Which Joe Are We Gonna See?

I don't have the faintest clue how to even predict this debate. I mean, we know Ryan will be on his game, the dude has mastered the facts unlike anyone else and knows policy inside and out.

No my friends, the real wildcard here is Joe Biden. He won't be saved by something the media can glom on to like Sarah Palin winking or other such garbage. Old Joe will have to actually perform well and he's got the campaign riding on his shoulders after the Obama meltdown last week.

So what Joe will we see? Perhaps the folksy Joe who's everyones friend? Probably not since that Joe always says something incredibly stupid. How about foreign policy Joe? Possibly since Ryan is smarter and will pummel him on all issues, especially since Obama's in the midst of a self-inflicted wound that has lasted a month today with the embassy debacle in Libya.

I'm really not sure but I'm guessing even if Joe makes about ten mistakes and Ryan destroys him and leaves him slobbering in the corner, the media will call it a draw at least because they know full-well that Obama's campaign can't survive another disaster.

An Open Letter to Tom Morrello

Tom,

I read yesterday that you are not such a fan of the fact that VP candidate Paul Ryan is a fan of your band Rage Against the Machine. I believe the words you used were that Ryan is the "machine you raged against". A clever turn of phrase there, buddy.

Anyway, as you may have learned throughout your career with first Rage and further on with Audioslave, your fans base is made up of a great many people with differing views, some of which would be considered conservative--but listening to you over the years I'm convinced that anyone with a viewpoint to the right of Hillary Clinton is a conservative in your eyes.

You see Tom, us with a conservative world view listen to music and some of what we listen to is harder rocking than gospel. You have to understand that our selections are kind of limited because in the entertainment industry as a whole and the music business in particular, there aren't all that many bands with a similar set of values and principles for us to listen to. I guess the only one that comes to mind quickly would be POD, the rap-rock hybrid band from South San Diego that sings of God and redemption, but I digress.

As much as it may unnerve you, us on the right enjoyed your music but as Paul Ryan noted, we didn't necessarily agree with your lyrics. Your band wrote songs about hard-left issues and thought you were (and I'm using the past tense because the band now is a caricature of what it was) some kind of secular messianic leaders. Newsflash Tom, you weren't. You were a flavor of the month band that gave testosterone-filled teenage boys a chance to feel bigger than they were. You sang of things that an seventeen year old from the suburbs thought were cool and made him seem rebellious.

But overall the lyrics were mundane and pretty basic from an intellectual standpoint. You sang of liberal concepts but just didn't have the intellectual capacity to make a difference and string together phrases and choruses that would equal your heroes such as Springsteen. Saying the same words over and over about how cops are white and mean grows tiresome after the first paragraph.

It seems to bother you as a person that your songs didn't motivate people to take down the "man" and fundamentally change the country. Case in point: you played a benefit concert for convicted cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal and you personally have spoken up for him. Even though every shred of evidence and numerous court appearances have confirmed that the former Black Panther shot Officer Danny Faulkner in cold blood on a Center City Philly street. Jamal should be six-feet under by now but instead is considered an icon in the left-liberal community thanks in no small part to you.

Getting back into it, your music was okay. You are an immensely talented guitar player who thought could change the world. Instead, you played behind lyrics that were shallow and infantile. Zack de la Rocha screaming "fuck you I won't do what you tell me!" repeatedly is not going to change anything except maybe the chances that the idiot teenager screaming them along with you has of getting laid that night. Believe me, that idiot teenager is going to calm down, come down and go back to the suburbs to his comfy basement with X-Box and cable TV. His mind wasn't changed--at least until he gets out of college with his degree in Native-American studies and no chance of a job in Obamanation.

Now granted, you have come out in support of the Occupy movement because they are what you've always hoped for; an angry mob of liberals that have been contaminated with the lefty gene. Years of elementary school, the entertainment industry, marxist college professors--and perhaps small bit of RATM music--have made them what they are today and that is a bunch of unproductive losers whom feel they are entitled to things from the government. This is your dream and it's populated by a group that once melded together raped, murdered and generally made pests out of themselves in the eyes of hard-working Americans. It took about a month after OWS started before people said enough. It's got to make you feel bitter that 20-years of pumping out lefty anthems was destroyed by six months of watching your disciples give the finger to what America stands for while taking a shit in the street. The enemy, the Tea Party lives on while every sensible politician--even those inclined to your world view-- has run away as fast as they can.

