Showing posts with label rand paul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rand paul. Show all posts

Friday, October 30, 2015

CNBC "Crap Sandwich" Infuriates GOP


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Previous Related Posts:
First GOP Primary Debate
Countdown to the Fox Clown Car Debate
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The channel of high finance CNBC hosted a GOP Debate the other night, but instead of focusing on money issues, the Moderators were all over the place, asking embarassing questions to surly candidates who dodged, rolled their eyes, and insulted back with gusto. In the words of RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, it was a "Crap Sandwich."



Reince Priebus via Business Insider:
"Obviously we had assurances that it was going to be straight-up finance, which is what they do every day," he told Hannity on Thursday. "And what was delivered was just nothing but a crap sandwich. I guarantee you we're going to make sure that CNBC isn't hosting and moderating another debate with our candidates."






Even many journalists were tempted to use the phrase "Shit Show"



From Think Progress
Reporters from both conservative and liberal-minded news organizations seem to agree: the CNBC Republican presidential debate was kind of a trainwreck.
That wasn’t really because of the candidates, though — it was because of the moderators. For the first hour, CNBC moderators Becky Quick, John Harwood, and Carl Quintanilla didn’t let candidates interact with each other, resulting in multiple moments of incomprehensible yelling. This may have been because of stricter time limits — this particular 10-candidate debate was only two hours, while the previous Republican debates have spanned three hours.
But constant interruption wasn’t the only problem. Candidates were also highly critical of the CNBC crew, accusing them of being part of the “liberal media.” At one point, Ted Cruz ripped into the moderators for asking what he called unfair and non-substantive questions. And in two instances, audience members actually booed at questions the moderators asked of Ben Carson and Mike Huckabee.

From Sean Illing on Salon:
What happened was less a debate among contenders and more a showdown between the candidates and the moderators. Everyone attacked the moderators when they heard a question they didn’t like, and then made a show of their rebelliousness – this was great for anti-media conservatives, but a distraction for everyone else. The moderators had their moments, but they were mostly awful. Frivolous questions about Rubio’s absenteeism or Trump’s “moral character” or fantasy football gave the candidates just enough fodder to avoid answering the hard questions whenever they were asked. The result of all this was two and a half hours of political gas.

Colbert on CBS: "Did ya'll watch the GOP Debate last night on CNBC? (light applause) I'm so sorry. I, uh, I did watch it, and in some ways it was impressive. They managed to thread the needle between confusing and boring... CNBC showed us how to conduct a debate without a shred of respect....And what the moderators lacked in courtesy they made up for in lack of preparation."



So yeah, Moderators had a really bad night!











Some (including Moderator John Harwood) faulted the candidates for not wanting to answer hard questions:










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Friday, August 7, 2015

First #GOP Primary Debate:

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gif via mashable

Previous Related Posts:
Countdown to the Fox Clown Car Debate
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As expected, Trump upstaged the other candidates during the first Fox #GOP Debate. Right out of the box, he was the only candidate to say he wouldn't promise not to run as an Independent if he didn't get the nomination. When pressed on the issue, he kept restating that even if they rejected him, he would still cause trouble by running as a third party candidate.



He also kept his hard-line stance on the border wall with Mexico:

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Pushed by hostess Megyn Kelly to explain why he attacks women, Trump said he wished he could say a few things to her, and it was clear to see the bully-boy come out.



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Then Trump went after Kelly on Twitter
by retweeting attacks on her performance:





Also this happened:

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The rest of the primary candidates spent time trying to dig themselves out of old holes caused by old statements, or they tried to climb over Trump to get their message out.

Ben Carson mumbled about taxes based on Biblical Tithing, just sounding silly. Huckabee mentioned Benghazi at least once. Scott Walker got in a zinger at Hillary Clinton's emails, but also sounded Mitt-like by talking about war with bayonets. Jeb Bush just looked tired and clueless, while Marco Rubio sounded well-rehearsed but also anti-immigration so why would Latinos vote for him?

Chris Christie attempted to play up his involvement with Homeland Security during 9-11 when he was Attorney General of New Jersey prosecuting terrorists. But in most viewer's minds, it just begs the question of why he would then turn around and close down a bridge just for petty politics?

Ted Cruz ran against Washington, giving a mini-speech about cancelling everything about Obama on "Day One" of his Presidency (which will never happen). Cruz was also unintentionally funny, saying his Dad was once a drug addict before he found Jesus. And now . . . his Daddy is a religion addict-fanatic.

All of them want more War, and less Planned Parenthood.

