My Vote, Putin's Reprisal

"Experts say the entire 2012 election could come down to just eight states. The states are: confusion, dismay, depression, apathy, shock, disbelief, despair, and anxiety. Those are the eight states." – Jay Leno

"Do you know who is endorsing Mitt Romney? Lindsay Lohan. It may seem silly to you but not to the Romney campaign. They're very excited. They said they have a chance now to get the shoplifter vote." – David Letterman

"A new poll found that 59 percent of Americans would rather eat a burger with President Obama while only 41 percent would eat one with Mitt Romney. While most Americans don't care who they're with, as long as they get that burger. " – Jimmy Fallon

I spent the weekend filling out my ballot, it's now ready to be mailed in. Actually, I don't trust the mails around here, so my brother-in-law will drop off our ballots on his way home from work. I think that just about everyone in America has already made up their mind who they will vote for, especially after the last debate. So, please let's outlaw political commercials on the television and on Youtube, from the last debate until November 6th... I find that most of the time that I end up yelling at the television is during one of these commercials made by a superpac, I get too wound up responding to the flat out lies they spout as if they were facts... Of course, we could have debates all the way up to election day, that could be entertaining. And just not candidate vs candidate, it could be debates that we choose who the debaters are, say, Bill Clinton versus Sara Palin!!! When Barack Obama was on the Jay Leno show the other night, he was asked how he felt now that the debates were over, and he replied that he felt like he was just warming up... On the other hand, Mitt romney's campaign is making sure that Mitt will not be giving interviews and speaking to reporters until after election day, to make sure that he doesn't say anything controversial or stupid, especially since the subject of rape came up on the national radar... Last year there were over 120,000 instances of rape reported, and 80,000 of them resulted in pregnancies. In an opinion piece in the NY Times on Sunday, Nicholas Kristoff also related that about 80% of the rape kits that have been done on suspects are sitting on shelves in evidence lockers in police depts, and have never been processed. I guess the world is still run by old, white men, nudge, nudge, wink, wink... Hell, I know for a fact that in California it's easier to get away with murder than it is to commit voter fraud...

Those who miss the debates can take solace in the daily poll reports. Just remember, as my father so often said to me, "There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there are statistics..." I often wonder if there's a correlation between those who put their faith in political polls and those who use statistics in the mental health field. I'm trying to bend this into an argument that most right wing conservatives are mentally ill, which is why we see so much crazy behavior from their candidates and spokespeople... After all, they can't all be using prescription anti-depressants...

What happens to the old, discarded heads of state once they are no longer in office? Here in the US, we let them found Foundations and let them wander all over the globe, while in places like South America, Africa, the Ukraine, and Italy, they charge them with corruption and put them in jail. Helluva retirement benefit... Silvio Berlesconi, Italy's richest man and who was Prime Minister for several years has just been sentenced to six years in jail for some silly thing trumped up as corruption. He has yet to face more serious charges of partying with prostitutes and paying an underage girl as a prostitute... In Russia you don't even have to have been elected before being put in jail; all you have to do is run against Vladimir Putin to have charges like treason and encouraging unlawful assembly brought against you... Maybe the Russian people will figure out how far out there, just how crazy Putin has gotten when he starts putting their heads on pikes in front of the Kremlin, then stands beside them shirtless for a photo op... Ahh, for the good old days when they all moved to the south of France...

Addendum To Previous Post

"Fox News is upset that empty headed puppets are trying to brainwash and indoctrinate Americans. Perhaps they could sue them for copyright infringement." - Jon Stewart 

"A new poll found that only 47 percent of voters find Mitt Romney to be trustworthy. Then Romney was like, 'Well, I hope it's not the same 47 percent I don't care about.'" –Jimmy Fallon

"Can you believe it's only another month until we start arguing about whether the election was stolen or not?" – Jay Leno

Not only is Iran's economy tanking, but their ability to print more money is at a critical point. Like many countries, Iran is dependent on European currency production companies to provide printing presses, engraving paper, and anti-counterfeiting technology in order to create the perfect rial. There are three main companies in Europe which are no longer doing business with Iran because of sanctions. If the conversion rate of the rial continues to plunge, and last week it was 36,000 rials to one US dollar, then we may see the economy implode real soon. This is a devastating dance to play over a silly match of pride and ego...

