The Party of NO knows now: "The best is yet to come"

When President Barack Obama was elected in 2008, Republican leaders in Congress - such as O'Connell and Boehner and Cantor - and elsewhere vowed that their main goal for the next four years was to ensure Obama's defeat in 2012.  They would, they said, do everything in their power to achieve that goal!

To this end, they instructed Republican members of Congress to vote as a bloc in opposition to Mr. Obama's agenda.  They voted "No!" on almost everything.  They obstructed programs suggested and people nominated by Mr. Obama.  Hundreds of judges and other officials, remain waiting in the wings yet to be confirmed.

For four long years, the needs of our country have been held hostage by the petulance of a political party which today seems increasingly irrelevant.  Or, as Brian Williams, put it when speaking about the unspeakable Donald Trump, he and they "have passed the last exit toward relevance."

Even though many members of the media, and I'll mention Chuck Todd as an example, have tried to paint a picture of shared guilt for the gridlock that has stifled any possibility of progress in this nation such a picture is out of focus.  Todd was wrong as were other pundits who said the Democrats were just as recalcitrant to compromise and just as partisan as the Republicans.  That's a false equivalence.  It is not true.

What is amazing is that the President, in spite of fully-funded hatred of his very being, was able to accomplish a huge number of things in his first term as we have reported here previously!  The list goes on and on.  Click here.

We must ask ourselves what kind of people have such a need for power they ignore the needs of the country for political gain?  Many of the Republican leaders claim to be devout, "born-again" Christians.  But their religion is a sham!  How could anyone, elected by the people to represent them in Congress, leave their constituents in the lurch to fend for themselves because of a political vendetta? 

We're speaking of matters of morality, of ethics, of justice, of an understanding of what "commonwealth" means.  These Republican leaders fall short in every category!  Their morality, ethics and sense of justice must be disavowed.  They have failed those who put them in office, their peers in Congress, their president, and their country.


The fallout from the election reflects discontent with Republican rule.  The election shows the Senate retaining a Democratic majority, albeit a slim one.  And we know there are several DINOs (Democrats in Name Only) who would probably be happier in the Republican Party.  They can be useful at times, however, if they can be pressured to vote for the people and not against the people.

Unfortunately, the House of Representatives remains under the control of the extremist Republicans.  It is hard to believe that Michele Bachmann retained her seat.  The people residing in her Minnesota district must have serious unresolved ethical and moral issues, for this woman is a freak of nature and does not belong in any legislative body!


But there's much more to consider.  John Amato, in his article, "America Elects A Liberal Agenda," published today at Crooks and Liars, says this about the election:

"America repudiated conservatism completely after the smoke began to clear. ... [P]resident Obama withstood terrible odds of reelection after the rise of the Tea Party and their rout in the 2010 midterms.  Conservatives were licking their chops in anticipation of 2012 and [...] they left with their tails between their legs.  Most of the right and some in the media said that Obama didn't put out an agenda for reelection, but he did propose a program built on liberal ideology...

"Obama ran on regulations for Wall Street.

"Obama ran on defending Social Security and Medicare.

"Obama ran on immigration reform and the Dream Act.

"Obama ran on raising taxes on the wealthy.

"Obama ran on letting the Bush tax cuts expire.

"Obama ran on income equality for the working class.

"Equal rights for the LGBT community."

[...]

"President Obama won a mandate with this victory and don't let anyone say otherwise. ...


So we begin another cycle.  Two important questions are:  1)  Will the president carry out the liberal agenda, standing strong, even in the face of hostility and opposition?  2)  Will the Republican Party realize that Americans have decisively rejected their partisan politics and their disdain for compromise and change their ways?

Perhaps Mr. Obama has given us a signal, a sign, a light with which to view the direction he will lead the country.  In his acceptance speech, he said "The best is yet to come."

The best is yet to come.  The best is yet to come.  The best is yet to come!

Is it possible that, at long last, our dream for this country - a dream where all people count, where  people come before profits or politics, where war becomes a last resort and not a means of securing oil fields or banana plantations for American corporations, where people are free to love whom they wish, to believe what they wish or to believe nothing at all, where the government is not seen as a problem but as a means of working together to accomplish goals which benefit all the people and not mainly the rich?

The best is yet to come!  YES!

The Silver Spoon

Do you hear the sound of cheering? 

It's all over the world!  People are cheering.  Except for Mittens, Karl Rover, Donald Trumped, the Kochy Brothers, Huckabuckabee, Billy Grahamism, the neocons and others of that neanderthalic tribe.

The good guys won!

The people won!

Women won!

The sick won!

Old people won!

Young people won!

Hispanics won!

Blacks won!

All colors won!

Gays won!

And peace has a chance.

Mittens was born with a silver spoon. The "good life" was handed him on a plate. It's no wonder he took so long to concede. How could he lose? He was supposed to win.

What happened to his god? Where was his god? Joseph Smith had predicted his presidency long ago. And what about the prayers of all those evangelical/fundamentalist Christians he fooled?  God must have gone to sleep early last night!

It's hard, when you're born with a silver spoon, to have it yanked unceremoniously from your mouth.

Maybe Mitt can move to Mexico like grandpa. He could have as many wives as he wants. And more kids. He could run for president of Mexico.

The Party of NO lost.

Adios, Mitt!

Christian Fascism Threatens the U.S.

Fascism is defined thusly:  "A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."

Notice the word, "typically."  That word opens the door for variations on the theme.  German fascism under Hitler in the 1930s was different from Italian fascism under Mussolini, or Spanish fascism under Franco.

Today, in the United States, we are seeing a broad and well-funded movement toward our own specific type of fascism which agrees with the above definition but adds a component ever more dangerous - religion.

It is fascinating to observe that the Roman Catholic Church has combined with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and Protestant fundamentalists - some being independent, others connected to the Southern Baptist Convention or the Presbyterian Church, USA, or other conservative/fundamentalist denominations, to form a coalition in order to elect a president other than Mr. Obama.  It has less to do with liking Mr. Romney or believing Mr. Romney has the ability to be a good president, than it has to do with the fact Mr. Obama is black and a Democrat and they cannot push him around or force him to change his political stance to suit their desires.

Fifty years ago in the United States, the Protestant majority was appalled at the thought of a Roman Catholic president.  A Mormon presidency would have been utterly impossible by any stretch of the imagination.  Mormons were and are, as described even today by most Southern Baptists and Billy Graham, a cult.  And the word, "cult," is not a positive description.  Mormons were out of any mainstream.  They were weird and believed weird things and their theology could not be called "Christian" by any stretch of the imagination.

Southern Baptists and fundamentalist Protestants fifty years ago had no use for the Roman Church.  If anything they believed the Roman Church to be of Satan and a blot on Christendom and the antithesis of what the Christian church should look like. 

