That would be Mitt Romney campaigning with Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock in the photo above. Mitt Romney recently cut a TV ad endorsing Mourdock, calling him the “51st vote in the U.S. Senate”:

The 51st vote in the United States Senate? Scary thought – the guy who thinks Social Security and Medicare are “unconstitutional” could be the 51st vote in the Senate? The guy who said that bipartisanship is “driving us into bankruptcy”, and also said that his idea of bipartisanship is Democrats coming to the Republican point of view? The guy who said:

 I struggled with myself for a long time but I came to realize life is that gift from God, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape. It is something that God intended to happen.

“Something that God intended to happen“. The old “It’s God’s Will!” argument. Was it “God’s will” that the rape happened in the first place? Do we stop prosecuting murderers because the murder must have been God’s will? Do we let Jerry Sandusky out of prison because his rapes of young boys must have been God’s will? No, we don’t – because it wasn’t God’s will, it was the heinous acts of men. And pregnancy isn’t God’s will, it’s a sperm cell and egg cell uniting.

It’s sad just how far the Republican party has sunk. Remember Todd “Legitimate rape” Akin? Think those two Republican Senate candidates are isolated cases? Nope, there’s plenty of Republican Congressmen and Senators who think exactly like Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin, but have the political savvy to keep their mouths shut. Congressman and Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan, Todd Akin and over 200 other Republican Congressmen co-sponsored a bill in Congress that re-defined the definition of rape. The Hyde Amendment has long banned any federal funding for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or the danger to the life of the mother from a pregnancy. Paul Ryan, Todd Akin and over 200 others thought that too many women were getting a free pass on that rapey thing. They tried to insert the word “forcible” in front of “rape”, they tried to say the woman had to bear signs of being “forcibly raped” – that she clearly had been beaten into submission. Didn’t fight back hard enough? No rape exception for you. Victim of the so called “date rape” drug, slipped a mickey that puts your mind so far out in lah-lah land you have no idea or recollection of what you did? No rape exception for you. Victim of statutory rape, an adult forcing himself onto someone far too young to understand what they are doing? No rape exception for you. Republicans eventually had to take the term “forcible” out of the bill because of public outcry, but that’s what they tried to do.

When you consider the choice between President Obama and Mitt Romney, remember that Mitt Romney thinks Richard Mourdock would make a just fine & dandy 51st Senator.

When you consider the choice between Richard Carmona and Jeff Flake for the U.S. Senate, remember that Jeff Flake could be serving and voting with the likes of Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin, and remember what women think of Rich Carmona.

Those of you in Congressional District (CD) 1, when you consider the choice between Ann Kirkpatrick and Jonathon Paton, remember that Jonathon Paton could be voting for bills passed by a Republican House that could be approved by a Senate with the likes of Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin and signed into law by a President Romney should Republicans win control of the Senate and Mitt Romney win the election.

Those of you in CD 2, when you consider the choice between Ron Barber and Martha McSally, remember that Martha McSally could be voting for bills passed by a Republican House that could be approved by a Senate with the likes of Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin and signed into law by a President Romney should Republicans win control of the Senate and Mitt Romney win the election.

Those of you in CD 3, when you consider the choice between Raul Grijalva and Gabriele  Saucedo-Mercer , remember that Saucedo-Mercer could be voting for bills passed by a Republican House that could be approved by a Senate with the likes of Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin and signed into law by a President Romney should Republicans win control of the Senate and Mitt Romney win the election.

This election isn’t about Obama – it’s about your mama. It’s about your daughter, your sister, and it’s about you.

“For a detailed explanation of how the Romney-Ryan tax plan is able to cut taxes by $5 trillion without exploding the deficit or requiring tax hikes on the middle class, simply click the button below”.

No other explanation needed:

http://www.romneytaxplan.com

UPDATE: My esteemed blogging colleague, Fort Buckley, has been claiming in the comments that this RomneyTaxPlan website – owned & controlled by the Democratic National Committee – tries to “disguise themselves as someone else”, in effect site is designed to look like a Romney site, and they are trying to fool people. I think it is very clearly a parody, mocking that Romney won’t provide any details on his “tax plan” – at least not until after the election. Here is a screenshot of the Democratic site:

Notice the “half” pointing up into the “Romney believes in (half of) America? And the “Paid for by the Democratic National Committee” at the bottom?

Here’s MittRomney(dot)com:

I had to cut & play around with the URL to get to the main page – when I first went to the site it put up a big donation form, with no option to skip to the main site. Then when I cut that out of the URL it came back with another form wanting my email address & zip code. Finally got the main page on the third try. Are you “fooled” by the Democratic site?

