Why can't this guy get it through his thick skull that it's a good thing that more people can take care of their health needs? Rep. Paul Ryan said during a conservative conference Friday that the focus on health-care reform was a big reason why he and Mitt Romney lost the 2012 presidential campaign. “We had to argue against the promise and the rhetoric of President Obama,” Ryan griped. He called the law, which has since been implemented, an “assault” on Americans’ freedom.

Too bad there’s not much he can do about it now.

Politico:

Ryan said the attendees of the Faith & Freedom conference constitute the political “mainstream” and need to work to “reclaim the center” in American politics.

“The left likes to think that we are the fringe. Guess what? You and I, we are the mainstream,” he said. “When you take a look at what’s happening, the goal we have in front of us is to reclaim the center of our politics.”

I don't recall ever hearing failed former presidential and vice-presidential candidates whine so much and for so long after a loss before in my life. And the loss is never their own fault. Get some therapy, Paul Ryan. People like their Obamacare. Get over it already.

When will they learn? Yet another Republican lawmaker has come forward to profess his belief that rape rarely results in pregnancy. “The incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low,” said Arizona Rep. Trent Franks during a committee hearing on Wednesday. Franks introduced a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks and was reacting to an amendment offered by Democrats that would carve out an exception for rape and incest victims. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California, responded to Franks by saying there was no scientific basis for his claim.

The Washington Post:

“Before, when my friends on the left side of the aisle here tried to make rape and incest the subject — because, you know, the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low,” Franks said.

Franks continued: “But when you make that exception, there’s usually a requirement to report the rape within 48 hours. And in this case that’s impossible because this is in the sixth month of gestation. And that’s what completely negates and vitiates the purpose for such an amendment.”

Democrats on the committee, including Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), responded by pointing to similar comments made by then-Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) in his 2012 Senate campaign. Akin suggested that the female body can prevent pregnancy from occurring after a “legitimate rape” — a claim that is not backed up by scientific research and for which Akin apologized.

“I just find it astonishing to hear a phrase repeated that the incidence of pregnancy from rape is low,” Lofgren said. “There’s no scientific basis for that. And the idea that the Republican men on this committee can tell the women of America that they have to carry to term the product of a rape is outrageous.”

At least one Republican was distancing himself from Franks, with Massachusetts special Senate election candidate Gabriel Gomez repeatedly calling Franks a “moron.”

Franks is one of the leading social conservatives in Congress.

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Satirical news website,The Onion came out with a story this week titled "Family Concerned After John McCain Wanders Into Syria," that now seems painfully close to reality.

Buzzfeed:

Senator John McCain’s office is pushing back against reports that while visiting Syria this week he posed in a photo with rebels who kidnapped 11 Lebanese Shi’ite pilgrims.

The photo, released by McCain’s office, shows McCain with a group of rebels. Among them are two men identified in the Lebanese press as Mohamed Nour and Abu Ibrahim, two of the kidnappers of the group from Lebanon.

A McCain spokesman said that no one who met with McCain identified themselves by either of those names.

“In coordination with the Syrian Emergency Task Force, Senator John McCain traveled to and from Syria with General Salim Idris, the chief of staff of the Supreme Military Council of the Syrian opposition, to meet with two senior Free Syrian Army commanders,” said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers on Wednesday in an email to BuzzFeed. “None of the individuals the Senator planned to meet with was named Mohamad Nour or Abu Ibrahim. A number of other Syrian commanders joined the meeting, but none of them identified himself as Mohamad Nour or Abu Ibrahim.”

It seems that rogue Senator McCain just isn't sure who he met with.

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said that if the man in the photo turns out to actually be Mohamed Nour, that is “regrettable.”

But, McCain is sure that President Obama needs to listen to whoever those people were and get the U.S. militarily involved in Syria by enforcing a no-fly zone and supplying weapons.

What could possibly go wrong?

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) announced early Wednesday morning that she will not seek a fifth term in office.

The decision was announced in a YouTube video on the congresswoman's website and on her Facebook page.

Although Bachmann didn't give a specific reason for her departure, she explained that an 8-year term in the House was enough.

Is that the understatement of the year, or what?

"The law limits anyone from serving as president of the United States for more than eight years, and in my opinion, well, eight years is also long enough for an individual to serve as a representative for a specific Congressional district," Bachmann said.

Uh oh. I agree with something Michele Bachmann said...

Bachmann also made it clear that her decision not to seek re-election had nothing to do with the ongoing ethics investigation about alleged misconduct during her failed presidential campaign in 2012.

"It was clearly understood that compliance with all rules and regulations was an absolute necessity for my presidential campaign," Bachmann said. "And I have no reason to believe that that was not the case."

Bachmann -- who has served in the House of Representatives since 2007 -- is the first Republican woman to represent Minnesota in Congress. She sits on both the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Financial Services.

She is also the founder of the House Tea Party Caucus.

