by Rich Miles
http://front.moveon.org/rachel-maddow-on-how-the-republican-party-hasnt-learned-one-damned-thing/
Rachel Maddow has rapidly become my favorite lesbian. Her lesbianism has little or nothing to do with why I like her. Mostly, I like her because she has a perspective on American politics that is similar to mine - she doesn't go after the mainstream thought. She goes after the odd thought (usually), and wears it out like a pit bull going after a rat.
So it is with the link at the top of the page. It's listed online as "Rachel Maddow on how the Republican Party hasn't learned one damned thing. '' In the video, she spends about 7 minutes discussing how the Republicans, who in case you didn't hear LOST the bulk of the last national elections including the Preznitcy, have decided that the reason they lost was that they weren't Republican ENOUGH, and should be more so in order to win in the future.
So that's what they're going to do. Doubling down, eff. immediately, on being even more controlling, anti-female, etc. Repug assholes than they already are.
Watch the video and see what Rachel means. And whether you're Republican or Democrat, write a comment to this post, and tell me if you think this is an effective electoral strategy.
As if.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Repugs engage in cannibalism
by Rich Miles
Update below: It's not really cannibalism. It's just being a whiny-ass titty baby loser.
Not gonna go into detail on this, because the details are easily available if you're interested, but: The repugnican party is on a wild and hairy hunt for who to blame for the loss to President Obama a couple weeks ago. So far, they've come up with: Romoney's aides, and most recently, Fox News. I mean, the very news strategy that has been in operation since at least 2000 is now - not a good electoral strategy.
What total whores these people are. If they had won, Fox News would have been the golden source of all wisdom. But since Romoney bit the big one, it simply HAS to be someone else's fault. It just can't be that Mittens was simply an unconvincing candidate to lead a country in such financial straits as we are. It has to be something else.
I am sincerely hoping that, as predictions have it these days, all the old farts who make up the base of the Repug party these days will indeed die off. Unfortunately, it will probably be another 40-60 years or more until they're all gone - but we can hope, can't we?
UPDATE: Comes today, 11/18, the news that Romoney is whining that the Repug primary debates were too many, and exposed the candidates to "gaffes" and other awful stuff that could be used against them to prove them stupid asses later. OK, he didn't say that last bit, but it was the gist of what he said.
Also, CNN and PBS were liberal networks that "beat the heck out of" Repug candidates, including of course, him.
Big stupid pussy. Is no part of his internal dialogue or public statements that HE was a big, disgusting plutocrat? And that eventually, even Repugs figure out that they are voting against their own interests, financial and otherwise?
Aren't you glad he didn't win? He would have spent 4 years whining like this every time something went wrong, count on it. If you go back and listen to his speeches, you'll hear the tone that would have led to it. Listen especially to his direct criticisms of Obama - THAT is whiny-ass titty baby stuff!
My only regret from this election is that he didn't lose by a far larger margin. I mean, 59 million Americans were just plain stupid enough not to see through the bastard.
My advice to the former governor: Shut up. Nobody cares why YOU think you lost. You are irrelevant and useless now. And don't even THINK about 2016, unless Pres. Obama shits himself on the White House lawn, and bombs Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. And maybe even Houston. And even then, you'll be running against the next Dem, NOT Obama.
Update below: It's not really cannibalism. It's just being a whiny-ass titty baby loser.
Not gonna go into detail on this, because the details are easily available if you're interested, but: The repugnican party is on a wild and hairy hunt for who to blame for the loss to President Obama a couple weeks ago. So far, they've come up with: Romoney's aides, and most recently, Fox News. I mean, the very news strategy that has been in operation since at least 2000 is now - not a good electoral strategy.
What total whores these people are. If they had won, Fox News would have been the golden source of all wisdom. But since Romoney bit the big one, it simply HAS to be someone else's fault. It just can't be that Mittens was simply an unconvincing candidate to lead a country in such financial straits as we are. It has to be something else.
I am sincerely hoping that, as predictions have it these days, all the old farts who make up the base of the Repug party these days will indeed die off. Unfortunately, it will probably be another 40-60 years or more until they're all gone - but we can hope, can't we?
UPDATE: Comes today, 11/18, the news that Romoney is whining that the Repug primary debates were too many, and exposed the candidates to "gaffes" and other awful stuff that could be used against them to prove them stupid asses later. OK, he didn't say that last bit, but it was the gist of what he said.
Also, CNN and PBS were liberal networks that "beat the heck out of" Repug candidates, including of course, him.
Big stupid pussy. Is no part of his internal dialogue or public statements that HE was a big, disgusting plutocrat? And that eventually, even Repugs figure out that they are voting against their own interests, financial and otherwise?
Aren't you glad he didn't win? He would have spent 4 years whining like this every time something went wrong, count on it. If you go back and listen to his speeches, you'll hear the tone that would have led to it. Listen especially to his direct criticisms of Obama - THAT is whiny-ass titty baby stuff!
My only regret from this election is that he didn't lose by a far larger margin. I mean, 59 million Americans were just plain stupid enough not to see through the bastard.
My advice to the former governor: Shut up. Nobody cares why YOU think you lost. You are irrelevant and useless now. And don't even THINK about 2016, unless Pres. Obama shits himself on the White House lawn, and bombs Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. And maybe even Houston. And even then, you'll be running against the next Dem, NOT Obama.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
How Republicans Lost
I've been trying to write something that said adequately how I feel about Republicans, both before and since the recent election. And come to find out, this guy Ellsworth has already written it. IMHO, this piece should be spread all over the Internet, and copied and distributed to every right-wing radical in the country. But probably, just reading it and living in its philosophies is enough for now. If the following does not make you proud to be a Democrat and an American, then I don't know what will. Oh, and BTW, I knew this was going to happen. I even predicted it in past posts. I'm just a little surprised it happened this soon. I thought 2016, maybe 2020 might be the year for it. Perhaps this earlier date will allow for a little more healing before we do it all again in '16.
In essence, this piece says "Shut up, radical righties". And rightly so.
Get it? Rightly so...oh never mind.
Enjoy.
Rich Miles
====================
Cry Babies And Sore Losers
by Rob Ellsworth
I’m
seeing Americans post photos of our Flag hung upside down because the
President won reelection. They’re defending this action as a “Naval sign
of distress”. Let me tell you something: you are not on a battleship,
you are a manager at McDonalds in Follansbee, WV, and you are in fact, a
lunatic.I’ve avoided “spiking the football” over a great night for the President and for common sense in the Senate – Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin deserved more than a loss. But I’ve held off, because I respect, am friends with, and on certain issues agree with, many patriotic Republicans who work hard to make this country a better place and simply disagreed with who should be Commander in Chief. That’s fair and healthy.
And, I also didn’t spike the football because I’ve lost elections before and I know how terrible it feels.
It’s called maturity and not enough people in either party have it.
The
following jaw punch is not directed at common sense Republicans, nor
does it condone radicals on the Left. It is directed at the right wing
fanatics who put party before country, conspiracy before reality, and
ideology before science and intellect.
To Tea Party Patriots and hardcore Religious Engineers:
Republicans lost because their party leadership and most candidates feared you, listened to you, and looked the other way on important issues as you picked the dumbest, craziest nominees in key primaries (Murdock and Akin), or converted otherwise sensible, experienced candidates to Crazy Town (Romney).
There’s nothing wrong with wanting limited government. I do.
There’s nothing wrong with believing in God, the Golden Rule, or wanting to reduce abortions. I do, too. But you’ve taken it too damn far and scare the shit out of people you could otherwise persuade.
