25 December 2012. You Can’t Make Shit Like This Up… Mitt Romney’s Son Says He Never Actually Wanted to Be President

Romney never criticised the racism in the GOP… any questions?

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Editor’s Foreword:

Read the following. It’s mind-blowing in its self-centred pity and angst…

BMD

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Mitt Romney‘s palpable discomfort during the 2012 election season has mostly been attributed to the fact that he’s (very likely) a robot. However, in a lengthy Boston Globe piece about what went wrong with the campaign, Romney’s eldest son Tagg offers a different explanation for his father’s poor performance… “He wanted to be president less than anyone I’ve met in my life. He had no desire to … run. If he could’ve found someone else to take his place… he would’ve been ecstatic to step aside”. The statement certainly seems to serve as a great “I told you so” moment for all those Republicans who endorsed genuinely fired-up people like Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum during the primaries, though the story also suggests the Romney campaign‘s issues extended well beyond his supposed lack of enthusiasm for the task.

The Globe‘s Michael Kranish (co-author of The Real Romney) confirms that those closest to Romney, such as Tagg and wife Ann, clashed with his staff over strategy, especially when it came to humanising the candidate. The story blames campaign manager Stuart Stevens for the unremitting focus on the dreary economy and the reluctance to share some of the more appealing elements of Romney’s biography with the public. When Tagg finally convinced RNC organisers to feature the grateful parents of a terminally-ill 14-year-old Mormon boy Romney once comforted, they were put onstage before any of the big networks even tuned in {Big deal. If the kid wasn’t a Mormon, that’d be news. It just proves that many Mormons are good to their own, but view us “Gentiles” as two-legged cockroaches: editor}.

There are also criticisms of the campaign’s infrastructure… the organisation employed a mere 500 paid workers nationwide (less than the Obama team dedicated to Florida alone) and failed to make good use of social media and other technology. As Romney’s digital director Zac Moffatt explained, they simply didn’t have as much time as Obama did to prepare. Moffatt recalled worrying about early on, “Can we do 80 percent of what the Obama campaign is doing, in 20 percent of the time, at 10 percent of the cost?” Tagg also told the Globe that his father hopes to use what he learned during the campaign to help Republican leaders make changes to the way the party is run, saying, “Having been through it, you know so much more than when you haven’t”. Perhaps, the first thing Romney should suggest for the next go-around is picking a nominee who actually wants to be there.

23 December 2012

Andre Tartar

New York

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/12/mitts-son-says-he-never-wanted-to-be-president.html

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Editor’s Afterword:

”I really didn’t want to be president!” If that were so, why did Wet Willy run? Why did he spend millions of his own money and millions of the Republican Party’s money? Why did he order fireworks in Boston, as he was convinced that he was going to win? In short, GIGO all around. Wet Willy’s nothing but a spoilt brat who never grew up. His corporate daddy bought him a phony “clergy” deferment in the Vietnam War and gave him the seed-stake to enter business… that is, Wet Willy had the ways greased for him and he never had to do anything for himself. This story tells you volumes about the Romneys. Aren’t you glad that the Prez did win the election? After all, Willard didn’t want it… his son said so…

What a bunch of sore losers and incompetent tossers…

BMD

A View from Moscow by Valentin Zorin… US Elections: The Bets are Laid

Get out and vote… the Neanderthal rightwingers are going to… but don’t lose heart, we DO outnumber them.

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The presidential election campaign in the USA reached a pivotal stage; it’s a decisive week that‘ll determine who’ll lead America in the next four years. The Republican National Convention nominated former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney to run for president, along with his choice for VP, Paul Ryan to run against Democratic Party nominees Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The Republican leadership is gambling on political hawks, enablers of the American military-industrial complex. This choice sets the tone for the campaign. Mitt Romney is a successful businessman, fabulously rich, one of the pillars of Boston’s financial community. However, recently, during the current election campaign, it came out that the Republican presidential hopeful is dodging taxes by stashing funds in overseas banks. Nevertheless, those who back him are unperturbed. He backs their aims, he suits them; he’s “their guy”.

A 42-year-old member of the US House of Representatives, reputed to be eloquent, Paul Ryan won the affection of business tycoons thanks to his calls for limits on government regulation of the economy, cutting social programmes, and introducing more tax loopholes for the wealthiest Americans. Media releases portray Ryan as a competent economist, sorely needed in the wheezing American economy. In reality, volubility seems to be his main and only asset. He has no practical or theoretical knowledge of economics. In nominating presidential and vice-presidential candidates, the Republican National Convention offered no clear-cut election programme. Whilst underscoring their commitment to traditional American values in their speeches, both nominees emphasised the need to increase military spending and reinforce the tax cuts for the rich initiated by the Bush administration. A telling detail that testified to Romney’s intention to continue Bush’s failed policies rejected in the last election was the fact that former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (George Bush’s brother) was one of those whom the Republican leadership instructed to support Mitt Romney at the convention. By the way, Jeb Bush played a dubious role in George Bush’s victory in the 2000 election.

