First Debate: Mitt Gone Wild

By Cole

Just about everybody concedes that Mitt Romney “won” last night’s debate on the economy. Republicans are positively giddy.

Mitt’s bravura performance proved beyond any doubt that he’s the quintessential department store mannequin. Change the window-dressing, change the man. He has no genuine core.

Last night his handlers dressed and prepped him to be Elmer Fudd in camo, out to stalk and bag that “wascally wabbit,” Obama.

And Mitt did. So eager to make his points, he flouted the rules by repeatedly refusing to let moderator Jim Lehrer speak and keep things on track, and even talking over Obama.

At one point, Mitt even had the nerve to say, “Mr. President, you’re entitled to your own airplane and your own house, but not your own facts.”

This from the man with 5 houses and several Cadillacs with their own elevator, representing the most fact-free political party in history.

Mitt was so stuffed with numbers (few of which contained his actual PLANS), they exploded from him on every topic.

Obama and Lehrer found themselves playing with a statistical piñata.

Had Obama sunk to responding tit for tat, they’d have been ping-ponging so many incomprehensible figures, the audience would have tuned out.

By trying to keep it simple, Obama came across as “weak.”

What’s indisputable is that Obama got VERY bad advice as far as not calling out Romney on his everlasting bullshit or bringing up anything he’s ever said or done that might embarrass him (like dissing the 47%, or decimating American companies like KB Toys and raising employment in China while at Bain).

And Romney pounced on and gleefully rolled in those concessions like a dog in shit.

It seems Romney thinks he’s running to be anointed king. In his first term…

• He’ll repeal the Affordable Care Act, yet keep all the good parts – and replace the rest with WHAT?
• He’ll lower taxes 20%, but eliminate loopholes and deductions (WHICH ones?) — which may result in tax INCREASES for the middle class.
• He’ll to create 12 million “good-paying” jobs — HOW? Doing WHAT?

And Congress doesn’t exist in RomneyWorld. He’ll just wave his golden scepter and POOF! — instant Utopia where nobody’s unemployed, health insurers aren’t unfair, and the budget always balances.

Unfortunately, Obama handed Romney this one on a silver platter, and I hope today he’s kicking some of his re-election “experts” to the curb before they try to hog-tie and gag Joe Biden when he faces Paul Ryan on October 11.

Romney Reveals His Financial Bigotry

By Cole

Thanks to a surreptitious taping while Romney thought he was among friends (i.e., fellow millionaires), Romney clearly states why he shouldn’t be president. Elitism and racism are bad enough, but his utter disdain for nearly half the country is truly mind-boggling.

Romney thinks a full 47% of Americans are lazy, non-tax-paying mooches who blindly support Obama because they think he’ll let government continue supporting them.

Romney also thinks nobody has a right, in the most prosperous nation in history, to expect food, housing, and healthcare.

Mitt says he has no interest in winning these people’s votes, nor in governing them. He says it’s not his job to worry about them.

That’s 47% of THE WHOLE UNITED STATES he’s writing off.

Romney has since said it was an “inelegant” way to put it. But he defends the thought. Maybe because he’s been similarly dismissive of people in need before.

Remember, months ago he told CNN, “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs a repair, I’ll fix it.”

Turns out, he was lying. He won’t fix the safety net because he doesn’t think poor people deserves one.

It’s all so rich (pardon the pun), coming from the guy who pays the bare minimum in taxes he can legally, and refuses to verify he even does THAT.

Mitt, you ignorant twit, there isn’t ONE ADULT in this country who pays no taxes. The lowliest bum who buys a cup of coffee with change from handouts pays taxes on it.

The bad news for Obama supporters is that Romney thinks you’re the 47% and he intends to do NOTHING for you. It doesn’t matter if the only job you can find pays minimum wage. And if you’re retired and on Social Security after working and paying taxes your whole life, Romney thinks you’re now a greedy drain on the economy.

Speaking of work, Romney’s only occupation for several years has been running for office and shoveling dividends he still earns on money he made from pillaging other people’s struggling businesses into his foreign bank accounts.

It’s hard to believe there’s anyone who still thinks this man belongs in the White House.

BONUSES:

David Brooks on Thurston Howell Romney.

For more Romney classic foot-in-mouth moments, here are some quotes.

