Stats

Comments Posted By choicelady

Displaying 751 To 780 Of 5,146 Comments

When the Mitt Hits the Fan – The Romney Campaign Thread

Good recipes, economical suggestions on all kinds of things – and they profile ordinary women doing good stuff in their communities. What’s not to love?

I saw the article about the witch hunt against the Mormon critic. You know – a little self reflection and self control by power mongers would help them. You just DON”T do this when the whole world is watching. It’s stupid and simply proves every critic’s point. So whatever good capital Mormons had built with me from one-to-one interactions with some very nice people is now shot to hell by this act of sheer stupidity.

I think Ann Baby is the perfect match for Mitt. She salutes his self centeredness because it includes her. I’m sure she’s never said a negative thing to him in their entire marriage because in her eyes his money – er his personality – can do no wrong. But her complete and total failure to articulate a single value they share speaks volumes. They can pretend to be people of faith but what she REALLY values is material and the deeply personal. It’s all about them. The rest of us can just press our noses to the window and watch them in silent envy.

They honestly believe they are role models and that the answer to our own plights is to emulate them.

Not.

» Posted By choicelady On September 22, 2012 @ 8:58 pm

OK true confession time. I read women’s magazines: Woman’s Day and Family Circle to be specific.

This month’s Woman’s Day has a 2-page feature on what is important to Michelle Obama and another 2-page one on Ann Romney.

ONLY Mrs. O says a single thing about “values”. Her statement on “Shared Values” with Mr. O is , “Our faith calls us to keep our minds and hearts open to the needs of others….That’s what drives us forward every single day.” Her Bible verse (also NOT listed by Ann at all) is also mine: Luke 12:48 “To whom much is given, much is required.” And her overall quote: “Growing up, Barack and I watched our families work hard to make ends meet. We now feel a huge responsibility to make sure others have the opportunities we had.”

And from Ann? NOTHING of this nature.

I expect, in light of the video showing Mitt’s contempt for the 47% that Ann is kicking herself for saying nothing at all about gratitude, commitments to help others get ahead, or one word about spirituality. Or – knowing our Ann, she is blaming Woman’s Day for not telling her to say those things.

It’s quite clear who has care for the nation and who has care for herself and her family, period.

Take a look – it’s a quickie snapshot of who these two women really are. I know who has MY regard and whose husband has my vote.

» Posted By choicelady On September 22, 2012 @ 7:52 pm

Gosh – I thought it was Obama meeting with Romney when he was at his peak at Bain.

» Posted By choicelady On September 22, 2012 @ 5:13 pm

Prior to independence, the locus of economic control rested with towns and cities. They gave petitoners “privileges” or sites for grain mills, etc.ON THE CONDITION that the owner/operator would provide goods for the town first at the price SET BY THE TOWN, and to the standards agreed on also by the town. The town was the collectivity of residents who were property owners though that included anyone who had the “tools of the trade” for their occupation, NOT just real estate. So those who engaged in commerce and manufacturing were not EVER operating in a ‘free market’.

After independence, these economic controls began to be challenged and law by law they dropped away. It took about 50 years from the early 1790s to put the basics for free market operation in place, but the petitions for incremental changes ALL asserted that unleashing the individual entrepreneur would benefit everyone – all people would rise in living standards from better income (actual wages instead of barter) and better access to markets and products. The petitions for corporations were among the most affirmative in stating the Smith position that the purpose of capitalism was to lift everyone.

It took about 10 years to prove that it wasn’t working. It took about 30 years to become highly exploitative of labor and consumers. By the end of the first 50 years, capitalism was entrenched, had enclosed the common lands, eradicated women’s and especially widows’ property rights and had become rapacious in its exploitation of labor especially that of women and children. It ceased to honor the communal rights of land and water, and it polluted the surrounding areas without redress.

So after nearly 200 years, there is really no use telling Americans that capitalism will set us free. Only REGULATED market economics can do that since, left to their own devices, far too many “capitalists” become freebooters taking the very short view and stealing all they can with both hands getting us to bail them out and fund their rapaciousness. Capitalism works when it is highly controlled to guarantee the rights of employees, consumers, neighbors, and the environment. Otherwise – it just pisses in its own nest and leaves us to clean it all up. That’s how jackals live – and it ain’t a goal Americans should ever want again.

