The Republican Party doesn't want black people to vote..

I found this Battleground Texas story through Americablog.   There is not much to comment on here:

When Battleground Texas launched three months ago, our mission was clear: to empower voters and expand the electorate. This stems from a deep and abiding belief that the future of Texas will be brighter when more people lift their voices and advocate for change in their communities.  Recently, we heard someone give a much different vision for Texas.

At a Dallas event featuring Steve Munisteri, the Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, Ken Emanuelson, a leader in the Tea Party, said: “I'm going to be real honest with you – the Republican Party doesn't want black people to vote...” 

Why does this not surprise me, as the GOP has made a concerted effort to disenfranchise voting?

GOP's new leaders are Bill, Rush, and Glenn, according to young people

I found this interesting Scribe story through Kevin Drum:

During the January 2013 focus group research, respondents in the Columbus group of young men who voted for Obama were asked to name who they viewed as leaders of the Democratic Party. They named prominent former or currently elected officials: Pelosi, the Clintons, Obama, Kennedy, Gore. When those same respondents were asked to name Republican leaders, they focused heavily on media personalities and commentators: Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck.

This is a real problem for the Republican Party, when young people cite media personalities as leaders of your political party. Media personalities are not interested in formulating political policies to solve complex problems this country is facing. Media personalities are interested in building an audience to their TV and radio programs, so they can charge higher fees to advertisers. And how do you build that audience? How about manufacturing controversies and faux outrages to keep the hard-right, conservative base angry and looney all the time? How about pounding more stories on social issues of gays getting married, President Obama planning on taking away all your guns, the continuing "War on Christmas," ACORN, illegal immigrants getting government assistance while driving Cadillacs, or name-your-own culture war scandal?

Unfortunately, I doubt that the GOP could change and shake off the media personality leaders of O'Reilly, Limbaugh, and Beck. I'm guessing that Fox News has a strong viewership on older viewers, who have a history of regular voting. I am also guessing that Tea Party folks also regularly watch Fox News, or listen to Limbaugh and Beck, so they can become angry at the next latest outrage. Fox News will bring GOP congress critters to the studios to lob softball questions on culture war issues, or simplified solutions to complex issues--can you say flat tax anyone? The congress critters get free, and favorable, media coverage to their home states and districts, allowing them to keep the rabid, Tea Party conservative base angry enough to re-elect the same critters to office. Bill, Rush, and Glenn get to continue manufacturing their faux outrages to anger their audience, and sell more advertising. The system becomes self-serving for both the GOP and the conservative media establishment leaders that now control the GOP. With the development of blogs, Facebook, social media, Twitter, how many young people are getting their news and information from such social media sites, and not from the mainstream conservative media establishments of Fox, Rush, Bill, and Glenn?

Homebuilders struggle to find workers

I found this interesting story from CNN Money:

Sales of new homes are on a tear, but builders can't find enough workers to keep up with the demand. After the housing bust, many workers left the building trade in droves, said Michael Fink, CEO of Leewood Real Estate Group in Trenton, N.J. "A lot of our workers are immigrants and they went back to their home countries," he said. "Our subcontractors can't get people; they can't start on time; they can't get things done on time." The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported in March that 46% of its members say they have fallen behind schedule on finishing projects, 15% turned down jobs and 9% lost or canceled sales because they can't find enough workers. That could have some big ramifications for the broader housing market. Housing starts fell sharply in April to 853,000 and experts project residential construction will grow by about 25% annually, according to the NAHB. At that pace, it could take more than four years to get back to early 2006 building levels, when housing starts peaked at 2.3 million, according to Census Bureau data.

