Color me poor, according to Mitt Romney

MoonHowler

Mitt Romney feels that middle income is a lot above my pay grade.  On Good Morning America, my self image as a middle class person sort of dissolved.

Richmond Times Dispatch:

Mitt Romney is promising to reduce taxes on middle-income Americans.

But how does he define “middle-income”? The Republican presidential nominee defined it as income of $200,000 to $250,000 a year.

Romney commented during an interview broadcast today on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

The Census Bureau reported this week that the median household income — the midpoint for the nation — is just over $50,000.

We live in the 7th wealthiest county in the nation.  The median household income, according to the last census is $91,098. Notice the word household. that might imply more than one person earning that income.   I don’t think Mitt Romney understands me.  I thought I was doing ok for myself, especially being retired.  Now I think I am a loser.  I don’t have $200,000 coming in my house annually.  Maybe Mitt needs to do a little more studying of the American family if he wants to relate.

Does this alarm anyone else?

Mr. Goode could be Mr. BAD for the GOP

MoonHowler


Oh Dear God, its all up to Ken Cuccinelli whether or not Virgil Goode stays on the presidential  ballot.  You know the answer already.  I am betting on the Lucy trick.  Yes, Ken Cuccinelli promises to be fair and unbiased.  Watch him snatch the ballot  out from under Virgil Goode faster than Lucy snatches the football out from under Charlie Brown.

“Absolutely Objective” and Ken Cuccinelli are just 2 terms that don’t seem to go together.   Oil and Water.  Fire and Ice. Cuccinelli supports Romney.  He was one of his chief cheer leaders at the GOP Convention.   I am not sure *I* could be completely objective.   Cuccinelli is known for playing loose with political ethics for causes he believe correct.  He even tried to change the State Seal of Virginia because Lady Virtue had an exposed breast (such as it was) peeping out from under her tunic.

The State Board of Elections says Virgil Goode stays on the ballot but Ken Cuccinelli owns the power.

Rachel Maddow is right.  Ken Cuccinelli and Virgil Goode take on national importance.  This isn’t an ordinary year.  Mr. Goode could be Mr.  BAD for the GOP.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Where were the troops? Where was Afghanistan?

MoonHowler
Romney, Don’t forget our troops!

The Democrats are definitely the tough guys in the room now.  They were the ones chanting USA USA USA.  The Democrats were the ones stressing Made In America. The Democrats recognized our troops who are in harm’s way.

Notably missing from Republican speeches was the mention of bringing home our troops and ending the longest war in American history.  Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech totally omitted any mention of our troops or  the war in Afghanistan despite the fact that American troops are still in harm’s way.  What was he thinking?

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Virginia’s Voter ID Requirements

MoonHowler

Here are Virginia’s most recent voting requirements. Note, you will no longer be allowed to come in without ID and sign an affidavit.

Under the previous Virginia law, voting officials could require identification at the polls, but was it not required.  It was a felony to lie. This past year, the General Assembly passed legislation that requires all voters to present one of the following to vote: a voter registration card, social security card, a valid Virginia driver’s license or government ID, passport, valid Virginia student ID, employer photo ID, utility bill, bank statement, government check or paycheck that shows the voters name and address.

DOJ has blocked voter identification changes in several southern states, but cleared Virginia’s voting law changes this week.   Our law allows a broader number of documents to establish identity.

Everyone should have their new voter ID card from the State Board of Elections also.

I can’t think of a reason why anyone wouldn’t have one of those forms, regardless of how old or poor they are.   Perhaps I have overlooked something.

Another one bites the dust: Yahoo editor fired

MoonHowler


From the washingtonpost.com:

David Chalian, the Yahoo News Washington Bureau chief, has been fired after getting caught on a hot mike telling a fellow host on an live ABC News web show to “feel free to say” that “they” — Mitt Romney and his fellow Republicans — “are happy to have a party with black people drowning.”

The implication: that Republicans’ decision to continue with their convention despite the hurricane hitting New Orleans means they don’t care about black people.

Chalian’s words were first caught by the conservative media criticism site Newsbusters. Yahoo has released a statement apologizing for the comment and announcing that Chalian had been terminated.