Romney Finds His Soulmate

By Cole

In Hollywood parlance, I’m not sure if the new Republican ticket is Ryney (to rhyme with “whiny”) or Roman (pronounced like the cheap packaged noodles 99% of Americans will be eating if this pair wins).

On August 11, Mitt Romney continued his grand Foot in Mouth Tour with a visit to Virginia, standing in front of the battleship USS Wisconsin (because Republicans apparently need their symbolism that size to get it) and introducing to the world “the next president of the United States,” Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan.

You could almost hear foreheads being slapped off-camera as Ryan took the stage and began to speak, while Romney’s handlers turned Mitt around, saying, “YOU’RE the next president, REMEMBER??!!!”

Then Romney rudely interrupted Ryan by popping back into frame to explain with a nervous chuckle that he (Mitt) sometimes makes mistakes (ya THINK?) but, “I didn’t make a mistake with this guy.”

I predict that moment will be replayed widely on November 7 after Obama’s re-election, as Romney’s famous last words.

Paul Ryan is Sarah Palin in pants. Young (42), eager, ambitious, attractive, and rabid to spout off whatever the nuttiest fringe of the base wants to hear.

Granted, Ryan is intellectually leap years ahead of Palin because he does his homework, but the results are so far out in left field, he might as well be an idiot.

For starters, Ryney claim they can cut taxes and reduce the deficit simultaneously.

It sounds great in campaign-speak, but in plain English they’re saying, “We’re going to take in less money but pay more of the bills.”

And do this while increasing defense spending. In prep, perhaps, for yet a 3^rd Republican-instigated war — tag-teaming with Israel to make Iran a parking lot?

The only way they can possibly do all this is to brutally slash programs that actually help people, like Social Security, Medicare, infrastructure maintenance (roads, bridges), and education for starters.

It’s said Romney feels totally comfortable with Ryan, a red flag right there. Also, both men have kept their hookup under wraps since August 1, and Ryan intends to divulge only 2 years of tax returns. That should tell us something about how open and transparent a Romney administration would be.

The only comfort in all this is knowing that the vice-presidency is the world’s biggest non-job, and you can’t believe ANY candidate’s promises. Once they’re faced with Congress, all bets are off and it’s every greedy crook for himself. All these 10-year projections of deficits, savings, and surpluses are baloney because these guys won’t be around to see them through.

Romney took a bold chance picking his veep. He should ask John McCain how that worked out in 2008.

Romney’s Worst Enemy: Innate Secrecy

By Cole

Virginia is considered a swing state, so Obama and Romney have been slinging serious mud in TV ads.

Obama accuses Romney of 1) outsourcing jobs, 2) lying about his tenure as CEO of Bain Capital, 3) hiding money in the Caymans, Bermuda, and Switzerland.

Romney says Obama is lying, but Romney has yet to present a single reassuring fact. Romney was raised to be secretive, and it’s worked for him so far.

Mormonism (like Scientology) is a religion steeped in mystery. Catholics, Baptists, Jews, even Buddhists will let you walk into their places of worship and observe.

Not so with Mormons. Ann Romney’s own parents were kept out of her “sealing” (wedding) to Mitt because they weren’t Mormon.

Romney refuses to confirm if he wears Mormon temple garments (underwear). But to be considered a worthy Mormon, he must.

I don’t care about Mitt’s undies, but I think they reveal this pattern:

When Romney won’t own up to something, he’s probably doing or has done it.

SEC papers state Romney ran Bain until 2002. Romney says it was 1999, although he was paid and signing official documents for Bain after that. But if Romney wasn’t CEO, who was? Nobody seems to know.

Bain apparently had idiots submit SEC filings full of personnel errors, and the company operated as a beast without a head for 3 years until Romney decided to run for governor of Massachusetts in 2002 and make a formal break with the firm.

Seriously, would Romney just walk away from the company he built and leave it to founder without leadership?

It sounds like Sarah Palin and Alaska.

When Romney ran Bain, his focus was on profit, not public office. It’s reasonable to assume he didn’t even notice those pesky worker ants he shook out of the failing companies he gobbled up. Those guys never do.

And what did Romney do with his profits? Since we know he paid less than 15% in taxes and refuses to release tax returns before 2010, it’s evident he milked every loophole and dodge to avoid paying his fair share.

I’m not saying Romney’s a criminal. All his actions may be perfectly legal, but they’re morally bankrupt. The last thing the middle class needs is a president lacking the empathy gene.