Yes, the message and messenger matter (you’re failing at both, BTW), but no Madison Avenue P.R. firm, K Street lobbying firm, Fox News “analyst”, or local chapter of “Freedom Works” can sell the flaming dung you’re slinging.
Smart people can lose. But smart people always learn.
You didn’t lose because you “weren’t conservative enough” or because the country has become full of lazy “takers” who don’t want to earn a living or just want America to “turn in to Europe”.
You didn’t lose because of Hurricane Sandy or because Chris Christie hugged the President on TV – they were both doing their jobs.
You didn’t lose because of a liberal media, liberal college campuses, liberal polls that were “weighted to Democrats” (mostly because they were accurate), or because of “election fraud”… actually, that probably benefited you this time.
No. You lost because your policies, tone, conspiracies, rigid inflexibility and irrational rhetoric helped align enough moderates, swing voters, and minority groups whom otherwise could be persuaded by Republicans, to align with Democrats and a beatable incumbent.
It’s not that you didn’t get your message out, it’s that we all actually heard it and threw up a little in our mouths.
There isn’t a mandate for Democrats in this election. Liberalism wasn’t rewarded in this election. However, calm pragmatism, compassion, working together, compromise and sincerity were rewarded. People may not have agreed with President Obama, but more felt he was sincere and that he understood their daily problems, fears, and dreams. If you don’t trust what the polls say, take a look at who is sworn in on January 20th. I thought you’d at least believe in Math when it came to counting to 270.
Sincerity is the only thing in politics you can’t fake. You can’t teach it. No matter how shiny a candidate’s bio is, how smooth he is, or how perfect the gray hairs rest on his temples — any average Joe on the street can spot a bullshitter.
Mitt is a generous and good man, but he didn’t know who he was or “needed” to be at any given time in that campaign. That’s largely his fault for lacking core convictions or personal toughness (Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush possessed both traits – that’s why they won).
But you, the right wing base of the party, who drove so many of us moderate republicans out the door years ago, were the main catalyst. Your inability to reason, compromise, or let new facts and evidence challenge your predetermined outcomes led millions of moderates to no longer be able to stand on stage with you.
Frankly, you’re embarrassing – more so than a crazy family member at dinner, or having your mom drop you off at a high school dance.
You say stupid shit and look stupid saying it.
You pass amendments to ban flag burning and then hang it upside down and post it on Facebook when you lose.
You preach limited government in the economy when Democrats are in charge and then look the other way when you’re in charge.
You want a government small enough to stay out of corporations and banks but big enough for bedrooms and hospital respirators (see Schiavo, Terri).
There’s a hatred inside of you that burns in a way that scares normal people.
You made unlikely allies in large corporations who are more interested in tax breaks and loopholes even if the government has to cut your Medicare and Social Security or cut education to a point where states and local governments have no financial choice but to educate your children in portable trailer classrooms with 35 other students.
Would these corporations do this just to help pad their quarterly earnings reports with certain tax and regulatory policies? You bet your sweet ass they do. And you better believe they’re happy to have you make the “freedom” argument as “concerned citizen patriots” on their behalf.
Yet, after those corporations spent billions on TV ads and herded you like sheep over the last half decade to discredit Barack Obama for everything from being a “Godless communist” — to his “being born in Kenya and hatching a secret plot to take down America” — to Obamacare’s “death panels and job killing regulations” -
YOU still lost.
After having a Senate Republican Leader state that his party’s top priority in Congress was to make “Obama a one term President” and a House of Representatives that blocked everything he tried to do and then had the brass to criticize him for “not getting anything done” -
YOU still lost.
After attacking gay people who want equal protection under the law (BTW, I’m referring to the 14th amendment to the constitution, I know you forget most of the amendments after the 2nd one) -
YOU still lost.
After attacking the Hispanic community who’s tired of being spoken “at” like criminals, attacking low income women who rely on Planned Parenthood for services of which 98% have nothing to do with abortion, and attacking relatively trivial things like PBS that children and adults enjoy as “1″ damn television channel that doesn’t include Honey Boo Boo or a “Fox News Breaking Alert” announcing Obama’s latest “Czar” appointment -
YOU still lost.
And after throwing all the red meat in your warped political base out to the rest of the country to eat, the majority of Americans weren’t hungry for it and didn’t trust ordering from your unhealthy, de-regulated menu -
YOU still lost.
You can read me the constitution, but you clearly don’t have a practical understanding of what you’ve read, heard on television, or forwarded to your entire email list of like minded xenophobes.
This country is great because our founders were smart enough to limit the government’s power and give the people enough freedom and authority to correct their own mistakes in pursuit of a “more perfect union” (it’s in the first damn line of the Preamble, in case you can’t find it in your Tea Party Constitution Cliffs Notes).
Our founders were utterly brilliant and sophisticated. I don’t like to speak for them, but I doubt they would have been friends with Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or Sarah Palin. Nah, they wouldn’t have made the guest list at Mt. Vernon or Monticello.
But let’s be clear, our founders weren’t perfect. They owned slaves. Only White male property owners had a say in things. Women, blacks, native Americans, and other constituencies had to wait for an American dream and in many cases, are still waiting and working for it. Speaking of work, children were working 12-16 hour days with zero safety protections in statute. Zero.
The constitution, subsequent amendments and Supreme Court rulings and opinions since 1800 aren’t perfectly clear (those who think they are tend to have had a healthy serving of Kool-Aid and have never watched oral arguments at the Supreme Court).
The founders knew that they, and the constitution they drafted, weren’t perfect. This is why they added a Bill of Rights and why they created a Supreme Court and a process that has allowed us to add 27 amendments to their work of art.
Their imperfection is what led to a Civil War to prove that human and civil rights aren’t a “states’ rights issue” – they’re endowed by our creator, not by legislatures in Mississippi or Alabama, and they’re protected equally in our constitution, but also in our democratically passed laws.
I run from the Capitol steps to the Lincoln Memorial most mornings that I’m in Washington. I may not be fast or smart, but I can read what’s carved in stone.
Please. I welcome a challenge to what I’ve said. If you think because I voted for President Obama that I’m a socialist or that I don’t want a better America, I’m happy to take time from running a business I’ve co-founded and time from money I’m trying to raise for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America to pause and give you a fresh one. At no charge.
But I do ask this: be a real Patriot. Look at that flag you’ve hung upside down. Look at what you’ve done to it and what that means. Thousands of our bravest men and women, braver than me, just lost limbs and in many cases their lives so that Iraqis and Afghanis could vote however they see fit. I did that on Tuesday and so did you. That’s what that flag stands for – equal access to a process, not a guarantee for any of our desired outcomes.
A country that defeated Hitler, Mussolini, and bin Laden won’t crumble because the guy you wanted to be President got beat.
You lost. Now learn from it.
Sincerely,
Guest Contributor, Rob Ellsworth, “A Proud American
It’s called maturity and not enough people in either party have it.
The
following jaw punch is not directed at common sense Republicans, nor
does it condone radicals on the Left. It is directed at the right wing
fanatics who put party before country, conspiracy before reality, and
ideology before science and intellect.To Tea Party Patriots and hardcore Religious Engineers:
Republicans lost because their party leadership and most candidates feared you, listened to you, and looked the other way on important issues as you picked the dumbest, craziest nominees in key primaries (Murdock and Akin), or converted otherwise sensible, experienced candidates to Crazy Town (Romney).
There’s nothing wrong with wanting limited government. I do.
