James Travis Tritt (born February 9, 1963) is an American, Grammy winning, country music singer from Marietta, Georgia. He signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1989, releasing seven studio albums and a greatest hits package for the label between then and 1999. In the 2000s, he released two albums on Columbia Records and one for the defunct Category 5 Records. Seven of his albums (counting the Greatest Hits) are certified platinum or higher by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); the highest-certified is 1991’s It’s All About to Change, which is certified triple-platinum. Tritt has also charted more than forty times on the Hot Country Songs charts, including five number ones — “Help Me Hold On,” “Anymore,” “Can I Trust You with My Heart,” “Foolish Pride” and “Best of Intentions” — and fifteen additional top ten singles. Tritt’s musical style is defined by mainstream country and Southern rock influences.
Well I’m a member of a country club
Country music is what I love
I drive an old Ford pick-up truck
I do my drink-in from a dixie cup…
Tommy Thompson: My Son ‘Feels Miserable’ About Kenya Joke
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/tommy-thompson-my-son-feels-miserable-about-kenya
Wisconsin Republican Senate candidate Tommy Thompson told reporters Tuesday that his son feels bad about joking that voters “have the opportunity to send President Obama back to Chicago — or Kenya” recently.
“My son feels miserable about it,” Thompson said Tuesday, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “If you looked at the video, you would have seen that somebody, he said, ‘go back to Illinois,’ and somebody in the audience, if you looked at it, somebody said the other country (Kenya) and my son responded.”
“Nobody is suffering more than he is about this, and he has apologized. That is all I am going to say about it,” he added.
___________
Have You All Lost Your Goddamn Minds?
Liberals, you need to get your goddamn shit together. The President lost a debate. He didn’t lose Texas. For four years, this President has faced off one of the most obstructionist parties in modern American political history. He did this in the center of an economic collapse. He has delivered on too many promises to count, even in the dead heat of this. He’s been running ahead in an election where the opposition was fairly incompetent, where the leading opposition candidate told half the country to go fuck themselves with a stolen rusty tire iron. He has one debate where the opposition is competent, and that’s it. You’re done. You have bad polling days, and you’re done. Let’s just call off the election and use that time to apply for foreign passports. I mean, holy shit, what a bunch of spineless bastards you turned out to be.
I’ve spent the last few days talking to you motherfuckers, and I have several questions, beginning with: did you motherfuckers watch the same debate as me? Cause for the last few days, I’ve heard people saying ‘why didn’t he point out that Romney was lying?’ He did. ‘Why didn’t he tie the economy to education or healthcare?’ He did. He made much of the same case for his Presidency as did Bill Clinton. He just didn’t do it with the bullshit flourish that is Clinton’s specialty. But shit, for the last four years, he hasn’t done the flourish. He’s been tired almost every day. He’s been tired at every press conference. He’s been tired at every speech and every state of the union with the exception of a handful of incidents. And all of a sudden, you’re surprised he comes off tired? Fuck yes, he’s tired. For four years, for four years while you were antsy that he was playing the adult in the room, while you thought he was being too nice, he fought daily for every reform at every impasse. Bill Clinton, for all his talents, didn’t do what Barack Obama did. Not for the uninsured. Not for the poor. Not for college students. Not for women. Not for the children of illegal immigrants. Not in a recession. This President has wound down two wars. He gave the kill order for Osama Bin Laden. He has promoted genuine efforts at democracy in the middle east, in a region that is in the middle of a revolution that came under his watch. While everything he does gets fucked daily by the tidal wave of shithead that is the Republican Party, the Israeli Prime Minister, the European economy, probably the whole of the Middle East, some douchebags with Youtube accounts and the state of Arizona, we ask if his heart is in it? Really? If he really wants to be President? For four years, we sat at his left flank just pissing and moaning while he delivered what none of his predecessors could. He did this against a party that is objectively crazy. And now, one debate, and the question is, is the President’s heart in it?
What happened to chess? Yeah, fuck chess, we had a few bad poll days, time to go beat our own brains in with an ice pick. You know what? Fuck the President’s heart. I know his heart’s in it because while you and I have been fucking around amongst ourselves, bullshitting into the ether as to what it would mean for the campaign if Obama came off like an angry black man for a second, he’s been there bleeding for us and our progressive policies every goddamn day. You know whose heart isn’t in it? You know who needs to take the blame right now? You know who is letting everybody down? We are. We’re the ones we’ve been waiting for, and we surely are a huge pile of superstitious assholes. For four years, this President has made good on his promises even with the shit-storm that has become the political process in America. And he deserves, if not our support, then our resolve. So stop fucking panicking because you had a bad poll day. You know how many bad poll days the President has had? You might know better than he does, because he’s been too busy trying to keep Iran and Israel from becoming the dust and ash filled lands formerly known as Iran and Israel. So, for fuck’s sake, get your shit together. This is our President. He needs us. He needs our support. He needs our resolve. He needs us to beat Mitt Romney, because that asshole, despite what he said in the debate, would do exactly the damage that George Bush did, and we literally can’t afford that.
We can’t afford more wars. We can’t afford more debt. We can’t afford more tax breaks for wealthy fuckers. We cannot afford more jobs lost, more pensions squandered, more homes drowned in debt just so one more asshole can make his buck at the margins of legality. We cannot afford losing healthcare reform. People with preexisting conditions who might lose insurance, people whose parents are going to get old and need care and housing, they can’t afford it. Our generation and our children can’t afford the debt we’d accumulate under Romney. They can’t afford the spending cuts that won’t happen, the wars that will, and every promise that he’ll break as quickly as he made it. We can’t afford this collapse. And if it happens, it’s not on the President. He did poorly in a debate. If that means he loses the election, it’s on us. Because this man hasn’t been quiet. He has fought for us and our principles and our policies every day, and if he loses this because of a debate, then it means for all our talk, we weren’t ready to fight for him.
Get your shit together. Because you can’t afford not to, because you are better than this, because you need the resolve of the last four years. You have been beaten the fuck down by all the monstrosities there are. Now is not the time, a month away from an election between a man who has helped us fight and a man who would continue to bludgeon us, to panic. Now is the time to stand, with the fire you need to get through this pulsing through your corroded arteries and your over-extended gut, with the conviction of your principles, and fight for this President the way he’s fought for us. Not because he’s got this, but because he might not. Because now, he might need you. Because we might need you. So please, calm the fuck down, get your goddamn shit together and fight for this because for once, it means something that you do more than talk shit.
The Bastard
http://www.thesadbastardbar.com/2012/10/have-you-all-lost-your-goddamn-minds.html?m=1
It’s Resolved: A Black Woman Will Be Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court
http://www.afro.com/sections/news/national/story.htm?storyid=76422
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled that Bernette Johnson will be the court’s next chief justice, resolving a legal dispute that wound up in federal court.
The court’s ruling Tuesday says Johnson’s years of appointed and elected service on the court give her the seniority that entitles her to succeed Chief Justice Catherine “Kitty” Kimball early next year.
Justice Jeffrey Victory had argued he had more seniority than Johnson and deserved the position.
Johnson filed a federal lawsuit to block her colleagues from deciding the matter. U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan ruled in her favor last month.
Johnson will be the court’s first Black chief justice.
Congrats, Bernette Johnson!
Military Personnel Campaign Funds Favor Obama Over Romney
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-10-16/military-personnel-campaign-funds-favor-obama-over-romney
President Barack Obama has received almost twice as much in campaign contributions from U.S. military and Defense Department personnel as his Republican challenger Mitt Romney, despite Romney’s promises to boost defense spending and his criticism of military cuts set to take place in January.
Obama has received $536,414 from such donors, compared with Romney’s $287,435, according to research by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics in Washington. The group’s study, which includes data through August, looked at donations from individuals who listed their employment as the Defense Department or one of the branches of the military.
Mitt Romney’s Bain Helped Philip Morris Get U.S. High Schoolers Hooked On Cigarettes
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/16/mitt-romney-bain-philip-morris_n_1968152.html
WASHINGTON — When Mitt Romney served as CEO of Bain & Co., his consulting firm helped tobacco giant Philip Morris develop a groundbreaking sales strategy that researchers say has been linked to an unprecedented spike in youth smoking.
