Never doubt that thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.—Margaret Mead
I can’t keep up—the news keeps breaking faster than I can maintain this webpage.
But even if I fall behind, always remember, America, who ended the horrendous nine-year war in Iraq. . .and brought your loved ones home to you.
UPDATE: HURRICANE SANDY, October 30, 2012
Romney announced in an interview last year that the federal government doesn’t need FEMA, as revealed last night in this New York Times editorial and fact-checked today by the Christian Science Monitor.
And today we learn that Michael Brown, who was the head of FEMA under George Bush during the Katrina destruction of New Orleans, criticized Obama for responding to Hurricane Sandy “too quickly.”
So I hope that all you innocent people suffering right this minute under the devastation of Hurricane Sandy—as it breaks records and even closes the New York Stock Exchange for the second day in a row for the first time in 124 years—understand that if Mitt Romney were President right now you would have no FEMA to save your own and your families’ lives and property.
Zip. Nada.
You’d be on your own, folks. Because, according to Romney, you wouldn’t need FEMA.
Of course, if you’re a Christian like Romney, you’d have God on your side. Except that God presumably controls emergencies like hurricanes and blizzards and super-storms created by the confluence of both. Which means God is trying to get your attention about this guy who wants to eliminate FEMA.
Are you listening?
UPDATE: October 29, 2012
Romney used a morally-reprehensible little-known tax loop to shelter vast profits through his church.
I hope all of you voters understand the difference between morally-reprehensible behavior and the integrity necessary to govern our country.
UPDATE: October 28, 2012
Romney’s Many Financial Ties to Iran
“According to Romney’s tax records released earlier this year, during 2009 and 2010, over $77,000 of Romney’s money was being invested into CNOOC, an oil company fully owned by the government of China.”
Now, $77,000 may not sound like much to Romney, who makes millions every year, but it sure as heck sounds like a lot to me. I don’t make that much in a whole year of editing!
And it gets worse: while Romney was publicly bashing Iran and China in the Presidential debates (you all heard that, right?), he knew that that CNOOC had just signed an agreement to develop the huge North Pars gas field in Iran.
Even Fox News has verified Obama’s statement during the final, foreign-policy debate: “And the fact is, while we were coordinating an international coalition to make sure these sanctions were effective, you [Romney] were still invested in a Chinese state oil company that was doing business with the Iranian oil sector.”
UPDATE: October Surprise Arrives—October 27, 2012
Triple Slam!
Only Mitt Romney could hit himself in the face with a pie this size:
Romney Perjury & Stock Fraud, Made $Millions in the Process
Romney testified on the stand under oath in the divorce case of a friend that he believed stock owned by himself and that friend would drop precipitously, resulting in his friend not being forced to share that stock with his ex-wife.
The stock immediately rocketed sky-high.
Romney was later proven to have information that it would rise precipitously when he testified to the contrary.
On the stand.
Under oath.
In court.
To a judge.
Romney Investment Claims Obvious Fraud
Romney told potential investors his company paid wildly-higher dividends than that of convicted Ponzi scheme embezzler Bernie Madoff.
Turns out. . .that can’t help but be a lie.
GOP-Controlled Virginia Board of Elections Refuses to Prosecute GOP Voter Fraud
A registered Republican in Virginia was arrested for attempting to dispose of Democrat voter registrations in the trash.
Um, in a democracy you really can’t break the law a whole lot worse than that.
However, the Virginia BOE, under the control of neo-con Republican leadership (they certainly can’t be normal law-abiding Republicans), has announced they will not prosecute him unless forced to by a higher authority.
UPDATE: October 26, 2012
The legendary Anne Lamott is raising donations for the Obama campaign. She and her hordes have already raised over $70,000, exceeding her original goal of $10,000 by—let’s see, that would be—seven times over.
And you can join her!
UPDATE: OCTOBER 25, 2012
I love this so much:
Obama reveals to Jay Leno the real reason behind Donald Trump’s Birther obsession in a Tell-All Expose:
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xndCaI0OuwE”
Also:
Even Bush Secretary of State Colin Powell Endorses Barack Obama
And even better: Romney Campaign Chair Claims Powell Endorsed Obama Only Because He’s Black
To cap it all off: Colin Powell Responds by Endorsing Obama Again
UPDATE: OCTOBER 24, 2012
After President Obama’s sweeping, historic win of the final Presidential Debate, early voter turnout in swing state Ohio is overwhelmingly for Obama (even according to conservative pollsters)
And newspapers across the US are swarming to endorse Obama for re-election, particularly in swing states Ohio, Colorado, New Mexico, and North Carolina—even the traditionally-conservative LA Times and the Tribune of Romney’s own Salt Lake City.