They still believe that!  Not only so, but Roman Catholics and fundamentalist Protestants still believe that Mormonism is a cult of the devil and is not only not Christian, but anti-Christian.  You cannot make me believe that millions of people identifying as Catholic or fundamentalist Protestants have suddenly make a major, earth-shaking reversal in how they view the Mormon organization in just a few months!

The Roman Church has insisted throughout its history that Protestants were doomed to spend eternity in hell.  Their cry was always "No salvation except through the Catholic Church!"  Protestants, especially the fundamentalists, were just as adamant with their beliefs:  Catholics will burn in hell forever and ever for they have paganized the Christian faith with their saints and candles and crazy beliefs such as that the cracker and wine change physically into the body and blood of Christ when the priest says the magic words in the mass.

Both of these groups thought the Latter Day Saints were so far beyond hope that it wasn't worth much discussion.  After all, what sane person could possibly accept the Book of Mormon?  Who could stifle reason to conclude that an uneducated character named Joseph Smith "discovered" some gold tablets on a hillside (which no one else ever saw) and that these tablets were the word of God, telling how some Jews ended up in the area known as the United States and that that's where Jesus would return to earth to establish his kingdom?

Every group thought the other groups believed nonsense and were outside the pale of salvation.


So what happened?  These disparate groups have coalesced for several reasons.  One, they dislike Barack Obama.  A great deal of this dislike is racist in nature.  White fundamentalists in the southern part of the U.S. still have large pockets of people who dislike blacks, who would like to redo the Civil War and enslave blacks once again.  The Mormon church disallowed blacks into the priesthood or full membership in the Mormon organization until relatively recently.  While you might not find such overt racism in the Roman church, you would certainly find it among Catholics in the south. 

There is a distinctive feeling "out there" that a black person should not be president or is, by virtue of his color, unqualified to be president. 

Secondly, there remains a fear of "Communism" in this country, although many, if not most people, could not even define the term.  But "Communism" becomes significant because it is seen as anti-religious, or even anti-Christian, in spite of the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church survived the worst of Communism as it developed in the Soviet Union.  The extreme right in the United States, controlled to a large extent by large corporate entities (Koch Brothers) and church leaders have used this fear of Communism to great effect, portraying President Obama as either a Communist, a Marxist or just a plain dupe who is used by the Marxists to instigate their plan to take over the country.

Thirdly, all three of these religious entities share some common beliefs relative to abortion, birth control, separation of church and state, etc.  The Republican Party has become an extreme right party which has adopted extreme views on all of these issues.  Thus, members of the various religions have common ground on which to stand - the Republican Party - against a president who they have been taught to perceive is anti-religious and anti-democratic. 


Paul Ryan is one of the most vicious liars ever to run as a vice president in either party.  Ryan is a Roman Catholic although his beliefs owe more to Ayn Rand than the Pope!  According to the Huffington Post, Ryan, yesterday evening, "in a town hall-style call, warned social conservatives "that 'Judeo-Christian' values were at risk if President Barack Obama is reelected.

"'This is a huge election,' said Ryan.  'Please know that Mitt Romney and I understand the stakes.  We understand the stakes of where this country is headed.  We understand the stakes of our fundamental freedoms being on the line, like religious freedom -- such as how they're being compromised in Obamacare.'"

Then he said "that Obama's vision was 'a path that grows government, restricts freedom and liberty and compromises those values -- those Judeo-Christian, Western civilization values that made us a great and exceptional nation in the first place.'"

You can see how Ryan is playing to the fears of the hoi polloi.  Barack Obama is a Christian.  He is a believer.  He is a far better Christian than Paul Ryan will ever be!  But that's all beside the point.  This is not a Christian nation and we're not electing a pope!

Everything Ryan said in that speech is a lie!  Everything!  


But what is happening is not so obvious to people who believe the crap that spews from the mouths of Republicans in this election.

Today, November 4, Sarah Palin finally got around to "endorsing" Mitt Romney.  Why did it take her so long?  Well, no one knows how Palin's mind works, or if it works at all.  But we do know that she is an ultra-conservative Christian fundamentalist extremist who was, a few years ago, anointed to become the Christian president who would usher in a new Christian government in which the Bible as interpreted by her confederates in an international Pentecostal coalition would become the basis for our law.

Sarah Palin, as a Christian, must choke on the fact that a Mormon might actually become president. 

But she, as many other extreme right Christianists, has made her peace with that fact because Romney is more likely than Obama to carry out the Christian extremist agenda and perhaps even pave the way for a "true" Christian president in the future.


All of this is brewing and fomenting in our country as we head to the polls.  There is a monumental push to break down the wall of separation between church and state.  Religious groups, Christian or otherwise, are forbidden by law to endorse candidates for public office.  Partisan political activity threatens their tax-exempt status.

Unfortunately, nobody seems to care much anymore.  The IRS, it seems, has given up on enforcing the law!  Again from the Huffington Post:  "...[A]ttorneys who specialize in tax law for religious purposes, as well as advocacy groups who monitor the cases, say they know of no IRS inquiries in the past three years into claims of partisanship by houses of worship..."

Which means that churches now feel they can do whatever they wish without fear.  Even Billy Graham and his Association has taken out full-page ads in newspapers around the country telling people, not who to vote for, but to vote for the one who promises to best keep extremist promises relative to abortion, contraception, church/state separation, etc.  Which means Romney, wink, wink!

Megachurch pastors have often bent this law and now are emboldened to state from the pulpit who their parishioners should vote for.


None of this bodes well for our democracy.  Our democracy has been dramatically weakened in this election cycle by the infusion of dirty money from groups with an extremist agenda hidden from public view.  We know that in our country, state and business leaders have come together and monies from the latter to the former have paved the way for laws to be written which favor, not the people, but the corporations.  The oligarchy has so much power in hand that a dictatorship of the extreme right is not only possible but probable or may have already taken place and remains hidden until its power is concentrated to the extent it cannot be struck down.

The extremist religious groups are joining hands with this budding dictatorship for their own purposes. 

It may all fall apart under the stress of conflicting needs and desires, but there's always the chance (as we have seen) that the various parties will be able to join to rule if they are given enough incentive...thus the dictatorship of the extreme right [purchased with secret/dirty money] will rule (indeed their rule may be validated tomorrow!) and strengthen its power by allowing the extremist religious coalition to achieve their social and religious goals. 

Then, my friends, we will have become officially a Christian fascist country! 

Republican Witness Protection Program

h/t to Bob Poris

Mitt Romney is fundamentally flawed

Mitt Romney is fundamentally flawed.

It is one thing to stretch the truth a little bit; to tell a "white lie," as if there were such a thing.  It's quite another to live a lie, to pretend to be something fundamentally different from what you really are.

Romney is not merely a person who lies.  Although he may be capable of telling the truth, he can tell a lie just as easily if it suits his purpose(s).  His system of ethics is bereft of the ability to care about the difference between what is true and right and what is false and wrong.  Perhaps he does not realize this fact.  Perhaps he was brought up to believe that as a Mormon everything he did and said was justified whether or not it accorded with the facts or with what was just or what was honest.

