2012 US Election -- Round 2

[Coito ergo sum]

Today is the last day of the Republican convention.

There have been 3 arrests, only one of which was a violent encounter. Two protesters got in a fight with each other.

I'm in Tampa every day. You could't have asked for a better, more peaceful convention. The locals were friendly to out-of-towners. There was no violence. Protesters were allowed to protest, and everyone did their thing.

Nobody got shot.

In one of the more major incidents a crowd of protesters taunted cops by dangling doughnuts from strings attached to sticks. The cops laughed along with them. The protesters then tried to incite an incident by all sitting down in the middle of an intersection for 15 minutes. The cops calmly addressed the situation by talking to the crowd. After about 15 minutes the crowd got up and left, asking the police for directions to another protest site.

[Ian]

If Romney had gone with this speech last night, I might actually have considered voting for him:

“My fellow Republicans — boy, you sure make it tough on a guy! I knew it would be hard to run the gauntlet of a Republican primary process. But knowing you’ll have to twist yourself into a pretzel and actually doing it are two very different things.

“Not so long ago I was a ‘pro-choice progressive’ who supported indexing the minimum wage to inflation — something even Ted Kennedy didn’t endorse. I said that smart regulation was essential to make markets work. I believed in public investment in critical research and development and infrastructure.

“And then there’s health care. I’ve been bursting all year to say this, and now that the delegates have voted, I feel we can speak freely. I’m incredibly proud of what we did in Massachusetts! I’m the only governor who passed a universal health-care law — heck, when the dust clears, Obamacare will still leave out 20 million to 30 million people! My reform brought health security to hundreds of thousands and did so in a market-based way that turned out to be a model for the country.

“In other words, through my leadership of a small state, I’ve already had a major influence on national policy that will make every American’s life more secure. In a sane world, this bipartisan accomplishment would have been my major credential for the presidency.

“Then I had to deal with you people. And I’ll be honest — you’re crazy! You’ve made me pretend all year that making sure every Massachusetts resident had secure access to health insurance was somehow bad, and that Barack Obama’s desire to do this for the country is worse. You made me stand up and say that a deficit-cutting deal with $10 in spending cuts for every $1 in taxes wasn’t good enough! And don’t get me started on gays, guns or God.

“But I’ve done everything you’ve asked. And you’ve rewarded me for telling you what you wanted to hear. Why did I say a bunch of stuff I don’t believe? Because I know this: Once I get the power, it won’t matter what I’ve said before.

“That’s the flaw with all the comparisons of me to my dad. Dad gave back big bonuses. Dad put out 12 years of tax returns. Dad told the party where to get off. Well, my father was my hero. But you know what Dad never did? Dad never became the GOP nominee or the president. See if you can figure out the lessons I drew about the payoff for purity in American public life.

“People think I’ve had it easy. Well, they’re mostly right. I come from a wealthy family and had every advantage. Ann — I loved you for saying Tuesday night that success hadn’t been handed to me. But everything up through Harvard Business School had been, and that’s more than 99.9 percent of Americans can say.

“But I’ve paid one big price. All I hear about from the press is the ‘empathy gap.’ What about your empathy for me?

“You want to know about the ‘real’ me? I’m a man who wants the power of the presidency. That makes me exactly like all the men who’ve won that office before. You think it’s easy adjusting to the endless intellectual dishonesty that political ambition requires? Those who don’t want power are free to say what they think and believe. I don’t have that luxury. No one who wants to hold power in a democracy does.

“It’s not storming the beaches of Normandy, I know, but it’s a sacrifice.

“Delegates and members of the press, it’s a story as old as ambition itself. At the end of Robert Harris’s wonderfully imagined novel ‘Imperium,’ which traces Cicero’s political rise, Cicero confides in his trusted aide after years of intricate maneuvering have finally led him to be elected consul.

“ ‘How will posterity judge us . . .?’ Cicero asks after the election. ‘That is the only question for a statesman. But before it can judge us, it must first remember who we are.’ ”

“Winning the prize comes first. What I’ll do with the power — well, let’s talk about that on November 7.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ ... ml?hpid=z3

[macdoc]

Repuglies in full ugly mode....
and my bridge partner wonders why American's are a laughing stock around the world....

Exclusive: Inside Karl Rove's Billionaire Fundraiser

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... draiser#p1
best comment

Jane Devin, Today 09:19 AM
Stunning on so many levels. It's not their actions that keep them out of orange jump suits, it's their lawyers. Romney doesn't really matter, except that he's a good puppet for other corporate profiteers. After tying Obama's hands in every conceivable way, their plan is to show how he didn't keep his promises. Tweeted and FB'ed and hope more people will read, because this isn't about welfare, abortion, jobs, or even politics as usual. This election is about whether we have a government "for the people, by the people" or "for corporations, by corporations".

[Gawdzilla Sama]

200 achievement of the Obama Administration not the least of which is preventing a Bush Depression.