There’s nothing wrong with believing in God, the Golden Rule, or wanting to reduce abortions. I do, too. But you’ve taken it too damn far and scare the shit out of people you could otherwise persuade.
Yes, the message and messenger matter (you’re failing at both, BTW), but no Madison Avenue P.R. firm, K Street lobbying firm, Fox News “analyst”, or local chapter of “Freedom Works” can sell the flaming dung you’re slinging.
Smart people can lose. But smart people always learn.
You didn’t lose because you “weren’t conservative enough” or because the country has become full of lazy “takers” who don’t want to earn a living or just want America to “turn in to Europe”.
You didn’t lose because of Hurricane Sandy or because Chris Christie hugged the President on TV – they were both doing their jobs.
You didn’t lose because of a liberal media, liberal college campuses, liberal polls that were “weighted to Democrats” (mostly because they were accurate), or because of “election fraud”… actually, that probably benefited you this time.
No. You lost because your policies, tone, conspiracies, rigid inflexibility and irrational rhetoric helped align enough moderates, swing voters, and minority groups whom otherwise could be persuaded by Republicans, to align with Democrats and a beatable incumbent.
It’s not that you didn’t get your message out, it’s that we all actually heard it and threw up a little in our mouths.
There isn’t a mandate for Democrats in this election. Liberalism wasn’t rewarded in this election. However, calm pragmatism, compassion, working together, compromise and sincerity were rewarded. People may not have agreed with President Obama, but more felt he was sincere and that he understood their daily problems, fears, and dreams. If you don’t trust what the polls say, take a look at who is sworn in on January 20th. I thought you’d at least believe in Math when it came to counting to 270.
Sincerity is the only thing in politics you can’t fake. You can’t teach it. No matter how shiny a candidate’s bio is, how smooth he is, or how perfect the gray hairs rest on his temples — any average Joe on the street can spot a bullshitter.
Mitt is a generous and good man, but he didn’t know who he was or “needed” to be at any given time in that campaign. That’s largely his fault for lacking core convictions or personal toughness (Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush possessed both traits – that’s why they won).
But you, the right wing base of the party, who drove so many of us moderate republicans out the door years ago, were the main catalyst. Your inability to reason, compromise, or let new facts and evidence challenge your predetermined outcomes led millions of moderates to no longer be able to stand on stage with you.
Frankly, you’re embarrassing – more so than a crazy family member at dinner, or having your mom drop you off at a high school dance.
You say stupid shit and look stupid saying it.
You pass amendments to ban flag burning and then hang it upside down and post it on Facebook when you lose.
You preach limited government in the economy when Democrats are in charge and then look the other way when you’re in charge.
You want a government small enough to stay out of corporations and banks but big enough for bedrooms and hospital respirators (see Schiavo, Terri).
There’s a hatred inside of you that burns in a way that scares normal people.
You made unlikely allies in large corporations who are more interested in tax breaks and loopholes even if the government has to cut your Medicare and Social Security or cut education to a point where states and local governments have no financial choice but to educate your children in portable trailer classrooms with 35 other students.
Would these corporations do this just to help pad their quarterly earnings reports with certain tax and regulatory policies? You bet your sweet ass they do. And you better believe they’re happy to have you make the “freedom” argument as “concerned citizen patriots” on their behalf.
Yet, after those corporations spent billions on TV ads and herded you like sheep over the last half decade to discredit Barack Obama for everything from being a “Godless communist” — to his “being born in Kenya and hatching a secret plot to take down America” — to Obamacare’s “death panels and job killing regulations” -
YOU still lost.
After having a Senate Republican Leader state that his party’s top priority in Congress was to make “Obama a one term President” and a House of Representatives that blocked everything he tried to do and then had the brass to criticize him for “not getting anything done” -
YOU still lost.
After attacking gay people who want equal protection under the law (BTW, I’m referring to the 14th amendment to the constitution, I know you forget most of the amendments after the 2nd one) -
YOU still lost.
After attacking the Hispanic community who’s tired of being spoken “at” like criminals, attacking low income women who rely on Planned Parenthood for services of which 98% have nothing to do with abortion, and attacking relatively trivial things like PBS that children and adults enjoy as “1″ damn television channel that doesn’t include Honey Boo Boo or a “Fox News Breaking Alert” announcing Obama’s latest “Czar” appointment -
YOU still lost.
And after throwing all the red meat in your warped political base out to the rest of the country to eat, the majority of Americans weren’t hungry for it and didn’t trust ordering from your unhealthy, de-regulated menu -
YOU still lost.
You can read me the constitution, but you clearly don’t have a practical understanding of what you’ve read, heard on television, or forwarded to your entire email list of like minded xenophobes.
This country is great because our founders were smart enough to limit the government’s power and give the people enough freedom and authority to correct their own mistakes in pursuit of a “more perfect union” (it’s in the first damn line of the Preamble, in case you can’t find it in your Tea Party Constitution Cliffs Notes).
Our founders were utterly brilliant and sophisticated. I don’t like to speak for them, but I doubt they would have been friends with Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or Sarah Palin. Nah, they wouldn’t have made the guest list at Mt. Vernon or Monticello.
But let’s be clear, our founders weren’t perfect. They owned slaves. Only White male property owners had a say in things. Women, blacks, native Americans, and other constituencies had to wait for an American dream and in many cases, are still waiting and working for it. Speaking of work, children were working 12-16 hour days with zero safety protections in statute. Zero.
The constitution, subsequent amendments and Supreme Court rulings and opinions since 1800 aren’t perfectly clear (those who think they are tend to have had a healthy serving of Kool-Aid and have never watched oral arguments at the Supreme Court).
The founders knew that they, and the constitution they drafted, weren’t perfect. This is why they added a Bill of Rights and why they created a Supreme Court and a process that has allowed us to add 27 amendments to their work of art.
Their imperfection is what led to a Civil War to prove that human and civil rights aren’t a “states’ rights issue” – they’re endowed by our creator, not by legislatures in Mississippi or Alabama, and they’re protected equally in our constitution, but also in our democratically passed laws.
I run from the Capitol steps to the Lincoln Memorial most mornings that I’m in Washington. I may not be fast or smart, but I can read what’s carved in stone.
Please. I welcome a challenge to what I’ve said. If you think because I voted for President Obama that I’m a socialist or that I don’t want a better America, I’m happy to take time from running a business I’ve co-founded and time from money I’m trying to raise for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America to pause and give you a fresh one. At no charge.
But I do ask this: be a real Patriot. Look at that flag you’ve hung upside down. Look at what you’ve done to it and what that means. Thousands of our bravest men and women, braver than me, just lost limbs and in many cases their lives so that Iraqis and Afghanis could vote however they see fit. I did that on Tuesday and so did you. That’s what that flag stands for – equal access to a process, not a guarantee for any of our desired outcomes.
A country that defeated Hitler, Mussolini, and bin Laden won’t crumble because the guy you wanted to be President got beat.
You lost. Now learn from it.
Sincerely,
Saturday, November 03, 2012
This guy will say ANYthing!!
by Rich Miles
I haven't written much in the past few months. That's unusual for me in a presidential election year. It's just that I really couldn't get inside the head of anyone who is planning to vote for the Mittster. It's just such an illogical fallacy to vote for him that I found it impossible to address remarks to such a person.
