Friday, August 31, 2012

GOP Convention Part 2, The Lost Hours...

"Did you all watch the Republican convention last night? It's good to see scripted television finally making a comeback." – Jay Leno

"Hurricane Isaac turned out to be not much of a threat to the Republican convention. But to their credit, the Republicans had a contingency plan. If the hurricane did hit hard, delegates were instructed to evacuate to Mitt Romney's tax shelter." – Jay Leno
"The White House is now brewing its own beer. Republicans say the White House beer is actually pretty good. Just don't drink the Kool-Aid." – Jay Leno

It was left to the very end, for Mitt Romney to show that he was a caring family man who built a successful business; that he was a man of ideas who could solve our economic crisis and find jobs for millions of Americans. He did well on the first part, matching the tone of the brief speeches beforehand telling us what a generous and compassionate guy he is. He wisely never mentioned that his great grandparents and great-great grandparents were federal fugitives, chased out of the US and moving to Mexico where they could preach and practice polygamy. One grandfather had twelve wives... That's why his dad was born in Mexico, and it would be interesting to see Mitt's birth certificate to see if he has more than one mother listed...

I also was hit with the impression that Mitt Romney's smile reminds me of the cartoon smiles I've seen on a shark or in a Batman comic book. The basic problem with the rest of his speech is that it lacked content. It was satisfying on an emotional level, interesting where it was designed to appeal to voters of both parties who have become disillusioned with Obama's performance. But not once did he veer from bland platitudes and give any real policies or plans to steer our economy and create new jobs, nor does his web site list anything, either. He promised 12 million new jobs, but one independent study had predicted that those 12 million jobs would be created naturally over the next few years. In other words, even if Romney or Obama did nothing, the natural recovery rate would create that many jobs, still short of the 23 million needed...

Speaking of cons, what was up with Clint Eastwood? On the positive side, he showed that California Republicans aren't like the ones in the rest of the nation. On the flip side, he demonstrated that he can't carry a conversation unless he has a script in his hand, nor does he have much of a sense of humor. There was an empty chair next him at the podium, where he pretended an invisible Barack Obama was sitting, and he had imaginary conversations where Barack told him and Mitt to go fuck themselves. Ha Ha... Then, Mario Rubio had to introduce Mitt Romney... But, the crowd reveled in the bad taste, shouting out slogans like "Make my day!" along with a rambling and addled Mr Eastwood.

Was this convention a success? It hit some good spots and resonated with the crowd at times, so they didn't leave depleted and cynical. I doubt that it changed anybody's mind, except to note what a sleazy liar Paul Ryan turned out to be. But hey, at least he's not a Sarah Palin... Despite speeches from women and people of color, it was still designed to reinforce old white men and their antiquated set of values. It the Republican Party is to ever rebuild, we are going to have to wait until the old white guys die off and leave their money to their kids, which, unfortunately, will be years down the road.

After all of the speeches, I flipped around the channels to see what the commentaries were. I was surprised that the most generous analysis was given by MSNBC, while CNN and Fox were not as nice. Rachel Maddow comes across as the smartest woman on television and is worth listening to, no matter how liberal or conservative you are.




Thursday, August 30, 2012

Republican Convention

"They’re all going down to Tampa where an Evangelical party is going to nominate a Mormon and a Catholic and then get wiped out by a hurricane…leaving Florida to the Jews as God intended." – Bill Maher
"Some of the Republicans, I think, are over-reacting to Hurricane Isaac — like today Rick Santorum was seen gathering up two of every animal." – Jay Leno

"Herman Cain was in Tampa. When a reporter asked him if Isaac reminded him of Katrina, he said, 'I never even met the woman.'" – Jay Leno

"It seems the GOP has placed 13,000 umbrellas in bins outside the hall for people to use. Delegates can't bring them inside for security reasons, so after you use the umbrella, you drop it off for the next person to use. That sounds like creeping socialism." – Jay Leno




I've spent the last two nights listening to the speeches from the Republican Convention in Tampa, Florida. Because the program on the first night was canceled because of Hurricane Isaac,we missed the spectacle of Donald Trump hiring a Barack Obama look-a-like and then getting to tell him that he's fired on the convention stage...

