was such an absurdity it was unanimously defeated 99-0. But it did give them this great talking point- 'Obama's budget unanimously rejected by Democratic-controlled Senate'. That's what penners is referring to, and like many of his talking points, based on a complete falsehood.

papango said @ 10:58pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:1 Insightful]
I didn't know the details, but since he's here responding obtusely to unrelated comments, rather than actually addressing any actual issues with Ryan, I assumed it was his usual bullshit.

sanepride said @ 11:35pm GMT on 11th Aug
Speaking of well-informed Kiwis, just curious how it is you have such an intricate knowledge/interest in our crazy politics? NZ pols just too boring?

papango said @ 11:50pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:1 Interesting]
Partially. Our politicians are considerably less extreme, but I work in government so I don't find it less boring, just less likely to make international news. It's also one of those areas that inspires a lot of stupid generalisations, which is like chum in the water for me. I have to go and find out if it's true or not. I see something like the school/jail thing erich_weiss posted and I'm flabbergasted, I have to go and check that shit out to see if it's for real.

We get a lot of outside news sources here, and they're often all mixed in together. The local news will pick out stories from the BBC or CNN or whatever else. Hardly ever Fox, although it is screened here, because when you put Fox next to other sources it looks a bit odd. So it's pretty easy to pick up on what's going on internationally. American foreign policy impacts on most countries, so we have an interest in knowing what's going on. You'll get a taste of that when you get here - the magma is rising in Tongariro, there's a huge mass of pumice off the Kermadec's from an undersea eruption and White Island is getting its rumble on.

For me in particular I work with Customs, which has a lot of overseas linkages. I probably know more about South Pacific politics than I do about American ones, but I'm more likely to be talking about the Tongan mess at work than I am here.

sanepride said @ 11:59pm GMT on 11th Aug
I'm packing! It'll be nice to get away from this blazing hot summer (just so you know what you're getting into).

papango said @ 12:42am GMT on 12th Aug [Score:1 Insightful]
If you're sick of the sun, you are going to love New Zealand.

pleaides said @ 9:33pm GMT on 11th Aug
You're right, I have heard of the Ryan Budget now that you mention it. I just failed to put 2 and 2 together.

sanepride said @ 10:27pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:5 Funny]
So did Ryan.

sanepride said @ 3:59pm GMT on 11th Aug
Really Ryan is an excellent choice. He's personable and persuasive and generally liked by the GOP mainstream, the tea partiers, and even maybe the Paulites. Also, he has an actual vision and direction- something which Romney himself decidedly lacks. After reading the New Yorker bio I actually find myself somewhat impressed. That's not to say that his vision isn't completely wrong and misguided- but at least in Ryan we can have a serious debate about policy and substance.

capncrunch said @ 4:44pm GMT on 11th Aug
I reached the same conclusion. I kinda wonder why he isn't running for president instead of vp. He certainly seems more likable to me than Romney, and I disagree with him completely but he does seem intelligent vs any of the other Republican options (since McCain)

bbqkink said @ 5:05pm GMT on 11th Aug
Ohh.. He is running for president. The only question is in for what year.

sanepride said @ 5:23pm GMT on 11th Aug
Even Romney says so.

hellboy said @ 7:56am GMT on 12th Aug
1896?

sanepride said @ 5:08pm GMT on 11th Aug
Ryan is still pretty young and he's more focused on policy than political ambition. Still, it's impressive how he took his highly polarizing and unpopular budget plan and managed to sell it to the GOP establishment (with lots of help from allies like Eric Cantor). Of course this has also made him and easy target of Obama and the dems. Whether we one day see him at the top of the ticket depends on how this turns out.

hellboy said @ 6:48pm GMT on 11th Aug
As a friend of mine said, "It worked great that last time the GOP VP pick was more popular than the Presidential nominee."

bbqkink said @ 8:16pm GMT on 11th Aug
That brings up my only regret with this pick, it completely shuts up Sister Sara. I was so looking forward to her rant outside the convention.

Well come to think of it it shuts up Ann Coulter too...damn.

bbqkink said @ 4:56pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:1 Insightful]
This is great news we are going to have this debate once and hopefully for all.

If you're already not familiar with the term, you'll certainly hear it over the next three months -- the Ryan budget.

What is it?