» Posted By choicelady On September 22, 2012 @ 5:12 pm

Hey glenn – that’s MY argument, too. Romney built nothing. He was handed Bain because he was his Daddy’s little boy, and he used the path of least resistance – gutting companies to fatten Bain – rather than trying to help those businesses succeed.

When we were kids my brother had a schtick that cracked us all up that fits Romney to a T.

In a phony TV ad parody he’d say:

“Boys and girls! Buy the latest action toy now! Get little DESTRUCTO! First thing out of the box he EATS the box he came in! Be the first kid to be the last kid on your block! Get little DESTRUCTO today!”

That’s our Mitt – Mr. Destructo.

» Posted By choicelady On September 20, 2012 @ 1:41 pm

Lordy-I never realized by hanging up on robocalls I was playing into RW hands.

But then – I guess I don’t care either. Gallup can just bite it when the vote comes in and they look stupid. Again.

» Posted By choicelady On September 20, 2012 @ 1:35 pm

We are just fungible commodities in the workplace and cannon fodder on the killing fields. Other than that, we matter NOT at all.

» Posted By choicelady On September 20, 2012 @ 1:32 pm

I REALLY have to take exception with Obama on income redistribution.

The freaking issue is income DISTRIBUTION in the first damned place!

We wouldn’t be talking about “redistribution” if the bastards hadn’t engaged in thirty years of wage theft! THAT is my issue first and foremost.

» Posted By choicelady On September 20, 2012 @ 1:31 pm

Sigh. The fact I almost never go to movies nor watch them at home leaves me sooooo out of the loop! Even so – these are funny!

» Posted By choicelady On September 20, 2012 @ 1:29 pm

Ohhhh kes – that’s funny!!!

» Posted By choicelady On September 20, 2012 @ 1:27 pm

EXCLUSIVE: New Video Clip From Romney Fundraiser!

Anyone seen “2016” that purports to be ‘fact’ about Obama’s background? The “reviews” are all pretty weird – there are a lot of people who think if you see a movie, it’s fact. Well it’s hogwash.

It is the one unknown factor since it is a huge attraction – who knows what kind of impact it will make on voters in the middle, those who pay little attention.

We can’t say it’s over until it’s over.

» Posted By choicelady On September 19, 2012 @ 10:47 am

PlanetPOV’s Rogue’s Gallery #1 – Parody Artwork of Romney & Friends

Actually, yes. But the notion it’s a good photoshop, too, is probably stretching it a bit!

» Posted By choicelady On September 16, 2012 @ 9:21 pm

Well it really doesn’t matter much, does it? We’re all still wondering where she got that Adams apple…

» Posted By choicelady On September 16, 2012 @ 9:20 pm

AdLib – it took me a few minutes to unpack the birth certificate. Who knew Orly was a Black Kenyan? Your photoshop was much, much better than hers, so I think it now lays to rest any speculation that she’s the white, RW immigrant she claims and proves she’s a Black socialist male after all.

New definition of “truth”: MY photoshop is better than YOUR photoshop…

» Posted By choicelady On September 16, 2012 @ 8:02 pm

Never Trust a Politician with Thin Lips

This is sage advice, AdLib, and it harks back to the Reagan years and the wonderful poster of same – Men with No Lips.

http://www.netropolitan.org/conal/menwithnolips.html

They are Reagan (the Republican whose lips fell off as Cyrano noted) Weinberger, Regan, and Baker. I think the assessment that lips posit sexuality and emotion is correct. These men, like R&R, are all focused on making themselves rich, on power, and on getting one over on everyone else. They are mean. Who has time for feelings when you’re obsessed with making money and crushing everyone else underfoot?

Now the ONE Republican with lips is a woman – Sarah Palin. I can’t explain it, but she definitely has lips and lipstick to prove it. I guess every side has its deviants, and she does, in every conceivable way, fill that category.

» Posted By choicelady On September 16, 2012 @ 9:17 pm

With GOPTEA Congress Broken Fed to the Rescue

AdLib – I’d agree that some of TARP should have gone to homeowners, but that was not enacted by Congress under Bush and Paulsen, and Obama inherited the overall plan.

