From: Pat & Jeff Warner [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, September 03, 2012 9:53 AM
PROTEST THE BI-PARTISAN DRIVE FOR WAR WITH IRAN
THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 6, 4-7 PM
WHY: The drums for war are getting louder, and the politics are
interwoven into the American presidential election. We must stand up and be
counted.
WHAT: Protest Democrat and Republican drive for war with Iran.
Demonstration at Westwood Federal Building.
WHEN: Thursday evening, Sept. 6; 4 to 7 PM
WHERE: Westwood Federal Building, Corner of Wilshire and Veteran.
(1 block east of the 405-freeway. Parking available in visitor area of
Federal Building parking lot.)
SPONSOR/ENDORSE: LA Jews for Peace, Jewish Voice for Peace, American Friends
Service Committee, Friends of Sabeel, LA Laborfest, Interfaith Communities
United in Justice and Peace.
Our signs will counter the misinformation driving an attack on Iran,
including:
. Addressing the alleged military threat to Israel and the U.S. if
Iran eventually develops a nuclear bomb.
. The real threat of an Iranian bomb is that it will not be used and
therefore weaken U.S. and Israeli hegemony in the region.
. Pointing out that American and Israeli intelligence agencies both
report that Iran has not decided to build a bomb.
. Stating American and Israeli threats to attack Iran are actually
pushing Iran closer to making a bomb.
. The United States threatens Iran by surrounding it on all sides
with 42 military bases, some of which have deployed nuclear bombs.
. Israel threatens Iran by threatening to attack its nuclear
facilities.
. Calling for a Middle East nuclear-free zone that includes Israel
and the United States
Please send suggestions to <mailto:[email protected]>
[email protected].
Make and bring your own signs.
Organizations are invited to cosponsor the demonstration; and you are
welcome to join as an individual. Please freely distribute this
announcement.
INFORMATION: <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] or
562-694-1637
* * *
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/opinion/krugman-rosie-ruiz-republicans.htm
l?nl=todaysheadlines
<blocked::http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/opinion/krugman-rosie-ruiz-repub
licans.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120903> &emc=edit_th_20120903
Rosie Ruiz Republicans
"So what is this election about? To be sure, it's about different visions
of society - about Medicare versus Vouchercare, about preserving the safety
net versus destroying it. But it's also a test of how far politicians can
bend the truth."
Paul Krugman
NY Times Op-Ed: Sept. 03, 2012
Remember Rosie Ruiz? In 1980 she was the first woman to cross the finish
line at the Boston Marathon - except it turned out that she hadn't actually
run most of the race, that she sneaked onto the course around a mile from
the end. Ever since, she has symbolized a particular kind of fraud, in which
people claim credit for achieving things they have not, in fact, achieved.
And these days Paul Ryan is the Rosie Ruiz of American politics.
This would have been an apt comparison even before the curious story of Mr.
Ryan's own marathon came to light. Still, that's quite a story, so let's
talk about it first.
It started when Hugh Hewitt, a right-wing talk-radio host, interviewed Mr.
Ryan. In that interview, the vice-presidential candidate boasted about his
fitness, declaring that he had once run a marathon in less than three hours.
This claim piqued the interest of Runner's World magazine, which noted that
marathon times are recorded - and that it was unable to find any evidence of
Mr. Ryan's accomplishment. It eventually transpired that Mr. Ryan had indeed
once run a marathon, but that his time was actually more than four hours.
In a statement issued by a spokesman, Mr. Ryan tried to laugh the whole
thing off as a simple error. But serious runners find that implausible: the
difference between sub-three and over-four is the difference between
extraordinary and perfectly ordinary, and it's not something a runner could
get wrong, unless he's a fabulist who imagines his own reality. And does
suggesting that Mr. Ryan is delusional rather than dishonest actually make
the situation any better?
Which brings us back to the real issues of this presidential campaign.
Obviously nobody cares how fast Mr. Ryan can run, and even his strange
marathon misstatement wouldn't be worth talking about in isolation. What
makes this incident so striking is, instead, the way it resonates with the
essential Rosie-Ruizness of Mr. Ryan's whole political persona, which is
built around big boasts about accomplishments he hasn't accomplished.
For Mr. Ryan, as you may recall, has positioned himself as an icon of
truth-telling and fiscal responsibility, while offering policy proposals
that are neither honest nor responsible. He calls for huge tax cuts, while
proposing specific spending cuts that, while inflicting immense hardship on
our most vulnerable citizens, would fall far short of making up for the
revenue loss. His claims to reduce the deficit therefore rely on assertions
that he would make up for the lost revenue by closing loopholes that he
refuses to specify, and achieve further huge spending cuts in ways that he
also refuses to specify.
But didn't the Congressional Budget Office evaluate Mr. Ryan's plan and
conclude that it would indeed reduce the deficit? I'm glad you asked that.
You see, the budget office didn't actually evaluate his plan, because there
weren't enough details. Instead, it let Mr. Ryan specify paths for future
spending and revenue, while noting - in what sounds to me like a hint of
snark - that "No proposals were specified that would generate that path."
So Mr. Ryan basically told the budget office to assume that his plan would
slash the deficit, then claimed the resulting report as vindication of his
deficit-slashing claims. Sorry, but that's the policy equivalent of sneaking
into a marathon near the finish line, then claiming victory.
Still, Mitt Romney, not Mr. Ryan, is the presidential candidate, although
that's sometimes hard to remember. So how does Romney/Ryan differ from Ryan
alone? It's worse. Like the Ryan plan, the Romney plan offers huge tax
breaks to corporations and the wealthy, while pledging to offset these cuts
by closing unspecified loopholes; but Mr. Romney adds to the implausibility
by also demanding higher defense spending and eliminating the Medicare cost
savings contained in Obamacare. Realistically, the Romney plan would explode
the deficit, not reduce it.
Yet Mr. Romney boasts about his fiscal responsibility; in Tampa he accused
President Obama of hurting the economy with big deficits (while also
declaring that Mr. Obama was destroying jobs by cutting military spending -
go figure), then declared that "We will cut the deficit and put America on
track to a balanced budget." Yep, he's another Rosie Ruiz Republican.
So what is this election about? To be sure, it's about different visions of
society - about Medicare versus Vouchercare, about preserving the safety net
versus destroying it. But it's also a test of how far politicians can bend
the truth. This is surely the first time one of our major parties has run a
campaign so completely fraudulent, making claims so at odds with the reality
of its policy proposals. But if the Romney/Ryan ticket wins, it won't be the
last.
_____
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