Disgraceful

UPDATE BELOW

Americans like to brag about American exceptionalism.  But when the greatest country in the world makes voting an endurance battle and struggle, that's the sort of exceptionalism you'd think we'd avoid.

I'm talking about Florida.  And Ohio.  Both states run by Republican governors and important in tomorrow's election.  Early voting in Florida is proving to be a nightmare, and GOP Governor Scott is pretending he cares. 



"Early voting is supposed to make it easier for people to carry out their constitutional right. Tuesdays are notoriously inconvenient to take off work, so many states have given voters the option of turning out on weekends or other weekdays in the run-up to Election Day.

But in Florida this year, it has been a nightmare for voters, who have faced record wait times, long lines in the sun and a Republican governor, Rick Scott, who has refused to budge and extend early voting hours.

[skip]

"We're looking at an election meltdown that is eerily similar to 2000, minus the hanging chads," said Dan Smith, a political science professor at the University of Florida.
 
Miami-Dade attempted to deal with the problem on Sunday by allowing voters to cast absentee ballots in person between 1:00 and 5:00 p.m. However, after just two hours, the Miami-Dade elections department shut down the location after too many people showed up. People outside the locked doors were reportedly screaming, "We want to vote!"

"They didn't have the infrastructure," filmmaker Lucas Leyva, who was among those turned away, told The Huffington Post's Janie Campbell. "We read the press release and everything that went out this morning, promising we'd be able to get absentee ballots and vote. We got here and there was a line of hundreds of people all being told the same thing, that that wasn't true anymore. You could drop off [a ballot], but they could not issue one."

And if getting turned away from the polls weren't enough of an indignity, some of those 180 people ended up getting their cars towed from the parking lot across the street, according to a Miami Herald reporter.

On Twitter, former Republican governor Charlie Crist -- who is now an independent -- responded to news of the office's closing, writing on Twitter, "Let the people vote!"--HuffPost


OHIO:

A last-minute directive issued by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted (R) could invalidate legal provisional ballots. Ohio is widely viewed as the most critical state for both presidential campaigns and — with some polls showing a close race — the 11th-hour move could swing the entire election.

The directive, issued Friday, lays out the requirements for submitting a provisional ballot. The directive includes a form which puts the burden on the voter to correctly record the form of ID provided to election officials. Husted also instructed election officials that if the form is not filled out correctly by a voter, the ballot should not be counted. --HuffPost Oct. 24 court hearing.”
Indeed, it also appears directly contrary to Ohio law. From the lawsuit:

Ohio Rev. Code § 3505.181(B)(6) provides that, once a voter casting a provisional ballot proffers identification, “the appropriate local election official shall record the type of identification provided, the social security number information, the fact that the affirmation was executed, or the fact that the individual declined to execute such an affirmation and include that information with the transmission of the ballot . . . .” (Emphasis added.)

The law “ensures that any questions regarding a voter’s identification are resolved on the spot or, consistent with due process, the voter is informed that he or she needs to provide additional information to the board of elections. This protects the integrity of the voting process, and provides a reasonable opportunity to resolve deficiencies.”

The last-minute directive changes this and switches the burden to the voter, greatly increasing the chances that legal provisional ballots will be discarded." --ThinkProgress

There's something rotten in Florida and Ohio. 


Why the lines are so long in Florida and Ohio


 Think about this when you prepare to vote: 

NY Times Editorial: "This Year, Voting Is An Act of Defiance Against Malicious Forces"

This year, voting is more than just the core responsibility of citizenship; it is an act of defiance against malicious political forces determined to reduce access to democracy. Millions of ballots on Tuesday — along with those already turned in — will be cast despite the best efforts of Republican officials around the country to prevent them from playing a role in the 2012 election.

Even now, many Republicans are assembling teams to intimidate voters at polling places, to demand photo ID where none is required, and to cast doubt on voting machines or counting systems whose results do not go their way.

 

OY!  It's not just Florida and Ohio:

Arizona GOP Senate Candidate Robocalls Democrats And Tells Them To Vote In The Wrong Place

By Ian Millhiser posted from ThinkProgress Justice on Nov 5, 2012 at 9:00 am

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ)

 

According to a report by Phoenix, Arizona’s NBC affiliate, Rep. Jeff Flake’s (R-AZ) U.S. Senate campaign called Democratic voters telling them to vote in the wrong precinct — in some cases as much as 11 miles away from their actual polling place. After telling the Democratic voters to vote in the wrong place, the calls also encourage the voter to “vote Flake for U.S. Senate.”