                Photo courtesy of American workers fighting for their jobs at Free Bainport

An American factory is being closed, with all it’s jobs outsourced to China. Not breaking news, but it’s important news in the context of this election. The factory is located in the northwestern Illinois town of Freeport. Before the end of the year the factory will be closed, all it’s workers out of a job. It’s a Sensata Technologies factory. It’s workers used to make auto-senors. Today, they’re training their Chinese replacements. Chinese workers who back home will earn 99 cents an hour, working 12 hour shifts, housed with 2-3 workers crammed  into a single room in barracks. Mitt Romney says America needs to learn to compete with foreign countries in free trade. Compete in what? A race to the bottom? Compete with workers making 99 cents an hour housed 2-3 to a a room, while we need to earn enough to try to pay our mortgages? You can call it “free trade”, but it sure as hell isn’t fair trade. We’re supposed to compete with those wages, those worker conditions, no OSHA rules protecting the workers, no Workman’s Compensation if those workers are injured on the job, no environmental rules against dumping pollution into the air and streams? That isn’t free trade, it isn’t fair trade, that’s completely unacceptable trade. I hope the Obama Administration taxes those Chinese made auto-sensors all to hell with tariffs. Let’s see just how clever Sensata/Bain Capital thinks they are when they have to pay more for those Chinese made sensors than if they’d been made right here in the USA. You can read the stories from Sensata Freeport IL factory workers directly at Bainport.com.

Sensata Technologies is majority owned by Bain Capital. Late last year Sensata/Bain purchased this Freeport IL auto-sensing unit from Honeywell. The very next day after the purchase was completed Sensata/Bain assembled all the workers and told them they would all be losing their jobs, that all the production would be outsourced to China. Was this factory unprofitable, with the “crushing” tax burden Republicans claim is placed on American businesses? Nope. Was this factory unprofitable because of “over paid”, “unproductive” American workers? Nope, this factory was very profitable – Sensata/Bain simply thinks it can be more profitable paying workers 99 cents an hour in China.

Mitt Romney recently said on the campaign trail in Ohio: “How is it China’s been so successful in taking away our jobs?. Well, let me tell you how: by cheating”. Well, Mitt Romney should know. From the New York Times:

The tale of Asimco Technologies, an auto parts manufacturer whose plants dot eastern China, would seem to underscore Mitt Romney’s campaign-trail complaint that China’s manufacturing juggernaut is costing America jobs.  Nine years ago, the company bought two camshaft factories that employed about 500 people in Michigan. By 2007 both were shut down. Now Asimco manufactures the same components in China on government-donated land in a coastal region that China has designated an export base, where companies are eligible for the sort of subsidies Mr. Romney says create an unfair trade imbalance.

But there is a twist to the Asimco story that would not fit neatly into a Romney stump speech: Since 2010, it has been owned by Bain Capital, the private equity firm founded by Mr. Romney, who has as much as $2.25 million invested in three Bain funds with large stakes in Asimco and at least seven other Chinese businesses, according to his 2012 candidate financial disclosure and other documents.

A confidential prospectus for one of the Bain funds, obtained by The New York Times, promotes China as a “great investment”. It cites that Chinese manufacturing wages are 85 percent lower than what Americans earn. According to 2012 candidate financial disclosures and public records, Romney has as much as $250,000 in the Bain Capital Asia Fund and as much as $1 million each in Bain Capital Funds IX and X, all Cayman Islands entities used by Bain to make sizable investments in China.  Among those funds’ holdings is $234 million that Bain invested in 2009 in Gome Electrical Appliances, a major Chinese retailer that was accused by Microsoft this year of selling computers with pirated software. Mitt Romney is an astute businessman, and he sure knows a thing or two about how China has taken away our jobs by cheating – because Mitt Romney has profited handsomely from that very cheating.

Well, to be fair, Mitt hasn’t always profited handsomely from some of his Chinese investments. In 2008 Bain planned to team up with a Chinese technology giant Huawei to buy 3Com, a network equipment maker that supplies software and equipment to the Pentagon and other federal agencies. The deal collapsed, resulting in a a lawsuit, when the Bush administration released  intelligence reports indicating that Huawei, which was founded by a former People’s Liberation Army officer, posed national security problems. Just this week the (Republican) House Intelligence Committee report released Monday said Huawei continued to have troubling connections to the Chinese government.

But wait a minute, you say? Romney no longer has any connection to Bain Capital, his holdings have been in a blind trust since he became Governor of Massachusetts in 2003? Well, Mitt Romney is an astute businessman, and he knows a thing or two about how blind trusts work. Let him explain it to you:

The blind trust is an age old ruse. You can always tell the blind trust what it can and cannot do. You give a blind trust rules.

Age old ruse notwithstanding, ABC New is reporting Mitt Romney’s Blind Trust Not So Blind:

But government ethics experts and election lawyers told ABC News that Romney’s trust might not be quite as blind as he has long maintained. That’s because Romney placed his quarter-billion dollar family fortune in the hands of his personal lawyer and longtime associate Bradford Malt. Federal officeholders are required to either fully disclose all their financial holdings and any possible conflicts of interest, or place their holdings in a blind trust. Robert Kelner, a Republican election lawyer in Washington, D.C. with no ties to a current presidential campaign, explained the federal rules governing those blind trusts. “The Office of Government Ethics requires that a financial institution be appointed as the trustee and that the financial institution not be controlled by or have done business with the candidate,” said Kelner. “It would preclude you from hiring your favorite lawyer as the trustee.”

Romney filed his financial disclosure report this past August. It revealed that his “blind trust” had invested over $1 million in the Solamere Founders Fund. Solamere is managed by Tagg Romney, Mitt’s son.

