And What Was the Point Again?

Tags

and learned again, crap I learned, guns, Humor, ranting, satire, unlearned

Or: I am a masochist and I love it!

I was thinking about doing a post about Planet Earth traveling through the Backwards Belt. Trust me, it exists, astronomers just haven’t discovered it yet.

Since we passed through that belt of backwardness, everything pretty much means the opposite of what it portrays itself as meaning.

Example:

Stated Truth: Rick Perry signs into law a bill that is designed to help ensure women’s health safety. It inadvertently might make it more difficult for clinics who do abortions as a minor part of their total service.

Actual Truth: Rick Perry and those like him hate abortions because they have found it useful to portray themselves as “good Christians” for political purposes and making regulations (which are absolutely a job killer in any other arena according to the GOP mantra), so onerous that it essentially puts most women’s health care clinics in Texas out of business and thus makes abortions unavailable to millions of Texas women is the real goal.

Another example:

Stated Truth: Republican controlled states throughout the nation pass laws making it much harder to vote for their citizenry under the stated purpose to reduce the fraudulent use of the ballot to dilute the value of real voters vote, and thus to alter the real will of the people.

Actual Truth: Republicans can’t will elections because they have so alienated the vast majority of middle America, so the only effective way to get a win is do make it as hard as possible for voters who are likely Democratic voters to cast their vote.

Another example?

Stated Truth: The only defense against a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. The government is determined to take away your guns because it knows that it can do anything once you have no recourse through armed rebellion.

Actual Truth: We hope you will buy more guns in an effort to feel safer from the government and if you aren’t afraid of the government, we will do everything we can to make you afraid, in the hopes that you will buy more guns. We get rich and powerful that way, and we really like that.

Okay, so you know all this stuff already. Of course you do. You wouldn’t be reading this blog unless more or less you agreed with me. We all have learned that. We all started out on this Internet adventure thinking that we would have a forum finally to talk about issues and hash out differences, and come to agreement, more or less.

We knew there were crazy people, but we didn’t think they were us. But they are.

Because if you care about what is happening to this country, then it makes you crazy.

If you don’t believe me, read this: The Most Depressing Discovery about the Brain Ever.

Except, that it’s not. There are TONS of similar studies. Heck Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Righteous Mind, is ALL about the same subject.

The truth is, the more you care, the less you are persuaded that you are wrong by facts. You look the facts straight in the face, and your lyin’ eyes, well lie. The remark attributed to  Richard Pryor comes to mind: “Who you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?”

We are about to go round and round in this circus of guns. After yesterday, and another mentally disturbed man, with a history of inappropriate use of weapons, manages to buy more, and walk into a facility and start killing folks. And WE WEEP that we are such a place where people who are ill are ignored as long as they stay out of our way and don’t gum up our life.

And the head of the trauma center Dr. Orlowski said this:

And we will all say similar things, and we will all mean it, and the crazies on the other side will mean what they say, because they really believe that we’re coming to take their guns and then force them onto communes where they will eat three squares a day and pray to Allah upon pain of death, and that there are death panels, and that Obama is a Kenyan Muslim, and that quiet is kept, black and brown people just not aren’t quite like “us” and never will be, *wink* *wink*.

And I think they are loon crazy bastards and I wish they would just tend to their Ice Road Truckers and Boo Boo whoever that is, and stop meddling with adult issues. Because I can’t convince them that they are wrong on just about everything, and I am told that I am not better, just the other side.

And I HATE believing that, which is quite a corker when you think about it, because if I say, they are wrong, and I’m right, and I’m not like them, then according to the professorial class, I am but proving their point. So.

But I AM NOT LIKE THEM.  I do listen to other views, and I do change my mind, so how can I be like them?

But I sure can’t change them.

So let’s just face it.

All of us bloggers who are pounding away at the keys because we want to make a difference?

Well, we aren’t.

BLOGGING: WELCOME TO MY DIARY.

Or to be “today” let’s call it journaling.

Or, to be cool, let’s call it a rant.

Crap, I sometimes wish I was just part of the great grey cloud that only cares about whether my pinochle game will be disrupted, and of course what they are serving for lunch today at the senior’s center.

Chicken ala King anyone?