Certainly, he is a complicated man.  But we are all complicated people.  That does not excuse his perpetual lies.  He is a convoluted man, often appearing to be driven more by greed than anything else.  His career, especially as it unfolded at Bain Capital, would seem to be confirmation of that.  He is also driven by a lust for power, as we have seen in his campaign to attain the presidency.  Lust, in whatever form, is a force that has destroyed many a basically decent person, but lust for power in someone who is fundamentally a liar is particularly potent and disturbing.


Romney's lies are well documented.  [Read through the other posts on this blog].  He's lied about his record as governor of Massachusetts.  He's said he was a job creator but his tenure at Bain led to the destruction of thousands of jobs for which he was richly rewarded!  He's lied about his tenure as an Olympic official.  He's lied about President Obama on so many different occasions we'd need a calculator to add them all up.  For example, he lied when he said Obama cut millions from Medicare to bolster Obamacare.  He lied about his position on the bailout - his opposition to it and then he lied by saying he was at least partly responsible for Detroit's recovery.  He lied by charging Obama with sending auto companies into bankruptcy and suggesting that the president arranged to have Jeeps made in China. 

He's changed his position and colors as easily as a chameleon.  He was pro-choice, and now he's a hard-line anti-abortion candidate.  Or maybe he's back to pro-choice?  He was anti-FEMA and now he's pro-FEMA.  He lied by pretending his Massachusetts health-care program was nothing like Obamacare when Obama's plan was modeled after the Massachusetts program.


But perhaps a recent example is most telling as to exactly what kind of person is Mr. Romney.  What follows comes from an article at Salon.com by Jillian Rayfield, titled "Romney Camp spent $5,000 to stage storm relief event."

A couple of days ago, while watching TV, I saw a video of Romney in Dayton, Ohio, busily collecting "donated" supplies for the victims of Hurricane Sandy.  At the time, I didn't think much of it, other than to wonder if this was a ploy as was Ryan's soup kitchen fiasco a few weeks earlier.

Well, it turns out to indeed have been a ploy to play on the sympathies of voters (especially "undecided" ones) in the state of Ohio!  The whole thing was a setup.  It began as a campaign event but Romney and friends decided they could and should try to set things up so as to make it appear that the candidate had a great heart and really cared about the "47 percent" that he disparaged not long before.

What happened, according to Ms. Rayfield, is that the Romney bunch bought $5,000 worth of "goodies" at a local Walmart which were promptly "put on display" as "donations."

"Supporters were told to bring supplies to the event and then bring them up to a table where Romney would be sitting with Ohio Sen. Rob Portman.  'To complete the photo-op, Romney would lead his crew carrying the goods out of the gymnasium and into the Penske rental truck parked outside,' McKay Coppins of Buzzfeed writes."

It worked like this:  Volunteers would grab one of these "donations," and then walk up and give them to Romney who "took them, smiled, and offered an earnest 'Thank You.'"


It was all a lie!  But the final straw perhaps, was that those working on Hurricane Sandy's "battlefields," didn't want these kinds of donations.  They didn't know how to get them in place, or where to store them and didn't have the labor necessary to deal with them.  What they needed were monetary donations.

So, while Romney's smiling for the cameras and pretending that people are actually donating goods for those suffering from Sandy's destructive power, the real "rescuers" are saying "Don't send that stuff!  Send money!" 

 

Romney's "noble" lies

This is a guest post by my good friend, Art Woodstone.


The only literature to be found in my dentist's waiting room includes a copy of the Bible, a four-page exposition detailing the divinity of Christ, three copies of a book by a televangelist and two large-type back issues of Reader's Digest.

I haven't decided yet whether or not she's a good dentist but I thought I had conclusively established that she was a political innocent when, while she had me in the chair with my mouth stuck open, she volunteered her opinion as to why Romney kept shifting his beliefs during the campaign.

"He knows he can do a good job as president but has to lie in order to win," she explained.

I figured it was safest to keep my mouth shut, or in this case, wide open.

It turns out a lot of pros, who could hardly be classified as innocents, share her opinion.  Below is the key paragraph from a story in Slate, explaining why newspapers in the past endorsed the Democrat but have now switched their support to the Republican, Romney:

"At least 21 newspapers that endorsed Barack Obama in 2008 have endorsed Mitt Romney in 2012.  Half of these endorsements are couched in the hope that Romney hornswaggled Republican primary voters and will govern as a moderate.  'Like his primary rivals,' editorialized Florida Today, 'we never bought Romney's newfound conservative purity.  During the presidential debates, Romney wisely resumed his identity as a pro-growth pragmatist.'  And 'pro-growth,' in the Space Coast region covered by Florida Today means helping out NASA.  Romney has pledged to do that without pledging to increase the budget."

That reminds me of the twisted logic Romney's son, Craig, used to justify why Mitt tripped his daughter-in-law in order to win a footrace at a family picnic:

"My dad cheats and that's what we need in the White House."

Romney - Get rid of FEMA ...

...let the financially-challenged states pick up the tab for environmental disasters.

Every Republican living in the path of Hurricane Sandy needs to watch this video and carefully consider its implications...

Leading Republicans call Romney a liar!

This one is priceless!

Thanks much to Crooks & Liars!

Hostile takeover by Robert Kennedy

A Hostile Takeover of Our Country
Treasonous, noxious, thieving, tyrannical 


by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for EcoWatch
from the foreword to Billionaires & Ballot Bandits
Friday, October 26, 2012

American democracy is under assault.

In one super-PAC alone, Karl Rove and the Enron grifter Ed Gillespie, have assembled $200 million from big polluters and Wall Street moguls to buy the 2012 election.

Two of the Koch Brothers, Charles and David, pledged $130 million to elect candidates who favor unrestrained corporate profiteering.

The senators and congressmen they fund and elect are not representing the United States—they are representing Koch and its oil industry cronies, Big Pharma, and the Wall Street banksters currently mounting a hostile takeover of our government.

I have no problem characterizing these corporate-centric super-PACs as treasonous.  We are now in a free fall toward old-fashioned oligarchy; noxious, thieving and tyrannical.

The most corporate-friendly Supreme Court since the Gilded Age had declared in its notorious Citizens United decision that corporations are people and that money is speech. Those who have the most money now have the loudest voices in our democracy while poor Americans are mute.

And the money is talking; in 97 percent of federal elections over the past two decades, the best-funded candidates were victorious.

 

America, the world’s proud template for democracy and a robust middle class, is now listing toward oligarchy and corporate kleptocracy.

America today is looking more and more like a colonial economy, with a system increasingly tilted toward enriching the wealthy 1 percent and serving the mercantile needs of multinational corporations with little allegiance to our country.

These radical forces already dominate the national press, with Fox News and talk radio snugly in the pocket of the corporate Right.

This is the first time in American history that corporate and media interests have been so clearly and so perilously aligned.

