I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

gardengumby · October 2012

Everytime I hear Romney saying about emergency management "let the states handle it, or better yet have it go to the private sector".... I literally get sick to my stomach. Can you imagine the private sector handling an emergency - especially one such as Sandy? They'd want money up front before they helped anyone. Dealing with an insurance company after even a minor problem usually pours salt on the wound, and though you may get money in the end, it's not until after YOU have already taken care of the problem.

Apparently Robme has never actually read the constitution, and what government is actually for - i.e. it's not for making rich people richer (and more powerful).

On another note, last winter we were without power for 3 days, 2 winters before that for 5 days. It's brutal to be without heat with frost forming on the inside of your windows.... We put all of our comforters on our bed, used the campstove to cook out on the deck and used candles for lighting. Wore all of our warmest clothes and worried about the food in the freezer melting (fortunately, it didn't).

1Athena1 · October 2012

Morning, all - lucky to say that it's back to normal in our nation's capital. No one around me suffered power outages. The real victims are further up north. So sorry for those people in Queens, Atlantic city and parts of dear old Manhattan.

Lewing - happy that you were untouched.

We are lucky to have Obama. And kudos to Chris Christie for being a team player.

Romney, giving out tin cans in a swing state (as opposed to one of the badly affected ones)....well, Mitt, I suppose that's as strong as your story is. The man has no empathy whatsoever.

I wopnder what lies conservatives will serve up when Obama wins next week. They will probably spread the rumor that the election didn't really happen.~

gardengumby · October 2012

I'm surprised that they haven't yet said that the storm hit the northeast because it's mostly blue.... (or maybe they have said that and I just missed it ).

1Athena1 · October 2012

Oh, GG - maybe we missed it - lol! I've been waiting for GOP political bean counters to rub their hands in gleeful anticipation at ballot boxes potentially not working in New Jersey.

QuinnCat · October 2012

Thanks Mods for taking the time to answer my question! I have to admit, I didn't even know of Dr. Weiss. It's nice to see these stories surrounding the person who started BCO and her connection to Laurie David. This website has been an invaluable resource for me....I learn things here that my MO either doesn't know or doesn't have time to discuss with me. What is better than talking to other women who have actually experienced BC or are concurrently experiencing BC?

QuinnCat · October 2012

I guess there is one good thing about the Electoral College. Whether people vote in New Jersey or don't vote, due to the hurricane, they get the same number of votes in the Electoral College. Likewise, the Electoral College can encourage voter suppression. Who cares if woman or African Americans vote in any particular state, each state gets the same Electoral votes, based on the state's overall population, not who marks the ballot. (Probably went of topic, slightly.)

crazy4carrots · October 2012

Anonymous · October 2012

LINDA - I do not know what I'd do without you, and Belinda to keep me sane, or sort of sane.

THE BEST, just the BEST. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU...stilll adoring Margaret & Helen....THANK YOU for them too....

crazy4carrots · October 2012

Here's another one just for you, Sunflowers!

alexandria58 · October 2012

i hate being dependant on this stupid phone. Charged it this morning so have some power. Getting most of my news from npr so enjoy reading latest polotical stuff fromm all of you.

hHave a colonoscopy tomorrow. Just confirmed the doctor is open. Figure as long as im miserable anyway just get it done.

crazy4carrots · October 2012

Enjoyful · October 2012

I want to remind everyone that drive-bys = donations. This morning, I donated cash to the Red Cross. Canned ham or spam should be sent to the Romney campaign office nearest you.

That is all.

Anonymous · October 2012

ooohhh......linda, you're on a roll...

Alexandria, I am not an expert on much, but having survived colon cancer, surgery,etc. I learned the sekrut of the preps..only mushy stuff like scrambled eggs b4, lotsa water, and if you have to drink the Liter of Metalic Goos, a glass of ICE COLD water to sip at in between glasses of Goo AND, in a little plate, a LEMON hard candy , or any kind of citrus, to take the TASTE of the Goo away - much more effective than peppermint.

Hope you have a BORING test tomorrow...Big B Boring...

QuinnCat · October 2012

Alexandria - I guess your toilets flush then! I'm right behind you next month.

Linda - your cartoons represent real life, unfortuneately.

Enjoyful · October 2012

*yawning in anticipation of boring news for all*

Enjoyful · October 2012

Nate Silver has Obama at 77.4% today. :-)

Anonymous · October 2012

Linda- just emailed ALL of them to friends - they LOVE them - really, you must have a seckrut source..none of us have seen them..who wudda thunk some fellow named bennet in TN could be so good...he must be hiding in a blue part of the state...just love'em...