He was able to regulate the distribution of bonuses which is one reason so many of the big banks paid TARP back as fast as possible! Woe betide the bank that could not dole out obscene bonuses while they were relying on taxpayer money! (Snark.)

In the meantime, I think it was Dodd Frank but may have been another bill gave voting power OVER bonuses back to investors which had been taken away by managerial manipulation over the years. Now corporate managers cannot fatten themselves without stockholder assent. And it matters – 46 giant corporations have turned DOWN bonuses for their management. This includes a three-time denial to the Chair of Citicorp who is screamingly angry that his failure to do a good job is actually being assessed as a reason for investors NOT to give him a bonus. Wow. Who knew “personal accountability” would actually mean something in the Board Room?

» Posted By choicelady On September 16, 2012 @ 1:07 pm

Nirek – it might help to know that thanks to provisions in the Dodd-Frank legislation, the governmental regulatory mechanisms are now once again capable of dismantling the utterly irresponsible financial institutions. Lehmann is the prime candidate. It is being systematically taken apart to pay back those who lost money. Dodd Frank gives FDIC the capacity to go beyond just protecting deposits to actually killing irresponsible financial institutions where they need to die.

As KQ noted, there are various other provisions in mortgage policy and practice helping families. It has taken way too long to get this going because – like it or not – what happened on the banking and investment corporation side 2000-2008 was NOT ILLEGAL. Couple this with STATE banking and lending laws, the process of finding justice has had to wind its way through the courts, local federal court jurisdictions, and state legislatures to find resolution. At that, it’s not uniform since it depends in no small part upon the states.

I was with a group of intelligent people who asked why Obama did not nationalize the banks. Well – because a la Harry Truman trying to nationalize the steel companies in the 1950s, the Supreme Court said the presidential power is insufficient to do that. (It may trump Congress as well, though that was not ruled upon.) So we have already had a ruling in 1952 that presidential power does not go that far not EVEN under threats of national security.

It took quite some time for FDR to get his bank regulatory capacity to be both Constitutional and effective. Obama has been following something of the same trajectory – to be legal it had to have enabling legislation, and that is largely what Dodd Frank has done. It has restored much of the firewall Clinton overturned in ending the Glass-Steagall protections, it has empowered dismantling (close to nationalization but with critical differences that make it legal), and has numerous other aspect that, if the GOP were not standing in the way of financing and enforcing, would give us a totally sound economic and financial regulatory system once again. And with the state rulings such as the CA homeowners’ bill of rights, individuals now have serious protection in this state – with other states doing much the same. All of those, may I note, are largely “blue”. The “red” states? Not so much.

But this action by Bernanke is powerful, does not bailout banks, and makes for a profound jump start to the economy at the lower levels where smaller businesses have been unable to wrench capital from the big guys. When you cannot act via Congress, and when you cannot make the big guys do the right thing – by passing them and doing end runs is a powerful and useful social good. That’s what the Fed has done.

» Posted By choicelady On September 16, 2012 @ 1:02 pm

Romney Hates America (under President Obama)

Hi everybody. Just back from Spain where we followed the debacle of both the deaths of the four Americans and the reaction. The Spanish press was measured about Romney’s reaction but clearly they thought him disgusting.

As soon as we got home last night I found another dimension to this story I had not learned while overseas. One of the people who died at the Embassy was Glen Doherty, former Navy SEAL stationed at the Embassy in Libya. Glen was one of my colleagues with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, on the Advisory Board, and a presence for religious freedom everywhere. The extremism of the people who made and promoted the vile and despicable film that has spawned the outrage in the Mideast and the extremists who killed our ambassador and Glen among others is precisely what he stood against.

What sickens me is that both the RW perps in this country and the fundamentalists abroad are probably both high-fiving these deaths.

It’s what extremists do. Even extremists like Romney who saw the moment as political theater, not a human tragedy.

It is past time that we have candidates like Romney who promote war, extremism, and divisions, who make the intolerance worse instead of better. Romney promotes armed conflict in all quarters. In this case it already caused the death of someone whose work I admired. When our elected officials – or would-be elected officials – pound the drum for violence and do so without a breath of regard for the human consequences, then they are NO different from the slavering extremists on both sides who caused this to happen. Romney is a war monger without a shred of conviction about the issues, causes, consequences. And he’s the typical chickenhawk who does so without offering a single breath of engagement or sacrifice on his own or his family’s part.

