Alan Eugene Jackson (born October 17, 1958) is an American country music singer, known for blending traditional honky tonk and mainstream country sounds and penning many of his own hits. He has recorded 14 studio albums, 3 Greatest Hits albums, 2 Holiday albums, 1 Gospel album and several compilations, all on the Arista Nashville label. More than 50 of his singles have appeared on Billboard’s list of the “Top 30 Country Songs”. Of Jackson’s entries, 35 were number-one hits, with 50 in the Top 10. He is the recipient of 2 Grammys, 16 CMA Awards, 17 ACM Awards and nominee of multiple other awards. He is a member of the Grand Ole Opry, was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2001. Jackson has sold more than 60 million records worldwide.[1]
Pingback: Thursday Open Thread | Country Music Week | 3CHICSPOLITICO « Hypnotik Radio's Blog
Lawrence O’Donnell Challenges Romney’s Son Tagg To A FIGHT!
Lawrence wants to beats Tagg’s AZZ!
Tagg Romney Invested in Ohio Electronic Voting Machines http://www.politicolnews.com/tagg-romney-invested-in-ohio-electronic-voting-machines/#.UIDBGICx9QK.twitter …
Larry O’s going all in on the chickenshyt RommeyMen
Rikyrah, check your email.
http://twitter.com/TyJuanOn/status/259044490298400768/photo/1
http://twitter.com/PeggyStuart/status/259014734274248705/photo/1
How the Media Helped a Flailing Romney Reinvent Himself
For the final push of this campaign Mitt Romney is trying to reinvent himself as a moderate, less-scary Republican., and getting lots of media help along the way.
October 18, 2012 |
Analyzing the presidential campaign in the wake of the first debate, Time magazine’s Mark Halperin wrote on October 10 that Mitt Romney’s sudden “rush to the center” politically had emerged as the key topic — “the central tactical issue”– for Barack Obama’s team to address. Halperin stressed it would be a challenge for Democrats because the Romney campaign’s “brazen chutzpah knows no bounds.”
How odd. At the first debate Romney had so brashly reinvented himself by shifting his position on taxation, immigration and health care away from the Republican Party, that the onus was on Obama to counter Romney’s slick maneuver. In other words, Romney’s flip-flops, according to Halperin, were a major problem for the Obama campaign, not for the Republican who late in the game unveiled a new political persona. (Farewell “severely conservative.”)
It’s also telling that on October 10, Halperin considered Romney’s makeover into a moderate to be the campaign’s dominant issue. Yet one week earlier on the night of the first debate when Halperin graded both participants, the pundit made no reference to Romney’s “rush to the center.” In real-time, Halperin heaped praise on Romney’s style “(Started strong, level, and unrattled — and strengthened as he went along”) as well as his substance (“He clearly studied hard.”)
Final grade, Romney: A-
Between the first debate and October 10, Romney’s brazen flip-flops were not subject to any serious critique from Time’s political team. What coverage Romney received for altering positions (aka his ” tack toward the political center “) mostly revolved around how conservative activists reacted to Romney’s sudden embrace of moderate rhetoric. (They’re totally fine with it.) Time was much less interested in what the about-faces said about Romney’s candidacy, his character or what his presidency might look like.
http://www.alternet.org/media/how-media-helped-flailing-romney-reinvent-himself
Mitt the Jerk: a Woman’s View of the Debate
Amy Sullivan
October 17, 2012 | 2:35 am
For the most part, however, Mitt the Man had been under wraps until he emerged in full-force at Hofstra University. Just who is he?
Mitt the Man gets his way by talking over you and not stopping until you give in so he can make his point. Which he may have forgotten by then, because getting his way was the point.
Mitt the Man can go from charming to testy in two seconds flat because while he has tolerated you as a female colleague, he will not allow you to disrespect him and his authoritah!
Mitt the Man is not self-aware enough to realize that he can be easily goaded and that you are pushing his buttons.
Mitt the Man feels sorry for you as a single parent and your sure-to-be-screwed-up kids.
Mitt the Man cannot help but disappoint you because his chivalry is all about saying the right thing as opposed to doing the right thing.
It’s fair to say that Mitt the Man did not have a great evening on Tuesday. He bragged about filling positions in his state cabinet by consulting “whole binders full of women,” sounding amazed that so many smart, qualified women existed while also calling to mind the days when men selected their mail-order brides from plastic binders of photos. He talked about how in a Romney administration, employers would be so “anxious” to hire good workers that they might even consider women. He fumbled an otherwise reasonable point about the connection between family structure and poverty (one key reason most anti-poverty advocates support family planning, sex education, access to contraception) by managing to sound like he was blaming single moms for horrific gun violence.
But mostly, Mitt the Man interrupted and ignored the evening’s most prominent woman, moderator Candy Crowley of CNN. In one particularly uncomfortable exchange, Crowley attempted to get Romney to explain his arithmetic for massive-tax-cut + increased-defense-spending + closing-of-unspecified-tax-loopholes + cuts-to-PBS-and-Planned-Parenthood = lowered deficit. “If somehow when you get in [the White House], there isn’t enough tax revenue coming in, if somehow the numbers don’t add up,” asked Crowley, “would you be willing to look again at a 20 percent…” “Well, OF COURSE, they add up,” interrupted a visibly annoyed Romney. “I was someone who ran businesses for 25 years and balanced the budget. I ran the Olympics and balanced the budget. I ran the state of Massachusetts, to the extent any governor does, and balanced the budget all four years.”