Thinking of BLUE and hoping back is feeling better...stay warm & dry, this stormy thingie is moving north.

alexandria58 · October 2012

Hoping power will be up sooner yhan predicted.

Missed the drivebys but thats ok. Nothing they can say would interest me

Being in the middle of this and seeing all thNo watere damage just reinforces the importance ofgovernment. No way privates could do everything. And my neighborhood is lucky. No water or sand.

alexandria58 · October 2012

i m bored tday. Think its a good sign.

Toilets work.

QuinnCat · October 2012

I think what Romney misses is that the government manages disasters, in a systematic and coordinated way (it's called preparedness) , but the private sector is greatly involved already. It only makes sense to have government work between the various public safety agencies and government entities (including the military), but who does he think makes the items typically bought or services delivered?? The private sector. Generators, tents, powerline repair, heavy equipment, etc. etc. The guy just doesn't understand basic principles, whether foreign relations or how domestic disasters are handled. I can't imagine having this guy, with this limited amount of knowledge on how things work, jumping into the POTUS position. We already saw how his trip abroad went. I can just tell, from his comments about FEMA and his little Penske truck delivery to the Red Cross, he doesn't understand how domestic disasters are managed, and why.

QuinnCat · October 2012

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/the-making-of-romneys-storm-relief-event

<snip>

The cryptic advisory went out to press several hours later, announcing the time and location of a "storm relief event" on Tuesday. As Sandy made landfall in New Jersey, Romney's campaign jet carried the candidate, along with his staff and traveling press corps, back to Ohio after an afternoon rally in Davenport, Iowa.

Meanwhile, on the ground in Dayton, aides were working feverishly to depoliticize the planned event. Campaign signs were removed from the premises, long rows of folding tables were set up, and logistics were painstakingly arranged to accomodate physical donations.

"It took the production company and event staff on-site some time to ensure that it was converted into a space which was suitable for the needs of a relief effort," said one staffer who was there.

The plan was for supporters to bring hurricane relief supplies to the event and then deliver the bags of canned goods, packages of diapers, and cases of water bottles to the candidate, who would be perched behind a table along with a slew of volunteers and his Ohio right-hand man, Senator Rob Portman. To complete the project and photo op, Romney would lead his crew in carrying the goods out of the gymnasium and into the Penske rental truck parked outside.

But the last-minute nature of the call for donations left some in the campaign concerned that they would end up with an empty truck. So the night before the event, campaign aides went to a local Wal-Mart and spent $5,000 on granola bars, canned food, and diapers to put on display while they waited for donations to come in, according to one staffer. (The campaign confirmed that it "did donate supplies to the relief effort," but would not specify how much it spent.)

<snip>

As supporters lined up to greet the candidate, a young volunteer in a Romney/Ryan T-shirt stood near the tables, his hands cupped around his mouth, shouting, "You need a donation to get in line!"

Empty-handed supporters pled for entrance, with one woman asking, "What if we dropped off our donations up front?"

The volunteer gestured toward a pile of groceries conveniently stacked near the candidate. "Just grab something," he said.

Two teenage boys retrieved a jar of peanut butter each, and got in line. When it was their turn, they handed their "donations" to Romney. He took them, smiled, and offered an earnest "Thank you."

Anonymous · October 2012

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/30/chrysler-romney-jeep-ad_n_2046038.html

WOW, GENRAL MOTORS IS REALLY ANGRY...giggle, giggle, giggle....do ya think someone is getting desperate???

crazy4carrots · October 2012

Kam, he doesn't seem to have a good grasp on how the federal government works either. Remember all his claims "On Day 1 I'll do this, that, the other....." And "All I need is 51% of the vote", forgetting entirely about the Electoral College.

It seems he has a one-track mind. In business, it was making money for his investors and himself, and to h*ll with the human and municipal and state consequences. In this election, it's all about "I want to be President" without the knowledge of what the President can, and cannot, do. It's all about pandering to this or that special interest group, telling them what they want to hear, usually in direct conflict with his former statements. The last debate was the perfect example, as in "I believe everything he said, only with me it's coming from a white man".........

