Josh Mandel: A Lying Liar

Here he goes again! Republican Josh Mandel, Ohio's absent Treasurer and puppet candidate of the far right, doesn't seem to understand when someone catches your lies, you should stop repeating them.  Republican Josh Mandel keeps repeating the lies, even though the amount of his lies practically blew up the Truth-O-Meter at Politifact.com.

The PlainDealer has an article about how Mandel continues to repeat the same old, same old debunked statement in his speeches to groups. 

 ...Mandel also made his case against the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare by suggesting not enough people pay income taxes....

....Mandel said he differed with the law's steps to achieve those results, while repeating disputed phrases like "government takeover of healthcare," and "Washington bureaucrats" making medical decisions for patients.

Mandel said he favored reforming and eliminating regulations on physician-owned hospitals, allowing consumers to purchase insurance across state lines and enacting "common sense tort reforms" to put protections on hospitals from being sued while stresseing (sic) that people who've been "wronged in a surgery room or a hospital...should be made whole and...able to pursue financial justice."

Mandel favors "...physician-owned hospitals..." which are seen by many as sources of conflicts of interest, and full of legal issues.  The patient's safety should be first, but apparently Mandel doesn't see it that way. Mandel also supports the free market controlling health costs?  If Mandel is elected and we lose the Affordable Care Act, health insurance companies will -----
-  immediately raise their rates,
-  give CEO's larger bonuses,
-  cut your medical coverage,
-  re-institute refusals of coverage for pre-existing conditions,
-  eliminate covering young people until 26 years of age on their parent's insurance,
-  eliminate free pap smear, preventive screenings for cancer, etc.

How can we guess what Josh Mandel would do?  Mandel's puppetmasters (Freedomworks, Americans for (their own) Prosperity, the Tea Party GOPers, etc.) have paid for his entire campaign.

More Lies from Mandel and Paul Ryan

• • • Do you support Sen. Sherrod Brown? I do. Sen. Sherrod Brown has worked to keep our jobs in Ohio, helped save the American auto companies, protected the rights of women, helped our public schools, preserved Social Security and Medicare, has assisted our vets and their families, worked to preserve Pell grants and college assistance, etc., etc., etc.

However, right winger, Republican Josh Mandel, Ohio's absent Treasurer, has accused Sen. Sherrod Brown as being un-American. Josh Mandel has stepped into gutter politics again, just like he did when he ran against Kevin Boyce.  Josh Mandel should be ashamed of himself. The following video shows that Sen. Sherrod Brown has the support of veterans.

(Video by OhioCapitalBlog:)

Saving American jobs and American industry is American. Sen. Sherrod Brown has demonstrated his love of country by saving the auto jobs and helping all of us.

****  Paul Ryan claims that President Obama was responsible for closing a GM plant in Janesville, Wisconsin?  Really?  Paul Ryan is apparently very loose with the truth.

WashingtonPost:

....February 2008: At a campaign stop in Janesville, Obama says, ”I believe that if our government is there to support you, and give you the assistance you need to re-tool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another hundred years.” As Politifact writes, “That’s a statement of belief that, with government help, the Janesville plant could remain open — but not a promise to keep it open.”

...November/December 2008 – Congress weighs a bailout of GM and other automakers. One proposal, backed by Ryan and 31 other House Republicans, but not Mitt Romney, would have provided $15 billion in bridge loans. The bill passed the house but was not picked up by the Senate. The Bush administration declines to use TARP funds to rescue automakers, but approves a bridge loan on Dec.19, too late to save the Janesville plant....

...Dec. 23, 2008 – Lacking a bailout, the plant closes. The plant holds a “final goodbye ceremony” as it builds its last SUV. In a statement to MSNBC, GM confirmed that the plant “was idled” in December. But — and this is where it gets confusing — winding down a plant takes time....

As the photo in the article indicates, the last auto rolled off the line on December 23, 2008.  Barack Obama was sworn in as President on January 20, 2009.  

Despicable

>>> An editorial Akron Beacon Journal editorial explains everything you need to know about Josh Mandel:

Josh Mandel has become a Saturday Night Live skit. Asked whether he would abandon statements deemed “pants on fire” by the respected Politifact column of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate has said he will not — without a trace of embarrassment, even telling reporters at one point that it is their job to “do the grunt work.”

Mandel trades in hyperbole, hurling such words as “ridiculous,” “outrageous,” “radical,” “over our dead bodies.” During a session with reporters and editors of the Columbus Dispatch last week, the state treasurer (for all of 20 months) labeled his opponent “un-American,” and Sherrod Brown, the Democratic incumbent, was sitting in the room. Will Ferrell would be hard pressed to play the part better. The dismaying thing is, Mandel is serious....

...On occasion, Mandel laments how the Brown campaign has been outspending his effort. What he doesn’t say is that outside groups have spent roughly $15 million on his behalf, the money undisclosed and devoted to tearing down the senator. Arguably, this onslaught has kept Mandel close in the polls, distracting from his puny record as treasurer, his short stay in the state legislature. In this way, too, his candidacy seems more parody — until you recall the stakes.

Mandel's campaign and work ethics are despicable.


* Is there some type of Republican meeting going on this week? We're not watching it. I'd rather get a root canal than watch the Republicans bloviate about themselves.
    

* David Shuster noticed bad behavior:
http://tinyurl.com/9vrqjbu

....Respected US TV journalist David Shuster, who was attending the event, tweeted about the incident which a Republican National Convention spokesman labelled as 'inexcusable and unacceptable'.

'GOP attendee ejected for throwing nuts at African American CNN camera woman + saying "This is how we feed animals.",' Mr Shuster tweeted his 45,000 followers on Tuesday....

...US news channel CNN confirmed the incident in a statement: '[We] can confirm there was an incident directed at an employee inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum earlier this afternoon.....

