Sunday Afternoon Open Thread: From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

Posted: September 23, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 elections, 2012 presidential campaign, Barack Obama, Civil Rights, Mitt Romney, open thread, U.S. Politics | Tags: , , | 30 Comments

Good Afternoon!

Dakinikat clued me in about a terrific speech that First Lady Michelle Obama gave to at the Congressional Black Caucus Dinner last night.   She spoke movingly of the importance of voting rights as “the Civil Rights issue of our day.  Here is a bit of that.

You can watch the entire speech on YouTube.

From the WaPo:

Speaking in Washington at the foundation’s annual Phoenix dinner, the first lady likened turning out the vote to the civil rights struggles of previous eras.

“Make no mistake about it, this is the march of our time,” Obama told the audience at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. “Marching door-to-door registering people to vote, marching everyone you know to the polls every single election.” That effort, she said, “is the movement of our era — protecting that fundamental right, not just for this election but for the next generation and generations to come.”

Obama did not refer explicitly to voter-ID laws that that have been passed or proposed in states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida, but she warned against being dissuaded from voting.

“We cannot let anyone discourage us from casting our ballots,” she said. “We cannot let anyone make us feel unwelcome in the voting booth. It is up to us to make sure that in every election, every voice is heard and every vote is counted. That means making sure our laws preserve that right.”

On Face the Nation, Bill Clinton commented on the small portion of his income that Mitt Romney pays in taxes.

Former President Bill Clinton said low tax rates like the one paid by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney aren’t helping the economic recovery, adding to Democratic criticism that Republicans disregard the needs of average Americans.

“I don’t think we can get out of this hole we’re in if people at that income level only pay 13, 14 percent,” Democrat Clinton said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” today. “It’d be interesting, I think, for the American people to see how the ordinary income years were treated, but apparently we’re not going to get to see that.”

That was a nice little dig. Here’s hoping Clinton keeps on throwing elbows right up till November 6.

Robert Gibbs worked on managing expectations for the first presidential debate on October 3. He told Fox News that Romney has a big advantage over poor President Obama.

“Mitt Romney I think has an advantage, because he’s been through 20 of these debates in the primaries over the last year,” Gibbs said Sunday on Fox News.

The Republican presidential nominee last took part in a debate on February 22, when CNN hosted a debate in Arizona. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas were also on stage with Romney.

“Having been through this much more recently than President Obama, I think he starts with an advantage,” Gibbs said.

Romney would be wise to have his surrogates do the same thing, but he’s probably too arrogant to say that Obama is a superior debater. Besides, I think the only reliable surrogate Romney has left is John Sununu, and he would most likely prefer being waterboarded to praising the president.

And now for the ridiculous…

This morning, RNC Chair Reince Priebus argued tried to convince George Stephanopoulos that the past week was a good one for Mitt Romney. Check out the double take Stephanopoulos does when he finally gets what Priebus is saying.

Bwaaaahahahahahahahha! From the New York Daily News:

As Mitt Romney tried Sunday to change the course of his campaign, the head of the GOP was looking backward, declaring the party’s nominee “had a good week” — and leaving many wondering what a bad week looks like.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus spun like a toy-store top when asked about the impact of a leaked video that caught Romney portraying 47% of Americans as moochers at a fund-raiser of wealthy GOP donors.

“It probably wasn’t the … best week in the campaign,” Priebus said when first asked about the gaffe on ABC’s “This Week.”

“I think we had a good week last week,” he said later, clinging to the belief that the 47% comments had a positive role in focusing the conversation on entitlement programs and spending. “We were able to frame up the debate last week in the sense of what future do we want.”

Wow, you have to be either really brave or incredibly stupid to go on national TV and try to sell that kind of bullsh&t.

So what have you up to today?

CNN’s Soledad O’Brien Confronts Rep. Peter King on “Apology Tour” Lies (and Red Hot News Updates)

Posted: September 17, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, open thread, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics | Tags: , , , , , | 94 Comments

Good Afternoon!

This freak-out by Peter King under pressure from Soledad O’Brien is must-see TV.  I’m surprised he didn’t have apoplexy trying to defend the imaginary“apology tour” meme originated by Karl Rove. I thought I’d put it on the front page, in case everyone hasn’t seen it yet.

Here’s the transcript, thanks to Think Progress.

O’BRIEN: Never once in that speech, as you know, which I have the speech right here. that was — he never once used the word “apology.” He never once said “I’m sorry.”

KING: Didn’t have to. The logical — any logical reading of that speech or the speech he gave in France where he basically said that the United States can be too aggressive. […]

O’BRIEN: Everybody keeps talking about this apology tour and apologies from the President. I’m trying to find the words ‘I’m sorry, I apologize’ in any of those speeches. Which I have the text of all those speeches in front of me. None of those speeches at all, if you go to factcheck.org which we check in a lot, they all say the same thing. They fact check this and they say this whole theory of apologies…

KING: I don’t care what fact check says.

