Fear turns to loathing

I’m sitting here with my foot elevated, because like an idiot I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing today, and missed an entire step going out into the garage. I seem to have given myself a mild ankle sprain. It hurts like a mother, and I’m doing my best to make sure I can handle some walking tomorrow, because we have a chance to see Notre Dame go 9-0 by beating Pitt! So I’ve iced, wrapped, elevated, and Advil’d, and I’m hoping that it will be okay enough that I can handle the walking tomorrow. Maybe we need to buy a little wagon, and Ken can pull me behind him! I just laughed at that mental image.

Anyway, this is a good time to do an update. This could very well be the last one I make before the election, so I’ll try to make it a good one. I’ll warn you that I am pissed, so proceed at your own risk.

Before I get to that, let me say that I’m thinking of the people on the East Coast, and sending special thoughts for several friends who have had to deal with Sandy and her aftermath. Our good friend Raquel, in particular, is having a rough time of it, as she lives in the Village and has been without power since the storm hit. She’s been able to go on walkabout to charge her phone and find wifi, so has let us all know that she and her Mom are okay. She has also maintained her sense of humor, and I don’t feel ashamed to say that she embodies all that I love about New York and New Yorkers: tough, but with a heart of gold. Love you, Raquel, and I hope they’re right about you getting your power back TONIGHT!

Having said that, I’ll segue into why I’m pissed. While President Obama was busy getting shit done, looking all presidential and junk, and meeting with his new BFF New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Romney was left twiddling his thumbs. Out of decency, he canceled his campaign events. Well...sort of. He decided to go ahead with a rally in the quaint little village of Kettering, Ohio, but changed it from a campaign rally to a “victory rally.” Ostensibly, it was to help raise supplies and funds for hurricane victims. A couple of things, though. A) The Red Cross specifically says on their website to NOT send food or clothing. It takes up too many of their resources to sort and catalog the items, and a monetary donation is absolutely the best way to help the organization and the people it is trying to assist. But ol’ Mittens is like the honey badger. He doesn’t give a shit. So he collected items and talked about how they were going to box them all up and drive them to a donation site. And 2) because this was a last-minute shift in focus, they wanted to make sure it looked like they were rolling in item donations, so the campaign went to Walmart and spent five grand buying supplies to stack on tables. When people were told that they needed an item to donate in order to gain admittance to the rally and said they hadn’t brought anything, they were told to “grab something off the table” and then present it as their donation.

I honestly don’t know when I’ve seen such crass opportunism as Romney and his campaign are displaying. This even trumps (HA! Get it??) the Paul Ryan “I’m barging into this soup kitchen and washing clean dishes whether you like it or not” moment. As I’ve written before, I’ve got a super duper double viper Bullshit-O-Meter, and this entire campaign reeks of bullshittery.

But THAT isn’t what pissed me off the most, believe it or not! What really did it for me, and sent me from fearing what Romney’s policies would do to our country and the economy and actively disliking his  persona into the realm of genuinely loathing the man is another Ohio-related incident.

He told the crowd at a rally in northern Ohio that he “saw a story” about how Chrysler is thinking of moving all Jeep production to China. This, in a state that relies heavily on the auto industry. GM and Chrysler spokespeople immediately responded saying that that couldn’t be further from the truth; what they ARE thinking about doing is expanding production in China, which indicates a sign of health for the companies. They are not closing any U.S. production facilities. Even the Chrysler CEO had to weigh in and say no, this is completely untrue.

But Mitt the Honey Badger don’t care. He released TV and radio ads repeating the exact same BIG FAT LIE. This, despite immediate and forceful refutation from the companies themselves.

So what was it about that that pissed me off so much? He needlessly scared people. Panicked workers were calling into their workplaces wondering if they were still going to have a job. In a state where the auto industry means so much—and unemployment is lower than the national average, thanks to the auto bailout—he was purposefully trying to frighten people. What kind of an asshole does that?? These are people who are worried about their families and their livelihood, and he’s scaring the bejeebus out of them in order to score cheap political points.

All those people who think he’s an honorable man? Do you want to change your answer? To me, an honorable person doesn’t pull such a cynical, asshole move on people who are scared. An honorable person does their best to reassure those who are hurting and scared, and works his ass off to get them the help that they need (please scroll up to see that picture again).

Well, if there is any sort of redeeming aspect to this, it is that his actions and words speak of desperation. I am not taking anything for granted, but these are not the tactics of someone who is winning. They are those of someone who is losing.

As well as the tactics of someone who is a Loser. Capital L Loser.

For a little comic relief, please enjoy this clip from “The Daily Show” that had both me and Ken laughing out loud...especially the end!

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Excoriated

In my previous entry, I wrote about why I support President Obama. In this entry, I’m going to write about why I do not support Mitt Romney.

I could go into detail about the many of his policies with which I disagree, or about how I disagree on a very basic level with his vision of our country, especially concerning those who are less fortunate; I could also talk about his embrace of trickle-down economics, even though that cute little experiment has failed miserably for going on four decades now. Honestly, what does it take to get people to understand that lower tax rates don’t create jobs and drive the economy? It’s all about demand for goods and services. So there are deep philosophical differences I have with Governor Romney.

But as I was thinking about all of this, I realized that I could distill my dislike for Romney into one simple phrase: he lacks a core.

He may have that when it comes to his faith, and he probably has it when it comes to his family. When it comes to policies, however, he has no core. We’ve seen his frequent changes over the years in almost everything he’s dealt with. NBC published a fairly lengthy article on Romney’s changes on foreign policy over the years. And that is just foreign policy! It doesn’t include his many changing stances on marriage equality, abortion, and as far as I can tell, virtually every other issue he has encountered in his entire political life. As the saying goes, you’ve got to stand for something, or you’ll fall for anything.