UPDATE:

By Andrew Cohen of The Atlantic:

No matter who wins the presidential race, no matter which party controls Congress, can we at least agree as reasonable adults that when it comes to voting itself the election of 2012 is a national disgrace? We ask our sons and daughters, our husbands and wives, to give their lives abroad for noble concepts like "freedom" and "democracy." And yet we are content as a nation, and as a people, to tolerate another cycle of election rules that require our fellow citizens to sacrifice a measure of basic human dignity simply to exercise their right to vote.

For example, what happened this weekend in Florida is simply unacceptable. According to a local election official interviewed by CBS News' Phil Hirschkorn, the last "early voter" in line for Saturday's truncated early voting in Palm Beach County finally got to cast a ballot at 2:30 a.m Sunday morning, which means that voter waited in line for more than seven hours. In Miami, another traditional Democratic stronghold, the wait was said to be nearly as long. On Sunday, voters all over the state were begging judges and county officials for more time to vote.

This is happening not because of a natural disaster or breakdown in machinery. It is happening by partisan design. Alarmed by the strong Democratic turnout in early voting in 2008, Republican lawmakers, including Governor Rick Scott, reduced the number of early voting days from 14 to eight. When the restrictions were challenged in federal court under the Voting Rights Act, a three-judge panel said they would have a discriminatory impact upon minority voters. But only five of the state's 67 counties are covered by the federal civil rights law.




This is happening in America--and the GOP is behind it.  Make no mistake, their fake squawking over "voter fraud" was nothing more than an excuse to divert attention away from what their real agenda is:  subvert the democratic process and turn our elections into a banana republic debacle.  Here's more disgrace:

When the remaining restrictions were challenged in federal court, a George W. Bush appointee said there was no proof that the reduced hours would "impermissibly burden" minority voters. How many hours in line must a Florida voter wait before the burden upon her becomes an "impermissible" one? If Florida's election officials, and its Republican lawmakers, and its state and federal judges, all were required to stand in line for seven hours to vote those long lines would go away forever. You know it, I know it, and so do those officials.

How about Ohio, another "battleground" state governed by partisan fiat. Its election rules are administered by a secretary state, John Husted who just a few years ago was the GOP speaker of the state house.

Like their counterparts in Florida, Ohio's Republican lawmakers sought to restrict wildly popular early-voting hours around the state. And again the federal courts blunted the impact of their new rules. So what has Husted done? He's focused his energy this weekend ginning up ways to justify discarding provisional ballots cast by his fellow citizens.

These are just two recent examples. There are more. But they all have a few core things in common. In each instance, elected officials are making it harder for American citizens to vote and to have their votes counted. And in each instance, the partisan restrictions are designed to impact the elderly, and the poor, and students. The Constitution gives power to the states to handle elections. But what we are seeing is one party's systemic abuse of that power to disenfranchise likely voters of another party.

 

When the remaining restrictions were challenged in federal court, a George W. Bush appointee said there was no proof that the reduced hours would "impermissibly burden" minority voters. How many hours in line must a Florida voter wait before the burden upon her becomes an "impermissible" one? If Florida's election officials, and its Republican lawmakers, and its state and federal judges, all were required to stand in line for seven hours to vote those long lines would go away forever. You know it, I know it, and so do those officials.

Sunday Night Poetry

FOR ROY, WHO KNOWS THIS FEELING AIN’T RIGHT

Let's talk about heartache, Roy,
while the hurrying wind blows against the sign
with the missing R. Let’s stand outside of ‘ite-Aid,
smoking, waiting for the friend who'll drive us

out to where the blackgum trees fade
from the road. A radio’s playing the clown,
you cry for a pretty woman,
mine's a tattooed boy.

Roy, how do we tell each other of the amplified
nights, planes leaving the dusty fields of Texas.
Nothing here but nickels and dimes,
the all-day sleep of nowhere.

Look at this jacket, flung over the chair,
the emptied closet, the open door.
All night I dance alone in a room
of lit amber lamps, ashtrays, warm beer.

Roy, the shades are up. Neighbors look in,
see my arms moving in the air.

                                   --SK

Conservatives call Gov. Christie traitor for working with Pres. Obama to help New Jersey victims of Hurricane Sandy

Well, that didn't take long, did it. 

The darling of the GOP and keynote speaker at the Republican convention, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, has now turned into Quisling Christie.  And what, you may ask, has brought the Wrath of Wrepublicans down on its one-time hero and presidential hopeful?  What has this politician, whom crass and foul Coulter claimed would be the only candidate able to win the presidency from Mr. Obama, what on this blue-green, climate-changing Earth has he done to earn the imprecations and malevolence now enveloping, like a miasma of toxic gas, Christie's once bright and future political star?

