Come Hades or Higher Waters

Come Hades or Higher Waters

Implication w/o the Explication:

So as I write this Tuesday 08/04/2012, the RNC convention wrapped up last week and the DNC convention is just under way. Overall I will state the Republican convention was not a success. It has nothing to do with Clint Eastwood, but more so in the opening in-fighting with Ron Paul delegates being considered no-counts by their fellow Republicans and the loud boos Reince Priebus and John Boehner received in their tally counts. Priebus announced the final decision on new GOP rules excluding insurgent presidential candidates to amass delegates. Boehner’s prognostication of a full delegation on the vote was the next order. Both men said the ayes have it when the nays were so obviously shouted with much more gusto. It was a tad on the mayhem side with all the hollering as it cut into the efficacy of grassroots activism.

The Republican convention also touted the guest speaker, Sher Valenzuela, for one, as a front in that she is Hispanic, therefore Republicans care about minorities and to promote a main theme of theirs, ‘We Built It’ as she came from humble beginnings and built up a million dollar plus upholstery business alone with her husband employing some 40 employees.

The looping reality though, contradicts the theme. Mrs. Valenzuela actually requested and received $17 million in government loans and contracts in achieving her company.

She even touted in a Delaware business conference the earlier part of this year that entrepreneurs should rely on government programs and assistance offered by Obama’s stimulus package for small businesses whenever starting up a company. Of course this is a shot in the foot to Romney and the Republican camp who discredit Obama’s stimulus package as a failure and is in direct contrast to their, ‘We Built It’ slogan, which seeks to distort Obama’s words when he stated in a speech that we all rely on others to achieve. We’ll expound on this later when we discuss Romney.

CEO president, Steven Cohen of Screen Machine Industries was also an invited speaker and nowhere was it revealed that Cohen’s Ohio based manufacturing company had also received in excess of $2 million in government contracts and $220,000.00 in stimulus funds when Cohen’s company was hurting for solvency.

When asked by an AP reporter why Romney had handpicked him to speak, Cohen replied, “It would be very hard for a Mitt Romney, or a presidential candidate from any party, to go to any manufacturer and find someone who was not directly, or indirectly, affected somehow by the president’s stimulus package.” Kind of goes against the grain of the Republican message of a failed stimulus doesn’t it.      

But the primary source of my statement in its failings, is that the latest polls all agree in results that it did not give the Romney-Ryan ticket a bump much less a boost in percentage rankings.

One, or a party in this case, should not develop and analyze their set of ideas and principles structured from a baseless foundation and use it in attacking perceived opponents. In so doing, deceit filters in rather quickly that becomes the lead into corruption of character. Republicans today are doing this so much so, that it is becoming a part of their core character.

Deceit is for sure now a permanent mode of operation for the elephant party. Republican false claims of Obama being un-American, not an American and their continuous birther ranting, now has 64% of Republicans actually believing that President Obama was not born in America and is not American. This is according to a June 2012 poll conducted by Dartmouth University’s government department.

Fear tactics are also a false front for Republican assaults. Conducted by the PEW Forum this past July 2012, 34% of conservative Republicans still today truly believe that President Obama is a Muslim. This is all due to the constant rhetoric Republican officials kept feeding to their masses whether in direct or subliminal assaults. Although he is a solid Christian, of those 34% believing that he is Muslim, 65% have fear due to the fact they think he is Muslim. But even if he were Muslim, that should not be so great a deal in a country that claims religious freedoms, should it…apparently so.

Oh, yet when Democrats retaliate in similar manner, but still at least maintain a level of truth, Republicans get all bent out of shape with hurt feelings. A few cases in point:

Symptom Synonym:

This past July 10^th, Sarah Palin was on Fox News’ Sean Hannity show and when asked what she thought of the recent Democrat attacks on Romney’s offshore accounts, she had this to say, it’s “insanely hypocritical.” Then she demures in reference to her ignoramous past bloopers are simply a direct result of the media picking on her and goes on to say, “Like [the media] did four years ago, Sean, they chose their one and they did all that they could to usher him into the White House. We are going to see the same tactics this go-around. I think voters though, are wiser, perhaps, this go-around in understanding that the media does: manipulate information.” She also adds that Debbie Wasserman-Shultz, a Florida representative and Democrat chairman, has an offshore account. I just wonder if her media wander also took Fox News into account with pushing Obama into office…anyway…  

Referenced from a Mary Matalin-Carville argument that Wasserman-Shultz account Palin’s speaking of, is a $15,000 401(k) IRA account set up by the American corporation, Davis Financial Fund based in Massachusetts, but indeed invested by the State Bank of India (SBI). The fund was held for a mere few days from April 15, 2012 to April 23, 2012.

Now let’s compare:

A)  First off, neither account was illegal.

B)   Romney intentionally set up a $3,000,000.00 offshore tax shelter cash savings account through the law firm, Ropes & Gray with (UBS). Wasserman-Shultz intentionally set up an under $15,000.00 IRA retirement fund through the American financial corporation, Davis Financial Fund, but who was partially invested by (SBI).

C)   Romney personally held his account from 2003 to 2010. The Wasserman-Schultz account was held by the Davis Financial Fund for a period of 8 days, whereupon it was sold by the firm on the American market.

Now, is that “insanely hypocritical,” or insanely hypothetical?

Never mind that Romney and his campaign have been stumping and spending tens of millions of distorted and false ads, his feelings were hurt when Obama’s campaign returned in kind. In Democrats beginning to play ball like Republicans do in pitching spit balls, Romney’s camp expressed that the Obama team is exhibiting “a new low.”

After the real story shown only on the internet of a Bain controlled shut down and walk away with millions in profits from an employee’s former employ, with he stating that now with no insurance his wife passed away with untreated cancer, along with Joe Biden’s proclamation of Romney politics favoring the wealthy with, “They’re gonna put y’all back in chains,” as addressed to American workers, Romney really begins to whine.