But I think the most surprising -- and distressing -- thing about this man is that he is turning out to be the poorest example of his religion. Does he really want everyone to think that all Mormons are liars? It's not enough to be a teetotaler, a faithful husband and loyal, tithing church member. It's a matter of demonstrating, at all times, honesty and integrity, two virtues in which he seems to place little or no value.

QuinnCat · October 2012

http://mittromneysliberalfather.com/

I haven't fully explored above, but from what I can tell, it is a book written about George Romney, decades ago. Maybe the pearl of wisdom that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree is a good one, though in general, I have a better feel about the father than the son. Maybe not for good reason. I found this little gem, taken from above, quite interesting (remember, this is about the father of Mitt):

Another example of Romney's empty state of mind on

foreign affairs was illustrated when, in response to a question on Africa, the Governor flubbed completely his geography and referred to "the British blockade of Nigeria." Only

after one of his aides prodded a reporter into asking if the

Governor really meant Rhodesia did George manage to get

the correct country into his remarks.4

Again, while actually in South Viet Nam, he twice referred to it as "South Korea," in a formal press conference.6

An editorial writer comments, "The more he talks, the

thicker the fog. He has hawkish moments, then again he

coos like a dove . . ." Romney is a sad figure "trying to

explain that he did not mean what the reporters thought

he meant at an earlier press conference or interview, and

leaving them more puzzled than before."9

80

In 1965, having just returned from his trip to Viet Nam,

he said, "Our Intervention has saved South Viet Nam from

defeat and tyranny, but it has done much more than that.

It probably has prevented a shift in the balance of power

greater than if Hitler had conquered Europe."7

After this bold expression about the importance of the

U. S. effort in Viet Nam, Romney flipped around and in

June, 1966, said Johnson had made a mistake getting the

U. S. involved in Viet Nam.8

If Romney thought involvement in the war was as crucial

as he had outlined in 1965, then why did he one year later

think Johnson made a mistake by continuing the American

intervention in Southeast Asia?

Upon his return from Viet Nam he was full of bubbling

comment about how the Vietnamese love Americans, talking about how the little children in the streets shouted

"hello" to him. "They use both hands to shake your hand,"

he said, explaining to those less-infonned on the complexities of international diplomacy that "this indicates full acceptance of you."9

Then, a few months later, he turned around and said, "I

think there are ample reasons to wonder whether the people

of Viet Nam really want us in there. If they don't want us

there, we shouldn't be there," he said.10 (Had he heard

that the Vietnamese were no longer using the double

handshake?)

The flip-flop, hawk-dove, on-off, here-there statements

can be given perspective in the following newspaper headlines arranged chronologically:11

March 6, 1965, in the Detroit News: "Romney Backs

Viet Bombing. Opposes Peace Effort Now."

March 26, 1965, in the Detroit Free Press: "Romney

Backs Use of Gas in Viet War."

July 29, 1965, in the Detroit News: "Romney Joins

Front Rank of Johnson-Viet Critics."

July 30, 1965, in the Detroit News: "Romney Backs Viet

Policy."

81

August 8, 1965, in the Lansing State Journal: "Governor Criticizes U.S. Viet Policy."

November 17, 1965, in the Detroit News: "Romney Defends U.S. Policies as 'Morally Right.'"

January 30, 1966, in the Lansing State Journal: "Governor Opposes Escalation."

June 13, 1966, in the New York Times: "Romney Favors Widening Bombing of North Viet Nam."

The accumulated result of the these positions was an incomprehensible morass of contradiction and confusion. Even the pro-Romney Detroit News became exasperated with this gobbledygood and in an editorial titled, "He's Still Confused," said:

"If all this musing represents Romney's current state of mind, we sugegest he compose his thoughts, do his homework, and then, if he really feels capable of it, come up with a positive position, not a melange of woolgathering dissertations that range from the thinking of Clausewitz to Saint Paul."

Romney's naive, ill-informed approach to foreign affairs--obvious to almost everyone except himself--was never more evident than in the statements he made right after his trip to South Viet Nam. John S. Knight remarked, "governor George Romney of Michigan made the remarkable discovery that the Vietnamese people simply love Americans. They use both hands to shake your hand, Romney explained. 'When I walked through the streets,' Romney relates, 'the little children wuld shout hello, and I'd have some fun and tell them to say it louder and they would yell so loud you'd think they were trying to make you hear it back ˙ere in the United States.'

"Now, isn't that just ducky?