The weird part is that Iran used to be on friendlier terms with the US and Israel, though mostly through back-room deals while keeping a fierce public stance. It wasn't too long ago that Iran bought US arms through Israel in a deal brokered by agents of the Ronald Reagan administration, sending the cash to the right-wing Contras in Central America... Also, Iran has been heavily patrolling its border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, in order to catch drug smugglers. Yes, they've joined in the US's War On Drugs. Evidently, administrators in Tehran are worried that there are more young people addicted to drugs than there are those who volunteer as suicide bombers...

I live in Colorado, considered as one of the swing states in this year's presidential election. We are famous for the mass shootings of our citizens by college and high school students, then rewarding them by passing laws allowing the carrying of concealed weapons onto our colleges and state parks... My congressional district is famous for being one of the most conservative districts in the US, mainly thanks to all of the retired military personnel. The generals retire to estates in Virginia, while the grunts who are so good at following orders and not thinking for themselves retire in places like Colorado Springs. Our latest foray into the national spotlight was when a woman was filmed registering voters, but only allowing people to register as Republicans, while claiming that she was paid by the county clerk's office. Hint to understanding this: it is illegal to deny anyone who wishes to register to vote, no matter what party they want to belong to. Punishable by time spent in a federal jail...

The company that actually hired this girl and trained her in her illegal practices was one contracted by the GOP. It was started in Arizona by the local head of the GOP, and was involved in fraud back in 2004. Not only did it commit voter fraud here in Colorado, but it was also caught doing illegal acts in Florida, like throwing out registrations for the Democratic Party, and putting the names of dead people onto the rolls of registered Republicans. Ironic that everywhere else tea party groups like True the Vote couldn't really find examples of voter registration fraud, so they had to make it up themselves...


It will be interesting to see how the latest presidential debate is reported on Spanish language stations like Univision and Telemundo, since the Hispanic vote could very well carry the election... Romney tried to clarify what he meant by the phrase self-deportation. He's not going to round up 12 million people then process them back to their home countries, no, he's going to deny them driver's licenses, health care, and legal jobs until they feel there's no other options left but to leave. Obama, for his part, evaded the fact that he hasn't done anything concrete towards finalizing legislation like the Dream Act, so he has problems, too. At least neither candidate referred to the act of self-deportation as the order in Star Trek to "Beam me up, Scotty..."

Presidential Debates, Tehran Lottery

One of the health problems I have been dealing with has been a form of dementia. One side-effect has been that I had forgotten that I had a blog, and just recently remembered when I came out of my mental fog. One of the reasons I started this blog was to try and keep my mind sharp and not lose my sense of humor. I also forgot about my Facebook and other social media accounts, and tomorrow I will have to attack the 10,000 or so emails that have accrued... So, some of the things I say may seem a bit dated, at least until I catch up on current events. At least I subscribe to the paper edition of the New York Times, and I will have to renew my subscription to the Denver Post, but I still have the news to read with my morning cup of coffee...

A couple of weeks ago was the General Assembly of the United Nations, and the annual practice of walking out on the speech given by Iran's Mahmoud Achmadinejad. Ahmadinejad's 4 year term runs out this year, and he's not eligible for re-election, so this was the last time that Western diplomats would have to snub him in public. If it was up to the Iranian congress or the ayatollahs, Ahmadinejad wouldn't be allowed to leave the country, what with the guaranteed embarrassment he causes them. But, he is their president, so whatcha gonna do?

The Iranian economy is in the tank, it's on the verge of bankruptcy, thanks to the sanctions that cut off the central banks from the rest of the world. New sanctions from Europe began on Monday that will add to the crippling... A rial went from 24,000 rials per one US dollar, up to 36,000. People were desperately trying to change as many rials as possible into US dollars, and many companies were insisting on payments for goods in US dollars only, putting further stress on the banks, which could only get a limited amount of dollars from Europe, and dig deeply into the central banking reserves.

Ahmadinejad was able to bring along an entourage of over 140 lottery winners, who took advantage by spending their time shopping in New York, making a group trek to the Harlem COSTCO, loading up on foodstuffs, clothing, and computers to take back home. This story reminds me of the Russian concert pianist I met while in Thailand several years ago. He had a couple of palettes of blue jeans that he had bought on the black market, and was planning on smuggling them back into Moscow, where he could realize a profit selling them for over $200 per pair, top dollar if the labels read Levi's...