On Friday April 2, 1993, Philip Morris stunned Wall Street and tobacco experts by the slashing price on its flagship Marlboro brand by 40 cents a pack, to $1.80. It was a landmark day for the tobacco industry, one that became known as “Marlboro Friday” to public health experts.
Romney vs. the experts
http://www.barackobama.com/romney/tax-plan-chalkboard
Jim Messina@Messina2012
NYT: “Romney is attacked by his father’s longtime aide” “Mitt would say & do anything to close a deal–or an election.” http://OFA.BO/AsX5uA
Sabreen60@QueenMerytAmon
@utaustinliberal harball_Chris hair is always on fire-always tell PBO what he should/should not do. When pundits win an election let me know
__________________
LOL Yep; he knows what’s best for POTUS. Spitting and slurping all over the place.
AP source: Beyonce set for Super Bowl halftime
By MESFIN FEKADU AP Music Writer
Posted: 10/16/2012 08:03:45 AM PDT
Updated: 10/16/2012 09:02:53 AM PDT
NEW YORK—All the single ladies will be watching the upcoming Super Bowl along with football lovers. That’s because Beyonce is the halftime show performer.
A source familiar with the Super Bowl told The Associated Press the Grammy-winning diva will take the stage at the halftime show on Feb. 3, 2013, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because that person wasn’t authorized to publicly reveal the information.
The official announcement is expected Wednesday, the source said.
Beyonce, whose pop and R&B hits include “Crazy in Love,” “Irreplaceable” and “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” has won 16 Grammy Awards. The 31-year-old sang the national anthem at the 2004 Super Bowl in her hometown of Houston when the New England Patriots defeated the Carolina Panthers.
http://www.mercurynews.com/sports-headlines/ci_21783476/ap-source-beyonce-set-super-bowl-halftime
At tonight’s debate, President Obama will talk about what we’ve accomplished over the last four years to rebuild our economy and restore middle class security, and his specific plans for the next four years to continue moving our country forward. The President will demonstrate that facts matter and hold Mitt Romney accountable for dishonestly trying to mislead voters about his positions, which would take us back to the same failed policies that crashed our economy and punished the middle class.
Over the last four years, President Obama’s brought our economy back from the brink of collapse, our auto industry back to life, our heroes back from war, and our enemies to justice. After losing 800,000 a month when the President took office, we’ve added 5.2 million new private-sector jobs over the past 31 straight months of private-sector job growth. The unemployment rate is at its lowest level since January 2009, consumer confidence is at a five-year high, and foreclosures are at a five-year low.
Check out President Obama’s specific, concrete plan to continue building our economy from the middle out, not the top down: http://www.barackobama.com/plans.
http://youtu.be/ZYI7qPO5wVw
“Four Pinocchios.” The Washington Post’s fact checker finds that Romney’s “new math” for his jobs plan doesn’t add up.
Mitt Romney’s ‘new math’ for jobs plan doesn’t add up
http://youtu.be/BsHoWjzicUA
Fact Check: Romney’s “12 Million Jobs” Vanishes in Smoke, FOUR Pinocchios
http://www.bluevirginia.us/diary/7901/fact-check-romneys-12-million-jobs-vanishes-in-smoke-four-pinocchios
It’s been driving me crazy for weeks now, Willard’s claim that his “plan” will create “12 million jobs.” I knew it was utter nonsense, and was hoping the media would, ya know, do its job for a change by reporting that fact? Well, thanks to Glenn Kessler, now they have!
First of all, the entire thing is absurd, as “Moody’s Analytics, in an August forecast, predicts 12 million jobs will be created by 2016, no matter who is president.” In other words, this is a baseline, “business as usual” forecast, so Romney saying he’ll do it is promising what will happen anyway. Wow.
LMBAO
Former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland said Romney’s tax plan strikes “at the heart of the middle class.”
Anderson Cooper breaks down why the “studies” Romney uses to justify his tax plan don’t actually show it adding up:
The New York Times: “Mr. Romney needs a working calculator.” http://nyti.ms/QpObOq
LOL
“If Romney has some secret sauce that tax experts have overlooked,” writes Bloomberg News, “now is the time to tell us.” http://bloom.bg/S1y4YK
The DNC has released a pre-debate tool that will enable you to get all the previously hidden details of Romney’s tax plan – all you have to do is click the button:
http://WWW.RomneyTaxPlan.com
Nowhere is Romney’s tortured relationship with the truth more evident than in his continued insistence that his “mathematically impossible” tax plan will magically add up.
In advance of the debate, Obama for America has released a new video in which President Clinton walks through the facts behind Mitt Romney’s tax plan.
DOJ announces federal prosecutors and FBI agents will be on duty on Election Day to combat voter fraud.
Wouldn’t expect anything less. Cause’ is Wayne Brady gonna have to choke a bitch?
First Lady Michelle Obama LIVE NOW at UNC-Chapel Hill
http://edition.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=4
BTW: did y’all hear the mess that Elle did with Octavia? Her cover will only be available to subscribers–it’s a nice cover too–and put Sarah Jessica Parker as the cover on newstands. I like SJP because she’s an Obama stan but come on, can’t Octavia get some love, especially when she looks so great on the cover.
http://racialicious.tumblr.com/post/32957816139/octaviaspencerscoverwontappearonnewsstands
I’m not subscribing to Elle. Octavia looks great, but I don’t need to be snookered into subscribing to Elle, because they decide to put a black face on their cover.
Bring Back the Flip-Flop Attack
by BooMan
Tue Oct 16th, 2012 at 10:48:12 AM EST
I think this is good advice for the president. He should be prepared for Mitt Romney to step to the mic tonight and shake his Etch a Sketch repeatedly. There seems to be almost price for him to move dramatically to the center, and the president needs to be prepared for it. Back in the spring, the campaign moved away from the flip-flop attack in favor of the plutocrat attack. It worked very well, but it came at a cost that he is paying now. If the flip-flop attack had been pursued, Romney would be afraid to change positions as it would reinforce people’s strongest negative impressions of him. But he has that freedom now because the flip-flop attack was dropped. Obama needs to use that attack preemptively if he can, and he needs to keep on it throughout the debate and in the hours and days following the debate
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/10/16/104812/90
October 16, 2012 1:05 PM
Catbird Seat
By Ed Kilgore
There’s a long new profile of Paul Ryan done by Mark Leibovich for the New York Times Magazine that’s part campaign travelogue, part abbreviated biography, and part political analysis. The biographical sections make Ryan look like more of the nerdy career congressional staffer than the steely-eyed social darwinist (there is not one mention of the woman Ryan himself treated as a mentor not that long ago, Ayn Rand). Liebovich does nicely nail Ryan’s much-remarked-on ability to combine a reputation for wonkiness with exceptional vagueness, calling him “deft at conveying precision and specificity without being the least bit precise or specific.”
But the real thrust of the piece, reflected in its title (“Paul Ryan Can’t Lose”), is that Ryan is really in the catbird seat: if Romney wins, he gets a starring role in the radical fiscal game-plan of the administration, and if Obama wins, he remains in Congress as the new reigning star of the GOP and the conservative movement, receiving (now that he’s gotten through his debate with Biden) no blame for a loss that will be attributed by conservatives either to Romney’s many limitations or to the incumbent’s devilishly seductive vote-buying prowess and the active assistance of the media.
Leibovich doesn’t get that much into the internal dynamics of the Republican Party or the possible 2016 landscape, but it’s true Ryan would be in a good position on November 7 if he’s not headed to the White House. He is equally beloved by the libertarian and cultural-Right wings of the conservative movement. And the long list of possible ‘16 candidates might actually work to his favor. After all, conservatives wound up with presidential nominees they didn’t like or trust in both 2008 and 2012 because they did not consolidate support behind a single ideologically righteous candidate. They can be expected to be sure to avoid this sort of demolition derby next time around, and while you can make a case for Rubio or Jebbie or McDonnell or Bobby J. or Paul the Younger or perhaps someone we’re not thinking about just yet, no one has the unblemished record or movement-wide popularity of Ryan. And he’ll have the private and public vetting and the national campaign experience the others all lack behind him.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_10/catbird_seat040537.php#comments
Romney Warned Against Pointing Fingers At Bush Administration After 9/11 Attacks
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/10/16/1022961/romney-warned-against-pointing-fingers-at-bush-administration-after-911-attacks/
The Romney campaign has been hard at work attempting to blame President Obama for the terrorist attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Lead foreign policy adviser Rich Williamson claimed the attack wouldn’t have happened in a Romney administration and Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan chalked it up to the “broader problem” of the current administration “projecting weakness.”