Those Republicans know how to display their prejudices.

Against Abortion - Even in Cases of Rape & Incest?

Ladies in Ohio,

Republican Josh Mandel is against everything you advocate.  Mandel is an extreme right wing Republican that has been propped up by money from Karl Rove, the Koch Brothers, and groups like Americans for (their own) Prosperity.

Josh Mandel ---

> Josh Mandel is more supportive of failing charter schools than public schools.  He has been supported by campaign donations from the largest owner of charter schools in Ohio.  When money leaves public schools, where a majority of our children are educated, our children lose.

> Josh Mandel is against abortion, even if a woman or girl has been a victim of rape or incest.  Mandel is just another Republican that wants to deny any assistance to a victim of sexual assault. Republicans are willing to invade your privacy and have government control your reproduction.

> Josh Mandel supported the radical "heartbeat bill" which has been called unconstitutional.

> Josh Mandel supported SB 5, which tried to strip workers' rights from teachers, nurses, fire fighters, police officers, and state workers.  With women making up a majority of the teachers and nurses in the state, was this Mandel's way of limiting women's right to speak up?

> Josh Mandel was against the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act. How can anyone justify being against funding programs and assistance for abused women?

> Josh Mandel signed the Cut, Cap, and Balance Pledge that would cut your Social Security and Medicare benefits (add those cuts to the Romney-Ryan plan). Could you live on $200/month?

> Josh Mandel wants to defund Planned Parenthood.  In Ohio, over 100,000 women use Planned Parenthood every year. Most women know someone that has been able to go to Planned Parenthood for preventive care, exams, etc.  Why does Josh Mandel want to cut women from this valuable service?

> Josh Mandel was not in favor of lowering interest rates for college loans. (Did you read that college students and parents?????) Mandel would like you to pay higher bank rates on college loans.

> Josh Mandel's work as Ohio Treasurer has been one of hiring unqualified buddies and frat friends, and absence from work, while someone else does his job.  He may say he supports transparency but he has refused many public records requests.

Josh Mandel is just too, too, radical, and far right for me. I'll be voting for Sherrod Brown because he respects me and my rights.

Possible Cuts to Social Security and Medicare under GOP

•  At the start of the war in Iraq in 2003, Republican Reps. Todd Akin and Paul Ryan voted "NO" on July 25, 2003 on HR 2861 Roll Call 456 (Bill Title: Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2004).  Why would Todd Akin and Paul Ryan vote against a bill that included  our veterans, especially at the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Is that how they supported the troops and our vets by trying to deny funding?

•  Romney and Ryan were in Powell, Ohio, today. Powell is an affluent suburb located north of Columbus, Ohio. Apparently, their campaign was offered a local high school football stadium to hold their rally, which has a capacity of about 7,000-8,000 people.  Instead, they chose a location which could hold about 2,000 supporters.  Do you think they were worried they couldn't fill a high school football stadium???? The TV news story showed a clip of the crowd which was made up of 99.999999999% white people. 

•  Did you know that Republican Josh Mandel, Ohio's absent Treasurer, signed the Cut, cap, and balance pledge (Link).  Of course, Heather Wilson, George Allen, and many other far right candidates.  What would "Cut, Cap, and Balance" do? According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

..Talking points that the legislation’s proponents circulated on July 15 seek to foster an impression that the measure would protect Social Security and Medicare.  Such an impression would not be accurate.  The legislation would inexorably subject Social Security and Medicare to deep reductions...

Could you survive on cuts to your Social Security and Medicare?  Mandel, Romney, Paul Ryan, and the rest of the Republican would like it to happen.

Romney-Ryan-Akin-Mandel vs. Women

* Have you seen the new Romney-Ryan-Akin platform?  This will explain it all.
YouTube

In Ohio, we have a lot of Republicans that support the Romney-Ryan-Akin platform.  Even right wing, pro-tax cuts for the rich, Josh Mandel has demonstrated his anti-women agenda.  I wrote about this in April of this year----


Writes Like She Talks had a post in 2009 in which Republican Josh Mandel marched in an anti-abortion protest in Cleveland.  The story was carried in the Plain Dealer which had Josh Mandel involved in the march to protest a bill to promote a woman's right to choose.  Mandel marched because he was against it.  The Plain Dealer article reminds the reader that Sen. Sherrod Brown "....supports a woman's right to choose..."

There you have it!  If you want Republicans to continue to restrict your access to birth control, cut off funding for Planned Parenthood, and get into your privacy, you can vote for Mandel.

However, if you want to retain your personal freedom and privacy regarding your reproductive organs, have health care for your gynecological needs, and keep Planned Parenthood operating, we need to re-elect Sen. Sherrod Brown.  Sen. Sherrod Brown will  have my vote because he respects me as a woman and my civil rights.

Thank you, Writes Like She Talks, for reminding us of Mandel's statements and actions against our reproductive freedom.


Josh Mandel might as well be part of the Romney-Ryan-Akin platform against women:

Romney-Ryan-Akin-Mandel

Bringing women back to the 1950's 

Think of what Romney-Ryan-Akin-Mandel support. 
They are

• against women's reproductive choice, 
• against the Affordable Care Act which covers women's cancer screenings, 
• against Medicare which elderly women depend on, 
• against Pell grants which helps women go to college, 
• against the auto recovery act which brought more jobs to Ohio for men and women, 
• against more funding for teachers, a majority of which are women,
• against the Lilly Ledbetter Act,
• against equal pay for women,
• against children's health care, etc., etc.

No woman should vote for these Republican clowns!

Encourage Every Woman to Register and Vote

* These Republicans certainly like to make decisions for you.  Can you imagine a day when you have to ask permission of a male member of the Republican Party, like Paul Ryan or Josh Mandel, if you can take a certain birth control pill.  These Republicans are willing to intrude into your life, but they won't answer questions that are put to them.