The dismissive lecture Romney gave Crowley was devastating—but not in the way he intended. He defended his honor as a businessman, but at the cost of reminding undecided women of every man who ever made them feel stupid or who cut them down just to win an argument
http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/108711/mitt-the-jerk#
The Romney House Is a House Full of Punks
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/tagg-romney-take-swing-obama-quote-13852750
Here’s what Josh Romney said last week about the president of the United States:
“So as a father, he learned how to debate an obstinate child. We had a lot of fun, we had a lot of fun watching the debate.”
Here’s what Willard Romney said the other night to the president of the United States:
“You’ll get your chance in a moment. I’m still speaking.”
Here’s what Tagg Romney said on Wednesday about the president of the United States.
“Jump out of your seat and just want to go down and take a swing at him.”
Any questions?
Unfortuniatly for most of us regular,decient people,we are going to have to fight,for every vote,its going to take a mirical to relect PBO.That liar Romney,has raised some 9million in the last campaign,from Switzerland,and special intrest groups,and lobbyists,conected to drug and pharmasutical co. This low life prick,and his kid that wants to go after our Prez, when we damn well know,if that was anyone elses kid,be they asain,latino,poor white or black,there ass would be in jail,really how much more are these rich, privledged batards going to get away with.Watching Rummey stick his finger in the PBO face,talk over him tell him,”lm not done talking,you’ll get your turn”. He’s rude,disrespectful,ilmanered,ignorant,and a pompass asshole.I want throw-up everytime l see his ugly ass face.We need to vote,vote,vote.This liar wants to close down america,for us,put women back under a mans control,make women murderers,and take away every right a women has,thats why ryan made sure the violance against women act was voted down,the republican,teabaggers,started quickly,and most people have no idea what is happening,its all underhanded,and behind closed doors.One by one they will take away everything we fought for.Vote people,vote vote vote,we need Obama four more years,and then Hillary,for two terms,lets shut these republicans down for a very long time.
A True Army Responds to True the Vote Threats
Whatever shenanigans True the Vote and their tea party cells had or has in plans for November will run up against a brick wall in the form of civil rights lawyers and government officials who are striking back against threats to corrupt voting rights. News reports from across the nation this week are showing a formidable resistance to True the Vote’s operations, which include recruiting “a million” poll watchers and poll workers, and making voters feel “like driving and seeing the police follow you.”
It’s clear at this point that they won’t come anywhere close to a million, but whoever they recruit will be met at the polls by a much larger squad, an election protection team consisting of thousands of lawyers and poll watchers trained to answer any questions voters may have if approached or challenged by tea partiers who try to kirk out at the polls.
A few examples:
•A group of Ohio state senators sent a letter to Sec. of State Jon Husted warning him of plans from True the Vote and their state affiliate Ohio Voter Integrity Project to challenge voters illegally. Sec. Husted responded by stating “he will act swiftly to investigate and seek prosecution of any offenders,” of voter intimidation, as reported by the Columbus Dispatch.
•The Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights (IREHR) released a report about True the Vote’s infiltration and influence throughout the North Carolina electoral landscape, particularly through their local affiliate North Carolina Voter Integrity Project. While True the Vote says that they don’t target communities of color, the IREHR has mapped out predominantly African American communities where it reports True the Vote’s recruits will be focused (see below).
•
The labor group AFL-CIO held a conference call this morning where it discussed the deployment of its Lawyers Coordinating Committee, part of their My Vote, My Right voter protection program. Lawyers from Florida, Pennsylvania and Nevada described how they have already been fending off challenges and voter suppression efforts from True the Vote and their affiliates, well in advance of Election Day. Florida attorney Alma Gonzalez said their lawyer team is in regular communications with all but one of Florida’s county elections supervisors about True the Vote and have successfully blunted purges demanded by True the Vote’s recruits — the lone standout being Collier County, where purging has commenced. Said Gonzalez, “We have also communicated directly to True the Vote and (their local affiliate) Tampa Vote Fair that we are ready and we are watching them. We will also have poll monitors where we have seen Tampa Fair Vote’s efforts undertaken in order to protect those voters in those areas.”
•
Ari Berman reports in this week’s The Nation about the national Election Protection team, known by most voters by their help line 1-866-OUR-VOTE . Berman zoned in on Virginia where True the Vote’s affiliate Virginia Voters Alliance has been drumming up pipe dreams about “a tsunami of voter fraud” while recruiting and training hundreds of tea partiers for Election Day confrontations. But “The Election Protection coalition has been preparing for months to deal with voter suppression laws and vigilante groups,” writes Berman.
http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/10/a_true_army_responds_to_true_the_vote_threats.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+racewireblog+%28ColorLines%29
Islamic Inscriptions On Obama’s Wedding Ring, And Other Things I Learned At A Romney Debate Watch Party
By Scott Keyes on Oct 17, 2012 at 2:47 pm
If I learned anything from watching last night’s presidential debate in a room full of Mitt Romney supporters, it’s that President Obama cannot speak English, wanted Americans in Benghazi to die, hopes America will be taken over by the Islamic world, carries a literal Communist Party card, and should be sent back to Mexico.
These were among the accusations flying at a Romney debate watch party Tuesday night in southeast Las Vegas, where approximately 75 Nevadans crowded into a small room to watch the debate and trade jabs at Obama.
Surprisingly, one gentleman I spoke with before the debate was less than sanguine about Romney’s prospects in the election. He didn’t cite the improving economy, or Obama’s foreign policy successes, but rather “all those people collecting welfare checks have a vested interest.”
Scattered boos were heard when Obama took the stage for the debate, but the murmurs grew to shouts as soon as he began. “He doesn’t speak English!” one woman in the audience yelled when Obama first responded to a question.
