Paul Ryan: A One-Man Fiscal Cliff?

Paul Ryan demonstrating his patented "Budget Karate Chop"

There were a couple of funny hashtags trending on Twitter the day Romney announced Paul Ryan as his choice for Vice Presidential running mate. Republicans were giddy about the prospect of a Romney/Ryan ticket, and together with horrified Democrats, they propelled the #RomneyRyan2012 hashtag to the number one spot for at least a full 14 hours. One excited tweeter cited the top-trending status as proof that Romney had knocked it out of the park, to which I felt obliged to reply, "Yes, haven't seen this much excitement since McCain picked Palin."

The thrust of the #BidenDebateLines thread seemed to be that Biden was a doddering fool, and that the silver-tongued Ryan would give him a sound thrashing in a debate. My contribution to the campaign is this debate line: "My opponent is on record as wanting to dismantle Social Security and Medicare... I think we're done here." Go ahead, Joe. That joke is on the house (pun intended).

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Will Budget Reality Finally Topple Right Wing Dogma?

In a recent Los Angeles Times piece, Washington Bureau reporter Lisa Mascaro offers a tantalizing peek into a Republican Party now fractured into two warring factions: conservatives, and paint-eating tea partiers. Mascaro reports, "One of the most treasured tenets of the Republican Party — 'No new taxes' — has been thrown open to debate by a simple question: What, exactly, is a new tax?"

Orrin Hatch Chides Struggling Americans While Defending Big Oil

When asked why he robbed banks, the legendary outlaw Willie Sutton reputedly quipped, "that's where the money is." In those days, people had what we call "horse sense," which is why no one asked him a follow-up question such as "why don't you rob orphanages instead?" Nowadays, the equine-mentality-challenged abound, and conspicuously so at the offices of Utah Senator Orrin Hatch.