"Newt" Romney 2.0

I kept wondering where I had seen this debate before. One of the debaters spouting an endless series of lies and misrepresentations, all in a condescending tone of voice. I thought of "Dick" Cheney debating Joe Lieberman, talking down to him in a condescending tone of voice while he spouted complete bullshit. But that was a different type of nonsense. But worth remembering.

But the flood of misinformation, delivered in a forceful and blindly self-confident way? That felt more like Newt Gingrich, except on steroids. Others will make the comparison I am sure.

Okay, so now we know how Romney did his business deals. When he wants something he can push people (and facts) around pretty well. Where his listeners were wanting to have someone forceful take over and "lead" them, then Mitt would fill the bill. But there is just one problem here; the "facts" and "plans" used in this first Presidential Debate simply didn't add up. We heard a flood of assurances, evasions, claims and rewrites of history. That may convince those who want a President who is "tough" and "forceful", but I'd rather have a President who is intelligent and who levels with the American people. I would NOT like to have to listen to Romney's laundry list of bullshit for four years. Oh, and that Medicare thing? His pledge to not change Medicare for older voters? Any older voter who believes that is a fool. The goal clearly is to gut Medicare and Medicaid, along with as many other social programs as possible.

Food stamps? Food stamps are bad, right? Really? Romney's father's family lived on public assistance for several years after bailing out of Mexico early last century. Was that assistance a bad thing? And if many more families had needed it, wouldn't it have been better to give it to them than have them hungry and in distress? It is bad that people NEED public assistance, but it is not bad that it is there as a safety net to help them. What the President said about job training was to my mind far more intelligent. We live in a world where a lot of jobs are changing rapidly, which only works when there is a widespread system of worker retraining. But that approach would be too fussy for Mitt, after all, he is not really a manager, he is a "takeover artist". Once he has taken over a firm he was an expert in deciding whether the business could be grown, or whether it would be more profitable to run up huge debts and drive it into bankruptcy, while his company kept the borrowed money.

If that's the character that you'd like our President to have, you can stop reading. I think Romney's approach to government would be very similar to "Dick" Cheney's, which makes sense given each of their business backgrounds. Cheney ran a major defense contractor and oil equipment supply company. Guess which industries he lent support to as Vice President? Those two pointless wars? Check. Unchecked and poorly regulated oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico? Check. Huge tax breaks for the wealthy and businesses? Check. Shoddy regulation of banks? Check and check.

And the impact on our economy and the world economy? Devastating.

Personally, I doubt that the effect of electing Romney as our President would be much better. We're still cleaning up from the last Republican administration, so I'm not inclined to let that same group of morons into power again.

Now, what about Romney's unexpectedly fired-up "performance" in this debate? Will that sway a lot of "undecided" voters? Maybe, we'll just have to see. I see Paul Ryan as a youthful clone of Romney, wedded to the same anti-regulation, anti-tax, anti-government philosophies. For the record, I don't see the rich as "job creators". I see them as "money grubbers". Romney's investments in a host of Cayman Island trusts does not convince me that he is a great fan of "progressive taxation". I say that because I paid a higher tax rate than Romney did last year. Given our wildly different economic circumstances, one might even go so far as to say that Romney believes in "regressive taxation", where the poor pay a significantly higher percentage of their income in taxes. Those "loopholes" that Romney talks about, but does not reveal the nature of? Would you expect a Vulture Capitalist to (a) protect and massage his peers, or (b) screw the other 99% of us over, because he can? That is pretty much what he is already doing, so why should anyone imagine he is likely to change? He LIKES being an economic aristocrat, seeing the world through gilded glasses. He is no friend to the poor, I am afraid, unless they are Mormons. That's okay, as long as he doesn't gut our Country's social welfare net, but Mitt seems to think it should be privatized, then perhaps be outsourced. Trust him, he can't explain yet how it will all work, but you are really, really going to like it.

Honest!

Um, no thanks.

Arthur

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

(Haven't posted in a while, just now recovering from the season's first cold.  I'm going to attempt to post this entry with as little political items as possible.  The Romney campaign is so pathetically boring there's not much to be said anyway.  The first round of debates is scheduled for this Wednesday, and they should be good for a hoot or two, but for the most part this campaign is all but done.  I read somewhere there is over a 95% chance Obama will win reelection.  Turn out the lights, the Republican party is over.  But I digress ...)

