December 21 is Past and We’re All Still Here — Well, Most of Us

The Mayan calendar rolled over — or whatever that phenomenon was that took place on December 21, 2012 — and there was no planet-wide apocalypse. If you are disappointed, you might need to have your meds adjusted. All of the doomsayers will, I suppose, just have to pick another date for the world to end.

The world did end a week before that projected apocalypse for 20 little children and six school employees at Sandy Hook Elementary, in New Town, Connecticut. And a large amount of the joy was taken out of the world for their family members.

This has once again caused the great debate over guns and gun laws to surface and take on shrill tones. Some say it is too early to have this discussion. Some mourn the fact that most people ignore the discussion altogether, except just after a gun-related tragedy.  

I spent most of my first two decades in a Western Red State. My friends and relatives owned guns. My grandmother had a gun. When I was in Junior High School, we got a couple of days off from school for the start of deer hunting season. I didn’t hunt, but was glad to have the days off. I think everyone appreciated the break, except perhaps the deer, but nobody was asking them.

In school I took an NRA gun safety course. If you had asked me at that time for my opinion of the National Rifle Association, I suppose it would have been pretty high. After all, guns could be dangerous if used improperly, and here was an organization, working to prevent the misuse and mitigate the danger of firearms. Sounds like a pretty good mission statement to me.

But, in the wake of the New Town slaughter, the NRA, which had been silent on the matte for a few days, has issued a statement. Wayne La Pierre, the leader and spokesperson for the NRA, has stated that the solution to school violence is not the banning of slaughter weapons, or the elimination of clips that hold a large supply of ammunition without reloading, but more guns in the schools. The NRA solution to school shootings is to put armed guards in schools or to suggest teachers bring guns with them into the classroom.

This seems to me like telling a guy he is an alcoholic and then telling him the solution is to visit more bars during Happy Hour. I don’t get it.

The mother of Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook shooter’s mother was also a victim. It’s too bad she didn’t own a gun or two to defend herself. Oh wait, it was her guns that were used to kill her and all those little children. Her death brings the count to 27, and Adam Lanza’s suicide brings the total to 28.

 

If the NRA really wanted to preserve some shred of respectability, it would admit that we really don’t need large clips or AK-47s to hunt deer or to defend our homes from buglers. They lose credibility by maintaining their inflexible stand against limiting some of the privileges of gun-enthusiasts. I suspect that they will lose some members over this stand. I hope it will lose them a Congress member or two.

America Avoids Romney Apocalypse

Congratulations to Barack Obama!

Congratulations to all of us who rooted, worked, contributed, and / or voted for his re-election.

We watched the returns come in until after Midnight, East Coast Time. We made popcorn. [Note to self: If I am going to keep mentioning popcorn in these blogposts, I really should see about getting a popcorn manufacturer as a sponsor.] I have to confess, I was a little bit worried, watching the early returns. That blue line was shorter and was growing more slowly than the red line. Not to worry, we were told by the people on TV, this was the early reports from the red states coming in early

Florida remained grey (or yellow or white, depending on which network you watched) until Saturday. I am so very happy that the election did not depend on Florida for the final result. The 2000 convention earned us the nickname Florida-Duh and may be one of the reasons Florida residents are called Floridiots, Actually, I think both names were earned once again when we allowed Rick Scott to buy the governorship a couple of years ago. Even without Florida’s 29 electoral votes, Barack Obama was re-elected president, and that suits me just fine. In the final count, including Florida voters, Obama won by 332 electoral votes to Romney’s 206.

Mitt Romney was the first Mormon nominee. I thought that might trigger a backlash from some anti-Mormon fundamentalist Christians. I am suppose there were some snake-handlers that thought considered Mitt to be the spawn of Satan, but most of them might have kept quiet because they considered Obama to be the devil himself! I thought Romney would have basically tied up the Mormon vote. But, as it turned out, a smaller percentage of Mormons voted for Mitt Romney than had voted for George W. Bush in 2008.

This was not a pretty presidential campaign. Lies were told. There were those who insisted that Obama was not born in the US. The sellers of bumper stickers that said “Don’t Re-Nig in 2012” tried to bring political discourse down to a new, disgusting, low.

There is a lot of political talk going around now about how Romney and his GOP cronies didn’t appeal to Hispanics or to African Americans, or even to younger voters. All of these things may be true, but I don’t think it suits anyone for any candidate to focus primarily on playing to factions of the population or to complain that they didn’t get their support afterwards.

The president, once duly and legally elected, is the president of all the people. For the GOP to be licking its wounds and comforting itself with thoughts such as, Obama won just because of the Latinos or —just because of the poor really doesn’t help anybody’s cause.

I believe that the GOP and Romney failed, not because they appeared not to be benefiting any one slice of the American voting population pie chart, but because they did appear to be primarily benefiting an even tinier sliver of that same pie chart — the one percent of Americans that control an ever-increasing share of the nation’s wealth, currently about 40 per cent. Because of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling (something I am hoping that an Obama Supreme Court appointment will someday undue) these wealthiest of all Americans can funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into the race for president and into races across the country.

This tine it did not work. We, as an electorate, did not allow Mitt Romney or Sheldon Adelson or the Koch Brothers to buy the election.

And that is one of the greatest things about our country.

I am sure the Romney’s are disappointed. But, Anne Romney can be can console herself with the knowledge that she doesn’t have to move into a smaller house, in public housing no less.

But, I still wonder, if Tagg Romney wanted to take a swing at the president before the election, what’s he fantasizing about now?

The Final Push

Tuesday is Election Day.  

That means that Wednesday morning we will all wake up and learn whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney will take the Oath of Office in 2013.

Or will we?

Some of us still have echoes of the presidential election of 2000 echoing around our heads.

With the efforts by some to keep others from casting their rightful ballots, and the confusion over early voting rules in some battleground states, and with the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast — not to mention this election looks like it might be as close as the king and queen of the prom during that last dance of the night, — and we might not know for days or weeks.