Republican Governor Chris Christie worked and cooperated with Democratic President Barack Hussein Obama.  But wait!  There's more!  And it's shocking!  Gov. Christie said, Gasp! in public, Gasp!, that the president did a great job in cooperating with him and seeing to it that federal assistance would be delievered promptly to the victims of this unprecedented storm.

Oh the humanity!

This will not do!  And the conservatives have made it extremely clear that Americans helping Americans in their darkest and most desperate hours is not a conservative value. 

In fact, what Gov. Christie has done, as the chief executive officer of New Jersey, is unforgivable to the howling masses who believe it is a far, far better thing to obstruct and sabotage their country than it is to work together to heal it.  And  now we have absolute proof of this in their ugly reaction to Chrisite's cooperation with President Obama .

Here's a sampling of their reaction:

"...the WEATHER CRISIS that apparently caused his mind to snap. This sad turn of events found the tubby governor giving EXCESSIVE PRAISE to BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA ...What's YOUR interpretation of The FAT MAN'S wanton act of TREASON against his OWN party?"



And here are some comments that show how sick with hatred and paranoia conservatives have become.  Read these wholly unAmerican--no, worse, inhumane thoughts and let it sink into our collective brains what  nasty, brutish, and baneful people they have become since Mr. Obama won the presidency.



"Christie is making an ass of himself.

It's a bromance!

I don't know how much difference the bromance will make, however. How many votes will be swayed by Christie's stumping for Obama this late in the game?

In a way, Christie looks as if he's kissing federal ass so as to make sure to get federal dollars."



"Christie just proved himself to be one of "them" with his effusive praise of Obama JUST before the election.

He's another John Roberts -- a fake conservative. His early support of Mitt Romney when we DESPERATELY needed a more radical conservative-libertarian, strict-constructionist was telling.

Besides, his weight is SO out of control -- the sign of a weak, self-indulgent character -- I doubt he'll be around more than another few years at best."


"As I watched the Governor and the President doing a walk around of the devastated sites in New Jersey the thing I noticed first and foremost was that both were walking around with their hands in their pockets — obviously for photo-ops rather than being there to lend a hand to help. "


"New Jersey is my home state. Of COURSE I care about it, but the massive physical and economic destruction and frightening inconvenience there right now are NOTHING compared to the need to BREAK the BACK of the MARXISTS who are in control of the WHITE HOUSE right now.

Governor Christie allowed his emotions to run away with him. It is HE who has lost sight of the BIG PICTURE in the panic and terror of the moment.

I wouldn't give Obama ANYTHING except a good swift kick in the shins, if I had the chance to get near the bastard."



Daily Caller's Matt Lewis: 

"Lewis’ primary gripe with Christie is that he was simply too grateful to President Obama for being responsive and quick with his release of federal disaster relief funds.

[I]sn’t it possible to be serious and respectful and thankful without becoming a prop for Obama’s re-election? (The issue here is about the degree to which he is going out of his way to help Obama politically — and the context of the timing.)"

The above comments are the embodiment of all that is sick and demented in this polarized country.

I don't know what can be done to change it, but I do know that what the governor and the president engaged in during a very terrible time for our country is a small step in curing us of this sick madness.


 




OH SNAP!

Mitt's Inner Joe Isuzu Lives!

For those of you who don't remember the brilliant ads featuring Joe Isuzu, here's a reminder:



J





Joe Isuzu was a fictional spokesman used in a series of television advertisements for Isuzu cars and trucks. Created by the ad agency Della Femina, Travisano, and Partners, the segments aired on American television in 1986-90, reaching their zenith in 1987 after the character was featured during Super Bowl XXI. Played by actor David Leisure[1] (Empty Nest), Joe Isuzu was a pathological liar who made outrageous and overinflated claims about Isuzu’s cars.

PATHOLOGICAL.

Mitt Romney's Plans for Natural Disasters

This is the guy who suggested it is "immoral" for the federal government to spend money in times of national disasters, and that individual states could handle catastrophes without a big gummint FEMA:

"The city of Peabody Massachusetts is a quiet borough north of Boston, neighboring Salem in Essex County. Historically tied to the tanning industry and agriculture, it was an early hotspot in the automobile industry. Through the town runs the Ipswich River, which is where the problems for Mitt Romney originate.

In 2004, severe rain caused the river to overflow, causing widespread flooding. In response, the state developed a flood prevention plan. With that plan in place, flooding would no longer be an issue should severe rain return to the area. The total cost would have been a paltry $5.7 million, a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of millions in damages caused by flooding.


The measure, prepared, detailed, and ready to go, hit the governors desk for signature. And Governor Romney promptly vetoed it.