O’BRIEN: There are fact checks. You may not care, but they’re a fact checker.

KING: No. Soledad. Any commonsense interpretation of those speeches, the president’s apologizing for the American position. That’s the apology tour. That’s the way it’s interpreted in the Middle East. If I go over and say that the U.S. has violated its principles, that the United States has not shown respect for islam, that’s an apology. How else can it be interpreted?

O’BRIEN: I think plenty of people are interpreting it as a nuanced approach to diplomacy is how some people are interpreting it. So I don’t think that everybody agrees it’s apology.

A couple more news updates:

According to Dave Wiegel, speechwriter Matthew Scully, whose draft of Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech was tossed out by Stuart Stevens and Romney may be the main person behind the “backbiting” that is all over the media today. Wiegel:

My friend and former colleague Tim Noah was the first, I think, to notice that you can’t cross Republican speechwriter Matthew Scully. In 1993, after the George H.W. Bush administration ended, Scully revealed that the president “trusted the wrong people.” In 2007, as the second Bush ediface collapsed, Scully wrote an Atlantic tell-all about the administration’s fumbles. Scully dropped so many dimes on Michael Gerson that the floppy-haired speechwriter could have bought a java chip Frappucino. “At the precise moment when the State of the Union address was being drafted at the White House by John and me,” wrote Scully, “Mike was off pretending to craft the State of the Union address in longhand for the benefit of a reporter.”

In Scullyworld, every Republican has the makings of greatness until he’s undone by bad staffers who — in his one, telling character flaw — he’s unwilling to sack.

David Corn has the leaked videos from that fund-raiser Romney thought was private and off the record!

One of the leaked videos from a Romney fund-raiser that I wrote about on Saturday night, has been posted at HuffPo, along with the news that the source of the videos has turned over the original, unedited version to David Corn of Mother Jones. And what do you know? Corn has already posted his reactions, along with additional quotes from the devastating video.

During a private fundraiser earlier this year, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a small group of wealthy contributors what he truly thinks of all the voters who support President Barack Obama. He dismissed these Americans as freeloaders who pay no taxes, who don’t assume responsibility for their lives, and who think government should take care of them. Fielding a question from a donor about how he could triumph in November, Romney replied:

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 the 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…These are people who pay no income tax.

Romney went on: “[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

There is much, much more at the link. I wonder how this will go over with working- and middle-class voters when it appears in their local newspapers?

This is an open thread!

Thursday Evening Open Thread

Posted: September 13, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: just because, open thread | Tags: , , , , , | 47 Comments

I need a break.  How about you?

Pink Martini cocktail recipe

Ingredients

  1. 2 Parts ABSOLUT VODKA
  2. 1 Part Dry Vermouth
  3. 4 Dashes Orange Bitters
  4. 2 Teaspoons Grenadine

Kicked Up Ambrosia Salad Parfaits

Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2000

Picture of Kicked Up Ambrosia Salad Parfaits Recipe

Total Time:
20 min
Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 pint fresh blackberries, rinsed and hulled
  • 1 pint fresh raspberries, rinsed and hulled
  • 1/2 pint fresh strawberries, rinsed and quartered
  • 2 large bananas, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices
  • 2 medium oranges, peeled and cut into segments
  • 2 cups medium diced fresh pineapple
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 2 tablespoons chiffonade fresh mint leaves
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup coconut flakes, toasted

Directions

In a large bowl, combine all the fruit. Add the lemon juice, mint and sugar. Mix well and set aside. In a cold bowl of an electric mixer, combine the cream, sugar and vanilla. Using an electric mixer fitted with a whip attachment or hand-held mixer, whip the cream until soft peaks form. To assemble, spoon some of the fruit mixture in the bottom of each parfait or martini glass. Sprinkle some of the coconut over the fruit. Spoon some of the whipped cream over the coconut. Continue layering until all of the ingredients are used. Serve immediately or chill until ready to serve.

Go On!  Party like a God or Goddess!!!

The Cocktail Dakini sez: The Party is ON!


Open Thread: Sunday Night Funnies

Posted: September 9, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, open thread, U.S. Politics, War on Women | Tags: , , , , , | 28 Comments

Obama Gets a Lift in Florida:

In this key swing state, Obama stopped at Big Apple Pizza & Pasta Italian Restaurant, where he was greeted by owner Scott Van Duzer, a muscular man dressed in a gray T-shirt and matching athletic shorts.

Van Duzer was so smitten by the president that he embraced him in a bear hug, leaned backward and lifted the 6-foot-2 president a foot off the ground. Photos of the moment show Obama with his arms spread wide and palms turned upward, as if to say he’s at the mercy of the pizzaman….