All of the annoying TV and Internet ads will stop, and that alone is a victory for everyone.

If you live in any of the states that allow early voting and have already voted, I salute you. You have exercised your right to take part in the flawed, yet stabilizing process we call representative democracy. If you voted for Barack Obama, and for Democrats in the US House and Senate to support his continued efforts on behalf of the middle class of this country, I not only salute you, but heartily applaud the choices you have made.

If you have not yet voted, I hope you do decide to go out and vote. The lines may be long, but it is worth the time and effort.

If you plan to vote for Obama, then I think we are on the same page, here. I would only remind you to keep in mind that the president will need forward-thinking men and women in the House and Senate to keep the improvements coming.

If you are leaning towards Mitt Romney, or are undecided, I can only commend you for reading this far and ask that you read on a bit more.

I will not try to list all of Obama’s accomplishments in the first four years. He has signed legislation which would guarantee equal pay for women and men doing the same job. He signed a middle-class tax cut which has cut the taxes of the average family by over $3,500 over the past four years. He also cut taxes for small businesses.

Obama’s Recovery Act saved or added millions of jobs, and probably prevented a depression. He revitalized the Student Loan Program, eliminating banks as middlemen, and cutting the cost of borrowing for college. He successfully saved the auto industry and got it back on its own footing again. He has ordered streamlining of thousands of pages of contradictory, redundant, or unnecessary regulations, while putting in place mechanisms to help ensure that useful regulations are followed, thus making food products, manufacturing processes, and work environments safer for consumers and workers.

Obamacare and the Healthcare Reform, which has been a favorite target of Romney and other Republicans, offers tremendous benefits to millions of Americans who were priced out or otherwise kept out of the healthcare insurance market. It wasn’t that society wasn’t providing some sporadic medical care for these citizens, its just that we were paying an incredibly high price for it. So much easier to offer affordable healthcare insurance to everyone and save most Americans money in the process. Eleven million children, who otherwise would have had no healthcare coverage, will have it because of action taken by President Obama.

Obama and the Democrats deserve your support for heeding the warnings of nearly one hundred percent of the world’s climate scientists, by taking unprecedented action to reduce carbon pollution from our vehicles and promote clean energy production in the United States. I don’t think we are doing all we should , but at least they first steps are being taken. He has also created historic international agreements to curb carbon emissions from other nations as well as the US. Again, it’s a start, and one the Republicans will not even acknowledge as necessary or beneficial.

Obama has shown he has the maturity and the knowledge to deal with ever-changing issues. Foreign issues will continue to be a very important part of the job of president. Obama ended the war in Iraq, is bringing troops home from Afghanistan, and has taken action against some of our greatest enemies. If you see any Osama Bin Laden tapes on the news, you will know they are reruns.

There are more things I could list. There are probably more things you could list. But, you can see that Romney’s claim that Obama’s four years has been a failure is an untrue statement, shouted just to convince members of the middle class to vote against their best interest.

Romney and Ryan, on the other hand, offer a plan that is based on the failed idea that, if we help the rich and superrich make even more money and pay even less in taxes, somehow, some of those crumbs will truckle down to the middle class and make them more well-off. This has not worked in the past, it will not work now.

Their plans to privatize Social Security, turn Medicare and education into voucher programs certainly aren’t good for the people who will depend on those services, our elderly and our children, and they won’t help those in between, either.

Obama has spent four difficult years digging us out of the hold that two wars and the Bush Tax Cuts put us into. It has taken longer than expected, because he has had to fight the Republicans in Congress, who have made it their prime directive to make sure he fails — no matter who gets hurt. So, It is a wonder that he as accomplished as much as he has. It makes absolutely no sense to go back to the policies that caused those problems in the first place.

It is so very hard to know where Romney stand on any issue. His responses have seemed to be generated by what he perceives a particular audience wants to hear on a given day. He much more resembles a weathervane than a qualified candidate to lead the United States of America.

If you are still not convinced, I will let Romney himself convince you that he is not fit to be your president.

Mitt Romney has refused to release his tax returns for the past ten years, as requested by many members of both parties. Yeah, old story, I know. He did release his 2010 and 2011 tax returns as promised. In 2011, Romney paid 14.1 per cent of his income in taxes. Had he claimed all of the deductions due him, he would have gotten away with paying an amount much closer to nine per cent. Wow, good guy, right? Loves his country, patriotic, right? Putting aside the fact that he has years to file an amended return and get those millions back from the IRS, quietly, secretly.

However, Romney himself said in July, "Frankly, if I had paid more than are legally due, I don't think I'd be qualified to become president. I'd think people would want me to

follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires. "I pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more," He has also said, "I don't think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes."

I don’t see why we wouldn’t want a candidate to pay more into the coffers of the country he loves than he legally owes, but if Mitt Romney sais this action makes him unqualified to be president, then who am I to argue with him?

Vote for Obama. It’s the least you can do to help poor Mitt Romney keep what shred of integrity he has left.

 

Dan J. Hicks

Uh Oh, there's a Mitt-stake in this Paper

Here is a Letter to the Editor I wrote for the Tampa Tribune in response to the paper’s endorsement of Mitt Romney for president. I didn’t see it in print, but it might or might not have appeared on the paper’s website. I am proud of it, though, so I am sharing it with you here.

Tribune Endorses Mitt, Really?

After some well-reasoned editorial opinions from the Tampa Tribune Editorial Board, I was looking forward to an endorsement of President Barack Obama, to continue on his course of repairing the damage done to the United States by eight years of Bush rule.  

After all, you warned us against deceptively-named amendments which would only give power and tax-breaks to the already well-off.

You Endorsed Bill Nelson, who is most likely to work on behalf of the working people of Florida, and the candidate best suited to support Obama as president for the next four years.

You issued a thoughtful yet fervent plea to Florida voters to keep the current Supreme Court judges, who are only being targeted because they aren’t indebted to the Republican Party and rich out-of-state manipulators.