The biggest secret Romney can’t tell is that he has never given a damn about paying taxes, the deficit, or jobs. He used to care about healthcare, but changed his mind.

Romney’s running for president on ego. He’s probably already made a list of ways to cash in on the title for the rest of his life.

Women, Don’t Let Ann Romney Con You

By Adele

Last week, Hilary Rosen got the White House and mama grizzlies’ knickers in a knot when she said on CNN that Ann Romney “never worked a day in her life.”

Rosen could have avoided being shish-kabobbed if she’d just added “outside the home” to be closer to the truth.

Ann Romney’s outside activities seem to have been confined to not-for-profit endeavors and sitting on boards.

Mitt anointed Ann his “expert” on women’s economic concerns. She’s got her finger on the pulse of working women — from one of her Cadillacs, her horses, or any of her several homes — while being supported by her millionaire husband.

(BTW, in January, Mitt said in New Hampshire that poor women don’t deserve to be stay-at-home moms because they need the “dignity” of work. I wonder how he thinks women married to millionaires acquire “dignity?”)

Instead of trying to have it all, Ann Romney chose the June Cleaver path. She laid back, using insufficient birth control, and popped out a litter of 5.

She never ran with the big dogs in Corporate America to learn what she’s worth in hard workplace cash. She’s never had to worry about being fired or laid off and losing her healthcare, being paid less than a man for the same work, or not earning enough to keep her kids in their private schools.

That’s what makes her so QUALIFIED to spout off about women’s financial concerns — NOT.

Face it. Ann’s as eerily out of touch as Mitt. You’d think they both spent the last century sleeping in matching coffins.

It’s a shame Rosen apologized to appease outraged mommies when she was actually DEFENDING the employed ones — the breadwinners who know how much a gallon of gas costs.

No one disputes that staying home with kids is hard work — especially without a nanny, cook, or maid. But at home you ARE the big cheese who calls all the shots. You don’t get fired for screwing up. And you do it all on SOMEONE ELSE’S MONEY.

Instead of seeing Ann “Everywoman” Romney as the hollow façade she is, mothers are rallying around her, even as Ann schemes with her husband to stab them in the back if he wins, denying them basic female healthcare and the right to earn as much as men. Not to mention gutting education and vital programs to help them and their children through hard times.

But the 800-lb. gorilla that NOBODY dares to mention is that this whole brouhaha probably has its roots in the Romneys’ basic Mormon belief in the subservience of women. Do you really think they DON’T see it as doing God’s work to set women’s rights back to the 1800s?

BONUSES: Linda Hirschman’s opinion in the Washington Post.

A male perspective from blogger Bud Meyers.

Obama’s Shameful Mortgage Settlement

By Cole

President Obama has punished crooked mortgage bankers — by giving them a big kiss on the lips.

The 5 biggest banks have to cough up $25 billion in restitution — and Obama thinks we’ll see that BIG number and think, “Gee, he really NAILED them!”

Realistically, how far does $25 billion go?…

Right now, 11 million homeowners are “underwater,” which means they owe an estimated $700 billion more on their homes than the homes are now worth. Under this deal, maybe 1 million, about 9%, can get their loans modified. That won’t even begin to put a dent in it.

Obama said the settlement “will speed relief to the hardest-hit homeowners, end some of the most abusive practices of the mortgage industry and begin to turn the page on an era of recklessness that has left so much damage in its wake.”

Is he KIDDING?

The “hardest-hit” were the estimated 8 million suckers who fell for predatory loan terms and ended up on the curb. Under this settlement, about 750,000 will get a check for $2,000 — and the banks have 3 YEARS to get around to paying it.

Meanwhile, the banks were granted added protection against states pursuing civil charges against them.

Homeowners can still file criminal charges, but rotsa ruck to the little guy who couldn’t even make his mortgage payments prevailing over a bank’s army of lawyers in protracted litigation.

This settlement represents a limp-wristed swipe at bank profits. Even worse, NO bank honcho who condoned unscrupulous loans, or foreclosed with bogus documents and bank employees forging signatures, is going to jail.

There’s more: The banks are now free to complete millions MORE foreclosures they had on hold during negotiations. More homeowners already down on their luck can just bend over and wait for the screw job.

Mike Heid, president of Well Fargo Home Mortgage, said this “represents a very important step toward restoring confidence in mortgage servicing and stability in the housing market.”