Tuesday's speeches got off to a rocky start, with the best one given by Anne Romney. She proved personable even though she failed to make her husband seem more human. It's nice to know that he still makes her laugh, but that was the deepest revelation she gave us. Perhaps they have an equally shallow relationship, communicating with each other in thumbnail sketches instead of real emotions... Anne also made an attempt to connect to the other women in the hall, evidently she is the Republican response that their isn't a war on women. I would have been more impressed if she handed out some of those Mormon Church's official condoms and dental dams... The keynote speech was given by Chris Christie, who gave an aggressive and self-absorbed speech, finally condescending to mention Mitt Romney after 16 minutes had gone by. Who would guessed that New Jersey was so fascinating? The New Jersey economy is failing under Mr Christie's bluster, and unemployment has increased by over a million more people.

The Romney camp has decided to slight a few fellow conservatives, neither Dick Cheney, George Bush, or Sarah Palin were invited to the convention. It was feared that Cheney might have shot Paul Ryan in the face, then tried to get himself on as the VP choice. Sarah Palin would have energized the crazy element and distracted the energy away from Romney, who really can't compete with anyone with charisma. And, of course, George Bush wasn't welcome because he would have made people remember that the problems we have are not all Obama's fault...

Each speaker had to mention the catch-phrase "we built it" or get demerits. The phrase is a misconstruction from an Obama speech, taken out of context, and then repeated so many times that it is a meaningless cliche. Obama himself was paraphrasing Elizabeth Warren when she said last year: “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody!” she said. “You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you all were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. ...
“You built a factory, and it turned into something terrific or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”


The most intelligent and elegant speech was given by Condoleezza Rice, who emphasized the importance of a good education and the importance that immigrants give to our diversity, not the biggest applause of the night, and a bit subversive. I'm sure that there were a few delegates having buyer's remorse over Mitt, saying we coulda nominated a Condi...

The scariest speech was given by John McCain, who has become such a hawk that he'd have us at war with six more Middle Eastern nations. Of course, his anger is rooted in losing the last presidential election, and now has become a bitter, bitter man.

The most attention will be given to Paul Ryan's speech, which set the delegates into an uproar. They loved him, even when his facts were incorrect. His delivery was spot on, and his speech was written by two of the best Republican speechmakers in the business. Two things he's going to have to correct, are the weird noises he makes in his throat after delivering an emotional line, and the black shoe polish that he put in his hair, which makes him look like a teenage boy who got into his mother's makeup bag... What bothers me the most were the blatant factual lies in his speech while purporting to be truthful and honest. This type of hypocrisy is distressing in someone so young, and if this kind of amoral behavior takes ahold among the younger generation of politicians, it signals more than the death of the Republican Party, but the death of all politics as we know it... even Ron Paul had to flee Tampa back to Texas...

Tomorrow Mitt will give his acceptance speech, and they have been hinting at a mystery guest, one that will make Obama angry. Let's hope that it is someone more than Clint Eastwood or Donald Trump and the fake Obama stand-in guy...


Thursday, August 16, 2012

Paul Ryan's Star Rises Like The Sales Of AK-47's In America

"Mitt Romney is hoping to energize Republicans by announcing Paul Ryan as his running mate. Seriously? That's like trying to spice up a bowl of oatmeal with more oatmeal." – Jimmy Fallon

"During the announcement, Mitt Romney said that he and Paul Ryan are 'America's Comeback Team.' You know, as in 'come back in four years and try again.'" – Jimmy Fallon
"Romney and Ryan kind of look like a father and son in an ad for Super Cuts." – Jimmy Kimmel



We recently had President Obama campaigning in Colorado. The tickets to hear him speak were free, and they were quickly given away. In contrast, the GOP had Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal out pimping for Mitt Romney at the same time. maybe 200 people showed up... Now that Mitt announced that Paul Ryan would be his VP choice, Mr Jindal must feel a little burned... The polls currently show that Mr Obama is ahead of Mr Romney in popularity, and he may jump out ahead if people react negatively to Mr Ryan's tightly puckered policies and positions.

Paul is considered to be a super conservative who gives voice to the tea party concerns in Congress. He has sponsored a national bill that would give "personhood" to an infant at the moment of conception. So far, none of the personhood amendments have passed in the states where they have been introduced, including twice here in Colorado. Refusing to take a hint from the voters, the personhood people are going to put it on the ballot here again in November, and have vowed to keep on introducing it until it passes. See, who says we aren't providing stable jobs...? The personhood amendment movement began here in Colorado Springs and it's a bit embarrassing to the tea party anti-abortion folks that they can't even convince their homies that their ideas aren't wacko and way out there...