With the media in their hands, and unlimited money, the final strategy of Rove, Koch, the Chamber of Commerce, and others of that ilk is to permanently cripple representative democracy by stopping Americans from voting.

A boatload of new Jim Crow laws target Democrats by erecting impediments that deter poor and minority communities, senior citizens, and students from exercising their franchise.

Voter suppression is a crime.

In Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, Greg Palast details each of these devious scams for disenfranchising vulnerable voters . . . but also, crucially, Palast here follows the money that powers the machinery of democracy’s destruction.

This is not a partisan issue. Clearly the GOP agenda is to suppress votes, as Karl Rove has repeatedly and unashamedly signaled. But Billionaires & Ballot Bandits exposes the vote-count blindness, biases, venality, and ballot gaming by Democrats as well. I don’t believe there are Republican children or Democratic children.

Every American citizen ought to have the right to vote and everybody ought to have the right to clean air and clean water, to integrity and transparency in the marketplace, and to a functioning democracy.
 

Palast is the last of the great, old-fashioned muckraking investigative reporters. He’s an “outlier,” unafraid of corporate tyrants. Together, we have been investigating and exposing voter suppression for years. In 2008, we co-wrote a story for Rolling Stone warning of the ugly future of a new Jim Crow operation.
Now, it's here.
 

Voter suppression is real. And it’s happening to YOU. But there is something that you can do to prevent it. That is the message of Palast’s book.

Remember, this is YOUR democracy. You can do all the campaigning you want, but if your vote isn’t counted, you’re going to lose the presidency—and our democracy.

Read our book Billionaires & Ballot Bandits. Pass on the link www.BallotBandits.org and download the 7 Ways to Beat the Ballot Bandits. And get the word out! There’s still time to steal back your vote..

Read Kennedy's entire A Hostile Takeover of our Country in Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal and Election in 9 Easy Steps by Greg Palast. The New York Times bestseller includes a 48-page comic book insert by artist Ted Rall.

Senator James Inhofe wins the Sixth Annual Rubber Dodo Award!

The Center for Biological Diversity has awarded the Sixth Annual Rubber Dodo Award to the neanderthalic Senator James Inhofe representing the great state of Oklahoma in the United States Senate.

Inhofe has a reputation:  Just when you assume a U.S. Senator couldn't be more ideological or just plain stupid than, say, Tom Coburn, also from Oklahoma, Inhofe pops up to challenge that assumption.

Why I Support Obama --

h/t to my good friend, Bob Poris.

Mitt Romney & Bain: Profits over people

When Mitt Willard Romney commented that he do could nothing about 47 percent of the American people because they were slackers and takers, he did not misspeak. His words were not taken out of context. When people believe they are not being recorded they often speak their minds. What Mr. Romney said was exactly what he intended to say and what he said was what he meant and what he believes. The media has failed miserably to deal with Romney's tour of duty at Bain Capital. This is an egregious error as Romney's tenure at Bain provides confirmation of Romney's beliefs and gives us a detailed perspective as to what kind of person he is - his core beliefs.

Gary Cohn is a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist. Most recently he's been engaged in writing a series of articles for Mesothelioma.com. His latest article, "A Promise Not Kept: Profits Over People," appeared yesterday on that website.

It begins thusly:


A Promise Not Kept

John Cottrell had health problems, but in his heart he believed he was covered. After all, GS Industries, the Kansas City steel company where he had worked for 30 years had guaranteed his health insurance and pensions in the event of a shutdown. John retired in poor health from asbestos-related respiratory problems in 2000, but he and his wife Shirley felt secure knowing that their most critical employee benefits were guaranteed for life.

Then everything changed. Bain Capital, the private equity firm which gained control of GS Industries in 1993, declared bankruptcy for the mill in 2007, and quickly shut down the plant. A few months later, Bain dropped another hammer on the workforce: it was reneging on its promise to cover the lifetime worker benefits. Suddenly, the Cottrell's future was very much in doubt.

"He thought these things couldn't be touched. He and the other workers trusted the company's promises." -- Shirley Cottrell

These are the personal stories of Coltrell and other GS Industry workers and how their peace of mind and medical safety net were ripped apart. It will portray the suffering on an individual level, and show the damage done when people's futures are controlled by a company that bases life-changing decisions primarily on financial considerations, regardless of the promises it made and the healthcare repercussions suffered by its workforce.

[...] Bain merged Worldwide [Grinding Systems] with a steel mill in South Carolina, and renamed the new company GS Industries (GSI). In 1997, it endured a nasty 10-week worker strike that was motivated by the union's skepticism that, if there was a shutdown, GSI had not earmarked sufficient reserves to cover its benefit and pension commitments.

Ultimately, a settlement was reached that increased employee pensions and guaranteed that employees would continue to receive health and life insurance, even if the plant closed down.

Which it did. In 2001, just one year after Coltrell retired with guaranteed lifetime benefits, Bain elected to put GSI into bankruptcy and close down the plant, along with its 750 jobs. The private equity firm then announced it would no longer honor its recent promise to cover employee healthcare and pension benefits if the plant closed.

Bain's decision under Romney is ironic, considering the candidate's recently released statement where he classified 47% of Americans as freeloaders who refuse to "take personal responsibility." The sole reason that GSI's workers did not lose their entire pension was because the mill's Bain-backed management applied for, and received, a bailout from the U.S. Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. This federal handout came to $44 million; a sum that covered only the non-supplemental portion of the workers' "guaranteed" pensions.  


Complicating matters is the fact that a number of workers contracted lung problems, including asbestosis, which "is a degenerative respiratory condition that often manifests as a pre-cursor to mesothelioma, an aggressive occupational-related cancer that develops in the lining of the lungs and abdominal cavity. There is no known cure for mesothelioma."

There is much more in Mr. Cohn's article with regard to the suffering of GSI's employees and the company's rejection of responsibiity for that suffering. And Mr. Romney's culpability is palpable.


"Romney ran Bain until 1999, when he left to run the Salt Lake City Olympics. He was in a position of oversee the majority of operational and financial changes the private equity firm made for GS Industries before Bain put it into bankruptcy in 2001. Despite his departure, Romney still maintained a significant financial stake in Bain, and continued to collect dividends from Bain afterwards."


From other sources, I understand that Romney did very well under Bain's vulture-like financial attacks; he personally profited to the tune of $20,000 for every employee who was fired or otherwise put out of work. Please read Mr. Cohn's complete article here. And then ask yourself if Romney is the kind of person you want in charge of the well-being of the citizens of the United States of America.

Is Paul Ryan Full of Beans?

You're gonna love this one.

From Americablog.com.

Last night at the VP debate, Ryan told a touching tale of how he and his wife viewed the 7-week ultrasound of their first-born child, and how the wee baby was in the shape of a bean, and so they decided to nickname the baby Liza, "Bean."

And that's when Mr. Ryan came to believe life begins at conception.

Isn't that sweet?  Do you have tears in your eyes?

