So What Was Bush's Problem?

Raw Story:  Seeking to undercut one of President Obama's strongest reelection talking points that her ordered the mission that took out Osama Bin Ladin, Romney surrogate John Sununu said in an interview with the New York Times that Obama should have moved more aggressively than he did to kill bin Laden.  

Whatever.  Rmoney on Bin Ladin (when he was still alive):: “It’s not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.” And while were here, let's see what Robert Gates had to say about Obama pulling the trigger  "I worked for a lot of these guys. And this is one of the most courageous calls – decisions — that I think I’ve ever seen a president make.”  Sununu really shouldn't bring it up...

Multiple Personality Disorder?

Raw Story: Ann Romney, the wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, told a Nevada television station her main concern if her husband wins the upcoming election would be over his state of mind.

“I think my biggest concern, obviously, would just be for his mental well-being,” she told KTVN-TV Thursday. “I have all the confidence in the world in his ability, in his decisiveness and his leadership skills, in his understanding of the economy, in his understanding of what’s missing right now in the economy – you know, pieces that are missing to get this jump-started. So for me I think it would just be the emotional part of it.”

Ok yeah, then for sure he should not be president. This would also explain how the guy can flip flop back and forth between both sides of an issue multiple times on the same day.

Rape Games

TPM: It looks like the Todd Akin Freeze Out (TAFO) is just about officially over.

The Republican Senate campaign committee has decided to reconsider supporting Todd Akin.

This is mostly because the Republican party agrees with this troglodyte.  They want to limit the
definition of rape because the American people recoil in horror to the plank in their platform that 
seeks to ban abortion even in the case of rape, incest, or danger to the mother.  So they want to try
to limit the definition of  rape, say you can't get pregnant from rape, etc.

Are They All Gay?

Buzzfeed:  Florida House Rep. Mike Horner of Kissimmee "abruptly ended his re-election campaign Monday after he was named as a client in a prostitution and racketeering case," the Orlando Sentinel reported Monday.

The Miami Herald reported that sources told the paper that "the prostitution ring included prostitutes catering to gay clients." Horner, a Republican, is not the target of any investigation, according to all accounts.

Ok, forget for the moment that here we have yet another holier than thou, do as I say not as I do, fake morality Republican.  But are all "family values" Republicans gay?  Seriously. It seems that way.  Obviously this crowd has issues that drive them to spend an inordinate amount of time and energy thinking and talking about gay sex.  This is a pretty strong indication that most of them are gay themselves.  The rest of us just don't give a shit.   

Second Choice

Buzzfeed:  Former President George W. Bush is set to deliver the keynote address at the Cayman Alternative Investment Summit on Grand Cayman just a few days before the election. 

Of course Rmoney would be better suited for that gig. He is Mr. Cayman Islands. But either way, Republicans need to find some economic patriotism or step aside and let others lead this country. 

Run For President of China Then

Think Progress:  In recent years, Republicans have taken to calling uber-wealthy Americans “job creators” to justify holding the government hostage to protect their low tax rates. Less than a week after GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney released his tax returns and revealed his 14.1 percent rate — far lower than any president’s since Richard Nixon — Ryan used a local interview to revive the job creator myth.

Romney saved $1.2 million in taxes thanks to a preference that allows investment income, known as capital gains, to be taxed at a lower rate than wage income. Ryan told Cincinnati’s WLWT that paying such a low rate was justified because low capital gains rates boost job creation:

RYAN: Point number two is this money creates jobs. When people invest in riskier propositions, meaning invest in businesses, they don’t know if they’re going to succeed or not. So you want to have more capital that goes to more businesses, especially small businesses like this one, so more people can go back to work. That creates economic growth. You know what we learned about Mitt Romney in his tax returns? He’s a successful businessman. That’s a good thing.

He's right, Rmoney has created a lot of jobs... in China, and in India, and in Bangledesh, but here at home he's been a God-damn-national-disaster. 

Get The Fuck Out And Never Come Back

Americablog:  Who will Mitt Romney offend next?

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney came to the Golden State for a two-day series of high-profile fundraisers and reportedly took a shot at California in front of a $25,000 a ticket crowd in Del Mar.