I remember back in 2004, when John Kerry was accused of, among other things, being willing to "say anything" to get votes. It wasn't true, of course, Kerry was relatively honest compared to most pols, and especially compared to Bush - but as was the common tactic with Karl Rove, they attacked Kerry at his strongest point, not his weakest - he's a fairly honest guy? said Rove, good, then let's call him a liar. Remember all the people at the Repug National Convention carrying flipflop sandals with Kerry's face on them? Cute, but inaccurate. Kerry mixed up a few facts, but most of the time when he did he admitted it and tried to fix it. But the Repug outrage knew no bounds when they caught him at something - never mind that their candidate couldn't open his mouth without lying.
And now we have a candidate who really will say anything, and has - he's reversed positions he's held publicly for his entire political life, and expects that no one will remember, or notice that he's lying, and that people will thus vote for him because he's saying all the right things.
And while I find it difficult to picture, there really do seem to be a lot of people who are going to vote for the SOB. Enough to make it a close race, when it should be about a 70-30 rout for Obama, and Romoney only gets the 30% because some people will vote their party no matter how crooked the candidate clearly is.
But the thing that really frightens me - and I can't figure out for what reason - is that he might actually get elected! And I don't know if I fear that because he is evil, or because he is simply incompetent. Because he (Romoney) is most assuredly both. He almost totally lacks compassion for his fellow man. Now prove me wrong.
Let me wrap this up with one small observation: Romoney was governor of Massachusetts. And up there where they know him best, he is losing by a margin of 63-33% (3% undecided, however that may be) according to a recent poll. It ain't just a little margin, you see. Massachusetts is admittedly a fairly liberal state, but they elected HIM! And now, they hate him by 30 percentage points.
Still thinking about voting for him?
I haven't written much in the past few months. That's unusual for me in a presidential election year. It's just that I really couldn't get inside the head of anyone who is planning to vote for the Mittster. It's just such an illogical fallacy to vote for him that I found it impossible to address remarks to such a person.
I remember back in 2004, when John Kerry was accused of, among other things, being willing to "say anything" to get votes. It wasn't true, of course, Kerry was relatively honest compared to most pols, and especially compared to Bush - but as was the common tactic with Karl Rove, they attacked Kerry at his strongest point, not his weakest - he's a fairly honest guy? said Rove, good, then let's call him a liar. Remember all the people at the Repug National Convention carrying flipflop sandals with Kerry's face on them? Cute, but inaccurate. Kerry mixed up a few facts, but most of the time when he did he admitted it and tried to fix it. But the Repug outrage knew no bounds when they caught him at something - never mind that their candidate couldn't open his mouth without lying.
And now we have a candidate who really will say anything, and has - he's reversed positions he's held publicly for his entire political life, and expects that no one will remember, or notice that he's lying, and that people will thus vote for him because he's saying all the right things.
And while I find it difficult to picture, there really do seem to be a lot of people who are going to vote for the SOB. Enough to make it a close race, when it should be about a 70-30 rout for Obama, and Romoney only gets the 30% because some people will vote their party no matter how crooked the candidate clearly is.
But the thing that really frightens me - and I can't figure out for what reason - is that he might actually get elected! And I don't know if I fear that because he is evil, or because he is simply incompetent. Because he (Romoney) is most assuredly both. He almost totally lacks compassion for his fellow man. Now prove me wrong.
Let me wrap this up with one small observation: Romoney was governor of Massachusetts. And up there where they know him best, he is losing by a margin of 63-33% (3% undecided, however that may be) according to a recent poll. It ain't just a little margin, you see. Massachusetts is admittedly a fairly liberal state, but they elected HIM! And now, they hate him by 30 percentage points.
Still thinking about voting for him?
Friday, October 19, 2012
Sundance has a few words for us
Why I'm Supporting President Obama
Posted: 10/19/2012 8:04 am
I was in the early days of my acting career in 1962, when Rachel Carson's Silent Spring made its way onto best-seller lists and college campuses and into living rooms across America and sowed the seeds of today's environmental movement. The story of that movement still represents for me who we are as a country: a people dedicated to something greater than ourselves, and a nation that recognizes our responsibility to each other.
In this election, only President Obama shares those values and the belief that our kids and grandkids should grow up with living, natural places to explore. Yosemite, the Great Lakes and the Everglades should always be places we can visit and wonders that inspire -- not just photos of what used to be.
Shortly after taking office, President Obama signed one of the largest expansions of wilderness protection in a generation, setting aside more than 2 million acres as protected wilderness, conserving more than 1,000 miles of rivers, authorizing a 26-million-acre conservation system of historically significant landscapes and adding thousands of miles of trails. He's helping restore treasured landscapes from coast to coast that support local economies and communities through tourism and outdoor recreation.
The President has set historic standards that by 2025 will double the distance our cars and trucks will be able to go on a tank of gas, reducing our reliance on foreign oil by 2.2 million barrels per day and saving each of us thousands of dollars at the pump.
He made the single largest investment in clean energy of any other president, helping to double the amount of electricity we generate from wind and solar, strengthening our global economic competitiveness and supporting nearly a quarter of a million American jobs.
And that's one of the biggest differences in an election brimming with them. While President Obama is moving us forward, Mitt Romney would take us back. He'd roll back every step of progress we've made -- not just in the last four years, but the last 40 years.
We've seen in the last stretch of this campaign that Romney will say anything to win, even if it's flat-out false. But we know what the real Mitt Romney would do. He'd gut investments in renewable energy -- including the wind production tax credit that 37,000 American jobs depend on -- while giving $4 billion a year in wasteful taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil, even as they reap near-record profits. It's no coincidence that those same special interests have donated nearly $11 million to Romney's campaign and the super PACs behind it.
Even more revealing, Romney would undermine President Obama's commitment to our national parks and undo the crucial steps the President has taken to reduce toxic pollutants like mercury and address carbon pollution -- change that protects the health and prosperity of our children now and for generations to come.
We simply can't let Mitt Romney buy the keys to the White House and let the special interests write our nation's energy plan behind closed doors, like it did in the previous administration. That old saw didn't work then, and it won't work now.
I hope you'll join me in supporting President Obama and stopping others from reversing our progress. If you care about Great Lakes restoration in Ohio, or the Everglades in Florida, wind energy in Iowa or Colorado, vote. All of those states, and many others, have early voting -- don't wait until Election Day. Check out vote.barackobama.com and head over to the polls now.
This is one of the most important campaigns in our lifetime. The choice is clear, and it's up to all of us to join with President Obama to fight for continuing the significant progress he's made.
But don't take my word for it, watch this video about President Obama's environmental accomplishments and see for yourself our progress that's at stake:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-redford/obama-energy-policy_b_1985714.html
(NOTE: The above link is to the entire article plus the video, because I don't know how to cut and paste only the video. If you've read the article, scroll down to the bottom and view the video. Sorry, I'll try to upgrade my tech skills ASAP.)
In this election, only President Obama shares those values and the belief that our kids and grandkids should grow up with living, natural places to explore. Yosemite, the Great Lakes and the Everglades should always be places we can visit and wonders that inspire -- not just photos of what used to be.
Shortly after taking office, President Obama signed one of the largest expansions of wilderness protection in a generation, setting aside more than 2 million acres as protected wilderness, conserving more than 1,000 miles of rivers, authorizing a 26-million-acre conservation system of historically significant landscapes and adding thousands of miles of trails. He's helping restore treasured landscapes from coast to coast that support local economies and communities through tourism and outdoor recreation.
The President has set historic standards that by 2025 will double the distance our cars and trucks will be able to go on a tank of gas, reducing our reliance on foreign oil by 2.2 million barrels per day and saving each of us thousands of dollars at the pump.