 

The End is Not in Sight Yet

Tags

editorial, Jr., March on Washington, Martin Luther King

It has been a momentous week in Washington. That’s saying something, given the gridlock that is the norm there.

If you are not old enough to remember the March on Washington in 1963, well, there was plenty of history to learn from last weekend onward. I was thirteen at the time, so I was aware, though surely not the way I am now.

PBS did a great job, giving us the “music of the March” followed by a great little history lesson of the organization and the organizers, followed by an informative look at Whitney Young, one of the major players who was neglected by the later power players as a “tom”, although nothing could be further from the truth.

Wednesday of course offered us the original speech and those of many others, along with the President’s.

One should not avoid the other “issues” of the March. Women, many of whom had significant jobs in the March organization, were shoved to the back, kept off podiums, and marginalized. (There is probably a whole psychology that could be explored here.) Bayard Ruskin was a major organizer of the march, yet he was completely marginalized given his avowed Communist beliefs and his open homosexuality.

Yet, given that, it was a monumental undertaking and a phenomenal success. It turned the tide of public opinion, and put politicians in a box from which they could not escape. They tried to, to be sure, but after the Kennedy assassination, it was like a deck of cards had collapsed, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 65, followed quickly.

I wonder how our Republican brothers and sisters viewed the events of the past week. It is unquestioned that they have done all they can to co-opt Martin Luther King, Jr. as their own, calling him a Republican, and announcing or rather pontificating that he would be opposed to much “liberal” legislation.

If I hear, “I believe like MLK did, that you shouldn’t judge a person by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” one more time,  I shall vomit. This is always in connection to some anti-African-American statement. Whether it be to vilify another Black actor for “playing the race card” (speaking up for justice for Blacks in whatever venue it is absent), or vilifying anyone who dares defend the “unfair” practice of affirmative action, a quick reference to MLK seems sufficient to establish one’s bona fides as a “non-racist.”

Of course their take on Dr. King is anything but correct. There is no evidence that King was a Republican, and his words suggest that he was a member of neither party. He considered the 1964 Republican platform to be racist, and actively campaigned against Goldwater. He thought little of Ronald Reagan.

What the uber Right refuses to remember is that King was murdered while in Memphis supporting striking sanitation workers. These workers were union men. King spoke out again and again against the economic inequalities that existed and favored redistribution of wealth. He was no fan of capitalism as it existed denying workers reasonable compensation for their work.

At least two of his closest aides had ties to the Communist party. One was an avowed gay man. These are not the signs of a TEA Party wannabe surely. People like Alan Keyes, Allen West, Herman Cain and Clarence Thomas would not have been in his camp, now would he have remained silent to their kowtowing to the white conservative element.

The usual lies about this week were rolled out by the usual players. Billo the Clown O’Reilly blatantly said that Republicans were denied a part in the festivities. This was not even remotely true. Both Bushes were invited, as were Boehner and Cantor. All declined for various reasons.

Such is to be expected of Fox of course, which routinely spouts lies, knowing that a minority of Americans watch them to the exclusion of all else, and will continue in their neighborhoods and blogs, and Facebook walls, to convey the lie to even more unknowing, unthinking individuals. With that Fox’s job is done–the lie will become “truth” to a minority of ignorant-loving TeaBirchers.

Meanwhile, nothing much changes. Fox and other crazy sites will continue to pretend that the Australian athlete who was gunned down, was killed by a couple of “black kids” when in fact there were three, and one was white. They will continue to bellow “why has the President not expressed his outrage?” when of course the two situations (this and the Trayvon Martin case) are in no way linked. Police in Oklahoma have stated again and again that race played no part in the shooting.

But something has indeed changed. John Lewis reminds us that voting rights continue to be a challenge, given that Republican-held state legislatures across the land pass law after law that limits the right to vote–of only those who typically vote Democratic. They are quite blatant in their explanations. There is no racial motivation they proclaim, but only political motives! They thumb their noses at us, claiming that they “have every right to make it hard for their opponents to vote”. Nothing illegal in that.

If voting is our most precious right, then people of color, seniors, students, and all those who threaten to power base of the modern Republican party, will rally to the cause. We will not stand still for this. And the modern NAACP and other battle-savvy warriors in the equality battle will lead us. They are rejuvenated by the behavior of the white power players. As Colin Powell said, this plan will surely backfire on the party. We mean to see that it does.