"A lot of our workers are immigrants and they went back to their home countries." If there ever was a big reason why the housing industry can't find workers, then that is the reason. For almost three decades, shifted their hiring from highly-trained, and highly-paid, framers, plumbers, electricians, and professional construction workers, for low-wage immigrants--perhaps even bringing in illegal immigrants to perform the construction work, and pay them under-the-table. It was a race to the wage-slave labor bottom, as the housing speculation bubble grew. After the housing bubble crashed, there were no construction jobs for the immigrant workers, so they went back to their home countries. Now that we're starting to see an upturn in housing construction, those same construction companies can't find enough workers to fill the jobs that the construction companies are only willing to pay $8 per hour for. You know, if you can't find workers to fill such low-paying jobs (as you were hiring low-paying immigrant workers), then maybe you need to raise your pay to attract applicants for those jobs?

Koch Brothers purchasing Florida's Supreme Court

I found this Miami Herald story via Daily Kos:

The new stealth campaign against three Florida Supreme Court justices is being backed by those meddling right-wing billionaires from Wichita, Charles and David Koch.

They couldn’t care less about Florida, but they love to throw their money around.

Last week they uncorked the first of a series of commercials from their political action committee, Americans for Prosperity. The targets are Justices R. Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince.

They were three of the five-vote majority that in 2010 knocked down a half-baked amendment slapped together by state lawmakers seeking to nullify the federal Affordable Health Care Act.

The Florida Supreme Court upheld lower court decisions in finding that the proposed amendment contained “misleading and ambiguous language,” the hallmark of practically everything produced by this Legislature. Stoned chimpanzees have a keener grasp of constitutional law.

Conservative groups have gone after local justices before. In Iowa, a place which has nothing but vowels in common with Florida, three state justices were fired by voters after being vilified for ruling against a ban on gay marriage.

On the November ballot, Lewis, Pariente and Quince are up for merit retention, meaning voters can choose to retain them or not. This simple system was put in place to keep the state’s high court above the sleaze of political races.

The mission of the Kochs, hiding as always behind their super PAC, is to get the three justices dumped at the polls so that Gov. Rick Scott can appoint replacements.

This is worth repeating: If the Kochs have their way, Rick Scott — yes, that Rick Scott — gets to pack the Supreme Court with his own hand-picked crew.

Yikes is right.

What we have here is a couple of hard-lined conservatives who are willing to throw hundreds of millions of dollars into buying politicians and judges, who will rule favorably in their own economic, self-interest, over that of the rest of society.  In other words, we no longer have a democracy in the United States--we've got an oligarchy! The Citizens United ruling sealed the deal in allowing the Koch brothers to hide behind their SuperPac, Americans for Prosperity, and purchase these politicians away from public scrutiny.  If the Koch brothers get their way in packing Florida's Supreme Court, you can bet they would have upheld the "half-baked amendment slapped together by state lawmakers seeking to nullify the federal Affordable Health Care Act."  They probably would have struck down stronger environmental laws, labor laws, business regulations, worker safety regulations, making it easier for Koch Industries to pollute the environment, weaken labor unions, creating more hazardous working environments, reducing employee pay and benefits, slashing all forms of business regulations, and consolidating more power and money with the Koch brothers.  What is good for Koch Industries is not good for the United States.  What is good for Koch Industries is only good for Koch Industries, and detrimental to the rest of U.S. society. 

Experts say Mayans prophesized, but not the end of the world

This is a fun story from Yahoo News:

MEXICO CITY (AP) — As the clock winds down to Dec. 21, experts on the Mayan calendar have been racing to convince people that the Mayas didn't predict an apocalypse for the end of this year.

Some experts are now saying the Mayas may indeed have made prophecies, just not about the end of the world.

Archaeologists, anthropologists and other experts met Friday in the southern Mexico city of Merida to discuss the implications of the Mayan Long Count calendar, which is made up of 394-year periods called baktuns.

Experts estimate the system starts counting at 3114 B.C., and will have run through 13 baktuns, or 5,125 years, around Dec. 21. Experts say 13 was a significant number for the Mayans, and the end of that cycle would be a milestone — but not an end.

Fears that the calendar does point to the end have circulated in recent years. People in that camp believe the Maya may have been privy to impending astronomical disasters that would coincide with 2012, ranging from explosive storms on the surface of the sun that could knock out power grids to a galactic alignment that could trigger a reversal in Earth's magnetic field.