Nearly every time Obama spoke thereafter, jeers erupted. People groaned when he made debatable claims, like the cost of Romney’s tax plan. People groaned at undeniable facts, like when Obama mentioned that “Osama bin Laden is dead” and that immigrants “start companies like Intel.” People groaned at inexplicable moments, like when the president said “we need to create jobs here” and after he mentioned that he “was raised by a single mom.” (One onlooker even took issue with Obama making as banal a statement as his mother “worked hard.” “No she didn’t!” the woman responded.)
http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/10/17/1030281/romney-debate-watch-party/
One onlooker even took issue with Obama making as banal a statement as his mother “worked hard.” “No she didn’t!” the woman responded.
How the hell does she know anything about the President’s mother? Good fuking grief! Too much ignorance for me!
Vote counting company tied to Romney
by Gerry Bello & Bob Fitrakis
September 27, 2012
Several Tanker trucks full of political ink have been spilled on Mitt Romney’s tenure as a vulture capitalist at Bain Capital. A more important story, however, is the fact that Bain alumni, now raising big money as Romney bundlers are also in the electronic voting machine business. This appears to be a repeat of the the infamous former CEO of Diebold Wally O’Dell, who raised money for Bush while his company supplied voting machines and election management software in the 2004 election.
In all 234 counties of Texas, the entire states of Hawaii and Oklahoma, half of Washington and Colorado, and certain counties in swing state Ohio, votes will be cast on eSlate and ePollbook machines made by Hart Intercivic. Hart Intercivic machines have famously failed in Tarrant County (Ft. Worth), adding 10,000 non-existent votes. The EVEREST study, commissioned by the Ohio secretary of state in 2007, found serious security flaws with Hart Intercivic products.
Looking beyond the well-documented Google choking laundry list of apparent fraud, failure and seeming corruption that is associated with Hart Intercivic, an ongoing Free Press investigation turned its attention to the key question of who owns the voting machine companies. The majority of the directors of Hart come from the private equity firm H.I.G. Capital. H.I.G. has been heavily invested in Hart Intercivic since July 2011, just in time for the current presidential election cycle. But who is H.I.G Capital?
Out of 49 partners and directors, 48 are men, and 47 are white. Eleven of these men, including H.I.G. Founder Tony Tamer, were formerly employed at Bain and Company, and two of those men, John P. Bolduc and Douglas Berman are Romney bundlers along with former Bain and H.I.G. manager Brian Shortsleeve.
Additionally, four of these men were formerly employed at Booz Allen Hamilton. Bush family friendly Carlyle group is an owner of Booz Allen which also made voting machines for the United States military. Booz Allen was also the key subcontractor for the controversial PioneerGroundbreaker program, an NSA data mining operation that gathered information on American citizens until it was shut down and replaced with even more invasive successor programs like MATRIX and Total Information Awareness.
H.I.G. Capital employees have given $338,000 to Mitt Romney’s campaign. That amounts to over $1500 per employee. Bain Capital, Mitt’s former company, by comparison, only gave him $268,000. H.I.G. is the 11th largest donor to the Romney Campaign. Clearly they are working really hard for their man. It appears that they will work even harder on election night. Although not boisterously promising to deliver states where their machines are to Romney as Wally O’Dell of Diebold did for Bush in 2004, they can alter hundreds of thousands of votes and swing the vote in the crucial swing state of Ohio.
Will Mitt’s cronies steal our democracy the way they stole our jobs? Time will tell, but they have certainly positioned themselves to do so if they choose
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2012/4725
Ann Romney Thinks a Mormon Mission is the Same as Serving in the Military
By: Sarah Jones
Now we know why Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney wouldn’t go on the “high risk” The View today. The Mitt Romney dubbed “sharp-tongued” Whoopi Goldberg asked a question that was super hard as part of the show’s “Red, White and View” series. Goldberg asked the wife of the man who keeps suggesting that we need to go to another war and he wouldn’t bring the troops home from Afghanistan if the reason Mitt Romney never served in the military was due to their religion.
Whoopi Goldberg: What I read about your husband, what I read, and maybe you can correct this, is that the reason that he didn’t serve in Vietnam was because it was against the religion.
Ann Romney: He was serving his mission. (Explaining that none of her sons have served in the military) My five sons have also served (on) missions. We find different ways of serving… I sent them away boys and they came back men.
Whoopi Goldberg: So when you’re facing these mothers whose children have not come back, how will you explain to them that your sons haven’t gone?
Ann Romney: I think it’s the hardest thing that a president will probably do.
Ann Romney continued by claiming that Mitt “went to every funeral” when he was governor, which seems to be stretching the odds, especially since he was out of the state for 400 plus days in the last two years of his only term, but accuracy is not a Romney trait. This is the man who forgot to mention the troops in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, and who later said you don’t go through a laundry list when giving a speech, you talk about the things that are important.
http://www.politicususa.com/ann-romney-equates-serving-their-mission-serving-military.html
BREAKING: employee of Va. GOP contractor arrested for destroying voter registration forms http://tinyurl.com/99v7yws
Mitt Romney’s Bailout Bonanza
Mitt Romney made $15 million on the auto bailout from a company that blackmailed the US & fired 25,000 union workers.
http://www.thenation.com/article/170644/mitt-romneys-bailout-bonanza#
Mitt Romney’s opposition to the auto bailout has haunted him on the campaign trail, especially in Rust Belt states like Ohio. There, in September, the Obama campaign launched television ads blasting Romney’s November 2008 New York Times op-ed, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” But Romney has done a good job of concealing, until now, the fact that he and his wife, Ann, personally gained at least $15.3 million from the bailout—and a few of Romney’s most important Wall Street donors made more than $4 billion. Their gains, and the Romneys’, were astronomical—more than 3,000 percent on their investment.