In a woman's lifetime, a woman can suffer from problems with endometriosis, break through bleeding, irregular pap smears, cysts, irregular periods, infertility, etc., and often are placed on specific hormonal treatments and birth control pills. The Republicans, like Paul Ryan, Josh Mandel, and Todd Akin, want to determine what medicines and treatments should be available to women.  They also want to decide what happens to women and girls who've been victims of rape and incest.  Over 32,000 rape victims become pregnant every year in this nation.  Why do Republicans think that they should interfere with our decisions about our bodies. Are we second class citizens to Republicans?

Not only do we have to worry about our own female health, but the second threat to women is the damage the Romney-Ryan team would do to Medicare.  It is a fact that women outlive men, and women often experience poverty in their later years.  It is sad that now Romney and Ryan want to take away the security of Medicare and allow corporate insurance companies to charge whatever they want. Since Romney and Ryan also want to take away the Affordable Care Act, our pre-existing conditions would be used by insurance companies to deny our coverage.

President Obama respects women and respects our decisions.  He signed the Lilly Ledbetter Act to help women gain equal pay.  Unfortunately, many Republicans, including Paul Ryan, voted against the bill.  President Obama treats women as equals.  The Republicans do not.

If Romney-Ryan are elected, we women will lose.  We will lose the financial gains we've made.  We will lose our reproductive rights.  Most of all, we'll lose Medicare, which is crucial to every elderly woman's survival. As I get closer to 65, I wonder if Medicare will be here when I retire. 

Make sure that every woman you know is registered to vote and votes.  Get in their space and tell them the dangers that Romney and Ryan can deliver to our health and the health of our daughters.  Be certain to tell them how Romney and Ryan plan to destroy Medicare.  That should get everyone's attention.

President Obama has promised to protect our rights and Medicare. The choice is clear----Vote for Obama and Democrats to move our country forward, and not back to the 1950's or the 1850's.

Romney Plan Would Bankrupt Medicare by 2016

* It could be that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan do not understand the how Medicare works. If Romney and Ryan are able to win and "reform" Medicare, the program would be gone.

NY Times:

Mitt Romney’s promise to restore $716 billion that he says President Obama “robbed” from Medicare has some health care experts puzzled, and not just because his running mate, Representative Paul D. Ryan, included the same savings in his House budgets. 

The 2010 health care law cut Medicare reimbursements to hospitals and insurers, not benefits for older Americans, by that amount over the coming decade. But repealing the savings, policy analysts say, would hasten the insolvency of Medicare by eight years — to 2016, the final year of the next presidential term, from 2024....

...What Mr. Romney proposes to restore to Medicare, however, is not money but additional costs, for higher payments to hospitals, insurers and other care providers. Lobbying groups representing some care providers accepted those reductions during the health care debate, and in exchange they got the law’s mandate for nearly all individuals to have insurance, which meant that providers and insurers would have millions of new paying patients and policyholders.....

President Obama saved $716 billion by closing the donut hole, cutting overcharges, and cutting costs.  If the Affordable Care Act is repealed, the Romney-Ryan administration would open up the donut hole and seniors would pay more.

Allowing Romney and Ryan to get their hands on Medicare would spell disaster for seniors. Now go and explain that to your brother-in-law that thinks Romney is his savior.

> Have you seen the open letter written by a rape victim to Republican Rep. Todd Akin? It has been posted at UniteWomen, and it deserves your attention.

• Paul Ryan spoke against allowing a woman to have an abortion, even if her life was threatened (LINK).

I Bet You Didn't Know....

Republican Rep. Paul Ryan has stood against our men and women in the military and against our military veterans.

Blog.militaryauthority:

...Ryan has not always been a free-spender when it comes to the military and veterans. He has on at least one occasion voted for a proposal to tighten the standards required to receive medical care from the Veterans Administration. Specifically, his committee floated a proposal to cut spending on providing VA care to veterans who do not have a service-related disability and whose incomes do not make them poor. Specifically, Ryan’s floated plan would cut off Category 8 veterans – and possibly Category 7 veterans as well - from receiving care from the VA....

...Ryan also voted against a proposal for a mandatory period of rest and recuperation between deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007. President Bush also opposed the measure at the time. The bill exempted special operations troops and still allowed the President and Secretary of Defense to waive the requirement in response to unforeseen circumstances.

Ryan voted against a 2012 proposal to increase combat pay from $225 per month to $350....

Paul Ryan also supports privatizing Social Security. Adding that to his coupons/vouchers for seniors on Medicare, Paul Ryan's plans would create a disaster for the elderly.

College students who get Pell Grants should be wary of the Romney-Ryan ticket.  Romney wants students to borrow money from their parents.  Paul Ryan wants this----

Shine@Yahoo:

...Fewer students will be eligible for Pell Grants, and those who do manage to secure one won't get as much money (the Ryan budget won't allow the grants to increase with inflation). Students with loans will pay twice as much interest -- 6.8 percent, up from the current 3.4 percent.....

Shine@Yahoo:

....Ryan wants to privatize Social Security by shifting Social Security funds to private retirement accounts while reducing benefits and slowly raising the age of eligibility. The big winner here would probably be Wall Street; benefits would actually be cut for the top 70 percent of recipients, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank. But in terms of his plans to reform entitlements, the biggest issue here is that Social Security isn't actually an entitlement program -- wage-earners pay into it, and retired workers get the pay out. This plan was part of Ryan's 2010 offering, "Roadmap for America's Future," and Romney has generally avoided endorsing it....

Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney just don't care about you.

IDIOTS!!!!!

*  The idiocy of the Republicans is starting to make itself more apparent, even to low information voters.  Here are the pieces of evidence to clearly demonstrate the stupidity, arrogance, and pure sense of entitlement that the Republicans and their white male-dominated, anti-woman, anti-Medicare, anti-college student, and anti-middle class political party:

1.  If you Google "nude Republicans Sea of Galilee" today you'll find out what a few Republicans did--- Six Republicans swimming in the Sea of Galilee?

