Must Reads

Matt Taibbi: The Vice Presidential Debate: Joe Biden Was Right to Laugh

Cliff Schecter: The two Romneys

Elon James White: White Privilege, Joe Biden Style

Robert Dreyfuss: Biden and Ryan: The Foreign Policy Gap

John Nichols: Richard Milhous Ryan: No Specifics, Just a 'Secret Plan'

Charles P. Pierce: VP Debate 2012: The Real Paul Ryan Is Bad for America

The Rude Pundit: The Parable of Paul Ryan and the Tanks and Joe Biden Throws Paul Ryan Off His Lawn

NY Times Editorial: The ‘Moderate Mitt’ Myth

So... A Panel

POSTED BY JHW22

In the debate Paul Ryan said he didn't want unelected judges deciding what women can do with their bodies.

We don't think that unelected judges should make this decision; that people, through their elected representatives, in reaching a consensus in society through the democratic process should make this determination.

Instead, he wants our neighbors to elect people to do make our decisions. That's a panel. Um, there's some pretty big hypocrisy there, folks.

And if you think about it, there's a further hypocrisy. If you really are anti-choice, why would you leave the choice up to states? Would you really be OK with abortions taking place anywhere? Because if you leave it to the people and the representatives they elect, then you're gonna have abortions somewhere.

They just need to admit they will prevent it everywhere and stop playing games -- with women's lives.

President Obama's Weekly Address - October 13, 2012

One Million American Jobs Saved and a Stronger American Auto Industry

Jack Welch Can't Stand the Heat

Jack Welch, who knows a thing or two about cooking the books, couldn't stand that his demented, unsubstantiated allegation that the Bureau of Labor Statistics doctored the numbers to help the Obama administration in the upcoming election via the Twitters, was being criticized from all sides* and decided to quit (along with his wife) his position as contributor to Reuters and Fortune Magazine.

Welch said he will no longer contribute to Fortune following critical coverage of the former CEO of General Electric, saying he would get better "traction" elsewhere. On Friday, Welch suggested that the Obama administration, calling them "these Chicago guys," had manipulated the monthly jobs report in order to make the economy look better than it actually is just weeks before the election. Welch has been battered by criticism since making the suggestion on Twitter.

Welch apparently ended up at odds with various journalistic institutions that placed a higher premium on providing readers with objectively rational information about the economy, as opposed to flattering an old executive who sows derangement on the Internet. According to Gandel, Welch did not take kindly to a CNN Money piece that criticized Welch's original tweet, and was further angered by a Fortune piece, "detailing Welch's record as a job destroyer."

That, poor, poor multi-millionaire. My heart bleeds.

____________________________________________
* Except the Fox side, of course. That would be lunacy.


(Cross-posted on ABLC)

Looks Like Some Iowa Right Wingers Have Been Reading Too Many @ChuckGrassley Tweets

Someone vandalized an Obama campaign building in Des Moines by spray painting the words “Muslim Lier” on a large banner, police said. 

The word “liar” was misspelled on the sign, officers said. 

The blue banner is 16 by 8 feet and hangs on the south side of the building at 2307 Hubbell Ave. The words were written with red spray paint, police said. 

The vandalism occurred sometime between 11:30 p.m. Wednesday and 10 a.m. Thursday, when it was discovered, police reports show. 

The same message was reportedly spray painted near the Iowa State Fairgrounds earlier in the week. The damage was estimated at $500.

Dear Senator Grassley,

Your bastardization of the English language on Twitter is having an effect on your constituents. Please cease and desist dumbing down your voters, if that's even possible at this point.

Thank you,
The Educated Public


(Cross-posted on ABLC)

Must Reads

Chris Klewe: Out Of Bounds Blog No. 14 – Problems

Sahil Kapur: Romney’s Health Plan Leaves 72 Million Uninsured: Study

Chrystia Freeland: SUPER-RICH IRONY

Huffington Post: Joseph Stiglitz: Jobs Numbers Conspiracy 'Literally Absurd'

Robert Mann: Free Speech? Not in Jindal’s Louisiana

The Rude Pundit: Random Observations on Last Night's Presidential Debate

Christopher Brauchli: Fraud Found!!

Robert Reich: The Politics of the Jobs Report

President Obama's Weekly Address - October 6, 2012

Congress Should Keep America Moving Forward

Unemployment Drops to 7.8%

This is the lowest unemployment percentage in the last 44 months.

"The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent last month, dropping below 8 percent for the first time in nearly four years. The rate declined because more people found work, a trend that could have an impact on undecided voters in the final month before the presidential election. 