Romney “took a pretty big shot at California,” according to a pool reporter.

“He said that under President Obama we’re becoming a lot more European and that the state of California was something he didn’t want to see the rest of the U.S. look like in a few years,” a pool reporter related.

Hey Mitt, go fuck yourself you middle class killing, tax evading, piece of shit.  If California were a country we would be the 7th largest economy in the world.  We contribute far more to the federal coffers than we take out - unlike most red states.

You don't like it?  Go to inbred Mississippi and try to raise money from the racist Republican base.

Get the fuck out of our state and never come back.  Asshole. 

Collapsing

Reuters: New polling by Reuters/Ipsos indicates that during the past two weeks - since just after the Democratic National Convention - support for Romney among Americans age 60 and older has crumbled, from a 20-point lead over Democratic President Barack Obama to less than 4 points.

Romney's double-digit advantages among older voters on the issues of healthcare and Medicare - the nation's health insurance program for those over 65 and the disabled - also have evaporated, and Obama has begun to build an advantage in both areas.

The Republican party long ago lost the minority vote, the young vote, the female vote, the Jewish vote, the Muslim vote, the poor vote and the middle class vote.  Now that they're losing the senior vote, all they really have left is the southern white racist vote.

Update:  Seems Romney is even losing the NASCAR and the military vote.  

Buzz Bomb

Buzz Flash:  In a videotape posted on YouTube on May 15th of this year, Mitt Romney is seen at a public even talking about alternative energy (which Republicans in Congress have done everything possible to prevent).  In the midst of some spaghetti on the wall ideas about new energy sources, Romney gives a hat tip to Hitler (about 42 seconds into the tape):

Liquified gas. Gosh, Hitler during the Second World War I guess because he was concerned about losing his oil, liquefied coal.  That technology is still there.

First of all, it's a bad idea.  One needs to go no further past the facts it doesn't come out of the ground in liquid form and once you have it, you still need to burn it to know that.

As for Romney, it's usually not the very top of the conservative movement that goes out of its way to praise the Nazis.  As Karlan said, let's get this Romney hat tip out to the Florida media market and see how it plays there. Further, since it was developed in Germany in the 1920's, improved upon just recently, and there are companies doing it today, you damn sure don't need to go straight to Hitler to bring it up.  Romney is one strange dude. 

Held Hostage

The Deputy PM of Australia:

“Let's be blunt and acknowledge the biggest threat to the world’s biggest economy are the cranks and crazies that have taken over the Republican Party... Despite President Obama’s goodwill and strong efforts, the national interest was held hostage by the rise of the extreme Tea Party wing of the Republican Party."

Besides the Fox News crowd the whole word knows this to be true.  

Investing In Enemy Number One

Buzzfeed:  Mitt Romney acquired and sold shares last year in the politically powerful Russian gas giant Gazprom. Ann and Mitt Romney's family trust return, released Friday, shows Romney sold his Gazprom stock at a loss last September in advance of election season.
 ...
The GOP nominee told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in March that Russia is America's "number one geopolitical foe." Again in July, Romney told Blitzer that "in terms of geopolitics....Russia is the number one adversary."

He says nobody who pays more tax than legally required is qualified to be president and then he does exactly that.  And now, by his own petard he hoists himself on a trading with the enemy charge.  Sometimes it seems all you have to do to know Mitt Romney would be a horrible president is listen to Mitt Romney.

The Last Four Years

Think Progress: The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol advised the Mitt Romney to avoid making the election about the last four years, noting that the Obama administration inherited the crisis from Bush and has handled it well. “If this election is just about the last four years, that’s a muddy verdict. Bush was president during the financial meltdown. The Obama team has turned that around pretty well. Bill Clinton’s speech at the convention was very important in that way,” he said.

The Dems should put that in an ad right now.   Right out of Mr GOP's mouth: "Bush was president during the financial meltdown. The Obama team has turned that around pretty well."  Obama turned around Bush's mess.  Democratic public policy fixed Republican disaster (again).  Which leaves no other possible reason to vote for Thurston Howell Romney III, or for any Republican for that matter, anywhere.  Ever. 

