Anyone paying attention to this campaign already knows that Mitt Romney has little respect for facts. He has repeatedly mangled the truth in order to advance his campaign and to slander President Obama. And it isn’t just a few policy disagreements that are shaded for effect. Romney is a full-blown pathological liar.
Now the Romney campaign has stepped forward to confess their aversion to facts. In a discussion about Romney’s ad that falsely claims that Obama’s welfare policy “guts welfare reform,” Romney’s pollster Neil Newhouse said…
“We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers [who have] jumped the shark.”
It’s not surprising that the Romney camp is hostile to fact-checkers since his welfare ad was excoriated for dishonesty. Romney’s ad was given four Pinocchios by the Washington Post and was rated a “Pants on Fire” lie by PolitiFact. In fact, he has been rated untruthful 67 times by PolitiFact, and 14 of those were “Pants-on-Fire” lies (so far). More than 40% of PolitiFact’s findings on statements by Romney are rated as untruthful.
Clearly Romney’s campaign strategy is to make Obama respond to a barrage of lies for the next two months. It’s the only path left for Romney who has decided to cast off the facade that he’s concerned with running a campaign that represents reality. And, as Stephen Colbert insightfully observed, reality has a well-known liberal bias.
The Swiftboating campaign against President Obama has just launched another lame attack ad by a group of veterans pretending to be patriots. The ad exhumes a ridiculous claim that Obama is undercutting America’s role as a superpower by bowing to foreign leaders.
Sadly, it appears these former Navy SEALs have suffered some pretty debilitating head trauma, because their advertisement is such an idiotic piece of garbage that no one with a healthy mental condition would ever associate themselves with it.
President Obama shows respect for the leaders of other countries, something that Bush refused to do. The Republican foreign policy agenda has seriously harmed America’s standing in the world through its obsession with military and economic threats. And as the picture above makes clear, it is not a sign of weakness to respect your world neighbors. In fact, it produces greater strength through alliances and mutual trust.
The performing SEALs who appear in these ads are not diplomats. They are former soldiers whose area of expertise clearly does not include international affairs. They have crafted a campaign that is so embarrassingly stupid that it’s surprising that they actually made it public.
And helping them to expand the reach of this nonsense is the right-wing media who must also be lacking in the intelligence department. Fox News and Breitbart News, amongst others, are heavily promoting this new video in the hopes of slandering the President with any mud that might happen to stick. It is a sign of desperation that they think these phony, substanceless ads will sway voters. What’s more, it’s an insult to voters who will see right through this charade.
So, in the end, the puny minds who concoct these asinine schemes will be wasting their money and alienating the vast majority of the public who do not believe that Obama is a traitor. The only people who will pay any attention to these ads are the birthers, truthers, and other morons who are already on the other side of the political battle. And, frankly, I’m glad they are. I wouldn’t want those idiots on my side.
Will McAvoy, the anchor on HBO’s Newsroom, is frequently more honest and ethical than most television journalists in the “real” world. In the season finale of the program McAvoy does it again with an editorial that enumerates the characteristics of the Tea-publican Party:
Ideological purity
Compromise as weakness
A fundamentalist belief in scriptural literalism
Denying science
Unmoved by facts
Undeterred by new information
A hostile fear of progress
A demonization of education
A need to control women’s bodies
Severe xenophobia
Tribal mentality
Intolerance of dissent
A pathological hatred of the U.S. government
And McAvoy concludes by saying that…
“They can call themselves the Tea Party. They can call themselves conservatives and they can even call themselves Republicans, though Republicans certainly shouldn’t. But we should call them what they are. The American Taliban.”
On this day when the Repblican National Kvetch-a-Skecth is scheduled to kick-off; when a hurricane is threatening the Gulf Coast; this is the day that Fox News features this as the headline article on their web site: “Too Conservative To Sell?”
The story, which was also covered by Megyn Kelly on Fox News, is about an actor who is still whining two years after having allegedly been fired by GEICO Insurance for saying that President Obama is trying “impose socialism” on America and is “destroying the country.” There is no new information to update this two year old story. It was simply plucked from the past and placed atop Fox’s web page, displacing all of the current news events that are far more significant. Note: GEICO denies that the actor was fired. They say that his contract expired when the campaign for which he was hired came to an end.