Romney complains at a stump speech in Ohio, that Obama “is running a campaign of division and hate.” Getting a bit wordier, he adds, “So Mr. President, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago and let us get about rebuilding and reuniting America.”  

Clinging to a subliminal message of the stereotyped ‘angry black man,’ Romney was catering to his home base, but was also neglecting the fact that it was indeed his camp that first started slinging the spit balls way back during the Republican primaries.

Romney’s own campaign initiated attack ads when they released an ad back in November 22, 2011 targeting Obama with an edited version from one of Obama’s campaign speeches in 2008.

The commercial, totally taken out of context states that Obama said, “If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.”

Here’s what Obama actually said, ‘“Senator McCain’s campaign actually said and I quote, “If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.”’ (Barack Obama Oct. 23, 2008)

A little dirty and on the deceitful side I would say. But nonetheless, Romney has conjured the audacity and even contacted Obama’s White House after expressing utter disgust in that the White House “sinks a little bit lower.” Yet, he has not rescinded nor apologized for any of his many more false ads. In fact he’s even backed them.

Prepare, for after the DNC gathering, attack ads are going to fill the air ways. Just use reasonable judgment and laugh at them for what they are…comedy…

Cardboard Stiff:

I really don’t like to knock people for afflictions they have that are due to no fault of their own, as it is just the physical make-up they were born with. But I got to tell ya, Romney’s physical stiffness mirrors his buckram personality. I just wish that once, when Romney turns sideways that his neck could bend just a little instead of being so stiffened that when his body turns so must his head in linked unison.

So, while after this entire decrying foul of Obama nasty attack ads, back towards the end of last month, while stumping in Commerce, Michigan, Romney had this to say, “I was born in Harper Hospital. No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.”

‘Gee willardkers,’ I just might wonder if I have any imagination at all at what Willard Romney was referring to. Could it be a catering to birthers in this snide comment? We should so imagine.

But then again Willard, where were your parents born? Was it Mexico? Are they Mexicans? Does Mexican blood flow or boil through your veins when it comes to immigration? Why are your parents Mexican? Is it due to the fact that your Mormon ancestry was not only run out of town, but out of the U.S. by the same bigoted religious right you are now coddling?

Romney does more donor dinners than campaigning. Besides his rich man club meetings for donations and backing in mansions and yachts not just here in the U.S., but around the world, one item most don’t know about is how Romney and his campaign are seeking out the rich. His campaign has employed a secretive data mining project conducted by the Buxton Co. of Fort Worth, Texas that collects and gives out personal information of individuals such as purchasing power and even church attendance. Romney’s campaign is using the supplied information to identify potentially wealthy donors.

Information supplied by the Buxton Co. is usually purchased by corporations seeking to influence the way Americans shop. For political gain, this type of information under federal law is illegal. Buxton Co. cannot use its source of revenue through corporate treasury funds to supply personal data and proprietary analysis to federal campaigns.

This Romney campaign endeavor is the first of its kind in political campaigns.  Although the Romney camp will not comment on the matter, the Buxton Co.’s chief executive, Tom Buxton has. As a strong Romney supporter, he’s confirmed that his company is supplying every bit of analysis and data it has to help Romney win the election.

Dang it all, the 99% stiffed again by the stiff of stiffs.

The first of last month, Romney rolled up his sleeves and traced off to the cornfields of Iowa to show his concerns for the drought hit farmers. Did he fool ya? Just like his bus tours where he flew to each city just to hop in a bus making it appear he’s traveling the country by bus was a farce; so was his farming campaign.

Romney did indeed go visit one farmer, but a play-like farmer. Lemar Koethe actually doesn’t have a farm he farms, but has fifty-four commercial operations that he hires farmers to farm and that’s just one of his endeavors. He also is a real estate mogul, concert promoter and dare I say...a multimillionaire. Koethe is not a small individual farmer hurting for income due to the drought. Romney’s entourage flew past the independent farmer’s drought stricken crops and barren land to show America he’s got the farmer’s back. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the farming family actually hurting he visited, but a multimillionaire that had the resources to have equipment to counter the drought and who lives in a space age farm home unlike you’ve never seen.

Well, give Romney credit for trying to relate to the average American, but bless his bunion toes, he just doesn’t know how.

One other thing…if Romney were to become president, in a Sept. 02, 2012 Parade Magazine cover story, he stated that he would do all his banking investments in the U.S. Well kind of.

He went on to express, “My investments have been managed for almost the last ten years by a blind trust. A trustee decides where to put our money. If I'm president, my understanding is the same principle applies, that I may not direct any of my investments. I can't tell you what my investments might be because I won't make them.”

Of course he neglected to further explain he’s had numerous offshore investments for many years before assigning it to a trust fund, while his Bain Capital firm under his direction, set up a slew of offshore companies to aid foreign companies from paying any U.S. taxes even though they made their money in the states.

A Quote: “I want liberal policies to fail. I want him [Obama] to fail in trying to put in place a health care plan that takes away the private sector from health care.” Willard Romney just after Obama’s inauguration in 2008…

If I’m Lyin’ then I’m Ryan:

After all the economists, journalists and fact checkers expressing that Paul Ryan’s allegations just simply aren’t true, for him to continually spread the same falsities in speech after speech and even include them in his RNC oration, the only argument you could lend him is that well, political rhetoric sometimes stretches the truth.

Fine, but when Ryan even lies about himself on a personal level, by then one has to wonder, I think that that ol’ boy has a moral defect and/or character flaw when it comes to telling the truth. For sure, there resides within the confines of his mouth a rather forked tongue. Seriously, let’s look at his fib tales.

I’m quite sure most of us are well aware of Ryan’s latest false statements that he ushers forth as the gospel according to Paul, but here are some as listed together.

1.Ryan falsely accused Obama of shutting down and locking the doors at a GM factory in his Wisconsin district, but there is more to it than that.

Ryan first presented this disrespectful swipe on a stump speech in mid-August where he accuses the president of broken promises in stating, “I remember President Obama visiting it [Janesville GM plant] when he was first running, saying he’ll keep that plant open. One of the reasons that plant got shut down was $4 gasoline. You see, this costs jobs. The president’s terrible energy policies are costing us jobs.”