The only Republican that came off sounding moderate was Governor John Kasich, but his message of love, acceptance and help is so far removed from the core of the Tea Party that he is dead in the water now. However, they might drag him along as Veep just to try and win the Ohio swing-state vote.













































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Thursday, August 6, 2015

Countdown to GOP Trump Clown Car Debate

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OMG - there will be two hours of debate on Fox News Thursday night, from 9-11 p.m. with Trump and nine Non-Trumps, plus an earlier hour of debate from 5-6 pm of the also-rans who didn't make the cut.

So get your popcorn, a iPad or phone for tweeting, and some alcohol for a drinking game. It doesn't get any better than this!

From USA Today
In naming the debate field, Fox News said Trump led its poll aggregation with 23.4%, followed by Bush at 12% and Walker at 10.2%.

The remainder of the top ten: Huckabee (6.6%), Carson (5.8%), Cruz (5.4%), Rubio (5.4%), Paul (4.8%), Christie (3.4%) and Kasich (3.2%).

The percentages for the other candidates: Perry (1.8%), Santorum (1.4%), Jindal (1.4%), Fiorina (1.3%), Graham (0.7%), Pataki (0.6%) and Gilmore (0.2%).


Except for Trump, the Polls Look Rather Limp-O-Tent

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Rachel Maddow pointed out that Fox broke their own rules to bump Perry from the main debate but allow in John Kasich, Governor of Ohio, who just entered the race last week. Where is the debate being held? Cleveland, Ohio. Coincidence. Absolutely not.

Via Raw Story
“This is nuts,” she said. “I can’t believe they did this. I mean, I get that Fox News only wants to have 10 candidates on the stage. They know, and everybody knows, that arbitrarily setting this 10-candidate cutoff when you’ve got 17 people running is gonna have politically-fatal consequences for if not all, at least most of the candidates who don’t make that top 10.”

Maddow explained that Fox originally said it would use the five most recent polls to determine which candidates would make it into Thursday’s debate. However, the network ended up ignoring an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll conducted between July 26 and 30 showing Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Ohio Gov. John Kasich within one percentage point of each other and instead used a Quinnipiac University poll gathered between July 23 and 28 showing Kasich ahead by three percentage points.

“That decision had the effect of making John Kasich look like he is way more clearly ahead of Rick Perry than he would look otherwise,” she said.
. . . “They violated their own previously-announced criteria of what polls they use,” she said. “They moved the goal posts in the middle of the game in a way that makes it look like they were trying to justify the lineup of who they wanted on stage.”






















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Friday, April 10, 2015

Special Candidate Rand Paul Is Special

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Rand Paul just keeps on having problems. Maybe it's because he arrogantly believes that even though he is a public figure who says outrageous things then flip-flops, no one should call him out. He's a very delicate flower and a special snowflake, and journalists need to handle him with care. And forget everything he ever said.

You can read some of his snafus in my previous post about Day One, when he lectured Savannah Guthrie on how to be a journalist (he's an opthamologist/politician) and then got on the abortion train and made a fool of himself.

Previous Related Post:
Rand Paul Runs For President - Crashes While Mansplaining

Rachel Maddow did a great piece on Rand's dysfunctional first week as a candidate, and had a few words to say about Mr. Special.

"Steve Schmidt who ran the McCain/Palin campaign in 2008 once famously said on this show that a presidential campaign is a "full-body scan" for everybody who runs at a high level. David Axelrod who ran Obama's campaign described it almost the same way ... "an MRI for the soul." Once you are officially running for President in this country you may like the political press in this country or you may hate the political press in this country, but if you are a candidate in this country at a high level because people take you seriously, you will receive so much scrutiny from the people who are running against you and by the press that is covering you all, that every single thing that is to be known about you, will become known."
~ Rachel Maddow



My favorite thing so far is that he is throwing cease and desist orders at campaign ads that don't paint him in a happy light. Yeah, good luck with that. Hasn't he ever run for office before? This is just kooky, and again he seems to think he should be treated differently from all the other candidates.

From Buzzfeed
The letter is an objection to a million-dollar ad buy by a group called the Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, led by Republican operative Rick Reed. The ad, which launched in early primary states on the day of Paul’s presidential campaign announcement, accuses Paul of supporting President Obama’s policies on Iran and of opposing new sanctions.
“The Advertisement attempts to deceive voters regarding Senator Rand Paul’s position on U.S.-Iran relations through at least three false statements,” writes Paul campaign general counsel Matthew T. Sanderson in the letter dated April 7, which was obtained by BuzzFeed News on Thursday.

Here's the ad:



So Rand is trying to stop an ad from a Republican group that portrays him as cozy on Iran with the President. Considering there are about ten other GOP candidates who want to see him crash and burn, we can expect to see many more of these ads. Sorry, but that goes with the territory.



Rand also let it be known that he is royally ticked that the NRA didn't invite him to their giant convention in Nashville this week, since all the other guys are there having a good time touching each other's guns, and stuff.