The scorned actor, typical of whiny wingnuts, bemoaned his fate as some sort of conspiracy saying that conservatives in Hollywood have to “watch out.” He apparently agrees with Kelsey Grammer who whined a couple of weeks ago about not getting an Emmy nomination because he is conservative (forgetting that he already has five Emmys).
Not reported by Fox News in this item is that GEICO also fired a liberal actor a couple of years ago. D.C. Douglas (aka Lance Baxter) phoned the Tea Party string-pullers at FreedomWorks and left a message on their answering machine saying in part “I just need to know what the percentages of people that are mentally retarded who work for the organization.” After a call-in campaign by FreedomWorks’ followers, Douglas was let go. However, rather than wallow in self pity for years, Douglas produced a string of YouTube videos spoofing the right-wing extremists and hate-mongers. Fox left all of that out of their reporting despite the fact that they had reported on it at the time, albeit in their typical biased manner that got much of the story wrong.
This behavior is characteristic of conservatives who, while talking like bullies, are actually thin-skinned wimps. It’s a personality disorder that is evident in their party’s standard bearer, Mitt Romney, whose entire campaign seems to be a strategic kvetch-a-thon. Romney has spent the last several weeks complaining that Obama has been saying unkind things about him. He gripes about being asked to release his tax returns, as almost every other candidate for president does. He throws tantrums when Obama dares to reveal his record as CEO of Bain Capital or governor of Massachusetts.
Since Romney has no agenda to run on, he spends all his time bemoaning any criticism of him no matter how accurate. And while calling the President a socialist and referring to him as “foreign,” and questioning his patriotism, Romney has the gall to assert that Obama is running a negative, divisive campaign. That sort of projection is emblematic of whiners like Romney. So expect to see much more of it during the convention and the days that follow.
GOP whackadoodle congressman Allen West has once again demonstrated the classlessness of the Republican Party. During an appearance on Fox News with Neil Cavuto, West went on another deranged rant against President Obama saying…
“Let’s be very honest and let’s put this military vernacular. If you’re feeding a person a crap sandwich with a smile, it’s still a crap sandwich. That’s what you see coming from President Obama. He said America is just a load of you know what.”
I would challenge West to document his claim that Obama ever said that America is “a load of you know what.” Obviously, that never occurred. However, West has said…
I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party who are members of the Communist Party.
If Joseph Goebbels was around, he’d be very proud of the Democrat Party.
President Obama seems determined to punish and wipe out economic success in this country, leveling tax weapons of mass destruction on all taxpayers.
Barack Obama is undeserving of the title Commander-in-Chief.
[Obama] can take [his message] to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America.
You [Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz] are the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the US House of Representatives.
Mainstream media’s is no longer reporting the news, they are propagandizing […] Goebbels is doing somersaults and back flips in his grave.
Allen West is certainly one of the most mentally unstable people who was ever elected to office. He was virtually thrown out of the military after being fined and reprimanded for engaging in torture against innocent Iraqi citizens. And now he has the gall to talk about crap sandwiches. This inane and tasteless crack was featured as the top headline story on Fox Nation this morning. I particularly enjoyed the fact that it was accompanied by an advertisement for Whataburger.
West’s opponent for the 18th district congressional seat in Florida is Patrick Murphy. Feel free to toss him some support. And here’s his latest ad that shows that he has a pretty good sense of humor and an eye for creative messaging.
The Republican National Kvetch-a-Sketch™ scheduled to begin tomorrow has been set back due to the approach of Hurricane Isaac. On other occasions where natural disasters wreaked havoc on Haiti, New Orleans, or the Virginia city from where Pat Robertson broadcasts his television show, there was a deafening outcry that the reason for the tribulations was that God was angry and was punishing sinners.
So what does Robertson and his ilk have to say about the hurricane bearing down on Tampa, the second consecutive hurricane that has disrupted a Republican convention (remember Gustav in 2008)? It seems like the Lord has some issues with the GOP. But suddenly the explanations of divine intervention have come to a screeching halt. If there is one message that can be taken from this affair it is this: When the Republicans launched their War on Women they forgot that Mother Nature is a woman.