In response to the veto, the Boston Globe ran a scathing editorial on the Governor:

Peabody officials yesterday lashed out at Governor Mitt Romney’s decision to block $5.7 million to pay for a flood control project in downtown Peabody. Romney blocked the money as part of $76 million in election-year spending he vetoed last week.

At a State House press conference Friday, Romney said he had tried to contact Peabody officials to obtain more information about the funding, but was unable to reach anyone. Yesterday, state Senator Frederick E. Berry said, 'We hand-delivered all kinds of information. They had all the information they needed … I don’t want to use the word ‘lie,’ but … how he could say he didn’t get the information? That’s not true.'

Yesterday, Romney’s communications director, Eric Ferhnstrom, said the governor stands by his statement. 'Governor Romney is not a rubber stamp for the expenditure of taxpayer funds. If there is no information to support a particular expenditure, our inclination is to be cautious and to wait until a rationale is put forward,' Ferhnstrom said. 'In this case, we endeavored to get answers to our questions but none were forthcoming. We would be happy to take another look and if it appears to be a necessary and worthwhile expense we will include it in the next spending bill the administration proposes.'  --Addicting Info

Yeah.  Let's leave disaster planning and relief to the individual states.  We can see how well that worked in Massachusetts when Mittens was governor.  Why would anyone believe it would be different if he were *shudder* elected to the presidency? 

That would be a real natural disaster.


HARRY REID WAS RIGHT!

NO WONDER MITTENS WOULDN'T RELEASE HIS TAX RETURNS!

IN ADDITION TO STASHING HIS MONEY IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES--THE ONLY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IN U.S. HISTORY TO DO SO--HE USED HIS RELIGION TO AVOID PAYING TAXES.

"Everything they say is a goddamned lie." by Capt. Fogg of The Swash Zone

Capt. Fogg of The Swash Zone says what I think and would write if I had one tenth of his literary skills.

Another righteous rant from the good captain:



"I try to learn something new every day and lately, thanks to our friends in the media and all those helpful folks who work at PACS and "think tanks" today has been very informative indeed.  Sitting a doctor's waiting room, watching ABC this morning between 9:00 and 9:15, I learned that Democratic candidate Patric Murphy, running for Congress against Disgraced war criminal Allen West, was really the morally reprehensible choice because he'd been arrested at age 19 for being drunk.  Probably unforgivable even  25 years afterward and much more so than West's being forced to resign from the Army rather than face a Court Martial and a probable 11 year prison sentence for torturing an innocent Iraqi.  Abu Ghraib?  Never heard of it.  Did you hear about Obama's apology tour?

But wait, there's more.  The Democratic candidate has a secret plan to eliminate Social Security (which he doesn't) and Allen West who has campaigned long and hard to end it, is obviously the better choice -- but you say you want more for your money -- you say you're not satisfied with the level of mendacity?  Why, you can be certain says another half panicked voice on the tube; you can be certain that if Murphy is elected, then  Iran will launch the nuclear weapons they don't have on missiles they don't have and commit suicide by bombing  the United States. I guess a junior Representative has a lot more power than I thought!


Arriving home, there was a large flyer in the mail from the NRA insisting that "After four years of Obama, we have More Debt ( 87% of which is attributable to his predecessor) There is more Spending ( vide supra) and Higher Prices." I did a little quick arithmetic and under Obama there seems to have been a smaller increase than under the Commanderguy, but never mind, this isn't about the numbers, it's about tactical dishonesty.  It's about the triumph of lies, the ascendancy of evil --  a Republican campaign.

  "There's only one thing we have less of," says the NRA "and that's FREEDOM."  You can look it all up at gunbanobama.com.  That's right gun ban - the one thing you can't honestly accuse Obama of  doing and during his administration, not only have there been no new gun laws, but gun laws limiting where I can can carry a weapon have actually been loosened.  Yes, the pigs have slightly less freedom to use fake Bible quotes as a suppository today.  Less freedom to interfere in our marriages and romantic attachments and private moments.   Again, none of this is about truth and again, half the country sucks up  this sewage like a vulture gulping down carrion.

Which brings me to my conclusion.  For the 8 years of the Bush misadventure, which brought us the longest and most expensive wars in our history, the biggest increase in government borrowing and spending in memory and the largest most extensive invasions of privacy (remember when Bush told us we'd have to give up civil liberties, 'cause there's a war on?) During the Bush years of  slashed taxes that gave us zero job growth and the biggest economic catastrophe since 1929 -- for all those years I was told that I, as a Liberal, hated America, was unforgivably rude for mentioning Bush's transgressions against the Constitution and individual liberty -- and just laughably and liberally trying to bring down the robust economy with pessimistic predictions (which came true.)

