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zuul

zuul's Journal
zuul's Journal
September 13, 2012

Aren’t we all supposed to be on the same team?

I had a reply post hidden this morning because I misread the question asked in the OP.

The question put forth by justiceforall was ‘Maybe we can make #DescribeRomneyInOneWord trend too'. The TITLE of this post was about the Romney campaign. I misread the TEXT of the post and thought the OP was asking for more one-word descriptions for Romney. I replied ‘disastrous’. Yes, I screwed up, but make no mistake, I am an ardent, enthusiastic supporter of President Obama.

And I understand that there are trolls on DU, as on every other website in the world. But I contributed to DU shortly after I joined. One jurist even wrote “Wow. A donating troll. Clever”. Does that make even the least bit of sense? Why would I bother to donate if I was a troll? Be assured that I have better things to do with my time and money than troll websites.

I have served on several juries since joining DU. I only agree to serve when I have sufficient time to review the OP and the associated alert and really put some thought into it. I wouldn’t serve if I didn’t have the time to give this the attention it deserves.

I am new to DU, I am human, and I make mistakes. Perhaps it would have been more civil if the person who alerted would have simply replied to me and asked ‘WTF’.

I have never known a group of people so quick to pounce on someone else. Not just me; I have noticed that other DU members are attacked as well, with the attackers always assuming there are trolls aboard, or assuming that the poster is being callous. Aren’t we all supposed to be on the same team?

Thanks for the warm welcome!

September 12, 2012

Limbaugh said Wednesday that Clinton and Obama must think Americans are stupid

By KEVIN ROBILLARD, Politico.com 9/12/12 3:27 PM EDT

Rush Limbaugh: Libyans didn’t aid ambassador

Rush Limbaugh said Wednesday that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama must think Americans are “stupid” if they expect them to believe that Libyans were trying to help the U.S. ambassador killed in an attack Tuesday on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

“Then to add insult to injury, we have to listen this morning — honest to God folks — to Mrs. Clinton and Obama praise the Libyans for trying to save our ambassador,” the conservative radio host said Wednesday. “These pictures that you’ve seen with the ambassador upside-down, half naked, being carried over somebody’s shoulder? We’re told, ‘Yeah, our friends in Libya were taking him to the hospital.’ They paraded our ambassador around! Taking him to the hospital? How stupid do they think we are?”

A report from the Associated Press and a photo caption from Getty Images indicate Libyan citizens took an unconscious Ambassador Christopher Stevens to a hospital in Benghazi. A doctor who treated him told the AP he tried to revive Stevens for 90 minutes.

“When the attack came yesterday, Libyans stood and fought to defend our post,” Clinton said during an appearance Wednesday at the State Department. “Some were wounded. Libyans carried Chris’s body to the hospital, and they helped rescue and lead other Americans to safety.”

Obama said the same in a statement from the Rose Garden. “Libyans helped some of our diplomats find safety, and they carried Ambassador Stevens’s body to the hospital, where we tragically learned that he had died,” he said.

OxyRush is such a puke!

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81125.html#ixzz26HyxRyBz

September 12, 2012

CNN Poll: Obama Favored in Debates

from CNN.com:

CNN Poll:Who will win the Presidential Debates?

Most voters think President Barack Obama will have an advantage in the three debates, according to a new national survey. And a CNN/ORC International poll (PDF) released Tuesday also indicates Obama's approval rating at 51%, a gray area for an incumbent president running for re-election.

Fifty-nine percent of likely voters questioned in the survey say that Obama is more likely to do a better job than Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in the debates, with 34% saying that Romney will beat Obama.

While only five percent of Democrats think that Romney will have the upper hand in the October showdowns, 18% of Republicans say that Obama will have the advantage.

The debates are scheduled to be held on October 3 in Denver, Colorado, October 16, in Hempstead, New York, and October 22 in Boca Raton, Florida. CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley, anchor of "State of the Union," will moderate the October 16 debate. Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan, the GOP vice presidential nominee, face off on October 11 in Danville, Kentucky.

