I like to post Rep. Tim Ryan's floor speeches occasionally even if we differ on certain important issues, but he nails House Republicans over their lust to destroy Medicare.

Ryan: This dismantles the Medicare program. Period. Dot. And at least have the courage to come out and say ‘we want to dismantle the Medicare program.’ And if you want to look at how far to the right that the Republican party has gotten on this issue, I’ve never seen former Speaker Gingrich do a faster or more complete Potomac two-step in my entire life then when he even insinuated that this may not be good for seniors. Because the goal now of the Republican party, Madam Chair, is to dismantle the Medicare program…the Democratic plan is for Medicare. We keep it to cover senior citizens and their health care when they get older.

And here's a little Anthony Weiner thrown in for good measure.

Weiner: I move to strike the last word Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, you may recall I was standing here approximately two hours ago waiting to speak with several other members on the efforts of my Republican friends to eliminate Medicare as we know it and for reasons that are known only to the Chair, I was denied the ability to do that. Well, I’m back. And just to review the bidding, here’s where it was before that order was made. We had the Chairman of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, a good man, a guy I like, stand down in the well and say, ‘Oh, no’ (and this by the way is someone who is elected by the Republican members to represent them in races all around the country) saying that the Ryan plan wasn’t a plan it was and I’m quoting here, “a construct to develop a plan” and he said the proposal is not a voucher program and then he said it was a one size fits all, that Medicare was draining our economy is what he said.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, that might be the rationale for our Republican friends wanting to eliminate Medicare, but none of those things are true. It is not a ‘construct to develop a plan’ it is the proposal of the Republican party of the United States of America to eliminate Medicare as a guaranteed entitlement. If you don’t believe me, go get the book that they wrote, go get the budget that they wrote, go get the bill that they wrote.

And please don't forget about Blue America's actblue page dedicated to Stop Paul Ryan

Tim Ryan gave a great speech on the floor of the House in support of teachers and against Ohio's draconian SB-5,which will strip public workers of collective bargaining.

Labor rallies against SB5:

MARIETTA - Thousands of union members and labor supporters covered the west lawn and broad steps of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus Tuesday, roaring in unison phrases like "This is what democracy looks like" and "Kill the bill."

One man in a red T-shirt bearing the words, "No to SB5," weaved through the crowd with a bullhorn, shouting, "Wake up! We need to misbehave."

The throngs came to the capital city in fleets of buses, vans and private vehicles to protest Senate Bill 5, a piece of legislation that would limit collective bargaining for state employees, as well as for teachers and municipal workers, including police and firefighters.

"We strongly feel SB5 will affect our collective bargaining as our contract comes up for negotiations at the end of this year; we just don't know how right now," said Shane Cochran, a City of Marietta employee and members of Teamsters Local 637.

"This bill is definitely a major concern for us, but I feel better seeing so much support from other unions across the state here today," he said.

Ohio is doing to its workers what Walker is trying to do in WI. Can we let that stand?

Thousands Protest Outside SB5 Hearing

Union members and state workers boarded five buses in Cincinnati on Tuesday morning to add their weight to the protests."We've gone three or four years without a raise, a lot of us. We took 10 cost-saving days, we're willing to sacrifice; we just don't know where they want us to sacrifice. We'd like to know," union worker Michael Tighe said."Kill the bill!" chants echoed across McMicken Commons at the University of Cincinnati on Monday as students and professors stood in the rain to demonstrate against SB5.

Have you noticed how perfectly crafted most of the protest signs are in these protests? Maybe it's because teachers are making them up?

And let's not forget that Governor John Kasich was a Fox News regular. He used to sub for Bill O'Reilly all the time. It's getting to be that most of their pundit staff is running for office or has already run. (h/t C&Ler Dan)

Damn straight. While Jim DeMint is lauding the disgusting, bigoted teabaggers getting their hate on:

Republican Senator Jim DeMint tweeted that he was "grateful for the thousands of patriots who are storming the Capitol today protesting government healthcare and defending freedom." The tweet came at around the same time the racist and homophobic comments above were reported.

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH17) went on the House floor and soundly denounced the teabaggers and their full bigoted, homophobic, hate-filled display on Saturday.

Now I think it's time for all those congresspeople feeding into this frenzy to step in and denounce hate. Bachmann? Tancredo? Demint? Boehner? Pence? Foxx? King? Come forward now, and denounce the scary result of your fear-mongering.

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Here's a blast from the past from the incredible video archives of C&L that's relevant to today. On Dec, 10th, 2004, The former Republican Majority leader was exposed as being a crook and a liar and when it comes to getting what they want, these supposedly religious folks will lie to get their way. Ex-Senator Bill Frist embodies the typical pro-life movement conservative. The face they try to hide from the world is that they want to control they way people have sex. If they were truly worried about unwanted pregnancies they would embrace contraception. Just ask Tim Ryan about their beliefs. Just listen to Frist's lies about condoms and HIV. It's quite stunning. At the time the conservatives were in charge and the media hid in the little holes, too afraid to report on what they really are.

SENATOR BILL FRIST: That's right. Only surefire. Very hard culturally in lots of approaches. Being faithful. Again, one partner and in certain cultures that is very hard and, then third, condoms. If you take out just condoms and say that is the answer with the 15 percent failure rate with a highly infective virus through sexual relations ...

That's a lie. And then he goes on to lie some more.