Well Guess what, you lying Tea Whores, you lying revisionist Zombies, you lying enemies of everything you pretend our country stands for -- at this point I do.  At least I hate half of it's brainless, undead beasts.  I hate the half that can't see any difference between pretty good and bottomless evil.  I hate the millions that decide not to vote because Obama can't raise the dead or walk on water or undo 8 years of sabotage in 6 days. I hate the ones who have been yelling that the government can't create jobs and now are sobbing that the government can't create jobs for them.  I hate you smug, ignorant, Denialist bigots; paranoid that 'the coloreds' are living off your money and too many people are having sex against your wishes and that we aren't letting them all die to decrease the surplus population and lower Mitt Romney's already meager taxes.  I hate you irredeemably stupid weasel turds who insist that high taxes gave us economic collapse when they've never been lower ( under both Bush and Obama)  and while we've had our most prosperous times under much higher tax burdens. History matters. Numbers matter. Truth matters and while your dogmas never, never, ever produce results, you still want to choke us to death with them. I hate breathing the same air that carries the sound of your lies.

I hate the average moderate Americans -- like me -- who aren't dragging these horrors out of their homes and dragging them through the streets in tar and feathers, because as nasty as that might be, we'll get accused of it anyway no matter what we do.

And it's our own God Damned fault. "


Go HERE to Stonekettle Station to read "Guns and Butter. Also, Nazis!"

Sandy Comes to Boston Harbor

Photos by Max taken today at 2PM at the lower end of my street. 

Boston's inner harbor:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From The New Yorker magazine:

 

A couple of weeks ago, Munich Re, one of the world’s largest reinsurance firms, issued a study titled “Severe Weather in North America.” According to the press release that accompanied the report, “Nowhere in the world is the rising number of natural catastrophes more evident than in North America.” The number of what Munich Re refers to as “weather-related loss events,” and what the rest of us would probably call weather-related disasters, has quintupled over the last three decades. While many factors have contributed to this trend, including an increase in the number of people living in flood-prone areas, the report identified global warming as one of the major culprits: “Climate change particularly affects formation of heat-waves, droughts, intense precipitation events, and in the long run most probably also tropical cyclone intensity.”

From The New York Times:


"Over the last two years, Congressional Republicans have forced a 43 percent reduction in the primary FEMA grants that pay for disaster preparedness. Representatives Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor and other House Republicans have repeatedly tried to refuse FEMA’s budget requests when disasters are more expensive than predicted, or have demanded that other valuable programs be cut to pay for them. The Ryan budget, which Mr. Romney praised as “an excellent piece of work,” would result in severe cutbacks to the agency, as would the Republican-instigated sequester, which would cut disaster relief by 8.2 percent on top of earlier reductions.

Does Mr. Romney really believe that financially strapped states would do a better job than a properly functioning federal agency? Who would make decisions about where to send federal aid? Or perhaps there would be no federal aid, and every state would bear the burden of billions of dollars in damages. After Mr. Romney’s 2011 remarks recirculated on Monday, his nervous campaign announced that he does not want to abolish FEMA, though he still believes states should be in charge of emergency management. Those in Hurricane Sandy’s path are fortunate that, for now, that ideology has not replaced sound policy."

Sandy

Expectations: Sandy Will Be Severe

 updated on: 05:46am, October 29, 2012

"Many meteorologists agree: Hurricane Sandy is going to be severe with strong winds, flooding, and power outages, at the very least.

Sandy is a large, slow-moving storm. Many people who have listened to the hype of other storms (which turned out to be quite weak in comparison), are skeptical about the warnings coming about Sandy.

However, the weather models on which meteorologists base their forecasts, vary little. As of now they say central New Jersey north to Rhode Island, including Philadelphia and New York City could get the worst hit."






"New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) put aside his campaigning for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Sunday to praise President Barack Obama for his responsiveness to the Garden State's needs in preparing for Hurricane Sandy.

During a briefing with emergency personnel, residents and press, Christie thanked Obama for holding a conference call with him and governors of other states expected to be impacted by the storm, the Star-Ledger reports.

“I appreciated the president’s outreach today in making sure that we know he’s watching this and is concerned about the health and welfare and safety of the people of the state of New Jersey,” he said."



Governor "It's immoral." Romney would send FEMA back to the states?  Apparently he doesn't understand that the poorest states are the states that solidly support him, and that he believes poor states like Mississippi and Louisiana would be able to handle a disaster without federal help.  Is he that naive?  It's just  more of the same "I've got mine, screw you!" mentality, and it's everyone for himself.

E pluribus unum. 

And we're all in this together.

Be safe, everyone.

Sunday Night Music

I had the pleasure of attending a concert today at the Isabella Stewart Gardner's Calderwood Hall where Musicians from Marlboro presented a gorgeous program featuring works of Franz Joseph Haydn, Felix Mendelssohn, and a contemporary piece for violin, horn and piano by Gyorgy Sandor Legeti.