• Good news came to us guys this week in the form of a little postcard size piece of papyrus that apparently quotes Jesus (yes, THAT Jesus) as referring to "my wife."  Well now, that puts a whole new spin on "WWJD?" When you factor in the idea that he not only lived with a woman other than his mother, he was probably touching naughty parts and cleaving away with gusto, then he becomes a bit easier to relate to. And I supposed the Pope will now allow priests to marry, which means the pedophiles will have to move back to the Boy Scouts.  I bet the sermons at church last Sunday were fascinating.  Mark Morford reports "Jesus, I'm Married!"
• Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Batshit) slimed her way into a Chicago synagogue on the eve of Yom Kippur the other night, and just the fact that she was in attendance so irritated some of the congregants they immediately went out and donated to her opposition.  "The holiness of the room and the holiness of the evening was greatly diminished for me, if not completely destroyed," said Gary Sircus, a 25-year member of Anshe Emet Synagogue.  All this in spite of the fact that Bachmann is supposedly a big supporter of Israel.  So what is it about this idiot woman that has them all fired up?  Bachmann is anti-gay rights.  Sounds like this country is finally starting to wake up.
• And on a related note, "California has become the first state to ban a controversial form of psychotherapy aimed at making gay teenagers straight."  What?  One would think we'd be reading about some state being the LAST state to ban this insanity.  Okay, okay, at least it's a start.
• Two items in the newspaper this morning have alarmed me about the state of our existence.  First, they're recalling peanut butter.  Peanut butter!  For crissakes, I can understand worrying about washing your vegetables before eating and not leaving potato salad out in the sun too long and refrigerating leftovers, but peanut butter?  Peanut butter is the staple of the earth.  If I was trapped on a desert island with only one thing to eat it would be peanut better.  Come on. Sorry, some things just piss me off.  Oh, and the other thing?  Some farmer in Bandon, Oregon was eaten by his hogs.  Coos County District Attorney Paul Frasier reported that the 69-year-old farmer's remains were found last Wednesday in a hog enclosure at his farm.  The remains consisted of his dentures, and several body parts.  The article didn't report what parts those were.  And what are you having for dinner tonight?
• And finally, allow me to pass on to you this fascinating article by Robert Jensen entitled From Start to Finish: Why We Won and How We Are Losing.  It's rather long, but if you've got the time ... Click Here

Ouch, Ouch, Ow, Oweee, OUCH!

(CLICK HERE for video.)

Others have noted the story that John King told about his family. I strongly agree that very, very few Americans like to admit it when we are in trouble, both men and women. Most of them will suffer through poverty, worries about being able to pay the rent and other personal crises. Romney is outside and above the hard-scrabble reality of most peoples' lives. No one hands us big stacks of money on a plate, though we'd love it if they would. When things are tough many Americans tend to become quiet, very focused and very, very worried. They don't feel "entitled" and they don't feel like "victims". They are too worried to indulge themselves in such fantasies.

I guess when you live in a big house on a hill, oh sorry, on three or four houses on hills or lakes, the facts of many Americans' lives are a kind of never-never Land. Never been there, never will be there and never cared about those who were.

I'm afraid that it is official now: Mitt Romney truly is an elitist dumbass. Money can buy a lot of things, for example a really shiny GOP Nomination, but it can't buy you the respect and love of the American people.

As Clint Eastwood explained: "I figure if somebody's dumb enough to ask me to go to a political convention and say something, they're gonna have to take what they get."

 

Arthur

Mitt Just Lost the NY Times Vote

Jon Stewart has had a lot of fun with Mitt Romney's "47%" speech, given in May at the home of a fellow Venture Capitalist who is known for having wild parties featuring live sex shows. Must be some of that Family Values stuff, I suppose?

Some are saying this is the week that Mitt Romney is losing the 2012 Presidential Election, but in fairness they said that last week too. But Romney's speech, where he essentially writes off the 47% of American voters who pay no income tax as hopelessly pro-Obama, since they are (apparently) all moochers and slackers, who feel they are "entitled to be supported by the government". Now, since this includes most of those on Social Security who are no longer working, and since Mitt is sixty-five, then next year he could be part of the 47% himself, since the bulk of his income is investment income, on which he pays a lower "capital gains tax" than the "income tax" he said that hard-working Americans pay, to show their loyalty to flag, country and apple pie.

And there is one thing more; most of those receiving Social Security or some kind of benefits paid in to that account by their Payroll Taxes, half paid by the employer, half by the employee (so the total cost impacts their salary). They also pay 1.85% in Medicare tax. So how much does all that add up to? 6.2% employer + 6.2% employee + 1.85% employee = 13.85%. That's funny, that's exactly... the 13.9% that Mitt Romney paid in taxes in 2010. Now in 2011 and 2012, as an economic stimulus the employee paycheck deduction was reduced by 2%, so for these two years their total would be 11.85%. But there are many other taxes to consider. Sales tax, State tax, gasoline tax, alcohol tax etc. Those often hit those of moderate and low income far harder than those of high incomes. So that 47%, not counting those who are retired, unemployed, disabled or in jail, are probably paying as much as Mitt Romney is. Or more.