With some of the most damning commentary on Romney imaginable.
Pulitzer Prize-winning Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio:
“Obama for president.
On Romney’s comments about the 47%: “He either was telling the crowd what he thought it wanted to hear, or he believes what he said. Either way, the words aren’t worthy of a president.”
The Denver Post of Colorado:
“Barack Obama for President.
“With the nation mired in two wars and amid an economic meltdown, we endorsed a largely untested young senator from Illinois for president in 2008. Four years later, the Iraq war is over, the war in Afghanistan has a conclusion in sight, and the economy has made demonstrable progress.
“Romney’s comments on the 47 percent of Americans who refuse to ‘take personal responsibility and care for their lives’ were a telling insight into his views. . .And his pledge to create 12 million jobs in four years sounds good, but Moody’s Analytics has predicted that type of job growth regardless of who is elected.
“Obama’s record of accomplishment under trying circumstances and his blueprint for a second term make him the best pick to move the nation forward.”
The Durango Herald of Colorado:
“Vote to re-elect Barack Obama
“Romney has publicly demonstrated no core convictions beyond his obvious belief that he should be president. He apparently thinks that simply not being Obama is qualification enough. It is not.”
The Santa Fe New Mexican of New Mexico:
“For president of the United States, The Santa Fe New Mexican endorses Barack Obama.
“Mitt Romney’s world is very different, one of privilege and wealth, where in his view, 47 percent of all citizens are takers who won’t assume responsibility for their lives. it is disconcerting to realize that many of Gov. Romney’s foreign policy advisers are the same people who drew us into the unnecessary war in Iraq. They seem hellbent on attacking Iran, another disastrous war the country does not need. . . .So much accomplished in four years. So much remaining to be done.”
The Asheville Citizen-Times of North Carolina:
“Allow Obama to build on progress.
“Despite having essentially run for president for six years, it’s still hard to get a handle on many of Romney’s positions. With Obama, we know what we are getting. He has consistently embraced the concept of community. Obama believes we are not just a bunch of individuals but a nation, and that we must work together to address the challenges we face.”
The traditionally-conservative LA Times of California:
“The [LA] Times urges voters to re-elect Obama.
“Mitt Romney has demonstrated clearly that he’s the wrong choice. He’s wrong on the issues, from immigration to tax policy to the use of American power to gay rights and beyond. And his shifting positions and willingness to pander have raised questions about who he is and what he stands for.”
The Salt Lake City Tribune of Utah:
“Obama has earned another term.
“Romney is shameless, lavishing vastly diverse audiences with words, any words, they would trade their votes to hear. More troubling, Romney has repeatedly refused to share specifics of his radical plan to simultaneously reduce the debt, get rid of Obamacare (or, as he now says, only part of it), make a voucher program of Medicare, slash taxes and spending, and thereby create millions of new jobs. To claim, as Romney does, that he would offset his tax and spending cuts (except for billions more for the military) by doing away with tax deductions and exemptions is utterly meaningless without identifying which and how many would get the ax. Absent those specifics, his promise of a balanced budget simply does not pencil out.
“We need only revisit [Romney’s] branding of 47 percent of Americans as freeloaders who pay no taxes, yet feel victimized and entitled to government assistance. His job, he told a group of wealthy donors, ‘is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.’
“The president has earned a second term. Romney, in whatever guise, does not deserve a first.”
“My priority is jobs,” Romney has said.
Romney’s record on jobs is on video here:
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZMndjLIQUFw”
“I believe in the American spirit,” President Barack Obama said. “A President must care about 100% of their people.”
Obama said that on film here:
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fNUQQBE8iE”
In America, “47% of the people believe they are victims,” Mitt Romney said. “That 47% believe they are entitled—entitled [emphasis Romney’s]—to health care, food, and housing. These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. It’s not my job to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them to take responsibility for their lives.”