Dr. King would be proud of not where we are today, for we have much yet to do, but he would be proud of our determination to “let freedom ring”. We will get to the mountain top Dr. King, we will.

Yeah It’s Good For Some

Tags

corporations, drones, economy, Individual Rights, North Korea, Scalia, SCOTUS, wealthy

The Stock Market hit a new high.

Corporate profits are probably at all-time highs as well.

The people who do the work? Not so much.

Between 1979 and 2007 59.9% of gains in income went to the top 1%, 36.7% alone going to the top 0.1%. During that period, gains by the 90%? A mere 8.6%.

Productivity has increased since 1950 by 254%. During that same period, wages went up 113%, and most of that increase occurred by 1975. Productivity, on the other hand, has risen steadily and continues to rise.

The response of the corporate board room to the recession has been to find more efficient ways to accomplish their target goals. They devote their R and D to the purpose of creating a cheaper way to make their product. Cheaper never involves hiring workers. They would make their products devoid of human workers if that were possible. Machines don’t require health care benefits and pensions. They don’t need money devoted to safe working conditions and lunch breaks.

Don’t tell me, please that corporations are job creators. They are profit creators, and hiring is now the last resort to accomplishing that goal. That’s why Wall Street is doing so well, and yet the unemployment figures are still so high. It’s got zero to do with regulations or very little. It’s got very little to do with “uncertainty” about what the buffoons in Congress are going to do. It’s got to do with profit. There is no morality here. It’s not part of the capitalistic model.

Meanwhile, there was this farcical drama in North Korea.

The pity is that the media thought any of this worthy to report upon. Dennis Rodman is a delightful entertainer. As an intellectual, well, he leaves a great deal to be desired.

His “opinion” is about as useful as that of a three-year-old. And I like the dude. He’s had a tough life as a kid, and he’s managed to make a good life for himself. I give him credit.

Kim? Oh good lord, he never got spanked as a child, that is certain. And I’m not much for corporal punishment either.

But he definitely needed spanking. In fact he needs spanking now. He’s always in the middle of a tantrum.

And dude, find a new barber. That haircut is silly. Seriously.

It’s hard to judge this Supreme Court. I’m not sure if we haven’t had this kind of horror before, when the Court was filled with really nutty people who make a mockery of the Constitution.

The Dred Scot Court comes to mind. That must have been an awful one.

But it would be hard to argue that this one is close to the top of the list of really awful benches.

Scalia is an intellectual joke, playing word games about original intent of the Framers, when all it comes down to is his personal disgusting beliefs.

Calling the right to vote a “racial entitlement”. And then suggesting that instead of testing a law against the Constitution, he has a new job–doing the dirty work for Congress, meaning that Congress is too beholden to special interests and can’t do the “right” thing because it might cost them an election.

So Scalia to the rescue. Doing the “right” thing. What a douche.

Let me get this straight.

Some Republicans are all upset at the use of drones against US citizens.

Got that.

No Republicans ever raised this issue when Bush starting using them.

Don’t get that.

In American courts, EVERYone, citizen or not, is gets the same rights.

Got that.

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith is arrested in Turkey. He is moved from Turkey to Jordan (Turkey prohibits the extradition of prisoners to those few countries that still practice the use of the death penalty and we are one of THOSE countries) and then transported from Jordan to the US for trial.

Got that.

Republicans are incensed because he can’t be interrogated properly except at Guantanamo (he was interrogated by an elite force of experts in Turkey and talked to the tune of some 20 pages), and because he is a bad dude and has no right to the rights granted him in our civilian courts.

Don’t get that.

Morality sure winds a crooked course in the Republican mind. And incidentally, in a good many Democratic ones as well.

Just a word about something I care about.

I am now the Sunday morning cat adoption “cleaner” for Pet Smart. I do this through a local adoption group in my area called A.W.A.R.E. What I learned is that Pet Smart joins with local animal groups across the country to adopt out animals. That’s a good thing.

My job is to clean the cages, feed and water where these cats live, and to play with them as much as I wish while I’m there. This is done twice a day, seven days a week, all serviced by volunteers.