 Politico:

During a fact-finding congressional trip to the Holy Land last summer, Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) took off his clothes and jumped into the sea, joining a number of members, their families and GOP staff during a night out in Israel, the sources told POLITICO. Other participants, including the daughter of another congressman, swam fully clothed, while some lawmakers partially disrobed. More than 20 people took part in the late-night dip in the sea, according to sources who were participants in the trip....

...These GOP sources confirmed the following freshmen lawmakers also went swimming that night: Rep. Steve Southerland (R-Fla.) and his daughter; Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) and his wife; Reps. Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.), Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) and Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.). Many of the lawmakers who ventured into the lake said they did so because of the religious significance of the waters. Others said they were simply cooling off after a long day. Several privately admitted that alcohol may have played a role in why some of those present decided to jump in....

 

Shame!

2. Republican Rep. Todd Akin, a candidate for Senate for Missouri, showed his views.

WashingtonPost:

Rep. Todd Akin, Missouri’s Republican Senate nominee, caused a public outcry Sunday when he told a local television station that “legitimate rape” rarely leads to pregnancy.

“First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare,” Akin, the Republican Senate nominee in Missouri, said. ”If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

Akin later issued an apology, saying he “misspoke” when he made an “off-the-cuff” remark. Empirical evidence suggests that he is indeed wrong: Research published in the Journal of American Obstetrics and Gynecology suggests over 30,000 pregnancies result from rape annually. “Rape-related pregnancy occurs with significant frequency,” the trio of researchers from the University of South Carolina concluded. “It is a cause of many unwanted pregnancies.”

A separate 2001 study – which used a sample of 405 rape victims between ages 12 and 45 – found that 6.4 percent became pregnant.....

Does Missouri want to send this ignoramus to the Senate?  I hope not.

3. Josh Mandel had this to say about Medicare and Social Security (from his Jobs Plan):

Save Medicare and Social Security

The inability of Washington politicians to control spending has threatened important programs like Medicare and Social Security....

Republican candidate, Josh Mandel, Ohio's absent Treasurer, is endorsed by the Club for Growth.  The Club for Growth supports "saving" Medicare or Medicare "reform" ---- View this LINK.  Anyone that says they want to reform or save Medicare means they want to hand out vouchers.

Todd Akin: Idiot

*** Republican Todd Akin doesn't know much about medicine, or the law.

RawStory:

Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican Senate nominee in Missouri, claimed in a TV interview this weekend that women who are ‘legitimate’ victims of rape do not get pregnant because their bodies somehow prevent that from happening.

As first reported by TPM, Akin, in an interview with local station KTVI-TV, was defending his staunch anti-abortion stance. When asked if that view applied to extreme instances such as rape—a case some abortion opponents consider an acceptable exception to their otherwise firm opposition—Akin held his ground.

“People always try to make that one of those things, ‘Oh, how do you slice this particularly tough sort of ethical question,” Akin said. “It seems to me, first of all, what I understand from doctors is that’s really where—if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

Really?  Todd Akin is a freakin' moron! Todd Akin is questioning if someone is a victim of a "legitimate" rape.  How dare he question a rape victim!  Is this where Republicans are going next?  Besides getting in the way of our personal exams with our physicians, and our reproductive decisions, now Republicans want to raise suspicions about rape victims?   

Todd Akin also said that "....from what I understand from doctor's.....if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down...."  Does he understand how women get pregnant? His statement  about how only "legitimate" rapes do not lead to pregnancy is ridiculous.  Did he really get that info from doctors?  We want to know the names of those doctors so that we can work on taking away their license to practice medicine.

Todd Akin is an idiot.

Todd Akin: the Ebenezer Scrooge of Missouri

* Todd Akin, a Republican from Missouri and candidate for the Senate, appears to be a crass man with little knowledge about education.  Although his bio shows him to be educated, Todd Akin appears to be clueless and uninformed.  See if you agree with me after reading this excerpt from RawStory:

Sen. Claire McCaskill’s (D-MO) Republican opponent says that the federal government should stop helping to feed needy children with the school lunch program. 

Speaking to reporters about the farm bill on Thursday, Senate candidate Todd Akin called to cut off the federal funds used to feed about 650,000 children in Missouri each school day....

.....Since being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2001, Akin has never voted for a farm bill — which authorizes the school lunch funds — and he advocates eliminating the Department of Education....

Todd Akin doesn't know much about what it takes to educate a child.  A child cannot learn if he/she is hungry.  In order to prepare our young people to be good, productive citizens, they must be educated. A child must be fed before he/she can learn.  When a child hasn't eaten, he/she is tired, inattentive, and unable to put forth good, positive effort.  Denying poor children school lunches makes Todd Akin sound like the Ebenezer Scrooge of Missouri.  Obviously, Mr. Akin is unable to provide voters with a well-balanced thoughtful plan to help Missouri and the country move forward.

Adding to Akin's lack of understanding  about education is his total absence of respect and interest in the men and women who've dedicated their lives to farming.  The fact that  he "...has never voted for a farm bill...." is shameful. There are 108,000 farms in Missouri and over 2,000,000 farms in our country. They proudly supply our food and food to the world. 

Ignoring the plight of poor, hungry school children and the hard work of farmers, makes Todd Akin appear as selfish, unkind, and just plain out of the mainstream.  How can anyone vote against hungry children and good, hardworking farmers?  How can anyone vote for a candidate like Todd Akin?

Sad Facts

* Here are the sad facts about Paul Ryan:

Paul Ryan has voted against women's reproductive rights 59 times. He is against abortion, even in the case of rape or incest.  Would he feel the same way if his daughter had been raped or would she not be allowed to make that decision on her own? He is against IVF (invitro fertilization). Paul Ryan also voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Act.  Paul Ryan's record is just awful.  Why would anyone, especially a woman, vote for him knowing that he is against your rights?