Hah!


Did you know that Mr. Ryan was reported to be a fan of Nirvana, the band founded by Kurt Cobain?  Did you know that Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love named their daughter Francis Bean Cobain?  Here's how it happened:

"Frances Bean Cobain was born at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and was immediately anointed the world's newest rock princess. ... Kurt Cobain named his daughter after Frances McKee, the guitarist for The Vaselines, and gave here the middle named [sic] Bean because he thought she resembled a kidney bean on the ultrasound."

John Aravosis, of America Blog, suggests that perhaps Mr. Ryan misspoke, that perhaps he "named his daughter Bean because Cobain named his daughter Bean."

Or not.

Perhaps, as Aravosis also suggests, Ryan made up the story.  I mean, it's a good story.  Right?  And we know how Ryan has a history of telling lies.  "There was the time he claimed he climbed 40 of the Rocky Mountains."  And then he bragged about running a marathon in under three hours.   Then he said he didn't want stimulus money when he did.  I hadn't heard this one, but Avarosis says that Ryan once claimed to have just 6 percent body fat!

Is Ryan just another Republican liar like Romney?

You betcha, to quote another Republican liar!

Read the full story here.

The United States - Land of Insanity

Crooks and Liars is one of the most helpful sites on the Web with regard to understanding the craziness that infests these United States of America.

Today, on C & L, Josh Glasstetter describes a one-hour special on the Discovery Channel which featured none other than the old, despicable rocker, Ted Nugent.  Yes, that's right - the Discovery Channel - which, it seems, has concluded that anything is legit if it brings in viewers.

Glasstetter reminds us that Nugent is a "fanatic who threatened to kill President Obama and other officials and was investigated by the Secret Service in April.  In 2007, the Discovery Channel's new star wielded two machine guns while yelling, 'Obama, he's a piece of s--t.  I told him to suck on my machine gun.'  Then, raising up one [of] the guns, he said, 'Hey Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless bitch.'"

Nugent, a gun fancier and board member of the NRA, is probably insane.  Certainly, he acts as though he were insane.  This is nothing new.  "In 1990, he said he 'would have killed everybody,' including fellow Americans, if he had been in the service and sent to Vietnam."

Hmmm.  Maybe he's a coward, too, and dares shoot only people who can't shoot back!

There's more, which you can read here.


Nugent is but one nut on the wheel of craziness that seems to have rolled over our nation.  For example, in Spring Lake, New Jersey, the owner of a clothing store put up a window display which portrayed President Obama as a witch doctor.

The display consists of a Halloween skeleton with an Obama mask on top.  Underneath that is "an altered photo of Obama dressed as a witch doctor and a tombstone with the inscription, 'I told you I was sick.'"

The owner of Skuby & Co. Lifestyle Clothing claims this is not a racist thing but simply his way of expressing displeasure over the Affordable Care Act.

It is not only racist but indicates that the owner of the store is the one who is truly "sick"!


Then, in the great Lone Star State, some guy "lynched" an empty chair on his lawn.  When he was questioned about this by the Burnt Orange Report's chairman, the homeowner said "You can take [your concerns] and go straight to hell and take Obama with you.  I don't give a [expletive].  If you don't like it, don't come down my street."


[The two stories above came from Yahoo.com]


We expect that within a population of 300 million plus, we'll have a certain percentage of deranged persons.  I'm not sure what that number is but I'd guess it approximates 10 percent.  And that, of course, is why we have many thousands of psychologists and psychiatrists at work among us.

So, perhaps Nugent and the store owner and the Texas turd are not that unusual.  But we would hope for more sanity, not less, from our elected officials.  That, unfortunately, is not the case!

A Republican state representative from Wisconsin (who is endorsed by Paul Ryan), Roger Rivard from Rice Lake, made some interesting comments to a local newspaper relative to a case involving a 17-year-old high school senior accused of sexual assault because he had sex with a female minor in the band room of the school.

Rivard noted that his father had "warned him, 'Some girls rape easy,' - meaning that after the fact they can change what they say about whether or not the sex was consensual."

Three hours after those comments to the newspaper, Rivard put out a "clarification" statement, which spoke of sexual assault being "a crime that unfortunately is misunderstood and my comments have the potential to be misunderstood as well.  Rape is a horrible act of violence."

But what he means is "some girls rape easy."

Ryan had this to say at a breakfast buffet on August 9th at which time he introduced Rivard:  "Roger needs to be reaffirmed to get this job done and fix the state of Wisconsin."


And then there's Todd Akin, the Missouri moron.  Mr. Akin is still running for the U.S. Senate in Missouri.  He still thinks that women who have been "really raped" are able to use their bodies to shut down so they don't get pregnant.

Mr. Akin is the quintessential dumb-ass Republican ignoramus.  Why anyone would vote for this slimeball is beyond belief.  He's voted twice to do away with Medicare.  He wants to privatize Social Security, and he once said that student loans were like Stage III cancer.

What a guy!


You'll recall that in the debate last night, we had two Roman Catholics going at each other.  Well, that's what they call themselves but the reality is something else.  Biden, however, is at least able to separate his religious beliefs, especially those having to do with how sin is defined, from his political actions.

Ryan, not so much.  Except Ryan is no more Catholic than Fidel Castro.  Ryan has been and remains a devotee of the greedy and dastardly Ayn Rand.  Ryan claimed that his religion informs his belief for the need to take care of the poor.  Bullshit!  Perhaps he means that the church should take care of the poor while the government beats up on them in order to save the riches accumulated by the real crooks in this country

Ryan also said he believes that life begins at conception and that insane religious nonsense was conveniently ignored.  That is not a scientific view.  It is not reality.  It is a religious belief promoted by the Congregation for the Protection of Pedophiles, also known as the Roman Catholic Church.

But, what's really crazy is the fact that many, if not most of the sheeple who make up the Republican Party march down that same road of ignorance and superstition!


And then there's Mike Huckabee, a resolute Baptist preacher who has a really hard time telling the truth and following the directions of his so-called savior.  Huckabee landed in Florida a few days ago and spoke, naturally, at THE Baptist church in Ocala, which, like almost all Southern Baptist churches has become an adjunct of the far-right Republican Party.

Huckabee is a snake.  And thus he told the assembled group to vote their values.  Wink, wink.  And Christians who just sit back and don't get involved are, well, not such good Christians.  Wink, wink.

Huckabee said he wasn't there "to take a position for one party or another ... but I'll tell you one thing, I will not extend my vote and support for someone who does not believe that at the moment of conception a human life has been created."

And everyone applauded.  Everyone knew he was saying he wouldn't vote for Obama, but he would vote for a damn Mormon whom he doesn't even believe to be a Christian.  Wink, wink.

Oh, and gay marriage?  Forget it.  Not for Huckabee who was the ear of the Lord!  Marriage is between and a man and a woman, says Huckabee.  And if it happens that so-called evangelicals, with the highest divorce record in this country, happen to get married - one man to one woman - over and over again, well, so be it, at least they're not homosexual!  Wink, wink.