But at least one prominent Republican would object to the GOP’s efforts to politicize terrorism and his name is Gov. Mitt Romney.
http://youtu.be/Xm0KmhitCMU
Political AnimalBlog
October 16, 2012 9:20 AM
Frank Rich and Liberal Fatigue
By Ed Kilgore
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Liberals whose nerves have been shot recently by this or that political development should probably just take a little time off to wallow in Frank Rich’s defeatist essay at New York suggesting that the American conservative movement—like the nuke-impervious cockroach, no less!—will eventually inherit the earth. Rich lovingly collects past premature obituaries for the Right going back to Barry Goldwater, and suggests that via a combination of deep pathological strains in the American psyche and the fecklessness of the Right’s opponents, the permanent campaign of 1964 will eventually win. Indeed, he even calculates that conservatives will get out of the GOP’s demographic trap by ruthlessly sacrificing nativists and regaining a competitive position with Latinos.
Depressing as it is, Rich’s tale of endlessly persistent and resourceful wingnuts is worth reading, particularly for those who haven’t connected the dots and seen in the Tea Party Movement simply the latest version of the folk who captured the GOP for Goldwater in 1964, carried his Viva Ole! cheer right into Reagan’s various campaigns, and helped create the “Republican Revolution” of 1994 and the electoral coup of 2000. These people have a deeply cynical and manipulative attitude towards Mitt Romney, much as their forebears would have exhibited towards his father if he had ever won the GOP presidential nomination. And as Rich stresses, they are in politics for the long run, and figure that if they don’t win now they’ll win later, and disable the New Deal and Great Society with speed and dexterity once they have the opportunity.
That’s worth keeping in mind during the contemporary discussion of what Mitt Romney would “really” do as president. To a greater extent than ever before, his party is in the grip of the conservative movement, which will not hesitate to make Mitt Romney’s life a living hell if he crosses them. I simply can’t imagine him beginning his presidency by announcing that he and Paul Ryan have changed their minds and won’t be trying to implement that budget on a party-line vote after all.
But any way you slice it, liberals need to have a better understanding of the conservative movement’s long-term goals and short-term tactics. As Rich says, they are not going anywhere any time soon. And yes, they can be exhausting.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_10/frank_rich_and_liberal_fatigue040524.php
Cowardly Romney Refuses to Release His Tax Returns but Will Tell Obama to Man Up
The Romney camp let it fly that Mitt will ask Obama to ‘man up’ tonight in the debate. Yes, the man who won’t release his tax returns because he’s afraid of what Obama would say about them is barking at the moon, playing big man on campus in yet another transparent attempt to paint himself as Reagan and Obama as Carter.
The Romney camp is trying to play the man card again in yet another desperate attempt to paint the man who got Osama as Carter. This would, in the minds of team Romney, make Romney — the man who clowned his way through the summer Olympics — into Reagan.
Richard Williamson, a Romney aide, told Fox News, “I think Governor Romney, quite properly, will be asking questions, probing, and trying to ask the president to man up, accept his responsibility and explain to the American people the failure that resulted in four American deaths.” He added, “He can run but he’s not going to be able to hide. He’s going to have to man up and tell the American people what he knew, when he knew it and what he’s doing.”
Yes, that would be the same Libya Romney was against before he was for, and that was before he fled down a hallway to avoid reporters’ questions about his Libya position. That is also the same Libya House Republicans pretended they wouldn’t fund, and the same defunded security that falls in the laps of Republicans. It is also the same Libya that Romney exploited over and over again for political gain, from blaming Obama before the facts were even known to smirking his way through a presser the next morning – so sad was he over American deaths that he couldn’t stop smiling at his win. And these are the same deaths that Romney was just accused of politicizing by the mother of slain Navy SEAl, Glen Doherty.
Remember when Mitt Romney told his 50k a plate friends that he would look to take advantage of a hostage type situation so that he could paint himself as Reagan and Obama as Carter?
http://www.politicususa.com/cowardly-mitt-romney-refuses-release-tax-returns-tells-obama-man.html
47% Is that man enough for you, Mittens?!
Supreme Court rejects Ohio GOP’s early-voting restrictions
By Steve Benen – Tue Oct 16, 2012 1:20 PM EDT.103
After losing in the lower courts, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced last week that he would take his early-voting restrictions to the U.S. Supreme Court, hoping for a more favorable outcome.
In a victory for voting-rights advocates and Democrats, Husted lost at the high court, too.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/
What Obama Should Say 2012, Part 2 (Rude Version):
If at tonight’s town hall presidential debate on CNN, some undecided voter in the audience asks Barack Obama to explain why the economy hasn’t improved quickly and he doesn’t say, “Well, that’s because you and many of your fellow voters were such pathetic pussies back in 2010. Let me explain this to you in simple terms since you are obviously brain-damaged or just plain dumb, or you just don’t give flying fuck about things like recent history or how the government actually works.
“See, in 2010, you voters decided that you were a bunch of cowards and you either stayed home or actually helped put Republicans into the majority in the House. This was on top of the motherfuckers in the Senate GOP who decided once Scott Brown was elected in January 2010 to filibuster pretty much everything that would actually help the economy. You did that, America. You decided that you were scared of the things I had campaigned on just back in 2008. the very things you voted me in to do. You believed the convenient lies of the Republicans, of the Tea Party, of Fox ‘news.’ Own that shit. Own your mistakes.
“So you’re gonna blame me now because I did everything I could short of offering free blow jobs to Republicans to get them to vote for things they once supported? To get them to vote for compromises they fucking negotiated? You’re gonna blame me because the Senate Republicans blocked over 400 bills voted out of the House? You’re gonna blame me because I won’t just roll over and let the Republicans have Paul Ryan’s motherfucking budget? You’re gonna ask me what my jobs plan is when I sent a goddamn jobs plan to the Congress who told me to shove it up my ass? Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with you
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2012/10/what-obama-should-say-2012-part-2-rude.html
Ann Romney: It’s A ‘Myth’ That Mitt Has Changed His Positions Over The Years
http://www.mediaite.com/online/ann-romney-its-a-myth-that-mitt-has-changed-his-positions-over-the-years/
In the final few weeks of the campaign, Ann Romney has taken to defending her husband and his campaign against negative attacks from the media and the president’s reelection team. Romney said in an interview yesterday that the narrative painting her husband as a serial flip-flopper is a complete and total “myth,” though she admitted she was pleased by how well he was received following the first presidential debate.
_____________________
Stop lying, Ann Romney! We have the videos.
MITT’S A MYTH, MISS ANN; AND SO ARE YOU! Next
Courtney Pearson: University of Mississippi’s First Black Homecoming Queen
http://dailyvenusdiva.com/2012/10/16/ole-miss-crowns-courtney-pearson-first-african-american-homecoming-queen/
Courtney Roxanne Pearson, a 21 yr. old senior English secondary education major made history this weekend when she became University of Mississippi’s (Ole Miss.) first African-American homecoming queen.
just did a post on this.. :)
*HOLERING* Yep; that’s Tweddle Dee & Twiddle DUMB
The Fall of D’Souza’s Star?
Post by Sarah Posner
The evangelical magazine WORLD is reporting that Dinesh D’Souza, whose book The Roots of Obama’s Rage was the basis for his anti-Obama movie 2016, showed up at a Christian conference last month with his fiancé. He shared a hotel room with the young woman, but, he assured a conference organizer in Clinton-esque fashion, “nothing happened.”
So you figure that conservative Christians might overlook an innocent, pre-marital shared hotel room, right? Perhaps. The real problem is that D’Souza is still married to his wife of 20 years.
