February 7, 2012

Class Envy Ruminations by Mitt Romney - and coming up.... (Bagley cartoon)

Bone headed and Skewed
as usual

February 7, 2012

Lieutenant Colonel Reports Pentagon Lying about Afghanistan

HOT: Lieutenant Colonel Reports Pentagon Lying about Afghanistan

In the Armed Forces Journal, LT. COL. Daniel Davis writes:
I spent last year in Afghanistan, visiting and talking with U.S. troops and their Afghan partners. My duties with the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force took me into every significant area where our soldiers engage the enemy. Over the course of 12 months, I covered more than 9,000 miles and talked, traveled and patrolled with troops in Kandahar, Kunar, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika, Kunduz, Balkh, Nangarhar and other provinces.

What I saw bore no resemblance to rosy official statements by U.S. military leaders about conditions on the ground.

Entering this deployment, I was sincerely hoping to learn that the claims were true: that conditions in Afghanistan were improving, that the local government and military were progressing toward self-sufficiency. I did not need to witness dramatic improvements to be reassured, but merely hoped to see evidence of positive trends, to see companies or battalions produce even minimal but sustainable progress.

Instead, I witnessed the absence of success on virtually every level.

snip

for the source and the rest:
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/02/hot-lieutenant-colonel-reports-pentagon.html

February 7, 2012

The Nation: How the GOP Is Resegregating the South - by Ari Berman

The Nation: How the GOP Is Resegregating the South -
Ari Berman: The GOP's Redistricting Campaign Is Turning the South Red

This article was reported in partnership with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute. 
?

North Carolina State Senator Eric Mansfield was born in 1964, a year before the passage of the Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed the right to vote for African-Americans. He grew up in Columbus, Georgia, and moved to North Carolina when he was stationed at Fort Bragg. He became an Army doctor, opening a practice in Fayetteville after leaving the service. Mansfield says he was always “very cynical about politics” but decided to run for office in 2010 after being inspired by Barack Obama’s presidential run.

He ran a grassroots campaign in the Obama mold, easily winning the election with 67 percent of the vote. He represented a compact section of northwest Fayetteville that included Fort Bragg and the most populous areas of the city. It was a socioeconomically diverse district, comprising white and black and rich and poor sections of the city. Though his district had a black voting age population (BVAP) of 45 percent, Mansfield, who is African-American, lives in an old, affluent part of town that he estimates is 90 percent white. Many of his neighbors are also his patients.

But after the 2010 census and North Carolina’s once-per-decade redistricting process—which Republicans control by virtue of winning the state’s General Assembly for the first time since the McKinley administration—Mansfield’s district looks radically different. It resembles a fat squid, its large head in an adjoining rural county with little in common with Mansfield’s previously urban district, and its long tentacles reaching exclusively into the black neighborhoods of Fayetteville.

For the entire article go to:

http://www.thenation.com/print/article/165976/how-gop-resegregating-south

February 6, 2012

LTE - about Prayer in Schools. "Prayer 24-7" in the Winston-Salem Journal this morning

Letter to the Editor, Monday Feb. 6, 2012
Winston-Salem Journal
Winston-Salem, NC

Prayer, 24-7

I believe we should mandate prayer in schools.

But before we can, we must first

Prove that God does in fact exist. (Tangible evidence, please, because even atheists have faith.)

Determine which god is the God. (There are more than 4,000 known religions on Earth, all competing for the top spot. Until we filter out the nonexistent gods from the real one(s), we run the risk of many children praying to something that doesn't exist — a colossal waste of precious school time.)

Verify whether or not God has almighty powers. (If so, then we don't need to pray. God already knows our wishes and will act accordingly.)

If not, then next we should verify that God is accepting prayer requests. (Because no one likes unsolicited spam.)

Lastly, we should verify that God actually answers prayers. (Otherwise, what's the point?)

Once we accomplish the above, we should immediately mandate prayer in schools. In fact, I will probably pull my child from school so that we can just pray all day. (Sorry, teachers, but talking to God seems way more stimulating than class time with you guys.)

But until then, we probably should focus on creating a bunch of really smart scientists, mathematicians, artists, doctors, engineers and teachers who might someday answer this and life's other great riddles.

This will require every minute of the school day, I'm afraid.

R.R.



www.journalnow.com

February 2, 2012

A Clarification from Mitt Romney - (it's about poor people) as told by Andy Borowitz

LA JOLLA, CA (The Borowitz Report) – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney today released the following letter to the American people:

Dear American People:

Yesterday, comments I made about poor people made me look terrible. This always seems to happen when I say what I really believe.