The Republican leadership needed to invoke the political legacy of one of the country’s most disastrous presidents in order to woo Big Business’ support, especially, the military-industrial complex. As for the majority of American voters, the Republicans are trying to appeal to the overall public discontent about the current economic situation in the country. In America, they say that people vote with their wallets. As wallets grow thinner and thinner day by day, of course, some blame this on those in power. As it happens, the Republicans think that they see an opening… they’re betting on economic issues. It’s what they’re banking on; it’s their main hope. What will win in the end? Will it be the storyline broadcast by a powerful and lavishly-funded propaganda machine, or, will it be the common sense inherent in most Americans? It’ll become clear fairly soon.

8 September 2012

Valentin Zorin

Voice of Russia World Service

http://rus.ruvr.ru/2012_09_05/Stavki-sdelani/

Metropolitan Nicholas of Detroit to Deliver the Opening Invocation at the DNC

Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Nicholas Pissaris (1953- ) of Detroit

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A religious leader from Michigan… Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Nicholas Pissaris of Detroit… is to deliver the opening invocation tonight at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte NC. Metropolitan Nicholas, 59, told the Free Press after landing in Charlotte today, “It’s an honour. It’s a unique privilege… to me, this is part of the American dream”. Nicholas, who heads the Greek Orthodox diocese in Michigan, said he’s politically independent and supports bringing people together. Scheduled for 17.00 EDT (14.00 PDT 22.00 UTC 01.00 5 September MSK 07.00 5 September EADT), he noted that his invocation tonight will be for all backgrounds, regions and faiths, not just Orthodox Christians, saying, “Coming from a Greek background, I learned (from the ancient Greeks) that man is a political animal. Good politics brings people together. Bad politics is divisive. We have to bring people together. I’m here to offer a prayer on behalf of everyone, not just Orthodox”.

The national head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, Archbishop Dimitrios Trakatellis, was initially asked to deliver the invocation at the Democratic convention. However, he turned it down in order to be fair because he had also been asked to deliver an invocation at the Republican National Convention last week. Dimitrios had a meeting in Turkey at the same time of the GOP convention and so was unable to make it. In his place, Metropolitan Methodios Tournas of Boston spoke at the Republican convention. After consulting with Democratic leaders, Dimitrios decided to name the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Detroit to speak in his place. Metropolitan Nicholas observed, “It had to be someone of equal rank” to the Boston metropolitan. At the Republican convention, Catholic, Evangelical, and Sikh leaders delivered invocations and benedictions. Religion was a contentious issue during the presidential campaign this year. Nevertheless, Metropolitan Nicholas said his talk wouldn’t take political sides, stating, “I’m not here to enter a political fray. I’m here to ask God to be present to help us do what is noble and just”.

4 September 2012

Niraj Warikoo

Detroit Free Press

http://www.freep.com/article/20120904/NEWS15/120904063

Editor’s Note:

One of the things that bothers me about the rightwing konvertsy is their obsession with the anti-abortion question to the exclusion of all else. As a friend of mine put it:

If the GOP is so pro-life, why does it eviscerate all social programmes that offer a woman the ability to choose life over abortion? Why do they oppose the Living Wage, which has greatly reduced “welfare dynasties” in Europe by actually and justly rewarding hard and menial work?

I agree wholeheartedly with the above. It’s why I’m voting for the Democratic ticket this November. There are three reasons:

• The Republican programme is objectively evil. The ideology of the New GOP is based on greed and an atavistic Social Darwinism that’s utterly at odds with our professions as Christians. In addition, the Republican ideology of perpetual warfare in foreign parts and torture of “suspected terrorists” at foreign black sites is odious and without defence.
• Mittens is a liar and coward. Mr Romney refused to serve in the forces in a time of war… he hid in France as a Mormon “missionary” using a bogus “clergy deferment”. Besides that, he remains a Mormon “bishop”, which goes against the separation of Church and State. To top it all, he hides his money in overseas tax havens, increasing the tax burden on the rest of us. Mittens refused to serve… Mittens refuses to resign as a Mormon “bishop”… Mittens hides his money in foreign tax shelters… Mittens refuses to divulge his tax records… we should refuse to vote for such an amoral and self-centred creep.
• The Republicans advocate “class warfare” against all wage-earning people. To be blunt, the slack in Treasury revenue caused by overgenerous tax cuts to the Affluent Effluent has to be paid for by someone. That someone is us. Since 1981, so-called “conservatives” have waged “class war” whilst accusing the Left of doing so… the richest Five Percent have 275 percent of their real adjusted 1980 income… the “rest of us” have 85 percent of our 1980 income in real terms. THAT’S “class warfare” of the most blatant and toxic sort.

There are rightwing konvertsy in the Church who want to ally us with the warmongering Republican anti-life crowd… I’ll say this, “I’ll see you on the other side of the barricades. I’ll use all of my God-given talents to fight you and your wicked ideology”.

God do help us all.

BMD

4 September 2012. One of the Cabinet on the Republican National Convention…

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I received this from one of the Cabinet:

I was amazed at the degree to which the Republican Convention speakers unabashedly espoused the philosophy of American Exceptionalism. It was pretty sickening, but it was enormously illuminating, too… it was the national-level equivalent of the Pharisee, patting himself on the back for being pious and holy.

That says it better than I could have… it’s why so many of us have DEEP reservations about the konvertsy. They’re so bloody self-satisfied, smug, and smarmy… and that’s NOT Christian in the least, let alone Orthodox. THIS is why this site isn’t a solo endeavour… God maybe didn’t give me money, but I’m a rich woman… friends are more precious than any amount of money is…

BMD