This goes beyond simple evolution of stances on issues; I think we all grow and learn and change as we get more experience. For example, I’ve written before about my change from supporting civil unions only to full-on support for marriage equality. However, you won’t see me changing my stance on that again...ever. That was the culmination of years of thought, the exchange of ideas, and simply knowing and loving several gay people over the course of years. No...Romney’s changes happen frequently, and oddly enough, seem to coincide with his political campaigns. As candidate for Governor and Senator of the decidedly liberal Massachusetts, he took a moderate, even left-of-center stance; in the presidential primaries, he moved far to the right according to the dictates of the far-right factions of today’s Republican party; as the Republican nominee, he is distancing himself from those remarks—some made just weeks ago!—in order to court the moderates and independents. His head is spinning faster than Linda Blair’s in “The Exorcist.”

I can appreciate the changes that people experience in their lives and that cause their stances on issues to evolve. What I can’t appreciate, and actually abhor, is anyone who engages in crass attempts to change the core of their convictions based on popular opinion, or based on what particular bloc of voters they happen to be courting that day. I find this sort of blatant ass-kissing deplorable. It speaks very strongly to me of the character of a person, and makes me question their ability to make proper decisions. I’ve always hated a bullshit artist, and I can spot them a mile away. Mitt Romney reminds me of drunken frat boys trying to get into my pants in college, saying whatever they thought would appeal to me in order to get there.

America, Mitt Romney wants to get into your pants. Show some respect for yourself and walk away. You really don’t want to take that Walk of Shame on November 7th.

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?!

Today on Facebook and elsewhere, I noticed some of my liberal friends having a bit of a freak-out over Wednesday night’s debate. The pundits immediately declared it a crushing Romney victory...which was odd, because Ken and I didn’t see it that way at all. Immediately afterwards, I said that I’d give a slight win to Romney, both because of the low expectations for him and because of President Obama’s lackluster performance. Ken felt the same way.

Of course, the following day, teeth were gnashing and voices were wailing. I wish I could have passed some smelling salts out to folks. I stepped back for a moment, read several stories about it, and really thought about my perception of the debate. One thing became clear very quickly: Romney may have seemed forceful and sharp, but he was not very truthful. I’m being nice. He LIED. A LOT. I’m not going to list them all here. Do you know why? Because there are so freakin’ many of them! Besides, others have done a fine job with checking up on what he said. You can read about it here (Mittens is bad at math edition), here (Bullshit Contest edition), and a comprehensive list here (Lie, lie, and lie again edition). My initial hopes that people would start doing some fact checking and calling Mittens to the shed for his lies turned out to be true. The teabagger base types might have loved his chest-thumping, testosterone-laden silverback impression, but I’m guessing independents and undecideds were not quite as enamored of the display...especially when he blatantly lied about numerous things.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of one exchange in particular, in which Mittens disputed the $5 trillion tax cut claim made by Obama. Never mind the fact that the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has estimated that the tax cuts that Romney champions would amount to that over the next decade. The exchange went something like this:

Obama: blah blah blah your $5 trillion in tax cuts...
Romney: I don’t have a $5 trillion tax cut.
Obama: Yes, you do.
Romney: No, I don’t.
Obama: Yes, you do!
Romney: No, I don’t!

Argument Clinic, anyone? Good grief.

Anyway, I came to the conclusion that the reason I saw the debate so differently is because I was expecting facts, and I got them from Obama. I know enough about some of the topics that I knew that Romney was lying about several things. So I was rating the winner on substance. I should have known better, because people often determine a winner based on style rather than substance. (I believe that it was also in the media’s best interest to make this a closer race than it is at the moment, but that’s a topic for another day.) Romney came across as forceful and combative, and Obama seemed listless and disengaged. I do understand part of the reasoning there...sitting Presidents should behave in a presidential manner, and all that...but he was a little too cool and detached for many people. (Although I appreciate that in him, I know that not everyone does.)

So some folks were a little wigged out. Obama has lost the election. Obama blew it. Romney’s going to win. Dogs and cats living together. A new Nickelback album. I finally sent an email to some friends saying that everyone needs to take a deep breath. This was ONE DEBATE in an entire campaign. Romney lied, the fact checkers are on it, and he provided all kinds of fodder for Obama ads. (Sure enough, one was released in seven swing states the very next day.) Obama is known for his competitiveness, and you can bet that he will not be that passive in the final two debates. One is a town hall format—and we know that Obama does well connecting with people in town hall formats—about domestic and foreign policy, and the final debate is about foreign policy. I wonder if Osama bin Laden will be watching that one? Oh, wait! He can’t, ‘cause he’s DEAD!

I think it’s also important to keep in mind that debates usually don’t matter. Almost everyone has already made up their minds who they are going to vote for by this time, and that seems more true than ever in this highly polarized atmosphere. There is a very small percentage of undecided voters (many of them could also be considered uninformed voters who have not been paying much attention and aren’t into politics at all), and an even smaller percentage of those are in swing states. An undecided voter in Texas who votes for Obama isn’t going to matter fuck-all to the electoral college vote, just as an undecided voter in Illinois who ends up voting for Romney isn’t going to matter. So the target audience is not a huge number of people. As for those who have already made up their minds, do you really think that debate is going to swing someone like me? Do you really think I sat there and watched that and said, “Hey...I think I’m going to rethink this Romney guy”? Not on your life. Will Romney get a bump in the polls? Undoubtedly. Will it be enough to change the trajectory of the race? History says not.