I just finished watching the second presidential debate, and the overwhelming emotion that I felt was that I wanted to punch that arrogant bully Mitt Romney in the face. It's obvious by his dismissal of the moderator, and the disrespect he showed to Obama, even where he told him to hold on, you'll get your turn... Besides whatever gobbledegook the candidates had to say about their policies, I was struck by how much I dislike Romney and his arrogant, mean-spirited personality. It makes me wonder about his wife, who has said how funny Mitt is, that he is always making her laugh. Either she has the same mean-spirited sense of humor, or she is so used to being demeaned and trivialized by Mitt, and her fostering such a co-dependent relationship... OK, Mitt isn't as bad as Fox News was after the Biden - Ryan debates, where they hired a doctor to wonder if all of Biden's smiling was because he was coming down with Alzheimer's... almost as much fun as a binder full of women...

When Obama was elected, I was happy that we finally had someone in charge that is smart enough to look at issues from all angles and not go running off making decisions without enough information, like George Bush seemed to. And I believe that Obama will win re-election because his opponent is a robot, who really doesn't care for you and the rest of the American people, and who still won't publish his economic plan and policies on his web site.Then, if we can drive the tea partyers, those mindless marching morons, back into the hinterlands, it will make the task of rebuilding the GOP a lot easier. But, somehow I doubt that will happen, and we'll witness them raging in the dying light, whining, bitching and moaning into that good night.

The Innocence Of Muslim Riots

"A new CNN poll shows that President Obama now has a six-point lead over Mitt Romney. You can tell Romney's depressed – last night he just sat on his couch and bought the Häagen-Dazs corporation." – Jimmy Fallon

"A recent poll found that most Americans believe President Obama would be a more loyal friend than Mitt Romney. In other words, Obama is the guy holding your hair back in the bathroom while Romney uploads the drunk photos to Facebook." – Jimmy Fallon

"Actually, members of Mitt Romney's own party are starting to criticize him for being too vague. When asked if that bothers him, Romney said, 'Maybe.'" – Jimmy Fallon

Notice incredibly cheap fake beard...

Well, what a long, strange week it's been. In the aftermath of the political conventions, Republicans had to pretend that Clint Eastwood's Alzheimer Moment with an empty chair was actually an inspired piece of acting,  while Bill Clinton showed why we should have hired him to give weekly fireplace chats to explain policy to the masses. Then, this weird anti-Muslim film trailer surfaces...

The Middle East is home to most of the bizarre conspiracy theories, with Texas and Florida a close second. Yet, turning one of the more twisted ones into reality shows that truth can be stranger than fiction... It seems that a strange combination of people got together to help write and finance a movie based on the life of the Prophet, yet showing him in an unfavorable light. The folks were a wimpy, self-proclaimed preacher in Florida, whose past claim to fame was burning a Koran in his church, another right-wing anti-Muslim from Texas, with ties to many other right-wing Christian militias around the country, and a Coptic Christian, originally from Egypt and now living in Southern California, with a record of credit card identity theft and creating 15 other false aliases with paperwork for himself...

Nobody knows if a whole movie was made, the only thing that has shown up is a 14 minute trailer, where the anti-Muslim slurs were dubbed in after it was made. It didn't catch on, was mostly ignored for about a year, until someone translated the whole thing into Arabic, re-posted it on Youtube, then made sure that relatives and friends in Egypt got the ball rolling and have people begin watching it. The idea was to piss off as many Muslims as possible so that the resulting riots and protests would show the Middle East in an unfavorable light in time to celebrate 9/11...

 At one point, the US government asked Google to take it off Youtube, but Google refused. The American Embassy in Cairo issued a statement hoping to calm the situation down, but six hours later a bunch of emotional young men stormed the Embassy, threatening the workers inside. In Libya, another group hit the US Embassy grounds at Benghazi, and ended up killing the American Ambassador. To date, there have been protests in Tunisia, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Malaysia, and the Phillipines...