Enough already.

» Posted By choicelady On September 16, 2012 @ 11:47 am

Why the RNC Convention Proves Romney Should Not Be President

I predict that if R&R win, we will be in the Second Great Depression within a year. And we will have none of the social programs we need to survive it.

» Posted By choicelady On September 1, 2012 @ 10:07 pm

Yup, kes. Evil is a very good word. Don’t even need the supernatural or Divvil to have it. People don’t need the help – completely capable of doing evil all on their own.

The people who screw up the world get paid millions, even billions. We all volunteer to fix it. No WONDER we’re tired!

» Posted By choicelady On September 1, 2012 @ 10:06 pm

Hi-

I asked AdLib to hook us up, but I think he didn’t see the email I sent him. I will try again.

I got pretty queasy when all those Mormons talked about how Mitt had helped them – so what? I have to know whom he helped who was not convenient, easy, part of the tribe. That IS why the riff against Palin works here, too:

Jesus was a community organizer.
Pontius Pilot was a Governor.

Obama has spent his life in the company of “not me” people. He lived with white people and API people and Black people. His life was filled with the experiences that make a man easy in his own shoes – because he’s walked in those of other people.

Racism and xenophobia have haunted this nation from day one, and it’s beyond stupid since not a one of us was wanted here. OK – maybe Einstein, but ther rest of us? Meh.

If we’re going to be the hope of the future as we have been of the past, we have to stop thinking we’ve hit the pinnacle of perfection and now can begin discriminating against “them” whoever they may be. Of course we thought that in the 1840s, 1850s, 1880s, 1890s, 1920s, 1950s… Sigh.

Americans do not actually LIKE being a democracy. They’d give it up in a trice if they could be absolutely sure THEY would be the rulers. It’s only that uncertainty that keeps us going. We’d adopt a monarchy, an open ruling class, and limited engagement of the ruled if we could. Thank God enough people fear being left out that we don’t go that way.

Yet.

» Posted By choicelady On September 1, 2012 @ 10:03 pm

There is something so evil about applauding people who work 2 or 3 jobs as Bush did with that woman who had 3. And then – if she has three, what about the other people who have none because she has three and so on and so on. The hallmark of “American Exceptionalism” is not desperation but that we are all supposed to BENEFIT from our hard work. CA is making changes in future retirement benefits (meaning for people retiring very soon) – and being shoved by financiers to cut EXISTING retiree benefits – DESPITE THE FACT THAT NOT ONE PENNY OF RETIREMENT BENEFITS IS PAID BY TAXPAYERS. We have allowed the Wall Street crash to demonize working people as if they are the cause of the fund shortages. Despite that, CA retirees are drawing from the retirement FUND, not from taxpayers. Not one blessed penny. And people are screaming as if they’re having food taken out of their mouths.

The Right is great at framing – and all the major papers swallow the Kool Aid despite the fact that to tell this “story” you have to make shit up and lie. So it’s not just the GOP – it’s our “objective journalists” as well.

» Posted By choicelady On September 1, 2012 @ 7:51 pm

EXCLUSIVE: Sneak Peak at Mitt Romney’s Speech Tonight at the RNC

I think we should note that Mrs. R. discovered her husband was dead only because no rose appeared. I thought that so incredibly creepy I have no words for it. I think I’d notice if my husband weren’t alive. This probably means they were not sharing a room? How sad.

» Posted By choicelady On August 31, 2012 @ 9:02 pm

OK – now we know that Romney is good to Mormons whom he knows. We haven’t a shred of evidence he’s good to anyone else whether he knows them or not. Someone REALLY ought to remember that the BTK Killer in Wichita, KS was a paragon of neighborly virtue to those whom he knew – and brutally murdered those whom he did NOT know.

» Posted By choicelady On August 31, 2012 @ 8:59 pm

Ryan’s Hot Speech: Liar! Liar! Pants on Fire!

One thing about Ryan is his voice – it’s infantile. Sounds as if he hasn’t gone through puberty. How people can STAND to listen to him is beyond me. It grates.