Yeah, it looked pretty good for the Tampa Tribune to support a president who has been willing to swim against the red-state tide, and work against those who have set his failure as priority one, no matter how it hurts the middle class of the US.

But, then “with confidence and enthusiasm” you endorsed Mitt Romney for president!

I suppose you don’t mind that Mitt’s Opinions on a wide variety of subjects seems to change with the direction of the wind, and what he perceives that day’s audience would like to hear. I suppose it doesn’t matter that Mitt Romney’s foreign affairs experience has to do with off-shore investing, annoying the Brits prior to the Olympics, and helping to ship jobs overseas. I suppose you decided to overlook that fact that Mitt, if elected, will owe huge debts to those who helped him move into the White House. I don’t mean the voters; I mean the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson, without whom his candidacy wouldn’t have stood much of a chance.

Did you feel the need to balance the endorsement the Tampa Bay Times would be giving Obama? I would certainly hope you would not base such a critical editorial on such shallow reasoning.

With the state of Florida such an important battleground for this very important election, your endorsement of Mitt Romney for President simply doesn’t make sense.

Dan Hicks    

Barack the Mitt-Buster — the Great Debate Trilogy, Episode 3!

We may not admit to liking trilogies   , but we sure eat them up.

There is something about three of something that forms a feeling of completeness. Three sides of a triangle. Three Wise Men. Three Musketeers. The three Matrix films. There were the three original Star Wars films, before the — some of us would say quite unnecessary — prequels. Each of the original three Star Wars movies has its plusses and minuses, though it is hard to beat the moment when Darth Vader revealed to Luke Skywalker, “Luke, I am your father.”

As this third debate began, I wondered if it might just be a replay of the first debate, including less-than-stellar performance by President Obama. Mitt Romney dominated the discussion, interrupting the president and the moderator, Bob Schieffer. At one point, Sehieffer had to instruct Romney to let the president answer the question he’d been asked.

When the president was able to start making complete statements, Romney did a lot of agreeing. He concurred with so many points of Obama’s foreign policy that I thought he might just change his mind about trying to remove Obama from office and just ask for a position in his Cabinet.

I think Romney’s least-presidential moment came when Sehieffer asked the question, “What if what if the prime minister of Israel called you on the phone and said, ‘Our bombers are on the way. We’re going to bomb Iran.’ What do you say?”

Romney dodged the question, “Bob, let’s not go into hypotheticals of that nature. Our relationship with Israel, my relationship with the prime minister of Israel is such that we would not get a call saying our bombers are on the way or their fighters are on the way. This is the kind of thing that would have been discussed and thoroughly evaluated well before that kind of action.”

It was a good question, which could have revealed a lot about Romney’s character. However, all it showed was that Romney overvalues his ability to foresee the future, that he lacks imagination, and he doesn’t have the      courage to try to deal with a situation that many watchers of the Middle-East consider at least somewhat likely to take place. What Romney was, in effect say was, Hey, this could never happen because of my superior leadership skills and my experience in the business world. So, maybe it did give us a window into Romney’s character after all.

Romney tried to criticize Obama for reducing the size of the US navy. “Our Navy is smaller now than at any time since 1917. The Navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission. We’re now at under 285. … We’re headed down to the low 200s if we go through a sequestration. That’s unacceptable to me.”

Obama replied, “You mention the Navy, for example, and the fact that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets. We have these things called aircraft carriers and planes land on them. We have ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines. It’s not a game of Battleship where we’re counting ships, it’s ‘What are our priorities?’” Score a major homerun for Obama!

I know there was some criticism on Twitter and elsewhere that “the military still uses bayonets.” Well, of course it does, and I am sure there are still some horses serving the armed forces here and there. Obama could have substituted swords or M-1 rifles for bayonets and the point would have still been well made.

Most debate watchers give the win to Obama, and I say that is a great thing. I know the only thing that really counts is the actual election, but those who count such things tell us that this last debate was viewed by over fifty million people, so I would think these debates do count for something besides their entertainment value.

Entertainment value? Of course. Some moments were better than others. My favorite debate moment was when Romney turned to Obama and said “Barack, I am your father.”

 

He’s…Baaaaack!

I am so happy to be able to say that President Barack Obama showed up for the second presidential debate of 2012 on October 16. Oh, it wasn’t that he missed the first debate, or failed to appear. Most of us agree that he just didn’t put as much into it as would have liked.  

Let’s face it, Vice President Joe Biden set a good example of how to get tough, yet gentle, with one’s opponent. Obama followed Joe’s lead and called of Mythical Mitt on some of his bigger whoppers.

Candy Crowley was a great moderator, at least equal to and maybe superior to Martha Raddatz  She was able to fact-check one of Mitt’s fibs, practically before it was out of his mouth.

The upcoming debate will be about foreign policy. I think Mitt would be a foreign-relations disaster for this country and for the free world. I hope that Obama can be ready and primed to convince all of us voters of this fact.  

 

Release the Biden!

I saw this really cool graphic on Facebook, called “Obama did poorly at the Debate? Release the Biden!”

 

 

I enjoyed sharing that. I thought it showed a lot of hope, hope that Joe Biden would make up for Obama’s lackluster performance in the first presidential debate, and really stick it to Paul Ryan in the one and only vice presidential debate, held on 10/11/12.

By the way, October 11 was National Coming out Day, a day set aside for people to come out to their families and friends and reveal their differences. The day is intended mainly, I am assuming, for those gay Americans, who might have been hiding their ture feelings, to man up — or woman up — admit to everyone that they are not what they thought everyone thought they were.

Both Biden and Ryan came out all right — they came out swinging. Well, Biden was swinging, Ryan was mostly sweating. I think that was why he drank so much water during the debate. I’m sure he ran to the bathroom after the cameras were turned off. That is, of course, if he didn’t sweat all of that water out.

One of Ryan’s first attacks against the Obama administration had to do with green energy grants. He called them “green pork.” He failed to mention the fact that, for twelve years, he had sought some of those “green pork” dollars for his own district. I guess it’s different when you are working to get yourself re-elected and not for the good of the country. I wonder if he also took some green eggs to go with that green ham.