The CNN poll was conducted Friday through Sunday, entirely after last week's Democratic convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. According to the survey, 51% of adults nationwide approve of the job Obama is doing in the White House, with 44% saying they disapprove. The 51% approval is up three points from last week's CNN poll, which was conducted before the Democratic convention.

more at:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/11/cnn-poll-who-will-win-the-presidential-debates/?hpt=hp_bn3
September 12, 2012

Ex-Ambassador 'Very Disappointed' in 'Unwise' Romney Response

from NBC.com:

Former Amb. R. Nicholas Burns, who has served in both Democratic and Republican administrations, said he was “disappointed” in Mitt Romney’s reaction to the violence in Egypt and Libya, which resulted in the deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three embassy staffers.

“I was, frankly, very disappointed and dismayed to see Gov. Romney inject politics into this very difficult situation where our embassies are under attack, where there’s been a big misunderstanding in the Middle East, apparently, about an American film, where we’re trying to preserve the lives of our diplomats,” Burns said on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports this afternoon. “This is no time for politics.”

Burns added: “I just think that Gov. Romney has, in a very unwise way, injected himself into a situation where he clearly doesn’t have all the facts.”

Congressman Mike Rogers, a Republican from Michigan and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, avoided Romney’s same level of criticism on the show, appearing to call for a pause in the political rhetoric for a few days.

“I do think there’s room for discussion after we get through these very troubling few days about maybe policies overall and those kinds of discussions and that’s probably a fair debate to have in this upcoming election,” Rogers said. “What we should be focused on now is that we lose a United States ambassador. And what’s key about this is we ask these folks to serve in very dangerous places. They are civilians. They are to represent the United States and just fundamentally try to avoid conflict. So the fact that these guys were deliberately targeted – they knew the ambassador wouldn’t be armed – tells us we’ve got some troubles we’re going to have to deal with, especially in Libya. This was a well-armed, well-coordinated event. It had both indirect and direct fire, and it had military maneuvers that were all part of this very organized attack. That’s concerning. That means we are going to have to make sure, working with the Libyans hopefully, that these folks are brought to justice very swiftly. We cannot allow this to stand for the United States.”

Rogers added, “I’m not exactly sure what Gov. Romney was specifically talking about. I think probably what you saw there was the frustration with a foreign policy that probably is a little out of kilter of where the governor would be when it comes to the Middle East. I think that’s probably what you’re seeing there.”

more at:
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/12/13831663-ex-ambassador-very-disappointed-in-unwise-romney-response
September 12, 2012

Jeebus . . . the assholes at Fox will seize on any perceived fault

of the Democrats:

From Pox News website, 'Dems Apparently Used Russian Warships in Convention Tribute to Vets':

"The backdrop for a Democratic National Convention tribute to U.S. military veterans was apparently a fleet of Russian warships. The event occurred on the final night of last week’s convention when retired Adm. John Nathman paid tribute to veterans, in front of a gigantic screen that showed what appears to be ships from the Russian Federation Navy, according to The Navy Times. At least two experts told the publication they were certain the ships were Russian and that the backdrop image appears to be a composite photo that includes U.S. trainer jets flying overhead. The background shows four ships with radar designs apparently not used in the U.S. fleet. Navy veteran Rob Barker reportedly detected the apparent mistake and notified The Navy Times. He said his assignment as an electronics warfare technician included the identification of foreign ships by their radars. The Democratic National Convention Committee was contacted Wednesday but did not comment."


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/12/dems-apparently-used-russian-war-ship-in-convention-tribute-to-vets/#ixzz26HZt1Ms0

This is so freakin' pathetic! Anything to divert attention from MittWit's disastrous couple of days!

September 12, 2012

Mitt's Shameful Libya Statement

Source: Steve Kornacki, Salon.com

That it’s fundamentally dishonest hasn’t stopped Mitt Romney from repeating his central critique of Barack Obama’s foreign policy over and over – the idea that the president “went around the world and apologized for America.” So it shouldn’t be surprising that Romney’s response to the attacks on U.S. diplomatic installations in Egypt and Libya was rooted in the same caricature of Obama as apologizer-in-chief. “It’s disgraceful,” Romney’s statement, which was released late Tuesday night, read, “that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”

That’s not at all what happened, of course. The actual chronology goes something like this: As anti-American protests inspired by a crude Terry Jones video began gathering steam, the U.S. embassy in Cairo – and not the Obama White House — put out a statement condemning “the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions.”