What is it about the GOP that recruits so many man-children, so many men who are infantile in their emotional behavior and often spoiled drunken frat boy types? Dan Quayle seemed to start the trend (since I am not old enough to have known Harding…)

I am not listening BUT I just heard that Romney said, “When you need big things done, you need an American.”

OK – that’s it. This is no joke. He is certifiably a racist fucking pig.

» Posted By choicelady On August 30, 2012 @ 8:22 pm

Republican Support for Natural Disasters

Well part of me likes all this. Apparently the Texas delegation is (was?) going to rebel at having their votes dictated to them by the Rules Committee. But since apparently the nomination came today (wasn’t that the HIGH point of a convention in the good ol’ days?) I’m not sure the rebels have anything left to do.

But the idea of the GOP being in shreds and tatters as the Dems were with the Mississippi delegation issue in ’68? Well that just made me happy. That was probably our lowest point as a party. So maybe this is theirs? One can live in hope.

» Posted By choicelady On August 28, 2012 @ 10:32 pm

Kalima! I’ve heard of “guilt by association” before, but not “guilt by observation”. It’s not fair YOU have the elongated nose when they’re the liars! I hope the weather is good there – not much chance of your getting back inside over the next couple of days!

» Posted By choicelady On August 28, 2012 @ 10:30 pm

Hi – had to jump in here with the second smartest man in the room, Nate Silver. His blog is well worth noting. What interests me is the far right hand column on the main story with the state by state assessment of who will win what. Nate is rarely wrong.

Take a look, KQ – Nate has nailed pretty much every race since 2006. His is NOT the facile “man in the street” polling. True geekdom rules at 538.

It gave me heart. Hope it will do the same for you.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/

» Posted By choicelady On August 28, 2012 @ 10:28 pm

Great points, AdLib.

Now I believe in personal responsibility. I’m sick of paying for people’s ill conceived ways of life that create predictable devastation for them. I’m tired of the whiners who beg for help then go right back to doing what cost us taxpayers in the first place. I’m fed up with paying, over and over, to bail people out for their lousy choices.

No more bailouts for people who will NOT learn their lessons! Rich white people rebuilding in hurricane areas are ON THEIR OWN!!!

We all should remember that Bush laughed not just at “Heckofa job, Brownie” but at how quickly FEMA and federal insurance was going to sweep into the rich waterfront areas and get those mansions back on the ground! And they did. And even today, almost seven years to the date, the Ninth Ward is unreconstructed save by efforts of volunteers and non-profits.

They want to privatize everything so the rest of us can’t always know what’s coming and certainly cannot benefit from help once it’s here. But we CAN help the rich. We always help the rich. And even so, they whine it’s not enough.

So be assured that whatever the GOP hyper individualsts take away from us, they will NOT take it away from the folks who build in flood plains, on the beach, over sink holes, or in hurricane-prone areas. If your house is big enough, your shoes and belt white enough, your bank account flashy enough, your Mercedes new enough – you WILL be helped with government bail outs no matter how idiotic your lifestyle and how lousy your judgment. Some people never learn – because they never have to.

» Posted By choicelady On August 27, 2012 @ 8:50 pm

“2016- Obama’s America” : The Right Wraps Crazy in a Rational Package

Hmmm – I never thought that was the point. I always figured the point was that they were utterly arrogant and asleep at the switch. Condi testified, wide eyed, that well golly yes they had the report “Terrorists planning to fly planes into tall buildings” – but GOSH nobody gave them a DATE so, well, what COULD they DO? That’s when I knew we did not have to have this happen and that it didn’t need to be a conspiracy – it was absolute, to the core negligence and disinterest. And that’s what I thought Moore was saying. It was corroborated by a PBS documentary on the absolutely horrific lack of response to the initial hijacking – nothing scrambled, no response at ALL by the people in charge. The air traffic controllers were very clear on details – and on the lack of even concern by security and military people.

I attribute it entirely to arrogance, not to conspiracy.

I do have two questions though – where the HELL is the wreckage of the plane in Shanksville and also at the Pentagon? Just asking. The destruction at the Twin Towers I get, but not there. My husband was a reporter and visited a high speed jet crash outside an Air Force Base – there were parts of the fuselage everywhere. So I will always remain creeped out by those two incidents and the lack of debris.

» Posted By choicelady On August 27, 2012 @ 9:54 pm