So what the heck is Romney going on about? The New York Times, in an Editorial expressing their corporate opinion (as opposed to that of one writer) believes that Romney is engaging in "Class Warfare", to try to fan the flames of economic division and resentment, but in his case, for the rich towards the poor, the needy, the disabled. Not everyone reads the Times. I do because a cousin of mine works there and I do business in New York, a city I know well and that I really, really like. My mother grew up in Brooklyn, in a family of modest means, but she was able to commute into Manhattan to attend Hunter High School, a school for high-achieving children of low income, then she went on to Hunter College, which operated on the same idea. There was some justice in it, since her family, parents and children alike, were very active in the Salvation Army, which at that time was really pulling people out of the gutter and helping them stay alive.

There is a long and venerable tradition in our country of reaching out to those in need, not asking whether their plight is a sign of their moral weakness, but judging that for whatever reason they are in a world of trouble, they are our fellow countrymen and women, and that to leave them to rot would be immoral and unthinkable, in a country where such riches exist. In another part of Romney's talk he quoted a friend who said something like "95% of what we need in life we get by being born in America", which is true up to a point, but if that was "all that we needed", then there would only be 5% in need. The math does not add up. Nor does it count the 20% in the country who are retired. But I guess when you are giving a speech to major donors who you believe may trend toward the self-satisfied and selfish side of the social spectrum, that may be what Romney thought they wanted to hear. He does seem to "tailor" his speeches to his audiences, doesn't he?

Arthur

The Headache That Has Become Mitt Romney

• Poor Mitt Romney.  This just hasn't been his week.  First he gets yelled at for opening his mouth too soon immediately after the misguided attacks on our embassy and blaming President Obama for being soft on terrorism or something, then he's secretly recorded deriding the "47% of Americans who never pay taxes and who will never vote for me," because, Mitt says, they "believe they are victims" and are entitled to support from the government.  Mitt, Mitt, you're trying way too hard.
• And here's something about Mr. Romney that we should remember:  Mitt Romney paid only half a percent more in taxes than the poorest of Americans.  Remember also that the people Mitt referred to in his latest rant include a majority of retired Americans, millions of working parents of young children, a significant number of military families, most students, and most of the disabled and people who can’t find work (some of those people probably were going to vote for Mitt.)  His statement "My job is not to worry about those people" tells it all, doesn't it? 
• As a Republican presidential candidate, you know you're in trouble when Bill Kristol calls you "stupid and arrogant."  So what are we to make of this man?  This man Maureen Dowd says was "born on third base and acts self-made, whining to the rich about what a great deal in life the poor have."  I suspect my thoughts about Mitt were right when I heard about the dog-on-the-car-roof incident.  He's a mean clueless asshole.  'Course that's just my opinion.
• And Keith Olbermann's(!) comment on all this: Click Here

Update: Suffering the Insufferables

(May I suggest there are few things in this wonderful world that are more frustrating than to be laid up with a bad back during the last few fleeting days of summer.  A reoccurring old war-wound-type back injury flared up several days ago, turning the right side of my lower back into a screaming smorgasbord of sciatic nerve pain.  Hurt least when I was lying straight out on a heating pad, but I kept spilling my brandy that way so I suffered by sitting up in Greatgrandpa's recliner.  Brandy helped a bit too.  When I get in this condition, there's not much I can do except wait it out bravely for several days, complaining loudly, and ordering the family minions to fetch this and that while I catch up on every conceivable sporting event I can find on the wide-screen.  Have I ever told you how much I hate watching golf?  At any rate, I'm currently a bit better.  At least I can stand straight up and walk fairly normally without acting like I had baring-down pains.  Thanks for all the get-well cards, I appreciate the thoughts.  But I digress ...)