Romney claimed in the first debate that “his plan” will create 12 million jobs in the next four years. Mitt Romney is an astute businessman – he didn’t tell us where those jobs would be created. Who do you trust to continue rebuilding our economy for the next four years? The guy who thinks that because Chinese manufacturing wages are 85 percent lower than America’s it’s a fantastic investment opportunity? The guy who said “Let Detroit go bankrupt”? Or the guy that said our automakers were too important to let them fail?

                         Made in the USA

The Vietnam War was one of the most troubling, challenging times for America. It was America’s most unpopular war, and it sharply divided our country. Some proudly enlisted and volunteered for duty. Some had to be drafted, but served their country and did their duty. Many protested against the war. And some even immigrated to Canada to avoid the draft. But as diverse their views and opinions were they shared one thing in common: they formed their opinions and then followed their convictions. But there was one who didn’t: Willard Mitt Romney.

That’s Mitt on the right in May 1966, at Standford University. Some students had organized a sit-in demonstration protesting the war, the draft, and university President Sterling’s support for the war. So Mitt joined a counter demonstration supporting the war in Vietnam and the draft. He thought those anti-war protestors should just shut up and prepare to be drafted and deployed. When he was running for President in 2007 he claimed in an interview with NBC that he wanted to serve and fight in Vietnam:

“I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there, and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam”.

But when he was running for the Senate in 1994, he told the Boston Herald something a little different:

“It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam, but nor did I take any actions to remove myself from the pool of young men who were eligible for the draft“.

As Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott wrote long ago: “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive”. Because once you start lying it quickly gets difficult keeping things straight. Yes, Mitt, you did take actions to remove yourself from being eligible for the draft. Four times. You got your first deferment in 1965, a student deferment while at Stanford. And then you took a religious deferment from 1966 through 1969, when you did your Mormon Mission in Paris. Where you dreamed longingly of Ann, while lounging at the beach.

While those you told to shut up and go to Vietnam were also on the beach, but under somewhat different conditions:

Anti-war demonstrator, draft dodger, draft server or volunteer, they all the courage to follow their convictions. While Mitt Romney said one thing and did another. Just like he did when he cares about all Americans, but then in a private fundraiser shows his disdain for 47% he says it’s not his job to care about. And Romney’s actions avoiding the Vietnam war  explains why it never occurred to him to honor and thank our men and women in uniform when he accepted his party’s nomination to be Commander in Chief. Let Vietnam War veteran, Virginia Democratic Senator Jim Webb explain it to you:

During the year I was in Vietnam, 1969, our country lost twice as many dead as we have lost in Iraq and Afghanistan combined over the past 10 years of war. Not a day goes by when I do not think about the young Marines I was privileged to lead. Those young Marines that I led have grown older now. They’ve lived lives of courage, both in combat and after their return, where many of them were derided by their own peers for having served. That was a long time ago. They are not bitter. They know what they did. But in receiving veterans’ benefits, they are not takers. They were givers, in the ultimate sense of that word. There is a saying among war veterans:  “All gave some, some gave all.”  This is not a culture of dependency. It is a part of a long tradition that gave this country its freedom and independence. They paid, some with their lives, some through wounds and disabilities, some through their emotional scars, some through the lost opportunities and delayed entry into civilian careers which had already begun for many of their peers who did not serve.

And not only did they pay. They will not say this, so I will say it for them. They are owed, if nothing else, at least a mention, some word of thanks and respect, when a presidential candidate who is their generational peer makes a speech accepting his party’s nomination to be commander-in-chief.  And they are owed much more than that — a guarantee that we will never betray the commitment that we made to them and to their loved ones.

All gave some, some gave all. And one did neither.

Invasion of the Zombies on their way to the voting booth? Mitt Romney campaign political director Rich Beeson dismissed yesterday dismissed recent polls showing every single battleground state slipping away from Mitt Romney.

“The public polls are what they are. I feel confident about where we are. At the end of the day, Ohio is going to come down to the wire.”

Come down to the wire? The latest swing state polls from Quinnipiac University, CBS News and the New York Times show Obama holding leads of 10 points in Ohio, 9 points in Florida and 12 points in Pennsylvania.  In all three states, 51 percent of voters prefer Obama over Romney to preside over the national economy — a policy area over which the president has seized the upper-hand in the last month. About 60 percent of voters in Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania say Obama understands and cares about their problems, while similarly large majorities say Romney does not.Obama’s consistent advantage among women voters has spanned virtually the entire campaign, but the gender gap has swollen considerably in the three states. The president holds commanding leads among women voters in Ohio (25 points), Florida (19 points) and Pennsylvania (21 points).

Mitt Romney campaign political director Rich Beeson  claimed the competitiveness of the race in states like Wisconsin and Iowa suggest a close national contest. “This is a wide open race” he claimed.