When asked by the news media why they were protesting, many people said that they didn't understand why the US government didn't censor the film, that it showed lack of respect for their beliefs. I think that they are right about the need to have more respect, but it's also a two-way street: respect can be freely given, but so often it has to be earned. It also shows an unfamiliarity with American culture and what we mean when we debate free speech. We may be the dominant culture in the world right now, but most people get their impressions of us from television shows, movies, and music gossip, a rather two-dimensional representation with a base in the dramatic and sensational... In the Middle East, most of the current population is under the age of 25, and are not very educated. The lack of jobs and depressed economies will only make these kind of demonstrations worse and more commonplace, especially when food and water gets more scarce in the next few years...

Mitt Romney tried to turn this tragedy into politics, and issued a statement that the Obama administration was handling things badly, that the calming statement from Cairo was as good as an apology, and we should never apologize for who we were... Besides misunderstanding and getting the situation totally wrong, he never apologized himself and kept up the tough-guy facade, saying that if he were President, no-one would have dared kill one of our ambassadors because they would all be overwhelmed by his Integrity and Resolve, feared the overwhelming response that he would have unleashed on their unwashed bodies... The GOP distributed talking points for those who felt like supporting him, like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld did... The rest stood around and looked embarrassed... Even Rush Limbaugh said that ultimately, if you vote, you don't have to vote for Mitt Romney the man; you are actually voting to keep Obama from a second term.

I keep reading these articles saying what a smart man Romney is, two graduate degrees, a law degree, a successful businessman, etc. But what I see from his speeches, commercials, and writings, is someone who has skated through life with little effort, and has become mentally lazy, at that age when the brain cells are killing off the important ones. There really isn't an interior intellectual life, and he consistently shows no interest in understanding foreign policy or any complex issue... Ronald Reagan was our first president to come down with Alzheimer's while in office, Mitt Romney, if elected, will be the second...

Democratic Convention, Afterwards And Forward...

"It is day two of the Democratic convention, and apparently they had a huge lighting problem in the convention hall today. They worked all day on it. They still couldn't get President Obama out of Bill Clinton's shadow." – Jay Leno

"Apparently last week the Republicans had originally planned to have a Ronald Reagan three-dimensional hologram speak at the Republican convention. They decided against it. I guess they were concerned that Reagan would come across as more life-like that Mitt Romney." – Jay Leno

"In her speech, First Lady Michelle Obama said her husband has dinner with his girls where they strategize about middle school relationship. Which explains why today the Pentagon ordered a drone strike on that lying bitch Ashley." – Conan O'Brien

What I was struck by both political conventions was how similarly they were structured, as if the planners for both parties plugged in their agendas into a common template. If it's Tuesday, then the candidates wives will speak... That being said, the quality of speeches during the Democratic convention was better than the Republicans. The two best orators of this century happen to be Democrats, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

I don't think that any of the speeches changed my mind, I've already made up my mind whom I will vote for. Bill Clinton was the winner and comeback kid, giving the most substantive speech. He went over his time allotment and frequently went off script, but unless you had a copy of the speech in front of you, you couldn't tell, or see the teleprompter tearing the hair out of his head, trying to keep up... He also rebutted each complaint made by Republicans, in language that was non-rancorous and humorous, propping up Obama's policies and decisions better than anyone else has done. Overall, the Democratic convention had speakers who gave less cynical and more upbeat speeches, more supportive of our military and veterans, and more positive regarding our further economic recovery.

The big loser was Paul Ryan, who has been exposed as a congenital liar. Don't take my word for it, fact-check his speech. Weirder, is that he also boasted to a reporter that he had recently run a marathon under 3 hours. The actual time was over 4, and it was recorded, and so he had to apologize for the blatant boast. Since he's a young guy, and theoretically has a long career ahead of him, one can only wonder the string of lies and boasts that will follow him like a trail of toilet-paper stuck to the sole of his shoe... We've all known someone like him, who feels compelled to make stuff up to make themselves appear more important than their abilities, and the persons we end up feeling the most sorry for are their kids, who have to put up with their shit all of their lives... If Paul Ryan is allowed to speak spontaneously to the press before election day, this single bad habit of his may sink his and Romney's chances.

And if the Democrats can use Bill Clinton for several more soundbites, especially after each debate, then they will have the best chance of getting Obama re-elected.

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.

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...