He made the single largest investment in clean energy of any other president, helping to double the amount of electricity we generate from wind and solar, strengthening our global economic competitiveness and supporting nearly a quarter of a million American jobs.
And that's one of the biggest differences in an election brimming with them. While President Obama is moving us forward, Mitt Romney would take us back. He'd roll back every step of progress we've made -- not just in the last four years, but the last 40 years.
We've seen in the last stretch of this campaign that Romney will say anything to win, even if it's flat-out false. But we know what the real Mitt Romney would do. He'd gut investments in renewable energy -- including the wind production tax credit that 37,000 American jobs depend on -- while giving $4 billion a year in wasteful taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil, even as they reap near-record profits. It's no coincidence that those same special interests have donated nearly $11 million to Romney's campaign and the super PACs behind it.
Even more revealing, Romney would undermine President Obama's commitment to our national parks and undo the crucial steps the President has taken to reduce toxic pollutants like mercury and address carbon pollution -- change that protects the health and prosperity of our children now and for generations to come.
We simply can't let Mitt Romney buy the keys to the White House and let the special interests write our nation's energy plan behind closed doors, like it did in the previous administration. That old saw didn't work then, and it won't work now.
I hope you'll join me in supporting President Obama and stopping others from reversing our progress. If you care about Great Lakes restoration in Ohio, or the Everglades in Florida, wind energy in Iowa or Colorado, vote. All of those states, and many others, have early voting -- don't wait until Election Day. Check out vote.barackobama.com and head over to the polls now.
This is one of the most important campaigns in our lifetime. The choice is clear, and it's up to all of us to join with President Obama to fight for continuing the significant progress he's made.
But don't take my word for it, watch this video about President Obama's environmental accomplishments and see for yourself our progress that's at stake:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-redford/obama-energy-policy_b_1985714.html
(NOTE: The above link is to the entire article plus the video, because I don't know how to cut and paste only the video. If you've read the article, scroll down to the bottom and view the video. Sorry, I'll try to upgrade my tech skills ASAP.)
Friday, September 07, 2012
Now About this 'Citizens United' thing
Just in case there is one uninformed boob in this country who does not yet know what 'Citizens United' refers to, here's a tip: it's nothing less than the downfall of democracy as we've always thought we've known it here in the United States. It's a Supreme Court decision from January 2010 that held, in essence, that corporations are permitted to contribute virtually unlimited funds to the election campaigns of whoever the hell they want. That's not actually what the decision held - but it was the net effect of the decision.
The net result has been that literally huuuuge amounts of money have been flowing from these corporate coffers into the campaigns of - you guessed it - Republican candidates who will bend over and grease up on any issue their corporate sponsors instruct them to. It has taken the democratic process out of our democratic process, and has in essence given a number of elections to candidates who have the most money, regardless of qualification, simply because those candidates can afford to buy far more advertising than their opponents, and because many of us remain stupid enough to sell our votes to the most-advertised.
I trust I have made myself perfectly vague.
No, seriously, boiled down to its essence, Citizens United means that our democracy has been bought and sold to he (or more rarely, she) who has the most money. Which should scare, and in reality, anger any person who still believes in "one person, one vote". Yeah, you know who you are, all 477 of you.
So anyway, why am I telling you all this? Well, I'm glad you asked me that question.
Remember Roseanne Barr? She of the scratched crotch while mangling "The Star-Spangled Banner" some years ago at an MLB game? Or of the eponymous comedy series, if you want to go back that far.
Well guess what? She's become something of a political commentator, and truth be told, she ain't half-bad at it. So what follows is a commentary she published on Sept. 6, 2012. It has a few things to say to us. And is at least mildly funny, too. Here it is:
I Approve This Message...
by Roseanne BarrPosted: 09/06/2012 9:24 am
(Italics mine - RM)
I'm glad I have a chance to say a few words about money in Politics, because this issue is really at the heart of it all, like a clogged, throbbing artery. More than ever, freedom of speech has become freedom to buy enough media to drown out just about everybody else's freedom of speech. I was driving, yesterday, and as I clicked past one Right Wing radio show after another, for some reason it all was drowned out by a voice in my head that kept repeating the words, "Liberal Media." It seemed sad and funny at the same time. Maybe that's because I am, among other things, a comedian. A fair amount of the time I'm a pissed-off comedian. Why? Because an old quote also pops into my head, more than I'd like it to. It goes: "There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can't remember what the second one is."
I found out that it's a quote from a super-rich guy named Mark Hanna who managed the campaign of William McKinley back in the dark ages of Media. He strong-armed his loaded industrialist pals and raised enough bank to outspend Democrat, William Jennings Bryan, by ten to one. Guess who got to be President? It still works like that, and, in fact, it's getting worse because of a recent development known as Citizens United. "Citizens United," it sounds a lot better than "A handful of the mega-rich who own politicians and can swing some Supreme Court Justices." The real takeaway here is that we've turned the word bribery into the more respectable word, contribution. Now that we've been force-fed the bizarre idea that a corporation is basically a person, I hope Haliburton and Blackwater and Lockheed-Martin don't get upset stomachs if they're denied their God-given right to attack Iran. Poor rich guys, all they want is a little free market opportunity, a chance to work the same magic they used to transform Iraq into the peaceful, democratic wonderland it is today.
I have to admit: It really takes some world class bullshitting skills to claim that handing politicians gigantic checks in return for favors is simply free speech. I'll tell you what's not bullshit, though: they actually rammed it through with a straight face. It's one more slap in the face for the 99%, but the Romneys of the world don't see it that way. They don't see it as arrogance and/or hubris or whatever word you can use to better describe their arrogance and hubris. No, they see it like, "Look, God doesn't make mistakes -- he's 'blessed' me with five-hundred million dollars, and if that doesn't prove that I'm qualified and deserve to wear the pants around here, I don't know what does!"
In the same category as Romney and hateful uber-nerds like the Koch brothers, we have Sheldon Adelson, casinos-in-China magnate and who knows what else, who can casually toss an extra hundred million bucks at the Romney machine so it can buy ads telling people that they're going to Hell along with what's left of America if they don't kick the Black Communist from Kenya out of the Lily White House. Unfortunately, Adelson also thinks that America exists primarily to provide money and muscle to Israel and do the bidding of Benjamin Netanyahu. Jeez, you'd think Israel had oil the way our "leaders" keep their/our lips on its ass. What they do have is a sweetheart Foreign Aid deal with supposedly cash-strapped America whereby we give them money and they buy weapons from us so they can remain the sheriff in town in the part of the world that does have oil. They're our special friends, like Saudi Arabia, only they're Jewish, and they don't have oil. Get it? Me either, but they both buy tons of weapons from American Arms merchants, because, after all, all God's children need expensive, high-tech weapons. But don't get me started on The Middle East. My point is that Sheldon Adelson has about a million times more freedom of speech than you or anybody you know. And, he can affect decisions like who we attack next or who becomes President. That's just plain crazy, and that's the problem with big money in Politics. It's making more and more people feel like powerless strangers in their own country, and I don't mean that in a good way.
Campaign Finance Reform may not sound like a burning, hot-button issue, but it is, and all of us citizens better get united behind that, or pretty soon there won't be anything left worth fighting for. That's why I'm running for president and that's why I approved this message.