Meanwhile, back in the land of reality, last week’s NBC/Marist poll has the President leading Romney 50-42% in Iowa. The same poll has Obama leading Romney 50-45% in Wisconsin; PPP has it 52-45%. Does Mr. Beeson see dead people planning on coming back from the grave and into a voting booth? Or is their internal polling done by the same make believe NFL referees that gave Seattle a winning touchdown over Green Bay? Langer Research Associates poll for ABC News & Washington Post 9/19-23:

Overall, do you have a favorable or unfavorable impression of the way Barack Obama is running his presidential campaign?
Favorable: 53
Unfavorable: 45

…the way Mitt Romney is running his presidential campaign?
Favorable: 36
Unfavorable: 61

  …Romney’s recent comments about people who don’t pay income taxes?
Favorable: 33
Unfavorable: 54

Yes, election day is still 6 weeks away and anything can happen. Well, sorta. Except for that little thing called early voting. Early voting kicks off tomorrow in  Iowa, and with more swing states following close behind, including Ohio next Tuesday, George Mason University professor Michael McDonald, who researches early voting behavior, forecasts that 35% of the vote will be cast before Election Day. That’s nationwide; in many states it’s much higher. In the swing state of Colorado, 78% of all votes in 2008 were cast prior to election day; this year it;’s predicted to be 85%. Here in Arizona, where we start getting early mail-in ballots 2 weeks from tomorrow, it’s predicted over 65% of all ballots will be cast prior to election day.

So, desperate times call for desperate measures, and the Republicans are getting desperate. In the Massachusetts Senate race, GOP darling Scott Brown decided to make his closing argument challenging Democrat Elizabeth Warren’s claim of Native American ancestry because  . . . she looks white to him. At a campaign rally yesterday Warren supporters were taunted with Indian war whoops and tomahawk chops. Among those doing the taunting were Brown’s deputy Chief of Staff Greg Casey and Constituent Service Counsel Jack Richard. Those guys’ salaries are paid by taxpayers, and they belittle Native Americans? Scott Brown, you deserve to loose. And Missouri GOP Senate candidate Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin? After he made those remarks Republican Party leaders demanded his resignation, calling his remarks “disgraceful”. Yesterday those same party leaders were saying “Todd Akin is a principled conservative who is committed to winning and fighting for freedom in the U.S. Senate”. Why the sudden about face? Yesterday was the absolute deadline for Akin to drop out of the race and have his name removed from the ballot, and their fading hopes of gaining control of the Senate is more important to them than principle. No rape is legitimate, and no, women who are rape victims have no magic defense from getting pregnant. Mr. Akin, you deserve to lose.  And here in Arizona, Democratic Senate candidate Richard Carmona released a new ad pointing out a series of votes Jeff Flake cast on veterans’ issues, including cuts to services and his opposition to a bonus for Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans. Jeff Flake, you deserve to lose.

The Mecklenburg County VA Republican Party’s Facebook page:

Nice. You guys all deserve to lose. Big time.

.

I grew up watching Gilligan’s Island on TV and loved the show. Gilligan and the Skipper, the Professor and the bombshell Ginger – they all made me laugh. But it was Thurston Howell the Third and his wife “Lovey” that made me laugh the most. They would make my Republican father and Democrat mom share a laugh over their complete lack of understanding of the lives of “common folks”. Like the episode where Gilligan and the Skipper build a small raft to try to get off the island and get help, and Mr. Howell demands he and Lovey go with them. “Mr. Howell, You don’t know what it’s like out there in the ocean, you may be bitten by a shark!” the Skipper tells him. “A shark bite a Howell, ha ha he wouldn’t dare!” Mr. Howell retorts. “Besides we don’t have room enough for your luggage” the Skipper adds. Mr. Howell responds: “Well that’s different. If I can’t go first class I won’t go at all!”

I also enjoy David Brooks, columnist for the New York Times. I look forward to the Shields and Brooks segment every Friday on the PBS Newshour, where Mr. Books squares off with the liberal columnist Mark Shields. David Brooks is a conservative, but a Northeastern conservative – articulate, thoughtful, knowledgeable and not afraid to be bluntly critical when a Republican goes to far off in the right wing la la land. Northeastern conservatives are fiscal conservatives, but socially moderate and reasonable.  Here in Arizona conservatives call people like that “bleeding heart libruls” or, more affectionately, “libtards”. Mr. Brooks wrote an opinion article the other day entitled Thurston Howell Romney, in which he was bluntly critical of comments that Mitt Romney made last May at a $50,000 a plate fundraiser – comments that he thought would never leave the room.

These are not the sensible arguments that Mitt Romney made at a fund-raiser earlier this year. Romney, who criticizes President Obama for dividing the nation, divided the nation into two groups: the makers and the moochers. Forty-seven percent of the country, he said, are people “who are dependent upon government, who believe they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to take care of them, who believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it”.

This comment suggests a few things. First, it suggests that he really doesn’t know much about the country he inhabits. Who are these freeloaders? Is it the Iraq war veteran who goes to the V.A.? Is it the student getting a loan to go to college? Is it the retiree on Social Security or Medicare?

It suggests that Romney doesn’t know much about the culture of America. Yes, the entitlement state has expanded, but America remains one of the hardest-working nations on earth. Americans work longer hours than just about anyone else. Americans believe in work more than almost any other people. Ninety-two percent say that hard work is the key to success, according to a 2009 Pew Research Survey.

Ninety-two percent of Americans believe that hard work is the key to success. But what about the other 8%? I’m inclined to believe many of them think the key to success is to just be smarter that the other guy. To sell investors mortgage backed securities that you assure them are solid, safe investments – while buying derivatives that will make you a pile of money when those mortgages go belly up. To buy companies, load them up with debt and milk their cash reserves dry with “management fees” so that you and your investors make millions in profits as the company goes bankrupt, lays off all it’s workers and closes up. To make sure your income is classified as “capital gains” and taxed at only 15%, instead of income from wages & salaries like “commoners” and taxed at a much higher rate, with Social Security and Medicare taxes to boot. And if that’s still too much taxes to your liking, you hide your money in the Cayman Islands and Swiss bank accounts. As the wealthy hotel magnet Leona Helmsley once told her hired help: “Only little people pay taxes“. She was later convicted and jailed for income tax evasion.