As Ryan might say, “I do not like green eggs and pork. But, if you’re paying, hand me a fork!”

Joe called Ryan on some of his fibs by using strong Joe Biden language, by which I mean he called Ryan’s statements “Malarkey.” I think this must be Irish for bullshit, but the latter is probably not something one should say in a presidential debate.

I find it interesting that Democrats and progressives are willing to admit that Obama did not live up to our expectations in the first debate with Romney. However, Republicans are unwilling to admit that Biden was the clear winner in the second.

Some critics have pointed out the way Biden kept referring to Ryan as “my friend.” Well, maybe, on a purely personal level, Biden genuinely likes Ryan. Don’t you have friends or relatives with whom you have serious political disagreements, maybe even those heated Thanksgiving day political arguments with dear family members, when tongues are loosened by wine, whipped cream, and tryptophan? Maybe even more heated debates about which football game to watch or which quarterback is a moron!

Maybe Biden was trying to project the image of his being the adult in the room. “My friend” could be taken to mean something like, “Don’t judge this little guy too harshly by his opinions. You know how cranky he gets when he’s up past his bedtime.”

People criticize Biden for his eye-rolling, smiling, smirking, and laughing at some of the things Ryan said. But, when you get down to it, who in his or her right mind wouldn’t react in just that way? It was probably all Joe could do to contain himself.

We get another chance to see Obama versus Romney tonight. Make some popcorn. Try to stay away from the wine, whipped cream, and tryptophan for just a few more weeks.

Was it the Altitude…or the Attitude?

The first of the debates is now history, and what a disappointing piece of history at that. Unless, of course, your household is one of the famed top one percent, which holds over 35 per cent of the nation’s wealth. Or, if you are one of the 99 bottom per cent — or even part of the 47 per cent that Mitt Romney has said he doesn’t care about — and you prefer to support Governor Romney for President, in spite of your own economic interest. I know, there are a lot of 99-per-centers out there who support Romney, for whatever reason, and those folks can be pretty happy about the outcome of debate number one.

That is, if they don’t value honesty as a debating skill.

Depending on whom you go to for factchecking, Romney told 18, 25, or 27 lies during the time he spoke in the debate. Some sources combine some statements into one or overlook some of allegations, but  even a dozen fibs should make those who support Romney think again.

I am not going to list them all here, but here are a few that caught my attention

Romney said, "If the president’s reelected you’ll see dramatic cuts to our military.” Obama opposed cuts to the Military. Remember that Republicans want to increase funding for military pork-barrel programs, that military leaders say they don’t want and don’t need.

Romney said, “I don’t have a five-trillion-dollar tax cut.” Independent analysis of Romney’s plan for a 20 per cent across-the-board tax cut in all federal income tax rates, eliminating the estate tax and including other tax reductions, would reduce federal revenue by $480 billion in 2015. This amounts to $5 trillion over the following decade.

Romney said that half of the green-energy firms the nation invested in under Obama have gone out of business. He said, “A number of them happened to be owned by people who were contributors to your campaigns.” Actually, only “three out of the 26 recipients of Section 1705 loan guarantees from the Department of energy have filed for bankruptcy, with losses estimated at just over $600 million. Those who have received loans and grants have been supporters of both parties’ candidates.

There were many more falsehoods — on taxes, on Medicare, on energy independence, and on other topics.

With so many myths and misstatements coming forth from Romney’s mouth, Obama’s supporters were angered and perplexed as to why our president did not do more to defend himself and his policies and performance.

NBC’s Saturday Night Live and other topical humor outlets have had a great time with this question. Serious columnists and pundits and commentators have asked why Obama did so poorly.

Was it the relatively thin air of the mile-high city, where the debate took place?

The debate happened to fall on Obama’s twentieth wedding anniversary. Had there been a family argument earlier?

“Here, Michelle. I wanted to give you your anniversary gift.”

“Oh, Barack, thank you. It’s a — a purse. But this is the same purse you gave me five years ago. I never used it, because I…well, I never liked the style…”

“Oh, honey, look. This purse is different.”

“No it’s not! This is the same handbag you gave me before. You just stuck a Presidential Seal sticker on it.”

“Well, it’s not like I’ve had a lot of time to go shopping at the mall! Oh, I knew I shouldn’t have listened to Biden…”

Well, maybe that wasn’t it either.

Maybe  Obama was just preoccupied with the weighty matters of running the country.  

Or maybe it was a combination of several things, many of which we will never know.

Neither Obama nor debate moderator Jim Lehrer was at the top of his game that night.

Maybe they were both affected by the noxious fumes emanating from Mitt Romney’s trousers, as they remained on fire, for an hour and a half.

The Elephant in the Mitt-Storm

The two major political conventions are over, so this seems like a good time to compare and contrast them.

The Republican National Convention took place in the City of Tampa, making use of our beautiful Tampa Convention Center, the Tampa Bay Times Forum, and other venues. Giant barriers were erected around the whole event, turning the RNC into a gated community. Many Tampanians — we much prefer Tampanians or Tampans to Tampons, and I am sure you understand why — were inconvenienced by detours and altered schedules. Many restaurateurs and other business owners who hoped to make a little extra money off the RNC were disappointed to find their business actually dropped below normal during that week, as convention attendees were encouraged to remain inside their de facto compound.

However, those of us who were not inside the walled fortress could still watch a lot of the goings-on, courtesy of the television networks and the Internet.

The first day was truncated to just a few minutes to open the convention and close the session for that day. Hurricane Isaac was in the area and represented a possible hazard to the convention.

On the second day, another large generator of great winds was allowed to speak before the assembled masses. I am, of course, referring to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who spent a lot of time talking about himself and seemed to almost forgot to mention the fact that somebody else was the party’s nominee for president.