The Koch brothers, those very dangerous and treacherous siblings, who threaten our democracy day in and day out, are sponsors of the super PAC, Americans for Prosperity.  Americans for Prosperity is not appropriately titled:  It should be Rich Americans for the Prosperity of Rich Americans.

But, that's not the problem.  The problem is that Americans for Prosperity takes political positions and support politicians who are so far-right that they would fit perfectly in the Germany of the 1930s.

Consider this:  Americans for Prosperity have put out mailings "praising votes cast by two members of the Arkansas House of Representatives who have written in support of slavery.  These are state representatives Jon Hubbard and Loy Mauch, both of whom have a record of pro-slavery positions."

The Huffington Post reports that "Hubbard was revealed to have written that slavery may 'have been a blessing' in a 2010 book, while Mauch authored a series of letters to the editor in the last decade that espoused pro-slavery views, writing that former President Abraham Lincoln was a 'neurotic Northern war criminal' and comparing Lincoln and Civil War generals to Nazis."

We should note that Hubbard is a devoted Christian and claims he is about upholding "Christian values."

Jesus Christ!  People like this are a disgrace to the human race and Christ would not recognize their subhuman values!


One more.  An Arizona radio host, a Republican, by name of Barbara Espinoza, doesn't care if anyone knows she a racist.  She has publicly called President Obama the "first monkey president."  When challenged, she claims she was merely exercising her first amendment right of free speech.

She also exercised her right to be considered a total fool with a damaged set of core values and  someone who's undoubtedly missing certain parts of her brain.


Speaking of that, and in conclusion, we have to point to another Republican, the notorious Joe Walsh, of Illinois, who often opens his mouth at which time out spews garbage.  Walsh is divorced, like the majority of evangelicals who believe that marriage is between one man and one woman no matter how many times they do it.

Walsh is very worried about our nation's debt.  It's a lot easier to worry about the nation's debt than the fact that millions of people in this country go to bed hungry at night and millions more have no access to health care.  Of course, if you believe these people are slackers and takers, that makes it less of a problem.

But Walsh, terribly worried about the debt, on July 13, 2011, said that Washington (the government, I suppose he means) must not put "one more dollar of debt upon the backs of my kids."

Please note that at the time, Mr. Walsh owed $98,422 in back child support!


Insanity rules!

 

Rachel Maddow pans anti-science Republicans

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Paul Broun, ignoramus extraordinaire!

Paul Broun is a U.S.  Representative from Georgia.  He is also an MD. Unfortunately, he is stupid and ignorant!  He doesn't believe in science.  Naturally, the Republicans put him on the House Science Committee!

Mr. Broun has said many really ignorant things in the past but this time he's proven he's also a lunatic and does not belong in our Congress or any law-making body.  He's a fanatic christianist who cares nothing for science, or evidence, or reality!


But his previous lunacy has followed the path of most christianist fundy politicians:

Broun has voted to ban federal health coverage that includes abortion.  He sponsored a bill to define life beginning at fertilization.  He voted to ban federal funding for Planned Parenthood.  He wants to declare the unborn persons under the 14th amendment.

Broun voted to end the Home Affordable mortgage program.  Voted NO on the stimulus program.  Voted NO on an economic recovery package.  Voted NO on monitoring TARP funds to ensure mortgage relief.  Voted NO on the GM and Chrysler bailout.

This nogoodnik voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation.  He wants to amend the Constitution to define "traditional marriage." He voted against enforcement of anti-gay hate crimes.

His record is almost entirely negative when it comes to funding for education.  On energy, he's a typical Republican bought and paid for by the oil and gas industries.  He wants more drilling, and he doesn't want the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases.  Anything to do with protecting our environment, Broun is against.  And he's a prodigy of the NRA, believing that most everyone should have guns almost everywhere!

Health?  Well, he's an MD, but he's against it.  He voted to defund Obamacare and voted against any resolution that would offer more health care opportunities to the American public.


But he loves Jesus and the Bible.  So, back in 2007 he suggested that Congress "Recognize Christianity's importance to western civilization, and in April of last year, he wanted to "Designate [the] first weekend in May as Ten Commandments Weekend.


The man is a nasty piece of work which he proved last month when he got up in a Baptist church and said:

"All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell. ...  And it's lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior."

Jesus Christ!  This clown is on the House Science Committee!  Talk about irony!  Talk about stupidity!

Evolution isn't in question - it's the basis of everything we know about life on earth!  Without evolution we're absolutely lost.  Science is our way of understanding the universe and who we are!  Evolution is true.  The Bible is not!

Perhaps we need a method of recalling our representatives if they prove to be so stupid they are a danger to themselves and the rest of the nation.  Broun would qualify.

There was a report today that climate change is impacting our life much more rapidly than we had thought.  What the scientists believed was decades away, is happening right now and nations in the South Seas will need to take immediate action to save their populations.  The ice is melting and the seas are rising.  Broun, being a relatively young man, may live to see the waves wash over him even as he pontificates about religious nonsense and fights any attempt to deal with global warming!

Couldn't happen to a more stupid person!

You can read more about Broun's speech at the Liberty Baptist Church here.

Christianist pastors plan to preach politics from the pulpit

Christian pastors plan to defy the government on Sunday!

This particular witches cauldron has been brewing for some time.   Fundy Christianists following the fascist right believe their "religious" rights are being trod upon if they can't tread upon the U.S. Constitution and its notion of separation of church and state.

Part of the problem for the rest of us is that Christian fascists have been treading upon us for some time but under different venues.  They've submerged their nastiness by supporting far right causes and programs under different names, such as Americans for Prosperity, for years.

 Now these unchristian pastors plan to give the IRS (and the rest of us) the finger by participating in "Pulpit Freedom Sunday."  Fourteen hundred christian fascist pastors plan to stand in front of their congregations "preaching biblical Truth about candidates and elections" tomorrow, October 7.

This is against the law.  The IRS has specified that tax-exempt organizations such as churches may not preach politics from the pulpit; they may not "campaign for or against political candidates."

This so-called "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" is, as noted by Salon, "a project of the Alliance Defending Freedom ... [a] Christian legal group which specializes in taking cases where they think 'religious liberty' is at stake.  Christian pastors have a right to preach whatever they wish from their own pulpits,  says the ADF.

It would be fun to test their theory about "rights" by having an Imam stand in front of his Muslim followers and preach a sermon favoring the take-over of the country by Islamists, specifically naming a Muslim leader chosen to complete such a project - in the name of Allah, of course.