You see, that’s the real contradiction here – Romney and his fellow Republicans condemn the 47% who don’t pay federal income taxes as “leeches and moochers”, feeding off the “Culture of Dependency”. Never mind that those 47% pay plenty in other taxes – sales taxes, utility excise taxes, gasoline taxes, property taxes either directly or though rent that their landlord uses to pay property taxes.  How dare they not pay income taxes, they have no skin in the game! But at the same time they think it’s their duty to use every quirk and loophole in the tax code, to use every trick in the book – to not pay income taxes!. Offshore tax havens? That’s our right and our duty to avoid the clutches of the evil big government! Carry forward losses recorded when times are bad, like 2008, to shield your income from taxes when times our good? That’s our God given right! They’ve made figuring out ways to avoid paying taxes on their loot into a competitive sport. But if someone doesn’t pay incomes taxes because they’re living on Social Security and retirement savings that don’t add up enough to meet the federal income tax threshold? Freeloader! Bottom feeder on the ‘Culture of Dependency’! They live by the Golden Rule: He who has the gold rules.

That’s the hypocrisy of the well off, those who pay $50,000 a plate to listen to a guy who is promising them yet another tax cut – so they won’t have to work so hard to avoid them. As Thurston Howell the Third said: “It is rather difficult being rich. If it wasn’t for the money, I’d rather be poor“.

Then there’s the hypocrisy of politicians like Paul Ryan. He was out on the campaign trail yesterday echoing that ‘Culture of Dependency’ meme. Well, at least he knows what he’s talking about. When his father died when he was only 16, Ryan collected Social Security Survival Benefits until he was 18. He saved them and used the money to pay for part of his college tuition. He paid the rest of it with student loans – federally guaranteed, federally subsidized low interest student loans. And then he’s been on the federal government payroll pretty much since he graduated from college. He knows it’s no ‘Culture of Dependency’, it’s the role of government ensuring that everyone gets a fair chance to work hard, get ahead, and succeed. Paul Ryan just thinks it politically advantageous to repeat the false claim of ‘Culture of Dependency’ to play to the conservative party base who have been told that enough times they believe it. Paul Ryan is a hypocrite, but he’s no dummy – he also probably knows that is was Ronald Reagan’s Tax Reform Act of 1986 and George W Bush’s 2001 & 2003 tax cuts that wiped out the income-tax liability for many Americans. GW Bush sold his tax cuts in part by saying it would remove over 8 million people from the tax roll with his new 10% tax rate and doubling the child tax credit from $500 to $1,000. It was also part of the Welfare reforms in the 1990s – income tax credits for the working poor to be the working poor, not welfare queen poor. But welfare poor or working poor they’re still poor and the people Romney was speaking to at that fundraiser still consider them “the help” and look down on them. So Mitt pitched to his audience, belittling those who don’t pay income taxes as “moochers” and “freeloaders”.

Republicans a quick to accuse Democrats of “class warfare” and “class envy”, resentful of the wealthy. Not at all – I’m loving that well to do person who paid $50,000 for lunch so they could take their video camera into Mitt’s fundraiser to record what he said when he thought only rich folk like him would hear what he really thinks. And I’m loving that the very well to do Mitt Romney is running the most inept campaign challenging an incumbent President since George McGovern in 1972.

The first is Mitt joking to a wealthy, entirely white audience that his father, who was born in Mexico, was “unfortunately” not born to Mexican parents because if he were Latino he’d have a “better chance” of winning:

“My heritage, my dad as you probably know was the governor of Michigan and was the head of a car company. But he was born in Mexico, and, uh, had he been born of, uh, Mexican parents, I’d have a better shot at winning this. [Rich donors cracking up]

But he was unfortunately born to Americans living in Mexico. He lived there for a number of years. And, uh, uh, I say that jokingly, but it would be helpful to be, uh … Latino.”

Yeah Mitt, how unlucky you are your Dad was born to white, American parents in Mexico. Arizona and Texas, and some counties in California  are the only jurisdictions outside the old Confederacy to fall under the preclearance requirement of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act because of their long history of discrimination against Latinos in registering to vote and and voting. Latino Americans had to work long and hard to overcome prejudice and take their rightful place in our society. And Mitt Romney thinks it’s cleaver to joke about being born Latino when he’s clearly insincere. I’m old enough to remember a sign at a gas station in northern Florida that said “Notice: We do not serve n**gers, cubans, porto ricans [sic] or mexicans”.