It’s a total OUTRAGE that Obama or the banks think they’re fooling anybody.

Once again, when faced with bankers’ greedy, unethical, criminal behavior that is leaving millions of Americans in financial ruins, Obama rolls over and lets the bankers scratch his belly.

Thanksgiving Friday Gives ‘Black’ a Bad Name

By Cole

All we’ve heard for the last week is “Black Friday, Blah, Blah, Blah,” with idiots camping out in front of their favorite stores to be first in line for bargains.

Some stores were open Thanksgiving Day, showing their gratitude to their employees by denying them a day with their families in the name of profit.

Other retailers showed a tad of restraint by not opening until midnight. Target even claimed its employees were “enthusiastic” about working the red-eye shift, essentially spitting in the face of one Nebraska employee, who got 200,000+ signatures on a petition begging Target to open at 5 a.m.

In a West Virginia Target, shoppers stepped around and over a 61-year-old man who collapsed in the aisle. His wife said some nurses who happened to be there performed CPR until the ambulance came, but the man died. No mention of any rescue effort by Target.

A Florida Target employee who worked the midnight shift was so exhausted, she drove into a canal on the way home. Fortunately, she was fished out alive.

But when it comes to sheer tackiness, there’s no beating Walmart. In California, a woman pepper-sprayed at least 14 customers throughout the store, then paid for her stuff and waltzed out without any Walmart employee confronting her. She turned herself in to police later when her behavior became national news, but may not be charged if they decide she acted in “self-defense.”

All over the country, shoppers were attacked and robbed trying to get home by crafty thieves who avoided the crowds INSIDE stores by grabbing stuff after someone else bought it.

When people in other countries see obese Americans obsessed with pigging out on Thanksgiving, and turning homicidal over cheap big-screen TVs, video games, and other junk they don’t need, there’s no way the U.S. can lead the world in anything.

But I’m proud to say that many animal shelters (including the Cats Working gang’s former joint, the Richmond Animal League) used Black Friday to help their usually-hard-to-place inmates find homes by reducing or waiving adoption fees for cats and dogs who are all or partially black.

Instead of fighting over meaningless stuff, why don’t people consider doing NICE things for someone for a change? Isn’t that what this so-called “Christian season of GIVING” is supposed to be all about?

Obama Passes Through – Again

By Cole

President Obama’s back in town when his bus rolls into Richmond tomorrow about 6.5 miles from here — as close as I’ll ever get to him — to talk about his jobs plan.

Obama’s destination is a fire station where he’ll talk to firemen, some county employees, and a smattering of local officials. The public is not invited.

Obama couldn't fit much of the public in here, anyway.

It’s Obama’s last stop on a 3-day tour through North Carolina and Virginia. He flew Air Force One to Asheville, NC, where he hopped onto the armored bus the Secret Service drove down for him.

After the fire station visit, Obama will fly the short hop back to DC — presumably on AF One — while his bus toodles up I-95 below him. This raises several questions:

Q: What happens if there’s a fire while Obama’s in the firehouse? Do they just let the place burn?

A: The fire trucks will be parked outside so the firemen can discreetly respond. Not that I wish ill on anyone, but wouldn’t it be funny if fire broke out and the room emptied on Obama? I bet he’d be rethinking that “no public allowed” decision.

Q: Why is Obama wasting double fuel traveling by air while his bus makes the same trip without him?

A: Hmmmmm… Good question. Obama?

Q: What’s Obama’s point? Does he really expect to gain broad support for his jobs plan by sneaking through town, snubbing voters?

A: It’s probably a money thing. The Miami Herald questioned who pays for this trip.

If Obama doesn’t appear before hordes, he can’t be accused of campaigning, so taxpayers must foot his travel expenses. But if so, why should ALL taxpayers pay for his visits to only a handful? And why should they have to pay for a plane AND a bus to make the same trip?

While thousands of Occupy Wall Street people are in the streets protesting greed and reckless spending, Obama thinks it’s a good idea to joy-ride/fly through two nearby states which are, coincidentally(?), critical to his re-election, pretending he’s not campaigning so he won’t have to pay for it.

And he wonders why his cred is in the toilet.

Congress Deserves a Beating

By Adele

Contempt has to stand on tip-toe to see Congress these days. Our so-called “representatives” behaved like a pack of selfish, spoiled brats, playing the self-inflicted crisis to the hilt, milking out every last drop of drama until they unveiled a joke of a debt “deal” minutes before high-tailing it out of DC for thoroughly undeserved vacations.

