Do words matter?

“Big business is doing fine in many places – they get the loans they need, they can deal with all the regulation. They know how to find ways to get through the tax code, save money by putting various things in the places where there are low tax havens around the world for their businesses.” – Mitt Romney.

“No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.” – Mitt Romney

” I’m not familiar precisely with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was.” – Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney has a plan to turn the economy around. Except for a few vague threats like more tax breaks for millionaires, fewer too big to fail business regulations, and drill, baby drill, not many details. He has a plan to fix the immigration problem. Except he’s given no details at all. He has a plan to fix our foreign relations problems as well. Since the Iraq war is over and we’re finally starting to leave Afghanistan, bin Laden, and Qadhafi are gone, and the Arab Spring is in full-bloom, Romney’s plan is to stand by Israel. And of course, no other details.

In fact, the biggest, strongest, loudest message so far has been, “We DID build that!” Which, unfortunately, proves Obama’s point, that no one single individual can succeed in a vacuüm. Great individual success goes hand-in-hand with great national success. It’s “we”, not “I”.

“Trust me.” Is Romney’s response to everything from his income taxes, to just about every aspect of how he would govern this great land. But why should we?

Majority rules

The Romney/Ryan team has distanced itself from comments made by Todd Akin, a six-term congressman running against incumbent Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill, who, when asked in an interview broadcast Sunday on St. Louis television station KTVI if he would support abortions for women who have been raped, replied:

“It seems to me first of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

We know God takes care of these kinds of problems. Remember the Salem witch trials, where a women would be proven innocent only by drowning in the throwing-the-accused-into-the-water ordeal.

To be fair, both Romney and Ryan have stated on more than one occasion that they oppose giving women the right to choose in any event, including rape or incest. Corporations, since they are now people, should have more rights than the gentler sex.

Should these kinds of policy positions, as well as turning Medicare into a voucher system, privatizing Social Security and cutting taxes on the one percent while raising taxes on everybody else, hurt the Romney/Ryan ticket enough to stop them from defeating President Obama this November? Many on the Right say “no”, and I happen to agree with them. With an enormous money advantage, and new voter-suppression laws in several states that Obama won last time around, the numbers don’t lie.

I’ll be voting for Obama, but I’ll be in the minority.

What do you think we should change the name: “The United States of America” to?

I remember going to a History class way, way back when I was in grade school. There was a story about something called the “Tea Party”, a political protest by the Sons of Liberty. They even had a rallying cry as they were dumping loads of tea into Boston Harbor: “NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!”

Well, we had a Revolutionary War and ultimately gained our independence. We celebrate that monumental day on the Fourth of July by watching fireworks to the tune of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. That’s all in the past.

Today’s ruling by Judge Robert Simpson to uphold the most stringent voter suppression law in the nation effectively takes away the Right to Vote for 750,000 Pennsylvanians. Period. You can hem-and-haw all you want, but 750,000 tax-paying Pennsylvanians who could legally vote before the Voter I.D. law passed no longer can. The most insidious aspect of this is that nearly all of those ex-citizens have no idea their Constitutional Rights have been stripped from them. They can’t fix a problem if they don’t know the problem exists.

There are tons more to be said about the end of democracy as we know it, but I’ll leave you with this: It’s all but certain Mitt Romney will be our next President. The question remains, at what cost?…

5 Things Mitt Doesn’t Want You to Know About Paul Ryan

By Elizabeth Hartfield – ABC News

The selection of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s running mate is sure to excite the Left almost as much as it does the Right.

Ryan, 42, has been considered a rising star in the party for years. He’s been the chairman of the House Budget Committee since Republicans took back control of the House in 2010, and he’s known for his keen fiscal knowledge. Plus, he hails from an important state. The GOP has been hoping to take Wisconsin this cycle. Although the state hasn’t gone red in a presidential race since 1984, Republicans have been buoyed by the successful gubernatorial race of Scott Walker, who became the first governor to face a recall election and win last June.

Ryan is an exciting pick, but there’s no such thing as a perfect candidate, and Ryan brings his own set of political risks to the table. Here’s a list of five things that Mitt Romney might not want highlighted about his VP candidate (hint: most of them have to do with his budget proposals).

1. His budget plans include big cuts, and there’s ample room for Democrats to continue with their “Romneyhood narrative.” The nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates 62 percent of Ryan’s cuts are to programs for the poor.

2. Ryan’s budget proposals have included big changes to Medicare – including gradually replacing the program with a voucher program for private health care, and gradually raising the retirement age. That could scare older Americans, a crucial voting bloc.

3. He voted for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. While a lot of other Republicans did too, and it was proposed by the Bush administration, some have viewed it as a rejection of the conservative economic values Ryan and hard-line fiscal conservatives espouse.

4. He’s easily pegged as Washington insider. He’s been in Congress since 1999, and before that he worked as a congressional staffer. Congressional approval ratings are abysmally low- a recent CBS News/NY Times poll showed that only 12 percent of voters approve of the way Congress is doing its job.

5. This is both a pro and a con to Ryan, depending on who you ask, but he’s notably further to the left on the issue of lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender rights than the base of the party. He broke with a lot of his party to support the Employee Non-Discrimination Act in 2007. He explained his reasoning for the vote in this way: “They [his gay friends] didn’t roll out of bed one morning and choose to be gay. That’s who they are.”

Forward?

Please remember that when you vote for a presidential candidate, you’re also voting for the team that will craft policy for the next four years. Many who hold high positions in the current Administration used to work for Bill Clinton. Many who would hold high positions in the next Administration used to work for George W. Bush.

Romney’s top two economic advisors are men who served as George W. Bush’s top two financial meltdown architects: Glenn Hubbard and Greg Mankiw. If you like tax-cuts for the rich and less financial regulation, you’ll love these guys. Then there’s Michael Hayden and Cofer Black, our nation’s two most fervent “enhanced interrogation” advocates. Want to invade Iran? Then Eliot Cohen, Dan Senor, and  Max Boot are your kinda guys.

Back in March the Rev. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention told the Romney campaign it could win over “recalcitrant conservatives,” as reported the Washington Post, by “previewing a few Cabinet selections: Santorum as attorney general, Gingrich as ambassador to the United Nations and John Bolton as secretary of state.” All three selections now are seen as strong possibilities.

Lastly, a press secretary for the Republican National Committee, Alexandra Franceschi, provoked some Democratic chortling when she responded to a question asking whether the 2012 GOP agenda was any different from the Bush/Cheney agenda. “I think it’s that program, just updated,” she replied…

Shut up

Some things we know, like Michael Phelps has won more Olympic Gold Medals than anyone in history. There are some things we’re pretty sure of, like Gabby Douglas is probably destined for stardom. Then there are some things we just don’t know, like did Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen use performance-enhancing drugs.

Same applies to politics.

Some things we know, like Mitt Romney’s campaign has a lot more money to spend than does Obama’s. Some things we’re pretty sure of, like the string of recently enacted voter-suppression laws will have a major effect on the outcome of the race. And some things we just don’t know, like is there anything untoward in Mitt Romney’s tax records.

Presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney told Senator Harry Reid to “put up or shut up” about Romney’s taxes. Not sure what that means. Since it’s Romney who refuses to “put up”, i.e. release his complete tax records, he’s essentially telling Reid to shut up.

As a result of this back-and-forth, we now know two more things. Mitt Romney will not release any more tax records. And if he becomes President, he’ll be just as dismissive of his political foes.