* Rush Limbaugh is trying to get the moderators for the debates to go easy on Mitt "the whiner" Romney.  As Lawrence O'Donnell said this evening, the public needs to let the moderators know the questions they should ask.  Here are the Twitter contacts for the moderators, courtesy of Lawrence O'Donnell: @newshour  @crowleycnn  @bobschieffer  @martharaddatz

(O'Donnell suggested that Romney should be asked why he provided all those years of income tax returns to John McCain, but now refuses to release information to the American people.)

>>>> Josh Mandel's "accent" is a big topic of conversation.  Mother Jones did some investigating about Mandel's "accent" that suddenly appeared when he spoke in Beallsville, Ohio.

MotherJones: 

On Wednesday, Republican Josh Mandel, who's hoping to defeat Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) this November, took the stage alongside Mitt Romney in the tiny village of Beallsville in the eastern Ohio coal belt. In a brief speech, Mandel blasted President Obama for having "waged war on coal" and for buddying up with "people in California and New York City who think coal is a four-letter word, who never stepped foot in Appalachia Ohio and don't understand coal."

Mandel's talking points weren't new. His delivery, however, certainly was. Backed by a phalanx of coal miners, Mandel soaked his speech with a distinct southern accent, a drawl never before heard from the candidate. Mandel, a former US Marine and now Ohio's state treasurer, is no southerner. He hails from the Cleveland area, in northern Ohio, where he still lives with his wife. He attended college at Ohio State University in Columbus and law school at Case Western in Cleveland. Neither qualify as southern cities—not even close....

Incredible.

Paul Ryan vs. American Women

* This is a transvaginal ultrasound probe.

 (h/t Democratic Underground)

Republican Rep. Paul Ryan believes that any woman or girl that wants an abortion must be forced to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound. According to a bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Jim Jordan (OH-4th), and Rep. Paul Ryan, one of the cosponsors, a woman should be forced to have one of these ten inch probes shoved into her vagina if she dares to ask for an abortion. According to these Republicans, if a woman doesn't want to look at it, she can look away.  Unfortunately, looking away from a forced vaginal exam doesn't take away the pain of the procedure.

• Paul Ryan would also like to ban some forms of birth control, and ban abortions - even if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. Why does Paul Ryan hate women?  Doesn't he see us as equals?
• Paul Ryan want to give senior citizens vouchers for their medical coverage and destroy Medicare.
• Paul Ryan wants to end Pell grants for college students and allow only those that can afford to pay for college to go.
• Paul Ryan wants to slash programs for veterans, and aid to farmers.
• Paul Ryan wants the federal government to withdraw support from programs like Head Start, Title 1, and Special Education.

These ideas from Paul Ryan make me positively ill.  Paul Ryan wants to make all these cuts so that millionaires can have more tax cuts.  Shame on Paul Ryan.

Romney-Ryan and Your Future

* The Republicans are trying to convince the American voters that they have plans to create jobs, and fix our country. If you believe that, I'm wondering if you'd like to buy some swampland.....

The Romney-Ryan ticket would
- give tax cuts for the wealthy.
- raise taxes on those in the middle class.
- hand out vouchers (aka "premium support") to Medicare recipients.
- allow private insurance companies to rake in profits from seniors.
- restrict women's health care.*(*Note: Paul Ryan wanted to criminal abortions, prevent abortions even in cases of rape  or incest, force a vaginal ultrasound on any woman wanting an abortion, and ban birth control.)
- raise premiums on seniors.
- eventually destroy Social Security.
- end Pell Grants and student loans. (Romney told students to borrow from their parents.)
- take more money from public education and give more to failing charter schools.
- make cuts to Head Start, Title 1, and Special Education funding programs (Link).
- do nothing to help women to achieve equality in the workplace.
- etc., etc., etc.

Does any of this sound appealing to you? These proposals by Romney-Ryan are deplorable and disgusting.

------------------------------

If you live in Ohio, you are aware of the fine work being done by Sen. Sherrod Brown. Sen. Sherrod Brown worked to save the American auto industry, and has demonstrated his support for middle class works.  His opponent, Ohio's absent Treasurer Josh Mandel, supports pretty much everything that Romney-Ryan do. 

Mandel was even against pay equity for women. The darling of the right wing Tea Party Republicans, Josh Mandel has avoided going to his state office as much as possible. In his "jobs plan" Josh Mandel (available at his campaign website), Mandel's emphasis is on helping businesses and corporations.  In his jobs plan, Mandel mentions words that make business moguls salivate---regulations, taxes, businesses- but he forgets to mention things important for workers.

Mandel is a tool for the right wing special interest groups that want to destroy our environment, destroy our public schools, and pay people lower wages.  Josh Mandel even supported SB5/Issue 2 (the anti-middle class worker legislation pushed by Kasich and the GOP.)

It is time to let Josh Mandel go back and finish his term as Ohio Treasurer, then let him do something he hasn't done before---- go get a job in the private sector.

-------------------

Ohio farmers:  Why is Paul Ryan holding up the farm bill? Why are Steve Stivers, Jim Jordan, Pat Tiberi, and the rest of the Republicans refusing to vote on the farm bill, but they'll waste time repealing the Affordable Care Act (over 30 times)??????

What do Americans want?

* Here in Ohio, the campaign ads are coming at us at a fast pace. It is not unusual to see a  pro-Romney ad 3 times during the 30 minute local news broadcast. You almost wonder what people think with the repetition of the same lies over and over again.  Obviously, the Romney people and their friends (Americans for Prosperity, Karl Rove, Freedomworks, etc.) have boatloads of money.  Will people buy what the right wing Republicans and the Tea Party Republicans are selling?