And then here’s Mitt Romney telling more rich donors that 47% of Americans will vote for Obama because they’re leeches on the government dole and pay no income taxes:

“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 is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

Romney’s statement was centered on the myth perpetuated by the Wall Street Journal that 47 percent of all Americans don’t pay federal taxes. But that number only applies to the federal income tax. Two-thirds of those people still pay federal Social Security and Medicare taxes. And all of them pay state & local sales taxes, utility excise taxes, and many more. And just because they don’t earn enough to pay federal income taxes doesn’t mean they’re all on food stamps, medicaid, or Section 8 housing. And the one-third that don’t pay any federal incomes taxes or Social Security or Medicare? They’re almost entirely retirees living on Social Security. And they earned that by paying plenty of income, Social Security and Medicare taxes before they retired. But Mitt doesn’t think it’s “his job” to worry about them. I have two words for Mitt Romney: one starts with an ‘f’ and ends in ‘k’, and the other word is ‘you’. But I can’t use those words in polite company. So I’ll just say what a pathetic, out of touch, elitist snob. As Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said:

It’s shocking that a candidate for President of the United States would go behind closed doors and declare to a group of wealthy donors that half the American people  view themselves as ‘victims,’ entitled to handouts, and are unwilling to take ‘personal responsibility’ for their lives.  It’s hard to serve as president for all Americans when you’ve disdainfully written off half the nation.

As most of you have heard or read, U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and 3 other U.S. diplomats were killed yesterday in Benghazi, Libya. A mob of extreme Islamic jihadists had earlier attacked the U.S. Consulate  in Benghazi, overrunning it and setting ablaze. Ambassador  Stevens and 3 other diplomats died in the attack.  According to the Libya Herald, citing local witnesses, those who attacked the US mission included members of the hardline Islamist group Ansar Al-Sharia. It reported that Libya security forces tried to defend the embassy building but withdrew under heavy fire. Since the fall of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, Libya’s transitional government has struggled to rebuild an effective police force, control the weapons that have flooded the streets and restore public security. Local Islamist militant groups capitalizing on the security vacuum have claimed responsibility for some attacks, and some reports on Tuesday suggested that one such group, Ansar al-Sharia, had claimed responsibility for that day’s assault.

The assault followed a protest in neighboring Egypt where demonstrates scaled the walls of the US embassy, tore down the US flag, and burned it. What is fueling this anger among extreme Islamist zealots? An attack on their religion and Prophet Mohammed by Christian and Jewish zealots.  The mobs were set off by Egyptian media reports about a 14-minute trailer for the video, called “Innocence of Muslims,” that was posted on Youtube. The trailer uses cartoon like scenes to depict the Prophet Muhammad as a child of uncertain parentage, a buffoon, a womanizer, a homosexual, a child molester and a greedy, bloodthirsty thug. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, the violence against U.S. diplomats in Libya is an “attack that should shock the conscience of people of all faiths around the world”.But someone sure knows how to get extreme Islamist riled up.

The trailer was uploaded to YouTube by Sam Bacile, whom The Wall Street Journal Web site identified as a 52-year old Israeli-American real estate developer in California. He told the Web site he had raised $5 million from 100 Jewish donors to make the film. “Islam is a cancer” Mr. Bacile was quoted as saying.

The video gained international attention when a Florida pastor began promoting it along with his own proclamation of Sept. 11 as “International Judge Muhammad Day.” In a statement on Tuesday, the pastor, Terry Jones of Gainesville, Fla., called the film “an American production, not designed to attack Muslims but to show the destructive ideology of Islam” and said it “further reveals in a satirical fashion the life of Muhammad”.

“Not designed to attack Muslims”??? It is against their religion to even depict Mohammed in an image. And I wonder how Pastor Jones would feel if someone depicted his beloved Jesus as a child of uncertain parentage, an idiot, a homosexual preying on children, and a bloodthirsty thug? You may remember Pastor Jones for his “Burn a Koran Day” crusade on September 11 2010:

He ultimately backed down after pressure, and after it was pointed out to him that Islamist mobs rioting in outrage would endanger the lives of American men and women in uniform in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world. With folks like Pastor Jones spreading the word of the Lord, Satan doesn’t need any help. I can understand one’s calling to spread the word of their religion, but the need to insult and tear down someone else’s religion totally escapes me. I’ve been an Agnostic Buddhist for a long time now. But when I was a child my parents had me go to Methodist church and Bible School and I sure don’t remember any of that hate and contempt for other religions from the teachings of Jesus. And I lived and worked in Morocco and Egypt for several years when I worked in hotel management, and I don’t remember any of that violence and killing in the teachings of Mohammed as explained to me by my Muslim friends. What happened in Egypt and Libya should shock the conscience of people of all faiths around the world. Well said, Secretary Clinton. And in the name of sanity, can we all just stop with attacking other people’s religious beliefs and just be content in our own religious beliefs, or lack thereof?

And once again Mitt Romney demonstrated how woefully unprepared and inadequate he is to assume the role of Commander in Chief. He used the tragedy to launch a personal attack on President Obama, suspending his self-imposed break from politics on the 11th anniversary of 9/11 by releasing the following statement late last night:

“I’m outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi, It’s disgraceful that the Obama Administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks”.