Mexican government archaeologist Alfredo Barrera said Friday that the Mayas did prophesize, but perhaps about more humdrum events like droughts or disease outbreaks.

"The Mayas did make prophecies, but not in a fatalistic sense, but rather about events that, in their cyclical conception of history, could be repeated in the future," said Barrera, of the National Institute of Anthropology and History.

Experts stressed that the ancient Mayas, whose "classic" culture of writing, astronomy and temple complexes flourished from A.D. 300 to 900, were extremely interested in future events, far beyond Dec. 21.

"There are many ancient Maya monuments that discuss events far into the future from now," wrote Geoffrey Braswell, an anthropologist at the University of California, San Diego. "The ancient Maya clearly believed things would happen far into the future from now."

It is true.  The Mayans did make prophesies about future events, which probably did not mean the end of the world.  Maybe the Mayans were making prophesies about Hollywood making bad, disaster movies about the "End-of-the-World."  Perhaps the Mayans knew about 2012:


Or the Day After Tomorrow (which probably never came after 2012):



Or perhaps the Mayans were just channeling their inner REM: 

Firday's Romneyism, Part Deux--George W. Bush polls more favorably than Mitt Romney

I really don't have much of a comment on this DallasNews.com story:

For all the talk about whether Mitt Romney should distance himself from George W. Bush –and the policies of the last GOP White House — a new survey shows that the former president actually has better favorability ratings than the Republican nominee.

A Bloomberg News National Poll released Wednesday has Bush receiving a favorable rating from 46 percent of those surveyed and an unfavorable rating from 49 percent. That’s compared to Romney’s 43 percent favorable and 50 percent unfavorable.

When you're polling behind one of the worst presidents in modern American history, you've got a serious problem.

Friday's Romneyism--Mitt Blames Obama for Mitt's losing campaign

I somehow missed this September 23, New York Times story:

Speaking to reporters as his private charter plane flew from Los Angeles to Denver, Mr. Romney blamed his relatively languid campaign schedule — five public events in the past seven days, compared with 11 fund-raisers — on the president’s decision to opt out of the federal campaign finance system four years ago, and criticized Mr. Obama for, he said, “trying to fool people into thinking that I think things I don’t.”

Asked why he was behind in the polls in most swing states, Mr. Romney accused the Obama campaign of distorting his record.

“I think that the president’s campaign has focused its advertising in many cases on very inaccurate portrayals of my positions,” he said. “They’ve been very aggressive in their attacks both on a personal basis and on a policy basis. I think as time goes on, people will realize that those attacks are not accurate and we’ll be able to have a choice which is based upon each other’s accurate views for the future of country.”

So let me get this straight.  Mitt Romney is losing the race because President Obama is fooling voters into thinking the opposite of  Romney's campaign positions? Excuse me Mittens, but the only reason you are losing is because you have consistently contradicted yourself.  You have contradicted yourself on the Flat Tax, abortion, Massachusetts health care, Don't Ask Don't Tell, when Romney left Bain Capital, Medicare, and even Romney's own tax policy.  Does Mitt Romney sincerely believe in one thing--other than Mittens is entitled to the keys to the Oval Office?  Now as the contradictions are coming back to haunt him, Mittens is blaming Obama for his own campaign incompetence. 

Then there is this interesting bit of information:

Mr. Romney also criticized the president for opting out of the federal campaign finance system four years ago. Now, both Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama have opted out, a decision Mr. Romney blames for his light campaign schedule, which has come under scrutiny by fellow Republicans.

“I’d far rather be spending my time out in the key swing states campaigning, door-to-door if necessary, but in rallies and various meetings, but fund-raising is a part of politics when your opponent decides not to live by the federal spending limits,” he said.

So it is also President Obama's fault in forcing you to attend fundraisers to raise money for your losing campaign because President Obama opted out of federal spending limits--just as you have also opted out of federal spending limits--which means you can't go door-to-door in spreading your campaign message, which Obama is also distorting.  Of course, Mittens, if you so desperate for money, you can always use some of the $230 - $250 million of your own personal wealth to fund the campaign, so you can go door-to-door and spread your contradictory message to confused, American voters.