The fact is, I do care about poor people. That’s because I’m poor myself, when you compare me to Mark Zuckerberg.

According to most projections, Facebook’s IPO should net Mr. Zuckerberg a personal fortune of $28 billion. I couldn’t make a pile of dough-re-mi like that even if I fired people twenty-four hours a day.

Now, let’s take a look at Mitt Romney’s net worth: a measly $200 million. Now do you see why I consider myself poor? Compared to Mark Zuckerberg, Mitt Romney is practically a crack whore.

Now, I’m not going to sit here and envy a rich person like Mark Zuckerberg. That’s exactly what President Obama wants poor people like me to do. Mark Zuckerberg made his money fair and square, by creating useful products like imaginary sheep and angry birds. Say what you will about Facebook, it has totally revolutionized the way we waste our lives.

The fact is, if you’re poor in America, you should do what Mark Zuckerberg did: create a social network. I’ve just started my own, called TwoFaceBook. With TwoFaceBook, your profile doesn’t stay the same for more than two seconds.

In closing, there’s one more reason I don’t worry about poor people. They have Groupons.

Vote for me,

Mitt Romney


www.borowitzreport.com

February 2, 2012

Call a couple of hours ago from a night owl German friend who follows our Politics

Well, he said, I've been watching. It looks like Romney came out of the slimey cesspool of your mud wrestling fights as the winner.

I wish it had been the other one, the nastiest one. Because then we could watch the candidates fight each other for longer and harder.

The reason we wish that is because if America is pre-occupied with these people destroying each other, then we in Europe don't have to worry about them starting a new and additional war.

I did not have a whole lot I could say to that, I'm sorry to report

February 1, 2012

Romney Wins Florida Primary, Regaining Momentum

Mitt Romney has won the Florida primary after aggressively beating back a challenge from Newt Gingrich and regaining momentum on his relentless march toward the Republican presidential nomination.

Interviews with voters as they exited the polls in Florida allow The New York Times to project that Mr. Romney will win the state by a wide margin over Mr. Gingrich, who will come in second. Ron Paul and Rick Santorum will finish the night behind the two leaders.

The campaign now shifts immediately to Nevada, which will hold its caucuses on Saturday. Mr. Gingrich has vowed to continue his battle against a man he calls “a Massachusetts moderate.” And Mr. Santorum and Mr. Paul have already left Florida to begin campaigning in the upcoming states.


Read More:
http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/primaries/results/live/2012-01-31?emc=na

January 31, 2012

Does this bread look good to you? Out of the oven and into my family's mouths.

It's black olive, roasted red peppers, wheat bread with some whole wheat and a bit of added gluten.
It seems to be a hit around here.

January 31, 2012

Reince Priebus - once more - remove the vowels

REINCE PRIEBUS

take out all the vowels and you have

RNC PR BS

I fully believe they made his name up in a secret committee and thought we would not catch on.

Republican National Committee Public Relations Bull Shit

Yup.
Werks for me.
You've been listening to him lately, yes?

edited to put the e before the i, not that it matters...

January 30, 2012

Sarah Palin Urges Newt Vote in Florida, Says Gingrich Will 'Clobber' Obama

Sarah Palin Urges Newt Vote in Florida, Says Gingrich Will 'Clobber' Obama

Sarah Palin is urging Florida voters to vote for Newt Gingrich on Tuesday in their state's Republican primary.

"Vote for Newt," Palin told Jeanine Pirro, host of the Fox News weekend program "Justice with Jeanine."

Palin made a passionate plea for Republican voters to reject Mitt Romney in Florida to keep the primary process going forward.

The former Alaska governor made it crystal clear that she favors former House Speaker Gingrich, suggesting that the Republican establishment in New York and Washington is trying to anoint former Massachusetts Gov. Romney the GOP nominee.

"And I say, you know, you’ve got to rage against the machine at this point in order to defend our republic and save what is good and secure and prosperous about our nation,” Palin said. “We need somebody who is engaged in sudden and relentless reform and is not afraid to shake up the establishment. So, if for no other reason, rage against the machine, vote for Newt, annoy a liberal, vote Newt, keep this vetting process going, keep the debate going.”

Here are key points Palin made on Fox:

read them here:

http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/Palin-Gingrich-Florida-Romney/2012/01/29/id/425837