"The Governor should also know that out in the villages some of these little charmers have been known to heave a grenade at our unsuspecting combat men"

In spite of all this criticism, Romney felt it his duty, after

82

a meeting of the GOP Co-ordinating Council in 1965, to point out to the public that President Johnson's foreign policy was not, he felt, " thought out in depth"!

Repeatedly accusing LBJ of a bad policy on Viet Nam, Romney could offer no specific criticisms or suggest alternatives. In June of 1966. one year later, he still could not be specific, calling the policy "ambivalent" and "not a clear cut policy either from a military standpoint or from a peace seeking standpoint"

The implication was that romney himself did have a "clear cut" policy alternative which he had "thought out in depth." If he did, nobody seemed to know exactly what it was. All that could be determined with certainty was that Romney stood firmly, if somewhat vaguely, on the policy of "doing what is necessary."

Enjoyful · October 2012

Eerie similarities.

QuinnCat · October 2012

Enjoyful - like father like son. It makes sense he should learn his political behavior from dad. There is no core there.

I just came upon this blog - I so totally agree with this guy (and excuse the bit of profanity, which I will not snip from ):

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-filthy-end-to-filthy-campaign-of.html

10/31/2012

A Filthy End to the Filthy Campaign of a Filthy Liar:

<snip>

The Rude Pundit winces, in a Pavlovian way, whenever he sees news about Mitt Romney's fake concern for storm sufferers. He twitches at the commentators wondering when Obama will head back onto the trail. We have no time for it anymore. We have no time to entertain whether or not the Republican charlatan's long con will work. We have no patience for a press that's unwilling to call a lie a "lie" unless it's done in quotation marks or with fact-checkers' long-nosed Pinocchios with their pants on fire.

On some level, it seems as if the campaign of Mitt Romney is a mad sociologist's experiment in seeing how many lies people are willing to either believe or let pass and still vote for a candidate. The Rude Pundit wouldn't be surprised if on next Wednesday morning, Romney was revealed to be the robot we all suspected he was and the scientist controlling the levers and buttons gave a press conference where he said that he was using the machine to try to gauge just how racist and stupid the nation actually is.

<snip>

Let's hope this country dodges this bullet called Mitt Romney. You can't run a country this way.

pip57 · October 2012

Hi everyone. I hope all our east coast friends are okay. AnnNYC, where are you? Please check in ASAP. Sandy hit us fairly hard here in Ontario, but we had no ocean to contend with. The winds took down a huge tree that we were talking about removing ourselves.

My son's wedding was on the weekend. My feet have barely touched the ground since then. It was a wonderful weekend and the event was flawless. The kids are in the Bahamas now enjoying beautiful sunny weather.

Shame on Mitt for trying to make photo ops out of the disaster. You would think that he would at least answer the questions asked about how he would handle things in the future. If he thinks the private sector is the answer, well, that would be another disaster in the making. But he and his friends would get rich on it.

Anonymous · October 2012

well, we know Dkos ain't exactly objective but there is GLEE, pure glee over the new polls coming out of Princeton, Quinnipiac, really, and Stan has BHO over 300 EC votes, Nate Silver has him up to 299.

Willard the Bot is refusing to answer any questions from the press, FEMA who? Chris Christie & his BFF are going to be the lead story of today..tomorrow...

THANKS again Linda, went to the website - CandyLand delicious.

crazy4carrots · October 2012

We want pics, PiP! So glad the wedding turned out perfectly. Bahamas is a lovely place to be right now! Wish we were all there!
p.s. Ann's okay -- survived Sandy but is without power.

Enjoyful · October 2012

I'm willing to listen to a plan, any plan, from the Romney camp. The only thing I've heard so far is the "reduce the tax rate for all Americans by 20%." And it'll be revenue-neutral because he'll close loopholes, limit deductions, and expand the base.

1. If it's revenue - neutral, why bother right now? I'm all for simplifying the tax code, but we shouldn't do it NOW, not when we have BWD (Bush War Debt) to pay down.

2. Which loopholes and deductions will you close and limit? How will these actions impact people? We need details!

3. Expand the base...to include who? People with a taxable income of $6? (Or a gross income, for a single person, of $9,506?)

So no, I can't vote for or even respect Romney. He obviously thinks we're all sheeple waiting to be led by his greatness. And I really really HATE his 47% comment and the sentiment behind it. Republicans who depend on Social Security should, too. How can you give this man a pass? How much more does he have to do before you realize he holds nothing but contempt for you?

I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

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