Fundamentalist Christianists like to yammer about the anti-Christ, scaring the bejesus out of their parishioners.  The truth is they are the ones who are anti-Jesus.  Almost everything they say and do is opposite of what Jesus either taught or the way he lived--according to the Gospel tales.  Jesus said  "Pay your taxes to Caesar" and shut up.  Stop whining.  Get about God's work on earth - take care of the poor and the needy.  Don't be a hypocrite.  Don't pray in public.  Turn the other check.  Walk the extra mile.  Visit the sick and those in prison.  Jesus said if you are a rich person you're not going to get into the heavenly kingdom.  Jesus never spoke of turning Rome into a Christian empire.  He never mentioned overthrowing the temple and turning Palestine into a Christian state!  He said to obey the law and that he came to fulfill the Jewish Law!

If Jesus were to return to earth today, he would be appalled at what goes on in his name by these fundamentalist christianists who spend their time telling other people how to live their lives, or turning their religious beliefs (which have nothing to do with Jesus) into law, or trying to promote their biblical illiteracy in our schools and our military and our government!

Jesus would not recognize groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom.  Such a group is contrary to everything he taught. 

Personally, I hope all 1400 of these unchristian pastors get arrested and tossed in jail for breaking the law.  What's funny is that these christianist churches are exempt from paying taxes (even though Jesus said they should pay taxes); they get all kinds of tax breaks for their schools and parsonages and other pursuits!  Soldiers in Iraq still carry weapons with Bible verses inscribed on them! 

The government is not anti-Christian, it promotes Christianity and for many of us that is an abomination!  And unconstitutional. 

And finally, Christianist fundys, as we have noted, are, almost without exception, tied into the fascist right in this country.  They are ultra-conservative and serve the rich and powerful.  They are against science, freedom for people different than themselves, people in need and the sick.  They are skilled liars operating on the principle that "the ends justifies the means," and thus fundy Christianists such as Sarah Palin can fantasize about health care "death panels" even though she has to know there is not, and never has been, any such thing!  They lie about capitalism and about socialism.  They do not follow Jesus, no matter what they claim, but rather use Jesus to bolster their right-wing political ideology.  They are fascist because many of their leaders have stated publicly that if they ever gain power they will ignore our constitution and enact new laws based on their understanding of the Bible, a collection of material written by ancient and ignorant men who knew nothing of science and thus precious little as to how the world really works and how life came to be on this miserly little planet.


As someone once said, "God save us from his followers"!

The 1st debate compliments of Jimmy Fallon

Romney & crew exploit old video to bring Obama down

Thanks to my good friend, Art Woodstone, for the following precise critique of Mr. Romney and gang.  Mr. Woodstone never fails to undercut the pretensions of politicians who would have us believe their lies are true!

If you don't read Drudge or the Daily Caller or watch Fox News, you may have missed this:  a 2007 video of then-Senator Obama praising the Reverend Wright and blaming governmental ineptitude and inefficiency in response to the Katrina disaster on white racism.   Romney's gang dug the video out of the files and are now trying to breathe life into their "discovery" to prove Obama is a threat to our country and the human race!

The Republicans tried to exploit the same video in the campaign of 2008 without obvious success.  But when you're desperate and you're Romney, it seems you willingly rely on the devil and his disciples for help.

The re-emergence of this video reflects the extreme lengths to which Romney and his cohorts, most of them way way right of sanity, will go to see their candidate elected.  This video is merely the particular method they are busy exploiting this week.   And that leads to a question or three.  Will the Goebbels gang ever stop attacking Obama?  No!  That's their sole purpose in this presidential contest.  Thus they're using this video to cast aspersions on the president's character feigning outrage that Obama would play the "race" card, as if racism had nothing to do with the government's farcical response to Hurricane Katrina.  

Does the Romney gang honestly think a) Bush's boys did enough and b) that there wasn't an element of racism in their lack of performance?  Whether they believe that or not, these "geniuses" from Drudge and the Daily Caller are bending over backward to fault Obama for his 2007 speech and to pour salt into the wound would also have the American people believe that praising the loudmouth Wright constitutes a fatal character flaw in our President.   Right?

Okay.  In that case, it's only fair that we examine a flaw or two in the character of the man Drudge and the Daily Caller would prefer to lead us as president.  In a moment of honesty, while speaking to his rich friends, he said he's not going to worry about the 47 percent (which undeniably includes the black majority in New Orleans devastated by Katrina) as they don't contribute to society [or to his campaign].

What does that say about the character of Mr. Romney?   It says he honestly doesn't care about almost half of the American people as he believes they are not worthy of his respect or support.

Furthermore, also relating to Romney's character or lack thereof, he obviously has no problem with his gang weaving long strands of lies into the fabric of his campaign.  Romney has had ample opportunity to tell these hate mongers who embrace the seductive mantra from the legacy of the Nazi, Joseph Goebbels, [who believed telling a lie often enough transforms it into truth] that he rejects their support and repudiates their distortions and outright falsehoods, as [in theory] he would any band of outlaws who lie solely to bring down another human being.

But Mr. Romney chooses not to do that.  Which makes him an accomplice in this maelstrom of lies.  So much for "character"!

Lies by Ann & Mitt - The Letterman Show

New Romney Ad edited by Democrats

Born with a silver spoon

 The Candidate

I was not born

With a silver spoon

He said

Eyes glinting

Chin jutting

Brow furrowed  

A creeping smile

Slithering across

His political

Face.

We lived in a

Basement apartment

Like regular folks

She said

Stepping out of a 

60s sitcom

All fluff

And full of lace

As is right

For a woman

Who knows

Her place.

They said

We had to live

On returns 

From investments

It was hard

We even got

Regular haircuts

And ate at McDonalds

Unless daddy and mommy

Took us out

Or gave us money

For the rent.

We know all

About you

Poor folks

Struggling to

Pay the bills

And feed the kids

With college ahead

We suggest you

Get money from

Your folks and

Live in a tent.

And when you

Get old

Become a Mormon

Mormons take care

Of one another

By piling up money

And stowing it

Away for a

Rainy day

So Mormons

Don't need

No government.

They do it all themselves!

Image from here.

From Australia re "cranks and crazies" in the Republican Party

Together as one: Honoring Team USA at the White House

This is from the White House blog. Read the full story here.

Dear Candidate Romney

[The following was written by my good friend, Dianne W. She knows whereof she speaks and calls Mr. Romney (and his friends) to account!]

Dear Candidate Romney

I read what you are quoted as telling a group of $50,000 a plate donors about people like me (see bottom of post).  I read it several times.  I scoured the Internet looking for places where someone at the closed-door gathering might be offering a different recollection.

Then I came to the conclusion that you said what you said and meant what you said.

You claim you were quoted out of context - uh, there's a video - and that your comments were not elegantly stated?  Were you wearing the wrong tuxedo when you said them?

As a member of the 47%, I'd like to share some thoughts and facts (those are things that are true) with you.

Go fuck yourself and the rich Daddy you rode in on!

I have worked since I was 13 years old.

I was raised by an alcoholic father and a clinically-depressed mother.  My siblings and I were neglected and abused all of our childhood.  But we went to school.  We studied.  We worked hard to get out.  We got out.