Ann Romney did her best to humanize her husband, and to convince her audience that the theme of the convention, “We Built It,” did not refer specifically to the candidate, her husband. She did her best to convince everyone that, early in their marriage, they lived in a basement apartment, with an ironing board as a dining table, and barely avoided dumpster-diving to survive.

The next night featured speeches by Republican Chairman Reince Preibus who has a name that sounds like an anagram gone wrong. The letters in R. [for Rinehold] Reince Preibus can be rearranged to spell either Creepier Bruins or Crisp Beer Urine. Take your pick.

It also featured entertainment by the Oak Ridge Boys, one of the few bands that most of us have heard of who publically support the republicans. I suppose Ted Nugent might have been there, but the powers that be may have been afraid he might just shoot up the place. Or maybe he has finally come down with “Cat Scratch Fever.” We’ll move on after all of you put away your air guitars.

Rick Santorum came out and tried to pretend that he supported the godless, untraliberal duo which had somehow been chosen to populate the GOP ticket. Remember he had called Romney the “worse Republican” and indicated he should be the last choice for nominee. The death of Santorum’s race for the nomination brings to mind another question: Is it safe yet to Google Santorum without being grossed out? I’m not going to risk it.

Paul Ryan is a good-looking man, with eyes like blue pools you could drown Democratic kittens in. He delivered a speech which was filled with lots of words, but he still managed to keep his remarks nearly 100 per cent fact-free.

The final evening of a political convention is supposed to be the most powerful, the most moving, the most perfectly-planned night of the convention. This was, after all, the night that Willard Mitt Romney (a name the letters of which can be rearranged to spell Wintry Mermaid Toll or Randomly Twirl Item) formally accepted his party’s nomination for President of the United States. So, doesn’t it make sense that the item right before Romney would be solemn, motivational, and very, very, inspiring?

As you almost certainly know, the pre-Mitt Speaker was none other than Clint Eastwood, who chose to exceed his time limit and interview an empty chair!  This chair, which was supposed to represent President Obama, was especially feisty. Evidently it interrupted Cling, causing him to say things like, “what do you want me to tell Romney? I can’t tell him to do that. I can’t tell him to do that to himself!” After nervous laughter and applause from the party faithful, Eastwood said to the imaginary Obama, “You’re crazy. You’re absolutely crazy. You’re getting as bad a Biden.” More nervous laughter and applause.

Pundits were shocked. Some members of the audience, including Ann Romney, wore forced smiles.

I’ve always liked Clint Eastwood. I still do. After all, he was Rowdy Yates and Dirty Harry and that old man in Gran Torino. But I don’t think he properly prepared for his live audition for HBO’s next Young Comedians special.

Romney spoke after Clint, but I don’t remember what he said. I was too busy thinking about what Clint had said. I know that he made to mention of American troops fighting abroad in wars started by the former president in his own party. The entire RNC was virtually free of any reference to the American military forces or to our Veterans. If R&R are elected, they will be the first presidential ticket not to include a vetaran since 1932.

The entire event seemed to me like the Republican Party trying to convince itself that it really was happy Romney was the nominee, and that he wasn’t just the last candidate standing after all the other potentials ran out of money or support or were declared mentally incompetent.

The following week was the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. When you have a very recent convention to study and critique, there is a pretty good chance you will get just about everything right. And that is what the Dems did — held a rowdy, passion-filled, joyous convention. Many good an memorable speeches were given.

Michelle Obama gave one of the very best First Lady or First Lady candidate speeches ever. Joe Biden delivered one of his very best speeches ever. Not one gaffe; not one F-bomb. At the RNC, Clint Eastwood had said, “Biden is the Intellect of the Democratic Party.” Well, he showed that he is at least one of them, and maybe the party’s heart and soul of the party as well.

There had been some criticism of the Democratic Party Platform because it did not include the name “God” in it. There were mentions of faith, but that was not just enough for some who really don’t quite approve of the separation of church and state. There was also a problem about the platform’s not mentioning Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Convention chairman Antonio Villaraigosa called for the vote Wednesday afternoon to reinstate the omitted mentions. He had to call for the vote three times before ruling that the vote was affirmative, though, I have to admit, it sounded pretty close to me. There were some shouted protests and boos from the audience when Villaraigosa determined the convention had voted to restore the language. This may have been a move to dampen the criticism from the Republicans, but you know that the fact that this vote had to take place — and the way it was done — would silence only the most easily assuaged critics. So much for a no-win situation.

Still, it was a great convention. Obama and company had been dismayed at the post-convention bump Romney-Ryan had gotten in the polls since their convention. So, it was time to call in the big dogs. Or, the Big Dawg!

Bill Clinton gave what just might have been the best speech of his life. He spoke clearly and with just the right amount of urgency, just the right amount of humor. He laid out honestly just how the country got in the mess that we are in and what we were going o have to do to get out of it. He spoke to his audience like the reasoning adults he assumed us to be. He used logic and mathematics and lucid examples to explain exactly the path Obama has outlined for the country will work and why the plans laid out by Romney and Ryan would fail.

Finally, we heard from Barack Obama, who spoke, eloquently, and with passion. His address was met with thunderous applause and renewed commitment.

Currently, Barak Obama (the letters of which can be rearranges to spell Kenyan Muslim Socialist — well, that’s according to Fox News; I haven’t had time to fact-check that yet) is enjoying a lead in the poles over Romney. I would like to think that this is the result of the speeches made and arguments put forth during the Democratic National Convention. However, since that time a recording has surfaced, which has a major portion of the voting public responding with anger and disgust.

A bartender secretly recorded a speech made my Mitt Romney during a $50,000 a plate fundraiser. Former President Jimmy Carter’s grandson, Jimmy Carter IV, found the video online and helped make it public.

You have probably heard the video or parts of it. Just one quote: “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what.”

At this point you can find recording at: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/watch-full-secret-video-private-romney-fundraiser

and the full text of the recording at: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/full-transcript-mitt-romney-secret-video

And there is another video recording which has surfaced. This one shows a much younger Mitt Romney, speaking when Bain Capital, Romney’s venture into vulture capitalism was in its early stages. In this recording, Mitt Romney boasted that his firm "harvested" the companies in which it invested to produce a "significant profit" for Bain. Maybe it’s a good thing Romney didn’t become a surgeon.

