Romney's Romney Problem

Oh my Gawd!  Two posts in one day!  Can it be?  What could be better than getting two posts in one day from the best new blog on the internet? 

Well, maybe an open faced hot turkey and gravy sandwich...

 

But after you eat that sandwich (with your eyes!), check out the following problem that Mitt Romney has.  And no, its not as bad as Santorum.... or is it?  That's for you to decide.

So not only is Mitt Romney a tool, he also thinks the voters are stupid and can't figure this shit out.  

Now... even if Obama isn't your cup of tea, or if you're a Democrat and Obama has let you down, do you REALLY want to see the words "President Romney"?  Yea...

Oh, and some definitions for "Romney":

- a tool

- blowhard

- flip-flopper

- Shape-shifting, cream-cheese LDS hustler with a spray-on tan.  (my favorite)

PEACE

p.s.  Check out the link to the food blog I posted above.  You WON'T be disappointed.  Spread the blogger love people!

Santorum's Santorum Problem

Rick Santorum has a problem.  What problem is that you might ask?  No, it's not Red Leader from Star Wars silly!
 
It's when CNBC and Yahoo! publish an article about the homes (note, plural) of all the Republican candidates for president.

And I quote:

"In addition to his more modest house in Penn Hills, Pa., Rick Santorum also lived in this two-story residence on 3.76 acres in Leesburg, Va., until 2007. It was purchased new in 2001 for $643,361. The question of Santorum’s residency location was the catalyst for a frothy controversy spanning more than a decade, as detailed here."

Did you catch that?  Any time a presidential contender has a subtle comedic dig taken at him by the lame-stream media, I applaud!  Especially when its Santorum.

Thank you Dan Savage.

PEACE

p.s.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, google "Santorum"... if you dare!  Mwaaa haaa haa

UPDATE:  From the following article, Santorum says the following rather creepy bit:

"I may not be the guy that the girls are initially attracted to when they walk into the dance hall, but ultimately once you get to know all the folks, I'm the one you want to take home to Mom," Santorum said.

 I'm pretty sure that there's not too many mother's who are into Santorum... *cough*.... either way.

They've Been Doing it for Years

You often hear from conservative voters and the media blah-blah-blah talking heads that the Republican party is only losing its way now.  As if they have completely forgotten everything during Bush.  But it goes back even farther than that!  What Republicans are doing now at an extreme pace, the obstructionism of the law making process, the political games with people's lives, and the burn-it-down mentality has been happening for years!



And I quote:

"The agenda [they] would impose on America — abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat — that's change, all right. But it is not the kind of change America wants. It is not the kind of change America needs. And it is not the kind of change we can tolerate in a nation that we still call God's country."

 Let's play a little game.  (1) Who said this quote?  (2) When did they say this?  (3) Who were they talking about?

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

Almost there...

You guessed correctly!  If you said Red Leader from Star Wars.... oh wait....

In all seriousness, that quote above was from

(1)  Pat Buchannan, Republican running for president, current media figure for MSNBC (that liberal media station!)

(2)  Twenty years ago!  He said this in 1992, in his famous "Culture War" speech to the Republican convention.

(3)  Now that you know he's not talking about Obama or that other black guy (*cough* Vader *cough*), he was saying this about Bill and Hillary Clinton, those socialist Kenyan-usurpers.  What about Muslim?!?

So what they're saying now about Barack AND Michelle Obama really isn't a new thing.  Don't let anybody think it is either.  These are the same talking points they've been at for at least twenty years, but this time there's a hint of racism and an extra flutter of stoopid as well.

PEACE

p.s.  If you haven't year, check out Driftglass blog.  It was the inspiration for this peace.  As was their podcast.

Airport Workers Making Less than Minimum Wage

This will be a brief story, but it will show you how in the new economy, low and ultra low paying jobs are becoming the norm.

CHICAGO, Ill. -- Every day she goes to work at O'Hare International Airport, Elda Burke faces the same dilemma. 

Burke, 30, works as a passenger attendant at the airport, escorting the elderly and disabled to and from their gates by wheelchair. Even though the airlines describe this as a free service, Burke's employer has her working partly for tips, which is why her base pay is a low $6.50 an hour, somewhat like a restaurant server's, rather than the typical Illinois minimum wage of $8.25. 

But unlike diners at a restaurant, many of the passengers Burke will be escorting on their holiday travels this week won't realize she's working for tips -- and by federal law, she won't be allowed to tell them.

"We cannot say anything," Burke says. "If we do that, they can fire us."