[Warren Dew]

200 achievement of the Obama Administration not the least of which is preventing a Bush Depression.

By making a deeper and longer Obama depression, perhaps.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

200 achievement of the Obama Administration not the least of which is preventing a Bush Depression.

By making a deeper and longer Obama depression, perhaps.

[Ian]

Doesn't really pertain to the 2012 election, but: http://thehill.com/video/in-the-news/24 ... al-college

Thank you Al!
I sincerely hope this gathers some steam. It's long past time we abolished this hinderance to democracy.

[Ian]

[Animavore]

This article doesn't show Mitt in a very good light.

http://m.rollingstone.com/entry/view/id ... 9b3191b0c0

[macdoc]

nor this - made me chuckle - too true

http://www.thestar.com/article/1250184

[Gawdzilla Sama]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2 ... story.html

[macdoc]

How the GOP presidential candidate and his private equity firm staged an epic wealth grab, destroyed jobs – and stuck others with the bill

BY MATT TAIBBI
August 29, 2012 7:00 AM ET
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/ne ... l-20120829

The great criticism of Mitt Romney, from both sides of the aisle, has always been that he doesn't stand for anything. He's a flip-flopper, they say, a lightweight, a cardboard opportunist who'll say anything to get elected.

The critics couldn't be more wrong. Mitt Romney is no tissue-paper man. He's closer to being a revolutionary, a backward-world version of Che or Trotsky, with tweezed nostrils instead of a beard, a half-Windsor instead of a leather jerkin. His legendary flip-flops aren't the lies of a bumbling opportunist – they're the confident prevarications of a man untroubled by misleading the nonbeliever in pursuit of a single, all-consuming goal. Romney has a vision, and he's trying for something big: We've just been too slow to sort out what it is, just as we've been slow to grasp the roots of the radical economic changes that have swept the country in the last generation.

The incredible untold story of the 2012 election so far is that Romney's run has been a shimmering pearl of perfect political hypocrisy, which he's somehow managed to keep hidden, even with thousands of cameras following his every move. And the drama of this rhetorical high-wire act was ratcheted up even further when Romney chose his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin – like himself, a self-righteously anal, thin-lipped, Whitest Kids U Know penny pincher who'd be honored to tell Oliver Twist there's no more soup left. By selecting Ryan, Romney, the hard-charging, chameleonic champion of a disgraced-yet-defiant Wall Street, officially succeeded in moving the battle lines in the 2012 presidential race.

more

Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital | Politics News | Rolling Stone

[macdoc]

Love it....



Barack to Clint...

This seat's taken. ic.twitter.com/jgGZTb02

[macdoc]

[Ian]

"God absent from Democrats' Party Platform"
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/20 ... -platform/

(CNN) – Democrats omitted the word "God" from their 2012 platform, a change from the party's 2008 document and a noticeable split from Republicans, who mention God ten times in their official party stance.

In 2008, Democrats wrote, "We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values, and interests of working people, and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential."

The paragraph extolling the value of hard work in 2012 reads, "We gather to reclaim the basic bargain that built the largest middle class and the most prosperous nation on Earth-the simple principle that in America, hard work should pay off, responsibility should be rewarded, and each one of us should be able to go as far as our talent and drive take us."

David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network first reported on the exclusion of the word "God" in the Democrats' platform.

Democrats did include a section in their 2012 platform specifically devoted to faith, writing faith "has always been a central part of the American story, and it has been a driving force of progress and justice throughout our history."

"There is no conflict between supporting faith-based institutions and respecting our Constitution, and a full commitment to both principles is essential for the continued flourishing of both faith and country," the document reads.

A Democratic official pointed out that 2008's reference to God was not specifically about faith, but rather about growing the middle class, and that the 2012 language specifically referring to faith was identical to 2008's document. The official also noted that the word "faith" appears 11 times in the document, "religion" or "religious" 9 times, "church" 2 times (one time appearing within a quote), and "clergy" 1 time.

The lack of references to God in the 2012 platform is a change both from the 2008 document, with one reference to God, and the 2004 platform, which mentioned God seven times, as noted by The Blaze.

In 2000 the Democrats' official party platform mentioned God four times.

David Silverman, president of American Atheists, said the exclusion of "God" in the Democrats' document was a step forward in including non-religious Americans in the official party stance.

"We are obviously happy that the Democrats are taking these positive steps," Silverman wrote. "We are looking for the inclusion of everyone and we are hopeful that that inclusion will continue to the point that we can depend on Mr. Obama to repeal the faith based initiatives and reinforce the separation of church and state."

"It comes as a pleasant surprise," he added. "It is something that we have been pushing for and is certainly a positive step. But it is only one step and I would like to see action more than words."

"God" is the second conspicuous omission from the Democrats' 2012 platform. The party also removed a 2008 reference to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a diplomatic flashpoint that Republicans decried as a slight to the Jewish state.

In the Republicans' official 2012 party platform, God is mentioned ten times in various forms, including seven cases of the phrase "God-given."