My only point here, is that if you are interested in adopting a kitten, think of them as a source. You are not getting a “kitten” mill animal, but one that has been rescued and needs a good home. Prices are typically $50, and all animals are already spayed or neutered and have all their shots. In some cases the animals may come from the local shelter. You will probably get a bit better animal, since these kittens get more socialization than those typically housed in shelters.

I have no agreements of any kind with Pet Smart or A.W.A.R.E. in return for these statements. It’s only because I care about the animals. Perhaps other pet stores do the same. I haven’t inquired.

 

Related articles

• Scalia Calls Voting Rights Act ‘Perpetual Racial Entitlement’ (crooksandliars.com)
• Why Scalia’s ‘Racial Entitlement’ Quote Is Even Scarier Than You Think (thinkprogress.org)
• Voting is no ‘racial entitlement,’ Justice Scalia (tv.msnbc.com)
• Dennis Rodman Puts The New Abnormal Into Absurd Perspective (zerohedge.com)

 

Oh Good Gracious, She Just Ruined the Whole Show!

Tags

GOP, Michelle Obama, racism, right-wing awards, right-wing loons, teabaggers

The moment her face appeared, I gasped, “oh the crazy Right will be having a field day tomorrow about this!”

The “this” was Michelle Obama’s surprise appearance at the end of the Oscars to announce the best picture award. You’d have thought she was having a private meeting with the widow of Osama Bin Laden to hear the hue and cry from the reactionaries.

“She’s being petty and small” cavorting with all those Hollywood types, raged Jennifer Rubin. I mean really! Can’t they EVER leave America alone to its fun without intruding?

Forget that the crazy element that comprises the Republican right these days hates Hollywood which begs the question why they were watching in the first place.

Breitbart always the class act, called her appearance “obscene” for reasons only they could understand.

Of course they forget as they always do, that both Bushes, Laura and George W. made appearances at the Oscars themselves.

But oh lawdy, when Michelle does it, it’s “grasping.” And of course, it ain’t about race, or nuthin’ like that. No, it’s never about that.

∞

Alternet does a great job of coming up with its own Oscar picks this year. For saying and doing really dumb things all the while trying to appear normal–as in corporate executives and others of their ilk. The list of quotes is rather telling–*hint*–they don’t really give a rat’s behind about us regular folks. It’s always about them.

Here are just a few to whet your appetite:

Facebook’s Eduardo Saverin scored big-time, landing Mark Zuckerberg as a roommate at Harvard, using American resources to score billions in income, and then revoking his citizenship to avoid paying any taxes

Chicago Tribune: “Western-style private enterprise..will lead the world out of the mess it led the world into.”

PRO-LIFE GOWN:  Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) said “All life should be cherished and protected. We are pro-life.” It was later learned that he had encouraged both his lover and his wife to get abortions.

Billionaire Kenneth Griffin: The wealthy “have an insufficient influence” on politics today.

Rick Santorum: “Rape victims should make the best of a bad situation.”

CEO Ilana Weinstein about Wall Street bonus cutbacks: “It’s a disaster.”

Senator James Inhofe: “The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous.”

Nutrition classes being taught by Coca Cola and Hershey’s

Now go and read the rest of them!

∞

Make note of this man. If you see him, call authorities. He’s slipped out of the home again and is running loose. It’s hard to understand how he does with, not having a brain and all, but he does.

His name?

Steve Lavin. He’s an elected official. Yes, the good people of Montana abandoned their brains at the voting booth and sent him to the State House.

Once there, Steve introduced legislation that would allow corporations to. .  . .wait for it . . . .VOTE!

And I guess, if a “person” can vote, well I guess they can run for office, right?

If you see a brain rolling down the road, stop and pick it up.

It’s either Steve’s or some other Montana voter who thought he’d be a good person to help run the state.

I don’t know which is sadder.

I really don’t.

∞

I just want you to know ahead of time. These people are not racist. They surely tell you they are not. The head of the Montana Tea Party posted this on her Facebook page or on her blog, “Cowgirl Blog”. Don’t bother trying to find it, she’s apparently shut it down. You ask why? Oh, because she thinks this is humorous:

Yeah, no racism here, move along.

∞

Well now sleep on that and meet me tomorrow.

 

There Oughta Be A Law

Tags

GOP cheating, Republicans, voter suppression. Election 2012, voting

There really ought to be a law against grownups (age not mind) who dress up little girls to parade around in front of other adults looking like little sluts.