“David Chalian’s statement was inappropriate and does not represent the views of Yahoo!.” the statement reads. “He has been terminated effective immediately. We have already reached out to the Romney campaign, and we apologize to Mitt Romney, his staff, their supporters and anyone who was offended.”

Politics is getting rough now.  A Yahoo bureau chief fired is fairly serious business.  That is one of those comments though, that simply cannot be said aloud without consequence.  Losing your job seems like serious business.

Should  Chilian have been fired or would a warning and an apology sufficed?  Have we gotten too politically correct in the opposite direction?

[Listen carefully to the video…in the background.  Its ok to close your eyes. You won’t miss a thing!!!]

 

 

Hannity bullies another guest

MoonHowler

This just isn’t any way to talk to a guest.  Hannity is a bully.  Very few presidents have been vilified as Obama has been.  Clinton and Bush II may be be running a real close second.

I thought I believed in having an ID to vote.  Notice the past tense.  After seeing what was done to Prince William County to carve up districts to produce a willing ticket, I now question if the voter ID situation wasn’t motivated by similar attempts to alter outcome rather than the intended stated reason.

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The Otherization of Obama–Slowpoke’s link

MoonHowler

UPDATE:  This afternoon Toure apologized to the audience for his use of the N-word yesterday and said that he should have done it differently. 

From MSNBC:
On Thursday’s edition of MSNBC’s The Cycle the group discussed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney‘s assertion that President Obama should “take [his] campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago.” Co-host Touré saw what he believes to be explicit racial connotations beneath what Romney was saying, calling it the “niggerization” of the campaign.

“That really bothered me,” he said. “You notice he said anger twice. He’s really trying to use racial coding and access some really deep stereotypes about the angry black man. This is part of the playbook against Obama, the ‘otherization,’ he’s not like us.”

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This Love Affair with Novelist Ayn Rand

MoonHowler

There is some sort of love affair going on with some  Republicans and Ayn Rand.  I read Ayn Rand years ago during an era when selfishness was frowned on.  During this time we were told not to ask what our country could do for us but what we could do for our country.  It was a time when just 2 decade before, Americans had liberated Euope and discovered the horrors of the Holocaust.  We were in the middle of sacrificing nearly 60,000 of our own in a far-off land called Vietnam, austensibly to stop the spread of communism.

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Romney Insults all Arabs?

Elena

So, I think we may be establishing a pattern here.  Diplomacy may not be Romneys forte.  Not a big deal for a CEO of an equity firm, but as President, this could be problematic.

It’s one thing to accidentally insult the Brits over their ability to manage the Olympics.  Its another to suggest that Arabs are simply not cultured enough to sustain a successful and productive country.

Let me remind everyone, I am Jewish (not like you can forget, I remind you people constantly I’m sure), but to suggest that culturally we are better than Arabs teeters is just plain stupidity.

Here are Romney’s words in context, because as we know, that is critical when analyzing statements.

“As you come here and you see the GDP per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000, and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality,”
Romney then said some economic histories have theorized that “culture makes all the difference.”
“And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things,”
Romney then went on to dig his hole even deeper by saying that similar disparity exists between neighboring countries like Mexico and the United States.

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Obama campaigns in Clifton

MoonHowler

 

President Obama gave a rousing middle class speech to the middle class at Centreville High School right outsdie of Clifton.  An Annandale High School teacher welcomed the President along with elected officials.  According to the Centreville Patch:

 

“Hello Wildcats!”

On Saturday afternoon, President Barack Obama ended two days of campaigning across Virginia at Centreville High School, where he spoke about the need to renew the American middle class and the economy.

Central to his theme was his call to Congress to extend a Bush-era tax cut to families that make less than $250,000. Republicans want to see that cut applied to all, including families making more than $250,000. Obama has said previously that he would veto anything that includes tax cuts for all.

 

Photo gallery of today’s campaign stop at Centreville High

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Arizona official may keep Obama off ballot

MoonHowler

USA Today:

President Obama’s birth certificate continues to make headlines in ways he doesn’t want.

The latest: Arizona’s top elections official is trying to explain why he’s seeking to verify the document before placing Obama on the November ballot.

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett, a Republican exploring a 2014 race for governor, issued a statement insisting he is not a “birther,” the word he and others use for those who believe Obama was not born in the United States and is not legitimately president.