While mocking sanctimonious right-wingers and Tea-vangelicals is fair game, we should not forget that hurricanes are no laughing matter. Isaac has already resulted in fatalities in the Caribbean. And even if it misses Tampa, there is almost certainly going to be devastating damage to persons and property elsewhere before it is done.
The media, however, seems wholly focused only on how the hurricane will impact the political party goers at Mitt Romney’s coronation. If Republicans don’t take some time during their convention to acknowledge the suffering of Isaac’s victims, it will be emblematic of their notorious insensitivity toward Americans who aren’t fortunate enough to be members of Romney’s elite class.
Fox News has long served as the public relations arm of the Republican Party. Their purpose, as always, is to promote the GOP and the conservative agenda throughout their broadcast day. In pursuit of that mission they regularly feature Republican guests in the friendliest of environments. And whenever there is a conservative cause to promote (i.e. Tea Party, Palin movie, right-wing blog, anti-left messaging, etc.), Fox steps up to take the leading role.
Consistent with this mission, Friday night’s episode of Sean Hannity’s program on Fox News was a blatant infomercial promoting an anti-Obama movie by the people who brought us Citizens United. The crocumentary “The Hope and the Change” consumed the entire hour of Hannity’s program.
The primetime program featured lengthy clips from the film as well as interviews with the film’s creators, David Bossie and Steve Bannon. Bossie is the head of Citizens United, the organization that prompted the abhorrent Supreme Court decision that made it possible for individuals and corporations to donate unlimited sums of cash to political candidates and causes. Bannon is the director of the monumental flop, “Sarah Palin: Undefeated,” a movie that managed to fail miserably despite millions of dollars in free publicity courtesy of Fox News. Bannon went on to take the reins of Breitbart News after the sudden death of Andrew Breitbart, and he somehow succeeded in making the site even more idiotic.
Hannity opened the infomercial with the stark declaration that…
“I don’t say this lightly, but I mean every word of this. This is the most powerful documentary I’ve ever seen in my life.”
That’s quite a testimonial. Hannity didn’t reveal what other documentaries he’s seen, but it’s fair to guess that his second favorite would be “Triumph of the Will,” Hitler’s propaganda film directed by Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl. Now that may seem like an unfair attempt to associate Hannity and the anti-Obama film with the Third Reich, but the film actually incorporates portions of Riefenstahl’s score, and Bossie openly admits to intentionally including the music for effect. When asked about his choice of music Bossie confessed that “There are no accidents in this film.” So the Hitler reference was deliberate on the part of the filmmakers.
Along with Bossie and Bannon, a key figure in the film’s production was Pat Caddell, the former democratic pollster who has become a fixture on Fox News whenever they need someone they can falsely identify as a Democrat who will mercilessly, and dishonestly, savage his former colleagues. Caddell’s role was to assemble a group of disenchanted Obama supporters who could be manipulated to bash the President’s reelection bid.
In fact, the whole focus of the film’s message was that there are some folks who voted for Obama in 2008 who don’t plan to vote for him again. That isn’t exactly an earth shattering revelation. Many people on both sides of the political spectrum change their minds. But the people featured in this film were particularly daft. They expressed their disappointment in the President because he didn’t fulfill their expectations of miraculous healings and the saving of souls. In their own words they seemed to believe that Obama could achieve the impossible, and when he didn’t they abandoned him. That is probably a tiny demographic in America and they are not likely to have a noticeable impact on the election.
By comparison, the Obama campaign just released a video of former Republicans who will be supporting the President in November. Their stories are far more representative of typical moderates who are surprised and appalled by the extremist leanings of the modern Republican Party.
Republicans just adopted a platform for the party’s convention that illustrates how far from the mainstream they have drifted. It includes an anti-abortion plank with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother; an immigration plank that calls for “self-deportation;” a plank advocating a return to the gold standard; a provision denying women a role in combat; opposition to same-sex marriage; and support for turning Medicare into a voucher program that will cost seniors thousands of dollars more.
Those are real issues that will drive the voting decisions of rational moderates. The glassy-eyed sycophants plucked out of obscurity by the anti-Obama film crew will have zero effect on clear-thinking voters as they evaluate the agendas put forward by Obama and Romney. What may have an effect, however, are the millions of dollars the filmmakers have promised to spend on advertising their crocumentary. They can finance their campaign with funds acquired from the sort of Super PACs that their Supreme Court decision enabled.