But that’s not what we are talking about today.

We are talking about a growing number of other idiots who run companies of various sizes and shapes. I have counted now four, and I suspect there are more and employees quietly contact the press and show them what they’ve been getting from the boss.

Not clear?

Oh, okay. Well, some of our “job creators” are sending out letters and e-mails to their employees with words to this effect:

“Things are going pretty well but that might not continue, especially if a certain administration is re-elected. Now I’m telling you that I don’t intend to pay one cent more in taxes. So let’s be clear. I’m not telling you who to vote for, that’s totally up to you. But if the wrong person is elected, and my taxes go up at all, well, your job may be in jeopardy. It’s up to you.”

The Koch brothers are the latest to issue their threat of lay-offs to their employees. David Siegel of Westgate Resorts of Orlando has threatened to retire and take his money and jobs to the Caribbean. This pig masquerading as a human owns a 90,000 SQUARE FOOT HOUSE. Arthur Allen, CEO of ASG Software Solutions has done the same, telling his employees that they can vote for whom they wish, but if they. . .

“fail to make the right choice on November 6th… I don’t want to hear any complaints regarding the fallout that will most likely come.”

Couple this with the TV ad that Romney was running featuring him standing with a bunch of smiling miners in Ohio. CEO Robert E. Murray allegedly forced his employees to do this, threatening reprisals, loss of jobs, and intimidation to contribute to Murray’s PAC. Miners were required to take off time without pay to stand in the photographs.

Add to this with the war of suppression that is being organized for election day. Here in my own state of New Mexico, Republicans have been caught teaching poll watchers illegal tactics such as encouraging provisional balloting even when there is no problem with the voter registration, demanding photo ID from voters which is not required, telling those who have received voter purge letters that they must vote provisionally, telling Spanish speakers that there are no Spanish language ballots, and that voters who have moved within the state must vote provisionally. All these are lies.

I can but urge you to learn what is required in your state. Make sure you can step up and step in and stop illegal harassment. You need do nothing more than call the police. I’m told that in the 2008 election several Republican poll watchers were arrested and removed from the scene for illegal activities such as this.

Republican poll watchers nationally have promised to make voters (Democratic ones of course) so uncomfortable that they will feel that they are being followed by the police.

I find this simply awful. No doubt some of it is illegal. It all should be.

Voting is our precious right and the only thing that stands between us and oligarchy, plutocracy, or whatever else you might wish to call it. Every effort should be made to allow every reasonable desire to vote happen. There is far more likelihood that people who have a right to vote will be denied than that a few dozen will by design or mistake, vote where they have no right to.  It’s not worth our democracy.

Be vigilant. Call your Democratic party and find out what you can do to protect the right to vote. Do it today.

Related articles

• Voter suppression in New Mexico? (salon.com)
• The Dangers of Poll-Watchers (theroot.com)
• Report from Tennessee: GOP invites Tea Party poll-watcher to train as poll official (maddowblog.msnbc.com)
• “A Dangerous Scenario”: The Million Wingnut March Of “Volunteer Poll Watchers” (mykeystrokes.com)
• True the Vote (balloon-juice.com)
• Koch Industries, and other CEOs warn employees of layoffs if Obama is reelected (theobamahustle.wordpress.com)
• Pro-Romney CEOs forgo subtlety as part of campaign push (maddowblog.msnbc.com)
• Voting For Lyin UnFitt Mitt Romney? You’re A Traitor To America…. (theobamacrat.com)
• David Siegel: ‘I Didn’t Try To Intimidate’ Employees With Anti-Obama Email (kaystreet.wordpress.com)
• Another US firm tells employees to ‘vote for Romney’ or ‘lose jobs’ (indiavision.com)

Okay God, Give Me the Ratio Will Ya?

Tags

GOP, John Bolton, Libya, Mitt Romney, morality, polls, religious right, teabaggers, Todd Akin

What’s wrong with the type of men that Willard “The Stench” hangs with, is that they are experts at “locker room” talk when nobody is around. You know what I mean. They are the one’s who are so politically correct in public, except when they let it slip that they are quite different with the “boys.”

You can almost hear the snickering about the “masses” that goes on in the country club over lunch as they compare the latest vacation spot in Europe and prattle about the newest investment scheme to “harvest” some profits at low risk.