The Labor Department said Friday that employers added 114,000 jobs in September. The economy also created 86,000 more jobs in July and August than first estimated. Wages rose in September and more people started looking for work."

We're not nearly out of the woods. It's been a long, hard slog - I'd argue that had it not been for Republican obstructionism for the last three and a half years, we might be under 7% - but this is good news nonetheless.

Purely on a political level, this is also good news for President Obama and his re-election bid, killing one of the GOP's favorite talking points about Obama promising unemployment numbers under 8%.

And now anyone who doesn't like the numbers purely for political purposes (I'm looking at you Jack Welch, you fucking asshole) is accusing the Bureau of Labor Statistics of cooking the books to help the President. Why is it that these fuckballs point to the numbers when they're in their favor and then dismiss them, or even worse, accuse the very same people of fraud?!

October surprise, motherfuckers!

Mitt Romney the Liar - Tax Cut Edition

 You're welcome.

Debate No. 1 - Romney Wins. But Did He Really?

Watching the debates last night, I pretty much think I had the same initial reaction as everyone else. Romney played the schoolyard bully, President Obama let him, and Jim Lehrer was wondering where his waiter was so he could order soup. I avoided CNN because of silly snap polls and those distracting live graphs showing immediate reaction of undecided voters, as if I care what people who are still undecided at this point actually think.

The MSNBC pundits were ranging from disappointing anger (Ed Schultz and Chris Matthews) to devil's advocates (Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes) to Romney pom-pom shaking (Steve "I gave you Sarah Palin" Schmidt) to rational thought (believe it or not, Al Shaprton). So I slept on it and tried to think logically before writing about it to avoid sounding like Chris Matthews blowing a gasket.

The perception was that Mitt Romney won the night because he dominated the discussion. I wouldn't so much call it dominating as much as hijacking, bullying his way through the evening and running roughshod over moderator Lehrer, who obviously should have been in bed by the time the debate began and most likely forgot to take his vitamin supplements. But perceptions are key and anyone watching last night who was still "undecided" (if your definition of undecided is low information moron) probably leaned Romney. I doubt that anyone voting for Obama had their mind changed last night.

Here's my take:

While most of us were waiting for Obama's knockout punch with the 47% line, or Bain Capital, or Romneycare, or Massachusetts job creation numbers while Romney was governor, the realization is that President Obama is NEVER that guy. While his stump speeches are fiery, he has always been reserved and muted in his debates which Bob Cesca rightly pointed out in one of his tweets last night, complete with a video link to the first debate of 2008 with John McCain. 

That being said, Obama's had better debate performances in the past, maybe in part due to the "no rules" format last night - or at least rules that didn't seem to apply to Romney, because the rules seemly never apply to rich people. I do agree that the President didn't seem prepared with counter arguments to Romney's Gatling gun barrage of bullshit. But don't expect to see stump Barack "Fired Up! Ready To Go !" Obama behind the debate podium, though I hope they recalibrate for the next debate. Romney's aggressiveness and playing fast and loose with his policy positions, along with the low expectations of his performance (zingers, anyone?) won him the night.

I believe there is a very concerted effort on the part of the Obama campaign to avoid at all costs, the appearance of President Obama being angry or worked up for fear of the "Angry Black Man" moniker. He's the Jackie Robinson of the Presidency and it seems they feel he has to go out of his way to look measured and calm, and never get riled up when challenged in these types of situations.

As far as the substance of the debate went, how do you debate a man who completely abandoned everything that got him the nomination in the first place? When Romney stumps for the last year on his 20% across the board tax cut then flat our states that he has no intention of lowering taxes for the rich, how do you counter? 

When faced with the fact that his tax policy of making the Bush tax cuts permanent, plus cutting taxes 20% across the board, plus eliminating the estate tax, plus eliminating the alternative minimum tax (something I personally get hit with and would like restructuring) without raising revenue, thereby causing a $5 trillion hole, Romney completely did a 180 and denied that he'd approve of any tax cut that would add to the debt; something he touted for 18 months shrugged off at the drop of a hat. How do you debate that?

But here's the thing, and something that I agreed with when it came to Al Sharpton's analysis: Romney being able to say whatever he wanted to, whenever he wanted to, is going to come back to haunt him with his base. You can't run as a right wing ideologue for a year and a half and then change stride without raising the hackles of the people who voted you as their nominee based on the red meat. Romney can't say he's not going to cut education funding when education cuts are part of Paul Ryan's plan that Romney said he'd sign into law without a double take from your voters. Romney can't say he will save Medicare while admitting his Medicare program is a voucher program, and then add that he'd repeal Obamacare which extends the life of Medicare until 2024.