What’s disturbing about this is that they freely admit that their purpose is not so much to promote the film, but to let their ads serve as disguised political messages aimed at disparaging the President and affecting the outcome of the election. The reason that they chose this month to release the film was so their advertising would appear during the campaign season and they could pretend that it was merely marketing for the movie. And I repeat, this is not a conspiracy theory, it is something they specifically admit to and boast about.
Of course, the filmmakers always have Fox News to fuel their hype. The GOP network is more than happy to donate as much time as necessary to promote the movie, just as they have done for prior projects. The Hannity show was just the beginning. The film will officially debut at the Republican National Convention Etch-a-Sketch next week, and there will surely be more segments devoted to the film on Fox News. And while they will help to boost the success of this commercial, for-profit hit piece, it is highly unlikely that Fox will give much time (if any) to the political communication above from the Obama campaign. That would, after all, be too much like actually reporting the news which, as we know, Fox doesn’t do.
In keeping with his promise to change the tone of the campaign, Mitt Romney just dove head first into birtherism in a speech to supporters in Michigan:
“Now I love being home in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us were born. Ann was born in Henry Ford Hospital. I was born in Harper Hospital. No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.”
First of all, I need to point out that Romney is factually wrong. I have asked to see his birth certificate and he has yet to comply. There have also been numerous others who have called on Romney to produce the document. He did release a “certificate of live birth” last May that is obviously a fake. We know that it’s a fake because when President Obama released a similar document the birthers uniformly denounced as an outright fraud.
By asserting that nobody has asked to see his birth certificate, Romney is illustrating the undisguised racism that has fueled the birther movement. Of course no one asked a wealthy white man to prove his citizenship. Why would they? That’s only a question for foreign looking people who differ from the majority.
In the past week Romney has been complaining that much of the campaign has been about trivial matters that are distractions from issues like the economy and jobs that Romney says he wants to focus on. He whined about having to respond to questions about his tax returns, abortion, and Medicare. So apparently he is taking the initiative to raise the tenor of the campaign by reminding people that President Obama has been accused of being a Kenyan agent sent to deliver America into the hands of godless Muslims and socialists. That is the sort of substantive subject that Romney thinks the nation should be talking about.
Perhaps Romney is just offering a preview of the Republican National Convention Etch-a-Sketch that begins next week and will feature speeches by notorious birthers Donald Trump and Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The theme of the GOP event is “We Built That,” a dishonest, out-of-context reference to remarks Obama made in praise of the American system that has helped so many people to prosper. It is unlikely, however, that Romney will acknowledge that the Tampa Bay Forum where the GOP convention will be held, was built by mostly government funding.
Judging by Romney’s latest attempt at humor, next week should be a barrel of laughs.
In a monumental display of [Pick One:] 1) Irony; 2) Hypocrisy; 3) Arrogance; 4) All of the Above; Mitt Romney unloaded two barrels of hollow-point criticism at businesses who use foreign tax shelters to shield their income from U.S. taxes.
Romney: “We’ve got to make it easier for small businesses. Big business is doing fine in many places – they get the loans they need, they can deal with all the regulation. They know how to find ways to get through the tax code, save money by putting various things in the places where there are low tax havens around the world for their businesses. But small business is getting crushed.”
That’s the same Mitt Romney who fails to acknowledge how he has benefited from similar financial shenanigans. The same Romney who refuses to release his tax returns. The same Romney who steadfastly defends the tax manipulations he engaged in, at least when he will admit to them.
Romney was speaking to a private group of supporters at a fundraiser in Minnesota yesterday. He seemingly is unaware of the hypocrisy in his remarks, as well as the tone-deaf insensitivity to the majority of Americans who cannot take advantage of the loopholes that people like Romney have created for themselves. And while he lambastes big businesses for exploiting the tax code and foreign stash accounts, he has yet to propose any reforms that would address the matter.
Also notable in his remarks is the statement that “big business is doing fine.” When President Obama made a similar remark about the private sector, Romney and his surrogates plucked it of its original context and misrepresented the President as having said that the economy overall is fine. How would Romney respond if Democrats were to do the same thing with this comment? And Democrats would not even have to obscure the context because Romney actually did say this without qualification.