John Bolton is one of the “boys” to be sure, and a snarly nasty example of neo-con war hawking manliness. You can almost hear the laughter that permeates his macho speech. These are the anti-women, anti-gay, anti-minority men who surround Willard and give him his economic and foreign policy policies. Today Bolton called the President’s Libyan policy as “limp-wristed.” How nice of him to insult a whole segment of America unnecessarily, all to make his point that the President doesn’t live in the bomb- first league with him.

•

A Manhattan storage company is having some fun with advertising boards. Apparently he’s been at it for some time.

The one about Michele “crazy eyes”  Bachmann is the best. We hear that MB is having herself some time in her re-election campaign. We can only hope that the people of Minnesota have finally come to their senses and discovered that she is insane.

But we doubt it.

We do hope though. Hope springs eternal among people my age.

•

What’s going on in Republican circles these days? I mean once you ignore the silliness of Krauthammer, Dick Morris, Hannity, and the usual bilge dumpers. The question is “who decided to nominate this guy?” Yep the blame game is already starting up and it promises to be a doozy, once the election is finished and Willard starts ejaculating into the conversation how it wasn’t his fault. Hint: just remember what the other choices were (Huntsman excepted).

•

Every day, if you read enough stuff in the old Google reader, you come upon the stupidest jerk on the planet, for the day. Each day, a new one. I can only figure that God has some formula for stupid. As a joke factor he slides us an idiot to keep the game interesting. Just what is the ratio?

Today the idiot meter went off and nearly woke up the house when I found out that there is a guy who is a mayor in Maine who has a lot of Somalian immigrants. Now said idiot says they have to stop living their own culture, and must leave it at the door, and adopt ours. Whatever that means.

His name is Bob McDonald and he ei-ei-ohed off some farm where he was probably sleeping with the pigs (as in sleeping, not that other thing–you potty brain!). Anyway, he is just another one of your colorful clowns who has managed to somehow pull the wool over his community who confoundedly elected him. My dog is smarter.

McDonald is a Republican. He ran against a dead guy. He only managed to win by 7 votes. Sigh. I’m signing up for the first interplanetary shuttle to NewStar when the begin the immigration. I sure hope I don’t have to leave my culture at the door.

•

Nate Silver says that the convention bump of Obama did stall as predicted. But when you make God happy, good things happen! The infamous 47% story has got it moving upward again. Or, as we say, gee Mitt, you DID build that!

•

This is why the Religious Right falls on deaf ears among rational people: Case in point. One pastor of a mega church in Indiana, Pastor Jack Schapp, has just pled guilty to having a sexual affair with a teen girl. The pastor had been counseling the girl, and was the author of a book for teen girls and dating. His advice? Keep your weight own. It’s not that there aren’t bad people in and out of religion, but it’s always the vocal “moralists” who are doing the most immoral things. They give all believers such a bad name. It’s a shame. They need to shut the pie hole.

•

A close runner-up for idiot of the day is our favorite Todd Akin, remember the dude and his “legitimate rape” claims? Well Todd is one stupid man. After debating Senator Claire McCaskill, he called her “not at all ladylike like she was in 20o6.” Todd, shut your pie hole.

Once upon a time, Akin was supposed to finish off the Democrats and turn the Senate into a GOP love land. Well, that is not likely to happen now, and where once (was it so short a time ago?) the GOP was vilifying Akin for his anti-woman remarks, now they are sending him money again, because you know when it comes down to it, women take second place to the chance to get that seat.

There are no principles in the GOP any more are there?

Related articles

• GOP returning to Akin camp (wnd.com)
• The Anti-Woman Party”: GOP Candidates Feeling Pressure From NRSC’s Flirtation With Todd Akin (mykeystrokes.com)
• Todd Akin wishes Claire McCaskill would be more ‘ladylike’ (dailykos.com)
• Dick Morris: ‘If the Election Were Held Today Romney Would Win’ (crooksandliars.com)

And The Beat Just Beats On

Tags

campaign, Catholic voting, Election 2012, losing and the aftermath, Mitt Romney, monied interests, polling, Rasmussen, voting

 

 

The biggest problem with being a conspicuous, notorious and pathological liar is that it’s hard to keep them all straight. Yesterday was a case in point.

