Daily Archives: September 20, 2012

¡Ay, caramba, Señor Romney!

Posted on by

What new dumb thing has Mitt Romney done today? Well, last night Romney turned himself into the Frito Bandito for his Univision forum at the University of Miami — he just forgot to fake tan his ears, eyes, lips, neck, and hands.

Orange you glad I didn’t say 47%?

“Had [my father] been born of Mexican parents, I’d have a better shot of winning this,” Mitt told a gathering of bazillionaire donors. “But he was unfortunately born to Americans living in Mexico. He lived there for a number of years. I mean, I say that jokingly, but it would be helpful to be Latino.”

Speaking to Spanish-language network Univision, Mitt gave “being Latino” the old college try. (via: quickhits)

Really, Mitt? This is how you think you’ll connect with the Latino vote?

Note that only the very rich wear gloves and earmuffs when tanning.

Mitt Romney appeared to be a touch more tanned during an TV interview for Spanish-language channel Univision on Wednesday, prompting suggestions the Republican leader had piled on the make up to make himself more appealing to Latino voters.

But THIS though:

“He is the Juan Percent.”

Perfect.

Robert Reich: FOUR REASONS Mitt Romney could still win the election

Posted on by

Robert Reich strongly cautions people to not write-off the possibility that Mitt Romney could still pull out a win on Election Day. He says,

“For the last several days I’ve been deluged with calls from my inside-the-beltway friends telling me “Romney’s dead.” Hold it. Rumors of Romney’s demise are premature for at least four reasons:

1.  Between now and Election Day come two jobs reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics – October 5 and November 2.

2. Also between now and Election Day are three presidential debates, starting October 3. It’s commonly thought Obama will win them handily but that expectation may be very wrong – and could work against him.

3. During the next 7 final weeks of the campaign, the anti-Obama forces will be spending a gigantic amount of money. Not just the Romney campaign and Romney’s super PACs, but other super PACS aligned with Romney, billionaires spending their own fortunes, and non-profit “social welfare” organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, Karl Rove’s “Crossroads,” and various Koch-brothers political fronts – all will dump hundreds of millions on TV and radio spots, much of it spreading lies and distortions.

4. As they’ve displayed before, the Republican Party will do whatever it can to win — even if it means disenfranchising certain voters. To date, 11 states have enacted voter identification laws, all designed by Republican legislatures and governors to dampen Democratic turnout.

Read it all…

It’s only in the bag and over on November 7th. Keep working. Contribute. VOTE — and help ensure others may vote as well.

Register to vote | Volunteer | Contribute

Jon Stewart on Romney reframing effort: “Turd containment on Bullshit Mountain.”

Posted on by
  
  
  
  

Source: sandandglass
…

Here’s an example of the “reframing” effort, the script — currently being undertaken by panicky Fox “news” and Team Romney — to spin Mitt Romney’s own words into something a bit more palatable to the “47 percent” that Romney dismissed as a scavenging horde of grifters, eaters, and shiftless bums, and whose existence sucks the lifeblood from the upstanding and heroic entrepreneurial class:

“He was obviously inarticulate in making this point. The point we’re trying to make here is, under the Obama economy, government dependency is up and economic stagnation is up. And what we’re trying to achieve is trying to get people off government dependency and back to a job that pays well, that gets them on the path to prosperity.” — Paul Ryan

No. Sorry, Paul Ryan. Mitt didn’t mean to say that, at all. And then the spin goes counter-clockwise:
…

  
  
  
Source: sandandglass

Mitt Romney using unpaid miners as campaign props – again

Posted on by

The Columbus Dispatch reports:

“Mitt Romney’s campaign is airing two ads in eastern Ohio that include footage of the coal miners who lost pay because he campaigned at their mine. …The two ads titled “War on Coal” and “Way of Life” include shots of Romney on a stage with soot-covered coal miners.

“The footage is from Romney’s Aug. 14 campaign stop at the Century Mine in Beallsville, Ohio, owned by a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp. It was later learned that the miners on stage were ordered out of the mine because of Romney’s campaign stop and were not paid for the portion of their shift that was canceled by the event. The Romney campaign confirmed the miners shown in the two ads were the miners from Romney’s campaign stop.”

Murray Energy and the Romney Campaign are blaming each other for closing the mine that day, which resulted in lost wages for every one of the men pictured standing behind Romney. In other words, neither Murray nor Romney want to take responsibility for ordering the mine closed during Romney’s appearance, because neither want to reimburse the miners for lost pay.

If you’re keeping score at home: Murray Energy: 1 (public relations opportunity with news), Romney Campaign: 2+ (backdrop for campaign stop + usage of photo ops for future campaign ads), and the miners: 0 (lost wages).

And that’s how Republicans roll.

Poetic Justice

Posted on by

“I’ve gotten a lot of Twitter messages from people supporting me and saying that it’s poetic justice that it was a Carter that uncovered this, considering the way that the Romney campaign has been talking about my grandfather. I agree with that sentiment wholeheartedly.” — James Carter IV, grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, who convinced the anonymous source of the “Romney hidden camera video” to release it to David Corn at Mother Jones for wider distribution.

The waning days of the 2012 campaign

Posted on by

“Now fate finds Republicans, in the waning days of the 2012 campaign, faced with video of one candidate expressing his total contempt, his unfettered disdain for half of the country. Only it’s not the guy they’ve been trying to take out. It’s the guy they nominated.” — Adam Serwer, at Mother Jones. (via thesmithian)

Republicans “support our troops” only when it’s politically convenient (corrected)

Posted on by

The NY Times reports that Senate Republicans blocked a Veterans Job Corps bill yesterday:

“Veterans won’t be getting a new, billion-dollar jobs program, not from this Senate. Republicans on Wednesday afternoon blocked a vote on the Veterans Job Corps Bill after Jeff Sessions of Alabama raised a point of order — he said the bill violated a cap on spending agreed to by Congress last year. The bill’s sponsor, Patty Murray of Washington, said that shouldn’t matter, since the bill’s cost was fully offset by new revenues.

“[...] It would be easier to admire the Republicans’ late-breaking fiscal scrupulosity if their motives — denying the Obama administration any kind of victory this year, whatever the cost to jobless vets — weren’t so transparent. It’s probably useful to remind Republicans like John McCain (a “nay” on the jobs bill) that wounded, jobless and homeless veterans aren’t a fact of nature. They’re a product of the wars that Congress members voted for, the war debt they piled on, and the economy they helped ruin.”

Here is the Roll Call link:

  • Of the 58 Yeas, only 2 5 were Republican
  • Of the 40 Nays, all were Republican

***Correction*** there were five Republicans who voted for this bill: Scott Brown (Mass.), Susan Collins (Maine), Dean Heller (Nev.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Olympia Snowe (Maine). – via Mother Jones ***

The greatest myth that was ever created by the media is that John McCain, “maverick” and former POW, supports our enlisted men and women.

And then this happened:

Senate Republican leaders fled their weekly press conference after delivering prepared remarks Wednesday without taking a single question from reporters eagerly seeking their thoughts on their presidential nominee’s newly unearthed remarks dismissing nearly half of American voters.

— Republican Leaders Flee Questions About Romney’s 47 Percent Comments | TPMDC

If you vote Republican, please refrain from thinking you’re patriotic or that you support our troops — that would be a lie. And if you’re in the military, or have a friend or family member in the military, take a good hard look at which party was trying to pass this bill.