In their wake, the stock market crashes and burns — again — devastating the retirement accounts of ordinary people who felt they were just crawling out of the hole Congress dug last time it diddled while Wall St. flushed the economy down the toilet.

It’s inconceivable to think anyone is stupid enough to buy into Republicans’ infantile refusal to face economic reality. 

But then you turn on the TV and there’s Sarah Palin.

Any idiot knows that if you spend wildly beyond your means, you don’t recover by “cutting back” on future spending, but by raising more money to pay the bills you owe RIGHT NOW.

Conservatives think they’re being slick, railroading Obama into turning the U.S. into a deadbeat debtor with no choice but to file bankruptcy, ruin its credit, and earn worldwide disgust like we’ve never seen before. 

All that, just to get a black man out of the White House.

Yeah, it must be racism, because their stated rationale that the wealthy need to be even wealthier so they can create jobs is just plain NUTS.

Give me one example since 2008 of some American billionaire starting a company and hiring thousands of new workers.

No, I didn’t think you could. 

What smart billionaires do is game the tax system and outsource decent jobs so they can shaft the government and their workers, keeping the lion’s share of profits for themselves — and lapdog politicians.

To top it off, we’ve got Eric Cantor rubbing Virginia’s nose in it with an ad claiming he’s “a leader who shares our values.”

Sure, if our values included mugging homeless, jobless people, children, the sick, and the elderly so fat-cats in banking, insurance, and real estate have more money to pour into Cantor’s campaign coffers. You don’t have to look hard to see where his loyalties lie.

In the meantime, while the Repubs and Tea Partiers dance a jig, thinking they struck a blow against Big Government, we see prices on EVERYTHING rising because the money has to come from somewhere.

As always, it will come from ordinary Americans, once again getting shafted by the people they elected.

Cantor Stomps Obama’s Last Nerve

By Yul

It was a sweet moment when John Boehner put his arm around House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and reassured everyone he doesn’t think Cantor’s an asshole. But “Boner” is in a dwindling minority.

Cantor is MY Congressman, and if cats could vote, he wouldn’t be elected dog-catcher. His insatiable need to top his own douchebaggery knows no limits.

Cantor looks like the creepy kid everybody either ignored or bullied in school. He probably entered politics just for spite, and fell into a tub of butter when the Republicans regained Congress in the mid-terms and made him House Nerd Majority Leader, with endless opportunities to diss the president.

Who can forget the time Cantor met with Obama on healthcare and showed up lugging the 2,000+-page bill as a prop to piss Obama off?

Or during the initial debt ceiling meetings with Biden, when Cantor flounced out with his tail in a fluff?

Cantor misses no Obama-baiting opportunity to show his solidarity with Virginia’s 7^th District closet bigots who have kept Cantor in Congress since 2001.

Just this week, when Obama headed the latest debt ceiling meetings, Cantor allegedly interrupted Obama 3 times, repeatedly suggesting a short-term fix. Obama finally smacked Cantor down, warning, “Don’t call my bluff.” Cantor later claimed Obama “stormed” out of the meeting in a hissy fit.

No, Eric. That’s what they have you for.

These talks themselves are ridiculous. A bunch of suits throwing around trillions as if they really know how much money that is. Making grand 10-year projections they won’t be around to carry out.

And it came as no surprise to learn that Cantor is betting AGAINST the government that furnishes his livelihood and healthcare. He invests in ProShares Trust Ultrashort 20+ Year Treasury EFT, which is projected to skyrocket if the U.S. financial situation tanks.

It’s maddening that gullible voters can be snowed by Republicans who scream, “No tax increases…!” without listening to the whole sentence, which is, “No tax increases for the WEALTHY and BIG CORPORATIONS!”

Meanwhile, Obama, the Great Compromiser, is prepared to throw 60-somethings under the bus AGAIN to appease those greedy SOBs. He’s offered to raise eligibility for Medicare to 67. Why not? Obama tossed near-retirees like bloody chum to insurance industry sharks, lettng them be ripped to shreds on premiums until 2014, before any meaningful healthcare reform kicks in.

The further into poverty with no safety net Cantor and other avaricious Republicans can shove the poor and middle class in any way, while claiming to be saviors, the bolder they become.

When are voters going to wake up and stop the madness?