"Mitt": Norwegian, "my", "mine" - well, that explains a lot!

                                  

Knowing the derivation of the man's name tells one a lot about his seemingly endless  appetite to own stuff- money,  his wife,  seven  homes,  offshore bank accounts,  America.  As with Palin and Bachmann, there are numerous examples of his idiocy in his own words, for, as the late Anne Richards said of George H.W. Bush,  "Poor Mitt, he can't help it, he was born with a silver foot in his mouth."  With that in mind, let's take a peek at the Mittster.

·         "I saw my father march with Martin Luther King."  (No you didn't!)

Ahh  Mitt, as it turns out you are either Superman or a liar (I'm betting on the latter).  As it turns out, and as your own staff has admitted, your father never marched in the same postal zip code as Dr. King, never even  on the same day and shame on you for evoking his name in the same sentence.

·         "My sons are all adults and they've made decisions about their careers and they've chosen not to serve in the military and active duty and I respect their decision in that regard. One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I'd be a great president."

That's cool; in the absence of a real war they certainly have that right and no censure is due. But "Showing support for the Nation???"  No, dad, they're showing support for you and your 200 millions  alone. Could that be related to the family mega fortune and the consequences to them of the slightest disloyalty..hmmm?

·         "I'm happy to learn that after I speak you're going to hear from Ann Coulter. That's a good thing. I think it's important to get the views of moderates."

Right off the bat, anyone who thinks Ann Coulter is a "moderate" thinks Genghis Khan was a "pussy."  This statement was made just before  Coulter   referred to John Edwards as a "faggot."  (This was probably due to many straight men having told her, "Sorry Ann, I'd rather sleep with a man than with you.") How out of touch with reality and the reality of your own party's  temperament  can you be?

·         "I purchased a gun when I was a young man. I've been a hunter pretty much all my life."  (this while sucking up to those paragons of reason, the NRA)

Mitt,  at another time you said you'd been hunting twice, once at age 15 and again in 2006 during a campaign fundraiser. You're such a whore for any voter who will consider you!  Doing something twice does not make anything  a lifelong endeavor. It makes it a rare occurrence, and if it took running for office to make you do it again 43 years later, you really don't like to hunt, do you?

·         "Hugo Chavez has tried to steal an inspiring phrase 'Patria o muerte, venceremos.' It does not belong to him. It belongs to a free Cuba"

Mitt,  who writes this crap for you?  The phrase "Patria o muerte, venceremos,"  meaning essentially "Fatherland or death, we shall overcome," was coined by and used in essentially every interminable speech by Fidel Castro. In fact he closed every speech with it!  So, can we assume you are a Communist, like Fidel and believe Cuba is free today? Do your south Florida supporters know this? Does Marco Rubio know this? (or are you still just a vote whore?)

·         ''I'm running for office for Pete's sake, we can't have illegals.''

This little gem was Mitt's reaction to finding out that some of the workers in his feudal estates were undocumented aliens. He fired them. Apparently this is Mitt's concern - "how does it look?," not "What can we do about it?"

·         ''Corporations are people, my friend... of course they are. Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to the people. Where do you think it goes? Whose pockets? Whose pockets? People's pockets. Human beings, my friend.''

Lost in translation here is a clear picture of into whose pockets exactly the money goes. By Mitt's logic, as long as the money doesn't go to cats, dogs, or aliens (non-"people") the corporations are benign charitable institutions.  Mitt's invocation of the term "the people" is strange in view of his so obvious disconnect with most  Americans.  Mitt has the same disadvantage as both Bushes - never having had to really work for anything. I don't mean not working in the sense of schooling or corporate affairs, I mean as in putting food on the table or making a car payment.

·         ''Who let the dogs out? Who, who.''  —Mitt Romney, during an awkward photo op with a group of African Americans kids at a Martin Luther King Day parade (January 2008)

(Then he asked where he could score some good ganja, because, you know, that's what black folks are into - KIDDING!) The whitest man in  America , a member of a cult that until recently didn't admit Blacks, (because their skin color was 'the mark of Cain) attempting to get down.  Mitt Romney has about as much soul as Bill O'Reilly, Wally Cox. and Jim Nabors wired in series-parallel.