It substantially restructures Medicare; cuts Medicaid, food stamps, and transportation infrastructure; and it reduces the top tax rate from 35% to 25%. Regarding Medicare, the 2011 version of the Ryan budget would transform it from a government-run program to one where future seniors receive a voucher or premium support to purchase health insurance from private insurers. The Congressional Budget Office said the plan would force most seniors to pay more for their health care than under the current Medicare system. The latest version, however, would give future seniors the choice of purchasing private insurance or through Medicare's traditional fee-for-service model.

This is what they now will have to defend. This is the best thing to happen to Obama since the primaries started. The gift that keeps on giving.

The budgets that Mr. Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, has pushed through the Republican-controlled House this year and last have defined nothing short of a conservative reordering of the nation’s tax and spending priorities for the 21st century. In greatly shrinking the government, it would largely undo the social safety net — shifting more costs onto individuals and essentially converting Medicare into a voucher program — and adjust the progressive income-tax system, both built through the 20th century under Republican as well as Democratic presidents.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/us/politics/ryan-and-his-budget-are-a-gamble-for-romney.html?_r=1&ref=politics

iosef said @ 12:13am GMT on 13th Aug
I think what people are missing is that this is an incredibly cynical move by the Romney campaign. By doing this, they win instant credibility and goodwill with the Republican base. Romney is wearing this outrageousness as a badge of honor, and his target demo is lapping it up.

willrogers said @ 2:16am GMT on 13th Aug
It may get the base to actually support him, but they were going to vote for him anyways simply due to their hatred of Obama.

The problem is that nominating Ryan creates a huge vulnerability for the Romney campaign by alienating one of the biggest and most reliable voting blocs, the elderly. Paul Ryan has repeatedly come out for privatizing and thereby destroying Social Security and Medicare, as well as increasing costs for elderly Americans on these programs to offset increases in military spending and subsidies for Big Oil and other fossil fuel corporations. It's a guarantee that the Obama campaign is going to push attack ads pointing these things out and it will definitely hurt the Romney campaign's outreach to the elderly.

I understand the logic of wanting to energize the GOP base and make sure no GOP stalwarts stay home on election day because they aren't enthusiastic Romney supporters, but they could have easily done that with various other republican politicians who aren't huge liabilities with elderly voters, e.g. Bobby Jindal.

iosef said @ 7:45am GMT on 13th Aug
All of Rep. Ryan's plans to dismantle entitlements conveniently leave the entitlements in place for everyone currently old enough to benefit from them. Only future generations of old people would be burdened by the plan, but they don't particularly care about the issue as of right now.

damnit said @ 5:45pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:4 Funny]

hellboy said @ 6:49pm GMT on 11th Aug
Man, the Romney software is really buggy.

Mr. Langosta said @ 9:33pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:2 Insightful]
Wishes he was Don Draper.

Is actually Duck Phillips.

sanepride said @ 9:40pm GMT on 11th Aug [Score:1 Informative]
Romney is totally Duck Phillips. All the way down to abusing an Irish setter.

sanepride said @ 4:20am GMT on 12th Aug

GordonGuano said @ 5:47pm GMT on 11th Aug
Saw something at Balloon Juice by a former SE poster (I think he went by 'dengre' back in the day) that struck me as interesting. Essentially, all the work the GOP needs to do to make the USA a Third World nation has been done already with the Ryan budgets. All they need now is a rubber stamp executive to sign off on it (thanks to Blue Dogs and the filibuster, 60 Democrats in the Senate is effectively a Republican majority).

I hope this works.

sanepride said @ 8:53pm GMT on 11th Aug
Commentary on the VP pick from Ryan Lizza, author of the New Yorker profile in the extended.

kichijoii said @ 10:51pm GMT on 11th Aug
This just in: fucktard joined by other fucktard. News at 11.

gunthar said @ 2:37am GMT on 12th Aug [Score:1 Insightful]
yo nasa just made a metaphor for this event

swiggy said @ 5:03am GMT on 12th Aug [Score:1 Funny]
it's like kerbal space program in real life.

sanepride said @ 4:47pm GMT on 12th Aug
I thought this was interesting:
Romney requested several years of tax returns for VP vetting

bbqkink said @ 8:42pm GMT on 12th Aug
So much for my presumption that the Republicans will not duck the questions now and will defend the T-party platform...what was I thinking.

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