This morning, living mannequin and hollow chocolate bunny model Mitt Romney made the following quote:

“I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich, they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90%, 95% of Americans right now who are struggling and I’ll continue to take that message across the nation. [...]

“You can focus on the rich, that’s not my focus. You can focus on the very poor, that’s not my focus. My focus is on middle-income Americans.”

So, to the 47 million Americans living in poverty, Mitt Romney says, “Seeya, wouldn’t wanna be-ya!” Apparently, Mitt Romney, who has spent a great deal of time bemoaning how President Obama is trying to divide the country by asking the top 1% to pay the same tax rate as those that receive a fraction of their income, has decided that pushing off our very poor people into the sea on an ice floe is bringing this country together…by waving goodbye to them.

Romney, a Mormon who claims to believe in Jesus as his savior (as well as that God lives on planet Kolub), is no doubt recalling that famous quote by Jesus, “The meek shall inherit my ass.”

Apparently, Romney believes that people who scrape by on welfare and food stamps are doing just as great as the wealthy and need no more help (though the wealthy need help with more tax breaks).  In fact, his budget and support for the Ryan budget would burden the poor with higher taxes and an increase of thousands in health care costs (until Medicare is destroyed, then they would be uninsured). He’s not unconcerned with the poor, he’s concerned they’ve got more than they ought to have!

And as for those in the Middle Class who are slipping into poverty, you better enjoy having concern come your way from Romney while you can!

In response to the recent words of this Christ-revering/poor-hating Republican (is there any other kind?), Jesus contacted The Planet and asked if we’d publish the following blog for him:

Hope you’re all having a great 2012 so far! All is great my way…taking care of business and finding a little time for fun (been playing a lot of Angry Birds with Steve Jobs).

So I wake up this morning, take a jog across the lake then chill out for a bit and I catch this clip of Mitt Romney saying that he isn’t concerned about the poor. At the same time he’s said he believes in me and my teachings. That’s kind of like saying that you’re a vegetarian but you love eating hamburgers or that you love hamburgers but eat at McDonalds. One of these things, doesn’t belong, you know what I mean?

Just to be clear, my whole raison d’etre is about love…towards your fellow human beings, not towards money, material things or the new Trojan Twister. I’ve talked about how those who are possessed by greed and dedicate their lives to it have as much chance getting onto Heaven as a camel walking through the eye of a needle…and Donald Trump paying to create a giant needle with an eye big enough to accommodate the passage of a fleet of Hummer limos with a herd of camels inside totally misses the point.

I’m pretty sure that I said, “Love thy neighbor as thyself”, not “Love only those with a median household income range between $35,000 and $75,000″.

Now, Mitt Romney has responded by saying that his point was that we have social programs for the poor and if there’s a problem with them, he would fix them, so that’s why he’s not concerned about the very poor.

That’s like saying that as long as you’ve tied your dog to the roof of your car while you’re speeding down the highway, he’s secure so no need to be concerned about him unless the rope becomes loose.

I’m no stranger to seeing someone say one thing then do something that is the exact opposite (even when you invite him to supper!) but once a contradictory truth comes out publicly, such people should just admit they don’t follow my teachings instead of acting holier than thou (which is a tough act around here).

They should be constantly grateful for the material wealth they may have the good fortune to possess and whenever thinking of it, should be think about those who don’t have comfort and wealth with care and kindness because it easily could have been the other way around. And if it was, wouldn’t they want their potential leader to care about their lives and struggles…wouldn’t they like to hear from those with power and money that there was concern and a desire to help?

Anyway, I just wanted to remind folks that when you ask yourselves, WWID (What Would I Do?), having compassion for the poor  is still at the top of the list while taking from them to give more to those better off is at the top of someone else’s “hot list.”

Peace out!

 

“What do I hear for these valuable but slightly irregular Florida GOP delegates? Do I hear three million? What’s that Mr. Santorum, twenty thousand? Get away from me boy, you bother me!

Three million, three million…I’d recognize that flabby white arm anywhere, Mr. Gingrich is in for three million dollars! Mr. Gingrich is over the moon or maybe not but the bidding continues! Do I hear four million?

Four million, four million…(THUMP!) …Mr. Romney has dropped an airlifted safe onto Mr. Gingrich containing sixteen million dollars! There are no bidders left…no Mr. Paul, we don’t accept Ayn Rand Gold Standard Buckaroos…someone please escort Mr. Paul to the auction for Bigfoot artifacts…as I said, there are no bidders left so the delegates go to Mr. Romney for $16 million dollars! Congratulations Mr. Romney, you’ve just bought yourself a great set of delegates. Just remember, don’t get them wet or let them eat after midnight! Just kidding ya, enjoy!”