According to WORLD’s Warren Smith, D’Souza, whose $10,000 per speech honoraria places him in the “top tier” of Christian speakers, was in South Carolina to speak at a Baptist church, which was hosting “high-profile Christians speak on defending the faith and applying a Christian worldview to their lives.” (Cue guffaws here.)
Smith describes one conference organizer, Alex McFarland, being “distressed” at the behavior of their celebrity speaker. According to Smith, D’Souza told McFarland that he had “recently” filed for divorce, although Smith found in court records that D’Souza filed for divorce about a week after the South Carolina conference took place.
http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/6514/the_fall_of_d%27souza%27s_star/
Jeremy Levine@Jeremy10036
@JeffersonObama @LOLGOP Whoa! re FL voter regis stats there are 195,365 more Hispanics than in 08, 50,722 more blacks & 44,309 FEWER whites
hee hee hee
High court won’t block early voting in Ohio
Oct. 16 12:32 PM EDT
2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.38.8951-77.0364
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is siding with Democrats in refusing to block early voting in the battleground state of Ohio.
The court on Tuesday refused a Republican request to get involved in a dispute over early voting in the state on the three days before Election Day.
The campaign of President Barack Obama and Ohio Democrats sued the state over changes in Ohio law that took away the three days of voting for most people, but made exceptions for military personnel and Ohioans living overseas. Democrats say nearly 100,000 people voted in the three days before the election in 2008.
A federal appeals court ruling reinstated voting on the weekend before the election and Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican, appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/high-court-wont-block-early-voting-ohio
Black minister in Cincinnati on Supreme Court’s restoration of Sunday voting in Ohio: “We’ll come out in droves.” http://huff.to/TqVm7G
OOPS! There goes the black riots!
LOL
blacks are gonna riot! blacks are gonna riot!
NBC’s Pete Williams reports SCOTUS won’t block lower court ruling, Ohio must allow early voting for all thru Monday before the election
What PBO said in the debate! But the clowns and pundits couldn’t get beyond the smoke and mirrors of whitey boy Mitt to showcase the TRUTH PBO was laying out for Americans.
The media really is criminal in its coverage of our POTUS, to cover for this incompetent, rich, self-indulgent fool.
BREAKING: Ohio early voting cleared by U.S. Supreme Court in Obama victory (via @BloombergNews)
3ChicsPolitico – Obama Campaign 2012
THE SCOTUS had no clear reasons not to uphold early voting. The CaCs think black folks would riot. They just might get what they ask for, had they not upheld it.
Ryan on abortion exceptions: Rape is just another ‘method of conception’
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/24/ryan-on-abortion-exceptions-rape-is-just-another-method-of-conception/#.UH2JWT6-QN8.twitter
Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan says that he personally believes that rape is just another “method of conception” and not an excuse to allow abortions.
During an interview with WJHL this week, Ryan was asked his view about Rep. Todd Akin, who recently asserted that women could not get pregnant from “legitimate rape.”
“Specifically where you stand when it comes to rape, and when it comes to the issue of should it be legal for a woman to be able to get an abortion if she’s raped?” WJHL reporter Josh Smith wondered.
___________
My eyes! My eyes!
Sounds likeFrank Luntz-speak. The GOP are very clever at phrasing words to cloak their deceit, their dishonesty, their LIES.
Mitt Romney Vetoed Contraception Bill For Rape Victims As Governor
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/09/mitt-romney-contraception-veto-morning-after-pill_n_1194422.html …
Auto union gives $1 million to Obama super PAC:
http://bit.ly/V2JyJU
Democrats now sure to have more than 90,000-voter lead statewide
Share on facebook_like Submitted by jon.ralston on Mon, 10/15/2012 – 13:08
On the day before the registration deadline, Nevada Democrats are poised to go past the 90,000 mark in their ever-extending lead over Republicans.
Although Republican continue to brag about all of these voter “contacts,” the Democrats keep producing new registrations.
Here are the latest numbers from the SOS, which don’t even include the latest surge in Clark County numbers. The edge is actually about 1,000 voters greater than shown here, meaning the overall, statewide lead is 90,000-plus.
http://www.ralstonreports.com/blog/democrats-now-sure-have-more-90000-voter-lead-statewide#.UH1utG_oRdN
Romney’s central jobs argument exposed as fraudulent
By Steve Benen – Tue Oct 16, 2012 10:43 AM EDT
If I had a nickel for every time Mitt Romney promised voters he’d create 12 million jobs if elected, I’d have nearly as much money as Mitt Romney. To a very real extent, it’s become the central argument underpinning Romney’s entire candidacy: vote for him, get 12 million jobs.
Indeed, the Republican best known for laying off American workers and failing to create jobs during his one term as governor, has been fairly specific, at least in terms of the goal: he’ll not only create 12 million new jobs, Romney will do so in one term.
The main problem with Romney’s vague and unspecified jobs plan has been the fact that the economy is on track to create 12 million jobs between 2012 and 2016 anyway. It makes this a pretty weak promise as campaign boasts go.
But to his credit, Glenn Kessler dug a little deeper, and discovered the Romney campaign’s central argument is based on a shameless lie.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/10/16/14481665-romneys-central-jobs-argument-exposed-as-fraudulent?lite
I’ll say it: it’s because he’s WHITE.
………………….
Sproul somehow manages to land on his feet
By Steve Benen – Tue Oct 16, 2012 11:30 AM EDT.
After nearly a decade of scandals and accusations of fraud, Republican consultant Nathan Sproul was nevertheless hired by the RNC to register voters in swing states. When Sproul’s firm was caught allegedly submitting fraudulent voter registration forms, the Republican National Committee cut its losses and ended its contract with Sproul.
Given this, one might assume Sproul would be persona non grata in GOP circles, at least for a while, until the various controversies and legal investigations are addressed. And yet, the scandal-plagued Republican continues to get new election-related jobs.
……………
Keep in mind, Sproul’s work looked so awful, the RNC reportedly asked the consultant to change the name of his firm before the party hired him for the 2012 registration drives. But he somehow keeps getting lucrative Republican contracts, even after the latest evidence emerged pointing to possible 2012 election fraud.
In this case, who hired Sproul to oversee GOTV efforts in as many as 30 states? Surprise, surprise — it’s a secret. The consultant’s spokesperson said Sproul signed a confidentiality agreement with the client.
To put this in perspective, imagine the news reports if ACORN still existed, got a contract to do new election-related work for Democrats, and those writing the checks were kept secret.
.
Obama campaign blasts Romney 12 million jobs plan as fraud
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/obama-campaign-blasts-romney-12-million-jobs-claim/2012/10/16/35fceb52-17a3-11e2-a55c-39408fbe6a4b_blog.html#comments
As expected, the Obama campaign is pouncing on today’s Post debunking of Mitt Romney’s claim that his plan would create 12 million jobs. From Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt:
“In yet another instance of Mitt Romney’s campaign not telling the truth, it turns out that the numbers behind his ‘jobs plan’ just don’t add up. For months, Romney has pledged to create 12 million jobs over his first term — a number economists project will be created under current policy — but the numbers he’s cited for his claims aren’t based on evaluations of his plan and are ‘squishy’ at best. Mitt Romney thinks he can run out the clock by not coming clean about policy details, but the American people deserve the truth about his plans. And the truth is that economists have concluded that the severe cuts he would make like education, research and development, manufacturing and infrastructure could eliminate 1 million jobs and shrink economic growth by 1 percent.”
BREAKING: Washington Post Endorses @TimKaine in Virginia Senate Race http://wapo.st/TtrM13 #vasen #1u
Progress Florida@ProgressFlorida
Hearing of calls telling FL voters that they can vote by phone due to new law. Report falsehoods like this to 1-866-OUR-VOTE Hotline.
How smartphones are being used in this election:”
The Pew Center just released a report showing some interesting figures:
As of late September, 88% of registered voters own a cell phone of some kind-and significant numbers of these voters are using their mobile devices to get information about the 2012 election, to interact with the campaigns, and to converse with other voters about political issues:
27% of registered voters who own a cell phone have used their phone in this election campaign to keep up with news related to the election itself or to political issues in general.
