Michael Ryan Caught Writing Many Lies...Again

Re: "Healthy Debate," from the November 24th edition of the Augusta Chronicle editorial page.

In this editorial Mr. Ryan does more than just mislead the reader when he ties the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force report to the Senate Health Care bill. He writes "Democratic health care "reforms" include giving the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations essentially the weight of law. Remember, that's the task force that last week decided--apparently as a cost-saving measure--that women don't need to get routine mammograms until age 50, rather than 40."

False! The task force's recommendations about mammograms are not even mentioned in the bill. Mr. Ryan should be ashamed of himself for making this entirely false claim. He should also be ashamed for plagiarizing this falsehood from other conservative pundits.

Mr. Ryan also complained about a 60 minutes episode segment about wasteful spending on the elderly. He fears that this will lead to government rationing of health care. But insurance companies already ration health care. I trust the government more than businessmen motivated by profit, and so should Mr. Ryan.

One more lie from this editorial: Mr. Ryan falsely claims the bill will lead to a massive shift in resources from senior citizens to young people. This is a completely baseless charge and he supports it with no facts whatsoever.

Mr. Ryan lives in a fantasy world where he just makes stuff up, or copies stuff the Glenn Becks of the world just make up.

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Re: "Dogpiling on Palin," from the November 23rd edition of the Augusta Chronicle editorial page.

Mr. Ryan is full of dogshit. Here, he whines about the Newsweek cover that shows Palin dressed for running. I don't understand what the big deal is about this. Palin complained that the photo was undignified. She is an uptight, constipated, celebrity. That's how I dress everyday.

Mr. Ryan repeats (for about the millionth time) how he thinks the media treats Obama with kid gloves, yet was brutal to Palin.

This is so untrue. The media unfairly hyped Obama's connection to Ayers and the hot-headed reverend. As if he can help what other people say or do. But Palin endorsed a radical Alaskan group that wanted to secede from the nation, and the mainstream media virtually ignored it.

It's not the mainstream media's fault that Palin comes across as a babbling buffoon.

Mr. Ryan complains that the media focused on Palin's family because her teenaged daughter became pregnant. Of course they did because she actually did something scandalous. Getting pregnant out of wedlock, and getting drunk on the town (as Bush's daughters did) is worthy of tabloid scrutiny. Obama's daughters stay in school and get good grades. If one of them ever steps out of line, the media will jump all over it. Until that happens, Mr. Ryan has no case to make on this point.

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Re: "We're building off the foundation," from the November 22nd edition of the Augusta Chronicle editorial page.

Mr. Ryan brings up the tired old argument about how the federal government is abusing the 10th amendment.

This is an argument that can be settled politically rather than judicially. If these right wing nuts, think states should have more power than the federal government, they can try to elect crazy conservatives who want to outlaw federal programs like social security, medicare, the national park system, food stamps, welfare, corporate welfare, etc.

Good Luck!

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Re: "Close your eyes, pray and hold on," from the November 21st edition of the Augusta Chronicle.

In this editorial Mr. Ryan notes that some business leaders think health care reform will be bad for the economy. Who cares? All businessmen care about is profit, not what's best for the country.

Mr. Ryan also tells a couple of lies in this column too. He writes, "In an effort to provide health insurance to less than 5 percent of the population..."

He doesn't cite a source for this number. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that he either just pulled that number out of his ass or he's being purposefully murky. The health care reform bill will make sure that 95% of people will have insurance, according to news sources I've read.

Another lie is this: Mr. Ryan says the left got its way. If the left had its way, we would have gotten a single payer, socialized system. This was not even on the table for discussion.

Mr. Liean, I mean Ryan also uses statistics to lie. Without citing a source, he states that Americans feel strongly about this issue oppose the plans by a nearly 40%-25% margin.

I googled this number and can't find it anywhere. Most of the polls I've seen show the public is evenly split on this issue. And who is to say how strongly a person feels about it. That would be totally subjective.