Monthly archives: January, 2012

Just In Time for the Primary: Romney Announces Support of South Carolina Veterans

January 13, 2012
ElectionsMilitaryRepublicans
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No kidding, this was published TODAY on mittromney.com:

Romney for President today announced the support of veterans in South Carolina:

“I am proud to receive the endorsement of these South Carolina veterans who have selflessly and bravely fought to keep our nation safe and defend our American way of life,” said Mitt Romney. “We must continue to support all of those who have served our nation as we work to preserve those very freedoms that our veterans and troops have fought to defend.”

“Mitt Romney has been a strong advocate for veterans and will work to ensure that those who have heroically sacrificed for our country receive the care that they deserve,” said Lt. General Bud Watts, former President of the Citadel. “We need a Commander-in-Chief who will support our veterans and troops, strengthen our military, and strengthen our national defense. Mitt Romney believes in America and in the founding principles that make our country great, and he is the kind of steadfast leader we need during these challenging times.”

Good timing! Since there’s a presidential primary there soon enough, you know.

Sh*t Homophobic People Say. No Kidding. (Video)

January 13, 2012
Civil LibertiesCivil RightsCongressConservativesConstitutionEducationEthicsPhilosophicalRantRepublicansStrange
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Commentary

Sh*t Homophobic People Say: no spoofing necessary, 100% real commentary by antigay public figures. Some, many, masquerading as Christians.

Lambda Legal fights for the rights of LGBT people and people with HIV.

Wow.

Dogs Against Romney: Mitt Really Really Abused the Family Dog Seamus

January 13, 2012
ElectionsEthicsLegalRepublicansViolence
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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Mitt Romney tied his dog Seamus to the roof of a car for a family vacation.

The dog got sick.

Romney hosed down the dog and went on.

Abuse? You bet.

In response to a query on this Chris Wallace at Fox News, Romney says, "This is a completely air-tight kennel on the top of our car."

If the kennel was "air-tight," how did the "brown liquid" pour from the dog’s kennel atop the wagon?

For more information:

Did You Get Your Last Shoeshine on the Tarmac Like Mitt Romney?

January 13, 2012
ConservativesElectionsRepublicans
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Mitt Romney getting his shoes shined on the tarmac.

Mitt Romney getting his shoes shined on the tarmac.

If you got your last shoeshine on the tarmac at an airport — any airport — than chances are you, like Willard “Mitt” Romney have more money than most of the top 1%.

From Rachel Maddow on MSNBC:

Mitt Romney has an empathy problem. Regardless of whether he’s actually an empathetic guy, Mr. Romney remains the son of a wealthy man who then went out and made another fortunebuying companies and firing people. He’s still the guy who says that questions about income inequality amount to the sin of envy, he’s still the guy who manages to say the words “I like to be able to fire people,” he’s still the guy who offers up a $10,000 bet to prove his point. He’s still the guy who drove to Canada with the family dog in a kennel on top of the car and who responded to evidence of the family dog’s distress by stopping at a car wash to rinse it away.

The last link in the paragraph above goes to a story when Romney, like Chevy Chase’s fictional character  Clark Griswold, abused a family pet on a family vacation. Clark killed the dog when he took off with the dog tethered to the family wagon. Mitt literally scared the you-know-what out of the poor beast by strapping it to the top of the family wagon while en route to Canada.

That story is here.

US Marines Identify ‘Urination’ Troops (Raw Video)

January 12, 2012
AfghanistanAmericaCrime and PunishmentMilitary
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From the BBC:

At least two of four US Marines shown in a video appearing to urinate on Taliban corpses have been identified, a Marine Corps official has told the BBC.

The video, which was posted online, purports to show four US Marines standing over the bodies of several Taliban fighters, at least one of whom is covered in blood.

These soldiers did nothing to honor the traditions of the United States Marine Corps.

They did not act as the honorable warriors who serve this country so well.

White People Rejoice: Romney Wins New Hampshire

January 10, 2012
Barack ObamaElectionsRepublicans
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Mitt Romney celebrates with supporters

Mitt Romney with his family at his primary election night party. And check out all those smiling white people.

Yes, thank all that is good and white, Mitt Romney won New Hampshire.

From the New York Times:

A week after winning the Iowa caucuses by just eight votes, Mr. Romney claimed a broader margin of victory here with a coalition of independent, moderate and conservative voters, but he benefited handsomely from a fractured Republican field. He delivered a pointed message to his Republican challengers, urging them not to play into President Obama’s hands by trying to destroy his candidacy as the race moves onto the more challenging terrain of South Carolina.

Onward and, well, white-ward?

Willard ‘Mitt’ Romney: The (Un-)Artful Dodger

January 9, 2012
ConservativesElectionsEthicsHealth CareLegalRepublicans
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Ask Romney Anything?

Ask Willard "Mitt" Romney, the (Un-)Artful Dodger, anything? Really?

For those who watched the GOP circular firing squad Saturday night, you may recall Mitt Romney referring to a question about states banning birth control “silly.”

The only thing “silly” was his dodge, as he tried to deny his own state the right to offer birth control in 2005.