This is one conniving lying liar!
Alex E. Rambo: HOW????!!!!!!! SG2, HOW???? This is the worst kind of dude there is. If he didn’t run for president, this is still the kind of guy who would never be your friend.
Washington, D.C. – ThanksUSA and No Greater Sacrifice recently recognized Congressman Charles B. Rangel for his service in the military. From 1948 to 1952, Rangel served in the U.S. Army, 503rd Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, as Staff Sergeant. He was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart for his leading his comrades into safety in the Battle of Kunuri during the Korean War.
“I thank these two outstanding charities for this recognition and for the terrific work they do to help fund the education of our military families,” said Rangel. “As a veteran, I am devoted to helping military men and women and veterans to have the best opportunities possible. In Congress, I will keep working to make sure the soldiers returning from war are provided all the necessary support to win on the home front.”
Rangel recently held his 24th Veterans Braintrust forum during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative week at the Washington Convention Center, bringing together advocates, officials, and veterans to address the problems faced by our military men and women returning to civilian life.
Eight Members celebrated by ThanksUSA and the No Greater Sacrifice included the Hon. Charles B. Rangel (D-NY), the Hon. Sanford Bishop (D-GA), the Hon. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), the Hon. John Conyers Jr. (D-MI), the Hon. Bobby L. Rush (D-IL), the Hon. Robert C. Scott (D-VA), the Hon. Edolphus Towns (D-NY), and the Hon. Allen West (R-FL). This was a special tribute to Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Members who served in our nation’s Armed Services.
ThanksUSA is a non-partisan, charitable effort to mobilize Americans of all ages to “thank” the men and women of the United States Armed Forces, by providing need-based college, technical and vocational school scholarships for the children and spouses of military men & women. No Greater Sacrifice (NGS) is a nonprofit organization created in February 2008, dedicated to the children of our nation’s fallen and wounded Service members by delivering scholarships and resources to improve their quality of life through the pursuit of higher education.
Happy Birthday, Jason!
Josh asked Jay if he can give him a ride to work since he had a car. Jay said “uncle Josh I don’t have a car, I was just joking like I had one”.
LOL!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JASON! YOU SWEET, SWEET, HANDSOME BOY. :-)
<3 Auntie Ametia
You should see him smile. Jay says “thank you”! :)
Happy Birthday, you handsome young man :)
Dear Black People: You Are Invisible and Irrelevant
http://www.jackandjillpolitics.com/2012/10/dear-black-people-you-are-invisible-and-irrelevant/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JackAndJillPolitics+%28Jack+and+Jill+Politics%29
Where Romney Is Weak
He doesn’t look too weak to me in the current polls. But Larison expects Romney to do poorly in Monday’s foreign policy debate, which might tilt this election’s momentum in favor of the president:
There are many things that aren’t Romney’s “natural” subjects, but he doesn’t struggle with any other kind of policy as much as he struggles with this one. As a former governor, it is understandable that he prefers talking about domestic policy issues, but favoring this preference has caused him to neglect foreign policy to a remarkable degree for someone who has been running for president since 2006. Until now, most voters likely haven’t noticed the result of this neglect, but they will see it in Monday’s debate.
Waldman makes related points:
[W]hat is Mitt Romney’s primary criticism of Barack Obama on foreign policy? It’s that Obama allegedly “apologizes for America” (he hasn’t actually ever apologized for America, but you’ll forgive me if I don’t have the energy to debunk that one for the millionth time). In short, it’s that Mitt Romney thinks Obama says things that aren’t right. What’s the problem with Obama’s policy toward Israel? There’s “daylight” between us and Israel! What kind of daylight? Why, rhetorical daylight. The worst kind.
Monday’s debate is going to be an absolute festival of this kind of ridiculousness. Maybe if we’re lucky Obama will come up with some clever way to move the discussion toward what we should do, instead of just what we should say.
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/
I enjoyed this post at BJ:
Early Morning Open Thread: What Women Want
By Anne Laurie October 18th, 2012
Politico says the Hofstra debate helped at least one of those undecided questioners make up her mind
Was Ms. Katz offended that Romney found it more important to keep arguing with the other man on the stage than to pay attention to her question? Or did it seem (maybe subconsciously) that Romney looked at her, saw “woman”, and assumed that she’d only be interested in “women’s issues”?
I’m not sure how many men—especially white men from ‘comfortable’ economic circumstances—realize how sensitive women are to the pseudo-alpha-male Mad-Men masculine style that Amy Sullivan in TNR refers to as “Mitt the Jerk“:
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/10/18/early-morning-open-thread-what-women-want/
When the electoral map narrows
By Steve Benen
Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:27 AM EDT.
On a conceptual level, President Obama and Mitt Romney would no doubt love to be in contention in all 50 states, but the candidates and their teams are realistic, and narrowed the field to 8 to 10 battleground states. With 19 days to go, that map is poised to shrink some more.
It’s inevitable that campaigns will have to cut their losses at some point on states they’d like to win, but with limited time and resources, have to give up on. Last month, for example, we saw the Romney/Ryan team move its staff out of New Mexico, concluding it’s unwinnable.
Is Pennsylvania next? Maybe.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/10/18/14535605-when-the-electoral-map-narrows?lite
Lobbyists long for new power, influence under Romney
By Steve Benen
Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:56 AM EDT.
When GOP officials brought in corporate lobbyists to help shape the Republicans’ national platform, it didn’t exactly come as a surprise — the party has come to treasure its relationship with the lobbying industry.