Um, jumping the gun there a bit, Mitt? President Obama and/or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hadn’t even released a statement yet, as they will still confirming the reports from Libya. What Romney is referring to is a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo which condemned the anti-Muslim film and the posting of the trailer online.  But that statement was released by the embassy before it was even attacked by the mob, and long before the attacks in Libya. Yet this morning Romney repeated the lie, saying the Cairo Embassy’s statement was “in my view a disgraceful statement on the part of our administration to apologize for American values”. American values???? No, Willard, vilifying someone eles’e religion is NOT an “American value”. Debasing deviling their Prophet as a  child molester of questionable parentage is NOT and “American value”.  Look at how downright smirking Romney is as he leaves his press conference:

And notice how grim the expressions are on the reporters’ faces? This is how you look Presidential in light of a tragedy:

President Obama said that his administration would work with the Libyan government to bring those who killed four Americans in Benghazi on Tuesday to justice, in a statement delivered at the White House Wednesday morning.

“Make no mistake, justice will be done”.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the violence against U.S. diplomats in Libya an “attack that should shock the conscience of people of all faiths around the world.”

We aren’t alone in feeling Mitt Romney has just made an ass of himself:

Mark Halperin, Time Magazine:

“Unless the Romney campaign has gamed this crisis out in some manner completely invisible to the Gang of 500, his doubling down on criticism of the President for the statement coming out of Cairo is likely to be seen as one of the most craven and ill-advised tactical moves in this entire campaign”.

Politico:

“Over the top: Yesterday we noted that Mitt Romney, down in the polls after the convention, was throwing the kitchen sink at President Obama. Little did we know the kitchen sink would include — on the anniversary of 9/11 — one of the most over-the-top and (it turns out) incorrect attacks of the general election campaign”.

Tweet from the National Journal:

“A ham-handed and inaccurate response from Romney. There is a reason why politix stops at water’s edge.”

Peggy Noonan on Fox News:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Pudj64El23s

“Trying to exploit things for political gain . . . Mitt Romney hasn’t been doing himself any favors the past few hours”.

]]> http://tucsoncitizen.com/baja-democrats/2012/09/12/ambassador-chris-stevens-victim-of-religious-zealots-romney-victim-of-himself/feed/ 11 http://tucsoncitizen.com/baja-democrats/2012/09/05/gee-why-didnt-i-think-of-that/ http://tucsoncitizen.com/baja-democrats/2012/09/05/gee-why-didnt-i-think-of-that/#comments Wed, 05 Sep 2012 16:20:26 +0000 David Pinar http://tucsoncitizen.com/baja-democrats/?p=207

It was a simple line in the Democratic National Convention Keynote address by San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro. But for me it really defines the difference between Mitt Romney and the Democratic Party. Mr. Castro was referring to remarks Romney made at a university in Ohio, urging students to “start a business”. “But how?”, one student asked. “Borrow money from your parents if you have to“, Romney told them. That’s when Julian said, shaking his head and smiling broadly said “Gee, why didn’t I think of that?“. Smiling, because he and his twin brother Joaquin were raised by their grandmother and mother, who had no money to loan him. “My grandmother never owned a house,” Julian explained. “She cleaned other people’s houses so she could afford to rent her own. But she saw her daughter become the first in her family to graduate from college. And my mother fought hard for civil rights so that instead of a mop, I could hold this microphone“. Shaking his head because Willard M. Romney doesn’t get that.  A son of privilege, Romney went to private schools and never had to worry about excelling and outperforming his classmates so he could get a scholarship enabling him to attend Stanford like Julian and Joaquin did. Romney’s dad paid his tuition. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that – George Romney earned his money and can spend it anyway he wants. And, as most parents do, he no doubt wanted to help his son in any way he could so that he could be successful and have a better life than he did. As Julian explained: “Some people are lucky enough to borrow money from their parents, but that shouldn’t determine whether you can pursue your dreams. Not in America. Not in the 21st century“. His mother and grandmother wanted Julian and his brother to be successful and have a better life then them, the same as George Romney wanted for his children. What they had to give was this:

“When I think about the challenges in front us, I think about the importance of teachers who can inspire you, the individual difference that they can make in the classroom, the beauty and the strength of a parent who loves his or her child, and is committed enough to stay involved in their education, and make a difference in it.  And the importance of a child who has aspirations — they see the stars and they want to reach them.”

The product of a middle class family, I didn’t have it nearly as tough as Julian and his brother, but I can relate to their story. My father was one of 7 brothers and sisters orphaned in the midst of the Great Depression. He never got to pursue his dream of a college education, but took correspondence schooling and night classes and was able to work his way up to a position as a mechanical design engineer in the aerospace industry. As a parent his new dream was that each of his three children would have what he couldn’t have – a college education. He put my brother and sister through college, and both are very successful. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I graduated from high school and decided to work for a while. When I finally figured out what I wanted, it was something my father couldn’t give me. I wanted a degree in Hotel Management, and I wanted a degree from the premier school for that – the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University. My father said he would try to help, and a I politely told him no, he wouldn’t – I would do it. I wasn’t the most stellar student in high school, so first I went to Community College for a year and got straight A’s. I worked as a waiter in a restaurant to pay for it. Then I applied to Cornell, and was granted a very generous scholarship. That coupled with student loans and Pell Grants enabled me to earn my Bachelor’s Degree in Hotel Administration from Cornell University. But, I didn’t “build that”. The generosity of Cornell alumni who went before me, contributing to the scholarship endowment fund helped me build that. The United States Government, through grants and low interest student loans helped me build that. The drive and determination to succeed that was instilled in me by my father and mother helped me build that. We all “built” my Bachelor’s Degree, together.