So in conclusion, yes, some of us on the right listen to your music or did back when you were somewhat relevant in the mid-nineties. And yes, we admit it and have you in our I-Pods. But don't believe yourself to be any bigger than you are or were. It's got to be balling that your band never had the lyrical talent of your contemporaries such as Tool, Alice in Chains or even Metallica. RATM threw together hard-left phrases but never in such a coherent fashion that it made any difference. Although you did out the fans and the alleged movement by going corporate with Audioslave, made your money, then went back to playing the lefty anarchist again. A typical elitist liberal move but we won't hold it against you.

Thanks for your time Tom and keep on raging against the machine.

Regards,

ER

Romney/Ryan 2012

Mitt has made his pick and I think he chose...wisely. He did it via iPhone app too.

I wrote a couple of months ago why I liked Ryan and haven't changed my mind. Paul Ryan is a smart conservative who knows his positions inside and out and knows policy better than anyone. He also has a beautiful family, has no baggage that I've heard about, speaks with calmness and confidence, has been beat up by the media and interest groups and has the scars to prove it and is an all-around nice guy. Plus he's an outdoorsman and unlike Palin, they won't be able to demonize him for taking down big game.

That said, some of the aspects of this pick that the media will harp on are the following:

• He's white
• He's unabashedly conservative
• He's white
• He wants to seriously cut spending top-to-bottom including social security
• He's really white
• He's religious
• He's the whitest white man in America

Race will play a huge part in this because Paul Ryan has a plan and that plan is a good one. Obama has no plan, his budget got panned unanimously. Since the media can't hit Ryan for being either dumb or reckless, they will hit him as cold and unfeeling. We will see a multitude of stories where old people will have the shit scared out of them by Ryan's plan as described by the media. Fortunately, Ryan now has a platform whereby he can fight back against the media horde that has mischaracterized his ideas from day one. Hilariously, we see the New Yorker come out of the gate with this story saying that Ryan is not a good pick because he has no private industry experience. Funny because either do Obama nor Biden.

I like the pick and now we get set for a true race pitting fiscal conservatives against pseudo socialists. Keynes, Krugman and Obama vs. Hayek, Milton Friedman and Paul Ryan.

Update: Byron York has it right. This will be an election of ideas and no one has ideas like Paul Ryan for fixing what is wrong. He articulates those ideas in clear terms and doesn't mince words when it comes to discussing the dire fiscal situation we are now in under Obama. The left will try to demonize him at every turn but Ryan has seen it before and always keeps his cool. Two clear sides fighting for the soul of America; pass the popcorn.

Paul Ryan for VP

Now that Romney's essentially sewn up the nomination, it's time to discuss who should be the VP selection.

The list includes:

• Marco Rubio: A good choice for several reasons: he's good looking, a conservative and he would help with the hispanic vote (he's Cuban). But...his real politics are unknown and this won't help.
• Chris Christie: The thought of him debating Biden gives me a woody. Biden would be crying on the floor in the fetal position and Christie would be towering over him calling him "pussy!". But...Christie promised to finish out his term in NJ...plus he's a stink in' Mets fan.
• Col. Allen West (ret): Now this would be a ballsy call by Romney...But, I like West but the dude is in-your-face on every issue. It could be the smartest pick or the dumbest. His sheer chutzpah would either really appeal to people or turn them off. The fact that he's African-America could help some but that particular bloc will still go overwhelmingly for Obama regardless of who is the selection.
• Jon Kyl: A safe pick...but, he's vanilla. We need a guy who will draw fire away from Romney and Kyl is just blah.

That leaves Ryan. The guy is smart, conservative, clean and can be wonkish and appealing at the same time. He knows how to talk budgets and will destroy Idiot Joe during the debates.

Ryan will be a target because the MSM has a full dossier on him and they consider him a psycho when it comes to cutting entitlement spending and spending overall. He can handle it. He's battle-tested more than Obama ever was and will be a nice compliment to Romney who many conservatives just aren't that comfortable with.

I reserve the right to change my mind (and if I do it would be toward West) but right now Ryan looks like the one.