March 27, 2012

Finally an issue that Mirr Romney cares enough to fight for: an elevator for his cars.

In the same day two news reports that need to be put into juxtaposition.

First Romney is going to slash government services and budgets but isn't going to tell us what:


Mitt Romney wants to eliminate government programs and shutter cabinet agencies. Doing so, he says, is “the critical thing” that needs to be done in order to bring government books back into balance and to begin restoring the promise of America. “Actually eliminating programs is the most important way to keep Congress from stuffing the money back into them,” he told me in a 30-minute interview on March 21. It’s a smart answer and a deeply conservative one.

However this is not to say that Romney doesn't have passion about certain things and isn't willing to fight in what he believes in;

Mitt Romney believes deeply in luxury basements




Romney is willing to "fight like hell so my cars can have their own elevators"



And they say this man has no passion

March 27, 2012

We Cannot Repeal/We Cannot Replace

Idiocy defined. Romney in San Diego yesterday. Why San Diego? He isn't going to compete in California but his campaign (not the PAC is running out of money). They always use the most meaningless slogans. In this case they doubled down. There isn't going to be any repeal and they don't have anything to replace it with.

?

1) A President cannot repeal a law (and you will never get 60 senators to agree to repeal it)

2) You have NOTHING to replace it with.

The sign should say

We Cannot Repeal/We Cannot Replace

March 25, 2012

From the Romney "people", "Toons for Romney" = idiocy you have to see to believe.

From the "How Stupid Do These People Think We Are?" Department;

The Romney campaign is getting roasted in editorial cartoons almost since its inception so out pops MittFitts.com: "Toons for Romney – is a grassroots effort to support the candidacy of Governor Mitt Romney for President in 2012."

First some examples from people who are working to get Romney elected:









Here is the entire gallery: http://mittfitts.com/mittfitts-cartoon-gallery/

Now the site's owners state that they are an entirely 'grassroots' campaign with 'no' affiliation to the Romney campaign. The site has high expensive production value, sophisticated lay out and archeticture, elaborate RSS feeds, elaborate guest tracking, sophisticated legal advise, professional comic book artists formerly working for DC Comics and now illustrating for the LDS Church.

They purport to be 'grassroots' with no connection to the Romney campaign. All net proceeds from the site go to "are donated to the Romney for President campaign or affiliated Political Action Committees."

Right. No affilitation with the campaign.

In any case two mind numbing alternatives.

The first is that this is (98% probability) the off shoot of one of their PACs brainstorming sessions with their PR/Advertising people and they think that this kind of crappola is the kind of stuff that is going to get any traction with the American public at all.

The other is that this is (2% probability) the result of a bunch of guys from Romney's actual 'grass roots' campaign getting together.

Either possibility and the actual exeuction of the site is nauseating in either interpretation, ridiculous in their conception, profoundly idiotic in their substance, devoid of any humor at any point and if widely distributed absolutely counter productive to getting normal Americans to support their candidate.

Just how stupid do they think the American Public is?

March 22, 2012

The one thing that Romney just can't shake out of his Etch A Sketch Gaffecentric campaign

The Republican Party is going to have to Etch A Sketch the entire primary away. Consider the irony that Newt Gingrich is the stablizing mature sensible voice in a campaign where Romney and Santorum can't go three days straight without a major gaffe

March 22, 2012

The CDC to investigate whether or not 'Palinitis' is a contagious disease.

AP
Atlanta
Dewey Cheetham


With today's Super Gaffe "Romney is an Etch a Sketch" and "were going to take back everything we said after the nomination" and yesterday's Santorum Super Gaffe" "I don't care about the unemployment number" serious minds have to wonder whether or not the mind numbing insularity and bizzare penchant for self immolation on the campaign trail is in fact a contagious disease that has run amok among Presidential contenders.

A careful epidomological study has begun by the CDC to see who has had contact with what Republican nominees/celebrity gadflys. In order to trace the progress of the disease epidomologists are going back to the first candidate who showed full blown Palinitis, Michelle Backmann, and trace to see how this insidious disease is being spread among Republican politicians/and psuedo politician hucksters.