It’s time to put away the smelling salts and get a grip. Team Obama and the DNC raised over $150 million in September. Today’s job report was, overall, good news, with the unemployment rate down to 7.8%. Jobs are expected to be added for the holiday season, optimism is rising, and a majority of people feel that the economy is improving (that’s because it is). The stock market closed today at 13,600+, up almost 25% from a year ago. The facts are on our side. We’ve still got work to do, and we’ve got about a month to do it. Anyone who thinks that debate completely changed the game needs to do a little more reading, because there are more forces and influences at work here than that.

This video seems like a good way to end things today. Buck up, liberal citizens. It’s not over till I say it’s over! Well, technically, it’s Congress who validates the electoral college vote, but...oh, never mind, just watch this!

And ROCK THE VOTE! 

The GaffeMeister 3000™

I’ll take a little break from writing about the Olympics (But hey, how about that Michael Phelps?! And how about the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics team?! WOW!) and write about Mittens’ recent jaunt to England, Israel, and Poland.

Jesus H. Christ on a jumped-up sidecar, what a train wreck. What an embarrassment. I would like to apologize to the citizens of each country, but especially to the British. My friend Leanne suggested that we start writing apology notes now, and perhaps a Harry and David fruit basket is also in order. I agree, because this was a fucking JOKE.

I’m sure you’ve read about it, so I won’t go into detail. He immediately began making friends and influencing people by saying that maybe London wasn’t entirely prepared for the Olympics. Never mind the fact that the British press had voiced many of the same concerns, and in much stronger terms; he was there on the eve of the Olympics, and you don’t just walk into someone’s house for a party and say, “Hey, looks like you didn’t prepare properly for this!” No. You say, “Oh, everything looks great! Your house is beautiful, the food looks wonderful, and if we run out of booze, one of us can run out real quick and get some more. Thank you for inviting us!” THAT is diplomacy. I’m surprised I have to explain this.

The British hated him. Headlines ranged from “Mitt the Twit” to “Who Invited Him?” He was called a wazzock and a wanker. (I was familiar with the latter term, but not the former. I approve of both.) The PM and London’s Mayor both ridiculed him and unloaded the snark. Yes. Embarrassing.

After pissing off one of our closest—if not the closest—allies, Mittens was off to Israel, which was a little more welcoming since he’s long-time good buddies with PM Netanyahu. Things went pretty well for him there, as he said what big donors wanted to hear at a fundraiser, which amounted to yes, we will support Israel no matter what. Then he had to step in it a little bit a lot and insult the Palestinians by saying that Israel’s success has to do with a difference in “culture” and “providence,” as in the Palestinians aren’t as “cultured” nor do they have the advantage of “divine providence,” but then he walked it back and said he wasn’t talking about Palestinian culture, just culture in general, kinda like how the U.S. is successful and Mexico isn’t, ‘cause Mexico’s culture isn’t as good as the United States’, and then people found stuff in his book that said EXACTLY that about culture, and then he wrote an op ed saying that yes, he really did mean that culture has lots to do with a country’s economic success, and...for fuck’s sake, Mitt, pick a stance already! And stop insulting people! Stop stepping into the middle of a conflict that has been going on for thousands of years, one that has no easy solutions, one that many Presidents (and better men than you) have tried to negotiate over the years!

[deep breath]

Oh, and then the deputy PM of Israel said that the Obama administration has actually been pretty good to them. Heh.

Okay. Off to Poland. Again, a fairly welcome reception there. Apparently Lech Walesa really likes the dude, for some unknown reason. The Solidarity trade union wasn’t as enamored, and distanced themselves from Walesa’s support of Mittens and issued a statement that they stand in support of America’s unions.

There were plenty of other Bizarro World occurrences along the way, from Romney talking about looking out the “backside” of No. 10 Downing Street (Good grief!!) to him praising Israel’s health care system (umm...it’s run by the government, Mittens) to his press secretary telling reporters (who were definitely being dicks) at Poland’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to “kiss my ass...this is a holy place...have some respect,” and it began to verge on the surreal. Yes, because if someone gets up in my grill at a cemetery, I like to say, “Kiss my ass...have some respect.”

Then Mittens came home. Finally. Thankfully.

I guess his goal was to show that he was ready to lead, and that he has the diplomatic chops to deal with various foreign dignitaries. Well, you fucked up, Mittens. You were an embarrassment to our country, you showed that you don’t have the slightest idea of how to be diplomatic, and you made it apparent that you are incapable of picking up on obvious social and psychological clues, let alone subtle ones. It’s not surprising. When you live in the privileged bubble of the extremely rich, you forget how to deal with people. You expect everyone to respect you, because you have forgotten that respect is earned, not bought.

I don’t know how much impact this will have. We have a ways to go before the election. But I hope it sends a subtle message (one that I’m sure Mittens would be unable to intuit) to those undecided voters that this guy just doesn’t play well with others. Even those who are supposed to be his bestest friends.

I’m just glad he picked up his ball and came home before he started an international incident.

Bain in the Ass

(A big thank you to my friend Steve D. for coming up with that title on a recent Bookface thread!)

Hooo boy. Ol’ Mittens has to be trying to remember exactly why he wanted to run for President in the first place right about now. It’s been a brutal few days for him, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to let up anytime soon.

In case you missed it, Team Obama has been hitting Romney hard on his involvement with Bain Capital. He claims he was done with Bain in 1999, when he went to Utah to work on the Olympics, but SEC filings show that he was listed as CEO and owner until 2002. Why does it matter? Well, aside from possibly lying about it, or misrepresenting his involvement, apparently Bain was involved in outsourcing jobs quite a bit after 1999. Team Obama is trying to show that he is not a job creator, but a job outsourcer. That’s the gist of it, anyway. Romney is scrambling to address all this, and is now demanding an apology.