Despite U.S. authorities determining that none of the 166 prisoners being kept at Guantanamo Bay pose a threat to Americans, Republican Congressman Mike Pompeo of Kansas insisted the prison should be kept open Sunday.

“The president talks about releasing these detainees but history shows clearly: 25% of the folks that have been released today have returned to the battlefield to wreak havoc against American interests to continue to battle for Islamic jihad,” Pompeo said in an interview with MSNBC’s Craig Melvin. “I don’t think it makes any sense, when you’ve got at least a quarter of the folks who you’re going to release come back and present a risk to Americans, to let anybody go who poses that kind of threat to America.”

Melvin played a video clip of Pardiss Kebriaei, a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, who discussed the humanitarian crisis at Gitmo as more than 100 of the detainees have participated in a hunger strike where guards are force-feeding prisoners through nasal cavities.

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The terrace at St. Regis Deer Valley, the “Ritz-Carlton of ski resorts.”

By Justin Elliott, ProPublica, April 30, 2013

In January, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, ascended to the powerful chairmanship of the House Financial Services Committee. Six weeks later, campaign finance filings and interviews show, Hensarling was joined by representatives of the banking industry for a ski vacation fundraiser at a posh Park City, Utah, resort.

The congressman's political action committee held the fundraiser at the St. Regis Deer Valley, the "Ritz-Carlton of ski resorts" known for its "white-glove service" and for its restaurant by superstar chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

There's no evidence the fundraiser broke any campaign finance rules. But a ski getaway with Hensarling, whose committee oversees both Wall Street and its regulators, is an invaluable opportunity for industry lobbyists.

Among those attending the weekend getaway was an official from the American Securitization Forum, a Wall Street industry group, a spokesman confirmed. It gave $2,500 in February to Hensarling's political action committee, the Jobs, Economy, and Budget (JEB) Fund.

Len Wolfson, a lobbyist for the Mortgage Bankers Association, which gave the JEB Fund $5,000 that month, posted a picture on Instagram from the weekend of the fundraiser of the funicular at the St. Regis. (It was labeled, "Putting the #fun in #funicular. #stregis #deervalley #utah.") Wolfson did not respond to requests for comment. (UPDATE 1 p.m. Wolfson has now set his account to private.) 

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Pictured are Rep. Paul Ryan (left) and former intern Adam Savader (right).

Um, Republican family values?

Adam Savader, reportedly a former intern for Paul Ryan, was arrested and charged with Internet extortion and cyber stalking by the FBI on Tuesday. Savader apparently sent anonymous text messages to 15 women saying he had nude photographs and threatening to distribute them unless he was sent more photographs. If convicted, he faces a maximum of five years in prison.

FBI:

A 21-year-old Great Neck, New York man was charged in a criminal complaint in the Eastern District of Michigan with Internet extortion and cyber stalking, announced United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade.

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Oh my. Weird Mark Sanford is getting creepy:

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford must appear in court two days after running for a vacant congressional seat to answer a complaint that he trespassed at his ex-wife's home, according to court documents acquired by The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The complaint says Jenny Sanford confronted Sanford leaving her Sullivans Island home on Feb. 3 by a rear door, using his cell phone for a flashlight. Her attorney filed the complaint the next day and Jenny Sanford confirmed Tuesday the documents are authentic.

The couple's 2010 divorce settlement says neither may enter the other's home without permission. Mark Sanford lives about a 20-minute drive away in downtown Charleston.

Sanford is in the midst of running for a vacant congressional seat against Elizabeth Colbert Busch.

"I am doing my best not to get in the way of his race," Jenny Sanford told the AP. "I want him to sink or swim on his own. For the sake of my children I'm trying my best not to get in the way, but he makes things difficult for me when he does things like trespassing."

There has been no comment from Sanford or his campaign as yet, but don't be surprised if we hear another "God forgives people who are imperfect,” recital, as we heard after his days long disappearance into the Appalachian Trail that turned out to be a trip to Argentina to visit his mistress, who is now his fiance.

Update: National Republicans "are pulling the plug on Mark Sanford's suddenly besieged congressional campaign," Politico reports, "a potentially fatal blow to the former South Carolina governor's campaign against Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch."

And that's all she wrote, folks!

I'm certainly no fan of Ronald Reagan and the “Trickle-Down” economics he popularized, but even he was straightforward when it came to this.

At the first Reagan-Mondale debate in 1984, Republican Ronald Reagan set the record straight about Social Security:

"Social Security, let’s lay it to rest once in for all…Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit. Social Security is totally funded by the payroll tax levied on employer and employee. If you reduce the outgo of Social Security, that money would not go into the general fund to reduce the deficit. It would go into the Social Security trust fund. So Social Security has nothing to do with balancing the budget or erasing or lowering the deficit."

Are you listening, President Obama?

Let the President know that you don't want Social Security on the cutting block:

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