Afterward, a reporter at the scene reported that Van Duzer, 46, from Port St. Lucie, stands 6-foot-3 and weights 260 pounds, and he can bench-press 350.

“Everybody look at these guns,” Obama said, pointing to Van Duzer’s chest. “If I eat your pizza, will I look like that?”

“Look at that!” Obama exclaimed after Van Duzer put him down. “Man, are you a powerlifter or what?”

Joe Biden had a big day too.

SEAMAN, Ohio — Vice President Joe Biden was looking to cozy up with voters as he toured Ohio this weekend, but he did not imagine that an Ohio woman would nearly end up in his lap.
Biden was chatting up customers in the Cruisers Diner in southern Ohio Sunday when he met a group of motorcycle riders in black leather vests and bandanas.

A female group member was watching, and Biden waved her over, telling her, “I know who runs the show.”
The woman had no place to sit, so Biden pulled a chair in front of himself and pulled her nearly into his lap. He put his hands on her shoulders and leaned in for a conversation as photographers snapped away.

Economics lessons aren’t usually all that funny, but the one Paul Krugman gave Rand Paul on ABC’s This Week was hilarious.  Cokie Roberts interrupted with some Villager nonsense–she seems as unteachable as Rand Paul.

Krugman was so amazed by the ignorance that he wrote two blog posts about it.  The first one is mostly a chart showing the steep drop in government employment under President Obama.

Krugman’s second post: The Zombie That Ate Rand Paul’s Brain

After watching the video, Krugman noticed the shocked expression on Rand Paul’s face. How could he be so stunned by a fact that is out there for anyone to read about?

Almost surely it’s a case of a zombie lie that has gone unchallenged in the hermetic world of movement conservatism, so that people like Paul know, just know, something that ain’t so. I wrote about this way back: the usual suspects seized on the Census bulge in employment as evidence of a big-government surge; and because nobody in that business ever admits having been wrong, this became a “fact” that people like Rand Paul believe. He wouldn’t have made this mistake if he ever read or listened to an analysis from nonpartisan sources, but he evidently doesn’t.

I’ve got a few editorial cartoons for you too. The first two are about Bill Clinton’s speech to the DNC.

Two on the “We built it” theme.

And one more on Romney’s ridiculous “Are you better off” question.

What next?  I’m looking forward to more craziness next week.

DNC Opening Night Live Blog 2

Posted: September 4, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 elections, open thread | 82 Comments

Wow.   I’m a Lilly Ledbetter fan now.  I wonder if we can get her to run for office?

For 10 years, Lilly Ledbetter fought to close the gap between women’s and men’s wages, sparring with the Supreme Court, lobbying Capitol Hill in a historic discrimination case against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

Ledbetter won a jury verdict of more than $3 million after having filed a gender pay discrimination suit in federal court, but the U.S. Supreme Court later overturned the lower court’s ruling. Despite her defeat Ledbetter continued her fight until the Supreme Court decision

was nullified when President Obama, on January 29, 2009, signed into law the first new law of his administration: the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

Ledbetter will never receive restitution from Goodyear, but she said, “I’ll be happy if the last thing they say about me after I die is that I made a difference.”

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick just said “it’s time for Democrats to grow a backbone and stand up for what we believe!”    He’s giving a barn burning speech right now.

In one of his most forceful rebukes of his predecessor, Governor Deval Patrick said that Mitt Romney “talks a lot about all the things he’s fixed, but I can tell you Massachusetts wasn’t one of them,” according to remarks prepared for delivery Tuesday night.

Patrick’s speech, about an hour before first lady Michelle Obama, sought to rally the party faithful at the Democratic National Convention.

Patrick has been performing a similar role in front of Democratic groups throughout the country, energizing party activists, increasing his visibility, and raising money for his political action committee. Patrick also appeared on cable news Tuesday morning and addressed the state delegation, making a similar argument against Romney.

But Tuesday night was an opportunity to showcase his close-up critique of Romney to a larger audience. He planned to call Romney “a fine fellow and a great salesman,” while adding that “as governor, he was more interested in having a job than doing it.” The lines are typical of Patrick, highly critical without sounding personal or angry, while offering a backhanded compliment.

“In Massachusetts, we know Mitt Romney,” Patrick said.

Patrick then included a list of charges against Romney’s tenure from 2003 through 2007: that Massachusetts was 47th in job creation; that household income was declining; that education was cut “deeper than anywhere else in America;” that “roads and bridges were crumbling;” and that the state had a structural budget deficit.

The speech was a stark contrast to Romney’s vision of his tenure, including turning a budget deficit into a surplus and holding the line on taxes, even as he increased some fees.

It sure is a difference looking and sounding political convention than last week.

Rahmbo also spoke some.  Here’s the text of his speech.

Folks are waiting for FLOTUS and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro.     (FULL TEXT: Julián Castro’s convention speech ) 

Tammy Duckworth was great.  You can listen to her here.

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