Look, Willard will institute the exact same public policy that caused the meltdown in the first place.  Elect him and it will happen again.  It's Einstein's definition of insanity to expect otherwise.

War Pigs

Veterans groups and Democrats are urging Republican senators to put political bickering aside and stop blocking a bill which would help offset high unemployment rates among veterans.

Republicans betray the troops in the worst ways  They lie to start uneccessary wars that get tens of thousands of American troops killed or maimed and then when the troops come home they offer them zero help.  No help with healthcare, no help with jobs, nothing.  Republicans are all about transferring wealth from the taxpayer to their military-industrial complex cronies and they do it on the backs of our troops.  Disgusting.

Economic Traitor

Buzzfeed Politics:  Romney Campaign Tries To Reframe 47% Remarks.  

Is it really about the role of government? This involves not actually repeating what Romney said.

As they say, this involves not actually repeating what Romney said.  But what the hell.  Let's do it  Let's talk about how we can make government stop people like Rmoney and the thousands of millionaires who don't pay federal income tax from betraying the country by skipping out on their tax obligation. And while we're at it, let's talk about how Rmoney is a traitor for pioneering the massive outsourcing that's killing the American middle class.  By all means, let's reframe...

Hypocrite, Tax Cheat, Dick

TPM: On the Senate floor Wednesday morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid used Mitt Romney's disparaging remarks about people who pay no income tax to reprise his famed attack on Romney's failure to release years worth of tax returns. 

We here at Guttertruth have little doubt that over the last 10 years Willard has been part of the 47% that pay no federal income tax.  In fact, we strongly suspect the reason he wont release his tax returns is because he's a tax cheat.  Otherwise, why not release them like every other candidate has for the last 40 years?  Especially now that he basically called the poor, the elderly and the military people who pay no federal income tax deadbeats. 

Monstrous

CNN: Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus defended Romney on Monday, saying the nominee was simply describing the "monstrosity" of government.

Totally.  Government by the people is evil.  Self rule is dangerous.  We need to reduce it, attack it, get rid of it.  We need a dictatorship!   Actually, what we need is get Republicans out of government.  

Run For President of China Willard

Obama on Romney: 'You can't stand up to China when all you've done is send them our jobs'

Very nice Mr. President.  Very nice.

Hates Half Of America, Won't Be Their President

Daily Kos: David Corn has found a video of Mitt Romney telling donors what he really thinks of voters.  It's jam-packed with the real Mitt, containing comments about the use of his wife in the campaign, about how he could do better if he were Latino and this gem:

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

Way to show your utter contempt for half of America by telling racist lies Willard.  And that last part, these are people who pay no income tax?  How about this you Vietnam dodging-outsourcing pioneering-tax cheating-cock sucker, show us your tax returns before you say another word.  Or drop out of the race and go back to live in France.  Asshole.

Editors note:  I am Obama voter.  I am not on any government assistance.  I paid 33% in taxes last year on 87,000.00 in income.  That's more than double the rate Romney paid in the one year of returns he has released.  It's safe to assume the reason he's not releasing the rest is because in all the other years he paid less or no taxes at all.  Additionally, I am in a state that contributes more to the federal coffers than it takes out.  Most blue states are that way.  Most red states on the other hand are welfare states and take out more than they contribute, including the top ten welfare states.  All of which really makes this latest Rmoney scumbaggery an especially despicable set of American hating lies.  This should disqualify him from the presidency - hopper

Update: It turns out that more than half of Americans who don't pay federal income tax are elderly.

Update 2:  Willards comments also included this "it's not my job to worry about these people."

Update 3:  Apparently the base loves what Rmoney said.  The Republican party deliberately built it's base with stupid racists so we suppose that makes sense.

Update 4:  The comments were made at the home of another Bain like traitor capitalist, “Boca Raton  private-equity executive Marc Leder on May 17.” Leder, is the co-CEO of the private equity firm Sun Capital, which has a reputation for bankrupting companies in the pursuit of profit. Rmoney and his crowd bankrupt American companies, destroy American jobs, and screw American workers out of their pensions and then they sit around with each other and denigrate those Americans who's jobs they've sent to China.  Nice. 