This is all pretty fascinating to me, mostly because it’s my guy who has the other guy on the ropes and is pummeling him relentlessly. David Frum also uses a boxing analogy in his opinion piece on the matter: “Wham. The first attack on Romney had been a jab, dropping Romney's guard against the haymaker.” Basically, Team Mittens walked right into the trap that was brilliantly laid by Team Obama. Now it’s a matter of trying desperately to do damage control, but the more Mittens talks about it, the worse he sounds. (His demand for an apology from President Obama prompted Rahm Emanuel to tell Romney to “stop whining.” If he can’t handle an attack ad, how is he going to handle harsh words from various world leaders?)

It also got all caught up somehow with Romney’s refusal to release more than two tax returns, which is its own shitstorm for him. Even conservatives like George Will are telling Romney to release several years’ worth, and it is causing the kind of speculation you can find in this New Yorker piece by John Cassidy. The question ultimately comes down to “What is he hiding?” As some have said, Romney released 23 years of tax returns to the McCain campaign when being vetted for vice-president, and McCain ended up picking...Sarah Palin?! The general consensus is that there has to be something damaging in them for him to double down on refusing to release more than two years.

In a pathetic attempt to change the subject, the Drudge Report released a bogus and irresponsible report that Condoleezza Rice was at the top of the list for Romney’s VP pick. Really? The pro-choice, pro-immigration reform Rice who had a huge part in the Iraq war and is still closely associated with W, currently at #1 with a bullet as the worst President in history? THAT Condoleezza Rice? (For the record, I don’t hate her. I think she’s a smart, strong woman who I happen to disagree with on quite a few things.) Drudge is widely known to be firmly entrenched in Romney’s pocket (I could have used another word...you’re welcome.), so this was an obvious and cynical attempt to divert attention from Bain and from Mittens’ tax returns. For shame.

Is it dirty politics? I would say it’s rough, but I wouldn’t say it’s dirty. Looks to me like someone is lying here, and I don’t believe it’s my guy. You’ll pardon me for not crying, “Leave Mittens aloooooone!” when the Republicans have been calling Obama everything from a Kenyan to a socialist. I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy.

I am also in awe of whoever it was on Team Obama who came up with this attack. David Plouffe? David Axelrod? Jim Messina? Maybe it was a concerted effort. Whoever it was crafted it perfectly, and I’m sure they were laughing with delight as Romney backed himself into a corner. They’re probably still laughing. I thought the 2008 campaign was brilliant, but this is on another level. I don’t believe that Romney has managed to define himself with the majority of people (some of my friends disagree), and Team Obama has gone a long way towards defining Romney as a plutocratic fat cat who wants to help the rich more than he wants to help the poor.

However, I realize that there are still four months to go before the election. I will enjoy this brief moment of schadenfreude while I can, but I won’t gloat forever. There is plenty of work to be done.

This has been pretty fun, though!

A good Friday

I got up at a decent time this morning, got my workout done, and had a nice lunch with my mother-in-law! We had a nice chat and many laughs (including about certain mutual acquaintances), and it was a pleasant, sunny day, although it was a little on the cool side. I’m battling a little bit of a headache due to the food coma thing, although I didn’t overeat. Just a half a sandwich (fried green tomato turkey club...YUM!) and some steamed vegetables, but I don’t usually eat that much for lunch. Usually I eat...nothing. But it was good, and it was a fun visit! I’ll have the other half of the sandwich for dinner tonight. I’m not doing very well with cleaning out the freezer, darn it! But I have something yummy in mind for Ken’s return on Sunday that involves a sirloin steak that’s in the freezer...a lot of work, but I’ve got a hankering for it, and it was really good when I made it before. Details to come, but it’s an Emeril Lagasse recipe, so you know it’s good! And I get to use my meat mallet, so that’s always a plus.

I also have something neat happening tomorrow (Saturday), and I’ll write about it afterwards. TEASE!

I haven’t gone back to see how many times I’ve written about politics in the past month, but I don’t think it’s been very often. I’ve been trying to figure out how I’m feeling about things, and I actually feel kind of sad and disgusted. Don’t get me wrong...I plan on doing work for Obama’s campaign this summer, and I still support him completely. Most of my disgust comes with the outrageous things being said by the Republicans and the failure of the rank and file Repubs to rebuke extremists like Limbaugh for their horrid comments. There have been plenty of targets, but I’m going to focus on their attitude towards women again. Not just the Sandra Fluke “slut” remarks from Limbo. He recently said this about Hillary Clinton:

And now Hillary has reached the pinnacle, and all she is is a secretary. She’s the Secretary of Defense – State, whatever. But still a secretary. I don’t know. The left has the strangest definitions of success.

That’s right. One of the most powerful women in the world, with an approval rating through the roof, one who has proven herself to be an incredible and capable diplomat, and he calls her just “a secretary.” That’s Secretary of Em-Effin STATE, you limp-dick tub o’ lard. UGH. (Hillary 2016! C’mon, Hill, do it just so Limbaugh’s head will go all splodey!)

I’m also appalled by the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which has essentially put our elections up for sale to the highest bidder. This is a bipartisan abomination, and I hope that the Supreme Court will choose to address it again and reverse their decision. Oh, and Mittens tells college students this week to ask their parents for a loan for college, or to start a business. Seriously? Does he have any idea that millions of people in this country do NOT have the money to loan to their kids? Wake up, people! This guy is clueless to what average Americans are dealing with right now!