Three quarters of these cell-owning registered voters use their phone to send or receive text messages, and within this group:
•19% have sent text messages related to the campaign to friends, family members, or others
•5% have signed up to receive text messages directly from a candidate or other group involved in the campaign
•5% say that they have received unwanted election-related text messages that they did not sign up to receive
Smartphone owners are using their mobile devices as a tool for political participation on social networking sites and as a way to fact check campaign statements in real time.
Roughly half (48%) of registered voters who own a cell phone say that they have a smartphone, and within this group:
•45% have used their smartphone to read other people’s comments on a social networking site about a candidate or the campaign in general
•35% have used their smartphone during this election campaign to look up whether something they just heard about a candidate or the campaign in general was true or not
•18% have used their smartphone to post their own comments on a social networking site about a candidate or the campaign in genera
http://criticalmassprogress.com/2012/10/16/the-mobile-election-how-smartphones-have-shaped-the-2012-election/
Drudge promotes conspiracy site warning that black people will riot if Romney wins
http://thkpr.gs/QmBX6W #racism
It’s all they have. They have nothing else. Losers!
MOFOS better be afraid; BE.VERY.AFRAID. of the BLAH peeps! LOL
and this is a shock?
in the least?
Black folks riot?
No.
But, all the tongue biting that BLack folks have done over the past 4 years, the moment they hear a White person complain about President Romney, they won’t care. they will be teling them to ‘accept responsibility’ for their vote.
blacks gonna riot! blacks gonna riot! Wah Wah Wah!
Dannie Owens@DAOWENS44
I wonder which Mitt Romney will show up at the debate tonight? The one who talks out of the left side or the right … http://bit.ly/R2La8s
What the “Likely Voter” Models are Missing: Obama’s Legendary Ground Game
Wednesday, October 10, 2012 | Posted by Deaniac83 at 10:29 AM
The media and the pollsters, as if right on queue, have started feeding the masses the “news” that the “race for president is tightening.” I have made the case that most of that is horse manure, but I have also made the case in the same breath that the universe of who votes will determine who wins this election. In that vein, let’s talk a little bit about the polling universes. Gallup recently switched to hilighting “likely voter” numbers rather than registered voters, but today’s numbers from Gallup shows a tie on likely voters while the president is ahead 50-45 nationally among registered voters. A CNN/ORC poll from Ohio put Mitt Romney within 4 points of the President (51-47) among who they consider “likely” voters, whereas the same poll’s registered voter preferences showed the president with a commanding 10-point (53-43) lead.
So, why does that matter? Aren’t likely voters what should be looked at this late in the game? Not exactly. Firstly, the newly registered are almost never considered ‘likely’, since they have no voting history (it’s like having no credit). Given the way pollsters determine who is a likely voter – which includes a given person’s voting history – the “likely” voter universe is always skewed towards conservatives. This is one of the pitfalls of the Left – we’re good at yelling loudly and shooting our own people in a circular firing squad, but we are not good at voting. Conservatives vote far more consistently than liberals. Want evidence? See 2010, when Democrats, at the insistence of the loud, whiny media voices, stayed home handed the Speakership to John Boehner.
But in terms of polling, that still makes sense, right? I mean, if liberals don’t vote as often, it’s no wonder they don’t count as likely to vote. Right, except for one thing: the OFA turnout machine. President Obama’s ground-game is legendary, and the most overlooked story of this election cycle. Here’s how the ground-game is playing out in numbers right now, by a couple of metrics.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2012/10/ground-game-why-registered-voter.html
Michelle Obama: At dinner, the president is just ‘dad’
http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/49429093/#49429093
Rhoda had a great comment:
Rhoda
Morning, POU!
So, that Gallup poll. (1) It was conducted during the height of Romney’s bounce immediately after the debate, the washington post poll was done recently and (2) it is clearly an outlier and Gallup has a republican tilted voter screen. I found out about both through this blog and others; not regular channels.
Why?
Mark Halperin at his blog has his Morning Joke appearance where he says the MSM likes this Romney in command meme; no comeback story for POTUS.
Why?
Because POTUS is still winning; that’s why they are throwing it out there that Ohio is faltering through I have yet to see proof of that, or trumpeting women leaving Obama, and it’s for one reason. To create a bandwagon effect; weak folk who go with the winner. They want to create the POTUS is losing is a loser meme; it helps fire up Republicans, depress Democrats, and gets low hanging voters.
What isn’t mentioned?
Voting has started; and POTUS is kicking ass with his ground game and is ahead in Florida when compared to four years ago. But you won’t hear good news; the MSM is determined to bring Mittens back from the brink. That’s why they won’t talk about his lies.
MARGARET AND HELEN have posted again:
………….
I wonder which Mitt Romney will show up at the debate tonight? The one who talks out of the left side or the right side of his mouth?
Margaret, I am not sure if you read the story in the paper about Paul Ryan’s visit to a soup kitchen in Ohio, but it’s a real lulu. Evidently he and his wife and children stopped by after the place was already closed, but they had cameras so Congressman Calculator smiled and washed some already clean dishes before heading off again.
I tell you what. That, my friends, is some good bullshit. In a desperate attempt to show how the Romney / Ryan campaign really does love those pesky poor people, they faked a visit to a soup kitchen where Ryan quite literally didn’t even get his hands dirty. I hear next week he is scheduled to stop by a battered women’s shelter to watch a football game and have a beer or two with the ladies.
If you had any doubts that the Republican Party was pandering for your vote, it should be crystal clear now. But really, now that Plain is out of the way, are any of us going to change our vote based on the candidate for Vice President? The guy we really need to focus on will be debating tonight. I wonder which Mitt Romney will show up this time? Will it be the guy who thinks 47% of Americans are moochers or the guy who believes in universal healthcare? Wait a minute. That’s the same guy. Now I am confused. Which one is black? That’s the guy you can’t trust, right? One of them is a Muslim from Kenya and the other one is a Mormon from Mexico… right? Who is the Republican candidate again? I can’t keep them all straight. Let’s review:
Mitt Romney. Is he the Pro-Life or the Pro-Choice guy?
•“I respect and will protect a woman’s right to choose.” ~ Mitt Romney
•“I never really called myself pro-choice.” ~ Mitt Romney
•“Roe v. Wade has gone too far.” ~ Mitt Romney
•“I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years we should sustain and support it.” ~ Mitt Romney
•“When I am asked if I am pro-choice or pro-life, I say I refuse to accept either label.” ~ Well.
There seems to be a ring of truth in that one.
Hmmm. Maybe we should just move on. That’s one of those topics that people are pretty luke warm about anyway. You know us women… we change our minds about abortion about as often as we change our hairstyles. What about a really hot topic like immigration. Is Romney the Dream Act guy or the Put Up a Fence guy
http://margaretandhelen.com/2012/10/16/i-wonder-which-mitt-romney-will-show-up-at-the-debate-tonight-the-one-who-talks-out-of-the-left-side-or-the-right-side-of-his-mouth/
http://twitter.com/amk4obama/status/258198083542847488/photo/1
http://youtu.be/7YKQhTQyK9M
Shining a spotlight on Sensata
By Steve Benen – Tue Oct 16, 2012 9:23 AM EDT
Over the course of the year, as Mitt Romney’s controversial private-sector background became more politically problematic for the Republican, many Americans became familiar with company names like GST Steel, Ampad, and Dade Behring.
But there are plenty of other names on the list. Sensata Technologies is quickly becoming one of the more notable, and this video, released last week, is worth your time.
Not surprisingly, Romney’s campaign has been eager to stress the fact that the candidate left Bain Capital several years ago, and is “not familiar” with Sensata outsourcing its American jobs to China. But it’s not that simple — the New York Times reported that Romney “owns about $8 million worth of Bain funds that hold 51 percent of Sensata’s shares. If Sensata saves money by closing the Freeport plant, that could add money to Mr. Romney’s trust accounts, now or after the election.”