Here's a sample of this great group of musicians.  Enjoy!:

The Economy is slowly recovering.

New York Times Endorses President Obama 10/28/2012:

The economy is slowly recovering from the 2008 meltdown, and the country could suffer another recession if the wrong policies take hold. The United States is embroiled in unstable regions that could easily explode into full-blown disaster. An ideological assault from the right has started to undermine the vital health reform law passed in 2010. Those forces are eroding women’s access to health care, and their right to control their lives. Nearly 50 years after passage of the Civil Rights Act, all Americans’ rights are cheapened by the right wing’s determination to deny marriage benefits to a selected group of us. Astonishingly, even the very right to vote is being challenged.

[skip]

In the poisonous atmosphere of this campaign, it may be easy to overlook Mr. Obama’s many important achievements, including carrying out the economic stimulus, saving the auto industry, improving fuel efficiency standards, and making two very fine Supreme Court appointments. ...


Mr. Obama prevented another Great Depression. The economy was cratering when he took office in January 2009. By that June it was growing, and it has been ever since ...

If re-elected, Mr. Obama would be in position to shape the “grand bargain” that could finally combine stimulus like the jobs bill with long-term deficit reduction that includes letting the high-end Bush-era tax cuts expire. ...



David Leonhardt:
"The housing bust finally seems to be over. Health care costs have slowed. The unemployment rate has fallen below 8 percent, much sooner than forecasters were predicting a few months ago. Consumer confidence has reached a post-recession high.There is still no guarantee that the economy is on a stable path to recovery, given its structural problems and the false starts of the last few years. But the odds that the recovery has finally begun have never been higher. Which is one more reason the presidential campaign, for all the groaning it has inspired from left, right and center, matters so much."




 

Or this...

GOPer Charles Fuqua of Batesville, Arkansas, author of "Christianity in Retreat,"  says "there is a strange alliance between the liberal left and the Muslim religion."

 "Both are antichrist in that they both deny that Jesus is God in the flesh of man, and the savior of mankind. They both also hold that their cause should take over the entire world through violent, bloody, revolution," the post says.

 In a separate passage, Fuqua wrote "we now have a president that has a well documented history with both the Muslim religion and Communism."

And this:

Here’s the key passage from Fuqua’s 2012 book, “God’s Law: The Only Political Solution“:

The maintenance of civil order in society rests on the foundation of family discipline. Therefore, a child who disrespects his parents must be permanently removed from society in a way that gives an example to all other children of the importance of respect for parents. The death penalty for rebellious children is not something to be taken lightly. The guidelines for administering the death penalty to rebellious children are given in Deut 21:18-21:

In his 2010 book Letters to the Editor: Confessions of a Frustrated Conservative, Arkansas State Rep. Jon Hubbard (R-Jonesboro) revealed that he believes slavery was a blessing in disguise and that African Americans do not value education:

“… the institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise. The blacks who could endure those conditions and circumstances would someday be rewarded with citizenship in the greatest nation ever established upon the face of the Earth.” (Pages 183-89)

If you think slavery was bad, you should have seen Africa:

African Americans must “understand that even while in the throes of slavery, their lives as Americans are likely much better than they ever would have enjoyed living in sub-Saharan Africa.” “Knowing what we know today about life on the African continent, would an existence spent in slavery have been any crueler than a life spent in sub-Saharan Africa?” (Pages 93 and 189)
Black people are ignorant:

“Wouldn’t life for blacks in America today be more enjoyable and successful if they would only learn to appreciate the value of a good education?” (Page 184)

Who knew? Sununu! Because he's BLAAAAAACK!

UPDATE:

Hilarious!  Video of post-Boca Raton debate interview by Triumph, the insult dog.

John Sununu runs away!


Remember when former GOP Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell said he'd be voting for President Obama only because he's black?

  No?    Me neither.

But that didn't stop Very Big John Sununu from flapping his very pink, glossy gums and spreading his very white foamy spittle all over cable and network news saying former GOP Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell is voting for President Obama only because he's black.

But like all common loud-mouthed bullies, Sununu had to retract his racist slur against General Powell after decent people told the feckless swine to go back to hiding in his bronze jar.

General Colin Powell:

"You know, I voted for him in 2008 and I plan to stick with him in 2012, and I'll be voting for he and Vice President Joe Biden next month," he said on CBS' "This Morning." Asked whether it was an endorsement, he said, "Yes." Powell praised the president's handling of the economy and ending of the Iraq War. "I think we ought to keep on the track we are on," he said. Powell said he had the "utmost respect" for Mitt Romney, but criticized his tax plan. He said Romney's foreign policy was a "moving target." "One day he has a certain strong view about staying in Afghanistan, but then on Monday night he agrees with the withdrawal. Same thing in Iraq. On every issue that was discussed on Monday night, Gov. Romney agreed with the president with some nuances. But this is quite a different set of foreign policy views than he had earlier in the campaign."