Update 5:  Marc Leder apparently throws wild sex parties with Russian Prostitutes.   We're not sure how this fits with Rmoney's plan to ban pornography.

Hezbollah and Mitt Romney

Raw Story:  Hassan Nasrallah, head of Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah organization, on Sunday called for protests across the country over a US-produced film mocking Islam that caused uproar across the Islamic world.

So a radical Christian makes a film that insults Islam and now both Mitt Romney and Hezbollah are trying to score political points over the angry reaction.  Think about that....

The Historical Record

Headline:  Romney campaign decides its strategy isn't working. 

Hopefully it's not working because the American people finally realize Republican party public policy only works for rich Republicans.

Indeed, we tried it.  Three times.  It doesn’t work.  

Relieving the rich and the transnational corporation of their tax obligation only explodes the national debt, encourages  outsourcing, and leaves us unable to invest in that which actually leads to economic prosperity (education, infrastructure, leading the next boom) . 

We tried it in the 1920’s.  It led to the stock market crash and the great depression.  We tried it with Reagan/Bush 1, it led to Bill Clinton getting elected on the slogan “it’s the economy stupid.”  We tried it again with Bush 2/Cheney, it led to economic and fiscal meltdown.  

Clearly it’s not good for the country.   So here’s an idea: let’s not try it again.  Ever.  

In between these “conservative” failures we went with progressive policy.  Between the great depression and Reagan we build the great American middle class.  In between Reagan/Bush 1 and Bush 2/Cheney we created 23 million new jobs, tripled the stock market, and led the tech boom.  And after Bush 2/Cheney we turned around the greatest economic collapse since the great depression and now we’ve gained jobs for 28 straight months and the stock market has doubled. 

Scoreboard.

Election day is coming up America.  Let’s vote for America not the Chinese factory owners.  Let’s vote for Democrats, not Republicans.  Let’s vote for Obama, not Romney.  Let’s vote for success, not failure.  

Good luck, and God speed.

Dumfuckistanies

Headline:  Liz Cheney accuses Obama of abandoning non-existent country 'Czechoslovakia'

Like Rick Santorum said yesterday, Republicans are of the stupid people, by the stupid people, and for the stupid people.

War Criminals

Today on NBC’s Meet the Press, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) said that the attacks on U.S. embassies in Egypt and Libya last week were brought on by President Obama’s order to to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.

Peter King, W, Cheney and many other Republicans should be in prison for life (or worse) for their Iraq lies.  Sadly they're free to advocate for more dishonest war.

The GOP wants perpetual war so that they may make money for their constituencies and use the old Nazi playbook to gain and hold power.  They're a clear and present danger to the United States. Americans need to learn that lesson before it's too late.  

Stupid People Vote Republican

Rick Santroum today:  “We will never have the elite, smart people on our side.”

We keep saying Rmoney should run for president of China as he got filthy rich pioneering the massive outsourcing that's killing the American middle class.   But for sure he would also win in Dumbfuckistan, if there were such a place.  Just ask Santorum. 

Go To Hell

WASHINGTON: -- GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan accused the Obama administration Friday of treating Israel with "indifference bordering on contempt," the latest in a series of jabs on the president's foreign policy after attacks on U.S. embassies abroad this week.

Whatever. Republicans only pander to Jews on Israel to keep on board a right-wing Christian base that wants to keep "the holy land" out of the hands of the Muslims until Jesus comes down and sends them both to hell. Any Jew that supports Republicans is supporting a political party who's base believes they deserve hell.   Jews vote GOP at their peril. 

Shitstorm Of Lies

NYT Magazine:  Mitt Romney created his most recent campaign shitstorm by launching an attack that was, simultaneously, an absurdly disingenuous argument built upon a series of demonstrable lies. After an initial period of recrimination and lashing out at the media, Romney and his allies are insisting that he was absolutely correct all along. It is a remarkable testament to the party’s ability not just to engage in spin but create and sustain an alternate reality.

On Monday night, Romney issued this condemnation of Obama: “It's disgraceful that the Obama Administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.” The lies here are several: The statement was issued by an embassy staffer, not by Obama; It did not express sympathy with attackers; and it was not a “response” to the attacks but in fact preceded them.