What’s more, the Huffington Post reported that Romney personally benefited from Sensata and received a tax break from
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/10/16/14479899-shining-a-spotlight-on-sensata?lite
http://youtu.be/i-RCZU0gXS8
GOP has itself to blame for Thompson’s Kenya joke
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/gop-has-itself-to-blame-for-thompsons-kenya-joke/2012/10/15/325c4120-170b-11e2-8792-cf5305eddf60_blog.html?tid=pm_opinions_pop&socialreader_check=0&denied=1
Some folks just can’t resist blabbering birther nonsense. The latest example occurred yesterday in Wisconsin at a Republican fundraiser. The offender was Jason Thompson, whose father, Tommy Thompson, is the former governor of the Badger State and current candidate for U.S. Senate against Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D).
“We have the opportunity to send President Obama back to Chicago — or Kenya,” the younger Thompson said to applause and laughter. One person off camera can be heard saying, “I’m taking donations for that Kenya trip.”
Now, Tommy Thompson wasn’t even there. But he did issue a statement. “The Governor has addressed this with his son, just like any father would do,” his campaign said. “Jason Thompson said something he should not have, and he apologizes.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus spoke to the gathering about 20 minutes before Thompson’s dumb remark. RNC spokesman Sean Spicer told me that Priebus piggybacked on the former governor’s statement. “I agree with Governor Thompson — the comment was out of line and his son rightfully apologized,” Priebus said.
Greg Sargent: …. Let’s recap what Kessler has discovered here. The plan that is central to Romney’s candidacy on the most important issue of this election — jobs — is a complete sham. This is every bit as bad — or worse — than Romney’s claim to have created 100,000 jobs at Bain, or his vow to cut spending by eliminating whole agencies without saying which ones, or his refusal to say how he’ll pay for his tax cuts.
This could not have come at a better time for Obama. Here is the evidence he needs to spell out as clearly as possible that Romney is peddling economic hokum to the American people. Any fair reading of the backup the Romney campaign itself supplied for his plan reveals that it is nothing but a bill of goods. Obama needs to seize on this in a big way. This should be a big story.
Oh, and by the way: Economists have evaluated Obama’s jobs plan. And they concluded it would create one to two million jobs. The bottom line is simple: One candidate has a jobs plan, and the other doesn’t.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/the-morning-plum-romneys-jobs-plan-revealed-to-be-flim-flam/2012/10/16/52cc5ba0-177b-11e2-a55c-39408fbe6a4b_blog.html
Why Ryan would wash a clean pot
By Steve Benen – Tue Oct 16, 2012 8:30 AM EDT.
Just at a surface level, the idea of Paul Ryan stopping by a soup kitchen is strange, if not ridiculous. The right-wing congressman, a proud admirer of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, no doubt sees soup kitchens as outlets that create dependency. This is, after all, the “don’t simply feed fish” guy.
Indeed, his extremist ideology drove Ryan to write the radical House Republican budget plan, which would be deliberately brutal towards the very people who rely on charity and public benefits to get by.
But given this background, it took real chutzpah for Ryan to show up at an Ohio soup kitchen, smile for the cameras, and pretend to do real work. The Washington Post’s Felicia Sonmez reported that Ryan and his team “ramrodded their way” into a kitchen over the weekend so he could manufacture a photo-op.
By the time Ryan showed up for his impromptu, 15-minute visit, he was too late — according to the Post’s report, the hall had already been cleaned after the food had been served and the patrons had left. But Ryan wanted to look good for the cameras, and walking around an empty soup kitchen wouldn’t make much of an impact.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/10/16/14478736-why-ryan-would-wash-a-clean-pot?lite
http://youtu.be/K8AHqF_8z5c
http://twitter.com/TyJuanOn/status/258019217029341185/photo/1
Electing Obama Saved Roe v. Wade
by BooMan
Mon Oct 15th, 2012 at 10:58:52 PM EST
If John McCain had been elected president four years ago, the chances are very strong that Roe v. Wade would have already been overturned. How many women (or men) know that? In the last four years, two pro-choice Supreme Court Justices retired. They were replaced by two pro-choice Justices, which meant that the Court retained a 5-4 majority in favor of choice. If Romney wins the election, he will have at least four years to try to replace one of those five pro-choice Justices, and the chances are not bad that he will succeed. So, what would that mean? Here’s an article from 2008 that looked at the stakes back then. The situation wasn’t as dire in 2008 as it is now. That’s because the Republicans did incredibly well at the state level during the 2010 elections. But even in 2008, the best estimate was that 21 states would immediately ban abortion. Do your friends know about this? Would they care if they did know?
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/10/15/225852/85
The Serious Consequences of Tonight’s Debate
Posted on 10/16/2012 at 7:15 am by Bob Cesca
My Tuesday column outlines the stakes in tonight’s debate…
http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/10/the-serious-consequences-of-tonights-debate.html
October 15, 2012
Piers Morgan’s slurred thinking
Was Piers Morgan drunk when he wrote this?
“The main concern for Americans right now is the economy…. [Voters] just want to know which man, Romney or Obama, is going to revive the economy faster.” Sure, Obama “deserve[s] plaudits” for ending an insane war and bringing to a close another Bush-bungled one, “for saving the US car industry,” for health-insuring “30 million more Americans,” for whacking Bin Laden and for “pushing down the barriers of homophobia by publicly supporting gay marriage.”
But – and it’s a big but – unemployment is still running at a scarily high 7.8 per cent[!]
And then, oh my, there’s all that Obamian debt and a “still severely deflated housing market, and petrol prices double what they were in 2008.”
Who’s debt? Morgan sorta forgets to finger the actual debt-perps. A pity. He also forgets to note that most mainstream economists foresee not a “deflated housing market” next year, but a reasonably strengthening one (for which a President Romney would promptly take credit), and what world “petrol prices” have to do with Obama’s presidency is beyond me, just as their bugabooing mention should be beneath even a CNN talk show host.
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2012/10/piers-morgans-slurred-thinking.html
October 15, 2012
Polling ‘in opposite directions’
Nate Silver is mildly positing what I and many others intuited from the get-go: a close popular vote but a decisive (to be defined at a later date) Electoral College win for Obama.
Silver, with the full faith and paychecks of the NY Times behind him, cannot afford to be cocky. I’ve nothing to lose. And from the beginning it seemed reasonably evident that polling would run throughout this race “in opposite directions”: swing-state polling and thus the Electoral College outcome in one way–Obama’s way; and national polling, which merely reflects the electorate’s fixed polarization, in another–meaning close.
Of course we’ve still three unknowable weeks to go, and even detectable shifts in polling over the last two weeks aren’t entirely translatable as definite shifts. In general, though, today’s electoral landscape looks rather familiar: a significant Electoral College spread within a close popular vote.
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2012/10/polling-in-opposite-directions.html
October 15, 2012
When electoral research starts hindering rather than helping
This, via Greg Sargent, is the kind of stuff that just blows your mind:
…………………………
What would be the most egregious characteristic of status quo-ism? Right. A stagnant economy. And the most uplifting sign of change? Right again. A recovering economy. Which, according to Greenberg, doesn’t help Obama where it counts.
As I said, it blows a few fuses.
This, also from Greenberg’s research, is just as extraordinary. “Romney has also made gains by contrasting [his ‘five point plan for the middle class’] with the notion that continuing the status quo is unacceptable: ‘We can’t afford another four years like the last four years.’ ” And those last four years have reflected … what? Yep, once again, a recovery, which, evidently, two key voting blocs believe we cannot afford.
Greenberg concludes (Zzzzz) that the election is about the future. “It would be much more powerful if [Obama] says, ‘here are the serious things we need to do to rescue the middle class, but you should know that the plan you’re hearing from Romney is one you’ve heard before.’ ”
Well good grief and good night nurse. How many times have we heard Obama say exactly that?
If I were going into a presidential debate and being loaded down with reams of the above sort of advisory gibberish, I do believe I’d heave it all and just take my chances with the truth. Half of what Greenberg’s research suggests are fruitless attempts at adding IQ points to the hopelessly moronic, and the other half suggests that Obama should do what he’s already doing. Thanks, Stan.
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/
October 15, 2012 3:55 PM
Change and “Safe Change”
By Ed Kilgore
Greg Sargent argues today, quoting no less an authority than Stan Greenberg, at whose feet I often sit for enlightenment, that Mitt Romney’s recent polling gains, and with it a renewed chance to win the election, is attributable to his success in the first presidential debate in presenting himself as the candidate of “change.”