Obama ad: Let Mitt beat Mitt....

Obama ad:  Let Mitt beat Mitt....

I do not usually post political ads, but the Obama campaign has released a political ad that shows the shifting, contradictory positions of Mitt Romney.  Via Daily Kos:


If there ever is a crux of why Mitt appears to be losing, then this is it.  Mittens says one thing, then the Romney campaign issues a press release, stating Mitt Romney really meant to say the opposite.  Or Mitt makes one statement one day, then contradicts himself on the other day.  Toss in some of his snide, condescending remarks about middle-class or poor Americans, and you've got a walking disaster for a presidential candidate. 

Update:  Steve Benen provides a wonderful list of Mitt Romney's contradictions.

A Wednesday Romneyism....Ryan! Ryan! Ryan!

I found this video off Talking Points Memo, and I just had to share:



Yes, that is MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, with his face in his hands, saying, "Sweet Jesus!" It seems like Mitt Romney has become the Rodney Dangerfield of politicians in this election.  Except that Rodney Dangerfield was respected and funny in portraying his self-depreciating humor. Mitt Romney is neither respected, nor is he funny in this campaign rally. 

A weekend of Romneyisms....

This is going to be a quick posting, highlighting some of the latest news stories I've seen on Mittens--all are still going badly for the GOP presidential candidate. 

The first big story was the Friday afternoon news dump of Mitt Romney publishing his 2011 tax return.  Yes, Mittens is only showing the American people his tax return for last year, while demanding his vice presidential running mate, Paul Ryan, hand over 10 years of his tax returns to the Romney campaign, and Mitt Romney handed over 23 years of tax returns to John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign to be vetted for the vice presidential nomination.  There were some interesting scrutinizing over Romney's tax returns--like the fact that Romney apparently "overpaid" his taxes, boosting his effective tax rate from 9 percent to 14 percent.  Had Romney taken all the deductions he was legally entitled to, his effective tax rate would have been 9 percent.  Instead, Romney padded his 2011 tax return with more taxes.  As Steve Benen said:

But that would have proven politically problematic, so purely for show, he deliberately overpaid the IRS, in order to increase his tax rate, on purpose. Romney was in the rather extraordinary position of selecting his own preferred tax rate, and then working backwards from there.
In other words, Romney chose to under-deduct and overpay his tax bill because he's running for office for Pete's sake. That's not my argument; that's the Romney campaign's argument.

Mitt's Romneyism for purposely overpaying his taxes was, "I don't pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don't think I'd be qualified to become president."

There is also the small matter of Mitt Romney presenting a doctor's note, summarizing his tax liability for a 20-year period from 1990 to 2009.  This summary shows Romney paid a lowest annual federal tax rate of 13.66 percent, while Romney donated an average of 13.45 percent of their income to charity.  Of course, Mittens does not provide any income information, investments, tax shelters, or any sort of data to support his doctor's note.  Not to mention that some tax experts are saying that Romney "could still deduct the unclaimed amount of his charitable donations in future tax years."  So if Mittens loses this election, he could still take his 2011 deductions after the election, and still see his tax rate drop down to 9 percent.

Of course, our next Romneyism is that for Mittens, it is only fair that he is taxed at a lower rate, while the rest of the country pays more.  From 60 Minutes, via Americablog:

(PELLEY) Now you made, on your investments, personally, about $20 million last year. And you paid 14% in federal taxes. That's the capital gains rate. Is that fair to the guy who makes $50,000 and paid a higher rate than you did?

(ROMNEY) It is a low rate. And one of the reasons why the capital gains tax rate is lower is because capital has already been taxed once at the corporate level, as high as 35%.

( PELLEY) So you think it is fair.

(ROMNEY) Yeah, I-- I think it's the right way to encourage economic growth-- to get people to invest, to start businesses, to put people to work.

