 |
| Screen shot from WKBN video |
The patrons were gone; the pans were clean, but Paul Ryan and his crew made their way into a soup kitchen in Youngstown, Ohio, and rewashed pans that had already been washed for a photo op. But the opportunist congressman's plan backfired when Felicia Sonmez, a Washington Post reporter, told the story which highlighted Ryan's phoniness and faked concern for the poor. I'm cynical enough about politics and politicians, but this staged attempt by Ryan leaves me shaking my head. What about Ryan's children? What did they make of the mini-drama?
Brian J. Antag, president of the Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society, said that he was not contacted by the Romney campaign ahead of the Saturday morning visit by Ryan, who stopped by the soup kitchen after a town hall at Youngstown State University.In the process of staging the photo op, Ryan and crew could have put the charity in danger of losing funding, but then the entire operation was never, ever about the poor.
"We’re a faith-based organization; we are apolitical because the majority of our funding is from private donations,” Antag said in a phone interview Monday afternoon. “It’s strictly in our bylaws not to do it. They showed up there and they did not have permission. They got one of the volunteers to open up the doors.”
He added: “The photo-op they did wasn’t even accurate. He did nothing. He just came in here to get his picture taken at the dining hall.”
UPDATE: From Acolyte of Sagan in the comments:
Excellent. Thank you, Acolyte of Sagan.I'm not saying he's dishonest,
But just like most right-wingers
If you should chance
To shake Ryan's hand
Be sure to count your fingers.
So emblematic of today's Republican Party. Grandmere, your title says it all. Paul and Mitt are pretending to care for others when their real objective is solely to enrich themselves. It's lying in action.
ReplyDeleteThis is so disrespectful to the people who do work to feed their brothers and sisters in need that it makes me want to spit. Not to mention that it completely marginalizes those who are in need. And what is with having those little kids there? I guess it spares Mr. Ryan from having to deal with actual poor people or actual Christians. Of course, if you are willing to lie about your marathon time then it is just a small step to lie about helping the poor.
ReplyDeleteThis is the "we can do whatever we want and get away with it 'cause we're pretty and rich" photo of the year ... these guys think they can get away with anything because they've had a whole long life of getting their way and no amount of calling to account or MSM "gotcha" moments seems to affect them at all ... their "truth" is what they say it is, immune to facts or religion or philosophy because those things only matter if they can be made to serve the short term gains for which they live. Fraud, to them, is a means to an end, not a moral failure. Aaaaarrrrrgh!
ReplyDeleteWhen will the people of the country wake up? What will it take for the voters to see that there's no fecking there there, that the phoniness is all that is real. Obama/Biden should be elected in a fecking landslide.
ReplyDeleteI have just seen on the evening news that polls are suggesting that there is no clear frontrunner between Obama / Romney, and if anything Romney is slightly ahead.
DeleteWhy?
And; Grandmere, from where did you pick up the Irish 'fecking'?
The polls are frighteningly close. Obama's sorry performance in the previous debate took its toll.
DeleteI picked up 'fecking' from an Irish online friend long ago. Alas, we've lost touch, and I can't remember either her nom de blog or her real name to see if she's still around Blogland.
I did NOT need this this morning! I just want to grad the shoulders of The People and shake them and say with you, "WAKE THE F*CK up! "The medium IS the message." O McLuhan , O Jean Baudrillard where are you when we need you?
ReplyDeleteSorry to mess up your morning, cloud-hidden, but it had to be done, or I would have exploded.
ReplyDeleteAll should be aware that it is my blog that keeps me out of an institution for the deranged.
Oh, do please rant on then ... especially because those padded room places mostly don't exist any more and/or are not covered by whatever health care plan you might not be able to afford ... "main streamed" or turfed to live under bridges and thoroughly beneath the disdain of "the makers" ... must not have Grandmere in any of those circumstances! Rant on, rant on in majesty!
DeleteMarthe, I will continue to rant...for the sake of what's left of my sanity.
DeleteYes, I know so many "good" well-intentioned people who also vote for anything Republican. How can they be so blind? Yes, the Dems have big "issues" too, but not anywhere as deceitful and dangerous as the GOP--at least not yet. By the time enough people wake up in this country it will be too late: our environment spoiled, our standard of living in the tank and the poor and mis-educated living in a paranoid "bread and circus" society.
ReplyDeleteHow can they be so blind?
DeleteI dunno, Mike & Doug. Jeremiah said it; Jesus said it.
Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? And do you not remember?
Was it "Brave New World" where words meant the opposite of their original meaning? i.e., good is bad, etc? I think we have arrived there! When I read of what Conservatives hold as good, very often it contradicts everything I believe to be
ReplyDeleteof value........this is such a mockery of caring for the poor that it gave me a wave of nausea,WAKE UP, USA!
nij
Crikey! We had 1984 for 8 years under Bush. They told us up was down; black was white. Haven't we had enough?
DeleteIt was termed 'Doublespeak', as I recall.
DeleteYes, Doublespeak it was.
DeleteNij: no, it was 1984 - George Orwell
ReplyDeleteThis article (in fact, most mentions of polticians) reminds me of an old poem I first read when at school.
ReplyDeleteI believe it was titled 'Epitaph to a politician'. M.P. of course means Member of Parliament.
Here lies the body
Of our M.P.
Who promised lots
To me and thee.
Not one single promise
Did he fulfil
E'en though he's dead
He's lying still.
Excellent, Acolyte of Sagan. I'm thinking how to work out something similar for Lyin' Ryan.
DeleteHow about;
DeleteI'm not saying he's dishonest,
But just like most right-wingers
If you should chance
To shake Ryan's hand
Be sure to count your fingers.
Again excellent and bumped to an update to the post.:-)
DeleteThank you, Grandmere.
DeleteAlso on Facebook.
DeleteWow, does this qualify me as a published poet?
Delete:-)
Of course! But I'm bound to tell you there's no money in it. Sorry about that.
DeleteTo be appreciated is payment enough for this old hack, Grandmere.
DeleteThink this will appear on the national news? It would if the president, Michelle and their daughters did something similiar...which of course they wouldn't. I read somewhere that the first family helps out at various places that feed the hungry every Thanksgiving and has done so for years. For real.
ReplyDeleteBex, either Rachel, Ed, or Lawrence will have the story with pictures, and maybe all three, but we may have to wait because of the debate.
DeleteAs I said to my brother, when I see all these allegedly-average middle-class voters supporting Romney, I understand the saying in Marxism that "Capitalism will sell the rope with which it is hanged." How stupid and blind can you be?
ReplyDeleteAnd just as in the apocryphal tale of the suicidal miser, it will also let them haggle over the price of the rope.
DeleteWe laughed and laughed when Romney said he would give the middle class tax breaks on capital gains and dividends. Of course, Romney think an income of over $200,000 is middle class.
DeleteI'm no expert on the American social system, but I always thought that they sent the class system packing with the English. Whatever happened to the classless, 'all men are born equal' philosophy?
DeleteNo. We said we sent the class system packing. The truth is, even at the beginning, what was meant was "All men are created equal [as long as they're our sort]!"
DeleteMark, won't you admit that over here, money will go a long way to get you much of what you want in social class, despite the clannishness of the so-called old money people?
Delete