FAKE, FAKE, FAKE

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.

"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.”

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.

UPDATE: From Acolyte of Sagan in the comments:

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.

Excellent. Thank you, Acolyte of Sagan.

"IT WOULD...BE ABHORRENT..."

“It would really be abhorrent to make this into a campaign issue,” Jan Stevens, 77, said in a telephone interview from his home in Loomis, California, as he prepares for a memorial service for his son next week.

Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, has criticized President Barack Obama for not providing adequate security in Libya, saying the administration has left the country exposed to a deadly terrorist attack.

The ambassador’s father, a lawyer, said politicians should await the findings of a formal investigation before making accusations or judgments.

“The security matters are being adequately investigated,” Stevens said. “We don’t pretend to be experts in security. It has to be objectively examined. That’s where it belongs. It does not belong in the campaign arena.” Stevens said he has been getting briefings from the State Department on the progress of the investigation.

Do you hear, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan?  Will you respect the wishes of Jan Stevens?

H/T to Adrastos at First Draft.

DO YOU LIKE MINCEMEAT?

From The Huffington Post:

Joining a chorus of Catholic bishops, theologians, priests, and social justice leaders, nearly 90 Georgetown University faculty and administrators have called Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) to task for his misuse of Catholic social teaching in defending his budget, which hurts the poor. The group sent a letter to Rep. Ryan in advance of his appearance on the Catholic campus on Thursday morning to give the Whittington Lecture.

In their letter to Ryan, the scholars make clear they are not objecting to his speaking on campus, but rather his recent comments defending his budget on Christian grounds.

“Our problem with Representative Ryan is that he claims his budget is based on Catholic social teaching,” said Jesuit Father Thomas J. Reese, one of the organizers of the letter. “This is nonsense. As scholars, we want to join the Catholic bishops in pointing out that his budget has a devastating impact on programs for the poor.” Reese is a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.
....

The scholars also gave the Representative a reading assignment: “The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church,” which was commissioned by John Paul II and published by the Vatican.

Signing the letter were over a dozen Georgetown Jesuit priests, numerous members of the Theology and other departments including History, Government, Philosophy, School of Foreign Service and School of Nursing & Health Studies.

Rep. Paul Ryan's spokesman, Kevin Seifert, sent this email in response to an inquiry about the Georgetown Faculty Letter from The Huffingtonpost:

"Chairman Ryan remains grateful for Georgetown's invitation to advance a thoughtful dialogue this week on his efforts to avert a looming debt crisis that would hurt the poor the first and the worst. Ryan looks forward to affirming our shared commitment to a preferential option for the poor, which of course does not mean a preferential option for bigger government."

My guess as to what Paul Ryan will look like once the Jesuits and other scholars at Georgetown are finished with him. 

What I know about logic and reasoning, I learned mainly from the Jesuits many years ago, and they taught me well.  The gaps in my knowledge are due to my own lack of seriousness and inattention in the days of my youth.  Still, compared to the some logic and reasoning skills on display today, I see that I owe the Jesuits a great deal.     

Picture from Wikipedia.

H/T to Charles Pierce at The Politics Blog.

UPDATE: I am eating my words. No one made mincemeat of the Granny Starver.  Yes, there was a Q&A from written questions from the audience, which only served to give Ryan a longer forum to unload his bullshit. You can watch at C-SPAN, if you have the stomach for it.  Very disappointing. Give back the American dream?  The American dream is dead and gone. Bush put the nails in the coffin. Back to Charles Pierce's mantra: "Fck the deficit. People got no jobs. People got no money."

UPDATE 2:  Where was the Republican concern about the deficit when Bush launched not one, but two off-budget wars?  How crazy is that for a fiscal policy?