Gawker's substantial Mormon readership has come through for us: Two readers have sent us confirmation that Edward Davies, Mitt Romney's militantly atheist father-in-law, was indeed posthumously converted to Mormonism by his family, despite the fact that when he was alive he regarded all religions as "hogwash." UPDATE: Romney's brother-in-law responds below.
Over the last two years, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan has become the face of the new GOP. He is author of the "Ryan Budget," a draconian plan touted by the GOP that would essentially undermine or completely eliminate social safety net programs like Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, and Social Security, as well as transfer those "savings" to pay for a new and even more unequal tax code that would greatly benefit those at the top. Ryan's "fiscal conservatism"--some would call it radicalism--has earned him criticism from the left and fed a growing push on the right for him to become Mitt Romney's running mate.
With so much focus on Ryan's fiscal austerity (except when it comes to tax cuts for the rich), his extreme position on women's reproductive rights has faded into the background. Like almost all House Republicans, he has voted in lockstep with his party to deny women access to safe abortion care, contraception, breast exams, and other critical preventive care; repeal the A
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The presidential campaign seems to be getting nastier by the week as each side released ads that caused the other to call foul. Is this presidential contest becoming a race to the bottom? What are the big ideas that can bring the country together? Plus what impact will Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan as a Vice Presidential running mate have on the future of the race? Our roundtable weighs in: MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow; NBC’s Chief White House Correspondent and Political Director Chuck Todd; Editor of the National Review, Rich Lowry; and the Washington Post’s Dan Balz.
However… tomorrow is still Media Bias Sunday! Or as I like to call it, Librul Media My Ass Sunday.
Let’s take a sneak preview of what’s coming up on the Big Sunday Talker Line-Up, per The Seattle Times and the L.A. Times, okay? Okay.
New York City police officers shot and killed a man they say was threatening them with a knife Saturday, as a witness caught the last few seconds of the chase.
The video, posted by WNBC-TV Saturday afternoon, was shot by a witness following the foot chase between officers and the unidentified man along 7th Avenue from across the street. About 17 seconds into the clip, about 10 gunshots can be heard.
“I was standing at the corner of 42nd Street and saw this guy running in middle of street, police chasing him,” one resident said. “He had a machete type knife. He didn’t want to stop. Police told him to drop the knife. He didn’t. They shot him.”
Under Paul Ryan's plan, Mitt Romney wouldn't pay any taxes for the next ten years -- or any of the years after that. Now, do I know that that's true. Yes, I'm certain.
Well, maybe not quite nothing. In 2010 -- the only year we have seen a full return from him -- Romney would have paid an effective tax rate of around 0.82 percent under the Ryan plan, rather than the 13.9 percent he actually did. How would someone with more than $21 million in taxable income pay so little? Well, the vast majority of Romney's income came from capital gains, interest, and dividends. And Ryan wants to eliminate all taxes on capital gains, interest and dividends.
Paul Ryan is the reverse of Sarah Palin. She was all right-wing flash without much substance. He’s all right-wing substance without much flash.
Ryan is not a firebrand. He’s not smarmy. He doesn’t ooze contempt for opponents or ridicule those who disagree with him. In style and tone, he doesn’t even sound like an ideologue – until you listen to what he has to say.
It’s here — in Ryan’s views and policy judgments — we find the true ideologue. More than any other politician today, Paul Ryan exemplifies the social Darwinism at the core of today’s Republican Party: Reward the rich, penalize the poor, let everyone else fend for themselves. Dog eat dog.
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