The debates are coming up later tonight. Let’s see how both candidates handle these issues. I’m making popcorn.

A Delayed Response

I received an e-mail from a friend with this question: "What would be President Obama's three greatest successes/strengths and his three biggest failings?"

I have been thinking a lot about this question, lately. It comes from an e-mail I received a few months ago. Yeah, this blog isn’t the only thing around here that get’s neglected at times. If I had given an immediate response, it might have been different than the one I will give now, just as, months from now, my response might be still different.

Of course, these are my opinions, and I these items are not given in any particular order. Subject to change without notice. Your actual mileage may vary. Consult your physician before beginning any exercise program. Request a prospectus and read the it thoroughly before sending any money. Enough disclaimers? Okay, let’s get started.

Obama’s three greatest successes.

Osama Bin Laden — killed. Obama led the mission that eliminated Osama Bin Laden. This had to be done, if for no other reason  than to refocus the responsibility for the 9/11 attacks on the US away from Iraq and squarely onto Al Qaeda. Documents discovered in the raid showed plans for further terrorist activity. I think Obama deserves credit for the way he announced the victory. He didn’t take the credit. He didn’t even claim the credit for his administration, but announced it as the culmination of a ten-year effort. Class act, that Obama.

Obamacare. Polls have shown that most Americans realize the need to overhaul our nation’s healthcare system. Other presidents, including Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, tried to fix the problem. However, the country has continued to fall behind many other nations in quality of patient outcomes as the cost of American healthcare has become one of most expensive systems on the planet. The system that will result from  Obama’s health-care reform represents a compromise and is far from perfect. However, beginning in 2014, 32 million Americans will have health insurance, who would not have had it without healthcare reform.

The Stimulus. Contrary to what the nay-sayers and haters would have you believe, this program did a lot of good for a lot of middle-class families. I include the successful efforts to save the US auto industry. Those loans have been paid back and the restructuring that the auto companies went through continues to benefit them and their employees. This program was not perfect. The funds released to the states should have probably had more controls placed on them. And, it was probably not as well-funded as it should have been. That’s right — it probably should have been larger and faster, and there would have been even more bang for the buck.

There are so many other things I could have named. Some real financial and banking reforms have been passed. These haven’t gone far enough, but they have been a start. The repeal of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was an idea whose time had come. The draw-down of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. Taking place a bit slower than they need to, but they are taking place. Ending the Moammar Gaddafi regime. The appointment of two judges to the Supreme Court. Just the fact that he is our first African-American president is a major victory. You may consider the current US society to be post-racial in nature, but we still have a lot of people with overt and even covert racism in their attitude.

Obama’s three greatest failures.

Obamacare. Wait, wasn’t this one of the three successes? Yes it is, but, the program could have been so much more. The plan we needed as a nation one which would have provided for a single-payer system, similar to that in other civilized countries. Obamacare is better than what we had before, but it included the insurance mandate, which was narrowly upheld by the Supreme Court. I believe the Republicans, who wanted more than anything for Obama to fail, forced this compromise, feeling certain that the insurance mandate would not survive a Supreme Court Challenge. Being as the current system is modeled after the program Mitt Romney put in place in Massachusetts, you would think they would be applauding it and taking at least partial credit for Obamacare. No, that would be far too much credit for the president they hate. It’s like a cartoon tug-of-war between the Democrats and the Republicans. Obama gave some ground, and it was just enough to put him over the hole the Republicans has sawed most of the way through the floor. Fortunately the floor held and he did not fall through. Five Supreme Court justices were there to prevent the fall.

Extension of the Bush Tax Cuts. Obama chose to compromise with the Republicans in Congress in extending in the Bush-era tax cuts for all taxpayers – including the rich – and changes to the inheritance tax. I understand that the Republicans were holding middle-class taxpayers hostage. It was either extend the tax cuts for the rich or the middle class would pay more. I think he should have called their bluff. I don’t like the idea of paying more taxes, but I realize that we will all probably have to pay more to eliminate the deficit and the debt that plagues our country. Nobody should be immune from doing his or her fair share. This goes ten-fold for those wealthy enough to pay more.

Ending of the US manned space program. I know this program is very expensive. I also know that it created some of the best jobs in the world, and made this country the science and technology leader of the world. We have continued unmanned space exploration, and made NASA leaner and more agile, leading to some great successes and breathtaking Martian landscapes. However, think of what your reaction would have been if you had been told twenty years ago that the in twenty years the US will be depending on Russia to launch our astronauts into orbit. I am happy that the Space Station is an international effort. But, I think it is a very sad fact that the United States is not taking more of a leading role in space exploration. We will always have today’s problems. But that should not stop us from dreaming of and planning for our future in space. To quote Robert A. Heinlein, “Earth is too fragile a basket for mankind to keep all of its eggs in.”

If I were to pick a fourth disappointment, it would be that Obama has not greatly cut back on the War of Drugs, as war we are losing as surely as any unnecessary conflict in Southeast Asia or the Middle East. Maybe a total legalization of drugs would be going too far, but the Federal war of Marijuana is a cruel joke for a government to play on its citizens. We should have learned our lesson when the Eighteenth Amendment to the US Constitution had to be repealed by the Twenty-First.

No president and no government is perfect. If Obama has fallen short of our hopes and expectations, please keep in mind that he inherited a messy situation, and that others who have been elected to make things better have set as their most important priority the undoing of this president, no matter who has to suffer in the process.

I hope you will keep this in mind as you go to vote this November.

The Elephant in the Room

I live in Tampa, Florida, just miles from where the Republican National Convention is taking place.

This is a huge event for the Republican Party. It’s huge for the news media. And, it is a really huge event for the city of Tampa, which has been preparing for the RNC for many months.