That last sentence really sums up Willards scumbaggery nicely.  But we would like to use this opportunity to address the cause of what's going on.  Right-wing Christians (like the ones who own the GOP), right-wing Jews (like the ones who finance the GOP), and jihadist Muslims are all on the same team.  Whenever one group does anything, it helps the other two groups.  This episode is a perfect illustration of that. 

Hazardous To Your Health

Think Progress:  Under GOP leadership, the House has voted 302 times against the environment since 2011, according to the latest report from House Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats. More than one hundred of these votes have favored profits in the oil and gas industry. Since June, the House has added 55 votes and counting to this list, amounting to more than one vote for every day it has been in session.

If there were any justice in this world only Republicans would get cancer.   The sad reality however, is elected Repubican's unwavering support of industrial polluters makes more than just Republicans sick.  We wish it were not so. 

Grow Up And Develop Some Integrity Willard

Raw Story:  Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney says the upcoming debates will betough because President Barack Obama has a tendency to “say things that aren’t true.”

Actually, if the truth is on your side the debates should be easy.  In Rmoney's case it's clearly not, so it's no wonder he's worried.  As far as what Willard said about Obama, "I'm  rubber, you're glue, so whatever I say bounces off me and sticks to you" might work if 1) you're in the 3rd grade or 2) if the corporate media let's you get away with it.  Let's hope the media does its job.

First Class Ass

Daily Kos:  When it comes to budget and taxes, Mitt Romney's strategy is to sound like he's explaining things without actually explaining anything. Make big promises about lowering taxes and balancing the budget while denying that he'd accomplish that any of the ways it is actually possible to accomplish it. So when George Stephanopoulos pressed him on how exactly all this will work, Romney, as usual, ran in rhetorical circles, finally coming to this point:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Is $100,000 middle income?

MITT ROMNEY: No, middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less. So number one, don’t reduce– or excuse me, don’t raise taxes on middle-income people, lower them.  

Considering this is a man who thinks $362,000 is "not very much" money, I guess it was possible he'd think people making $200,000 to $250,000 were downright poor. But this is also a man running for president of a country in which the median household income, the amount that half of households earn less than and half of households earn more than, is around $50,000 a year. Four to five times what the average family makes is not middle income. I can't believe that's something that has to be said.

This assclown is so far out of touch it's not even funny.  It would be more than dangerous to let him be president of the United States.  It's impossible to make any effort to bolster the middle class if you haven't the first clue what it is.

Crooks

Americablog:  The fact that a Romney adviser is considering removing President Obama from the ballot in Kansas should give everyone pause.  Not simply because the reason for removing the President is the racist "birther" theory that Mitt Romney himself gave a push two just a few weeks ago.  But more importantly, the Republicans, and via his adviser, Mitt Romney, are once again considering whether they can steal an election.

Willard Rmoney and his crowd are a trip.  First they loot the economy with their derivitive "trading" and CDO swaps so they can steal your 401k, and now they are trying to steal your elections. Short of torches and pitchforks the only way to stop them is to keep them out of government.  And the only way to do that is to vote them out (assuming of course they haven't already stolen your right to vote).

Mitt Romney Is a Fucking Scumbag

Americablog:  AP paints a devastating portrait of a man, Mitt Romney, who jumped the gun, didn't care that he was wrong, and whose staff was giddy that Americans were under attack abroad - while Americans saw death, Team Romney smelled "opportunity."

In Washington, Republican foreign policy veterans called Romney's initial statement premature and rushed, with limited facts and an incomplete understanding of what was happening in Egypt and Libya. Romney's team also was unclear about the timeline of when the Obama administration weighed in.

One Republican official advising Romney's campaign on foreign policy and national security issues painted a picture of a Romney campaign more focused on ensuring Romney's evening statement made it into morning news stories than on waiting for details about what had happened.

This official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering Romney's campaign, said that as word of violence spread, campaign aides late Tuesday watched tweets coming out of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo that were criticizing the filmmaker rather than condemning the attackers, and saw an opportunity to criticize Obama .

I've actually never seen this strong a criticism from AP in one of their fact checks. This is one of those times where even the media - which sometimes tries so hard to be objective that they're afraid to call a lie a lie - calls a lie a lie.