Do Americans want 

--- to de-fund public education?
--- millionaires to get more tax cuts, while the middle class pays more taxes?
--- to end Medicare and give the elderly vouchers (which would decrease in value)?
--- to end Medicare so that all millionaires get larger tax cuts?
--- to end food stamps (called SNAP) and WIC for mothers and babies?
--- to outlaw birth control pills?
--- to deny women abortions, even if they've been raped or the victim of incest?
--- to allow corporations to determine what chemicals they can dump where they please?
--- to end Pell grants and loans for college students?
--- to deny citizenship to children born in this country?
--- to abolish a minimum wage, allowing employers to pay whatever they want?
--- to deny women equal pay for doing the same job as their male counterparts?
--- to raise the retirement age from 65 to 68 or 70 years of age?
--- to allow banks and Wall Street to make dangerous, risky deals with our money?
--- to take away the protections offered by the Affordable Care Act?
--- to destroy the middle class?

If you want any of the above, vote for Romney Ryan.

 •••

The new ad put out by MoveOn makes the point about what Mitt Romney wants to do:



Republican Josh Mandel, Ohio's absent Treasurer, has been given his 6th "Pants On Fire" by Politifact  for his latest (lie) statement about Ohio U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown. This is the statement made by Josh Mandel that got him a "Pants On Fire" tag:

Politifact: 

Josh Mandel's statement-Sherrod Brown "sent billions of our tax dollars to foreign countries."

Josh Mandel doesn't even know the meaning of honesty. 

Do you remember Medicare?

*  Imagine that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have won the election.  How would your life change?

1.  You could lose your Social Security, Medicare, Medicare Part D, and Medicaid. 
> Paul Ryan, as a follower of Ayn Rand, puts people into two categories--- producers and parasites.  Guess which category Paul Ryan would put those people receiving Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid? It is no secret that Paul Ryan has pushed handing out vouchers to senior citizens instead of having the Medicare program.  I wonder how voters in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Virginia feel about losing these programs.

2. Women would lose even more access to reproductive health. 
> Romney refuses to even address the issues women would like to discuss, and has handed over that part of the campaign to his wife.  Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney would take away a woman's reproductive health choices. As a member of the House of Representative, "...Paul Ryan sponsored fetal personhood bill, opposes family planning funds..." (Link)  Women could lose access to birth control pills, gynecological screenings, and be subjected to unwanted, and forced vaginal probe ultrasounds.

3. Points to ponder---
> In 2007, Paul Ryan voted against raising the minimum wage from $5.15/hr to $7.25/hr (Clerk.gov: HR 2- Roll Call Vote 18). 
In 2007, Paul Ryan voted against reauthorizing the Children's Health Insurance Program which provides health care for poor children (Clerk.gov: HR 3963- Roll Call Vote 1009.)
(See more of his views at OntheIssues.)

4. Under a Romney-Ryan administration the rich, the super rich, and corporations will get more tax cuts. The middle class and the working poor, would see their taxes go up. This is all very frightening because Romney and Ryan give total power to the rich.

5. Both Romney and Ryan are against the Affordable Care Act that has already helped Americans with health screenings, gynecological exams, and preventive medicine.


• • • CNN raises some interesting points about Romney's pick of Ryan:

...Ryan’s own Catholicism became a major issue this year, with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops criticizing his proposed federal budget for what the bishops said would be its adverse impact on the poor.

The bishops cautioned against overreaching budget cuts that endanger “poor and vulnerable people.” The bishops’ message called on “Congress and the administration to protect essential help for poor families and vulnerable children and to put the poor first in budget priorities.”

This split between politically conservative and liberal Catholics has existed for decades in the Catholic Church. But with Ryan running for vice president, some experts expect this divide to be sharpened....

Members of the Catholic Church have always been concerned about the poor, the elderly, and the sick.  With a strong belief in social justice and concern for humanity, churches continue to provide food pantries, hot meals, school supplies, and special help for the poor and disabled. Would churches and congregations be forced to do more with a Romney-Ryan administration?

+ What about farmers? How has Republican Paul Ryan supported (or not supported) farmers?  If his budget bill is any indication of his regard for farming, it is not so good.

Agweek:

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said March 21 that the budget proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., would cut the Agriculture Department budget by $180 billion over 10 years and hurt programs important to North Dakota while other Democrats and farm leaders also criticized the Ryan proposal.

“The House Republican proposal also upends a bipartisan agreement on the amount of federal support for agriculture programs and will make it extremely difficult to craft a new farm bill this year,” Conrad said in a news release.

“Leaders of the House and Senate agriculture committees had agreed to cut $23 billion in agriculture, conservation and nutrition program funding in the new farm bill to assist with deficit reduction,” Conrad said. “However, the House Republican proposal calls for about $180 billion in cuts to farm bill programs, including $31 billion to commodity and crop insurance programs, $133.5 billion to nutrition assistance programs, and about $16 billion to conservation programs.”

Romney also wants to cut wind farm subsidies that many farmers receive (see Dallas Observer). Those are all pretty significant cuts.

 ......................

•  Here is a tidbit---
HuffPost:

He's been in Congress for nearly 13 years, but Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has only seen two of his bills pass into law during that time.

Ryan, who Mitt Romney has tapped as his running mate, passed a bill into law in July 2000 that renames a post office in his district. Thanks to Ryan, the post office on 1818 Milton Ave. in Janesville, Wis., is now known as "Les Aspin Post Office Building."

The other time Ryan saw one of his bills become law was in December 2008, with legislation to change the way arrows (as in bows and arrows) are hit with an excise tax....

He must have been too busy reading and preaching about Ayn Rand to work on legislation to become law. That kind of record shows how ineffective he has been.