Errr, anyway...so I’m still reading about all of this stuff, still taking it all in, still learning and being informed...but my respect for our election process has taken a major hit. Partisanship has become insane, and although it happens on both sides, I think one side saying that their main goal is to make Obama a one term President should be a clear indication that SOME parties are more partisan than others...not to mention any names. *cough* republicans *cough*

I am still engaged, still fired up and ready to go, and still ready to do what I can to give my President another term. I’m trying to balance it with other reading (Summer for the Gods is fantastic...I’m about halfway through and will be doing an entry about it when I’m done), music, exercise, and family and friends. I can get very frustrated and angry with some of the things I read, and I simply cannot allow that to rule my life. As we get closer to the election, I’m sure I’ll get more deeply involved and vocal (that last week is going to be every bit of a bitch as the last week before the 2008 election, I just know it!), but for now I’m trying to stay mellow. 

However, as I typed that last sentence just now, I realized that an evil grin appeared on my face, and my eyebrow arched automatically. This doesn’t bode well.

Ted Nugent: Gone-zo

I didn’t want to write about this because I don’t like giving this idiot bandwidth, but the more I read, the more I want to say a few things. I’m not posting a picture of him, though. Here’s a picture of a cat wearing a Batman mask instead.

So Ted Nugent was speaking at an NRA convention. Nothing surprising there, because he’s been all up in our grills about guns and ammo and hunting and all that shit for a long time now. But he caught some flak this week for saying that if President Obama is re-elected, he’ll either be dead or in jail this time next year. Some considered that a not-so-veiled threat against the President, ‘cause see, why would Nugent be in jail or dead if President Obama is re-elected? Maybe because he’d do something violent, something that would cause him to be thrown in jail, or be shot because of his actions? Maybe something like, oh…trying to HARM the President? The Secret Service, which takes all threats seriously, will be interviewing him tomorrow. Nugent says he’s going to have a barbecue for them. I’m guessing that they will be all business, and politely decline...at least I hope so. The Secret Service has their own damage control to do, don’t they?

Anyway, Nugent swears that he didn’t threaten the President by making that statement. Says that he was just exercising his right to free speech, and he has the right to bear arms and blahbitty blah blah and YEEEEOWWWW your face is a Maserati! Oh, and he says that he never threatens people. Really? Roll the tape, please, Cal. (If I had a media guy, his name would be Cal.)



“Ride my machine gun.” Right. That’s not a threat. He calls President Obama a “piece of shit,” Hillary Clinton a “worthless bitch,” and Dianne Feinstein a “worthless whore.” Maybe name-calling isn’t a threat, but telling these people to ride his machine gun certainly seems a little threatening to me. If someone came up to you on the street and yelled, “Hey, you worthless bitch...ride my machine gun!” would you feel threatened? I sure would!

Okay, listen. This guy is pretty much washed up, and hasn’t been relevant for a long time. I liked some of his stuff when I was in the mood for ‘70s arena rock, which has been about once in the past 15 years or so. I said goodbye to him permanently when he wrote about Sarah Palin for Time and praised her “herculean work ethic.” Anyone saying that about Sarah Palin is obviously a delusional moron, and I had had enough. It’s one thing to be outrageous and on the edge, but when you cross the line into just plain stupid, I’m done with you.

There IS a line, and Nugent has crossed it, which I think he is beginning to comprehend. We all value free speech, and want to protect the right of everyone (even addlepated has-beens) to speak their mind and criticize opinions with which they don’t agree. But when you are so caught up in your bizarre little gun-totin’ world that you start using violent gun imagery to discuss people rather than policy, you’ve gone too far, and the Secret Service pays you a visit.

So get a grip here, Ted. What you have been saying is not cool, and the vast majority of people are not speaking of you in glowing terms tonight. They’re talking about how you’re an asshole, and how most of your music sucked, anyway. The only people who approve of a wingnut threatening the President of the United States of America are other wingnuts. So how about you just head on back to your little Michigan farm, shoot your little guns, and dream your little dreams about when you were out on the road and getting blow jobs from underage girls, okay? 

Oh, and Mittens? Do you think it might be time, finally, to show a little decency and backbone and prove that you actually have a pair of testes—or even ONE! Surely you have ONE teste!—and renounce this flaming asshole and decline his support? Or are you just going to continue to say that everyone needs to be civil? Jeez, what a pussy.

Speaking of pussy, here’s a picture of a cat dressed as Darth Vader. You’re welcome.

The dignity of work

[Disclaimer: Dignity is directly proportional to type of job, level of public assistance, and wages and benefits involved in said work. Exemptions may be applicable for living situation, type of housing, and social class of individual. Wives of multi-millionaires are permanently exempt from any and all criticism of lifestyle decisions. Women in situations other than that of said women are subject to the full wrath and scorn that can and should be rightfully heaped upon them for whatever decisions they make.]

It was just two days ago that I wrote about the silly “war on moms” that the righties were saying the Democrats are waging against stay-at-home mothers, because of the words of one Democratic analyst not affiliated with the Obama administration or campaign.

Well, Mittens and his wife were just outraged...OUTRAGED, I tell you! How DARE that woman question Ann Romney’s decision to stay at home? How DARE the Democrats suggest that staying at home with your kids isn’t work? How can they act like Ann Romney isn’t just like every other stay-at-home mom, at least if they have two Cadillacs, the best health care money can buy, and the ability to pay for nannies, maids, gardeners, chauffeurs, visiting nurses, and chefs? What a bunch of commie lesbos to suggest that they’re better than someone like Ann Romney, just because THEY go to work and she doesn’t! I bet they don’t even shave their legs...OR their armpits! O the humanity!