For example, AP points out that Romney lied when he claimed that the US embassy issued their statement after the attacks - it was hours before, that's why the statement didn't condemn the violence.  There hadn't been any violence yet.

A damning fact check from AP :

The gunfire at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, had barely ceased when Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney seriously mischaracterized what had happened in a statement accusing President Barack Obama of "disgraceful" handling of violence there and at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

"The Obama administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks," Romney said in a statement first emailed to reporters at 10:09 p.m. Eastern time, under the condition it not be published until midnight.

In fact, neither a statement by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo earlier in the day nor a later statement from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton offered sympathy for attackers. The statement from the Cairo Embassy had condemned anti-Muslim religious incitement before the embassy walls were breached. In her statement, issued minutes before Romney's, Clinton had offered the administration's first response to the violence in Libya, explicitly condemning the attack there and confirming the death of a State Department official.

Oh my God. AP walks you through what happened in a timeline, moment by moment - and it's devastating. Romney got everything wrong, but boy was he willing to jump and be the first one heard on the issue, even as the crisis was unfolding and no one knew what was happening.  Read this entire piece by AP.  It's long, detailed and devastating. 

We have nothing to add to that, except that Mitt Romney is a total fucking scumbag

Bin Ladin, Bitch

Raw Story:  Sarah Palin is ripped President Barack Obama in the wake the deaths of for in Libya, saying that if the president “doesn’t have a ‘big stick’ to carry, maybe it’s time for him to grow one.

Obama has taken out more Al Queda leadership in 4 years than Bush and Cheney did in 8, including Bin Ladin himself.  Sarah Palin is a fucking traitor for supporting what we did in Iraq in place of going after Al Queda.  So is Mitt Romney and just about the entire Republican party. 

Right-Wing Agiprop Gets People Killed

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An Israeli filmmaker based in California went into hiding Tuesday after his movie attacking Islam's prophet Muhammad sparked angry assaults by ultra-conservative Muslims on U.S. missions in Egypt and Libya, where one American was killed.

Speaking by phone from an undisclosed location, writer and director Sam Bacile remained defiant, saying Islam is a cancer and that the 56-year-old intended his film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion.

The timing of this is no coincidence.  Right-wingers can't stand Obama and want him gone.  Sheldon Adelson spends hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of Romney and Sam Bacile makes films he knows will get people killed and hurt Obama's re-election chances.  Adelson says he regrets serving America and Sam Bacile describes himself, not as an American, but as an Israeli Jew.  So they collude with right-wing "pastor" Terry Jones to cause mayhem.  They're all traitors to the country and enemies of humanity.  Right-wing religious fanatics, whether they be treasonous billionaires, Jews, Christians or Muslims are a clear and present danger to all of us.  And so are the Republicans who promote their agendas. 

A Romney presidency means holy war.  Chose wisely....

Did Republicans Let 9/11 Happen?

NYT:  On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That morning’s “presidential daily brief” — the top-secret document prepared by America’s intelligence agencies — featured the now-infamous heading: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” A few weeks later, on 9/11, Al Qaeda accomplished that goal. 

On April 10, 2004, the Bush White House declassified that daily brief — and only that daily brief — in response to pressure from the 9/11 Commission, which was investigating the events leading to the attack. Administration officials dismissed the document’s significance, saying that, despite the jaw-dropping headline, it was only an assessment of Al Qaeda’s history, not a warning of the impending attack. While some critics considered that claim absurd, a close reading of the brief showed that the argument had some validity. 

That is, unless it was read in conjunction with the daily briefs preceding Aug. 6, the ones the Bush administration would not release. While those documents are still not public, I have read excerpts from many of them, along with other recently declassified records, and come to an inescapable conclusion: the administration’s reaction to what Mr. Bush was told in the weeks before that infamous briefing reflected significantly more negligence than has been disclosed. In other words, the Aug. 6 document, for all of the controversy it provoked, is not nearly as shocking as the briefs that came before it. 

The article calls it negligence.  Nobody is that stupid.  There must be another reason.  