The FACTUAL: Now there are two things wrong with this statement. One, the plant closed down in 2008 under Bush’s watch and two, no president can control the price of gas as the oil market is manipulated by Wall Street speculators. The Bush administration’s response to GMs decision to close the plant was relayed by spokeswoman Dana Perino on June 04, 2008 simply stating, they lauded GMs decision and that it was evidence the troubled automaker was putting its finances in order.

Ryan goes on repeating this theme in other speeches all the way to the RNC convention where he further states, “A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: ‘I believe that if our government is there to support you … this plant will be here for another hundred years.’ That’s what he said in 2008. Well, as it turned out, that plant didn’t last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day. And that’s how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight.”

Indeed Obama had visited the plant in February 2008, but later, what then Senator Obama actually said after news the plant will be closed was, “My heart goes out to the workers and families affected by the closing of these GM plants. Today's news is a painful reminder not only of the challenges America faces in our global economy, but of George Bush's failed economic policies.” As reported, he finished by vouching to help domestic automakers “with the funding they need to retool their factories and make fuel-efficient and alternative-fuel cars. And we’ll invest in efforts to make sure that the cars of the future are made where they always have been…in the United States.” In which he has.

2. Finally, Ryan backpedals insisting he has never accused Obama of being responsible for the shutdown. On September 03, 2012 he iterated on NBCs ‘Today,’ “What they are trying to suggest is that I said Barack Obama was responsible for the plant shutdown in Janesville. That is not what I was saying…My home state voted for President Obama. When he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it, especially in Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory. What I was saying is the president ought to be held to account for his broken promises.”

The FACTUAL: Ryan is now stacking lies on top of themselves. The problem here is, Obama never made such a promise. 

Now what about Ryan? Instead of simply criticizing Obama, what has he done for his ailing hometown hard hit by the closing? That answer is plenty, but only in a liberal way dependent upon federal funds, a Refiblican no-no.

With Ryan’s staunch stance on limited government intervention on the private sector and fiscal conservatism, he has chastised and blasted Democrats for increasing the debt in using federal dollars for emergencies and assistance. I suppose it’s Ok to be a fiscal conservative toward all other districts, but for his own district, it’s OK to be liberal. Ryan, in September 2008 secured a $450,000.00 grant from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Agency to support economic initiatives for the Janesville community. Then, just a couple weeks later on October 02, a grant he pushed for, Ryan announced that the U.S. Labor Department will donate $1.6 million taxpayer dollars to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

3. During his RNC speech Ryan contorted, “He [Obama] created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report.  He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.”

The FACTUAL: Obama did appoint the Simpson-Bowles Commission tasked to find ways in reducing the debt and indeed they came out with their final report. The report’s results weren’t endorsed or rejected by Obama, for he was waiting on findings to be endorsed by the full nonpartisan commission. The commission’s full endorsement never occurred. It was roundly rejected by the chair of the House Budget Committee, who was none other than Paul Ryan.

4. In his speech, Ryan also tries putting a rap on Obama when he proclaimed, “It began with a perfect Triple-A credit rating for the United States; it ends with a downgraded America.”

The FACTUAL: Three major credit raters indeed did downgrade America’s credit rating from AAA to AA+. As I’ve stated in past articles, all Refiblican political leaders tried to tie their irresponsible antics on Obama, simply because their tirade occurred under his term. But the credit raters issued the downgrade due to the fact that Refiblican house members were holding the debt ceiling and America’s economy hostage with the pretext that Obama would cave to their outrageous budget demands. As so stated, the creditors downgraded because Refiblicans refused to give attention to the debt ceiling. Who do you think was leading the Refiblican hostage charge? It was again none other than Paul Ryan.

5. Ryan’s RNC speech included, “The stimulus was a case of political patronage, corporate welfare and cronyism at their worst. You, the working men and women of this country, were cut out of the deal.”

The FACTUAL: The stimulus plan known as the ‘American Recovery & Reinvestment Act’ indeed has worked. As Steven Cohen confessed, as explained above in the opening chapter, one would be hard pressed to find a small business that has not been positively impacted by loans gained from the president’s stimulus package. It’s just not known because Obama has not bragged about it or made it a politicized big issue. Even Ryan himself asked for and received funds from the stimulus plan for two Wisconsin conservation energy companies. The Energy Center of Wisconsin received $365,000.00 from the stimulus bill, while Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation received $20.3 million to aid homes and businesses on improving energy efficiency. Believe it or not, green jobs in Wisconsin compliments of Ryan and the stimulus bill.

6. Ryan has insisted that President Obama wants to give all the credit to government for the created private sector jobs.

The FACTUAL: Obama has never said anything even remotely similar of the kind.

In these following last blatant lies, Ryan has had help from Romney in promoting them.

7. In his RNC speech Ryan slyly stated concerning the new healthcare bill, “We got a long, divisive, all-or-nothing attempt to put the federal government in charge of health care.” Romney has also mentioned it is a government take-over and has promised to repeal the bill in its entirety.

The FACTUAL: The Patient Protection Affordable Care Act, (which by the way is the true name of the healthcare bill, although most Refiblicans only know of it as Obamacare) actually expands private insurance and does nothing of the kind in running it; the program just stipulates new rules insurers must follow that benefit and aid the patient. As health policy expert professor Jonathan Oberlander from the University of North Carolina put it, “The label ‘government takeover’ has no basis in reality, but instead reflects a political dynamic where conservatives label any increase in government authority in healthcare as a takeover.”

Again Lyin’ Ryan himself in 2010 sought federal dollars through the newly enacted healthcare bill for a new community health center in Racine Wisconsin, but didn’t receive the money due to tighter Health & Human Services regulations. This was only found out due to investigative reporting by ‘The Nation’ and ‘The Investigative Fund’ reporters.