·         ''I respect and will protect a woman's right to choose.'' —Mitt Romney in 2002

·         ''Look, I was pro-choice. I am pro-life. You can go back to YouTube and look at what I said in 1994. I never said I was pro-choice, but my position was effectively pro-choice. I changed my position. And I get tired of people that are holier-than-thou because they've been pro-life longer than I have.'' —Mitt Romney in 2007

Well, Mitt, which is it?  I don't care if you've changed your position, I just object to your lying about it. If you weren't pro-choice in 1994, were in 2002, and weren't again in 2007, what conclusions can we draw??? Oh I get it, you're a shameless vote whore who will embrace any ideology that can get you votes!  

·         ''I believe in an America where millions of Americans believe in an America that's the America millions of Americans believe in. That's the America I love.''

Huh? I didn't think upright Mormons dropped acid, man.

·         ''I was a severely conservative Republican governor.''

This conservative Republican Governor worked with a Democratic legislature to pass an assault rifle ban and what has been called "Romney Care," so close to the Affordable Health Care Act that the only essential difference is that Romney called the non-compliance tax  a "fine." (it was a tax)  These would have gotten him lynched in Arizona or some other hotbed of reactionary conservative ignorance. Stated simply Mitt, you're a great big lying liar. (and shameless vote whore)

·         "Well, this person shouldn't have had any kind of weapons and bombs and other devices and it was illegal for him to have many of those things already. But he had them,"

As laudable as the Massachusetts  assault weapon ban was, seemingly the Mittster has had a change of heart, apparently coinciding with big contributions from the NRA. Of course he has to make the Aurora tragedy into a political point of view by denying that any sort of gun control might have made it a bit harder for John Holmes to commit his act of madness. The idiocy here is his insistence that Holmes had the weapons illegally - WRONG. The sad truth is that Holmes armed himself legally, even buying the 100 round magazine for his assault rifle and most of his ammunition, via the internet. However you feel about gun control, shouldn't the would be President at least have some sense of the truth? (or is he just a shameless vote whore)

In conclusion, There are many, many,  more public record statements by Romney which show just how out of touch with American reality he really is. As of today he has also alienated the Lord Mayor of London and many Britons because he can't seem to see that staging an Olympics in the middle of London is not the same as doing it in Utah, the armpit of nowhere. But then again, maybe he's just a shameless vote whore (with a silver foot in his mouth)

Bachmann - The Dark Lunatic rises

                                                      Bachmann - The Dark Lunatic Rises

My recent discussion of the idiocy of Sarah Palin was largely based on the fact that she is simply too stupid to breathe  without instructions.  Michelle Bachmann is a bit different.  Like Rick Santorum, her eyes hold the  messianic  gleam of the true believer, which she is. It makes her at once more ludicrous and more dangerous.  As with Palin, the best way to evaluate her  lunacy is by through her own public declarations, so here goes:

v  "I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out  then under another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter. I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence"  (April 28, 2009)

  So Michelle, now the President is responsible for any epidemic that happens to coincide with his term?  In Bachmann speak, this is how, without saying it directly, one can imply that God must be a Republican who whimsically visits plagues on the opposition.  The catch here is that the swine flu epidemic occurred while  Gerald Ford was in office - whoopsie!

v  . "Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn't even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas." "Carbon dioxide is natural, it is not harmful, it is a part of Earth's lifecycle. And yet we're being told that we have to reduce this natural substance, reduce the American standard of living, to create an arbitrary reduction in something that is naturally occurring in Earth.''  April, 2009

So, the chemistry major has set the record straight for all of us Social Science people. All my years in the Submarine Force we were worried about silly old CO²  to the extent that we spent millions removing it from the sub's atmosphere and pumping it overboard when we could have used the space for a spa. S**t!!!  Res ipsit loquitor (Latin for "She's obviously insane")  It should also be pointed out that Plutonium, Arsenic and Polonium also occur naturally, and all are deadly poisonous, as is Mercury, and Radon. Save her a seat on the short bus!

v  ''Michael Steele! You be da man! You be da man!''?

While I will admit I have zero affection for Michael Steele ( Republican National Committee Chair, and an African American), I doubt that yelling at him in Ebonics would seem proper to me in my worst moment. I suppose Michelle was just showing that she be down with her brothas and sistas in the hood. Or wait, maybe she's just an asshole.

v  ''If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the Census Bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations at the request of President Roosevelt, and that's how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps...... private personal information that was given to the Census Bureau in the 1940s was used against Americans to round them up, in a violation of their constitutional rights, and put put the Japanese in internment camps.''       Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann

Where to start?  Well, in the first place, it was the Governor of California, a Republican, who encouraged  President Roosevelt to do something about the concentration of persons of Japanese ancestry in Ca, following Pearl Harbor. Yes, it was an egregious violation of their civil rights, since 62% of them were US Citizens. Ask yourself how righteously indignant MS. Bachmann would be if the same information was used today to round up Muslims. I say this as she has in recent days slandered an aide of SecState Clinton who is Muslim. As an apologist for McCarthyism, she can't be on both sides at once, but wait. maybe she's just opportunistic ignoramus.

v  ''That's why people need to continue to go to the town halls, continue to melt the phone lines of their liberal members of Congress, and let them know, under no certain circumstances will I give the government control over my body and my health care decisions.'