The strain is seen as morphing radically as different Republicans are showing different but still related symptoms: Governors McDonnell (forced ultrasound), Daniels (right to work), Scott (too many symptoms to list), Walker (public union busting) all seem to have been infected. More and more Senators and Congressman, Ryan (repeating the disastorous elimination of Medicare), Sterns (birther guy) all seem to indicate that this is a particular virulent strain of a brain reducing virus that seems to attack a Republicans ability to process normal human thoughts.

Some early attempts at screening have shown alarming results: A whopping 63% of Republican politicians tested were unaware that Ammendment 19 to the Constitution gave women the right to vote. An even larger percent, 78% were unaware that most Americans enjoyed sexual activity and relied on birth control prescriptions in order to enjoy more frequent sexual activity. Over 53% of the test group could not identify OPEC or what they did and were convinced that the President set the nation's gas prices at the daily staff meeting. Most surprising in the results were 84% of those tested stated that the Iraq war achieved "Mission Accomplished" status withing 6 months of initial hostilities, that massive stocks of WMD were found and that a war with Iran would take more or less than 6-9 months with the main obstacle for our troops trying to get the deliriously happy Iranian population to return to normal day to day activity after the first bombs started to fall on Tehran.

Leading CDC scientists said that they expected that the results of their studies should be completed around the second week of November.

March 21, 2012

William Kristol, "We are so screwed".

No he didn't use those words but Mr. Kristol isn't getting any Matthews like "thrill going up (his) leg" in today's article titled, ironically "Feeling Blue".



About that "time to improve" thingy Bill, he's had 5 years to improve. Might say that Romney is learning curve impaired.

March 20, 2012

The 7%ers. The people who are beyond human reason.

We all know one or two. Some of us have inlaws like it. We have all had or known one teacher who fit the description.

Now we know that the percent of the population in the US that is completely beyond normal human emotion and completely irrational.

In a recent PPP poll they asked all the normal questions and then asked if putting your dog on the roof for a long car ride was humane and so on.

The 9th question was

http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/familiespollresults.pdf

Mitt Romney once strapped his dog’s kennel to
the roof of his car for a long car trip. Does this
make you more or less likely to vote for him, or
does it not make a difference?
More likely....................................................... 7%
Less likely ....................................................... 35%
Doesn't make a difference .............................. 55%
Not sure .......................................................... 2%


I can understand people saying it doesn't make a difference, or being unsure, but how f***** up do you have to be to say that is one of the things that actually makes it more likely to vote for somebody?

March 19, 2012

Revised Prediction for the Rep. Primary: Bitterness, Gnashing of teeth, Years of Recrimination.

Early on based on the new proportional delegate rules, an appreciation of just how terrible Romney is as a candidate, and familiarity with just how much the Evangelicals distrust Mormons I predicted a brokered convention.

While the NYT Times and others are coming closer to my original prediction, and I still would hope that is the case and think it will be very close, a closer look at the half way mark, I revise my prediction;

I now predict that it will go down to the wire and though Santorum will coalesce the anti Romney vote and get some big victories in Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, West Virginia and maybe even California, it won't be decided until the very last state. There will be Bitterness, Gnashing of Teeth and Years of Recrimination. Lots of quotes from the Bible too.

DemconWatch, now DemocraticConventionWatch, reports that at the half way point (that's right this clowns are approaching half time) Romney has only 40% of the delegates.

Details here: http://www.democraticconventionwatch.com/diary/5229/official-rnc-delegate-count

The totals are

Romney 416
Santorum 170
Gingrich 133
Paul 26
Unbound 304

While still rooting for a classic donnybrook at the Republican convention it actually looks like Romney is going to just squeak in before the bell.

Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is a three day fight with Credentials Committee at the Republican Convention where every slate of delegates is challenged by large well founded groups of lawyers. Well the other thing is I would like the Republicans to take atleast 118 ballots to decide on their nominee, and I have been a really good boy all year long.

But if I can't have that could you please arrange it so that one side gains momentum and almost takes out the rich establishment droid but that it comes down to the very last state, and that state will determine whether or not there is a great and lasting fissure in the Republican Party that would last for years ?

Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase?


While Romney's 40% and his declining momentum would SEEM to indicate that he will fall short the real story is the stunning incompetence of Santorum. Wikipedia shows that Santorum is doing better the longer the process goes on;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_presidential_primaries,_2012

Early Contests Romney 8, Santorum 4, Gingrich 1
Super Tuesday Romney 7, Santorum 3, Gingrich 1
Mid March Romney 5, Santorum 3, and Ron Paul 1 (evidently he won the Virgin Islands)

It appears that Romney is slowing and that as we get into April where the rules switch back to winner take all, the non Romney faction would seem to be able to stall Romney short of the 1144 needed before the convention.

There are two problems.

The first is: Santorum is an idiot. His campaign never mastered the arcane rules of delegate husbanding that requires that you register delegates in each state by the particular rules of each state so in some places he will win votes and lose delegates. The second is his hubristic centric campaign where he is so determined not to pander that he goes out of the way to antagonize people. He goes to Puerto Rico and insults their fidelity to Spanish and ends up giving Romney all of the delegates, where if he had stayed and insulted the Puerto Ricans from Illinois he would have improved his chances.

The second problem is that after Illinois and Louisiana the Republicans return to winner take all either by state or congressional districts.

Here is the fucking irony.

It could very well come down to the last Primary.

The future leader of the Republican Party could very well be determined by the votes in the last winner take all primary. The other side will be embittered and angry. If Romney loses now then Mormons and his supporters will have a permanent mark of rejection on their soul. If Santorum loses the Evangelicals and the anti Romney MAJORITY of the Republican Party will be bitter.

My latest prediction; Bitterness and gnashing of teeth with anger and recriminations for years to come.

It will come down to that last final vote in a winner take all.

On June 26th the Republican Primary process ends with one final state.

Utah.

And some people say that there is no such thing as a Santa Clause.

Its begining to look a lot like Christmas.

March 17, 2012

Why I think Mitt Romney is running for President.

He has no particularly strong policy positions.

He waffles on both sides.

He is not comfortable with celebrity who dislikes personal questions and hates to be interviewed. When off script he cringes and reveals that he doesn't really like 'the crowd'.

So why is Mitt Romney running for President, especially when he is so poor at it and it inflicts such painful criticism of him before his family.

There are two possible explanations. The first is that he is trying to exceed his father's legacy. His father was a very nice man who was at ease in public and had a pretty good chance of becoming President except for a single interview where he told the truth about the Vietnam war and his experience on a junket there.

The second is completely anecdotal and I have no proof, just speculation, it goes back 40 years to growing up with cousins of Mitt. In a nutshell I believe that Mitt Romney's drive has to do with becoming the 4th most important person in the history of the Mormon Church. There have been three important bridges in Mormon history. The bridge of revelation (Smith), the bridge to Mormon Migration and Mormon Territory (Young), the bridge to Modernity and Conformity (Grant). The fourth bridge will be the person that brings Mormonism into complete and total acceptance of the American Christian community.

In 1968 George Romney was ahead of Nixon in the polls and was much better liked. He had a warm personality and great success story as CEO and Governor of Michigan. He was candid and relaxed and that led to his stating that he was for the Vietnam war before and during a trip he made there but when he returned he began to realize that the diplomatic and military people in Vietnam were very insulated and that he had been 'brainwashed' by their briefings and enthusiasm for the war but upon reflection began to see the conflict differently. The use of the word 'brainwashed' a year before in an obscure radio interview was unearthed and played over and over again and effectively ended his political career.

At that time I was 14 years old and was the direct descendent of (along with hundreds of others including Senator Bennett of Utah http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells-Bennett-Grant_Family#Jedediah_Morgan_Grant ) of Jedidiah Morgan Grant (the first mayor of Salt Lake City) and his son Heber J Grant (the second longest serving President of the Mormon Church 1919 - 1945). HJG had three major impact on the Church a) He started a 'Good Neighbor Pollicy' that removed revenge of anti Mormon 'persecution' and replaced it with a 'Good Neighbor' b) When the Depression hit the LDS church was seriously overleveraged and on the brink of insolvency he instituted internal reforms (see c) and went to New York and successfully negotiated refinance and kept the Church solvent and c) He moved the LDS Church from a wink and nod approach to polygamy (which he was found guilty of earlier) to starting to excommunicate Mormons that still practiced and pomoted it.