Well, check out what Mittens said about welfare rules just four months ago:

“I wanted to increase the work requirement. I said, for instance, that even if you have a child two years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, ‘Well that’s heartless,’ and I said ‘No, no, I’m willing to spend more giving daycare to allow those parents to go back to work. It’ll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.”

Ahhh, so now we know what he really thinks. It’s okay for wealthy women like his wife to stay at home with the kids, and their work as stay-at-home moms is super serious work, guys, and they are so awesome and work so hard and should be praised, nay, worshipped as the fine examples of American womanitude that they are!

But those welfare moms? The ones that stay home with their kids rather than working a minimum wage job, even though daycare costs more than they can make at a minimum wage job? Lazy bitches, all of ‘em, leeches on the legs of rich white Americans like ol’ Mittens. There’s no dignity in staying home with those squawking little welfare brats, anyway, so better to put them into daycare where they can get some proper instruction, rather than being subjected to your lameness as a mother, and better you get your lazy ass into work so you can learn how to have a little DIGNITY, you bitch.

If I sound pissed, I am. The condescension is mind-boggling, and although I realize that every politician is an opportunist, ready to jump on any opening, this is just foul, and indicative of a profound lack of empathy and understanding from Mittens about the plight of working women, working mothers, and just women in general. It is also glaringly obvious, and has been so for a long time now, that he will say anything, do anything, pander to anyone, and kiss any ass that he thinks might get him elected. If you can’t see the soul-numbing cynicism of his tactics, I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t agree with Santorum or Ron Paul about much of anything, but I’ll give them credit for having convictions and standing by them. Mittens is like a twitching fish in the noonday sun, his bland white flesh flopping this way and that in order to avoid the heat and light. And it stinks.

The saying goes that a man who stands for nothing will fall for anything. I don’t know who said that originally, but my fellow Hoosier John Mellencamp wrote a song about it. Mittens needs to listen to the Little Bastard and try to find a kernel of conviction within himself. Although I really don’t think he’s capable of doing that. If he hasn’t found it yet, why does anyone think he’ll have a sudden epiphany and manage to grow a pair?

I declare a war on wars

As if it’s not bad enough that we are in two actual wars, we seem to have a tendency of late to take any contrary viewpoint and turn it into a faux war.

War on Christmas. War on religion. War on traditional marriage. War on women. (It won’t surprise you to know that I think there is a legitimate effort to harm women with restrictive policies, but then I’m what Rush Limbaugh would “affectionately” refer to as a Feminazi. Because standing up for equal rights for women is just like persecution of ‘undesirables,’ death camps, and invading Poland. Just. Like. It.)

Now we’ve got the war on moms, also called the Mommy Wars. I thought we’d been through all this when women started entering the workforce en masse, and we had the discussion about how working women can balance their jobs in the public sector with their jobs at home, bring home the bacon and fry it up in the pan, and juggle all of these aspects without going batshit crazy. It seemed to have worked itself out pretty well, despite plenty of infighting among women themselves, with moms who stay at home saying that working moms are neglecting their children, or working moms saying that they can’t be really fulfilled unless they also work, and on and on. But things did seem to settle down, for the most part, or we at least reached a truce. The reality is that I’m sure a lot of women would choose to be able stay at home with their kids if they could afford it; it has become increasingly difficult for a family to live on one income, so many moms work out of necessity. Of course, for single moms, that goes without saying.

[Note: I’m sure there is someone sitting there in their cozy little cottage, thinking “Hey! You never had kids, so you can’t write about this! Stop writing! Now! Right now!” I laugh at your demands and your exclamation points. HA! As a woman who supported herself for many years, I feel I have the right to have opinions about women in the workplace. I also have friends who have dealt with these issues. As I’ve written before, you don’t have to have experienced something directly to have opinions on it. So get over it.]

Hostilities have resumed in the Mommy Wars because a Democratic analyst on CNN (Hilary Rosen, a mother of two) said that Mittens’ wife Ann doesn’t understand the plight of working moms, because she’s never worked a day in her life. Cue the outrage! Unleash the uproar! ::sigh:: Listen, it was poorly worded, and it was kind of a dick thing to do. But then it was framed as Democrats ridiculing women who choose to stay home with their kids, and that is just absurd. Rosen clarified her remarks (and Joan Walsh strongly defended Rosen) and I think it’s important to understand what really is going on here.

No one is attacking stay-at-home moms. If a family is able to have the mom (or the dad, if that works for them) not work outside the home, more power to them. Ann Romney could afford to do that—and then some. Did she work hard raising five boys? I don’t doubt it. Did she have struggles to deal with? She sure did...breast cancer and multiple sclerosis. She is, by all accounts, a decent and good woman, and no one is attacking her for choosing to stay home and raise their kids.

But let’s be very clear: it was a choice for Ann Romney. For millions of American mothers, there IS no choice. They must work in order to help pay the bills, or to put money away for their kids’ college expenses. Ann Romney’s hard work in raising five boys and dealing with major health issues are in the context of a very wealthy woman. She undoubtedly had help with the kids, and if you think she was the one doing all the cooking and cleaning in however many houses they own, you are a silly person. She had outstanding health insurance to get her through her medical problems.

Whatever Ann Romney’s struggles are, they are not that of the typical American mom or working woman (whether a mom or not).