Now I couldn’t agree more than Obama needs to improve significantly in the ability to define a second-term agenda (something he didn’t do terribly well even in his convention speech). After all, you can’t have a successful “two futures” strategy without presenting your own vision of the future. And I also agree that the name most glaringly missing from Obama’s words in the first debate was “Bush,” in terms of depicting Romney’s entire agenda as a leaner and meaner version of W’s.
But that doesn’t, in my opinion, mean that Obama cannot and should not also go after Romney’s radicalism very directly—the “leaner and meaner” part of the equation of Romney = Bush.
Romney, much like Bush in 2000, is presenting himself as the candidate not just of change, but of safe change—the hyper-confident moderate technocrat, who will assess the country’s challenges each day without fear or favor, and do what is best without worrying about his party’s “base” or the radical ideologues who represent it. Like W., Romney is touting a reputation (in Mitt’s case, a bit questionable and long in the tooth) for working with Democrats, and is also asserting a degree of empathy and “compassion” notably lacking in the GOP these days. This ingredient of his latest self-presentation is just as important to his cause as the mantle of “change.”
So while it may seem complicated for Obama to label Romney as the candidate of the same-old, same-old, and also as a radical, it is both accurate and effective. The two candidates have different agendas for the future, and while one is well-tailored to tough current challenges, the other is essentially an effort to advance the worst qualities of Richard Nixon and the worst policies of George W. Bush and Barry Goldwater.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_10/change_and_safe_change040511.php
Romney Reminds Us How Little He Understands the Rest of America
Mitt Romney has caught some grief for comments he made about health care last week. It seems to me he deserves a lot more.
As readers know, Romney has called for repealing Obamacare, ending Medicaid as we know it, and changing the tax treatment of health insurance. If he were to win the election and sign these measures into law, tens of millions of Americans will lose health insurance. Not to worry, Romney said during an interview with the Columbus Dispatch, going without insurance isn’t that bad:
We don’t have a setting across this country where if you don’t have insurance, we just say to you, ‘Tough luck, you’re going to die when you have your heart attack’ … No, you go to the hospital, you get treated, you get care, and it’s paid for, either by charity, the government or by the hospital. We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.
This preconception, common on the right, is also a misconception. Multiple studies and high-level, independent reviews of these studies have found that people without health insurance are more likely to die from untreated disease. The studies are necessarily messy and, as a result, putting a precise figure on the number of people who die is difficult. But Paul Krugman captures the latest thinking among scholars when he writes that
…going to the emergency room when you’re very sick is no substitute for regular care, especially if you have chronic health problems. When such problems are left untreated — as they often are among uninsured Americans — a trip to the emergency room can all too easily come too late to save a life. …
How many deaths are we talking about? That’s not an easy question to answer, and conservatives love to cite the handful of studies that fail to find clear evidence that insurance saves lives. The overwhelming evidence, however, is that insurance is indeed a lifesaver, and lack of insurance a killer. … there’s no real question that lack of insurance is responsible for thousands, and probably tens of thousands, of excess deaths of Americans each year.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/108612/romney-uninsured-die-obamacare-repeal-medicaid-cut#
Posted at 08:48 AM ET, 10/16/2012
The Morning Plum: Romney’s jobs plan revealed to be flim-flam
By Greg Sargent
Yesterday I noted that one of Obama’s most important tasks at tonight’s debate is to spell out clearly that Mitt Romney is selling the American people a bill of goods on jobs and the economy. Romney has promised that his “five point plan for the middle class” will create 12 million jobs. Of course, economists have estimated that the economy will create that many jobs in four years without any Romney policies.
But Post fact checker Glenn Kessler decided to take Romney’s plan at face value. And he’s made an important discovery. It turns out Romney’s plan is an even more absurd exercise in flim-flam than we thought: The studies the Romney camp itself cites in defense of the plan don’t back up the plan’s promises.
Romney’s 12 million jobs promise is based on the idea that achieving energy independence will create three million jobs; tax reform will create seven million more; and that expanding trade and cracking down on China takes us to 12 million. But, incredibly, when Kessler asked the Romney campaign to back up these claims, this is what he got back:
There you have it. Ten million of those jobs in Romney’s plan represent an entirely bogus promise. As for the remaining two million jobs that would be supposedly created by Romney’s trade policies, the report supplied by the Romney camp bills itself as “highly conditional” — and also doesn’t evaluate any of Romney’s policies. Kessler dubs Romney’s plan “bait and switch.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line
Romney Ignores Bainport While Trying to Take Back 47% Comments
By: Sarah JonesOctober 14th, 2012
Mitt Romney refuses to even meet with the folks from Bainport and yet he expects the public to believe that he didn’t mean what he said about the 47% of Americans being lazy and feeling entitled to healthcare and food.
Bainport is a community set up outside of the Bain owned Sensata factory in Freeport, Ill, that is “fighting to save our jobs from being shipped to China by the end of this year. We are calling on Mitt Romney to come to Freeport, IL and we will camp across the street from our plant for as long as it takes!”
Bainport is comprised of hard working people whose jobs have been harvested for profit by Mitt Romney’s company. Bain made the Freeport workers train their Chinese replacements, and is now shipping equipment to China to set up shop where labor is 85% cheaper than in the US.
The Overpass Light Brigade paid a visit to Bainport. Watch here:
Occupy Riverwest writes, “The town of Freeport, Illinois is fighting back against vulture capitalists like Bain Capital who sweep into their hometowns, closing down family-supporting jobs and outsourcing them overseas, so they can pay slave labor wages and pocket the profits. All on the backs of American workers. The people of Freeport have organized an encampment across the street from Sensata (the company being closed down) to send a message to Bain and others like them that they will not lie down. The Overpass Light Brigade paid a visit to Bainport (as the encampment is being called) to spread the word about the community’s efforts and the destruction created by vulture capitalists like Bain.”
http://www.politicususa.com/mitt-romney-47-comments-ignores-bainport.html
Town Hall Debate Style Presents a Challenge for Rude, Chronic Interrupter Mitt Romney
By: Sarah JonesOctober 15th, 2012
Wondering what to expect from Mitt Romney at Tuesday’s town hall debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York? Based on his interactions with voters at various events including a previous town hall, Romney’s going to have to work hard to reign in his rudeness and condescension. It’s one thing for him to do this to voters in small venues, on the rope line, or even to do it to the President as he did in the first debate, but he can’t afford to lose his cool with voters Tuesday.
Like this: Romney, sounding like a cross between an executive telling off an employee and a belligerent, power hungry parent to a child, took down a voter at New Hampshire Town Hall in August of 2011.
Romney, “You had your turn! You had your turn madam! Let me have mine. Hold- let me have mine! Yeah listen, I’ll give you the microphone in a moment but let me complete. I’m sorry, it’s my turn! You had yours, now it’s my turn. Would you please hold on a moment and let me finish. Okay, good. This is the answer!”
The woman is inaudible the entire time Romney is telling her that it’s his turn and she doesn’t have a microphone.
http://www.politicususa.com/town-hall-debate-style-presents-challenge-rude-chronic-interrupter-mitt-romney.html
Mitt has the same attitude about this election…”it’s his turn”. GTFOOH, Mitt Romney!
Washington Post Columnist Launches Sexist Diatribe Against Hillary Clinton On Twitter
By Judd Legum on Oct 16, 2012 at 12:29 am
Tonight, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took responsibility for the tragic death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Libya. Clinton told CNN: “I take responsibility. I’m in charge of the State Department’s 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts.”
In response, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin took to Twitter with a series of sexist, personal attacks against Clinton:
http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/10/16/1018651/washington-post-columnist-launches-sexist-diatribe-against-hillary-clinton-on-twitter/
Is Mitt Romney Mentally Ill?
By: RmuseOctober 15th, 2012
During an important election to decide the fate and direction of a country, a voter is likely to consider a candidate’s consistency of actions, values, methods, principles, and expectations, as well as outcomes from previous experience in political office before supporting a candidate. Many voters contemplate a candidate’s honesty and truthfulness, or accuracy of actions, before deciding to cast their vote, and few would choose a candidate renowned for lies and hypocrisy because it defines the candidate as morally deficient with anti-social tendencies. Americans are witnessing a morally deficient candidate for the presidency, and if it is not obvious by now that Willard Mitt Romney is a pathological liar, a hypocrite, and deceitful in words and deeds, it is about time his possible mental illness, Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASP), is exposed to the American people.