From the Huffington Post:

Mitt Romney artfully dodged a question about whether states have the right to ban birth control during Saturday’s Republican presidential debate, calling the question “silly” and saying that states wouldn’t want to do that anyway. But as governor of Massachusetts in 2005, Romney took a harder line on contraception, vetoing a widely supported bill that would make the morning-after pill available over the counter in that state and require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims.

His surprising veto did not stand. The Massachusetts state Senate voted unanimously to overrule it, and the state House voted 139-16 to do the same.

Imagine that.

If he does get the GOP nomination, this multi-millionaire’s record will speak for itself, even as he tries to blow smoke over it.

Santorum: I Cashed In Because I Care

January 8, 2012
ConservativesEthicsRepublicans
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I actually watched tonight’s GOP presidential debate. Saw no one that appeared very presidential. Much, much pandering to the far, far right.

Every time Rick Santorum spoke he looked like a nervous schoolboy who had to pee.  No kidding.

Not my observation, but the observation of someone with whom I was watching.

Still, Santorum managed to defend the massive amounts of money he made from lobbying since he lost his U.S. Senate seat.

From Mother Jones:

During Saturday’s GOP Primary debate, Rep. Ron Paul accused Rick Santorum of being a “big government person” who exploited his beltway connections with lobbyists to get wealthy after losing his Senate seat in 2006. Santorum insisted that he only took a series of high paying “consulting” jobs because he believed in the causes.

“I’m known in this race and I was known in Washington, DC, as a cause guy. I am a cause guy. I care deeply about this country and about the causes that make me —that I think are at the core of this country,” Santorum said. “And when I left the United States Senate, I got involved in causes that I believe in.”

Santorum was one of the less wealthy members of the Senate during his tenure, though as the main gatekeeper for the “K-Street Project,” the attempt to place Republicans in influential positions in DC lobbying firms, Santorum developed plenty of key connections with lobbying firms and trade associations. After leaving Congress those connections proved financially beneficial. Financial disclosure forms filed last year indicate that Santorum went from making around $200,000 a year to more than a million dollars in 2010.

Washington, as it stands now, is an incredible cash cow for these GOP candidates. Do you really think any of them will change that in the least if they win the presidency?

Paul Krugman on Romney’s Record of Destroying Good Jobs

January 7, 2012
ConservativesEconomyEducationJobsRepublicans
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Mit Romney, job destroyer:

Suppose, for example, that your chain of office-supply stores gains market share at the expense of rivals. You employ more people; your rivals employ fewer. What’s the overall effect on U.S. employment? One thing’s for sure: it’s a lot less than the number of workers your company added.

Better yet, suppose that you expand in part not by beating your competitors, but by buying them. Now their employees are your employees. Have you created jobs?

The point is that Mr. Romney’s claims about being a job creator would be nonsense even if he were being honest about the numbers, which he isn’t.

At this point, some readers may ask whether it isn’t equally wrong to say that Mr. Romney destroyed jobs. Yes, it is. The real complaint about Mr. Romney and his colleagues isn’t that they destroyed jobs, but that they destroyed good jobs.

When the dust settled after the companies that Bain restructured were downsized — or, as happened all too often, went bankrupt — total U.S. employment was probably about the same as it would have been in any case. But the jobs that were lost paid more and had better benefits than the jobs that replaced them. Mr. Romney and those like him didn’t destroy jobs, but they did enrich themselves while helping to destroy the American middle class.

And that reality is, of course, what all the blather and misdirection about job-creating businessmen and job-destroying Democrats is meant to obscure.

‘Punished for Living Too Long,’ Paralyzed High School Football Player Dies at 27

January 6, 2012
ChicagoChicagolandEthicsHealth CareLegal
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Rocky Clark in his home in Robbins in 2010.

Rocky Clark in his home in Robbins in 2010.

The sad news comes from the Chicago Tribune: “Rasul “Rocky” Clark, who was paralyzed while playing football for Blue Island’s Eisenhower High School in 2000 and later fought an unsuccessful battle to keep his health insurance, died Thursday after undergoing surgery at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, a hospital spokeswoman said.”

More from the Trib:

He was a 16-year-old backup running back on Sept. 15, 2000, when Eisenhower’s starting running back separated his shoulder in a game at Oak Forest High School. Mr. Clark went into the game. Four plays later, he was tackled and suffered two broken vertebrae in his neck and a spinal injury.

Left a quadriplegic, Mr. Clark for 10 years received top-notch health care through the catastrophic medical insurance provided by Community High School District 218. That included nurses in his home around the clock, access to pain medicines and prescriptions and a storeroom of supplies.

But in August 2010, Clark was informed the $5 million health insurance had reached its maximum and would no longer cover his medical needs. Officials with Clark’s insurance agency, Health Special Risk Inc., previously declined to discuss his case or their policies on claims and lifetime maximums with the Tribune.

At the time his policy ended, Clark said he felt he was being punished for living too long. Many quadriplegics die within 10 years after their injury because of lung or kidney failure. But Clark was able to thrive, in part because of the meticulous health care he received, his physician and family members said.

Punished for living too long.

Read the whole story here.