Can you believe it? Michelle has had a change of heart and now supports abortion rights, access to contraceptives, etc..... But wait, we know that 's not true. Could it be that she's so incredibly two faced and downright dumb that she'd cite these laudable principles (erroneously, of course) against the Affordable Health Care Act, without realizing she's making the case for her more liberal sisters?  Count on it.

v  ''I don't know where they're going to get all this money because we're running out of rich people in this country.''  —Rep. Michele Bachmann, accusing the Obama administration of plotting to divert money from Republican to Democratic districts and planning to tax the wealthy to fund the windfalls, Feb. 2009

In an era when we are seeing the greatest transfer of wealth from middle and lower classes to the rich since the end of the 19th century, this may be the most absurd statement by a Republican ever. (well, since "Is our children learning?")

v  ''There are hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them holding Nobel Prizes, who believe in intelligent design.'' Michelle Bachmann 2009

No, Michelle, there aren't. There are three guys in Indiana wearing shorts, black socks and sandals at "Creationism World," one of whom finished college, one of whom finished high school, and one of whom finished breakfast.  For the record, no Nobel has ever been awarded to a creationist for his work in that field.

v  ''Normalization (of gayness) through desensitization. Very effective way to do this with a bunch of second graders, is take a picture of 'The Lion King' for instance, and a teacher might say, 'Do you know that the music for this movie was written by a gay man?' The message is: I'm better at what I do, because I'm gay.''

Dumber than this is hard to find! In the first place, the very construct of her example is indicative of her overwhelming homophobia. Why would that situation ever arise? This is  analogous  to Santorum's statement that legalizing gay marriage would be the same as legalizing bestiality (which in Bachmann's case, admittedly might be a twofer!) Why not hold up a picture of a baby and say "See a woman did this because women are better?" Makes every bit as much sense. I have grave doubts that any teacher would use this in a classroom as a teaching example, but in fairness, there might be one or two in the nation dumb enough to do so.. On the other hand, I guarantee there are numerous teachers who denigrate and stereotype gays and allow homophobic rhetoric in their classrooms without saying a bloody word. Most of them consider themselves fine Christian folk. and don't write me over this, I can name names.

            In summary. If this is the brightest and best female the Republican party can put forth, (Condie Rice has too much pride)  then they need to stop breeding. And I do believe that's all I have to say about that.

On the Road (with apologoies to Jack Kerouac)

Top ten collectibles while driving from Washington, DC to The Villages Florida in one day.

10.  A speeding ticket in Va for driving while being from Florida.

9.    15 ounces of love bug meat on your car.

8.   40 ounce drive thru drink in collectable NASCAR cup.

7.   40 ounce emergency pee.

6.   A "South of the Border"  Dale Earnhart commemorative  spit cup

5.   $5000 dollars worth of gasoline (two tankfuls)

4.   A roadkill armadillo, known in SC as "Possum on the Half Shell"

3.   Nausea from Georgia pulp mills

2.  The finger from the hitchhiker with dreadlocks, shorts at half mast and a meat axe on his shoulder.

1.  Athlete's Butt

Too much time on my hands

                                  Facebook Musings and Rants

                             Top 10 new reality show concepts for Fall TV season

10. "Hillbilly Ice Road Nannies  at the Jersey Shore" - pathetically self explanatory

9.   "In search of a straight Line" - a panel  of journalism professors watch 24 hours of Fox News and try to  find the one actual unslanted,  factual story of the day.

8.  "Fracking for Dollars" a reality show in which cute blonde girls audition to be the next totally unbelievable oil company shill to try to convince TV viewers that fracking is safe.