From Bloomberg
"The interesting thing is that there's probably no greater advocate for the Second Amendment in Congress than myself," Paul said today. "To not be invited, probably, will serve more to cast aspersions on their group than it would on me. Because my record's pretty clear. It probably looks a little bit petty for them not to invite a major candidate because I raised money for other Second Amendment groups."





He told Sean Hannity on Fox to pay no attention to his campaign snafus. He has an etch-a-sketch just like Mitt Romney, and he's not afraid to use it. Anything he said in the past can just be wiped away.

Rand Paul and Hannity, via Daily Kos
It's not fair, Paul testily claims, to ask him about stuff that he said before he decided to be a presidential candidate. Because that was before, or "a long time ago." ...
. . . Sean Hannity, not surprisingly, let him get away with it. On the previous Paul statement that the idea of Iran being a threat to the United States is "ridiculous":
"You know, things do change over time," Paul said. "I also wasn't campaigning for myself, I was campaigning to help my father at the time."
Hannity let that slide. He allowed Paul to frame his opposition to new sanctions that would scuttle the Iran negotiations as his way of telling Obama he'd "have to bring a deal back to" Congress.


Here's a litany of Rand's problems for the first THREE Days of his campaign.

He broke the copyright of a song he wanted to use in his rollout, and YouTube blocked him

From Mother Jones:
he gave a speech and the crowd ate it up and they cheered his name and then he finished and they clapped and cheered and the campaign uploaded the video of the speech to YouTube so that the world could clap and cheer and...YouTube bots automatically pulled the video for unlicensed use of copyrighted material.
Womp womp.
Warner Music Group, the official owner of John Rich's "Shutting Detroit Down," a song about how much it sucks that rich corporations own things, has now shut Rand down.
Both Billboard and The Washington Post have reached out to get to the bottom of this and neither Warner or YouTube have commented on the situation.
The campaign's video has now been deleted from YouTube (C-PSAN's remains)

He suddenly became "Dr. Rand Paul" on Twitter, because he is a self-proclaimed opthamologist. And I guess that gives him political cred with . . . somebody???



His website misspelled "Education." Derp.



A website map urging people to endorse Rand Paul was made with stock photos taken by a German photographer, probably in Germany. Those faces are not Americans! The photos, who were models, were removed pretty fast.



Rand was in South Carolina today but said nothing about the shooting of Walter Scott by a police officer which has been the top story on all news channels all week. Nothing. What kind of Presidential candidate says "nothing" about it?
But the day before on CNN - he was pro-Police.
Rand has inherited his father Ron's Bodyguard, but also a Bribery Scandal!

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Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Rand Paul Runs for President ~ Crashes while Mansplaining ~ Updated

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pic source: @UniteBlue

Previous Related Posts:
Rand Paul Confused About Plagiarism
Rand Paul's Gattaca Moment
Rand Paul Stars in Night of the Talking Filibuster
Hillary Kicks Butt on Benghazi
Rand Paul Whitesplains at Howard University

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Volatile politicians like Rand Paul are the reason I often wait a day before writing a blog post. Things can change really fast in just 24 hours!

On Tuesday, April 7, 2015, Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), son of the ever-campaigning Libertarian Ron Paul, announced that he is now "officially" running for President. Rand is famous for the #StandWithRand hashtag used during his 12-hour filibuster in the Senate, but on the day he vowed to win the Presidency the trending hashtag was #CantStandRand, and I imagine even some GOP members such as his colleague Ted Cruz are using it. ;)














By Wednesday, he wash crashing and burning. In the morning, he got all bossy and told off journalist Savannah Guthrie on the Today Show.



From Washington Examiner
(Savannah Guthrie of NBC) "You once said Iran was not a threat, now you say it is. You once proposed ending foreign aid to Israel, now you support it, at least for the time being, and you once offered to drastically cut…defense spending and now you want to increase it 16 percent," she started.
This did not sit well with Paul, who accused her eventually of "editorializing."

"Before we go. Before we go. Before we go through — Before we go through a litany of — Before we go through a litany of," Paul said over crosstalk from the Peacock Network Washington reporter. "Why don't you let me explain instead of talking over me, OK?"
Guthrie fell silent.
"Before we go through a litany of things you say I changed on, why don't you ask me a question: Have I changed my opinion? That would be sort of a better way to approach an interview," he said.

The NBC News reporter attempted to reword her original questions, but Paul was still unimpressed.

"No, no. You've editorialized. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no," he said. "Listen, you've editorialized. Let me answer a question. You ask a question, and you say, 'Have your views changed?' instead of editorializing and saying my views have changed."













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Later on Wednesday, Rand Paul decided to answer questions about abortion, getting "testy" with an AP reporter, then tossing the question to Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Florida), implying that Democrats approve of baby-killing. Good, Rand - change the subject!