Only the little people pay taxes, eh Mittens?

Our third Romneyism is again on taxes.  This time, Mittens ended up listing U.S.A as a foreign country on his 2011 tax return.  So if Mitt Romney is running for President of the U.S.A, then why is he listing the U.S.A as a foreign country on his U.S.A 2011 tax return?

Our fourth Romneyism is not about taxes, but about how happy Mittens is about being extremely wealthy and famous.  From YouTube:



Let me type out this quote:

"I used to think that becoming rich and becoming famous would make me happy. Boy was I right."

The comment was made well before Mittens even started running his 2011 presidential campaign, coming from a St. Patrick's Day breakfast, when Romney was still governor of Massachusetts.  Still, the surfacing of this video again shows both an arrogance, and a narcissism that Romney conveys--and he's totally clueless about it, or how reflects on his future political reputation.  Or maybe he just does not care about what the average American little people really think about him--he is entitled to the divine right of kings, and the Oval Office.

Our fifth Romneyism is a rather hypocritical flip-flop.  This story is from CBS 29, Los Angeles, via Americablog:

BEVERLY HILLS (CBS) — Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney came to the Golden State for a two-day series of high-profile fundraisers and reportedly took a shot at California in front of a $25,000 a ticket crowd in Del Mar.

Romney “took a pretty big shot at California,” according to a pool reporter.

“He said that under President Obama we’re becoming a lot more European and that the state of California was something he didn’t want to see the rest of the U.S. look like in a few years,” a pool reporter related.

So Mittens Romney has just slammed California for being a socialist, European state, that he did not want to see expand into the rest of the U.S.  Yet  he is happy to collect campaign contributions from those same Californians that he views as "socialist."  Romney took in $6 million from a Beverly Hills, CALIFORNIA fundraiser on Saturday night,  and he visited Hillsborough, CALIFORNIA, for a private fundraiser, where tickets for the event cost between $1,000 and $50,000 per person.  This private fundraiser was also closed to the media.  So Mittens, if you are so angry at California becoming a socialist, European state, why are coming to California with your hat in hand, asking for money from the citizens in that socialist, European state? 


But the biggest Romneyism for this weekend, really came out today.  First, the back story.  On Friday, Ann Romney's aircraft had to make an emergency landing in Colorado, when smoke from an electrical fire started filling the cockpit.  That is a pretty scary emergency, but the plane landed safely and everyone was okay.  Mitt Romney attended a Beverly Hills fundraiser, on Saturday, and was asked to comment on the emergency.   According to the L.A. Times:

Romney’s wife, Ann, was in attendance, and the candidate spoke of the concern he had for her when her plane had to make an emergency landing Friday en route to Santa Monica because of an electrical  malfunction.

“I appreciate the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound. And I don’t think she knows just how worried some of us were,” Romney said. “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver. But she’s safe and sound.”

You can't find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don't open?  I don't know why they don't do that.  It's a real problem.  So it's very dangerous.   Uh...Mittens?  Aircraft cabins are pressurized so passengers can breath at high altitudes.  Remember Payne Stewart?  Stewart and five others were killed when their Learjet experienced a gradual loss of cabin pressure, causing everyone to become were incapacitated due to hypoxia, or a lack of oxygen.  The plane flew for four hours, before crashing in South Dakota when the aircraft ran out of fuel.  That is why there are no windows on jet aircraft. 

I'm sure that Mittens is also happy that is wife was safe, after the emergency.  And he is certainly right that there is no place to go, when you have a fire in an aircraft.  But then Mittens goes into stupid in asking why there are no windows on jet aircraft?  And let's not forget that jet is probably traveling at around 500 miles per hour--talk about a nice breeze flowing into the cabin.  This is just a WTF was Mitt Romney thinking of? Of course, Daily Kos has a posting here, and one here showing the responses to Mitten's airplane moment.

But if Mittens needs a visual response:



I swear, this Romney campaign is heading directly into the Twilight Zone....