The obvious intent was to cool the passions of the protesters. As Marc Ambinder explained, it was “exactly what Americans inside the embassy who are scared for their lives now and worry about revenge later need to have released in their name.”

Protests were also building in Libya, and sometime later the U.S. consulate in Benghazi came under siege, with news breaking late Tuesday night that a State Department official had been killed. It was around this time that two major American political figures released statements. One came from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and read: “I condemn in the strongest terms the attack on our mission. We are heartbroken by this terrible loss. There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind.” The other was Romney’s.



Read more: http://www.salon.com/2012/09/12/mitt%e2%80%99s_shameful_libya_statement/

September 10, 2012

Romney, Ryan sound bipartisan tone on taxes, health care

Source: Fox News

How Faux News is spinning the mixed messages coming from MittWit and Eddie Munster:

"Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are moving to define what they plan to do and what they stand for on the hot-button issues of health care and taxes, after enduring a week in which Democratic convention-goers tried to define that for them. Both candidates signaled room for compromise on those issues in interviews over the weekend. The remarks follow a convention in Charlotte, N.C., where speaker after speaker accused Republicans of favoring the wealthy in the tax code and imperiling Americans' access to care. On health care, Romney said Sunday he wants to keep parts of the health care overhaul spearheaded by President Obama. Though Romney vows to repeal the law, he said: "I'm not getting rid of all of health care reform." Romney said: "There are a number of things that I like" in the law. The Republican presidential nominee said he wants to make sure people with pre-existing conditions can still have guaranteed coverage. And he said he wants to make sure young people can stay on their parents' plan "up to whatever age they might like" -- currently, that age is 26.

The comments may be part of the natural and traditional outreach to the political middle that candidates embark on after sealing their party's presidential nomination. With the 2012 presidential race consistently so close as to be within the margin of error, independents and undecided voters are key to victory in the November election. The pre-existing condition and young adult provisions Romney mentioned in his interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" are among the most popular in the health care overhaul, though the law itself is divisive.

Romney and Ryan also challenged the narrative that they want to cut benefits to seniors in order to finance tax cuts for the wealthy. Romney said Sunday he does not intend to cut taxes for the well-off. "I can tell that you people at the high end, high income taxpayers, are going to have fewer deductions and exemptions. Those numbers are going to come down," Romney said. "Otherwise, they'd get a tax break. And I want to make sure people understand, despite what the Democrats said at their convention, I am not reducing taxes on high-income taxpayers." Romney stressed that while he's proposing a reduction in the tax rate, he wants to close deductions and exemptions "at the high end so the revenues stay the same." Romney said he also wants "to lower the burden on middle income people."

However, Romney did not detail specifically which deductions or loopholes he'd shave back -- a lack of specifics that has opened the door to charges that his plan would, in fact, benefit high-income earners and end up taxing the middle class more."

More at link . . .


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/10/romney-ryan-sound-bipartisan-tone-on-taxes-health-care/#ixzz265RGUKSI

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/10/romney-ryan-sound-bipartisan-tone-on-taxes-health-care/

September 5, 2012

In Isaac's wake, Gulf Coast beaches littered with oil tar

Source: MSNBC

Weathered oil in the form of tar has washed up on some Louisiana beaches from Gulf waters churned by Hurricane Isaac, prompting restrictions of fishing in some waters and tests to determine whether the source is submerged oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.

"I'd say there's a smoking gun," said Garret Graves, Gov. Bobby Jindal's top adviser on coastal issues. He said tests were being done to verify the source of the oil. "It's an area that experienced heavy oiling during the oil spill," he said.

Officials Tuesday evening restricted fishing in waters extending a mile off a roughly 13-mile stretch of coastline from Port Fourchon eastward to just west of Caminada Pass. Recreational rod and reel fishing can continue but commercial and recreational shrimping, crabbing and commercial fin fishing was prohibited there.

The state Wildlife and Fisheries Department said there was a large mat of tar on one beach and concentrations of tar balls on adjacent beaches. Graves said later surveys found several more mats. The size of the tar mats was not immediately clear. Graves said high water has prevented a thorough examination.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48912502/ns/us_news-environment/



I knew this was coming. BP has been saying for a while that the oil spill has been largely contained. I call 'bullshit'!!!

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