Imagine a single mother of three working a minimum wage job, or slightly above minimum wage. She is struggling to pay rent and put food on the table, let alone put money away to send her three kids to college. Her job doesn’t provide health insurance, and when she starts getting progressively weaker, she begins to call in sick a lot. She misses so much work, she gets fired. One day she can’t get out of bed, and her oldest child calls 911. She is taken to ER, and after thousands of dollars in extensive testing, it is determined that she has MS. What is going to happen to her? How will she continue to support her children and how will she care for them?

Now let’s consider a single woman, no children, working a decent job with good health insurance. She left the Midwest for better job prospects and a better climate, so she doesn’t have any relatives in her new location. She’s young and healthy, and she’s putting money away for eventual retirement...and one day she finds a lump in her breast. Surgery, a combination of radiation and chemo, and an eventual bone marrow transplant. Her savings are wiped out, she can’t afford to have anyone come in and help her, but she not only manages to get by, she makes a full recovery. But she’s got a half a million dollars in medical bills to pay off, and that’s going to take her a long, long time.

Now tell me how Ann Romney’s struggles are similar to either of these women. Hypothetical women, but such stories happen every single day in our country. The wife of a multi-millionaire can afford the best health insurance possible, she can afford to pay even a million dollars in medical bills, she can afford help around the house whether she is ill or not, and she can afford to send each and every one of her five children to the best colleges possible. In no way does that mirror the experience of most American women, and although she may empathize with the plight of such women, she is far from Everywoman. Her husband’s policies will not do average American women any favors.

THAT is what Hilary Rosen was trying to say. She was not condemning Ann Romney for staying home to raise her kids. She was not even condemning the Romneys for being multi-millionaires. She was condemning Mitt Romney for being so out of touch with how average people—especially women—are struggling that he has to rely on his wife to relay to him what she hears from people when she’s campaigning, and she was condemning Ann Romney for thinking that her struggles are just the same as working women who don’t have a fortune to rely upon.

So let’s just stop this bogus “war on moms” and the hypocritical outrage coming from people who want to cut programs and assistance for moms who actually have to work. Mmkay? There is going to be plenty to fight about in the coming months, but let’s keep the sparring in the realm of reality.

And so it begins

MILWAUKEE – President Obama has opened the first significant lead of the 2012 campaign in the nation's dozen top battleground states, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, boosted by a huge shift of women to his side.

In the fifth Swing States survey taken since last fall, Obama leads Republican front-runner Mitt Romney 51%-42% among registered voters just a month after the president had trailed him by two percentage points.

The biggest change came among women under 50. In mid-February, just under half of those voters supported Obama. Now more than six in 10 do while Romney's support among them has dropped by 14 points, to 30%. The president leads him 2-1 in this group.

…

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina says Romney's promise to "end Planned Parenthood" — the former Massachusetts governor says he wants to eliminate federal funding for the group — and his endorsement of an amendment that would allow employers to refuse to cover contraception in health care plans have created "severe problems" for him in the general election.

"Romney's run to the right may be winning him Tea Party votes," Messina said in an interview, but he says it's demonstrated that "American women can't trust Romney to stand up for them."

Read the full article here.

When the Republicans started with their bullshit against women, I mentioned that in the 2008 election, women made up 53% of those who voted, and that we were not going to forget this.

Well, right on, Sisters! [fist in the air] We have received your message loud and clear, Republicans, and we are responding accordingly. Millions of women use Planned Parenthood every year, with only a small percentage of that for the purpose of abortions; they do good work in providing basic health care to millions of American women. The threat of cutting off all funds to the organization is seriously not cool. A bill introduced by a Republican legislator in Arizona would allow businesses to require a doctor’s note to show that a woman was using birth control for medical purposes, not for birth control. There is some talk of allowing employers to not pay for birth control if they have a “moral objection” to it. Perhaps they would like to accompany us to our doctors’ appointments to ensure that we don’t discuss anything they deem to be out of line or “morally objectionable.” Or maybe someone from the RNC will observe during my next pelvic exam, just to make sure I don’t deviate from acceptable topics, and so they can get a rundown on the general state of my uterus.

We are paying attention, and we are not liking what we’re seeing. I’m sure that Mittens will pivot to the center in the general election, and he’ll try to say that he didn’t mean it that way, or that he was taken out of context, and he’ll try to pretend that he cares about women’s health. He doesn’t. There is videotape to prove it. Women don’t forget much, or haven’t you figured that out yet, Mittens? We’re listening to what you are saying now. And we’ll be voting in November. You can put THAT in your ballot box and stuff it.

Mitt ‘n Grits

It has been with a high state of hilarity that I’ve watched video of Mittens Romney campaigning in Mississippi over the past few days. You really can’t make this shit up.

Mister I’m Worth $200 Meeeellion Dollars is working hard to convince average working folks that he’s just like them, and he seems to be trying especially hard to do this in the South by learning their lingo and having “strange things happen to him.”

It was bad enough when he was campaigning in Michigan and uttered that perplexing thing about liking the trees in Michigan because they’re the right height. What? But this week in Mississippi, he cranked up the Awkwardometer and started saying things like “Mornin’ y’all!” and “I like grits!” (Grits One and Grits Two)

You know, I don’t hate the guy. I completely disagree with him on most of his policies, I think supply-side economics has been proven to not work, I think he’s spineless and kisses Rush Limbaugh’s fat ass, I think his criticisms of President Obama’s foreign policy is disingenuous at best and a deliberate, pandering lie at worst, and I think his religion’s practice of baptizing people into the Mormon faith—even Holocaust victims, who are, you know, JEWISH—after their death is obscene. But he seems like a decent kind of guy for the most part.