To pack a lie on top of this deceit, the Romney/Ryan campaign spokesman, Brendan Buck said in response to the revelation, “This grant program was created by President Bush, not Obamacare. This type of misinformation is what you get from gotcha reporting on liberal blogs.”

Wow, some excitable notation there, but not true. Actually, in a way Brendan’s right about the Bush administration, for Bush had doubled funding for community health centers and that was a good thing, but contrary to Brendan’s gotcha response, what Ryan was requesting would have come directly from Obama’s healthcare bill. The healthcare law boosts funding by $11 billion for the country's roughly 8,000 community health centers on top of a $2 billion increase that was part of the 2009 economic stimulus package. Ryan knows this, for his request was directed toward the then newly formed Patient Protection Affordable Care Act officials.

But in a curious tone, what difference does it make if he requested the funds from Bush or Obama; it’s still taxpayer dollars either way.

8. Ryan and Romney both over and over have been touting that Obama has taken $716 billion from Medicare.

The FACTUAL: The way the new healthcare bill is structured, that amount is actually the amount of savings in Medicare reimbursement rates and has nothing to do in costing recipients of Medicare more or cuts in their healthcare.

On the other hand, on top of his plan causing out-of-pocket costs to rise in his voucher plan for recipients, Ryan actually embraced Obama’s Medicare reimbursement rates into his budget plan.

9. Also, Ryan and Romney have both been incessantly distorting the facts spreading the lie that “Obama wants to gut welfare.” Both claim that Obama has gutted the ruling. The big lie they’re claiming here is that Obama has taken off the books that ones on welfare need not have to work. They may be on an ethically bias trip here in appealing to dirty old white boys that have the premonition that blacks don’t want to work while collecting a welfare check. It’s a follow-up to a Ronald Reagan era quote when Reagan blathered, “strapping young bucks” who used welfare to buy “t-bone steaks.”

The FACTUAL: Their distortion is weighted in the Obama administration’s response to state governors that want flexibility in adjusting work requirements in the face of the current recession.  The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein wrote last month, “The actual language is rather strict and rules out a number of potential waiver applications.” Further, job requirements will not be eliminated, but now, states will be able to use an increased flexibility to help move recipients toward long-term employment.

This was a response from state governors’ requests and most of the governors are Republicans. This also gives states more latitude of their own to deal with the issue. I thought Refiblicans were more for states’ rights?

10. Just after Romney picked Ryan as his running mate and apparently after Ryan filled him up with goop soup, Romney went around boasting how his running mate Ryan had collaborated in bipartisan fashion with Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon on Medicare legislation.

On his stumps Romney boasted, “This man [Ryan] said I’m going to find Democrats to work with. He found a Democrat to co-lead a piece of legislation. The president’s put out a plan on Medicare. He would cut spending $700 billion. Paul Ryan and Senator Wyden said, ‘No, we need to restore, retain and protect Medicare.’ That's what our party will do.”

Well firstly, if finding one Democrat out of 191 from the House and out of 53 in the Senate is bipartisan, so be it, but when he claims, “That’s what ‘our’ party will do,” kind of neutralizes the bipartisan thing don’t ya think?

The FACTUAL: Now let’s listen to what Senator Wyden himself had to say concerning this misleading trump of Romney and Ryan’s. Once Wyden found out about the claim he quickly put out a statement which said, “Governor Romney is talking nonsense! Bipartisanship requires that you not make up the facts. I did not ‘co-lead a piece of legislation.’ I wrote a policy paper on options for Medicare.”

Wyden further added that he had voted against the Medicare provisions in Ryan’s budget plan after he had spoken against it on the floor. He finalizes that, “Governor Romney needs to learn you don’t protect seniors by makings things up, and his comments sure won’t help promote real bipartisanship.”

11. This one is a lulu. Romney, more so than Ryan, went on Facebook the first part of August, blasting the Obama administration claiming it was attempting to limit the voting rights of members of the military in Ohio. Romney was putting it out there scolding Obama for “claiming it is unconstitutional for Ohio to allow servicemen and women extended early voting privileges during the state’s early voting period.” Even added, “outrage” to seal the deal.

Ya know, this sounds like a Sarah Palin thing more than coming from a supposed well groomed professional CEO, but nonetheless there it is in all its glory. Romney was trying to score brownie points with Ryan’s blessings based solely on distortion.

The FACTUAL: Is Obama trying to thwart early voting rights for our military? No. With Refiblican John Kasich as governor of Ohio impinging on voting rights, just like all the other Refiblican governors and Refiblican dominated state legislatures, Kasich is making it unlawful for early voting except for those on active duty. The Obama administration has filed a federal lawsuit against the new voting mandate in Ohio, where all may vote early, not just service people currently stationed, but for retired from active duty veterans as well.

How Romney can contort and twist this around, who knows except for his little pea-brain and genius boy Ryan. Actually, Romney’s unadulterated bald-faced lie did land him in some hot water with a veterans association. John Soltz of VoteVets.org said, “Obviously with the narrative the Romney campaign is pushing, they probably don’t have a lot of people around them who have actually served. We also agree, like the president does, that someone who served in WWII in the Battle of the Bulge or someone who lost their legs in Vietnam has just as much of a right to vote as today’s veteran.”

12. Another editing and distortion of what Obama said to what he actually said and meant is becoming a mantra for the Romney/Ryan camp. These two dudes have been going around saying Obama said that we do not deserve our achievements, because we did not achieve it ourselves. This distortion of the facts has taken off in such lightning speed fashion among Refiblicans that it actually became the theme motto at the RNC convention of ‘You Built This.’

Yawn! Excuse me, but how arcane a fashion of greedy moral fiber. A theme motto based on distortion of facts to represent an entire party.

The FACTUAL: What Obama said was, “If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn't build that. The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.”