The company that has been hired for this airport work is Prospect Air Services Inc.   Of course they are claiming that this is just a "union ruse", and that they are paying their employees above the minimum wage.  Apparently those uppity low wage workers are just lying so they can get a bigger slice of that pie that they feel entitled to *snark*. 

Doing a little research shows that the average wage is $8.95 / hr at Prospect.  Even if that is true and its not as the employees claim above, with 4000 employees, this is still an example of the face of a low wage service economy. 

Darn uppity employees, wanting a living wage.  Socialists...

PEACE

Why Immigrate to the United States?

I view the "American Dream" to involve some of the following:

(1) Education - Part of the American Dream is the opportunity for you and your children to receive a quality education, starting with the public elementary education, quality high school, and high level colleges and universities. Education is affordable and accessible to all.

(2) Employment - Part of the American Dream is the opportunity for secure employment with respectable living pay.  Hard work, loyalty, and innovation are rewarded with respectable pay and job security.  Long term employment is a real and achievable goal.  A retirement with respect is attainable with hard work and loyalty.  Small business ownership is attainable and a goal of the business community.

(3) Home Ownership - Part of the American Dream is the opportunity to afford an appropriately sized home.  This is to both keep a permanent roof over your head, but also to have a permanent stake in this society.  Not just for yourself, but for your children and grandchildren.  It doesn't have to be an extravagant home by any stretch, but a permanent one that you can keep with security and get with financial responsibility.

(4) Health - Part of the American Dream is health and its many forms.  Its the personal health of your family.  Its health safety in the workplace.  Having a safe, clean hospital in your community or city.  It means access to health in all its shapes and forms, including access to a doctor.  It also means clean air, food, and water. 

(5) Freedom - Part of the American Dream for many outside of this country is the freedoms we offer.  It involves being able to speak your mind without fear of repercussion, including from the government.  It means being able to protest and assemble without fear for your own safety.  Its the freedom to practice your own religion safely and without fear.  It is the freedom to participate in the political system without fear for your own safety or even fear of losing your vote.

My parents immigrated to this country for most of if not all of the above reasons.  My own experience and their experiences lead me to believe that those are what the American Dream consists of.  They lived it.  They succeeded within the framework of the American Dream.  They left their home country for a better life and got it. 

My father got higher education and started his own small business which is still open over thirty years later.

My parents saved up money and own their own home.

They sent all three children to affordable colleges.

They had access to insurance and hospitals when they got ill and when my mother had to give birth to my siblings and I.

They worked hard to become naturalized American citizens and exercise their right to vote in every election, not just presidential ones.

They believe their children can live within this framework.  They believe that their children can still achieve their dreams within this framework.  They believe that the American Dream is alive for the society of the United States.  They are "minorities" (Jewish).

I am seeing cracks in their thinking.

For example...

They think its atrocious that not everybody has access to health care, even the poor.

They think its a shame the college education has become financially unattainable for so many compared to when they got their degrees.

They think that attacks on retirement, social security, and medicare are appalling.

They still worry about practicing their religion openly with representatives and presidential politicians speaking about the United States as a Christian Country.

Even they, the responsible homeowners who only bought within their means and extremely carefully, are beginning to wonder how it is that so many people are being foreclosed by Wall St. and the Banks.

My mother typically votes Republican, my father typically votes Democrat.  They are registered independents.

If they are having doubts, if there are chinks in the armor, what are people outside the country thinking?  What are potential immigrants thinking?

 Why should they consider moving to the United States and not elsewhere?  What do potential immigrants have left as reasons to move to this country anymore?

It seems that all of the aspects of the American Dream are under attack, being destroyed, or are close to being dead.  This comes from the super wealthy and corporate interests, who have no interest in watching the American Dream survive, for that comes at the expense of their own wealth.  And if you are a foreigner who is considering starting a new life in the United States, this is a frightening prospect.

So I wonder, from children of immigrants and children of non-immigrants, why would people want to move to the United States?

"The owners of this country know the truth.  Its called the American Dream, cause you have to be asleep to believe it." - George Carlin

PEACE

Newt Gingrich on Occupy Wall St.

Try to watch this without vomiting in disgust or sheer anger at his words.  And this is the current leader of the Republican primary field for president.

Transcript (with my commentary):

"Jefferson said that the people who want to be both free and ignorant are asking for something that has never been and will never be.  Captain John Smith said in 1607 in the first English speaking permanent colony to the aristocrats who paid their way and didn't want to work, if you don't work you don't eat.  There was a deep sense of responsibility.

This disgusts me.  This so called expert on moral values is saying that if you're not working you don't have a deep sense of responsibility.  Unemployed?  Go get a job you dirty hippie.  Laid off or fired?  You obviously didn't work hard enough to keep your job.