From Bloomberg
. . . Associated Press reporter Philip Elliott prodded Paul on abortion, and whether a candidate who once sponsored a personhood amendment would allow some exemptions.
"The thing is about abortion—and about a lot of things—is that I think people get tied up in all these details of, sort of, you're this or this or that, or you're hard and fast (on) one thing or the other," Paul told Elliott. "I've supported both bills with and without (exceptions), you know. In general, I am pro-life. So I will support legislation that advances and shows that life is special and deserves protection."
. . . "Why don’t we ask the DNC: Is it okay to kill a seven-pound baby in the uterus? You go back and you ask Debbie Wasserman Schultz if she's OK with killing a seven-pound baby that is not born yet. Ask her when life begins, and you ask Debbie when it's okay to protect life. When you get an answer from Debbie, get back to me."



UPDATE: Debbie Wasserman Schultz replied via CNN:







After just one day! We should have known right away that things were going to fall apart as soon as he said "I Want My Country Back," using the Palinesque mantra of Tea Party nutcakes everywhere.


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Friday, February 27, 2015

CPAC 2015

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Time for the annual GOP Clown Circus called CPAC!



























































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Monday, February 2, 2015

Chris Christie and Rand Paul Want "Measure of Choice" for Vaccinations ~ Updated

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Previous Related Post:
Measles Epidemic Pits Anti-Vaxx Parents Against Public Health

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Presidential hopefuls Chris Christie and Rand Paul have decided that raising money for their 2016 campaigns is more important than the health of children everywhere. Both are pandering to the Anti-Vaxx movement, saying that vaccinating your kids should be a "choice" and not a mandate from the government. This is an epic fail on their parts, and completely irresponsible!

But what do they care about the public good? They only want to be President of the United States, right?

In order to get elected, these guys have to be seen as the "Anti-Obama," and the President is pro-Vaccination (because he is also pro-science and has a brain).





It's bad enough that Rand Paul's father, perpetual candidate Ron Paul, is a medical doctor, and Rand Paul himself is some type of doctor. But Chris Christie is worse, since he recently had an Ebola patient quarantined and basically held at house arrest in New Jersey, but for kids who get measles from the unvaccinated - you're on your own, kids!

UPDATE: The Nurse who was quarantined by Chris Christie for Ebola had some words for him:

"I think this is a good example of Gov. Christie's making some very ill-informed statements. We heard it a lot during the Ebola discussion, and now it seems to have happened again," Maine medic Kaci Hickox said in an interview that aired Monday night on MSNBC's "All In With Chris Hayes."
. . . "I think the unfortunate thing or the scary thing is that I want a leader who consults experts and thinks about sort of all of the different sides to an issue before making statements and — and policies that are unfounded in science," she said.



They are both being intellectually dishonest about their true beliefs. Notice they both used the phrase "measure of choice," which tells me that this is probably a GOP talking point and not something they actually wanted to say. They are pandering to the base.

From Guardian UK
Christie, who is considered a leading presidential candidate, told press during his visit to the UK that parents should have “some measure of choice” in the decision to vaccinate their children.
“It’s more important what you think as a parent than what you think as a public official,” said Christie. “I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well. So that’s the balance that the government has to decide.”
Within hours, Christie’s office had sent a clarification. “The governor believes vaccines are an important public health protection and with a disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated,” wrote a representative. “At the same time different states require different degrees of vaccination, which is why he was calling for balance in which ones government should mandate.”

From The Hill
Paul was asked to weigh in on vaccines, after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), a likely rival for the GOP nomination in 2016, said Monday morning that there should be "some measure of choice" for parents leery of vaccinating their children.

"I'm not anti-vaccine at all, but most of them ought to be voluntary," Paul, an ophthalmologist, said Monday on the "Laura Ingraham Show," in a segment circulated by the Democratic National Committee along with criticism of Paul's views.

Paul added a shot at potential presidential primary rival former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who made an HPV vaccine mandatory in his state before later calling it a "mistake."

"I think there are times where there can be some rules, but for the most part it ought to be voluntary and the biggest one is — I don't know if you remember when Governor Perry made it mandatory to get, for a sexually transmitted disease, to have everybody have to take it," Paul said. "While I think it's a good idea to take the vaccine, I think that's a personal decision for individuals to take and when they take it."































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Tuesday, January 6, 2015

John Boehner Re-elected House Speaker 2015

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John Boehner, R-Ohio, has been re-elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives.













Previous Related Post:
Louie Gohmert Runs for Speaker of the House

From Huffington Post:
In the final tally, Boehner received the votes of 216 House members, while House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) received 164 votes. A number of discontented Republicans, however, voted for other candidates, including Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), who, with 12 votes, got the most opposition votes from the GOP.

Tweets During the Voting Today:


































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