Anyone with reasonable frame of mind knows the meaning behind Obama’s words that this Romney/Ryan/GOP distortion arose from. Perhaps with the type of mindset Refiblicans hold, they just can’t conceive this point and if this logic can’t reach them…that part of sensitivity level in caring for others is vacant in the soul’s makeup. It is that everyone has had some form of help along the way. We’ve built this nation together as a collection of individuals working as one and not as independent of each other. We rely on all, not just our self. This is not a self-serving nation, no matter what Refibs think.

David Frum, the former speech writer for George W. Bush, stated that this ideologue slant of distortion and nominating Ryan as VP favors Obama’s chances.

This is why Romney is unliked. It is as L.Z. Granderson of CNN eluded to in one of his weekly columns. It’s not that he is rich, Obama’s rich, we love many rich folks here. It’s not that he is Republican, for many Republicans hate him. He’s led a sex-scandalous free married life. So what is it in Romney that ails him in likability?

It is his constant back and forth mitt-step (misstep) maneuvering siding with whoever’s in the audience at the time and taking out of context Obama quotes such as the above, while attempting to make a distortion appear as factual. Anyway that’s why I feel he won’t get the vote from reasonably minded Independents. The sheeple, well they’ll herd their vote for him no matter what he distorts, says or does.      

13. We’ll end lies with this last one as unlucky 13. Now, on a more personal note, Ryan on August 22, 2012 was interviewed by Hugh Hewitt a radio spokesman, blogger on HughHewitt.com and an outspoken Refiblican. Hewitt was only asking biographical questions and nothing political. During the interview, Ryan told Hewitt he had ran track and Hewitt asked him if he still runs. Ryan replied that indeed he had and said, “Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something marathon.”

The FACTUAL: Ok, he’s bragging but what an embellished whopper. A marathon’s distance is 42.195 kilometers or 26 miles & 385 yards. This means that Ryan would have to have run each mile under seven minutes. In marathon circles that is a phenomenal feat. To have run the time Ryan said he did, he went into the wrong business, for he would have been a marathon superstar.

This excited the running community, so the magazine editors at ‘Runner’s World’ sought out to verify Ryan’s claim and to find out if it was recent. Turns out Ryan did participate in one marathon twenty-two years ago and not multiple as his “under three, high twos and two hour and something would suggest.

Way back in 1990 he ran the Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota with a low average time of just over four hours.

When these findings surface, Ryan is confronted with the question of why he would misstate his time in an interview with Chrys Peterson on ‘Toledo News Now’ September 04, 2012. With the question popped, Ryan laughs it off saying he forgot the time and was simply thinking the time he stated would’ve been a normal time.

Well LOL! If he was simply a novice runner he still would’ve known that the time he lied about was exceptional. Heck I still can recall my best time in running the mile in junior high forty-four years ago in finally breaking the five minute barrier of four minutes and fifty-eight seconds.             

Lying about an exceptional running time alone is not too remarkable an incident to pin on someone as an habitual liar; we all at one time or another have embellished our cause. But put in context with the streaming string of lies he’s been throwing up at his listeners and actually backing and defending them…there is an underlying flaw in character.

This self-proclaimed and proclaimed Refiblican genius likes to say he gets things done in congress. But in the thirteen years he has been in congress, only two bills of his have passed. What were they ya ask? One was to rename a post office in his district in July 2000. The other, which was passed in December 2008 is even dumber considering it was also the time the recession had dug its claws deep into our economy. It pertained to changing the way arrows (as in bows & arrows) are hit with an excise tax. In these trying times, that is truly some kind of GOP boy wonder Refiblicans have come up with. Yepper sports fan, these two bills have certainly eased our economic and financial pain.

To wrap all this lying business up, the Romney/Ryan campaign headquarters actually had this to say in response to the revelation in distortion of truth in their campaign, “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers.” Neil Newhouse (Romney pollster).

Concerning Ryan’s RNC convention speech, some headlines:

Associated Press: Romney/Ryan Deficit Vow Lacks Specifics

Washington Post: Paul Ryan’s Misleading Speech

Atlantic: The Most Dishonest Convention Speech…Ever

Fox News’ Sally Kohn gave a commentary in stating Paul Ryan was lying. That’s right, the pipe music station of the GOP even allowed Ms. Kohn to comment on Ryan’s lying and it was to the point. http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/08/30/paul-ryans-speech-in-three-words/

Stupid, Dumb, Idiot Quotes ‘n’ Such:

I attempted with great effort, I truly did to find some stupid, dumb and idiot recent comments and antics by Democrats; for sure I did, but only came up with one. But for Republicans, well it was pert near on a daily basis that there was a wealth of information to pick from under this title. I’m intentionally leaving out all the over exposed Bachmann, Limbaugh, Palin, Coulter, West and Akin diatribes in hopes that these might be new to you. Starting off with the Democrat, here are a few of them.

Emmert C. Burns Jr. a Democrat in the Maryland House of Delegates sounded more like a Republican when he sent a letter to the Baltimore Ravens management voicing concern and disdain that their linebacker, Brendon Anyanbadejo was openly in public expressing support for same sex marriage. He suggested that they should silence him on the matter; you know take away his first amendment rights.

Well, it all has fallen onto his face as fellow players have wrote back to Burns Jr. essentially saying go shove your pie-hole somewhere else.

Republican school board members in Miami-Dade County, Florida said no to Michelle Obama in renting out one of their schools as part of her campaign trail. They voiced concern that their schools are for learning and is inappropriate in sending the wrong message to the school children. One board member inquired, “Don’t these Liberals have boundaries?”

The point is, yes Michelle Obama was going to campaign but the rental was for hours when kids were not in school and this is done all the time. In fact, the GOP complaint came as Romney was set to address a political speech at a high school in Colorado. In fact again, wasn’t George W. Bush at a Florida elementary school reading a goat book upside down when 9/11 occurred? No problem there was there.

Representative Steve King, an Iowa Republican who has just been endorsed by Romney for his reelection bid, has said some bizarre things, but his most recent is,

“There's a number approaching 100 million Americans of working age that are simply not in the workforce, and that includes the 13 million that are unemployed. Some can't do anything about that, some aren't willing to do anything about that. When you add that all up, roughly a third of Americans of working age are not contributing to the gross domestic product of the United States. They should do their fair share.”

