A Teachable Moment

Mitt Romney on Obama:

“He wants another stimulus, he wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more fireman, more policeman, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.”

Putting aside for a moment that Mitt Romney just said we don't really need teachers or fireman, and that he apparently thinks they're not Americans, the message of Wisconsin is that through Citizens United Republicans have sold our democracy to the top 1% of the top 1%. Walker and the Koch brothers outspent Barrett 10 to 1 and won by 7 points. Without that Koch brothers blood money Walker would have been history. The only way to take our democracy back is is to vote Republicans out of power. Until we do we'll be ruled, we'll be used, we'll be stepped on by the Koch Brothers and their private jet set. 

Dick

Daily Kos:  So Mitt Romney stages a campaign event inside an Iowa restaurant ... but couldn't be bothered to take the time to introduce himself to the restaurant's owner's:

Romney held a roundtable discussion at the restaurant prior to his talk in the park.  His staff and security ushered Bauer and her husband Earl to a back portion of the restaurant and they were unable to meet the former Massachusetts governor, Dianne Bauer said. The restaurant has hosted other candidates, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who introduced himself.

“The Secret Service said they would ask to make sure we got to be introduced and get a picture,” Bauer said. “I don’t care as much about the picture but at least let me meet the guy who I tore my place up for.”

If the fact Mitt Romney's Republican party public policy always turns out to be a disaster for the country, or that a vote for him is a vote against you own self-interest doesn't sway you, perhaps that this guy is a total asshole will.

And This Is Illegal

The Miami Herald on the GOP Florida voter purge:

Florida’s noncitizen voter purge looks like it’s all but over.

The 67 county elections supervisors — who have final say over voter purges —are not moving forward with the purge for now because nearly all of them don’t trust the accuracy of a list of nearly 2,700 potential noncitizens identified by the state’s elections office.The U.S. Department of Justice has ordered the state to stop the purge.

“We’re just not going to do this,” said Leon County’s elections supervisor, Ion Sancho, one of the most outspoken of his peers. “I’ve talked to many of the other supervisors and they agree. The list is bad. And this is illegal.”

Think long and hard before you consider voting for a political party that is yet again trying to purge eligible voters from the voter rolls in order to steal elections.  And a note to Eric Holder: it's illegal.  You're the Attorney General, act like it.

Traitors

Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI) on Thursday blasted Republicans  for failing to act on the transportation funding bill while touting the repeal of the medical device tax as a “jobs bill.”

“This is further evidence of what is really going on here in this establishment,” he said on the House floor. “A deliberate effort, now increasingly undisguised, to close the door on action to engender job creation and economic growth before the election. November 6 is what is driving the Republican Congress. Politics, not people. This is not only cynical; it is indeed pernicious. We owe it to the American people to blow the whistle on this.”

Republicans are traitors.  It's about that simple.  And they've been that way for a long time.  In 1865 Southern conservatives betrayed the United States - made war on the United States - in order to preserve slavery. And of course their love of the confederate flag indicates they still celebrate it today.  In 1968 Nixon committed treason by reaching out to North Vietnam to extend the war past the election.  Reagan made a deal with the Ayatollah to keep the hostages until Carter got beat and in return he sold them munitions of war (he then took that money to run an illegal war in Nicaragua where the recipients of his funds raped and murdered nuns and massacared women and children in churches).  And of course Bush/Cheney deliberately burned the spy network that existed to keep WMD from terrorists.

It's actually understandable given that they really can't stand anything that makes us uniquely American.  They should get out and find a new country.  Or maybe start their own, a racist police state that has a Christian theocracy, a set social structure with a few rich white men at the top,  and no environmental regulations perhaps.

Send In The National Guard

Think Progress:  In a letter sent tonight, Florida Governor Rick Scott said the state will continue to purge registered voters from the rolls despite the Department of Justice’s warning that the effort is illegal. The Miami Herald reports, “the letter all but dares the Justice Department to sue Florida for allegedly violating the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1993 National Voter Registration Act.” You can read the full letter here.

There is no individual voter fraud.  Dead people and Micky Mouse never show up to vote. The GOP is using a made up problem, and just like they did in Florida in 2000, purging the voter rolls to steal elections. Rick Scott should be arrested.  The Republican party should be shunned as the enemy of democracy it is. 

Only Works If You Watch Fox News

At a campaign appearance in San Antonio, TX Wednesday, Mitt Romney accused President Obama of slowing down the economic recovery on purpose in order to get his health care plan passed.
The transcript:

“A book that was written in a way thats apparently pro-President Obama, was written by a guy named Noam Scheiber and in this book he says that there was a discussion about the fact that Obamacare would slow down the economic recovery in this country and they knew that before they passed it.  But they concluded that we would all forget how long the recovery took once it had happened, so they decided to go ahead.  The idea that they knowingly slowed down our recovery in order to put in place Obamacare, which they wanted and they considered historic but the American people did not want or consider historic, is something which I think deserves a lot of explaining, because I think the President’s responsibility is to put people back to work. To get people out of poverty and to help people have good jobs and have prospects for a brighter tomorrow.”

It's a testament to the stupidity, hatred of Obama, and party over country disposition of his audience that he would peddle this garbage.  Even though the Republican party has been hollowing out our economy and outsourcing our middle class for the last 30 years, even though it was Republican party public policy that had us in absolute meltdown in 2008/2009, and even though Mitt Romeny would implement that same failed policy if elected, if Obama doesn't continue to improve things, he won't get re-elected. Unlike the Republicans in congress who have been trying to sabotage the economy to get Obama out of office, it's not in Obama's interest to do so.  Any idiot would know that.    

Additionally, more people with access to healthcare, lower healthcare costs and a reduction in the deficit, all of which Obamacare delivers, makes our country more competitive, not less.  Romney's lunacy, like his public policy, fails on every level.

Everybody Is Just Like Hitler

Think Progress: Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) compared the Chinese government to Adolf Hitler during debate on an Energy and Water spending bill on Tuesday. The Congressman “offered an amendment that would prevent $7.5 million from being spent by the Department of Energy on a Clean Energy Resource Center in China” and proclaimed, “I’m opposed to cooperation with the Adolf Hitlers of our day, the people who are murdering Christians and other religious people as we speak. No, we should not be cooperating with that government in developing their technologies.”

It's just like Republicans to minimize the horror of Adolf Hitler.   One would expect nothing less from a political party that that makes common cause with Nazis, has candidates that like to dress up and behave like Nazis, pose for pictures with Nazis deny the Holocaust, and accept endorsements from Nazis, has Nazis working for them overseas,  former officials that were Nazis, current officials that are Nazis, senators who are supported financially by Nazis, commentators that praise Nazis, supporters that are fascists, and administrations that employ "Jew Hunters."  And oh yeah, whose preeminent political family got rich underwriting the Nazi war machine.

Additionally, Republican tax policy is responsible for the great outsourcing.  Republicans make policy first and foremost on behalf of the transnational corporations that maximize their short term bottom line by outsourcing.  To criticize the Chinese now that his party has sold out our middle class to them is ridiculous.