7.  "The Unbelievablest" - A  4th grade dropout who is unable to tie his own shoes becomes a brilliant corporate lawyer ( Or FBI consultant, or Crimesolver, or Doctor)

6. " Payback is a Bitch" - George Zimmerman is dressed in a Klan outfit and dumped in the Overtown section of Miami. No prize, no contest, just satisfaction

5.  ."NCIS Los Angeles" - already exists. Linda Hunt?? Puleeze

4.  "Diving for Donuts" - contestants must bob for  Krispy Kremes from the cooker,  the contestant with the most recognizable face left wins.

3.  "Law and Order - South of the Border" -  contestants are dropped into the center of Mexico City.  last one neither kidnapped or killed in a drug shootout wins.

2.  "Undercover Bus Monitor" - A sixtyish female martial arts expert is assigned as a bus monitor.  When she is harassed, she slaps the shit out of the little bastards. Most lawsuits wins immunity.

1.  ."CSI Bithlo " - A team of skilled forensic criminologists attempt to determine who tipped over the shithouse.

                          Top ten ways to increase golf's appeal to the masses

10. Must be up and down in 4 minutes max or incur 5 stroke penalty

9.  Dump wealth management sponsors, switch to beer companies

8. Cheerleaders

7. Scorpions in sand traps

6. Rattlesnakes in the rough

5. Ball explodes at some random number of strokes between 15 and 35

4. Topless caddies

3. Topless female caddies

2. Two words - "Full Contact"

1. Trash talking while putting

      

                                        Top ten ways to tell your pet is possessed

10. Your dog whispers in your ear while you sleep, "kill the cat, kill the cat."

9.  You catch your cat surfing mouse porn on your laptop.

8.  Your hamster leaves notes requesting hearts of Romaine.

7.  Your dog chases his own tail, catches  it, and gnaws it off.

6.  You find your three cats doing "rock, paper scissors" for who gets to use the clean  litter first.

5. Your Golden retriever shoplifts Bush's baked beans and tries to mail them to Duke

4.  Your goldfish swims to the glass and mouths  "change the water, monkey boy "

3.  Your beagle has horns.

2.  Your Cockatiel curses  in ancient Sumerian

1.   Your pet lizard pleasures himself to Geico commercials.

Rush to Condemn

        What  ever happened to reflective, reasoned, good judgement?  One of the tragic spinoffs of the information age is the public's rush to instantly indict an entire institution or group based on the bad behavior of one or several  members.  The latest casualty is Penn State University.  As a military retiree and 20 year high school teacher I've seen it before, and it is usually similar in nature.  In the military it would not be unheard of for a group of seniors to protect a fellow member of the "boys club" even if his incompetence led to major shortcomings.  In education at every level, most of us academic instructors have, at one time or another,  seen coaches and/or administrators close ranks around another member of the jock fraternity, even if he needed assistance to tie his (or her) own shoes.

         Like many, I admired Joe Paterno  by reputation and, by extension, his football program and Penn State  University. The recent Freeh report makes it fairly clear, in their own words, that a relatively small group of men were unwilling to believe that "a coach, for God's sake" should be held accountable like any other person entrusted with the welfare of youngsters. The statement  regarding " looking for a more humane solution"  to the Sandusky problem makes it seem that the top men in the institution were blissfully unaware of Pennsylvania public law, which then and now, as any Pennsylvania certified teacher knows requires instant reporting to the state. Not maybe, not perhaps, but absolutely. As a grad assistant, Mike McQuarry might not be expected to know this, but the Head Coach certainly was.  Their (lack of) actions, especially including  Paterno's  were heinous, despicable, and totally in keeping with the cover  your butt, protect football at all costs mentality which is prevalent in many institutions today.

        I write all the above to make two points.  First, the public  now, is painting all of PSU with the same brush they properly are using to tar and feather Jerry Sandusky,  three or four administrators and Paterno. The teaching faculty, student body and student athletes  are  blameless here. To tarnish them all is as inappropriate as the actions I outlined above. Penn State is,  has been, and will always be a quality University, and the crimes of four persons should never be allowed to wipe that away from the public eye.  Second, ask yourself if a female  administrator would have perhaps had a different take on what actions were proper when dealing with a pedophile in their midst.  "Humane solution?"  - not for the molested children.  Let the lawsuits begin!      

Will she please just shut up and go away?

Again she shoots off her mouth, this time last night to Bill O'Reilly. I just have to do this every so often because Sarah Palin just won't go away

1)  “I think we should keep this clean, keep it simple, go back to what our founders and our founding documents meant,” she said. “They’re quite clear that we would create law based on the God of the Bible and the 10 commandments, it’s pretty simple.”