Yes King, blame the country’s economic woes all off onto the unemployed, like it’s their fault for the rut the country’s in. He cannot fathom the dignity lost in having no gainful employment, or none in sight to care and provide for your family. Tsk-tsk King…WAKE-UP!

King also said, just after Missouri Republican Representative Todd Akin had freshly been nailed left and right for his comment that women cannot get pregnant from rape that he too denied ever hearing of a girl getting pregnant from rape, then goes on to say, “Well I just haven’t heard of that being a circumstance that’s been brought to me in any personal way, and I’d be open to discussion about that subject matter.”

One more item before we leave King that should stir a miff or two in animal caretakers. An advocate for legalizing dog fighting and does not comprehend our ability to prevent animal cruelty had this to say as his reasoning, “It’s a federal crime to watch animals fight or to induce someone else to watch an animal fight but it’s not a federal crime to induce somebody to watch people fighting, there’s something wrong with the priorities of people that think like that.” Sick isn’t he…

A supposed eagle-eyed conservative blogger who had his name withdrawn where identity could not be established contacted the journalist Connie Schultz via e-mail concerning a photo he had discovered and began spreading on Facebook. It was a picture of her snuggling up to and holding hands with Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).

He demanded to know why, as a professional journalist would she be cozying up to a senator. The blogger really thought he had a hot gotcha moment on hand until he learned that Connie Schultz is the wife of  Senator Sherrod Brown. Out of courtesy, she agreed not to mention his name, although I wonder why he wouldn’t want it revealed…hmph…

“I just think the whole discussion of class is wrong. It's not what we do here in America. I don't think there's anything called ‘middle class values’ that are different from the values of other people in this country. Tell me what's different about the values of someone who the president identifies as middle class?” Jon Kyl (R-Az.)

This was said by Kyl as he was defending the extension of tax cuts for the rich. Ok Jonny, you want a different value set of the rich from the middleclass besides the rich having more money? Let’s see, I’ll give ya one…how about, the middleclass sees no value for their country in packing away offshore accounts into Swiss and Caribbean banks. It just rubs the middleclass as unpatriotic.

Missouri state legislator, John McCaherty (R-High Ridge), just after the Aurora movie theater shootings held a campaign fundraiser for his reelection by raffling off tickets to win some of the same types of semi-automatic weapons that James Holmes used in the massacre. McCaherty is an active member of the Evangelical Ministry alliance and the National Rifle Association (NRA) who sponsored the event.

Nothing more needs to be said here.

In a Tweet posted August 07, Bryan Fischer of American Family Radio posts this: “Why we need an Underground Railroad to steal innocent children from same sex marriages.” Then the Tweet shows a link explaining religiously why kids from same gender couples should have their children kidnapped.

Again, nothing else to be said.

Josh Mandel who is currently Ohio’s state treasurer has missed fourteen months on the job because of his campaigning to be senator. He’s running against Democrat Sherrod Brown whom Mandel has been going around stating false accusations in saying Brown, (who by the way is a Liberal and Wall Street is no fan of his) had voted not to ban Wall Street CEO bonuses when in fact he had.

When confronted by Ted Hart, a reporter for NBC4 Columbus that his statements are false, first Mandel ignored him, but when pressed by Hart, the story went like this: Mandel- Well I think you’re just wrong and I think… Hart- Really? Mandel- Respectfully, I think you’re out of touch with reality, then walks away.

I guess when your reality is fantasy, then yes the rest of us do appear as not real. This is typical a reaction from a corrupt politician: dodge away, lash out.

Mandel also hosted Romney in southeast Ohio’s coal land. The scene was set up amongst the coal smudged faces and hard hat wearing coal miners. As Mandel is introducing Romney, he begins to start speaking in a fake southern accent and keeps it up until Romney takes over the mike.

Speaking of the coal miners that were used as the backdrop, they were forced to attend the event by the Pepper Pike Coal Company management. The CFO of the company, Rob Moore had told the employees it was mandatory to attend but they would not be paid, even though the demand was still on their work shift.

Once miners complained on the West Virginia WWVA radio station the bag was out. Moore and other company management explained they weren’t paid because the mine was under security and safety in which workers don’t get paid at such times.

Maryland Republican Representative Roscoe Bartlett claimed federally funded student loans are unconstitutional and further suggested it could lead the country down a slippery slope just like the Holocaust.

Here’s his statement that you might have to read twice to comprehend: “Not that it’s not a good idea to give students loans, it certainly is a good idea to give them loans. But if you can ignore the Constitution to do something good today, tomorrow you will be ignoring the Constitution to do something bad. You could. There are more people in our, in America today of German ancestry than any other....the Holocaust that occurred in Germany...how in the heck could that happen? And when you start down the wrong road, it can be a very slippery slope.”  

A woman’s genitals were fondled by a drunken cop who had just walked up beside her in an Arizona bar. He had just flashed his badge in the entranceway to avoid paying the cover then went straight to the first girl he saw. She filed charges and he was sentenced to a maximum of two and a half years in prison.

Appointed to the bench by Arizona governor Jan Brewer, Trial Judge Jacqueline Hatch had the cop’s sentence reduced from jail time to 100 hours of community service while on probation. Then Judge Hatch turns to the woman victimized and says:

“I hope you look at what you’ve been through and try to take something positive out of it. You learned a lesson about friendship and you learned a lesson about vulnerability. When you blame others, you give up your power to change. If you wouldn’t have been there that night, none of this would have happened to you.”

Yes your holy judgeship, nothing would have happened to her, it would have simply been another victim. It was the cop’s actions not the victimized woman’s.    

First quoting Genesis 8:22 Senator James Inhofe (R-Ok.) says this, “As long as the earth remains there will be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night. My point is God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous.”

To me, Inhofe is outrageous, but dangerous, for with that mentality, he’s a senator legislating law.