As we talked about in August, when Congress worked on a jobs bill in 2010, John Boehner and his team huddled with corporate lobbyists. When work on Wall Street reform got underway, Boehner and the GOP huddled with industry lobbyists. When Congress worked on health care reform, Boehner and the GOP huddled with insurance lobbyists. When an energy/climate bill started advancing, the GOP huddled with energy lobbyists. In February, when the STOCK Act was being considered, the GOP huddled with financial industry lobbyists.
And now that the race for the White House is so competitive, corporate lobbyists are imagining life under a Romney presidency — and they’re excited about the prospect of increased power and influence.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/10/18/14536089-lobbyists-long-for-new-power-influence-under-romney?lite
‘Trickle-down government’
By Steve Benen
Thu Oct 18, 2012 11:32 AM EDT.
In his first debate against President Obama two weeks ago, Mitt Romney twice condemned “trickle-down government.” In this week’s debate, he used the phrase twice more. In a speech at the Colorado Conservative Political Action Committee Conference recently, the Republican mentioned “trickle-down government” literally nine times.
Unfortunately, no one seems to know what, if anything, it means.
The American mainstream is generally pretty familiar with the concept of “trickle-down economics”: it’s the model in which wealth is deliberately concentrated at the top, redistributed to the very wealthy, in the supply-side hopes that the rich will spend and invest, and wealth will eventually trickle down to everyone else.
But trickle-down government borders on gibberish. To his enormous credit, Tim Noah dug in and investigated the origins of the phrase. Oddly enough, in 1984, the phrase popped up in a favorable context — it was “shorthand for government spending that has a stimulative multiplier effect on private-sector economic growth,” such as the “trickle-down government” that saved Mitt Romney’s backside in the 2002 Olympics.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/10/18/14536713-trickle-down-government?lite
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act — it’s not a trick question
By Steve Benen
Thu Oct 18, 2012 1:21 PM EDT.
President Obama, campaigning in Iowa yesterday, boasted about signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law, and noted that Mitt Romney refuses to say whether he supports the law or not. “What’s so hard about weighing in on that?” he asked.
Campaigning in Ohio today, President Bill Clinton was thinking along the same lines. “Would you have signed the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay law?” Clinton said. “No answer. He can’t even say whether he’d sign a law that’s already on the books.”
At this point, we’ve waited for six months for Romney to take a position on a straightforward law that passed Congress with bipartisan support. Romney has said he wouldn’t repeal it, but he won’t say whether he supports it. Ed Gillespie on Tuesday said Romney would have rejected the bill if he were president, then said the opposite yesterday, without actually stating a simple opinion. As of this morning, we still don’t know what the candidate believes.
If we’re looking for hints, we can at least look to Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan, who voted against the law and still seems to oppose it.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/10/18/14538389-the-lilly-ledbetter-fair-pay-act-its-not-a-trick-question?lite
The Democrats@TheDemocrats
Gov. @devalpatrick: “I am from Massachusetts. That is where Mitt Romney lives, votes and governed. He will lose Massachusetts. Enough said.”
Falling in love with a Ghost: The 200th Hour Rule- JACK & JILL POLITICS
18
oct
2012
Author: J. Christian Watts
There is a theory in aviation, especially in aviation training, called the 200th hour rule. After 200 hours of flight time, the theory goes, you are expert enough to feel confident in what you do but amateur enough still to screw up. This is a phenomenon, as it was explained to me, that all pilots face — come the 200th hour you always make a mistake.
In campaigns I think of it law of diminishing days. As the election gets closer, as the information overload synchs with exhaustion, invariably a moment comes where you just screw up; a moment comes where you miss a key deadline, or you say something incredibly stupid, or you start to believe your own press, or — in this case – you fall in love with a ghost.
That is what is happening to the Romney campaign. Not debate idiocy, of which there was plenty, or the Lilly’s Law impossibility, or even Tagg Romney saying he wants to take a swing at the sitting President. No, the 200th hour implosion is the GOP buying into women, as a voting bloc, being in play. They aren’t. Women are not voting for Romney, they are not voting down ticket GOP, the Gallup Poll that is driving this massive push on the right for the vote of women is a mirage. That poll, and the meme that has spung from it, is a ghost in the machine. And the GOP, for a lot of bad reasons, is falling in love with it.
Read the rest here: http://www.jackandjillpolitics.com/2012/10/falling-in-love-with-a-ghost-the-200th-hour-rule/
Hey girl, the left has won the meme
By Laura Conaway
Thu Oct 18, 2012 1:40 PM EDT.
I will admit to knowing some liberals, and also to knowing some Democrats. Sometimes I hear these liberals and Democrats wail about how pitifully weak campaigns from the left can be. They say you watch a lefty web ad and it goes on for five years and misses the point, and then it just ends. You watch a Republican ad, and it’s 30 seconds long and ends with very effective kick in the head.
Me, I’m not going to argue that lefties cannot do politics or that righties are better at it. But I will say that this year at least, liberals have shown themselves to be extraordinary at one simple, magical thing: Memes. Maybe it’s because progressives are big on Reddit. Maybe it’s Tumblr. Maybe it’s Twitter. Maybe it’s all of those together. Whatever it is, the left owns the meme.
This week, of course, it’s Binders Full of Women, lots of them.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/10/18/14517792-hey-girl-the-left-has-won-the-meme?lite
Tagg Romney wants to “take a swing” at Obama. Victims of $8 billion Ponzi scheme may want to punch HIM
by Eclectablog on OCTOBER 18, 2012 in MITT ROMNEY
ike father, like son. Only worse.
I’m a firm believer that you can tell a lot about a parent by looking at their kids. In the case of Tagg Romney, eldest son of Mitt Romney, the story is very telling.