But I have never seen anyone so completely unable to connect with people. I often feel socially awkward, but this guy makes me feel great about my social skills. It’s almost painful to watch at times, and sometimes I almost feel sorry for him. Then I remember that it’s all deliberate, he has people telling him what to do, how to act, what to say...and instead of coming across as a regular guy, he keeps hammering home the fact that he’s richer than the vast majority of us will ever be. (And he also wants to lower taxes on himself and those on his level...don’t forget that part!) It’s really just embarrassing now. He’s not a regular guy, and he never has been.

As we begin to see the return of Candidate Obama, the contrast between the two is astounding. Obviously, much of what President Obama does is calculated; I’m not naive. But I also think he has a genuine understanding of and a concern for most Americans. Mittens may feel that way (but I doubt it), but is simply unable to get past that rarefied air of privilege. Obama is also a fantastic speaker, with great oratory skills.

It’s fairly obvious that Mittens will be the eventual nominee. I look forward to the debates between him and President Obama. Mittens is no slouch as a debater, but there have been many awkward moments, especially the combative ones with the moderators (“You get to ask the questions you want, I get to give the answers I want. Okay?”), and he gets very defensive about his taxes and wealth. But Obama comes across as authentic and genuine, and Mittens comes across as exactly what he is: a really, really rich guy.

It will be fun to see the personae that Mittens adopts in the coming primaries. Perhaps we’ll get to see some Native American stuff in the southwest (certainly no LATINO stuff...get real!). Maybe he’ll don a 10-gallon hat in Texas and shoot a varmint. Illinois might give us a glimpse of ‘20s Gangster Mittens, and I can hardly wait to hear him talk about his love of ‘sport’ in Indiana, especially that ‘hoop’ game (“Boy, you Hoosiers really love your basketball, don’t you? I saw that movie, you know. Wasn’t that a great movie?”) and the upcoming Indy 500 (“Boy, you folks sure drive fast around here. I think I took a wrong turn when I was trying to get here, and I just kept going around in circles, and then they gave me some milk to drink. Ha! Ha! Ha!”)

Jeez, the guy is the Borscht Belt comedian of the political world. Ba-dum-tsss!

The worst kind of desecration

You may have seen the story about what happened with Mitt Romney’s father-in-law about a year after he died. The Romney family decided to posthumously baptize him into the Mormon faith.

No big deal, you say? What’s the harm, you ask? Well, Edward Davies was an avowed atheist for his entire adult life, and had no use for religion. But Ann Romney allowed her husband and his family to disregard her own father’s lack of beliefs and perform some bullshit ceremony claiming him for their church a year after he was in his grave.

I find this absolutely disgusting on several levels. First, there is the absurdity that after someone dies, you can actually place them into any particular faith. Screw that whole free will thing and making your own decisions about what you do and don’t believe. Then there is the unbelievable arrogance of Romney’s family deciding that they know best about how to handle Davies’ afterlife.

But what really, really burns my bacon about this is that they would so disrespect this man’s intellect, individuality, and his ability to make his own informed decision. It was a big “screw you” to the guy after he couldn’t fight back—which also strikes me as quite cowardly. I don’t doubt that they tried to preach to him while he was alive, and when he refused to buy into their silly religion, they waited until after he died and THEN they pounced on him and claimed his ‘soul’ for their own.

It would be like when my Dad died, if I went to the family and said, “Okay, I know Dad was a man of Christian faith, but I think we should say that he was a pagan and have that kind of ceremony.” No, it’s even worse than that...it’s like if KEN had gone to my family and said that’s what he thought we should do. Either scenario is inexcusable and my family would have been right to tell us both to shut up and never dare to mention it again.

I find myself almost as appalled at the Davies family for going along with this. If anyone dared to suggest such a thing concerning my Dad, I think I would have lost it. And when I lose my temper, you’d best be afraid. Be very afraid. How the Davies family could have sat by and let this happen is beyond me. What a horrible disregard for how the man felt and how he lived his life.

Ken knows my wishes for when it’s my turn to bite the dust. If anyone tried to subjugate those wishes and force some sort of ceremony on me that I wouldn’t want, I know he’d stand up for me and make sure it doesn’t happen. If that happened to me, I’d come back and haunt whoever was responsible, and I’d do it in a really scary way. (I suppose I should point out that that is a joke. I have seen no evidence of ghosts.)

I wasn’t going to vote for Mittens, anyway...obviously. Before it was because I completely disagree with his current stances* (the universal health care and support for same sex marriage in Massachusetts was pretty cool...but he doesn’t like that stuff anymore) and find him an insincere panderer who will do and say just about anything to get elected; he’s someone who has no concept whatsoever of how average Americans are struggling to put food on the table, keep a roof over their heads, and manage to avoid bankruptcy because they didn’t have health insurance—or good enough health insurance—and couldn’t pay their medical bills after they had to deal with breast cancer or their child’s leukemia. (Just an example, of course. Nothing specific in mind, other than people I know who have had to deal with similar situations.)

No, he’s given me another reason to despise him. He didn’t care about his father-in-law’s wishes, and didn’t give a fuck about the guy’s thought processes and right to make his own decisions. All he cared about was adding another name to the roster of bogus conversions to his bogus religion. Shame on you, Mittens. You deserve a squirt with a water bottle! A really big, high-pressure water bottle.

*Current stances subject to change without notice. Candidate not responsible for any dissatisfaction experienced upon abrupt change of direction in policy. Side effects may include dizziness, heart palpitations, loss of libido, nausea, and projectile vomiting. Do not combine with teabagging. Massive quantities of alcohol can ease side effects. Please see your doctor if you experience any of these symptoms, or if you remain conservative longer than four years. Prolonged exposure can cause abrupt head explosion.