Of course that stung the Romney/Ryan campaign, so their surrogate Sununu's first line of attack against the former Secretary of State was to impugn his reasons for making his decision to endorse President Obama FOR THE SECOND TIME. 

It's always about race, isn't it. 

I can't count the number of times I've read on conservative blogs that the only reason people voted for Mr. Obama in 2008 was because he is black, and people wanted to feel good about themselves for voting for America's first black president.  Those folks who've repeated this lie all through Mr. Obama's presidency have no self-awareness on how racist that thinking is, for by repeating it, as they have over the last 4 years, they reveal their underlying assumption:    That no one would vote for a black guy based on the issues and his job performance:

Charles Blow of the New York Times 10/27/12:

Charles Blow:

"We have a very racially divided electorate. As The Washington Post reported Thursday, “Obama has a deficit of 23 percentage points, trailing Republican Mitt Romney 60 percent to 37 percent among whites, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News national tracking poll.” 

The report pointed out that nearly 80 percent of nonwhites support Obama, while 91 percent of Romney’s supporters are white.
 

I worry that Sununu’s statements intentionally go beyond recognizing racial disparities and seek to exploit them.
 

What does that say about Romney, and what does it say about his campaign’s tactics?
 

Remember: A man is known by the company he keeps."

 

"Haven’t they just spent four years telling the country that he’s “foreign” with a MUSLIM middle name and what is almost a totally for sure phony birth certificate? Obviously liberals (and Colin Powell) are only voting for him because he’s black and looks like a skinny little crackhead or maybe a monkey. And because lazy, shiftless black people want free stuff."--Justin Rosario


Roland Martin, CNN analyst:

"As a distinguished military man who has worked for four U.S. presidents, he has witnessed up close and personal what it takes to be president of the United States and commander in chief. It is ridiculous to assume Powell would be so shallow as to think race is the only determinant for him. The suggestion is beneath him.

 

So, why did Sununu say it? Because it's easy to dismiss an accomplished black man who just praised another accomplished black man. By boiling it down to race, it's easy for others who think such a thing to say, 'Oh, that's it!'

 

Unfortunately, we see this type of thinking in America all of the time."

This isn't the first time Sununu insulted the president:

 

Sununu apologizes for Obama remarks

Meanwhile, back on the campaign, Mitt Romney continues to be the Sybil of American politics:






ROMNEY "MISSPEAKS" AGAIN!

October 26, 2012 at 9:02 am

Romney picks up incorrect story about Jeep production moving to China

• By David Shepardson
• Detroit News Washington Bureau

Romney was apparently responding to reports Thursday on right-leaning blogs that misinterpreted a recent Bloomberg News story earlier this week that said Chrysler, owned by Italian automaker Fiat SpA, is thinking of building Jeeps in China for sale in the Chinese market.

The Bloomberg story, though accurate, "has given birth to a number of stories making readers believe that Chrysler plans to shift all Jeep production to China from North America, and therefore idle assembly lines and U.S. work force. It is a leap that would be difficult even for professional circus acrobats," Chrysler spokesman Gualberto Ranieri said.

"Let's set the record straight: Jeep has no intention of shifting production of its Jeep models out of North America to China. It's simply reviewing the opportunities to return Jeep output to China for the world's largest auto market. U.S. Jeep assembly lines will continue to stay in operation."

BREAKING NEWS! STEPHEN COLBERT HAS A COUNTER OFFER FOR THE DONALD!

The Colbert Report
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ROMNEY ENDORSES OBAMA!

FLIP-FLOPPING PASTOR ENDORSES FLIP-FLOPPING PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

That's more flip-flopping than you'll see at a Ringling Brothers acrobatics' convention.

We know that Willard has no allegiance to principles, because he changes them as often as he changes his socks.  But we didn't expect the Protestant version of The Pope, Rev. Billy Graham, to abandon his belief--that Mormonism is a cult--so quickly and cynically as Willard has abandoned his core values.

"The prominent Christian evangelist Billy Graham has taken public steps to embrace Mitt Romney for president this week, removing Romney’s Mormon religion from a list of cults on his website and taking out an advertisement that appears to urge people to vote for Romney.

Graham’s Evangelistic Association removed the word Mormon from its website, where it used to be listed along with Jehovah’s Witnesses and Scientology as a cult.