I found out that it's a quote from a super-rich guy named Mark Hanna who managed the campaign of William McKinley back in the dark ages of Media. He strong-armed his loaded industrialist pals and raised enough bank to outspend Democrat, William Jennings Bryan, by ten to one. Guess who got to be President? It still works like that, and, in fact, it's getting worse because of a recent development known as Citizens United. "Citizens United," it sounds a lot better than "A handful of the mega-rich who own politicians and can swing some Supreme Court Justices." The real takeaway here is that we've turned the word bribery into the more respectable word, contribution. Now that we've been force-fed the bizarre idea that a corporation is basically a person, I hope Haliburton and Blackwater and Lockheed-Martin don't get upset stomachs if they're denied their God-given right to attack Iran. Poor rich guys, all they want is a little free market opportunity, a chance to work the same magic they used to transform Iraq into the peaceful, democratic wonderland it is today.
I have to admit: It really takes some world class bullshitting skills to claim that handing politicians gigantic checks in return for favors is simply free speech. I'll tell you what's not bullshit, though: they actually rammed it through with a straight face. It's one more slap in the face for the 99%, but the Romneys of the world don't see it that way. They don't see it as arrogance and/or hubris or whatever word you can use to better describe their arrogance and hubris. No, they see it like, "Look, God doesn't make mistakes -- he's 'blessed' me with five-hundred million dollars, and if that doesn't prove that I'm qualified and deserve to wear the pants around here, I don't know what does!"
In the same category as Romney and hateful uber-nerds like the Koch brothers, we have Sheldon Adelson, casinos-in-China magnate and who knows what else, who can casually toss an extra hundred million bucks at the Romney machine so it can buy ads telling people that they're going to Hell along with what's left of America if they don't kick the Black Communist from Kenya out of the Lily White House. Unfortunately, Adelson also thinks that America exists primarily to provide money and muscle to Israel and do the bidding of Benjamin Netanyahu. Jeez, you'd think Israel had oil the way our "leaders" keep their/our lips on its ass. What they do have is a sweetheart Foreign Aid deal with supposedly cash-strapped America whereby we give them money and they buy weapons from us so they can remain the sheriff in town in the part of the world that does have oil. They're our special friends, like Saudi Arabia, only they're Jewish, and they don't have oil. Get it? Me either, but they both buy tons of weapons from American Arms merchants, because, after all, all God's children need expensive, high-tech weapons. But don't get me started on The Middle East. My point is that Sheldon Adelson has about a million times more freedom of speech than you or anybody you know. And, he can affect decisions like who we attack next or who becomes President. That's just plain crazy, and that's the problem with big money in Politics. It's making more and more people feel like powerless strangers in their own country, and I don't mean that in a good way.
Campaign Finance Reform may not sound like a burning, hot-button issue, but it is, and all of us citizens better get united behind that, or pretty soon there won't be anything left worth fighting for. That's why I'm running for president and that's why I approved this message.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Lies, damn lies, and statistics, Part II
by Rich Miles
Apropos of nothing really, Blogger has some mildly interesting statistics on this site that I wanted to share with you.
One list of stats is the countries from which my site is visited. Needless to say, the majority of my visitors are from the U.S.
But guess what nation is second place, with approximately 18% of the visits?
Russia!! That's right, Russia, the former Soviet republic. I confess I have no idea what to make of that fact, but fact it is.
If you'd care to offer an opinion about why about 1/3 as many people from Russia as the U.S. visit this site, I would be happy to read it.
But if you use the word "Communist", you will be deleted and blocked. Unless you use it in reference to something besides me.
Apropos of nothing really, Blogger has some mildly interesting statistics on this site that I wanted to share with you.
One list of stats is the countries from which my site is visited. Needless to say, the majority of my visitors are from the U.S.
But guess what nation is second place, with approximately 18% of the visits?
Russia!! That's right, Russia, the former Soviet republic. I confess I have no idea what to make of that fact, but fact it is.
If you'd care to offer an opinion about why about 1/3 as many people from Russia as the U.S. visit this site, I would be happy to read it.
But if you use the word "Communist", you will be deleted and blocked. Unless you use it in reference to something besides me.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
The Biggest Conspiracy
by Rich Miles
OK, my friends - I have danced and jigged around this topic for several years now, without ever coming right out and saying what I believe, because it sounded too paranoid to put out there. But finally, available evidence just speaks too loudly. I cannot HELP but believe that what I am about to say here is true. See if you agree.
The basic premise here is this: our country is nearly hopelessly screwed up on a number of levels, notably the fiscal, a large portion of the screwing up took place during the George W. Bush administration, and we - all of us, of all parties - are now stuck with the net results.
And it is MY belief that the Bush administration DID IT ON PURPOSE!! That the Bushies set out to make our country weak and impoverished and all other manner of ills, and here's why:
First off, everywhere in this essay that I say "George Bush" or "GWB" or "Bush" or "Shrub", what I mean is the Bush administration, the Bush cadre, including Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and dozens more who conspired with them to create this effect. What effect? I'm glad you asked me that question...
So anyway....Bush set out to make things horrible in this country. He set out to put us in hideous debt. Set out to destroy our national prestige, to trash our credibility overseas, SET OUT to weaken our military capabilities, reduce employment, and dismantle our national social safety net. He, they, did all this, and MORE, on purpose.
And why did they do this, you may ask? What would be the reason behind such nefarious acts?
Have you ever heard the term "permanent Republican majority"? Have you heard the term "vast right-wing conspiracy"?
Follow me on this: Bush knew that things had gotten sooo screwed up on his watch that the next president was unquestionably going to be a Democrat.
And he also knew that this Democrat was going to make every effort to UNfuck everything Bush had fucked up. He would have no choice but to make a valiant effort to do so.
But he also knew that if the Congress, either or both houses, were controlled by Republicans, a simple program of knee-jerk obstructionism, and the very occasional evil-intended legislation would at least put a stick in the spokes of any corrective programs, and would possibly simply draw it all to a standstill.
Soooo....Bush et al. set out to screw everything up that he could get his hot little monkey paws on, and succeeded to a large degree, and then - handed it all off to the Democratic successor, Mr. Obama.
And Barack has been hamstrung at every turn, has proposed while the Repugs disposed (of), and in general has been made to look as weak and ineffectual as possible.
And it has all WORKED!! With the intention of making the electorate vote for a Repug in 2012, or in the event of a total moron like Romoney, 2016, and beating the drum of partisan lies, the Repugs would hold the White House, and probably one or both houses of Congress, for years to come.
Voila! (Near) permanent Repug majority. There would have to be the occasional Democratic interregnum of 4 or perhaps in a pinch 8 years, just because people like change, or because the fucking-up gets a bit out of hand for a generation or so, but by and large, there will be nothing but Repugnicans for as far as the eye can see, for the foreseeable future!
And it's all intentional! These people care more about their own political careers and personal fortunes than they do the well-being of the nation. By a long CHALK, they care more. They enrich themselves and their cronies at the taxpayer's expense, and will continue to do so for a hundred years or more. And if we, the electorate, won't help them enough, they'll jigger the voting laws or vote counts until they win anyway. George W. Bush was the first experiment in this game, and IT WORKED!! The conservative majority on the Supreme Court was a part of the plan, and IT WORKED!!
It worked. It all worked or is working, even Obama being elected in '08. One of the net results aimed for is the redistribution of the nation's wealth upward, and THAT is working too. At the end of a century, there will be a couple thousand multi-trillionaires, and the rest of us will be begging for food in the streets, if the Repugs have their way. And they might.
Now, dear reader - tell me none of this makes sense, I dare you. You may say it's paranoid, too suspicious by half, whatever you wish. But you CANNOT say with certainty that I'm wrong. And if you examine what I say here, you may find yourself saying, "Ya know, he could be right!"