Portman Against Equal Pay

* There is a lot of talk surrounding the possibility of Republican Sen. Rob Portman (OH) as a running mate for Mitt Romney.  (Rob Portman and Mitt Romney net worth combined could pay off the national debt.)  Here is all you need to know--- 

Rob Portman is against pay equity for women.

Cincinnati:

Sen. Rob Portman joined 46 other GOP lawmakers in blocking consideration of the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that would have made it easier for women to receive the same pay as their male counterparts.

Senate Democrats, including Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, all voted in favor of the bill, but they fell short of the 60 votes need to open debate on the legislation....

 

 We'll see what develops.

 

*****  Hard to believe, but it is true.  The Josh Mandel campaign could not find any recent video of him working (mainly because Mandel has been absent from his job as Ohio Treasurer!).

PlainDealer: 

....The clip you see of Mandel and his adding machine is old. It was not filmed in the treasurer's office. Mandel, a Republican currently challenging incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, wasn't the treasurer when he filmed it.

He recycled it from a commercial he made in 2010, when, as a state legislator, he ran for treasurer....

 

Is there any evidence that Josh Mandel actually goes to his office?  He missed 14 meetings of the Board of Deposits, travels all over the nation (plus the Bahamas) for his campaign, has visited every GOP office in every Ohio county, attended every far right Tea Party Republican rallies, and visited many of the businesses owned by pro-SB5/Issue 2 people. Josh Mandel avoids the Treasurer's office at all costs.  Besides, Josh Mandel is clueless as to how much money is in the state retirement funds.

 Shame on Mandel, the "custodian" of the state retirement funds, for not knowing how much money he is supposedly protecting.

 

* A recent political ad that talks about a tax shelter used by Marriott when Mitt Romney served as ".......the head of the audit committee of the Marriott board..." is explained in an article posted at CNN:

...During that period, Marriott engaged in a series of complex and high-profile maneuvers, including "Son of Boss," a notoriously abusive prepackaged tax shelter that investment banks and accounting firms marketed to corporations such as Marriott. In this respect, Marriott was in the vanguard of a then-emerging corporate tax shelter bubble that substantially undermined the entire corporate tax system....

...the Son of Boss transaction was listed by the Internal Revenue Service as an abusive transaction, requiring specific disclosure and subject to heavy penalties. Statutory penalties were also made more stringent to deter future tax shelter activity. Finally, the government brought successful criminal prosecutions against a number of individuals involved in Son of Boss and related transactions not associated with Marriott, including principals at major law and accounting firms.

In his key role as chairman of the Marriott board's audit committee, Romney approved the firm's reporting of fictional tax losses exceeding $70 million generated by its Son of Boss transaction. His endorsement of this stratagem provides insight into Romney's professional ethics and attitude toward tax compliance obligations....

Read the complete article at CNN. While middle class tax payers work hard, and pay taxes, those that can and should pay more appear to be avoiding to pay their "fair share" of taxes.

Call Mandel Irresponsible

*  Is Republican candidate Josh Mandel telling us how irresponsible he is?  

This is from the Twitter website of Sherrod Brown:

Sherrod BrownVerified ‏@SherrodBrown

Mandel missed 14 board of deposit meetings as Treasurer, but lists this as his responsibility in his Fiscal Report: pic.twitter.com/XoECh2xu

OMG!  How can Mandel brag about his responsibilities when he doesn't even fulfill them?

Hilarious!  There is no actual video footage of Josh Mandel doing his job as Ohio Treasurer. Plunderbund:

 

....the Cleveland Plain Dealer points out that the ad’s footage of Mandel hard at work in the State Treasurer’s office is recycled footage from Mandel’s 2010 State Treasurer campaign.  Mandel has built a reputation as a guy who would only find a way to the office he was elected only if he were told there was a fundraiser there.  And they have no footage, none, of him actually doing his job, so they have to recycle campaign footage before he even had the job....

Josh Mandel is the darling of those special far right interest groups that want to gut Social Security and Medicare, destroy public schools, and lower taxes for the wealthy.  Mandel cannot even manage to do his work in his office as Ohio Treasurer and he thinks he deserves to go to the U.S. Senate????  Give me a break!!!!

Fake Followers????

* The Republican Convention takes place in Tampa, Florida, from August 27th-30th. Unfortunately, Gov. John Kasich will be one of the speakers.  In our house, we'll be watching HGTV, Turner Classic Movies, and not the RNC convention. 

* According to Venturebeat, there appears to be some fakes out there:

Research has revealed that more than 15 percent of the presidential hopeful’s followers are likely fake and are generated by paid services that artificially inflate social media influence.

The study was conducted by security provider, Barracuda Security, which analyzed about 70,000 fake Twitter accounts, as well as public figures who may be engaging in the shady act of buying followers.

@MittRomney stood out for several reasons: most of the followers are new, the user-base experienced an insane spike of 150,000 followers on a single day in July, and 1 in 4 of the politician’s followers have never sent a single tweet.....

That is amazing!  Fifteen percent of Romney's Twitter followers are fake! HA!

>>>>  Open Secrets has posted the following about the Sherrod Brown vs. Josh Mandel campaign on their disclosures:

Quality of Disclosure

Sherrod Brown (D)

	Full Disclosure	$6,650,042	(92.3%)
	Incomplete	$485,511	(6.7%)
	No Disclosure	$72,365	(1.0%)

Josh Mandel (R)

	Full Disclosure	$3,841,382	(68.4%)
	Incomplete	$364,871	(6.5%)
	No Disclosure	$1,413,365	(25.2%)

How is it possible that the Mandel campaign has "no disclosure" on more than 25% of his contributions? What is Josh Mandel hiding?

Romney & GOP Lying in Ohio

***  Talking Points Memo has the goods on Romney and the Republicans:

Several veterans slammed Mitt Romney on Monday for opposing and mischaracterizing an Obama campaign lawsuit which would expand early voting rights to veterans, cops, firefighters and all Ohio voters.