"Let me now take that and for a brief moment describe Occupy Wall St."

 Oh please do, since you apparently understand it so well...

 "All of the Occupy movement starts with the premise that we owe them everything."

 No fuck face.  Have you even paid an iota of attention to the protests?  Have you even dedicated one brain cell of what's left in that skull of yours to what the protesters have been demanding?  And by the way, when you say "we", sounds like you are saying that you are a part of the 1%, you know, that corrupt, crime riddled, corporate interest that the Occupy movement simply wants to pay their fair share.  That same 1% that the Occupy movement wants to pay for their crimes.

"They take over a public park they didn't pay for.  To go nearby to bathrooms they didn't pay for..."

Hey moron, if its PUBLIC it belongs to the PEOPLE.  Those same PEOPLE that are protesting PAID for it with their taxes.  Unless poor and middle class Americans don't count to you Newt...

"...to beg for food from places they they don’t want to pay for.  To obstruct those that are going to work to pay the taxes to sustain the bathrooms and to sustain the park so that they can self-righteously explain that they are the paragons of virtue to which we owe everything."

I've been to the protest and Chicago and fellow protesters are actually bringing food to the protest so people don't have to beg.  Bet you didn't know that Newt, but I guess you also didn't go down to the protest yourself.  And isn't one of the POINTS of the protest to Occupy Wall St; to obstruct those that are criminally destroying our country and stealing its wealth?  Oh I forgot, in your world, only the 1% (there's that "we" again) pay taxes that really count.

“Now, that is a pretty good symptom of how much the left has collapsed as a moral system in this country and why you need to reassert something as simple as saying to them, ‘Go get a job right after you take a bath.”

 Let's talk about YOUR moral values Newt (no, you don't get the respect from me to call you "Mr.").  

- You are the only Speaker of the House to be sanctioned for ethics violations.
- You had 84 ethics violations filed against you while in congress.
- You were paid $30,000 an hour for lobbying "work" with Fannie Mae (you know, that good ol' sense of responsibility Newt?)
- You owed $500,000 dollars to Tiffany's, you know, good ol' fiscal responsibility.
- You and your wife went on a luxury cruise during a crucial point in the primaries, you know, good ol' work responsibility.
- Your "charity" gave money to your for-profit businesses that you run.  Oh that's what charity is for Newt.
- You cheated on your first wife while she was in the hospital recovering from surgery, and then married your mistress.
- You cheated on your second wife with a woman 23 years younger than you DURING the Lewinsky Scandal, eventually marrying her.  You claimed you did this out of "love for your country".

And on, and on, and on.  Not to mention that you belong to the party of death, of torture, of war, of corporate crime, of greed, of environmental poisoning, of the death penalty, of secret prisons, of racism, of sexism, and on, and on, and on.

Take a look in the mirror Newt before you tell me the "left has collapsed as a moral system."

***

I'm not going try argue with his point about what he says Occupy Wall St. is about.  To truly know what the protest is about, go down to the protest yourself.  There are numerous protests occurring in hundreds of cities across all fifty states.  Turn off the fucking propaganda which is the corporate owned media and open your eyes for yourself.  Get to the ground, get your brain a little dirty, get your feet a little worn, and make a fucking decision for yourself.

If you can't agree to try turning off Fox News, then you're lost to me.

PEACE

p.s. Newt Gingrich, go Fuck yourself.

Police Brutality at UC Davis

If you haven't seen this yet or heard about this story, watch the video below.  It is beyond words.

One would imagine this was filmed in Egypt, or Tunisia, Syria, or even Libya.  No folks, this is right here in the good ol' United States of America.  What did these students do to deserve this brutality?  Exercise their right to free speech and right to free assembly, that's all.

The best part?  You think that anything is going to happen to these police who broke the law?

(g) Any person who uses tear gas or tear gas weapons except in self-defense is guilty of a public offense and is punishable byimprisonment in a state prison for 16 months, or two or three years or in a county jail not to exceed one year or by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment, except that, if the use is against a peace officer, as defined in Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2, engaged in the performance of his or her official duties and the person committing the offense knows or reasonably should know that the victim is a peace officer, the offense is punishable by imprisonment in a state prison for 16 months or two or three years or by a fine of one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment.

 I wonder when the Federal Government will step in and say enough is enough, that these protesters have the right to do what they want and that no police force has the right to treat them that way.  In my last post I mentioned what happens when the corporate interests are protected over the rights of the people.  Think fascism can't happen here?  Watch that video again and then try answering that question.

PEACE