There are some billboards up to welcome the RNC to the area, and to remind everyone that Tampa has a Democratic mayor and City Council. Still, Tampa hotels and restaurants — even those who are owned and run by Democrats — are happy for the extra business that the RNC means to the area.

Tropical Storm Isaac delayed the start of the convention by a day, but, trust me, they’ve got plenty of time to do what they set out to do.

For instance, just hours ago, Mitt Romney was officially named Republican Candidate for the 2012 election. No surprise there.

Support for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan is not unanimous. I was a little surprised at how many convention attendees and convention protestors are still voicing preference for Ron Paul, the only former Republican candidate for nomination not to endorse Romney. They still want Ron Paul and will not settle for Rom-Paul, as the currently nominated team might be called.

Most of the convention attendees will do their best to show their support for Romney and Ryan. They will try to put on an enthusiastic face and a positive smile to help their candidate and their party win.

How sincere is this shining enthusiasm? I think — not so much.

For one thing, Romney has not shown the charisma or the sparkle or the friendliness that past Republican candidates have displayed. He has tried to become one of the guys, but it is very difficult to appear an everyman when you own multiple residences, bank accounts in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, and when your wife owns a horse that danced in the Olympics.

Romney has shown no solid budget plan, but his running-mate has, and the Ryan budget is a ruinous threat on the political horizon. It would raise taxes on the middle-class, lower taxes for the wealthy, and not bring in a balanced budget until sometime around 2040. It would increase military spending, in spite of the fact that the United States currently spends more than the next five largest-spending nations combined. It would shred the social safety net and cut education. In short, the closest thing we have to a plan for Romney-Ryan is not something in the best interest of the vast majority of Americans. Nevertheless, they will try to sell their plan to that vast majority — or at least enough of it to put them over the top.

And they might succeed. They might pull it off.

Here in Florida, a large percentage of our television advertising has been paid political ads. I imagine it is the same in many other states, but this is definitely true of the battle-ground or swing states. The ads are frequent, nasty, and repeated often. Sometimes they are full of out-right lies, but Karl Rove and company have learned that, if you repeat a lie often enough, people will start to believe it.

The money for the attack ads is almost limitless since the Citizens United Supreme Court Decision of last year. The Koch brothers have a lot to gain with a Republican victory and they will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to increase the odds of that victory.

Should Republicans be worried about having such a lackluster candidate?

I think they should be. I base this on the experience of the Democratic candidates of years past.

I would argue that Walter Mondale had a better plan for America than did Ronald Reagan in 1984 and that Michael Dukakis was more qualified to be president in 1988 than George H. W. Bush. You might disagree with one or both of these statements, or you just might not care. My point is that the Democrats lost because their candidates lacked the charisma to beat their opponents.

Almost everyone in the Tampa Convention Center tonight is pretending that Romney is their candidate of choice, that he is the one to go into the fray and beat President Obama in November.

I am not saying that we should vote for Obama because he is the candidate we would most like to have a beer with. Some pundits insist that George W. Bush beat Al Gore because of this gut-level likability. That is setting the bar for the most important job in the nation much too low. However, a candidate for President of the Unites States should at least come across as someone who cares about people — both in the aggregate and as individuals, not as a last-resort who was hastily assembled in a back room a few minutes before being switched on to make a speech.

Romney does not seem comfortable in front of a bunch of commoners. Oh, he tries very hard to come across as a regular guy, a working man, just like you and me. But, he is not very good at pulling off the deception.

Obama has had some great successes as president, and could have done so much more, had the Republicans not make it their mission to make him fail at all costs. He speaks well, speaks to Americans as the intelligent people he believes us to be, and has nothing to hide.

Romney has had more flip-flops than the shoe department at Wal-Mart. He doesn’t seem comfortable in his own skin, let along in from of the average people of the nation. He refuses to reveal his tax returns beyond those for the last couple of years. Even his own father went on the record as saying that the revelation of past tax returns are a must for a presidential candidate.

And, you can bet there are other things he’ll refuse to talk about too, as the campaign heats up.

I, for one, am looking forward to the debates.

So Long to a Hero

Well, It Wasn't Forbidden Planet, But...

Neil Armstrong once thrilled the whole nation
With flicks of his Lunar vacation.
     As SF films go,
     Not much of a show;
But it was the first made on location!

                 —Dan J. Hicks
                 Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine
                 July, 1979

Neil Armstrong, the first human being to set foot on the Moon, died today.

This fact saddens me in a way that is hard to put into words.

Today we mourn the passing of a man, but also relive the loss of a dream, of a goal, of an anticipation of an event which, although culminating in the act of one man, was the result of millions of hours of thought, hopes, dreams, sacrifice, and sheer hard work of many thousands of men and women.

Just about any person alive today, who was born before 1964 or 1965, can remember what he or she was doing on July 20, 1969, when the Eagle, the Apollo 11 lander, touched down on Tranquility.

This being the summer, my family was able to watch and listen as much of this unfolded. CBS was our network of choice. Walter Cronkite was at the helm for the broadcasts that so captivated us.

There was a lot of time to fill. CBS allowed its affiliates some network time to show what was taking place in each of the fifty states during the days between liftoff and landing. At least I think they showcased each state. It sure seemed like it at the time.

In any event this view around the country made an impression on my young mind. It showed me that, all around the USA — maybe all around the world — there were people not all that different from those in my house, wishing Armstrong, Aldrin, and Well, and knowing that they would never look up at the moon at night, and see the same, lifeless, alien body they had known all of their lives. It would be different.

The bootprints left by Neil Armstrong and those who followed him are still there, and there they will remain for the far, foreseeable future.

Another era ended when Neil Armstrong passed away.

I hope we humans return to the moon and travel beyond in the years and centuries ahead. I think that is how Neil Armstrong and all the other brave pioneers of the Space Program would have waned it.

I don’t think we, as a nation, and as a species, should settle for anything less.

The Chick-fil-A-Holes

Who would have thought that the act of eating a chicken sandwich would become a politically polarizing statement?

Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick-fil-A, made the following statement, during a ration interview:

“I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say ‘we know better than You as to what constitutes a marriage’ and I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about.”

Response was swift and in two opposite directions.

A few mayors cried fowl — ah, foul — and say Chick-fil-A restaurants would not be welcome in their cities or towns.

Some Gay-marriage advocates call for a boycott of Chick-fil-A.

The Jim Henson Company, parent of the Muppets, has severed ties with Chic-fil-A, saying: “The Jim Henson Co. has celebrated and embraced diversity and inclusiveness for over 50 years and we have notified Chick-Fil-A that we do not wish to partner with them on any future endeavors.”

I hope they got out in time to same Big Bird.

Promoting diversity is a good thing, and I think the late Jim Henson would approve of this measure.

Others have gone the other way, embracing Chic-fil-A, in kind of a reverse boycott. (A girlcott? Probably not.)

This group of Chic-fil-A supporters has helped the fast-food chain break sales records. You might have seen news footage of lines of card and people, waiting for a chance to get their chicken sandwich and waffle-fries. They display their partially-eaten sandwiches for the new-cameras, and chomp down on them as if they were performing some kind of religious ritual. We’ll call it “Chick-filatio.”

Those folks, who might have otherwise ordered food from some other company or even prepared it themselves on those very busy days, have shown up to:

     (1)  show support for the American family
     (2)  defend Chick-fil-A’s First Amendment Rights
     (3)  protest Gay marriage
     (4)  all of the above!

Of course, I am all for supporting the American family. But, with only a minority of households consisting of one man, one woman, and one or more kids, support for the American family becomes a rather vague notion. Has it occurred to those who oppose same-sex marriage that allowing it to happen legally would create more American families, not fewer?

Dan Cathy, as a human being and as an American has a First Amendment right to free speech, as do we all. I oppose any effort to take that away. But Chick-fil-A is a corporation. My Constitution, including all amendments, does not say anything about corporations having First-Amendment rights. People have Constitutional rights.

Oh, but Mitt Romney has said, “Corporations are people, my friend.” Well Mitt Romney has said  a lot of damn-fool things — so many of them, in fact, that he occasionally agrees with himself. If corporations are people, and if Bane Capital, under his direction, helped to destroy corporations (which it did), then Romney has led the murder of countless human beings. And that didn’t even include those real humans who might have lost their healthcare due to his actions, and might die as a result. But we’re getting off-topic.

If you are going to buy food from Chic-fil-A for no other reason than to support Dan Cathy’s First Amendment rights, then I suggest you march in the next Gay Pride parade, to support that group’s First Amendment rights.

I have nothing against gay marriage. The meaning and purpose of marriage has evolved over the course of human history. Adults should do what they want to do, especially when it comes to finding ways of being responsible, when it doesn’t hurt anyone else. The marriage of two women or two men does not in any way harm the marriage of a man and a woman. We have more important things to worry about

I know of no instances in which a Chick-fil-a restaurant has discriminated against a gay person. I don’t think those who have taken their anger out against Chick-fil-A or its franchises or employees are doing the right thing. Don’t tell a restaurant chain it will not be welcome in your town because of the views of its CEO. Don’t spray graffiti on the sides of its buildings. If you don’t want to see Dan Cathy get a few cents richer, don’t go there yourself. I, will probably not go back for a long while, and never on a Sunday.

All of this talk of fast-food has made me hungry. Is anyone making a Burger King or McDonald’s run?

King Mitt and the Dancing Horse

So Willard Mitt Romney will not release the customary ten years of tax returns that even members of his own party have asked for. What is he afraid of?

I believe that he is hiding a lot of things which would hurt the image he is trying to project as that of a normal, hard-working, American, who is just looking for a chance to get into office so he can straighten things out and make things better for everyone. I think that image is false and dishonest and I think Romney is hiding his tax returns because he knows it and just wants to keep up the charade a little longer — just long enough to beat that Harvard elite, Barack Obama.

Oh, I called Obama an elite. Was that a mistake? A Freudian slip, perhaps?

There is nothing wrong with elites. Elite means best and most qualified. We call the Navy Seals an elite fighting force, and so they are. We call our Olympic athletes elite. It’s not a bad word when used I that sense. Obama happens to be one of the most well-educated presidents of the we have ever had. If that doesn’t make him elite, then I don’t know why not.

But, back to Romney. Just the tax return that we have shows $75,000 in deductions for Rafalca, the horse he claims is owned by his wife, for expenses related to competitions in the sport of Dressage. Yes, Dressage is an Olympic event. The Romneys' horse will dance in the Olympic Games, currently taking place in London. And Rafalca is a beautiful German-bred mare. I hope she does well, though I won’t go so far as to shout “Break a leg, Rafalca.” Horses don’t understand the irony in that theatrical good-luck wish.


My point is they deducted more for their dancing horse than many Americans earn in a year. This deduction is most certainly legal. And I suppose that all the money Romney has hidden away in Swiss and Cayman Island bank accounts is totally legal under our corrupt tax laws. We don’t know how much of that kind of activity there has been because he won’t let us see those returns.
Most of us can’t take advantage of deductions like that, and I’m not so sure that most hare-working Americans would avoid taxes by putting it off-shore, even if they could. And most of us don’t build beach houses with elevators for our automobiles, either. But Romney is doing that. I wonder if Rafalca will ever ride that elevator?

Romney is a member of the elite. But, it’s a different kind of elite. This is not the elite of hard work and intelligence. This is the elite of having lots of money, by being born into it and then by ruthlessly increasing ones wealth at the expense of others, sometimes by closing their plants, sometimes by firing them outright.

This is a dangerous and caustic form of elitism called entitlement.

Romney often seems clueless in dealing with everyday people. I wonder if he really understands what the Office of the President really means to the People of the United States, or if he feels it is just something that he is entitled to — not because of what he has accomplished — but just for who he is.
King Mitt the First? Or King Willard the Deserving?  Which title will it be, Mitt?

The elections are coming up in November. The clock is ticking.

And the horse is dancing.