Ryan, Romney Stand With Emanuel Against CTU - Obama Remains Mum

Not a surprise, of course, but it's good to get this on record:

There may be no stranger bedfellows than Representative Paul D. Ryan and Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, the former White House chief of staff, but on Monday Mr. Ryan declared his support of Mr. Emanuel in the Chicago teachers’ strike.

“We know that Rahm is not going to support our campaign, but on this issue and this day we stand with Mayor Rahm Emanuel,’’ Mr. Ryan said.

Mr. Emanuel and the teachers’ union are at loggerheads primarily over a new evaluation system tied to student test scores and whether laid-off teachers should have priority to fill future job openings.

...

“This does not have to divide the two parties,’’ Mr. Ryan said at a fund-raising event in Portland, Ore., according to a pool report. “And so we were going to ask, where does President Obama stand? Does he stand with his former chief of staff, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, with the children and the parents, or does he stand with the union?’’

Mitt Romney also issued a statement condemning the Chicago Teachers Union and accusing the Obama administration of being beholden to unions at the expense of children.

It's nonsense that the Obama administration has been beholden to unions.

This is just another lie from a man who has made a living out of deception and double dealing.

In point of fact, Barack Obama has been as anti-union as many a good Republican, though perhaps not as virulent about it as, say, Scott Walker or Rick Scott.

Just ask the people at the UAW given a 50% pay cut.

Or the teachers Barack had whacked at Central Falls.

Nonetheless Paul Ryan does bring up a good point.

Where does Obama stand in this fight publicly?

Now you know and I know that behind the scenes, he sides with Rahm.

After all, the corporate education reform agenda that Rahm is trying to finish imposing on Chicago students and teachers is Barack Obama's official education policy - school closings, teacher firings, high stakes standardized tests all throughout the year and teacher evaluations tied to those scores.

Indeed, that was the agenda of Arne Duncan, Barack Obama's current Secretary of Education, when he ran Chicago schools back in the mid-2000's and it continues to be Duncan's agenda today.

Obama hired Duncan at USDOE and gave him wide powers to promote corporate education reform because that's the policy he wants promoted.

So it's no real secret where Obama stands on this.

But Obama can't come out and say that's where he stands on this because he needs the unions - particular the teachers unions - for November's GOTV effort as well as fundraising.

So instead the White House and the Obama campaign inhabit some jive ass middle ground that doesn't really exist.

Like Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, Barack Obama and Joe Biden stand with Rahm Emanuel against Chicago teachers and union members.

Is that a good enough reason to not vote for any of these people if you're a teacher?

I know it is for me.

Why help out in a campaign or vote for a guy who's just looking to use you until November, then do to you what his buddy Rahmbo wants to do now?

So Obama can remain mum on this strike all he wants - we know where he stands and it sure as hell ain't with the students, teachers and parents of the CPS.

First Tom Morello, Now Dee Snider

Paul Ryan keeps getting dissed by musicians.

First Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine scoffed that Ryan could be a fan of his former band by listening only to the music, not the politicized lyrics:

Paul Ryan's love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades. Charles Manson loved the Beatles but didn't understand them. Governor Chris Christie loves Bruce Springsteen but doesn't understand him. And Paul Ryan is clueless about his favorite band, Rage Against the Machine.

...

I wonder what Ryan's favorite Rage song is? Is it the one where we condemn the genocide of Native Americans? The one lambasting American imperialism? Our cover of "Fuck the Police"? Or is it the one where we call on the people to seize the means of production? So many excellent choices to jam out to at Young Republican meetings!

Now comes word that Dee Snider of Twisted Sister told Ryan to cut out playing "We're Not Gonna Take It" at rallies without permission:

Dee Snider isn't going to take it any more.

The singer and reality-TV star Wednesday demanded that presumptive Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan stop using Snider's Twisted Sister anthem "We Aren't Going to Take It" at his campaign rallies.

"I emphatically denounce Paul Ryan's use of my song 'Were Not Gonna Take It' as recorded by my band Twisted Sister," said Snider in a statement. "There is almost nothing on which I agree with Paul Ryan, except perhaps the use of the P90X."

Both of these smack downs are cool, but they still rank just a notch below my all-time favorite smack down of a politician by a musician:

Almost a quarter century after their band split up, Morrissey can agree with Johnny Marr about one thing: David Cameron is not allowed to like the Smiths. Following Marr's recent comments "forbidding" the prime minister to like their band, the former Smiths frontman has echoed the sentiment, citing Cameron's support for hunting.

"Stop saying that you like the Smiths," Marr said last week, "no you don't." Whereas the guitarist made his remarks on Twitter, restraining himself to just 76 characters, Morrissey used the blog True to You to issue 11 paragraphs of vegetarian vitriol. "I would like to, if I may, offer support to Johnny Marr who has spoken out to the media this week against David Cameron," he wrote. "David Cameron hunts and shoots and kills stags – apparently for pleasure. It was not for such people that either Meat Is Murder or The Queen Is Dead were recorded; in fact, they were made as a reaction against such violence."

Now that's great - "I love your band!" "No, you don't - I forbid you to like my band!"

Something for Paul Ryan to aspire to.