If big business is doing so well, then why aren’t they hiring? Romney’s assessment is a direct contradiction of his previous analysis of the economy. He has been adamant that Obama’s stewardship of the economy has failed and that a course correction would produce more prosperity and jobs. But now, before a freindly audience of wealthy donors he hails the success of businesses but fails to explain why the prosperity and jobs have not followed.
In these remarks Romney has demonstrated that he is a poor judge of economic affairs and astonishingly lacking in self-awareness as he castigates others for exploiting off-shore tax shelters that he uses himself. No wonder he so obstinately refuses to level with the American people about his tax returns. And next week he will enter the GOP convention with the theme “We Built That,” but will decline to acknowledge that the facility hosting the event was built with a majority (62%) of government funds.
The prostitute toe-sucking Fox News contributor, Dick Morris, has once again put his idiot brethren to shame by publicly making remarks that are so over-the-top stupid that it boggles the mind. Internationally known as the “World’s Worst Pundit,” Morris spoke yesterday with Bill O’Reilly guest host Laura Ingraham to discuss the Todd Akin affair. Morris said…
Morris: “I think that story is a big plus for Romney right now. Because the story is not that some kooky Republican congressman running for the senate said something stupid. That was the first story. Now the story is that the responsible leaders of the Republican Party, Romney and McConnell and Ryan and all of them are piling on Akin’s withdraw and he won’t. And that really sends a message to pro-choice women that they don’t need to be afraid of Mitt Romney, that they don’t have to vote for Obama because of that.”
The stupid is so thick it’s hard to know where to begin. Let’s start with Morris’ contention that the story is not about “some kooky Republican.” Yes it is. Akin’s defiant insistence on staying in the race insures that he will continue to be a lightening rod for controversy. However, the story is not just about him. It is also about the rest of the Republican Party who share his views. That includes Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan who have both endorsed legislation and constitutional amendments that would ban abortion for any reason, including rape, incest, and the health of the mother. The Republican Party this week voted to include in their party platform a ban on abortion with no exceptions.
Morris goes on to assert that Romney will somehow benefit because he eventually tried to distance himself from Akin. Morris specifically notes the unsuccessful attempts of Romney and the rest of the GOP leadership to get Akin to withdraw and cites that as “a message to pro-choice women.” Indeed it is. It’s a message of failure. It’s a message that Romney et al are incompetent and have no influence, even over “kooky Republican congressmen” who see no need to comply with Romney’s demands. Contrary to Morris’ claim that women “don’t need to be afraid of Mitt Romney,” the reality is that they do need to fear Romney. and not just because he is unable to strip his party of its most extreme positions, but also because he holds those positions himself. The notion that it’s safe for pro-choice women to vote for Romney is just plain delusional.
Finally, if Morris thinks that the Akin story is a plus for Romney, then why is Romney avoiding it so strenuously? This morning Romney held a series of interviews with local media in Colorado. In order to be granted an interview, Romney forced the reporters to agree not to ask any questions about abortion or Akin. That’s an admission of fear on Romney’s part. It’s also a concession that he won’t get away with when talking to the national press.
Dick Morris seems to come up with new embarrassments every time he opens his mouth. He is a lazy thinker and a transparently biased hack. Last year he openly admitted that he was going to refrain from criticizing Romney, even when he disagreed with him.
Morris: “I decided a couple of – a month or two ago to stop dumping on Mitt Romney, for example … Not because I approve of Romneycare, not because I approve of his flip-flops, flip on abortion, but because I may have to be one of those who carries this guy for a couple of months when he’s running against Obama and I don’t want to make my own task harder.”
So Morris has confessed that he is operating as a shill for Romney, even though he privately objects to Romney’s positions and his tendency to flip-flop on issues. Yet Fox News continues to employ him as a “fair and balanced” political analyst. That says something about both Morris and Fox.
That’s the same Mitt Romney who fails to acknowledge how he has benefited from similar financial shenanigans. The same Romney who refuses to release his tax returns. The same Romney who steadfastly defends the tax manipulations he engaged in, at least when he will admit to them.