Myths and WTF's

Myth: Obama threw Israel under the bus.  Fact: President Obama pledged $70million to Israel to expand its anti-rocket Iron Dome system.  Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said “I can hardly remember a better period of American support and backing, and Israeli cooperation and similar strategic understanding of events around us than we have right now.”  Further, President Obama has blocked every Palestinian attempt to gain statehood through the UN while also blocking all attempts to condemn Israel in the security council.

Myth: If we drill more oil we can lower the price of gasoline.  Fact: We will never drill enough oil and refine it to satisfy our domestic consumption needs as long we rely on the stuff as much as we do.  Secondly, oil is a commodity and is sold globally meaning it will be subject to supply and demand pressure points and with demand in China and India increasing, prices will continue to go up.  Thirdly, the oil is not ‘ours’.  It belongs to the companies who explore, extract, and refine the stuff.  If you want it to belong to us, it will require nationalization of ALL of our domestic reserves.  Now that sounds like socialism.

Myth: Paul Ryan is a courageous fiscal conservative.  Fact: Ryan offered up a Koch Brothers created plan to cut government spending on citizens to fund corporate and high dividend earning citizens windfalls.  When his plan was called for what it was, he quickly pulled it back and started working with Democrat Ron Wyden from Oregon.  Further, this allegedly courageous fiscal conservative voted for every spending bill during the Bush years and while he has no problem on scaling back on health and pension benefits, he has no such inclination when it comes to defense spending.  Mr.  Ryan is neither courageous nor fiscally conservative.  He is a Koch Brother Kool Aid drinking tool.

Moment of WTF: On trying to defend the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, spokesperson Lisa Allen shows how little the Sheriff and his staff care.  “I understand our need as a society — and the media’s needs — that they want to point a finger of blame. We have accepted that this is partially our problem,” Allen said. “We’ve apologized for it. “(But) if we had done more work and put somebody in prison, maybe they would have gone to prison and then killed some other inmate. Are we then responsible for that, too?” she asked. “At what point do you look at the situation and say, ‘Yeah, the agency screwed up; they’re trying to fix it. But the real responsibility for these crimes lies with the individual’?”

Moment of WTF: In his book "Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives”, Robert Draper identifies the following Republican Congressmen as part of a cabal dedicated to obstructing the President at the expense of the nation:  Representatives  Eric Cantor (Va.), Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Paul Ryan (Wis.), Pete Sessions (Texas), Jeb Hensarling (Texas), Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) and Dan Lungren (Calif) and Senators  Jim DeMint (S.C.), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), John Ensign (Nev.) and Bob Corker (Tenn.).  What is especially sickening about this is that Kyl and Hensarling served on the Congressional Super committee that was supposed to address a long term deficit reduction plan and Coburn, Ryan, and Hensarling all served on Bowles-Simpson and Ryan and Hensarling voted no.  This group represents the worst of the worse; those that were willing to put politics ahead of country.  And just because McConnell and Boehner do not show up on the list, they did put these guys in position to obstruct.