Don’t you love American democracy? Where money is speech and Groupon has special limited time offers for delegates?

In this era of recession, unemployment and foreclosures, when over 46 million out of 307 million Americans live in poverty, our social system may be crumbling due to the damage the top 1% have wrought on it but at least our elections not only remain consistent but provide a money-back guarantee to the highest bidder.

As all the pundits agree, The Emperor With No Clothes is buying himself another transparent suit today. Mitt Romney is expected to win the Florida GOP Primary tonight but what is kind of surreal is that it seems universally acknowledged that it is due primarily to the spending of around $16 million in negative advertising against Newt Gingrich and not because people actually support Romney as their candidate. Add to that, the in-your-face campaign the GOP has made through the Mainstream Media to destroy Gingrich and make clear to their party, “We have decided on who will be our nominee, your job is to vote for that candidate so the image of this being democratically decided can still be argued by us.”

To be clear, Mitt Romney is expected to win the Florida GOP Primary, not because he has made a strong case for why he is qualified, because he is likeable, due to his favorable stands on the issues, as a result of his vision for the future of the nation…no, he is openly touted to win because he spent five times more money on negative advertising in Florida than Gingrich. That’s all.

Is that really a dynamic we should be talking about so openly in public without feeling this whole “democracy” thing is just a sham? Sure, Romney robotically echoes words about American Exceptionalism and American Freedoms but he does so while his campaign manipulates Florida voters like unexceptional rats in a maze as he writes a check for the delegates he’s decided to buy.

And what about Florida voters? They have been subjected to a massive inundation of propaganda that is telling them to do what their told…but when they vote and explain it by saying that they were just following what the commercials told them to do, is that an acceptable excuse? When you have all the voices in the media telling you that you’re being manipulated by all the money spent on manipulating you, shouldn’t you shake your head and say, “I am not a puppet!”

Unfortunately, Corporate America, which backs the big money candidates, has spent many years and many millions (more likely billions) investigating and refining the tools of propaganda and how to both conceive and test ads that will convince people that drinking a “diet” concoction of laboratory chemicals, caffeine, salt and gas is good for them and will make them thin and healthy.

If you can sell the public that eating liquified then molded chicken beaks, guts, feet, ammonia, artificial flavoring and other chemicals are “fun and tasty”, you can convince them that voting for a liquified then molded candidate with artificial positions and sweeteners is a good thing too.

Americans want to be sold on things, they want to be convinced to like things or buy things. It’s actually a good feeling to many people and they welcome it. Actually, now it’s more than just wanting to be sold on something. With the advancement in marketing research, advertisers have learned how to stimulate fear and desire in people in a way that is as highly effective as a sheepdog herding sheep into a corral.

So, many people just can’t help themselves from doing exactly as they’re propagandized to do, partly because the advertisers now know how to wire directly into their brains and partly because they want authority figures to tell them what is good or bad and what they should want or do.

There are many people who see propaganda for what it is and don’t allow something as suspect as a tv commercial to make them buy a body spray because the ad shows it makes gorgeous members of the opposite sex lust for them nor do they vote as ads insist they should. Such people reason for themselves and make decisions based on something they possess as a higher form of life, such as information, reasoning or principle. However, this appears to be a minority of voter/consumers. The reality is that, except for a few exceptions, the candidate that spends the most money on advertising, wins over a majority of people to vote for him/her.

Occupy Wall Street and the financial hardships millions of Americans are suffering through now should help to inoculate many from being so simply swayed to do as the conditioning they’re subjected to would dictate but when it comes to GOP voters, looking for critical thinking even in the current environment is like looking for Mitt Romney to say “I believe” believably.

What about the Independent Voters, who will ultimately decide who is elected President and which party runs the houses of Congress? Which side of the fence are they on? Will they be just as vulnerable to the hundreds of billions in negative advertising against President Obama that will flood the nation’s air waves? Will they drink their Coke and gobble up their McNuggets, nodding their heads at descriptions of Obama as a “European Socialist”, “An absolute failure”, “Made the recession worse”, “Weak on foreign policy” just as the weak minded Republicans have in the GOP primaries? Or will they reject the old proposition of, “Who are you going to believe, my very attractive and powerful negative ads or your lying memory?”