• While I was reclining with my bad back last week I did manage to watch most of the Democratic Convention and I actually found it entertaining and inspiring.  I knew President Obama's speech would be a good one; that man couldn't give a bad speech if he tried.  But his wife's was even better than his.  And then there was Bill "Big Dog" Clinton, and his ARITHMETIC.  All together, the convention was pretty much as advertised.  The Republican Convention in comparison resembled a backyard party in support of local school board candidates.  Without arithmetic.
• After the DNC, the Republicans had little to say as they nervously attempted to fact-check everything they could find to little avail.  In desperation, FOX News? did a little arithmetic of their own and discovered that ohmygod while the god-loving Republicans had mentioned GOD 12 times at their convention, the godless Democrats had only mentioned god ONCE! during theirs.  And not only that, the heathen lefties had never even ONCE mentioned the fact that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.  This is clearly the stuff of legendary conspiracy theories.   And this is clearly an impeachable offense on someones part.  Mark Morford gives us this must-read report on this travesty of biblical proportion. "God the Unsufferable Jerk"
• And speaking of insufferable jerks, pardon the awkward segue, we proudly give our Bad Hat Religious Asshole of the Month Award once again to Florida pastor Terry Jones.  You remember Terry, I'm sure, as the douche-nozzle who in spite of pleas from very important people with brains, felt christian-like and burned a Koran which inspired a deadly attack and violent protests across Afghanistan in March of 2011.  Well now it seems that our Terry is promoting a movie called "Innocence of Muslims," a movie so offensive to area Muslims that they felt it necessary to storm the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, and riot in Libya, and do all the other religiously indignant things indignantly religious people usually do in times like these.  And all this in spite of the fact that the State Department had attempted before the rioting began to defuse the situation by practically condemning the movie.  And to make this story all the more interesting, Sir Mitt the Lion-hearted raised his well-coiffed head and bellowed indignantly about how the Obama administration was siding with the Muslim terrorists and then a U.S. Ambassador was killed and ... well, we'd just like to shove this award up Terry Jones' cheese-hole and go back to bed.
• Oh, and could someone help me out here?  What exactly IS a Reince Priebus?
• But back to the Mittstir, you gotta love his spunk.  Behind in the polls, at times the punchline for new political cocktail party jokes, he still has time to be even more of an insensitive (insert expletive of your choice here) when it comes to gay people. For example, here's a quote from a recent meeting Romney had with David Wilson and Julie Goodridge, two of the plaintiffs whose case led to the legalization of marriage equality in Massachusetts:  Goodridge asks Romney  "Governor Romney, tell me — what would you suggest I say to my 8 year-old daughter about why her mommy and her ma can’t get married because you, the governor of her state, are going to block our marriage?"  Okay, pretty pointed question, but still, you gotta love his response:   "I don’t really care what you tell your adopted daughter."  I'm almost surprised he didn't cough up a wad of phlegm and spit it at her feet.
• If you ever are in need of a good laugh, join about a million true believers who each morning tune in to Fox and Friends, possibly the most outrageously inaccurate news program in the history of broadcast journalism.  Co-hosted by three doofusses, including one named Steve Doosey, er, Doocy, this electronic monument to inanity is famous for once claiming that then-Senator Barack Obama had attended a radical Islamic madrassa when he was a child in Indonesia.  Here's ten more of this incredible FOX program's embarrassing screw-ups CLICK HERE.   
• For further proof that Conservatives hate truth (or "facts"), the Republican-leaning web site RedState.com is considering banning any of its users who dare to use a fact checker when arguing talking points.  No, really.  "Mitt Romney created 100 million jobs as Gov of Massachusetts. Disagree? YOU'RE BANNED!"  Don't you just hate it when they fact check you?  I know I do ...
• Remember when Glenn  Beck famously compared President Obama and his policies to a Marxist heroin dealer and "the heroin that he is pushing is government."  That was a good one, and heaven knows we sure miss Glenn, but we've all known about the "vast left wing media" conspiracy, haven't we?  Well, apparently it's working.  According to loyal Romney aides, Mitt is lagging behind in the polls because of the unfavorable media attention he's been getting.  Is it too late to say we're sorry? 

Florida

Governor Rick Scott is an iconic Republican dick.

I'm sorry, there is no other way to say it. He appears to consider himself a General in a War on Poor People. It is important to understand that Scott is extremely wealthy, so he's got his, thanks. What appears very important to him is for him to get more, and for the poor to get less, or even better... none.

This latest brainstorm of his looks like the Revenge of the Internet. If you are too poor or too out of the loop to have an e-mail address and grind your way through a gotcha online test, then sorry, no unemployment benefits for you, bucko. You might ask, what the heck does that have to do with whether you are unemployed and need benefits? Well, because that lets the sacred state of Florida deny a LOT of their unemployed any benefits. The cost savings are amazing!

The morality and ethics of such an approach? Naaah, sorry, that is not a matter that is going to be discussed. Disenfranchisement of voters, by demonstrably fraudulent methods, cost Al Gore the election in 2000. Florida has a lot to answer for.

Arthur