On his ‘Morning Joe’ program, former GOP congressman Joe Scarborough had this to say about his party by lamenting, “I’m just tired of the Republican Party being the Stupid Party!

Primed to be Slayed:

As I finish up, the DNC convention is just over. In comparing the two, without a doubt, whether with bias or unbiased opinion, the Democrats have gained the momentum. No stories at the DNC similar to stories that happened at the RNC such as Republican delegates throwing peanuts at a black camera woman then telling her “that’s what we feed animals,” or an RNC delegate from Pennsylvania visiting the Epcot Center being offended by she claimed, “a Mexican working in the American section.”

As far as the speeches went, hands down to the Democrats. Michelle Obama, Sandra Fluke, Elizabeth Warren were uplifting. Bill Clinton certainly put things in order. Bubba Bill had some plain straight facts that only he can explain to the good ol’ white boys. For Gabby Giffords to walk on stage and recite the Pledge of Allegiance after having a bullet travel through her memory was remarkable. Biden and Obama’s speech couldn’t quite top President Clinton’s, but their format and truthfulness was inspiring and formidable when compared to the lackluster speeches pocketed with falsities by Romney and Ryan.

The experts analyzed both Republican and Democrat candidates’ speeches and the verdict is: Romney and Ryan pocked with falsities, Obama and Biden virtually truthful. But the old GOP excuse to forgive the untruthfulness of their candidates will be that that doesn’t matter because the media and university experts are biased towards liberals anyway. That also is not true and yes it does matter if your leaders are truthful or not in a democracy.

Tammy Duckworth running for congress in Illinois gave an eloquent account of how as a recipient of food stamps, it got her through her school years to become an attack Blackhawk helicopter pilot only to be shot down in Iraq, tearing off one leg, crushing the other and maiming one arm. On the other hand, the governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, who had recently yelled at, cursed at and called a former navy SEAL an idiot concerning university students came out to the RNC platform fist pumping and pounding the podium speaking as if he were to be the next president in 2016.

Ms. Duckworth’s opponent is Republican Joe Walsh. All he could come up with in commenting on her speech was, “It has become abundantly clear that at this point the only debate Ms. Duckworth is actually interested in having is which outfit she’ll be wearing for her big speech.”

When the cameras scanned the audiences I noticed the DNC showed a diversity of faces of every color, gender, stripe and age. A collection of who Americans are. The RNC audience…not so much there to be offered in diversity, except for maybe a few tokens.

But again most importantly, the earliest polling by Gallup after the convention shows a favorable approval rating bump for Obama up to 52% with American voters.

Listen, buying elections are not new. It may reverberate in today’s GOP, but money in politics is not new here on our shores. “There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can’t remember what the second one is.” That was said by Republican, Mark Hanna the campaign manager for William McKinley way back in 1895.

Today, as an American we got an awful ruling to deal with. It just mind boggles the skull that our highest supreme justices of the land could rule corporate protections of rights are as the same as individuals. It opened up the floodgates of endless corporate and wealthy money sources to influence our politics.

Republicans have a Koch addiction. Only the money accounted for pouring into Republican campaign coffers is astronomical in itself. Here’s the listing from just four sources.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce: $100 million

Sheldon Adelson: $100 million

Karl Rove’s Crossroads groups: $300 million

The Koch Brothers (Charlie & Davey) $400 million

That’s the lot so far. As far as the secret anonymous contributions go who knows right now but the paymasters. This is damaging, it’s taking away our identity as a democratic nation and is not only putting wealth in the fewer hands, but the authority of legislating as well.

As far as transparency (the bulwark of any democracy) is concerned, for those that have the strong desire to affect our elections and governance, they need to crawl out from beneath the shadows and show some dignity in their actions.

Senator Mitch McConnell recently defended the secrecy in donations, for the mere fact once revealed donors would be hounded by the media. Well so much for their priceless protections, but what about our democracy. In my opinion no one can justify reasons in defending secret election spending by billionaires and wealthy corporations to the American public…no one. And yet...

Not one Republican senator voted for the Disclose Act; not one.

When some wealthy individual or corporation plops down a $100 million to a campaign they no doubt expect a personal favor in return. Interest for the country’s sake is negated for the invisible donor’s wishes. Conducting business of and for the people becomes second rated.  

How can you argue voting against monetarily untainted clean elections? Except for those not voting consciously for the country, but simply to tow the party line, no one else can. And I’ll bet ya $10,000.00 on that.

Sure everyone says it’s a fair playing field for the individual votes are what counts. But it’s the influence that money makes on those individual votes. When someone of meager contributions is running for office and time and time again he is hammered and nailed to the wall from constant commercials by his opponent with an unending source of currency to buy those ads, it doesn’t matter if those commercials are true or not. If he has no money to counter them, then he will be viewed negatively by the voter pulling the lever in the booths. He is basically unknown but with a known negative name.

Of course, to even be allowed to vote is another issue. Virtually every Republican governor with a majority state legislature has instituted new voter laws that favor their party. When Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Republican Mike Turzai said, “Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done,” we already knew. But they still insist its solely for voter fraud protection. The ruse that it is to protect against voter fraud is too old now to be viewed as any excuse. We all know it is to suppress opponent voting, no need to pretend anymore.

Take for instance, Wisconsin. That wimpy conniver of a governor, Scott Walker said all is fair and balanced in his new voter laws where all may implement their voting rights. Really, equal opportunity for all, huh? Even though Walker’s administration said all voters could register at all the Department of Motor Vehicle centers (DMV), they closed ten of them in Democrat districts just to add them to Republican districts and their excuse for doing so…economics.

Once Republicans have control of how voting goes, to gain access to even more authority, they will next attack the 17^th amendment and repeal the right of the public to vote for their senators. Instead, state legislatures will nominate senators for the federal senate. Actually, it used to be this way until the seventeenth amendment stated that all federal senators were to be elected by the people.

Within the Tea Party, rumblings are already in progress and are asking Republican candidates if they would fight for repealing the amendment. State legislative Republican leaders in Utah are spearheading a move to repeal the law in their state.