...that are funded by the Federal government, the funding has doubled over the last four years but there was a report by the minority staff at the House Government Affairs Committee that showed that 11 of 13 of these programs are giving out false information. I want to show some of the claims they identified in the curricula. One of them was, one of the programs taught that "The actual ability of condoms to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS, even if the product is intact, is not definitively known." Another, "The popular claim that condoms help prevent the spread of STDs is not supported by the data." A third suggested that tears and sweat could transmit HIV and AIDS. Now, you're a doctor. Do you believe that tears and sweat can transmit HIV?

SENATOR BILL FRIST

I don't know. I can tell you ...

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS

(Off Camera) You don't know?

SENATOR BILL FRIST

I can tell you things like, like ...

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS

(Off Camera) Well, wait, let me stop you, you don't know that, you believe that tears and sweat might be able to transmit AIDS?

SENATOR BILL FRIST

Yeah, no, I can tell you that HIV is not very transmissible as an element like, compared to smallpox, compared to the flu.

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This is a speech by Tim Ryan back in 2005. It was pretty powerful and I had some dealings with him after this because he spoke up against the war and highlighted the insane amounts of money we were pouring into it. Billions of dollars a month. That was then and this is now.

I'm sure most of us have been amazed at how disingenuous pro-life groups are when it comes to contraception. They scream "life" is sacred, but then try to prevent all ways that are available to our society when it comes to pregnancy prevention. We've seen insane protests against the Plan B pill which would actually prevent unwanted pregnancies. What many pro-lifers really want to do is control the sex lives of every American. I know it's hard to picture, it creeps me out just thinking about it, but the James Dobsons and Richard Lands of the religious right just want to decide when and how people can have sex.

There's a Democratic group devoted to the pro-life movement that's called Democrats For Life of America and Rep. Tim Ryan learned why they are so full of shit and can never be taken seriously.

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) has been, in his words, "booted" from the national advisory board of Democrats For Life of America. The group's mission is to elect and support pro-life Democrats; Ryan served on the board for four years but the relationship had recently soured when he co-sponsored the "Preventing Unintended Pregnancies, Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act":

Ryan said he tried to convince officials with Democrats For Life of America, which he referred to Monday as a "fringe group," that the use of contraception is needed as part of any plan to reduce unintended pregnancies but that failed.

Kristen Day, Democrats For Life's executive director, was ready to move on. "DFLA gave Congressman Ryan ample opportunities to prove he's committed to protecting life, but he has turned his back on the community at every turn."

Ryan insists he's still a strong pro-life advocate. The proposed bill includes funding for comprehensive "teen pregnancy prevention" sex education and expanded coverage of "family planning" for low-income women. "We're working in Congress with groups that agree with preventative options while [the DFLA] is getting left behind," Ryan said. "I can't figure out for the life of me how to stop pregnancies without contraception. Don't be mad at me for wanting to solve the problem."

Say goodbye, Mr. Ryan. No sex for you.

Digby linked to this article in the NY Times from 2006 and it spells out their views on contraception. We must never forget what they really believe.

Many Christians who are active in the evolving anti-birth-control arena state frankly that what links their efforts is a religious commitment to altering the moral landscape of the country. In particular, and not to put too fine a point on it, they want to change the way Americans have sex. Dr. Stanford, the F.D.A. adviser on reproductive-health drugs, proclaimed himself "fully committed to promoting an understanding of human sexuality and procreation radically at odds with the prevailing views and practices of our contemporary culture." Focus on the Family posts a kind of contraceptive warning label on its Web site: "Modern contraceptive inventions have given many an exaggerated sense of safety and prompted more people than ever before to move sexual expression outside the marriage boundary." Contraception, by this logic, encourages sexual promiscuity, sexual deviance (like homosexuality) and a preoccupation with sex that is unhealthful even within marriage.

This is why the "common ground" movement is such crap. The social conservatives don't care about "life" they care about sex. In fact, they are the ones who are obsessed with it. And until they can establish social and legal sanctions against other people having unapproved sex, they will not stop. That is what moves them.

Tim Ryan says that he can't think of a way to stop unwanted pregnancies without contraception. But that's because he knows that human have sex regardless of whether it's sanctioned by some busy bodies down at the corner mega-church. These social conservatives do not accept that. They think that sex must be controlled and that they should be the ones to control it. Perhaps they think they need this in order to control themselves.

I'll never forget that freak of nature Bill Frist, who embarrassed himself on THIS WEEK when he didn't know how HIV was transmitted and that condoms fail 15% of the time. He's a man who backed the phony abstinence programs that was being taught to our kids. then he self diagnosed Terri Schiavo from a video tape. He embodies the "social conservative" sex movement. Yuck.

You have to listen to this:

by kos
Sat Oct 9th, 2004 at 06:17:40 GMT

I got my hands on a QuickTime version of the Rep. Tim Ryan speech, and it's top quality. Go to bed dreaming of President Kerry, with Ryan's words coursing through your mind.

My man, Tim Ryan tells it like it is:

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH): "I think it's important to say this administration clearly has made the United States less safe, and as citizens of this country, we can't be afraid to say that. They have made us less safe, period, dot."

Tim Ryan: Republicans are unable to govern

Ryan: "Pick an issue. Unable to govern."

Nancy Pelosi: Rep.Tim Ryan (D-OH) of the Leader's 30 Something Working Group delivers a blistering indictment of the Republican Party in this speech from the floor of the U.S. House.