As monstrous as it is, I could be right. And you know it. Wish I could offer suggestions on what to do to stop it, but short of violence, which I cannot advocate, I don't have one.
I could be right...couldn't I?
OK, my friends - I have danced and jigged around this topic for several years now, without ever coming right out and saying what I believe, because it sounded too paranoid to put out there. But finally, available evidence just speaks too loudly. I cannot HELP but believe that what I am about to say here is true. See if you agree.
The basic premise here is this: our country is nearly hopelessly screwed up on a number of levels, notably the fiscal, a large portion of the screwing up took place during the George W. Bush administration, and we - all of us, of all parties - are now stuck with the net results.
And it is MY belief that the Bush administration DID IT ON PURPOSE!! That the Bushies set out to make our country weak and impoverished and all other manner of ills, and here's why:
First off, everywhere in this essay that I say "George Bush" or "GWB" or "Bush" or "Shrub", what I mean is the Bush administration, the Bush cadre, including Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and dozens more who conspired with them to create this effect. What effect? I'm glad you asked me that question...
So anyway....Bush set out to make things horrible in this country. He set out to put us in hideous debt. Set out to destroy our national prestige, to trash our credibility overseas, SET OUT to weaken our military capabilities, reduce employment, and dismantle our national social safety net. He, they, did all this, and MORE, on purpose.
And why did they do this, you may ask? What would be the reason behind such nefarious acts?
Have you ever heard the term "permanent Republican majority"? Have you heard the term "vast right-wing conspiracy"?
Follow me on this: Bush knew that things had gotten sooo screwed up on his watch that the next president was unquestionably going to be a Democrat.
And he also knew that this Democrat was going to make every effort to UNfuck everything Bush had fucked up. He would have no choice but to make a valiant effort to do so.
But he also knew that if the Congress, either or both houses, were controlled by Republicans, a simple program of knee-jerk obstructionism, and the very occasional evil-intended legislation would at least put a stick in the spokes of any corrective programs, and would possibly simply draw it all to a standstill.
Soooo....Bush et al. set out to screw everything up that he could get his hot little monkey paws on, and succeeded to a large degree, and then - handed it all off to the Democratic successor, Mr. Obama.
And Barack has been hamstrung at every turn, has proposed while the Repugs disposed (of), and in general has been made to look as weak and ineffectual as possible.
And it has all WORKED!! With the intention of making the electorate vote for a Repug in 2012, or in the event of a total moron like Romoney, 2016, and beating the drum of partisan lies, the Repugs would hold the White House, and probably one or both houses of Congress, for years to come.
Voila! (Near) permanent Repug majority. There would have to be the occasional Democratic interregnum of 4 or perhaps in a pinch 8 years, just because people like change, or because the fucking-up gets a bit out of hand for a generation or so, but by and large, there will be nothing but Repugnicans for as far as the eye can see, for the foreseeable future!
And it's all intentional! These people care more about their own political careers and personal fortunes than they do the well-being of the nation. By a long CHALK, they care more. They enrich themselves and their cronies at the taxpayer's expense, and will continue to do so for a hundred years or more. And if we, the electorate, won't help them enough, they'll jigger the voting laws or vote counts until they win anyway. George W. Bush was the first experiment in this game, and IT WORKED!! The conservative majority on the Supreme Court was a part of the plan, and IT WORKED!!
It worked. It all worked or is working, even Obama being elected in '08. One of the net results aimed for is the redistribution of the nation's wealth upward, and THAT is working too. At the end of a century, there will be a couple thousand multi-trillionaires, and the rest of us will be begging for food in the streets, if the Repugs have their way. And they might.
Now, dear reader - tell me none of this makes sense, I dare you. You may say it's paranoid, too suspicious by half, whatever you wish. But you CANNOT say with certainty that I'm wrong. And if you examine what I say here, you may find yourself saying, "Ya know, he could be right!"
As monstrous as it is, I could be right. And you know it. Wish I could offer suggestions on what to do to stop it, but short of violence, which I cannot advocate, I don't have one.
I could be right...couldn't I?
Sunday, August 12, 2012
The Blecchh of the Irish
by Rich Miles
UPDATE: See at bottom of this post for info on Ryan's legislative record over 13 years in Congress.
=============================================
UPDATE #2 - This guy has attracted all sorts of negative attention in no time at all. In order to save time on him, take a look at The Paul Ryan Reading Guide: The Best Reporting on the Republican VP Candidate, and then share that link with the whole rest of the left-leaning world. And maybe even a few righties as well. Seriously, Ryan is proving to be every bit as much an a-hole as I thought Mittens was. Mitt is nothing like as virulent as his running mate.
You know, they keep mentioning that Mitt is still the "presumptive" candidate for the Repugnicans - but he'd better watch his ass, because Ryan is MUCH more of a right-wing loony than Mittens. They might decide they like Ryan much more than Mittens. Can they do that?
=============================================
Update #3 - Words of Power Here is a most amusing, but also cogent essay on Ryan that I thought you might find informative. If you are much in the future, look for the Saturday August 11, 2012 entry.
=============================================
Here is the original post:
The Irish are known as a race with much compassion for the less fortunate in the world. In fact, if you websearch "most famous Irish-Americans" or simply "Notable Irish persons", you'll get more hits than you can handle, and lots of them will be philanthropists, or people who did philanthropic things in their chosen professions. In general, they're good people, and I suspect a large portion of this is because they were so sorely and cruelly persecuted in centuries past. Those tales are history, and are as easily websearched as their notable compatriots.
But then, along comes a feller named Paul Ryan. Among other things, he disgraces the whole concept of being Irish. I mean to say, the man is toxic!!
Let's go back to the start of his life, and see how his hypocrisy has carried over to the present day: Paul's father, Paul Sr., died when Paul was 16. A sad fact for any young man. But THIS young man received Social Security benefits as a surviving child, and used that money to live on, and later to go to college - thus surviving a tough time in his life because of government bennies.
But today, about 26 years beyond that time, Paul Jr. has decided to make it his life's work to dismantle Social Security so that no one else can benefit as he did. He hasn't managed it yet, but he has stated repeatedly that it's what he wants to do, and the famous Ryan Budget says so, too. Hell, it's part of the reason he was selected as the Mittens' running mate.
(BTW, speaking of his father's death, there seems to be a family trend afoot there - Paul's great-grandfather, grandfather, and father all died of cardiac disease in their 40's and 50's. Medicine is better today, and Paul gets the excellent benefits that go with being a congressdog, but is this a medical history we want a heartbeat away from the preznitcy? Normally, I would consider this a private matter, but "normally" and "running for VP" do not go together.)
Add to this the fact that Ryan has repeatedly expressed his desire to dismantle Medicare, and one sees an ideal Ryan futuretopia with dead old and poor people lying in the streets because they couldn't get or afford adequate medical care.
And he wants more tax cuts for the wealthy, and tax INCREASES for the middle class (read: anyone making under $250K)
He wants to cut veterans' benefits. He wants to cut Pell Grants, and food stamps, and probably every other program that actually helps PEOPLE, instead of corporations.
He wants to increase military spending, even as two wars are being wound down under Pres. Obama. BTW, military spending is the single largest contributor to our indescribable multi-trillion-dollar national debt. More than medical malpractice suits (HA!!), more than Medicare/Medicaid, more than Social Security, and so on and so forth. And who started the longest and most expensive war in the nation's history? REPUBLICAN George W. Bush, who you may notice no one is mentioning or consulting on the right. And DAMN sure not on the left!
