August 31, 2012

The Manufacturing of Willard Romney, Human, Is Here - By Charles P. Pierce

The Manufacturing of Willard Romney, Human, Is Here
By Charles P. Pierce

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I have to admit that I, a son of the Commonwealth and grandson of a shepherd lass from the hills of north Kerry, never looked at Willard Romney and his perfect wife and his perfect children and thought to myself that we shared a common experience as the descendants of emigres. I have to admit that I don't look at him and think anything of that sort now, either. But, by god, he made a real stab at it, and I had to respect the effort, and the raw chutzpah, if nothing else. (This is tonight's quiz, in the category "America Is a Nation of Immigrants": George Romney rose in one lifetime from abject poverty to become governor of Michigan and an auto millionnaire. Marco Rubio's father lived and died a ballroom bartender. Compare and contrast.&quot Romney also came just inches from actually inhabiting the role of a child of immigrants — Mitt Freaking Romney, who looks like his family immigrated from Mattel — and I didn't think he had that in him.

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/mitt-romney-convention-speech-12220378#ixzz258Rs8YCM

August 31, 2012

GOP Platform Declares Medicaid Unconstitutional

Source: Think Progress

GOP Platform Declares Medicaid Unconstitutional
By Ian Millhiser on Aug 31, 2012 at 10:30 am

Almost immediately after President Obama took office, many Republican politicians seized upon a distorted vision of the Constitution’s Tenth Amendment that would leave America nearly incapable of governing itself. Indeed, top Republicans — including U.S. Senators, governors and members of Congress — have claimed that everything from Social Security to Medicare to federal disaster relief to national child labor laws all violate the Constitution. A similarly erroneous vision of the Constitution has now infected the GOP’s party platform:

We support the review and examination of all federal agencies to eliminate wasteful spending, operational inefficiencies, or abuse of power to determine whether they are performing functions that are better performed by the States. These functions, as appropriate, should be returned to the States in accordance with the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. We affirm that all legislation, rules, and regulations must conform and public servants must adhere to the U.S. Constitution, as originally intended by the Framers. . . . Scores of entrenched federal programs violate the constitutional mandates of federalism by taking money from the States, laundering it through various federal agencies, only to return to the States shrunken grants with mandates attached. We propose wherever feasible to leave resources where they originate: in the homes and neighborhoods of the taxpayers.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/31/778371/gop-platform-declares-medicaid-unconstitutional/

August 31, 2012

NBC's Brian Williams and Andrea Mitchell react to Clint Eastwood's empty chair speech

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August 31, 2012

the cat was obviously a Democrat

August 31, 2012

hahahahahaha

August 31, 2012

Ryan's Reaction To Clint - Priceless

August 31, 2012

The Eastwood episode didn’t overshadow Romney, the convention, or the campaign. It was the campaign.

Jamelle Bouie had my favorite tweet of the entire Republican National Convention, when during the epically bizarre Clint Eastwood “speech,” he said: “This is a perfect representation of the campaign: an old white man arguing with an imaginary Barack Obama.”

You can’t escape the racial subtext of what happened last night. Eastwood scolded an (imaginary) black man for his perceived slights to the American way in front of an audience of millions, and a sea of mostly white faces laughed and egged him on. There isn’t anyone for “America” than Dirty Harry; like John Wayne before him, Eastwood stands in for the American sense of masculinity and rugged individualism. In his babbling incoherence, he was telling this effete liberal, possibly foreign, definitely un-American, black man the way things are really done around here.

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It perfectly encapsulates conservative thinking on race. Bigotry isn’t much more than a quirk, like drinking warm beer or being a bad tipper. In the film, Eastwood’s not a bad guy, just a lonely old war veteran further disgruntled by the deterioration of his neighborhood from a white suburban enclave to an ethnic gang wasteland. Don’t let the pandering and tokenism of a few minority eloquent minority speakers fool you: this is the mindstate of the Republican party today. Mitt Romney, who won the nomination in part because he was supposed to be the adult in the room, has played right into it with his lies about welfare and birther jokes. But he’s not a bad guy, he’s just trying to protect the America we all love. Never mind it’s an America some of us have never known.

It’s not a huge leap from “get off my lawn” to “we own this country” to “take our country back.” Someone in this equation is an intruder, claiming something they have no legitimate claim to, and for that they must pay. If Mitt Romney wins the presidency, the rest of us are stuck cleaning his Gran Torino.

http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2012/08/31/781731/clint-eastwood-delivers-the-republican-agenda/


Republicans started buzzing about their "secret guest" on Monday, if not earlier. That means they had four days to help Clint write a speech and, you know, vet it. They didn't.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/31/1126179/-RNC-nightcap-Clint-Eastwood-and-nothing-else-mattered

August 31, 2012

KARL ROVE JOKES THAT HE WANTS TO KILL TODD AKIN

Source: Think Progress

KARL ROVE JOKES THAT HE WANTS TO KILL TODD AKIN | At a fundraiser Thursday, Karl Rove told top Republican donors of his plans to use his “outside” groups — Crossroads GPS and American Crossroads — to win House and Senate seats for the party. During his remarks, Bloomberg Businessweek reports, he made the off-color joke: “We should sink Todd Akin. If he’s found mysteriously murdered, don’t look for my whereabouts!” Crossroads GPS pulled its pro-Akin ads after the Missouri Congressman and Republican Senate nominee said victims of “legitimate rape” are unlikely to become pregnant.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/08/31/782291/karl-rove-jokes-that-he-wants-to-kill-todd-akin/

August 31, 2012

OBAMA RESPONDS TO CLINT EASTWOOD!!!

President Obama offered up a photo reponse to Clint Eastwood's strange convention speech, which featured him roasting an empty chair that was intended to represent Obama. Via his campaign's Twitter feed:

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/obama-responds-to-clint-eastwoods-speech?ref=fpblg

August 31, 2012

Jeb has forgotten

Jeb has forgotten 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, Iraq, Afghanistan, anthrax, and the financial crisis. What a disaster his brother was—precisely because he did not keep us safe.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/30/1109064/-2012-GOP-convention-live-thread-3-Lyin-damn-lyin-and-Romney-Ryan