     This from Jefferson: "History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes" (Letter to von Humboldt, 1813).

 Washington: "I have diligently perused every line that Washington ever gave to the public, and I do not find one expression in which he pledges, himself as a believer in Christianity. I think anyone who will candidly do as I have done, will come to the conclusion that he was a Deist and nothing more." -- The Reverend Bird Wilson,

John Adams: The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses. -- John Adams,

That, Sarah is the first three Presidents. Now shut up regarding that about which you know little or nothing. The founding fathers would be revulsed by your presumption!.


2)    “…Pray...... Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God. That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.”   


"Thou shalt not kill" -  sixth Commandment.  Did God forget the plan?


3)  A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made.

a: How about the 100 million gallons of crude dumped into Prince William Sound? Is that man made enough for ya?

b: Is Alaska having droughts, hurricanes, tornados? (simply not more affected, just different)

c: Are polar bears having a rough time finding ice -YES. Global warming, dumbass.

4) "He can say he is a Christian but as far as I'm concerned, Obama is a Muslim, look at
his middle name" (2007)

Sarah or Sara was the wife of Abraham and the mother of Isaac as described in the Hebrew Bible. According to tradition Sarah gave her maid to hubby as a concubine and drove both the concubine (Hagar) and their natural son (Ishmael) away. As far as I'm concerned, Palin is Jewish;  look at her first name! Of course I really don't, and if I were Jewish I'd find that offensive. therefore I apologize to all my friends who are members of the tribe; Shalom, y'all.

5) "Todd and I talked about Hurricane Katrina as God's way of
cleansing New Orleans of the blacks who have sinned, the Bible predicted
it" (Todd Palin, Alaska seperatist, can hold a conversation? Who knew?

     And remember, if any white folks were hurt, it was just collateral damage. Wouldn't ya think the most perfect entity in the universe  (according to some) could discriminate better?  Again Palin reads the mind of God, just like Pat Robertson.

A scream from the bastion of conservatism; "Live from the Villages"

                 

“We’re not going to implement Obamacare in Florida,” (Florida Governor Rick) Scott told Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren on Friday night. “We’re not going to expand Medicaid because we’re going to do the right thing. We’re not going to do the exchange.”

Puhleeeze !!! I feel like Roxie Hart: " It's good, Isn't it grand? Isn't it great? Isn't it swell? Isn't it fun? Isn't it, nowadays?"

            To live in Florida where the governor simply decides he doesn't like a law, even if it was upheld by SCOTUS , and therefore simply won't implement it.  If it makes anyone feel better, Rick Perry (the other idiot governor named Rick) has decided likewise.  Scott cites concern over Medicare and Medicaid costs as his reason, citing a $1.9 billion implementation figure that has no known real world derivation. It seems on a quick look that Scott is just being prudent and cautious, but wait!!! Isn't this the same Rick Scott that was the CEO of Columbia/HCA,  a major healthcare provider?  Isn't this the same Rick Scott whose incompetence (collusion?) in supervising his larcenous employees resulted in a fine of $1.8 BILLION for Medicare fraud and his (Scott's) ouster as CEO. I believe it is. So when did Governor Skeletor grow a conscience ? Probably right after it became apparent that increased scrutiny of Medicare and Medicaid fraud might make the kind of larceny at which he and his ilk are so adept harder to perpetuate and to get away with. As a private citizen, Scott formed a Republican organization with a soft and squishy name that sounded like an attempt to actually improve health care in Florida and make it more affordable to  more people. Reality was , it was a cover organization to ensure continued high profits to existing companies like Columbia/HCA, the same groups, coincidentally who have spent many millions lobbying against any meaningful health care reform.

Lest we think it's just Scott, here's a quote from Congressman John Mica, another well of concern for the poor.

"Florida does have a lot of folks that are uninsured," said Congressman John Mica.  "I think what we need to do is repeal Obamacare and I think that will probably be one of  the first orders of business of the next Congress and hopefully a new President."   So "Yes, we have a lot of folks that are uninsured....." so let's overturn the law that would guarantee their insurability in favor of.....???  This is directly analogous to saying, "Yes, Ralph, I know Florida Panthers are endangered, so let's start having an open hunting season on them!"

And please, please, please... it is a law passed by both the House and Senate (435 persons) and agreed to by the President (1 person)  Stop calling it "Obamacare," already. When you do, that pointy  sheet on your head  wiggles.

                                                      Mike Dorman