Yesterday, when asked how he felt about watching President Obama go after his father during the last debate, Tagg Romney said he wanted to, “jump out of [his] seat and … to rush down the debate stage and take a swing at him”.
http://www.eclectablog.com/2012/10/tagg-romney-wants-to-take-a-swing-at-obama-victims-of-8-billion-ponzi-scheme-may-want-to-punch-him.html
Thank you, DU!
YOU ROCK BOSS! Thank you, for supporting President Obama.
Women Dressed As Binders Protest At Ohio GOP HQ (PHOTOS)
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/women-dressed-as-binders-protest-at-ohio-gop
Tiffany Ricci, an AFSCME organizer, provided TPM’s Evan McMorris-Santoro these photos of her “own personal little afternoon project” of women gathered in front the Ohio Republican Party headquarters on Wednesday dressed as binders protesting Mitt Romney’s “binders full of women” remark during the presidential debate at Hofstra Tuesday night.
It’s “pretty clear which candidate has real solutions that inspire progress and which can only inspire a Halloween costume,” Ricci said.
Loving THIS.
Sen. Scott Brown is Full of It
by BooMan
Thu Oct 18th, 2012 at 09:30:43 AM EST
I haven’t been following the day to day developments in the Massachusetts Senate race between Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren, so I was only dimly aware of the fact that asbestos had become a campaign issue. Elizabeth Warren represented the families of people who died from asbestos poisoning, and some of those people agreed to appear in one of her campaign commercials attesting to the good work she did on their behalf. As a result, Scott Brown received a question yesterday from a firefighter while he was campaigning in Taunton, Massachusetts.
During a question and answer session, one firefighter commented that both campaigns are publishing advertisements featuring family members of victims of asbestos-related illness. He asked Brown how Warren gets the victims’ family members to go on her commercial.
“A lot of them are paid,” Brown said. “We hear that maybe they pay actors. Listen, you can get surrogates and go out and say your thing. We have regular people in our commercials. No one is paid. They are regular folks that reach out to us and say she is full of it.”
That was a big mistake on Scott Brown’s part. Three family members came out to blast Brown for his insensitivity.
“What Scott Brown said today is so offensive to me and my family after what we went through,” [Ginny] Jackson said. “He’s sunk to a new low.”
Jackson said going through her husband Sam’s sickness and death from mesothelioma was one of the most difficult situations she ever endured.
“Sam and I were childhood sweethearts and we had been together since I was 15 years old,” Jackson said. “I came forward in this campaign because Massachusetts voters need to know the truth about what Elizabeth Warren did to help families like mine who were affected by asbestos poisoning, rather than Sen. Brown’s misleading attacks.”
“Let Scott Brown tell me to my face that I am nothing but a paid actor, and I’ll set him straight on what it was like to watch my father suffocate to death,” [John] English said
“To dismiss what my family went through by calling me a paid actor isn’t just disrespectful, but it’s cruel,” [Steven] Yapp said. “He’s attacking people who lost loved ones to asbestos poisoning, just because we stepped forward to tell the truth about Elizabeth Warren. Sen. Brown showed his true colors today. He’s a politician who will say anything and attack anyone that gets in his way.”
All Scott Brown had to do is acknowledge that his opponent has done some nice things in her life and that her work on behalf of these families was one of those things. Then he could have explained some of the things he has done on the behalf of firefighters and said something about why he deserves their support. But he couldn’t give Warren any credit, so he came up with a conspiracy theory to explain why she had won the support of these survivors
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/10/18/93043/375
TAGG ROMNEY; ARE YOU PROUD OF YOUR FATHER’S SHAMEFUL LYING ANTICS?
A MESSAGE FROM BRUCE (THE BOSS) SPRINGSTEEN
http://brucespringsteen.net/news/2012/a-message-from-bruce
Jed Lewison: “It’s not just that Romney’s definition of flexibility—giving women enough time to go home and cook dinner—ignored the fact that both men and women need flexibility to manage their family responsibilities, it’s also the fact that he seemed to think there was some sort of question about whether or not women should be in the workforce to begin with.” http://bit.ly/VeTNkf
After finally acknowledging that Romney opposed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act—he had refused to take a position on it for months— the Romney campaign decided to he hadn’t equivocated enough and immediately walked his position back to one of deliberate ambiguity. Sam Stein breaks down the Romney camp’s cowardice on the issue of equal pay: http://huff.to/T0GL6A
President Obama’s unshakeable commitment to women’s rights and show why Mitt Romney would be the wrong choice for women across the country. Romney would not only repeal Obamacare, which requires insurers to offer contraception as preventive care at no cost (though some religious employers are exempt), but also cut funding to Planned Parenthood and Title IX. The CDC has released a new report on contraceptive use, which finds that 62% of women of reproductive age are currently using birth control: http://1.usa.gov/VeTTYW
While President Obama outlined his strong record of cracking down on pay discrimination, ensuring women’s access to affordable health care, and making sure women can make their own health care choices, Mitt Romney revealed his plans to roll back reproductive rights and take women back to the 1950s. Truth Team runs down three moments from Tuesday’s debate that demonstrate : http://bit.ly/PcKIpB
A federal appeals court in New York has ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the Act’s Section 3, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriages, violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston issued a similar ruling in May.
School that fool Romnety, Lilly. The question was equal pay for women, not cooking dinner. Although, some single moms need FAIR PAY in order to go to the store, buy food, take it home and cook it.
Waiting to hear word on develpments at Sidwell. I hope ALL the students and their families are safe. That this is happening proves that whoever did this KNOWS PBO IS GOING TO GET A SECOND TERM. We must get out the vote, and not let these MOFOS distract, and TERRORIZE us.