Anyway, to all you Republicans out there, HAPPY 9/11 DAY!!  You still celebrate it right?   Or have you stopped since Obama got Bin Ladin... ?

Barbaric

Raw Story:  Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Tuesday insisted that President Barak Obama's health care reform law should be overturned and that people with preexisting conditions should be denied coverage if they have never had insurance before.

This is actually from back in March.  But it's no less disgusting today.  It's clearly not a view any president of the United States should have.

Two Faced

Think Progress:  This morning on NBC, Mitt Romney said that “there are a number of things that I like” about Obamacare and suggested he would retain: 1. The gaurentee that insurance companies couldn’t discriminate against people with pre-exisiting conditions, and 2. The provision that allows young adults to stay on their parents plan. 

Just hours later, his campaign quietly told a conservative website that he actually opposes those provisions of Obamacare

Wow.  This scumbag really thinks he can get away with telling sane, reasonable, moral people one thing, and the whack-job right wing base another... in the same day.  But anyway, yeah, he now says the free market will make sure people with preexisting conditions get taken care of.  Of course it will be anything but free.  As a matter of fact, getting sick in GOP world could cost you everything. 

Ecomonic Traitors

TPM:  Ann Romney pushed back Sunday against detractors whom she said have called her husband “heartless,” emphasizing that she and Mitt Romney have struggled, even if not financially.

“Mitt and I do recognize that we have not had a financial struggle in our lives,” Ann Romney said in an interview with Mitt Romney that aired on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.

This is not true.  Queen Ann and her husband have struggled mightely to defraud the American people and skip out on their tax obligations.  You don't get to such low or no taxes without a fight. Willard has also fought hard to help pioneer the mass outsourcing that's killing the (American) middle class.  

A Giant Miss

Raw Story:  Even many Republican had to admit on Wednesday that former President Bill Clinton knocked it out the park with his rousing endorsement of Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention, but conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer clearly wasn’t feeling the love.  “I think it was a giant swing and a miss,” Krauthammer told Fox News anchor Brett Baier.

It's not often one finds themselves as completely alone in the world as Krauthammer is on this. It should definitely give people pause going forward when evaluating his conclusions. 

The Big Dog

Howard Fineman on Bill Clinton:  Still, for the first time, there was a sense that the Democrats – and the country for that matter – would not soon see another figure of his kind: the maddening yet brilliant mix of brains, eloquence, leadership skill, indulgent self-regard and not-quite-met potential that made him the quintessential Baby Boomer figure.

Yes, the Republicans committed treason against our democracy and against the will of the people, tried to remove the man from office.  But we can't fathom the conclusion that somebody who was elected president of the United States - twice - and produced the best results of any president ever, didn't quite meet his potential.  

Devastating Facts

. PolitiFact on Clinton's DNC speech:

"Since 1961 … our private economy produced 66 million private-sector jobs. So what's the jobs score? Republicans 24 million, Democrats 42 million."

Our ruling: .

Clinton’s figures check out, and they also mirror the broader results we came up with two years ago. Partisans are free to interpret these findings as they wish, but on the numbers, Clinton’s right. We rate his claim True.

While those numbers indicate the results of Democratic public policy is basically twice as good as Republican party public policy going back 50 years, since Reagan's trickle down economics became the GOP standard in 1981, the figures are even more strikingly in favor of the Democrats. 

Bankrupting Truth

TPM:  Mitt Romney is doubling down on a claim he made earlier this year: that the President’s successful bailout of the auto industry was actually Romney’s idea. 

First, as we always have to do with Willard Romney, we need to set the record straight.  He's lying again.  Not only was it not his idea, but at the time he ripped Obama for doing it. GM had one foot in the door of liquidation and Romney said, and this is a direct quote, "let Detroit go bankrupt."   And now that Obama's fix has turned out to be a spectacular success and GM is posting record profits, Willard's trying to escape history's judgement.

Second, it was Romney's Republican party policy that caused the financial meltdown in the first place and the fact he's trying to subject the country to the same thing again borders on treason.