Bennett told a radio interviewer yesterday it was “possible” he would keep Obama off the ballot if the issue isn’t resolved.

Apparently Hawaii doesn’t release a birth certificate without a strong need to know.   What is it about Arizona?  Is it the water?  The over-all educational level?  Too close to Area 51?  (Area 51 is in Nevada for Pete’s sake!)   Is there any way we can just insist that Arizona secede and go on off about their own business?  Maybe we could just give the Grand Canyon to Utah before they go. 

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Is Romney a Bully?

MoonHowler

Much has been made for the past day or two over a hazing incident at Mitt Romney’s prep school,  Cranbrook School.  Accounts of the incident were taken from several witnesses, independently, and all described a case of Romney targeting an effeminate classmate with bleached blond hair that fell over one eye.  According to the witnesses, Romney jumped the boy, sheers in hand, and gave him a haircut.  The kid was terrified and screamed for help.  One the surface, it doesn’t sound all that bad….but was it?

Washington Post:

 Back on the handsome campus, studded with Tudor brick buildings and manicured fields, he spotted something he thought did not belong at a school where the boys wore ties and carried briefcases. John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn’t having it.

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The Conscience of the King, Act II: The Convention

MoonHowler

 

“Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,–
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Conscience of the King, Act II: The Convention

“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes”.  MacBeth, Act IV, Scene I

Yesterday, we Howlets set the stage for what may well prove to be the greatest community (political) theater we’ve seen in years. Just to recap:

-Jerry Carman, Independent uber-conservative materializes out of the mist, and begins a shadow campaign.

-Doug Brown launches “A Bridge Too Far” (ABTF) and begins catapulting [Rhetorical and Theatrical license here] everything from “severed heads” to “diseased cattle” over the MGOP castle walls, and engages in verbal sword-play with GOP chairman Steve “By the Books”Thomas.

-Baroness Aveni,  inadvertently exposes her husband’s support of the usurper, Jerry Carman. (Out, out damn spot!)

So let us now take you back to the convention held on January 28th, 2012. Before doing so, we need to say that neither of us is a member of either party’s “machinery”.  Some of the “in’s and out’s” of convention politics are very difficult to decipher, and it took quite a bit of research to figure out just exactly what happened. That said, we feel pretty confident that our account is fairly accurate.   The up side is that, we have the scenarios from so many sources.

The way a convention works is people sign up to be “delegates,”  by filling out a form.  My dog Stoney used to get one in the mail each year.  Often those who want to run for office will get his or her supporters to fill out the  convention form so they can go vote for that person.  This form is returned by a specific date, and the MGOP checks the applicants to make sure they are eligible to vote in Manassas elections. That’s it.  Anyone who is an eligible City of Manassas voter can attend, according to the laws of Virginia. Once all the forms are collected and checked, a list is compiled and given to each campaign.

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A message from Joe Scarborough on Republican missteps

MoonHowler

 

(From an opinion piece from Joe Scarborough posted in Politico)

Politico:

Perhaps a political party that promotes state-ordered vaginal probes, re-litigates contraception, mocks higher education, attacks JFK and runs down rabbit trails irrelevant to most Americans’ lives is best suited to win back the White House.

But I doubt it.

I think it is more likely that Republicans are staying competitive against President Obama in spite of themselves. After all, the economy is still weak, the president appears emotionally aloof and Americans remain suspicious of big government.

But the Republican Party has candidates who are flawed, a message that is mush and a front-runner who is so weak that he struggled to win his home state last Tuesday.

As this long winter winds down, a cynic could be excused for calling the likely campaign between Obama and Romney a political race to the bottom. But I suspect Romney’s win in Michigan will set in place a political showdown that will take us late into the night on the first Tuesday in November. Then history will happen again and whoever loses will be left asking the great historical question Rick Santorum should be asking himself right now: What if?

Actually, Scarborough wrote this commentary about Santorum specifically.  However, it speaks to the entire sideshow that has occupied our fall and winter.  We have had one unlikely candidate after the other paraded before us as the next Rrepublican candidate, only to have one’s hopes on that candidate smashed to smitherines before the nation.   Perry, Bachmann, Huntington, Caine, Johnson and some other ‘also rans’  were paraded out only to fall by the wayside.  They affectionately got labeled the flavor of the week. 

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