Romney had claimed — falsely — that the Obama campaign opposed allowing members of the military and their families to vote in-person in the three days before the election. Actually, the Obama campaign wants all people in Ohio — including, for example, veterans, cops and firefighters — to be able to vote during that period....

“When it comes to Mitt Romney, I feel like he lives in bizarro world,” Iraq veteran and former Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) told reporters in a conference call organized by the Center for American Progress on Monday. “He’s suppressing millions of votes across our country in this election, and then he lies and says that President Obama is trying to do the same thing, when it couldn’t be further from the truth.”

****  Mitt Romney only wants active duty military to be able to vote early in Ohio. Romney is trying to keep over 900,000 military veterans in Ohio from voting early.  Jon Soltz of Vote Vets wrote a post at Think Progress:

When I read stories this weekend that said the Obama campaign was suing to restrict the voting rights of military in Ohio, my blood got boiling. Of course, Think Progress has already documented that story, inflamed by the Romney campaign, is patently false. In fact, the Obama campaign was suing to block an Ohio law which restricts a very successful early voting program in the state. The President’s campaign was trying to keep expanded voting rights in place for everyone, military included. So, why am I still so disturbed?

Because Mitt Romney, by supporting the Ohio law that would do away with three days of early voting for all but those covered under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voter Act (‘UOCAVA’), is supporting the restriction of voting rights for as many as 913,000 Ohio veterans. This includes military retirees with over 20 years of service and multiple deployments. In short, Mitt Romney supports efforts to make voting more difficult for the very people who have put their lives on the line after swearing an oath to uphold our Constitution and democracy.

Once you leave the military, you are no longer covered by UOCAVA. Your voting rights are the same as any civilian. That means the early voting law which Mitt Romney wants to undo, provided hundreds of thousands of Ohio veterans with more of an opportunity to vote. By all accounts, Ohio voters liked and used the early voting law. In 2008, nearly one-third of all ballots was cast under the early voting measures, surely many of them veterans....

Romney and the Ohio Republicans don't want early voting because it encourages people to vote.  The last thing Romney and the GOP want to see is high turnout of voters like women, minorities, military vets and active duty, young voters, police officers, fire fighters, teachers, and others that have suffered under Republicans.  With police officers and fire fighters working rotating shifts, the weekend early voting has allowed them to get to the polls to vote. Why would Romney and the Ohio GOP be against these hardworking men and women being able to vote early? 

Let me remind you......
The Republicans in the Ohio Assembly, with the blessings of Gov. John Kasich, passed SB5/Issue 2 to restrict the rights of police, fire fighters, teachers, nurses, and state employees.  These good people that live and work in your community haven't forgotten the awful insults and lies hurled at them by the Republicans. They are anxious to cast their votes and stand up for  the middle class.  You can see why the Ohio Republicans, Gov. John "Lehman Brothers" Kasich, and Mitt "car elevator" Romney don't want to provide more voting opportunities for all people - especially those that would be supporting Democrats.

Josh Mandel's Ego Showing

After reading a tweet about Josh Mandel's ego, you have to wonder if Mandel believes he knows everything. Here is the tweet:

plutonetworks ‏@plutonetworks

@mikaelanbc4 Lady in Josh Mandel office said,we pay him to be treasurer,all he does is campaign for senate.we have a boss with huge ego. 

Now Josh Mandel believes that he can advise the military on which of our military bases should be closed.

Vindy:

American “troops are misdeployed” by being stationed at large bases in countries such as Germany, Italy and Japan, Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate and a Marine veteran, says....

....He also said the United States needs to increase its presence in the Middle East. “The place that makes the most sense to me is Kuwait because they’re an ally,” he said.
When asked about Israel, Mandel said he hadn’t thought of that country....

OMG.  Although Mandel served in the military, he doesn't seem to understand the need for having our forces in different locations around the world.  He just doesn't appear to have the grasp of what pulling our troops off world bases could due to our military response time in an emergency.

**** I absolutely love the new Obama ad "Women's Choices" that just started to run---

President Obama Supports Our Troops

President Obama addresses our men and women who have served and continue to serve our country.

You Tube:

Romney Tax Plan

* You've got to see this to believe it---

The Atlantic:

Mitt Romney's tax plan could force 95 percent of the country to pay more, while cutting taxes for the "1%" by tens of thousands of dollars, according to a new analysis from the Tax Policy Center and the Brookings Institution.

The Romney plan begins by cutting marginal rates by 20 percent and eliminating the estate tax and Alternative Minimum Tax, which would decrease federal tax revenue by $360 billion by 2015. This report considered what would happen if Romney eliminated tax expenditures to make his plan revenue-neutral, so that it wouldn't blow an enormous hole in our budget. Here's what they found: The revenue-neutral Romney plan would raise taxes on a typical family by more than $600. A household making between half-a-million and $1 million would get a tax cut equal to almost twice the disposable income of the poorest 20 percent....

 Here is the conservative Wall Street Journal's take on the Romney tax plan:

A new study released Wednesday suggests that Mitt Romney‘s tax plan would benefit the rich and hurt the poor and middle class, no matter how current blanks in the plan are filled in....

Mitt Romney just doesn't get it.  Having never been a member of the middle class, he doesn't understand how people live from paycheck to paycheck. Romney doesn't understand that college students can't borrow money from their parents.  Most importantly, a majority of Americans feel that Mitt Romney's wealth makes him aloof, and out of touch with average Americans. Romney thinks that he should be elected President because he thinks it is his turn and he is just sleep-walking through a campaign, unwilling to engage with the press.

OMG!

>>> Mitt Romney quote (Guardian Daily):  “I believe in an America where millions of Americans believe in an America that’s the America millions of Americans believe in. That’s the America I love.” –Mitt Romney (January 2012)