Let me just state upfront that I recognize that our country is in a helluva fiscal mess. I have pointed out before, and I will do so again, that I think the Repugs did this on purpose - made the fiscal mess we're in now - so as to make the Democrats look bad when they got elected, as they were, to fix the problem. And the Repugs have done their best to block everything the Democrats have done to try to fix it. The term "obstructionist Republicans" is not only true, it's redundant!
I say, try every Republican holder of public office on charges of treason - but only in courts presided over by genuinely non-partisan judges. There are probably 3 or 4 such courts somewhere in America!
But in any case, Paul Ryan is a disgrace to the Irish, and to America. And as soon as the aged among us hear the word "voucher" and the word "Medicare" in the same sentence, there may just be an uprising.
UPDATE: Just now on "60 Minutes" Romoney referred to Ryan as a "real leader". Given that Ryan does have some expertise in the budget process, he has been in Congress for 13 YEARS, and had authored TWO bills - one a renaming of a post office, the other a tax bill adding some 15 cents to the cost of an archery arrow. In 13 YEARS!
Is this the record of a "real leader"??
UPDATE: See at bottom of this post for info on Ryan's legislative record over 13 years in Congress.
=============================================
UPDATE #2 - This guy has attracted all sorts of negative attention in no time at all. In order to save time on him, take a look at The Paul Ryan Reading Guide: The Best Reporting on the Republican VP Candidate, and then share that link with the whole rest of the left-leaning world. And maybe even a few righties as well. Seriously, Ryan is proving to be every bit as much an a-hole as I thought Mittens was. Mitt is nothing like as virulent as his running mate.
You know, they keep mentioning that Mitt is still the "presumptive" candidate for the Repugnicans - but he'd better watch his ass, because Ryan is MUCH more of a right-wing loony than Mittens. They might decide they like Ryan much more than Mittens. Can they do that?
=============================================
Update #3 - Words of Power Here is a most amusing, but also cogent essay on Ryan that I thought you might find informative. If you are much in the future, look for the Saturday August 11, 2012 entry.
=============================================
Here is the original post:
The Irish are known as a race with much compassion for the less fortunate in the world. In fact, if you websearch "most famous Irish-Americans" or simply "Notable Irish persons", you'll get more hits than you can handle, and lots of them will be philanthropists, or people who did philanthropic things in their chosen professions. In general, they're good people, and I suspect a large portion of this is because they were so sorely and cruelly persecuted in centuries past. Those tales are history, and are as easily websearched as their notable compatriots.
But then, along comes a feller named Paul Ryan. Among other things, he disgraces the whole concept of being Irish. I mean to say, the man is toxic!!
Let's go back to the start of his life, and see how his hypocrisy has carried over to the present day: Paul's father, Paul Sr., died when Paul was 16. A sad fact for any young man. But THIS young man received Social Security benefits as a surviving child, and used that money to live on, and later to go to college - thus surviving a tough time in his life because of government bennies.
But today, about 26 years beyond that time, Paul Jr. has decided to make it his life's work to dismantle Social Security so that no one else can benefit as he did. He hasn't managed it yet, but he has stated repeatedly that it's what he wants to do, and the famous Ryan Budget says so, too. Hell, it's part of the reason he was selected as the Mittens' running mate.
(BTW, speaking of his father's death, there seems to be a family trend afoot there - Paul's great-grandfather, grandfather, and father all died of cardiac disease in their 40's and 50's. Medicine is better today, and Paul gets the excellent benefits that go with being a congressdog, but is this a medical history we want a heartbeat away from the preznitcy? Normally, I would consider this a private matter, but "normally" and "running for VP" do not go together.)
Add to this the fact that Ryan has repeatedly expressed his desire to dismantle Medicare, and one sees an ideal Ryan futuretopia with dead old and poor people lying in the streets because they couldn't get or afford adequate medical care.
And he wants more tax cuts for the wealthy, and tax INCREASES for the middle class (read: anyone making under $250K)
He wants to cut veterans' benefits. He wants to cut Pell Grants, and food stamps, and probably every other program that actually helps PEOPLE, instead of corporations.
He wants to increase military spending, even as two wars are being wound down under Pres. Obama. BTW, military spending is the single largest contributor to our indescribable multi-trillion-dollar national debt. More than medical malpractice suits (HA!!), more than Medicare/Medicaid, more than Social Security, and so on and so forth. And who started the longest and most expensive war in the nation's history? REPUBLICAN George W. Bush, who you may notice no one is mentioning or consulting on the right. And DAMN sure not on the left!
Let me just state upfront that I recognize that our country is in a helluva fiscal mess. I have pointed out before, and I will do so again, that I think the Repugs did this on purpose - made the fiscal mess we're in now - so as to make the Democrats look bad when they got elected, as they were, to fix the problem. And the Repugs have done their best to block everything the Democrats have done to try to fix it. The term "obstructionist Republicans" is not only true, it's redundant!
I say, try every Republican holder of public office on charges of treason - but only in courts presided over by genuinely non-partisan judges. There are probably 3 or 4 such courts somewhere in America!
But in any case, Paul Ryan is a disgrace to the Irish, and to America. And as soon as the aged among us hear the word "voucher" and the word "Medicare" in the same sentence, there may just be an uprising.
UPDATE: Just now on "60 Minutes" Romoney referred to Ryan as a "real leader". Given that Ryan does have some expertise in the budget process, he has been in Congress for 13 YEARS, and had authored TWO bills - one a renaming of a post office, the other a tax bill adding some 15 cents to the cost of an archery arrow. In 13 YEARS!
Is this the record of a "real leader"??
Friday, August 10, 2012
Tell this to everyone you know!
by Rich Miles
Know what this is?
It's a tax calculator.
Now don't get excited all over yourself. It's a tax calculator that will tell you something very important.
It will tell you what your tax will be this year under the tax proposals of President Obama, and what it will be under the proposals of Mitt 'the Mutt' Romoney.
And the results are pretty astounding. In my family's case, we saved over $4400 with the Obama plan.
Of course, that's nothing compared to the approx. $87K I would save with Romoney's plan If I were a millionaire. And a member of the 1-2% club. And an unconscionable bastard, who cares only for myself and my money. Yes, if I were all those things, I could get a MUCH larger cut of the pie.
But I'm not. I'm just a middle-class pensioner.
If you're a millionaire, vote for Romoney! If you're an American, vote for Obama. It's that simple!
Fortunately, there aren't enough millionaires to swing the vote to Romoney. At least, unless they cheat. Which they've been known to do.
Gawd, what's happening to this country?
Know what this is?
It's a tax calculator.
Now don't get excited all over yourself. It's a tax calculator that will tell you something very important.
It will tell you what your tax will be this year under the tax proposals of President Obama, and what it will be under the proposals of Mitt 'the Mutt' Romoney.
And the results are pretty astounding. In my family's case, we saved over $4400 with the Obama plan.
Of course, that's nothing compared to the approx. $87K I would save with Romoney's plan If I were a millionaire. And a member of the 1-2% club. And an unconscionable bastard, who cares only for myself and my money. Yes, if I were all those things, I could get a MUCH larger cut of the pie.
But I'm not. I'm just a middle-class pensioner.
If you're a millionaire, vote for Romoney! If you're an American, vote for Obama. It's that simple!
Fortunately, there aren't enough millionaires to swing the vote to Romoney. At least, unless they cheat. Which they've been known to do.
Gawd, what's happening to this country?
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