And last, Romney's views and policies don't always turn out to be wrong for the country because he has bad judgement.  He's a smart guy.  Romney's views and policies always turn out bad for the country because he doesn't act in the best interest of the country.  He acts in the best interest of the transnational CEO and the Chinese factory owner.  He's spent the last 30 years bankrupting American companies, destroying American jobs and screwing American workers out of their pensions.  We don't need somebody like that to be president.

Economic Traitor

TPM:  Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland was on fire tonight in his convention speech. Here’s a key passage 

Mitt Romney has so little economic patriotism that even his money needs a passport. It summers on the beaches of the Cayman Islands and winters on the slopes of the Swiss Alps. In Matthew, chapter 6, verse 21, the scriptures teach us that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. My friends, any man who aspires to be our president should keep both his treasure and his heart in the United States of America. And it’s well past time for Mitt Romney to come clean with the American people.

And of course the way he made that money is the most unpatriotic thing of all.  Rmoney made millions by bankrupting American companies, destroying American jobs, illegally busting unions, and screwing American workers out of their pensions.  Hell, the Washington post reports he helped pioneer the mass outsourcing that's killing the (American) middle class.  He has a long history of working for trans-national CEO's and foreign factory owners and against America.

Look, we need a president that does right by the United States of America, not an outsourcer-in-chief. Willard should run for president of China.  He's done good work for them. But here at home he's been God-damn-national-disaster. As president he'll be even worse. 

A Million Times Better

Think Progress: Are We Better Off? 10 Headlines From September 2008:

STOCK SHOCK FELT ROUND THE WORLD. Gets ‘nasty’ as Lehman tanks, Merrill vanishes, AIG wobbles [New York Daily News, September 16, 2008]

Depression Coming? Boil Some Beans; Ladies Who Quilt Give Tips On Surviving Tough Times [Albuquerque Journal, September 21, 2008]

One day on the brink On Wednesday, it seemed U.S. economy might collapse [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 21, 2008]

‘Great Depression’ closer than U.S. admits, report finds [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, September 27, 2008]

Will Bush become the new Hoover? [Politico, September 19, 2008]

Developers bend under housing meltdown [Colorado Springs Gazette, September 27, 2008]

Depression seen possible [Florida News-Press, September 27, 2008]

Wall Street Meltdown Continues [CNN, September 17, 2008]

Is It Really the Next ‘Great Depression’? [NPR, September 19, 2008]

Behind Closed Doors, Warnings of Calamity [The New York Times, September 20, 2008]

That's a good way to look at it.  Another way is this: when Obama took over from Romney's team GOP we were losing nearly 800,000 a month and now we've gained jobs for 27 straight months, usually between 100,000 and 200,000 jobs.  What that means is basically for the last two years we've been a million jobs a MONTH better than the GOP.

Liars

Romney campaign pollster Neil Newhouse “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers.”

The GOP MO is to take billions of dollars in blood money from the oil companies and the Koch Brothers crowd and lie their way into power.  They even admit it. 

Your Life May Depend On It

(CNN) -- Leslie Elder was always a fighter. But in a message to a friend in the waning days of her life, she seemed exhausted.

The note, written at a time of spiritual darkness, suggested defeat after a decades-long struggle for medical coverage.

"I honestly don't know how much more I can endure," Elder wrote earlier this year in a Facebook message to her friend Liz Jacobs. "I am fighting for (Medicaid) and disability. I can't work I sit in bed I cry a lot. I am still fighting for healthcare and still fighting foreclosure.

"I am so upset but perhaps it was not meant to be. I don't know anything anymore," said Elder, who died in July at age 63 without insurance coverage.

 As she typed the note, Elder could scarcely breathe. Her lungs had filled with fluid over several months; her respiratory system was shutting down. After visits to the emergency room and several free clinics, Elder was finally diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma.

But what makes her family bristle: Elder did not have to die.

If she had had health care, "Absolutely she'd still be here," said Jacquelyn Elder, Leslie's daughter, adding that Hodgkin's lymphoma has a high survival rate. "That is something really hard to deal with."

Two things... 1) In Republican America, she did have to die.  They would rather give more tax cuts to billionaires and transnational corporations than make sure Americans have access to healthcare.  And 2) unless you're a millionaire, this can happen to you.

Vote Democrat.  Your life could very well depend on it.