Republican Utah state senator Howard Stephenson states, “Direct democracy is the worst form of government possible.” Stephenson is directing a serious push for Utah senators to be nominated by state legislators taking voting rights away from the people. His defense is that it would strengthen states’ powers, but in reality what it achieves is a perpetual monopoly in retaining power by the party in control of the state. This in effect, would leach out in controlling the federal government as well. The vision is a one party virtual control over an entire country. This Republican move I sense, we all will be witnessing in the near future.

Here is the lack of sense in it all. Republican tell all lies is that deregulation improves America’s job creators so that they will hire more and restore the economy. Eliminating pertinent regulation that safeguards consumerism will not create jobs no matter how many times conservatives attempt to bring home that point. That point was revealed during the Bush years, which is the very reason today millions are still looking for jobs.

The balance of wealth in the U.S. is at such a wide gap now that charity alone could never defend the poor. But conservatism insists money still should be funneled to the top by way of tax breaks, deregulation and repeal of environmental laws that protect the average person’s health, but creates gain in the corporate coffer.

When comparing CEO salaries and bonuses to his workers’ minimum wages it would take the average worker 3,489 years to equal his CEOs yearly salary. Republicans won’t even hear of increasing the minimum wage a few percentage points much less taking it to $12.00 per hour where it may not keep up with inflation, but at least through very modest means, the breadwinner could contend in taking care of his family of four.

I have Republican acquaintances tell me in these arguments that it is the poor in buying mortgages they could not afford that caused the crisis. How can any idiot that is also blind even think that. This is the ultimate in boil riddled butt-ends of Republican orthodoxy and ideologue.

To suggest that it is the poor who bought a modest home from a mortgage lender that was pushing it onto him for that only chance of the American dream in home ownership is ridiculous. It was the ones who staged, manipulated and abused the market who were at fault. The loan officer could have cared less or not if they continued paying on the ballooned loan, for he was insured if loan default occurred.

The insurers didn’t care for there was so much money from mortgage policy holders coming in from all over the marketplace. The financial investors bundling these loans didn’t care for they were able to sell to investors anyway they bundled.

The investors didn’t care as long as the system was still flowing; but it didn’t continue. When the clog jammed it up, investors scrambled and financial insurers began having to pay out policies.

The crisis was due by financiers sweeping risks out the back door to emerge on another’s front porch. The risks stayed within the financial system, it just never landed to a noted accumulation until it got too heavy to pass around. Allowing it to finally settle, it burst spewing throughout the financial industry. It was a true game of high stakes gambling. Everyone bet they wouldn’t be the ones caught holding it, but the mass it had accumulated was so huge, the rupture affected everyone’s hand in the till.

Ground zero of the ruptured site was not handled well by Bush’s government either. They didn’t recognize its enormity after years of no regulation in place. When you have a dome of silence and secrecy enveloping vast amounts of other people’s money, greed takes over and the risks dominated. The White House was making hasty emergency decisions while in panic mode. This jittered the market even more. But when the decision was casted to allow Lehman Brothers to go bankrupt, the collapse was inevitable.

Transparency drives down transaction costs for the financial market. Transaction costs is where banks make money, therefore they don’t like transparency and regulations. Financiers have Republicans to bellhop for deregulation.

Government debt was not created by social programs, but rather by government authority. It was the Republican controlled Bush years that inherited a surplus and balanced budget. They felt they had political clout and could spend freely by having control within the balanced budget and surplus. Debt was not in their thoughts in the place they were in. Dick Cheney himself stated, “Deficits don’t matter.” But after initiating the Bush tax cuts, high end prescription profits from allowing the pharmaceutical companies to legislate and instituting two wars to be paid with a foreign credit card, the deficit rose in a hurry.

But yet Republicans insist the entitlements and social programs are the ones that need cutting making the average American pay even more, dragging their own children down. Class mobility once upon a time was what America was all about; since the Bush years, not anymore.

I received a phone call a couple of days ago and it was a person pressing me about the ills of Obamacare. I asked him if he knew the real name of the bill and he couldn’t say. We got into an in-depth debate, about Republicans and in the course I told him we all truthfully could say that Democrats lean more for the average Joe & Jill, while Republicans lean more towards the wealthy and corporate. He semi-agreed. He also acknowledged yeah, I’m a Joe too. I said well that’s nice and then proceeded to ask but what will Republicans do for the Joes and Jills? Silence! I asked again, what will Republicans do for the Joes and Jills? He finally comes up with lower taxes. Taxes I say, lower taxes for whom? Silence! I ask again for who, where he blurts out everybody. I tell him by your hesitation I know you know that’s not true then hit him up with how the wealthiest will get further tax breaks, while the Joes and Jills will get nailed paying higher taxes on average to finance the wealthy tax cuts.

Next thing I know he hangs up. He was the pest phone caller that called me, but yet he’s the one who hung up. When I argue with Republicans, they get frustrated and just like the caller above they hang up and high tail it.

What in the world is in the mind of the average Republican voter I haven’t figured it yet, but do have a few ideas. Republican die-hard voters suffer from nescience. They need to properly inform themselves instead of listening to their leaders. The Republican Party has its ringmaster and elephant; it just needs to continually pick up its clowns for the full act. Unless intentionally remaining ignorant, average Republicans need to better inform themselves instead of relying on their leaders for misinformation.

The Republican hierarchy is funded by the rich for the rich with the moral majority as its misguided compass and the bigoted rednecks and blue collars playing its foot soldiers and ground troops. But this Republican mixing of religion and politics is debasing both.

Finally…any state, political entity or individual that cannot recognize the sanctity and dignity of us all in this country we share is certainly not in my favor. No matter the rank, or color, or social status any come from...not one is obsolete.

Once someone said that I knew a little bit concerning any topic, but knew nothing of one subject. That might be so but in the inverse, in not specializing on one narrow minded subject, I know and can relate a bit about any and all topics. It all balances.

BJA

In Depth Report Card,

09/09/2012