Heber J Grant was also the last living member of the Council of Fifty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Fifty)

The Council of Fifty was designed to take over the administration of government when in a post apocalyptic world all other governments collapsed. It was active in Joseph Smiths campaign for President in 1844.

With that background I had a number of interesting exchanges with one Rick Romney in the 8th grade. Rick was George's nephew and Mitt's first cousin. Even at that age I had a lot of interest in politics and would talk about the campaign with Rick. I also let it slip that I was a descendent of Heber J and Jedidiah Morgan Grant.

Rick was in absolute awe. He was more impressed with my distant relatives (with whom we had no real contact beyond the occassional Uncle visit). I would dribble out little tidbits from time to time. What was particularly fascinating was Ricks' reaction that we were no longer Mormons. It was incomprehensible to him. I explained that virtually no one in our immeidiate family bar one uncle that was a true insider, stayed up with it and I would dismissively mock the goofy things I had heard from my father about Mormon beliefs.

Rick wasn't surprised that we didn't buy it all but couldn't understand why we just didn't pass that stuff by and build on the fantastic network of relations that our family would have had.

I couldn't understand how he would accept the mumbo jumbo of Mormonism and he couldn't accept why I would be so concerned with any particular doctrine and turn away from such a vaulted family history.

He viewed my antecedents as being close to the Matthew, Mark or Luke and I viewed them as earlier forms of the three stooges.

Now I am also sure that Rick was a lot nicer about it than me and that I was probably pretty shitty about it way back then.

But seeing how Mormons see Smith/Young and Grant and how they still sting at being outside the realm of what is considered acceptable and respectable intellectual thought I see Mitt Romney's campaign as an effort to achieve what Joseph Smith attempted in 1844 but never achieved, election as President would put a permanent 'Good Housekeeping Seal of approval' on the LDS Church as being American as apple pie.

From their point of view even a successful nomination of a major party, even if it is defeated in a general election will provide massive and permanent 'certification' as Mormons being considered normal.

It would also explain why Romney always seems to be trying to get everyone's approval, he wants to be known as the fourth great Mormon, the one that finally brought Mormonism inside of the American establishment.

March 17, 2012

Bothering Romney over and over about Seamus is rather childish (snicker) . . .

Much more substantial is how incompetent a public figure has he been and how disasterous would Romney be as President if he cannot after all of these years (it was first published in 2007) craft a half baked semi intelligent response over something that he knows he is going to be asked about?

A Romney President would be like a daily remix of Jean Paul Satre's Nauseau and Bill Murray's Groundhog Day. Hundreds of millions would be reduced to existential vomit inducing angst like Satre's Antoine Roquentin mixed occassionally by the psychotic humor breaks of Bill Murray's Phil Connors.

If he cannot dispatch this one issue with a sensible if untrue answer after all of these years then what would happen to all of us having to listen to a President constantly twisting in the wind trying to express basic intelligent human thought.

For the record this is Romney's prepared response to the torture of the family pet Seamus on the road to Canada. In this video Romney's response to the question is so close to vomit inducing embarassment that his handler terminates the interview with the Wall Street Journal:

"Love my dog.” “That’s all I’ve got for ya,”.


Think about listening to that kind of a dribble at a Presidential Press conference and then the days and months and years following that single press conference trying to get some semblance of cognitive resonance from that twerp. Can you feel the bile starting to coagulate and reside in the back of your throat, the gagging reflex beginning as you begin to search for a receptacle that you can deposit your stomach's remaining mulch from the afternoon meal?

An entire nation suffering from 4 years of Bulimia nervosa.
There is a reason that this issue continues to, yes, it had to be said, continues to dog Romney.

An entire nation strapped to the roof of Romney's car desperately trying to find momentary relief from the naseau that the addle brained driver inflicts on millions.

There are no articles of impeachment for causing mass barfing.