Hmmm.
The steelworkers in the video above pay income tax. They take responsibility for their lives. I’m guessing that you, reading this, pay income taxes and take responsibility for your lives. My husband and I pay 35% income tax. We sure as heck take responsibility for our lives!
Meanwhile, Romney’s defense of his unreleased tax returns is that last year he paid 14.1% income tax. (And there’s evidence that he paid extra so American wouldn’t know how low his tax bracket actually is—that’s called trying to buy votes.)
Is Romney “relying on the government to take care of” him in sheltering him from paying his fair share of taxes? Is Romney “taking responsibility” by paying only a fraction of the taxes that those of us in the American middle-class pay?
Is that what it’s “not his job” to worry about us?
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all are created equal, endowed with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”—the US Constitution
Did Romney really dismiss in contempt all of us Americans who pay taxes more than twice as high as his, as well as the basic tenant of our US Constitution, when he thought he was speaking secretly to potential billionaire donors behind closed doors, claiming it’s “not his job” to care about almost half the people whose President he hopes to become?
Could Romney do such a thing to the American people?
The record is on video here:
“http://www.motherjones.com/transition/inter.php?dest=http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/secret-video-romney-private-fundraiser”
So who told the truth in the 2nd 2012 Presidential debate? Who lied?
The record is on video here:
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXpKq4UYtXw&feature=related”
Who told the truth in the 1st 2012 Presidential debate? Who lied?
The record is on video here:
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TWHLgMCDuOs”
Who stood firm on his platform for election? Who switched his positions?
The record is on video here:
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jebDlVAcpGo”
Romney’s handlers claim debates are no place for “fact-checking” and that Romney will not be limited by “fact-checkers.”
A Presidential candidate who doesn’t want to be fact-checked?
What could that possibly mean. . .other than lying?
Apparently, Romney’s handlers claim it means they disagree with “facts” because they like “empirical data.” However, “empirical data” are “facts.” A “fact,” according to the OED, is “a thing that is known or proved to be true,” and “data” is “a collection of facts,” while “empirical” simply means anything at all “verifiable by observation or experience.”
Empirical data = [observed or experienced] FACTS = THE TRUTH
This is a particularly meaningless red herring designed to fool Republican voters into believing there is a difference between two identical terms and confuse them about why the facts, when checked, don’t match what Romney says.
This is also why President Obama doesn’t object to being fact-checked.
Americans deserve the truth—not lies—from our Presidential candidates.
It’s a good thing American voters aren’t as easy to lie to as Romney thinks.
Has Obama kept his promises?
It’s on record here:
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA2fCs-_fyo&feature=g-vrec”
Who has created a track-record of lying? Who hasn’t?
It’s on record here:
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQwrB1vu74c&feature=related”
- Fact-checker’s list on the 3rd 2012 Presidential debate, with citations, compiled by Milt Shook:
http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/2012/10/more-romneylies-from-the-third-debate-debunked.html
- Fact-checker’s list on the 2nd 2012 Presidential debate, with citations, compiled by Milt Shook:
http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/2012/10/second-debate-romney-lies-debunked.html
- Fact-checker’s list on the 1st 2012 Presidential debate, with citations, compiled by Milt Shook:
http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/2012/10/a-small-sampling-of-romney-lies-at-last-nights-debate.html
- For moderate voters, Obama and Romney compared, with citations, by Milt Shook:
http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/2012/10/if-youre-a-moderate-voter-thinking-of-voting-gop-read-this-first-please.html
- Obama’s record as President, with citations, compiled by Milt Shook:
http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/what-has-obama-done-since-january-20-2009.html
- Whom among the American people Obama has really represented during the past 4 years? Revealed in detail by Milt Shook:
http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/2011/08/more-politics-101-obama-is-smarter-than-us.html
By mid-October, 2012, the Obama campaign had broken all previous records for number of individual donations with 10,000,000 donations from Americans of all walks of life. That’s ten million Americans not only voting for Obama, but investing their hard-earned money in a future lead by him. (And we all know exactly how hard-earned that money is these days.)
Please—read, follow up citations to their sources, educate yourself.
Don’t be bought by simple-minded television ads paid for by billionaires who hope to gain financially by your loss.
Make an informed decision about what’s best for you and for America.
And VOTE.
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