See Mitt Romney this is what TERRORISM looks like in AMERICA!
Ann Romney compares her boys being Mormon missionaries to soldiers serving in wars.
____________
WTF?
I hope the men and women in the military, veterans, and their families rip Ann a new one for this said fuckery. GTFOH
http://twitter.com/amk4obama/status/258954786072834048/photo/1
AND SO IS TAGG ROMNEY
AND SO IS TAGG ROMNEY
AND SO IS TAGG ROMNEY
AND SO IS TAGG ROMNEY
AND SO IS TAG ROMENY
http://twitter.com/OFA_NC/status/258949266800783360/photo/1
http://twitter.com/scopedbylarry/status/258903784292503552/photo/1
There you go!
BREAKING: Obama Daughters’ School Evacuated Following Threat
http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/capitalcomment/breaking-obama-daughters-school-evacuated-following-threat.php#.UIAlzoavQSG.twitter
Sidwell Friends, the school where President Obama’s daughters Sasha and Malia attend, evacuated students and staff from its Wisconsin Avenue campus this morning following a phoned-in threat.
Sidwell Friends—the school President Obama’s daughters, Sasha and Malia, attend—evacuated students and staff from its Wisconsin Avenue campus this morning following a phoned-in threat. The details of the threat and whether it had any connection to the First Family daughters was not immediately available Thursday morning.
The following message was distributed through the school’s emergency notification system around 11:30 AM today: “This is an emergency message from Sidwell Friends School. Due to a suspicious phone call, the buildings on the Wisconsin Avenue campus have been evacuated. We will notify you when further information is available.”
More updates as further information becomes available.
Side eye at these developments. Someone is trying to gett POTUS rattled, so that he gets distracted from his duties as POTUS and the upcoming debate next week on foreign policy. His daughters mean everything to him, and whoever made the call knows it. Bank that there is shady $$$ behind this. IMO
THE AMERICAN TALIBAN!
Brian Fung@b_fung
RT @MattVas: RT @vermontgmg BREAKING: Sidwell Friends, school of Obama’s daughters, evacuated after threat
Whereabouts of Tagg Romney?
http://youtu.be/e6m-5mBcuGQ
WATCH LIVE: President Obama campaign event in Manchester, New Hampshire http://ow.ly/eA0LU
Cher Defends Mika Brzezinski, Calls Morning Joe Team ‘Chauvinists,’ ‘Bastards’
http://mediaite.com/a/luacu
Love Cher. See the Romney’s may think their pasty asses are entitled, but they never banked on social media’s power to expose them for being whiney, spineless, heartless, lying rich white folks.
Check out the piece; it’s AWESOME!
Obama don’t need no steenkin’ binders
SMARTYPANTS
I’d call it a double dip when a Republican presidential candidate manages to combine a gaffe with a lie. Seriously folks, give the guy some credit…that’s not necessarily an easy thing to pull off.
In light of this accomplishment, I decided it was time to repost some pictures I put up a while ago demonstrating that President Obama don’t need no steenkin’ binders.
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2012/10/obama-dont-need-no-steenkin-binders.html
The thing that is really telling in those pictures is that in most of them the POTUS is listening, not talking. I get the feeling that Mittens doesn’t listen to many women. That comes from thinking you’re always right, even when you’re terribly wrong. (Just look at the debate the other night.) Candy was actually trying to help him … Hey, Dude, you are totally stepping in it … But he would have none of it, thus making a complete fool of himself.
I just heard that he cancelled his visit to “The View”, sending Queen Ann instead. What a chump.
Yes; the pics are very revealing. Mittens is going to let Miss Ann out of the binder to do his bidding for him. He knows Whoppi would rip him a new one. Joy Behar too.
Latino Catholics overwhelmingly favor Obama
Source: Los Angeles Times
Catholic and religiously unaffiliated Latinos overwhelmingly support reelecting President Obama, while only about half of evangelical Latinos do, according to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center released Thursday.
Most Latino registered voters support Obama regardless of how often they attend church, but those who reported attending frequently were less likely to support his reelection. Those who never attend religious services favored the president the most, the study found.
The survey, which also found growing support for gay marriage among Latinos, was largely consistent with national polls showing that the fast-growing group — now 24 million eligible voters — backs Obama over Mitt Romney by a 3-1 margin.
Latino Catholics who are registered to vote poll similarly to the overall Latino population, with 73% saying they plan to vote for Obama and 19% saying they will vote for Romney. National polls generally show Romney garnering just over 20% of the Latino vote. By contrast, Catholic whites are almost evenly split, with 47% favoring Obama and 46% backing Romney.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-latino-catholics-obama-20121017,0,5163647.story
14,000 supporters headed to Ohio University’s campus in Athens to cheer on BarackObama.
Romney’s “bosses” gaffe is going mainstream — it’s the new 47
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021571539
Romney Caught Encouraging Business Owners to Tell Employees How to Vote
Recently several business owners have made headlines by sending out missives suggesting that workers should vote Romney if they’re interested in the health of the business (and thus their jobs). Now In These Times reports that in a June conference call with the National Federation of Independent Business, Mitt Romney said that he’s totally behind the questionable practice. “I hope you make it very clear to your employees what you believe is in the best interest of your enterprise and therefore their job and their future in the upcoming elections,” says Romney. “Nothing illegal about you talking to your employees about what you believe is best for the business, because I think that will figure into their election decision, their voting decision and of course doing that with your family and your kids as well.” Sure, there’s no law against employers sharing their political opinions, people just tend to find this sort of thing creepy and unethical, particularly when their boss suggests there’s a good chance they’ll be joining the ranks of the unemployed if they don’t vote Romney.