I have paid taxes since my very first "real" job.

When I was promoted to EVP and board member of a large international firm I paid more in taxes than many people earn in a year.  I never once cheated.  I never once loop-holed.  I had enough money to live comfortably.  Why shouldn't I pay taxes?

When the once private firm where I had worked diligently for years was sold and sold again and then cut up into pieces and decimated by a firm similar to your Bain Capital, I lost my job.  Hundreds of people lost their jobs.

The people who bought and sold us got very rich!

I sat in on board meetings where laws were laughed at and where intricate plans were made to get around regulations.  I regret not trying to be a whistle-blower, but I had a child to care for.  And the people who were taking the company apart scared me.

I was much younger then; they wouldn't scare me today.  Today, I'm scared of dying from lack of proper healthcare.  Today, I'm scared of losing my home. 


After losing my job I started my own business.

Yes, I started it on my own but it was on a street that was built and maintained by city road crews.  When I worked late I felt safe because there were police officers paid by the government.  That's what President Obama meant when he said no one does it alone.

You tried to spin his comments into some of kind of political bullshit that would benefit your goal to reach the White House.

As a small-business owner, I paid my taxes.  I insured myself and my workers.  I treated them fairly and respected their talents and their humanity.

My healthcare insurance came to $1,500 per month and my disability insurance cost another $200 per month.  These insurances came from the same insurance carrier that had "loved" me and cared about me for the 20 years I was a paying customer.

Then I got hurt!  Then a chronic health issue that I had managed all of my life took a nasty turn.  It was hard to work and I decided to apply for some of the benefits I had been sold.

Guess what, Mitt or Mitch?  Insurance companies don't like keeping promises, especially if it costs them money.  Four years later I am still fighting for full coverage!

I'm also still paying my bills and paying taxes.

I am not fodder for you and your richie rich pals to laugh at!

I am not a sound byte for your pathetic campaign!

Next we'll talk about how you really feel about the Palestinians and Israel.  I'll be writing again, soon, Mitt.  Have a nice day.

[From the Mother Jones website - and everywhere else in the universe:

Mitt said:

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what.  All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.  That that's an entitlement.  And the government should give it to them.  And they will vote for this president no matter what...These are people who pay no income tax.

My job is not to worry about those people.  I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

 

Sam Harris - On the Freedom to Offend an Imaginary God

In his latest article, "On the Freedom to Offend an Imaginary God," Sam Harris, with no apologies to anyone, defends freedom of speech.  In these United States, we can disparage God, Allah, Buddha or any other imaginary deity.  We can spout nasty things about Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism or any other religion.  We can decry religious leaders whether they are popes, imams, priests, or other kinds of shamans.

Not only so, but it is the responsibility of our government to defend the right to free speech in our country and around the world.  That is not to say we should tell other countries how to live or what to believe, but to tell them in no uncertain terms that we live with and believe in freedom of speech and no ideology or religion is so sacrosanct as to be exempt from criticism or ridicule.

Harris begins his article referencing the "Muslim hysteria and violence" in the Middle East which resulted from "an unwatchable Internet video titled 'Innocence of Muslims.'"

While not a follower of Mr. Romney, Harris mentions that Romney's critique of the Obama administration, while mainly a political maneuver gone wrong, had some value in principal and that our government "struck the same note of apology, disavowing the offending speech while claiming to protect free speech in principle."

To make matters worse, the government tried to shut up Pastor Terry Jones, the nutcase who burns Qur'ans for fun in Gainesville, Florida.  The government went further asking that Google rid its servers of the video.

Such actions, says Harris, reflects "one of two psychological and diplomatic realities.  Either our government is unwilling to address the problem at hand, or the problem is so vast and terrifying that we have decided to placate the barbarians at the gate."

Harris goes on to spell out what he calls "The contagion of moral cowardice ... wherein liberal journalists and pundits began to reconsider our most basic freedoms in light of the sadomasochistic fury known as 'religious sensitivity' among Muslims."

Some people think it's not religion that's the problem.  The problem is a "history of western aggression in the region.  It is our policies, rather than our freedoms, that they hate."  That is "self-deception," says Harris.  "Religion only works as a pretext for political violence because many millions of people actually believe what they say they believe: that imaginary crimes like blasphemy and apostasy are killing offenses."

Nor, says Harris, are all religions the same.  He references Mormonism which is not "just like every other religion."  It is especially wacky and screwed up.  "Mormonism is the product of the plagiarisms and confabulations of an obvious con man, Joseph Smith ... [] Given how much we know about Smith, it is harder to be a Mormon than it is to be a Christian.  A firmer embrace of the preposterous is required---and the fact that Romney can manage it says something about him, just as if he were a Scientologist proposing to park his E-meter in the Oval Office."

The point, Harris, reminds us, is that we can say whatever we want about Mormonism and Joseph Smith.  We will not be murdered or put in jail because of what we say.  I would add that Romney's Mormonism is fair game and it's surprising that so many Christians are supporting him.  Well, maybe it's not surprising at all for the fact is that for many Christians today their religion is merely a vehicle to gain political power.

Sadly, Harris is right when he says "The freedom to think out loud on certain topics, without fear of being hounded into hiding or killed has already been lost.  And the only forces on earth that can recover it are strong, secular governments that will face down charges of blasphemy with scorn.  No apologies necessary.  Muslims must learn that if they make belligerent and fanatical claims upon the tolerance of free societies, they will meet the limits of that tolerance."

Unfortunately, the United States government, being largely co-opted by Christianist religionists is moving in the opposite direction.  No one who disparages the Christian religion in any of its myriad incarnations could be elected to any political office in this country.  Christian fanatics would protest en masse at his or her election headquarters.  Millions of Americans believe that the founders of the United States were "evangelical" Christians who were about establishing a Christian nation "under God," even though that is light years away from the truth.  They are easily offended by those who do not believe in their imaginary deity.

It has become evident in recent years that a substantial number of our citizens neither understand nor concern themselves about the right of free speech.  In fact, when people on the street have been polled regarding the Bill of Rights, a majority express a dislike for the freedoms therein.

Finally, it has been said that freedom of speech is not absolute.  One is not free to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater.  I accept that.  But yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater is not equivalent to disparaging imaginary deities or religious figures.

So, just to be clear:  I think Scientology is utterly stupid and L. Ron Hubbard was a deceitful, greedy, moron!  I would say the same about Mormonism and Joseph Smith!  Roman Catholicism and its hierarchy is likewise a perverse exercise in imaginary gods and magical rituals. 

Please read Mr. Harris' entire article here.

Rachel Maddow (with David Corn) - How Romney really feels

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Rachel Maddow - The Fox News/Romney link

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Jon Stewart - Actual apocalypse - 2012

The Daily Show
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Mitt Romney - Peace between Israel & the Palestinians isn't possible

Another video leaked to Mother Jones.

What Mitt Romney really thinks of Americans

h/t to my friend Jose M.