The move comes just a week after Romney visited Graham at his home in North Carolina."  --ABCNews

It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world out there.  One minute the Protestant Pope calls Mormonism a cult; the next minute he's embracing Mormonism and Willard and telling us to vote for candidates "who base their decisions on biblical principles" :

“As I approach my 94th birthday, I realize this election may be my last,” Graham says in the ad. “I believe it is vitally important that we cast our ballots for candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles and support the nation of Israel. I urge you to vote for those who protect the sanctity of life and support the biblical definition of marriage between a man and a woman.”


What Graham stated above is contra to everything our Founding Fathers set forth in the Constitution--especially this part:

"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."


We don't expect a doddering old man to remember the bedrock principles on which this nation was founded, but we do expect Americans to wholly reject the idea that they base their electoral decisons for public office on "biblical principles."

Religion-based politics is a bad idea.  Just look to the Middle East for proof.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...

and so bizarre that it can only have come from the Preening Jackass of the Republican Party, Donald Trump.

photo h/t RN-USA



Why does Willard associate himself with this cringe-inducing clown?  As George Will so pithily put it a few months ago when Romney accepted Trump's endorsement and support:


“Donald Trump is redundant evidence that if your net worth is high enough, your IQ can be very low and you can still intrude into American politics,” Will added. “Again, I don’t understand the benefit. What is Romney seeking?”


Here's the latest Trumpfoolery. 

Hey, GOP and Willard!  Embarrassed by this venal con artist much?











Hey Donald!  You're fired!

No. Wait.     Where's all that AMAZING stuff your "investigators" in Hawaii were finding out about President Obama and his birth certificate?   Where's your big announcement on all that?  Oh, goshers!  Let me guess...hiding under that bitchin' comb-over?  Heck, I thought you were going to give us somethin' really, REALLY, BIG--like a newly discovered film of Obama speaking to a black person or his REAL father, Saul Alinsky.  Damn!


Laugh at The Donald, and carry on.

"...he will sell your ass out to the highest bidder..."

The incomparable Charlie Pierce, writing for Esquire, tells us about "The Well-Oiled Weathervane," otherwise known as Willard Romney:


"You have to give Romney and his campaign credit. They said they were going to do it. They telegraphed the punch five months ago. They told the entire nation that there would come a day in which everything Willard Romney had said about anything in his entire seven-year quest to be president would be rendered, in the memorable word of Nixon White House flack Ron Ziegler, "inoperative." They told us quite honestly that their entire campaign was going to be based on an ongoing argument between the Willard Romney who ran for the Republican nomination and the Willard Romney who thereupon would run for president. They told us he would renege on his previous positions, and he has. They told us he would reverse his field over and over again, and he has. They told us that the only real principle to which the man will ever hold firm is that he will be utterly unprincipled."

They told us that, sooner or later, everybody who supported him through the primaries because he
was the only Republican candidate who didn't sound like he belonged in a padded chapel would find themselves under the bus. And nowhere in his campaign was Romney firmer in his resolve than he was to a modernized version of the neoconservative agenda that so thrilled the world under the leadership of C-Plus Augustus. A full 17 of his 25 primary foreign-policy advisers had been deckhands on that particular plague ship, Sailing Master Bolton chief among them. And, at the end of the day, they all just turned out to be the last people to go sliding under the wheels. For the full 90 minutes of the foreign-policy debate at Lynn University here on Monday night, whether it was the president speaking or Romney, neoconservatism's breath barely clouded the mirror."

[skip]

"Romney was for bilateral diplomatic solutions. Romney was for comprehensive reform packages for the entire Middle East. Romney likes what the president did in Libya (at first), in Syria, in Egypt, and what the president is doing with his flying killer robots in a dozen places. In fact, the president drew clearer foreign-policy differences between himself and Beau Biden's father than Romney did between himself in the president. The most spectacular reversal came on Afghanistan, when Romney appeared to commit himself to the same 2014 withdrawal date over which he has been belaboring the president in practically every speech since he left for Iowa a year ago.

It was purely surreal, and it was not made any less so by the fact that Romney was clearly uncomfortable with his new moderate foreign-policy programming. (That was plain early on, when he completely took a pass on the opening question, which concerned the events in Benghazi.) Romney was sweating and stumbling through enough passages to reinforce the fact that he and his running mate, the zombie-eyed granny-starver from Wisconsin, are going to have to leave anything that happens overseas to their coterie of advisers — if, of course, any of them are still speaking to Romney after he sold them out so egregiously just now.

That is what history always has told us about the career of Willard Romney: sooner or later, he will sell your ass out to the highest bidder and walk away whistling in the general direction of anything to which he feels entitled. In this case, that would be the leadership of the Free World."