That stuff in bold, folks? That’s called a “money-shot.”
3 Chics posted on this in June. The MSM, not so much!
When Mitt Romney Came To Town
Romney’s moment of panic
http://youtu.be/cFwtuInlMew
Video: Mika Brzezinski: Wasn’t Romney’s decision to look for more women
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/vp/49459353#49459353
Tell it, Mika! Mitt Romney LIED!
Joey Scar and nem think the same as Romney. It’s the old white boy’s club. They can’t speak for us women, though they like to try. Fugg’em!
Did you hear Mark Halperin? He doesn’t want to talk about Binder gate, he wants to talk about the issues! Well why did Morning Joe and the MSM loop Rev Wright 24/7 for weeks? The MSM isn’t worth a damn!
Yes; I heard Mr. the” POTUS is a dick” Halperin. He has absolutely no credibilty, just like the rest of that crew on MurderingJoedeadinterninhisoffice, Mikei’maplageristbarnacle, and Willynillyghost. Mika’s a placeholder and eye candy for the so-called studs who watch Moaning Joke.
Investigation Launched Over Trashed Voter Registration Forms
http://www.nbc29.com/story/19836183/investigation-launched-over-trashed-voter-registration-forms
Is it a case of election fraud, voter suppression, or something far less sinister? That’s what Rockingham County investigators are trying to find out, after someone trashed a folder of voter registration forms.
Just hours before the Monday deadline for voter registration, a Harrisonburg store manager made a discovery that will keep eight citizens from being silenced. Their completed registration forms were discarded like trash. Investigators don’t yet know if it’s criminal activity or just bad business.
A typical Monday afternoon at Tuesday Morning, a store in Harrisonburg, took a strange turn, when the manager Rob Johnson spotted someone putting a bag of trash in his recycling bin. Johnson went to retrieve the misplaced refuse.
“That’s when I realized, this bag is really light and looked inside,” Johnson said. “There was the manila folder with the eight voter registration applications, and I was like, we’ve got something here.”
The Rockingham County registrar says those forms belonged to would-be voters from three different counties. Their only common thread appears to be a recent registration drive in the Elkton area.
“We don’t know what the motive was to throw these away,” said Rockingham County Voter Registrar Doug Geib. “But I don’t think it was based on that… because there’s no way the people collecting the applications would know what party, what candidate these people are going to vote for.”
But will they be allowed to vote for anyone? The registrar went to the state to ask, and came back with good news.
Geib said, “The guidance I received from them was, yes, that they did meet the deadline. They were delivered to our office, and so they are going to be able to vote in the November election.”
Johnson got a thank you call from the mother of one of those affected voters, who was only 18 years old.
“That would be a big disappointment… your first election ever, to go in to vote for the first time, and be told you can’t do it,” Johnson said. “So whoever did this, it was pretty despicable.”
The sheriff says the voter drive organizer and the person who apparently trashed the documents are two different people. Investigators are talking to both, and hope to decide by Wednesday whether this is a criminal case.
Zach Green@140elect
Mitt Romney: “Blame parents for violent children.” Tagg Romney: “I want to punch the President.” http://UniteBlue.com/
Mitt Romney On Women At Bain: They Don’t Want To Work There.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/17/mitt-romney-women-bain_n_1974837.html …
How and why would they not want to work there? They’re KEPT IN BINDERS!
Karoli@Karoli
If Mitt wins, Tagg Romney stands to make a ton of money. See the web of connections here
Tagg Team: The Romney Family Recipe for Crony Capitalism
http://www.thenation.com/article/170470/tagg-team-romney-family-recipe-crony-capitalism#
This Is The Biggest Economic Story In The World
http://www.businessinsider.com/consumer-comeback-2012-10?utm_source=twbutton&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=moneygame
This is really the big story of the moment: The full-on comeback in everything related to consumers and households.
Let’s just break it down really fast.
1. New housing starts are shooting straight up.
Romney to business leaders: tell employees how to vote
By Steve Benen
Thu Oct 18, 2012 8:00 AM EDT.
We talked the other day about some business leaders using heavy-handed election tactics, pressuring their employees to support Mitt Romney, even going so far as to suggest the workers’ jobs are on the line. What we didn’t know is what the Republican candidate has done to encourage these efforts.
In These Times published this audio clip yesterday, with the relevant portion coming at the 26:44 mark.
http://youtu.be/ucuMHuVlIW0
For those who can’t listen to clips online, here’s a transcript what Romney said during his June 6 conference call with the far-right National Federation of Independent Business:
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/10/18/14532564-romney-to-business-leaders-tell-employees-how-to-vote?lite
Mitt Romney: Employees Should Know Political Implications of Their Votes
Posted on June 8, 2012 by Ametia
http://3chicspolitico.com/2012/06/08/mitt-romney-employees-should-know-political-implications-of-their-votes/
SNIP
FYI: : 42 US 1971(b): http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1971
b) Intimidation, threats, or coercion
No person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, shall intimidate, threaten, coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any other person for the purpose of interfering with the right of such other person to vote or to vote as he may choose, or of causing such other person to vote for, or not to vote for, any candidate for the office of President, Vice President, presidential elector, Member of the Senate, or Member of the House of Representatives, Delegates or Commissioners from the Territories or possessions, at any general, special, or primary election held solely or in part for the purpose of selecting or electing any such candidate.
Remember, Mitt “Likes FIRING PEOPLE.” Does he mean firing folks who don’t support your POLITICAL IDEOLOGY too?
Good Morning, Everyone! :-)
Good Morning, Ametia, SG2, and Everyone :)
Good Morning, everyone!