Also, one has to add to this mix that unlike Gingrich, Pres. Obama will be armed with hundreds of millions to advertise positively about himself, his accomplishments and his vision for the future. And of course, there will be negative advertising against Romney both from Pres. Obama, his Super PAC and other outside groups. You can’t go into a gunfight empty-handed because you oppose guns or, good intentions or not, you will lose. So, as long as we have this corrupt Citizens United ruling in place, as long as there are no truth in advertising laws against political ads (though there may be in the future), as long as we don’t have mandatory public funding for campaigns and far shorter campaign seasons, these are the rules and tools of the game and you stand on principle against using them at your own risk of defeat.

In the end, I am optimistic that most American voters will reject this kind of manipulation from the GOP and will not support an obvious corporate and Wall Street facade as President of the United States. I say this not because I have great faith in Americans’ wisdom, reason or vision.

What I do have great faith in is pain.

When your hand is hurting because someone has pounded on it with a hammer, no matter how wonderful the assurance is that pounding it with the hammer again will make it feel better, bullshit can’t override pain.

People are really suffering across the country and they know why. The majority doesn’t blame Obama for causing their pain though some are upset at him for not making it go away. They have been hammered by the top 1% rigging our democracy and economy in an act of class warfare, to drain them of their wealth and futures so the top 1% can become more obscenely rich and more tyrannically powerful.

Can enough advertising convince most Americans that pounding a hammer on their hand once again will take the pain away and actually make their hand feel wonderful and rich?

I’ll bet all my chicken nuggets that this time, it can’t.

With all that said, we will be live blogging the election today and tonight, you’re invited to share your comments here about our democracy, money in politics, Romney, Newt and this primary throughout the day. Tonight we’ll live blog as results come in but be prepared, it could be a very early night, if Romney’s lead ends up as big as predicted, he could be declared the winner right after polls close as has been the pattern since NH but you can still hang around and chat, someone’s got to drink all these pomegranate martinis anyway!

I know you’ve got to be going through withdrawals for going two days without a GOP debate so tonight, the GOP comes to the rescue with another in an unending series of debates.

Tonight’s debate is on CNN tonight at 5:00 pm PST/8:00 pm EST.

You’re invited to join us here for a live blogging of this last debate before the GOP primary in FL.

President Obama delivers his State of the Union address tonight at 6:00 pm PST/9:00 pm EST.

You’re invited to join us tonight for a special Live Chat during this address and the Republican response to it. After the live events are over, you can join us on this thread for a continuing discussion of the night’s events.

You can watch and live chat in one of two ways:

1. You can watch the live feed below and use the Live Chat widget in the right column.

2. You can go to our Live Events page (click the link or on the Live Events menu item above) which will carry the live feed as well as a full Live Chat screen.

If you’re watching on tv, we’d recommend using the Live Events page for your Live Chatting enjoyment.

There is a lot at stake for this nation and for President Obama’s re-election so this should be quite a meaningful address. We hope you’ll join us for it!

WHITEHOUSE.ORG Webcast

(LIVE FEED SCREEN REMOVED AFTER SPEECH)

Click the arrow below during Mitch Daniels’ response to the SOTU when you believe he is not being forthright:

Another GOP debate but one that will likely be unlike any that have come before. Mitt Romney was the champ, he had it all sewn up, he was just waiting for his glove to be held up and the championship belt wrapped around him…then came Clubber Newt and the following conversation between Romney and his Campaign Manager:

Mitt: He’s just another fighter!

Campaign Manager: No he ain’t just another fighter. This guy is a wrecking machine and he’s hungry! Hell, you ain’t been hungry since you won that belt!

Mitt: You really don’t think I got nothing left do you?

Campaign Manager: Well, Rom, let’s put it this way. Now, three years ago you was supernatural. You was hard and you was nasty and you had this cast-iron jaw but then the worst thing happened to you, that could happen to any fighter. You got civilized. But don’t worry kid. You know, presidents retire, horses retire, Man-o-war retired. They put him out to stud. That’s what you should’ve done, retired.

Mitt Romney, who would be as comfortable participating in a boxing match as he would be befriending the homeless at a soup kitchen, has no choice but to try and look as hateful and hostile as Newt who has captured the tiny hearts and tortured souls of the core voters in the Republican Party.

Can Mitt look genuine as a fighter or will it all look so forced and unnatural, further eroding any sense of honesty and substance about him?

Newt is strongest as a counter-puncher but will he overplay his hand as the hater?

Join us here for a live blog of the NBC Debate which begins at 6:00 pm PST/9:00 pm EST and can be watched online as well as http://NBCPolitic.com.

Hope to see you then!

UPDATE: Those not in EST or CST can watch the debate live at this link:

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rock-center/46058377/#46058377