An individual suffering from ASP is calculating, manipulative, frequently charming and alluring, and fits the clinical portrait matching depictions of con artists and predators found in literature, and is masterful at using machinations of a criminal who fails to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors. Some criteria psychologists use to diagnose ASP are deceitfulness, as indicated by repeatedly lying, conning others for personal profit, and lacking remorse or rationalizing having caused harm. Besides persistent lying, Romney demonstrates an innate inability to care about harming others borne out of narcissism, elevated self-worth, and a sense of extreme entitlement and cannot tolerate authority figures. If these criteria seem suspiciously similar to convicted felons and life-criminals, it is because over one-third of the prison population suffers from different degrees of ASP and, like Romney, they have a childhood history of the disorder.
Over the course of the campaign, stories of Willard’s childhood bullying and disregard for people other than himself abound, and besides chasing and holding down a gay classmate and cutting his hair, there are other instances of his disregard for others. Romney’s impersonating a police officer is not just a prank, and victims of Romney’s faux law enforcement attention may have a different opinion of his behavior that contradicts the portrait of the squeaky-clean Mormon boy. Indeed, Romney carried his disregard for young Americans into college when he protested in favor of sending young men to fight and die in Viet Nam while his “religious” deferments allowed him to luxuriate in a French castle while he proselytized French people into his cult.
Willard carried his disregard for other people with him to Bain Capital where he repeatedly lied and conned unwitting companies and shareholders into believing that, under Bain management, their firms would flourish only to end up in bankruptcy as Romney and his partners pillaged their assets, shuttered businesses, and raided employee’s pensions all for personal profit. Romney’s narcissism drives him to claim he saved the Salt Lake City Olympics, but he is remiss to give credit to the American taxpayer who funded his efforts to the tune of $1.5 billion, and then destroyed records to conceal malfeasance and cronyism related to his Mormon business associates. He continued covering tracks at the end of his failed term as Massachusetts governor when he charged taxpayers for wiping computers to conceal internal correspondence, and his bankruptcy gang repeated the cover-up practice by destroying books and records in the eToys bankruptcy between 1999 and 2001. Old habits die hard, but especially when they are borne of a cognitive disorder like ASP.
Romney’s narcissism informs his fallacious contention that he “retroactively retired” from Bain Capital in February 1999 despite SEC and FEC filings clearly showing he was CEO until 2002, and his blatant disregard for the law allowed him to assume that because he is Willard Romney, federal and state law enforcement officials dared not challenge his contention that he lied on disclosures. Recently, Romney displayed his belief the law did not apply to all Americans equally when a mine owner who forced workers to lose pay to stand with Romney at a rally contacted Willard for help after a complaint filed with the FEC and Ohio Democrats alleged “extortion, money laundering, racketeering,” to which Romney responded “We get a lot of charges, this will go away.” It was a telling statement that reeks of an organized crime boss used to influencing investigations to avoid prosecution, and not something an upright businessman, or candidate for president, would cavalierly utter.
http://www.politicususa.com/mitt-romney-mentally-ill.html
The Obama Campaign Calls Out Gallup’s Deeply Flawed Battleground Women Poll
By: Jason EasleyOctober 15th, 2012
After Gallup released a poll showing Obama and Romney tied at 48% with battleground state women, the Obama campaign exposed a flaw in Gallup’s likely voter methodology.
The Obama campaign pointed out that Gallup’s likely voter survey was way off in 2010, “Only 2 years ago the distortions in Gallup’s likely voter screen were exposed, leaving Gallup’s survey 9 points off the mark just days before the election. Gallup’s likely voter model predicted a 15 point advantage for Republicans, 55-40, on October 31, 2010. The final result was a 6 point margin, 51-45. That year, Gallup’s registered voter survey was much closer to reality at 48-44.”
The Obama camp called the Gallup likely voter women battleground poll an outlier and said that in 14 polls in 8 battleground states since October 4, President Obama has led with women in every poll. In ten of the polls Obama held a double digit lead, and his average margin in all 14 polls is 10.2%.
Swing state polling chart:
The Obama campaign suggested that Gallup’s other polling was more accurate, but that there is a problem with the questions that Gallup uses to screen likely voters, “We believe the problem with Gallup’s outlying data is rooted in their 7 question likely voter screen, which distorts the composition of likely voters, leading to erratic and inaccurate results…Several of the likely voter questions create a bias against groups inclined to support Obama. For example, Gallup asks voters both whether they have voted in their precinct before and where people in their neighborhood go to vote. This creates a bias against registered voters who more likely to move from time to time, such as young voters, renters, minorities and urban dwellers, all of whom tend to lean toward the President.”
In general, the venerable polling firm has largely been out of step with the polling consensus in 2012. Unlike when the Romney campaign whines about polls, the Obama camp actually provided a methodological reason for their skepticism.
Since the election has tightened up, the Obama campaign is more sensitive to the perceptions caused by polling, but it is important to note that not all polls are the same. Too often, the media gives every poll equal weight when it shouldn’t. Some polls really are better and more accurate than others. Anyone who reads polling should do so not by focusing on one poll, but by looking at the overall picture presented by 5 or 10 polls.
Gallup’s recent track record over the last couple of years suggests that they are oversampling Republicans. Gallup has a ton of credibility because they are the founding father of political polling, but even legends make mistakes, and something smells fishy in Gallup’s latest women likely voter survey.
http://www.politicususa.com/obama-campaign-calls-gallups-deeply-flawed-battleground-women-poll.html
How Paul Ryan Pretended To Volunteer At A Soup Kitchen
By Annie-Rose Strasser on Oct 15, 2012 at 5:58 pm
Between Mitt Romney’s claim that 47 percent of the country “believe they are entitled to” government assistance to afford food and Paul Ryan’s assertion that people on food stamps are “takers, the entire Romney campaign has cemented the impression that they are “not concerned about the very poor.”
Ryan might have topped any previous callousness though, when he and his staff apparently “ramrodded their way” into a soup kitchen last week for a photo opportunity without even actually volunteering.
http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/10/15/1017651/ryan-soup-kitchen/
Chill Out About the Women
By mistermix October 16th, 2012
That Gallup poll that John wrote about last night, which showed Obama one point ahead among women in a survey of a dozen swing states, is an outlier. The Obama campaign sent around a memo from Joel Benenson, Obama’s pollster, and the key fact in that memo is that 14 swing state polls in the field during the first two weeks of October, in 8 different states, have an average Obama lead of 10.3% among women. If you read the memo, he has a bunch of issues with Gallup’s sampling that I don’t know enough to interpret, but the comparison with other polls is pretty solid proof that there hasn’t been a huge erosion of support for Obama among women, or if there has, it’s isolated to a couple of states.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/10/16/chill-out-about-the-women/
From ‘Obama phone’ to ugly smear
By Steve Benen
Tue Oct 16, 2012 8:00 AM EDT.
About three weeks ago, far-right activists got pretty worked up about a video featuring the “Obama phone” woman. The gist of the clip was simple: an excited woman supports the president, she says, in large part because Obama helped her afford a cell phone.
The story quickly fizzled into irrelevance when we realized that Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush were responsible for the phone program, and to suggest that Obama is somehow creating government dependency — or worse, bribing voters — is plainly absurd.
But as it turns out, the story hasn’t gone away. Dave Weigel reported yesterday that a new right-wing super PAC called the Tea Party Victory Fund edited the clip, turned it literally into black and white, lined up some financial backers, and created an ugly attack ad suggesting President Obama has “enslaved” Americans. From the super PAC’s fundraising appeal:
That Republican presidents created the phone programs is irrelevant. Right-wing activists are so eager to use ugly smears, they assume the public won’t know the difference, and they may very well be right. Indeed, the Tea Party Victory Fund’s appeal concludes, “If swing voters in this state see this ad, they simply will not support President Obama, and he will lose Ohio.”
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/10/16/14477957-from-obama-phone-to-ugly-smear?lite
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