Romney was speakin’ to his peeps about the usual crap, when he says that, “while Obama has not raised taxes on the middle class so far, he will if he’s re-elected.”

Ryan, winces and then attempts to cover that up. Portman just looks bored out of his skull, not listening at all apparently.

The fact is Romney is correct in the first part. The President has not raised taxes on the middle class during his term. In fact he has lowered taxes on the middle class. But that has never been the GOP meme. They have consistently lied that he has. And Romney of course forgot that the LIE was the GOP TRUTH, and got mixed up and actually, by mistake told the truth.

Such is life when you’re losing.

So now of course, it’s all the polls fault. When nothing else works, blame it on pollsters who as we all know, are simply lying cheating bastards intend on screwing Republicans. Except that of course, they aren’t. Some are skewed for one side or the other of course. PPP is reliably left leaning and Rasmussen is absurdly GOP, to the point that few people pay any attention to their “predictions” which are more akin to wishes. Nate Silver however, is almost scary right most of the time. And the CBS, Washington Post, ABC are pretty close to the mark most of the time. Gallup is leaning right a bit. Fox is closer to Rasmussen. But even Gallup and Fox are in the +Obama land. Soooo, it ‘s just a way to lie about what they can’t get away from.

÷

In case ya didn’t hear, a GOP operative in Iowa said that if Ryan wanted a political career after this debacle, he would have to get the Romney stench off of him. Now this went viral from a presumed satirical piece from Politico which had Paulie referring to Romney as “Stench” and that Romney’s people refer to Ryan as “Gilligan”. Who knows the truth, but I kinda like the name Stench, don’t you? I know I curl up my nose when ever I see the man these days. He’s distasteful and a bit smelly. He doesn’t have the smell of fresh air, but of a cesspool with his questionable ethics of campaigning.

÷

Just a thought: Somebody needs to tabulate just how much taxpayer money has been expended in states across the land to (1) suppress the vote, especially in purging non-existent fraudulent voters, and (2) nefarious attempts to put roadblocks in the way of women exercising their human right to contraceptive care and abortion. I bet it would be an eye-opener. So much for the GOP pledge of “jobs, jobs, jobs.

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There is a cartoon around about Rush Limbaugh. It’s been around a while. It shows him with an gi-normous belly and a tiny tiny tiny (I mean really tiny) wiener. Such cartoons are well beneath me to publish again of course. But I do sympathize, as all women would of course. Read Campaign Indecision’s take on the matter. Hey a laugh is good on Thursday.

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Meanwhile, conservative Matt Barber tries to keep a stiff upper lip, by claiming that media remarks that Romney isn’t pulling in the crowds is a media lie. Well.

Problem is, the rally in the photograph, is an Obama rally from 2008. Oops.

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Since I sit in the pew every Sunday, and I go to a fairly conservative Catholic church (there ain’t no other in Las Cruces), I am subjected to the “Catholic speech” on our “threatened” religious freedom, the yack-yack of the protection of life from conception, and all the rest of the much ballyhooed “Catholic” morality stuff.

Thus it amuses me greatly that the polls continue to indicate that the vast majority of Catholics in this country continue to do just as they please regarding social issues. Pew Research shows that 54% of them favor the President, and only 39% for Romney. It appears that Ryan, who is a Catholic, has had no appreciable effect on boosting Romney’s numbers.

One has to wonder how many decades (centuries?) it will take before the Catholic hierarchy once again bears any resemblance to the flock it tends. We in the progressive end of the Church join with the nuns across the country and pray that the Holy Spirit might find a way to enter into the iron-clad facade the Vatican has erected to keep out common sense.

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The story of this election may well be that of the super-pacs and their relatively lackluster performance in guaranteeing victory for their side. Frank Rich has a good article on the dilemma faced by the Right. They have poured in millions and have very little to show for it. And he chats about Ryan and Willard’s taxes. Always fun.

Well enough of all that. I’m water-logged from swimming and have dinner to prepare. Ain’t life grand?

Related articles

• Pew poll: Obama opens up lead over Romney among Catholics (religion.blogs.cnn.com)
• Republicans Are Abandoning Romney’s Sinking Ship (jnonymous81.wordpress.com)
• Obama’s surge in Florida and Ohio ends Mitt Romney’s campaign if it holds (pwtenny.newsvine.com)