Paul is most famous for his belief in trickle-down economics, and he has been chairman of the House Budget Committee, a job he will have to give up. He has been involved in every budget fight and obstruction for the past two years, and has signed up to be Mitt's attack weasel for the next two months. What bothers me about Paul Ryan is he is another rich kid who never had to work very hard for a living, and hasn't bothered to develop much compassion for anyone who isn't a millionaire. His grandfather built the families wealth by building roads from government contracts, which may be better than Romney's grandfather, who was a federal fugitive for running around the country with his five wives, spreading the gospel of polygamy... He was elected to Congress at age 28, and hasn't known much or experienced life beyond the small town he was raised in and Washington DC. Paul also tends to be thin-skinned and whinny if he feels he's being made fun of or his expertise in understanding economics is brought into question. The fact that his budget has been analyzed to both cost more than he's promised it would and not solve the problems he says it will, makes one wonder if years of flattery hasn't made him intellectually lazy.
Paul Ryan is on the ballot to make Mitt Romney seem legitimately right wing, but I doubt he will seem attractive to many other voters. It's just another signal of the death of the Republican Party...


It's nice to know that the Russian factory that makes the Kalashnikov rifle, has recently been focusing on sales to civilians. Their sales rose over 50% last year, thanks to strong sales within the US. We have the pride of being the strongest market in the world for guns bought by civilians. Certainly puts the recent crazy people shooting and killing in Colorado and Texas into perspective, doesn't it???? In order for a Russian to buy a long barrel gun like an AK-47, they have to have a permit from the police clearing them of any criminal record, and a certificate of mental health from a doctor...




Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Mitt's European Adventure

"Kiss my ass! This is a sacred site..." - Rick Gorka

Mitt Romney made a trip across the pond, to prove that he had a solid feel for foreign policy and hoping that somehow he might attract the crowds that Barack Obama did when he visited Europe as a candidate. But, since Mitt is pretty vacant and clueless, all he ended up doing is embarrassing himself and his hosts.

When he was in England, he made comments about the level of organization exhibited at the Olympics, and was jumped on by every newspaper and politician in sight, including the conservative mayor of London, Boris Johnson. To be fair, they would have jumped on any American serving up criticism, and it was pretty tame compared to the verbal lashings English politicians receive when they have to appear before Parliament. But all Mitt had to do was smile and say nothing more than he was there to support his wife. Instead, I was looking to see if he was signaling the beginning of a Monty Python skit on upper-class twits...

Next, Mitt flew to Israel, to suck up to Benjamin Netanyahu in front of his new best friend, Sheldon Addelson. Mr Addelson had committed millions of dollars to conservative PACs, and has made his money from owning gambling casinos in Las Vegas and Macau. Of course, Mitt made a speech sucking up to the Israelis, saying that it was their culture that had made them so successful, as compared to to their neighbors. This was treated as a gaffe and the Palestinians responded that gee, they might also have become as successful if only their land wasn't occupied by a people dedicated to their failure. The Palestinian Authority said that:
"This man lacks information, knowledge, vision and understanding of this region and its people."
Mr Romney was hoping to embarrass the Obama administration and their lack of chummyness with the right wing Israelis. But the Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barack told CNN on Monday, that "I should tell you honestly that this administration under President Obama is doing in regard to our security more than anything that I can remember in the past."

The mystery of Mitt's trip was, why Poland? It was determined that the government would be most receptive to whatever he had to say, since most exposure to the press had been restricted and scripted, with no room for spontaneity. When Mitt did venture outside, it was at the grave for the unkown soldier, and the press shouted out questions. Mitt's press secretary then shouted out the quote from above, making it the most wonderful quote of the year in many a pundit's book...

Now that Mitt is back, it's clear that things did not go as planned because he forgot to include the human element. It looks more and more that when you compare Obama and Romney's personalities side by side, that Obama will end up re-elected.

I have two main questions for Mitt Romney, neither have been asked by the press or his opponents: One, since he has raised five sons, tell us why none of them volunteered for the armed services? Mitt himself had a couple of student deferments during the Vietnam War, and one ministerial deferment. If he is so patriotic, why aren't his sons willing to serve their country?

Two: I don't really care if he has Swiss bank accounts and accounts in the Cayman Islands, what I want to know is if he is willing to transfer all of this money back into the United States if he gets elected? Shouldn't an American President show trust in American banks and institutions?

We've never had to deal with such a rich candidate before, and if politics requires more and more money, then we are going to have to rewrite the rules, and the sooner we begin the better...


Finally, this little tidbit from TPM: "Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency warns staffers to stop using the missile defense computer network to download so much porn..."