What defines us as Democrats? I think Julian Castro said it best last night:

“We know that in our free market economy some will prosper more than others. What we don’t accept is the idea that some folks won’t even get a chance. We all understand that freedom isn’t free. What Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan don’t understand is that neither is opportunity. We have to invest in it.”

Gee, Mitt – why didn’t you think of that?

Well, the Republican Nation Convention came to a close last night, with a parade of strange speeches, a night that can be best described as: Running on Empty.

First we had former Florida Jeb Bush making an impassioned speech: Please stop picking on my big brother.

“My brother, well, I love my brother. He is a man of integrity, courage and honor. And during incredibly challenging times, he kept us safe. Mr. President, it is time to stop blaming your predecessor for your failed economic policies. You were dealt a tough hand, but your policies have not worked. In the fourth year of your presidency, a real leader would accept responsibility for his actions, and you haven’t done it.”

Well, first of all, I’ve never heard President Obama say “It’s all Bush’s fault”. The American people do think it’s Bush’s fault – recent polling indicates that 62% of Americans still blame President George W Bush’s administration for the steep economic recession. And they’d be right – economists overwhelming pinpoint December 2007 as the start of the recession. The same economists pinpoint the summer of 2009 as when industrial production and real GDP hit rock bottom, and growth resumed in the fall of 2009 – as the stimulus package passed by Congress and signed by President Obama began to take effect. Yes, the recovery hasn’t been anywhere near as strong as it needs to be, but we don’t blame Bush for that – we blame the Republican House, which, assisted by their filibustering comrades in the Senate, have done everything they can to sabotage the economic recovery, in their number one priority: making President Obama a one term President.  Yes, while the President hasn’t personally blamed Bush for anything, some Democratic politicians and pundits have. That’s what politicians do. But at least they have a leg to stand on. As late as 2004 in campaign fundraisers President Bush was blaming Bill Clinton for the recession he “inherited”. In August 2002, Mitch Daniels, then Bush’s head of the Office of Management and Budget, announced on Fox News:

“He [Bush] inherited that recession from the previous administration. Case is closed.”

Predictably, the drumbeat from the Bush team was reproduced with zero distortion from the always reliable media. While Fox News’ Sean Hannity made the argument during the November 2002 mid-term election “this president — you know and I know and everybody knows — inherited a recession”. Those pesky economists again? They pinpoint March 2001 as the start of the 2001-2002 mild recession.

And then there was that bizarre appearance by Clint Eastwood lecturing an empty chair. Now, I love Clint Eastwood to death, so I’ll go a little easy on him. He is 82, and it showed – but hey, if I make it to 82 I’ll be happy enough just to still be breathing air and standing up on my own power, not giving a speech to thousands packed into a convention hall. Clint certainly set the Twitter universe tweeting with humor and sarcasm, if Clint even knows what that is (the Twitter part, I’m sure Clint knows humor and sarcasm). NPR political correspondent Mara Liasson said that watching Ann Romney during Clint’s “speech” was like watching a mother of the bride “listening to a drunken wedding toast.” In the end, the crowd egged Clint on to repeat a line from his Dirty Harry movie: “Go ahead. Make my day”. I imagine the genius in the Romney campaign who dreamed up the idea of inviting Clint to be their “Mystery Speaker” was thinking more of a line from Clint’s 2008 movie Gran Torino: “Get off my lawn!“.

If you missed Clint’s speech, here’s a link to the full speech (around 12 minutes) on YouTube. Destined to be a classic.

And then there was Mitt, giving his acceptance speech with a wistful smile that looked like he was ready to burst into tears at any moment, as he accepted the nomination he’d been trying to win for the past five years, as he serenaded us with empty promises:

“I have a plan to create 12 million new jobs. Paul Ryan and I have five steps. First, by 2020, North America will be an energy independent by taking invented of our oil, are coal, our gas, our nuclear, and renewables. Second, we will give our fellow citizens the skills they need for the jobs of today and the careers of tomorrow.  When it comes to the school your child will attend, every parent should have a choice, and every child should have a chance. Third, we will make trade work for America by forging new trade agreements, and when nations cheat in trade, there will be unmistakable consequences. And fourth, to assure every entrepreneur and every job creator that their investments in America will not vanish, as have those in Greece.  We will cut the deficit and put America on track to a balanced budget. And fifth, we will champion small businesses, America’s engine of job growth.  That means reducing taxes on business, not raising them.  It means simplifying and modernizing the regulations that hurt small businesses the most, and it means we must rein in skyrocketing cost of health care by repealing and replacing Obamacare.”

You have a “plan” to create 12 million jobs? That’s conveniently the current number of those unemployed and seeking work, but still, it sounds just swell! Care to spill any actual details? Energy independent? I’ve been hearing that since the 1973 Arab oil embargo, when I could only buy gas on even numbered days, and waited in line a half hour to 45 minutes to buy gas on the days that I could, and we import twice as much oil now as we did then. But do tell – what’s your plan to do that? More trade agreements? The ones that ship our jobs overseas? We’ll assure every entrepreneur that we’re not Greece? OK. Reduce taxes on business, i.e., the wealthy, those mythical “job creators”? And replace “Obamacare”? With what? A voucher system to replace Medicare?

Good luck selling that bill of goods.