Ultimately, the night belonged to Romney and President Obama has to come out stronger in the next debate. The polls will probably tighten which will make us all wring our hands and sit on the edges of our seats, but if Romney continues to deny his policy positions and make shit up on the fly, I think it'll become a real problem for him. 

(Cross-posted at ABLC)

Even a Broken Clock...

... is right once every Friedman Unit.

Tom Friedman... yes, Tom "Friedman Unit" Friedman has written a scathing opinion of Mitt Romney's "1989" foreign policy thinking, including this little gem:

"...President Obama is leading on national security, and it was apparent in his U.N. speech last week, which showed a president who understands that we really do live in a more complex world today... Mitt Romney, given his international business background, should understand this, but he acts instead as if he learned his foreign policy at the International House of Pancakes..."

Ouch. IHOP. Take this assessment for what you will, but this critique in combination with the asinine comments made by Romney surrogate John Sununu whining about President Obama not killing Osama Bin Laden fast enough only emphasizes how completely inept and clueless the Romney campaign really is. And wait until the first debate in a couple of days.

(Cross-posted on ABLC)

Must Reads

John Weaver and Mark Warren: Why the GOP's Voter-Fraud Scheme Is Complete Bull

Matt Sledge: Linda McMahon Proposed Social Security "Sunset" At Tea Party Forum

Mark Shade, Reuters: Pennsylvania Voter ID Law May Be At Least Partially Blocked, Judge Signals

LOLGOP: Mitt Romney Says The Fundamentals Of His Campaign Are Strong

Jonathan Capehart: 'Romney’s nightmare scenario' was a year in the making — at least

Politcol: Ann Romney – I Don’t Consider Myself Wealthy

99 Problems

This is pretty awesome in the art of editing alone.

President Obama's Weekly Address - September 29, 2012

It’s Time for Congress to Help Responsible Homeowners

Oh! It Was a Joke!

Silly me, thinking that only a sociopath would joke about his wife's emergency landing experience.

The Los Angeles Times story that relayed Romney's airplane remark to the world was based off a pool report written by the New York Times's Ashley Parker. When we asked Parker this morning whether it seemed as if Romney made the mark in jest, she left no doubt. "Romney was joking," she e-mailed. Parker told us that while the pool report didn't explicitly indicate that Romney was joking, it was self-evident that he was. "The pool report provided the full transcript of his comments on Ann's plane scare," she said, "and it was clear from the context that he was not being serious." 

The Blaze hears the same thing from William Everitt, who attended the Saturday night Beverly Hills fund-raiser where the remark happened:

"Basically he was retelling the story and when he said ‘I don’t know why they don’t have roll down windows on airplanes,’ he looked at the audience and everyone laughed,” Everitt told TheBlaze. “It was a clearly delivered joke … There were 1,000 people there that will tell you the same thing.”

Yeah. He was joking. Everyone was laughing. Except I don't think it was. There was no stiff line reading by the Romneybot. There was no laugher. And if it was an obvious joke, it would have been reported as such in the first place. Judge for yourself.


(Cross-posted on ABLC)

Dumber Than Palin?

...I didn't think that was possible.

I knew Mitt Romney wasn't very quick on his feet, and hopefully most of America will see that once the debates with President Obama roll around. But while I vehemently disagree with his policies and ideology, I would have expected that Mitt Romney was at least a smart man out of his element in politics who will say anything because he has no moral compass. I didn't realize that he is a nitwit.

While the problems that arose with Ann Romney's airplane are nothing to make fun of, the following Mitt quote is one for the ages:

“I appreciate the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound. And I don’t think she knows just how worried some of us were,” Romney said. “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem."

Mitt Romney doesn't know why we can't open windows on high flying aircraft. ...This guy is running for president. Maybe he really does watch Jersey Shore.

(Cross-posted on ABLC)

Sarah Silverman on Voter ID Laws

NSFW

Quote of the Day

"Bush was president during the financial meltdown, the Obama team has turned that around pretty well." 

~Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol

...:blink, blink:...

Must Reads

Ezra Klein: What Romney doesn’t understand about personal responsibility

Davis Corn: Romney's Video-Debunking Claim Is…Debunked

Alec MacGillis: How Paul Ryan Convinced Washington of His Genius

John D. McKinnon: Romney's Tax Plan Fails to Gain a Foothold

Zewlina Maxwell: Now a campaign issue: Sonia Sotomayor

Michael Lewis: Obama's Way

President Obama's Weekly Address - September 22, 2012

Congress Must Act to Create Jobs and Grow the Economy