Tag Archives for Mitt Romney

Stupid or Evil, Not Sure Which

I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now, and say stupid.

Poll workers in Boca Raton, Florida, tried to bar a woman from voting in the Nov. 6 election because she was wearing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology T-shirt. Officials apparently believed MIT was the Republican presidential candidate. Local media report they eventually figured out what it does stand for. Meanwhile, a poll worker in Denver called a supervisor when she spotted a voter wearing an MIT sweatshirt. The supervisor assured her that voter was not violating a state law against electioneering near a polling place.

Man Gets Romney Logo Tattoo on His Face

He wasn’t using it, anyway.

Eric Hartsburg/Facebook

Some say that campaign ads are getting just ridiculous. But now it’s taken a turn to the truly bizarre. An Indiana man has auctioned off space on the side of his head, where he tattooed MittRomney’s presidential campaign “R” logo in a 5-by-2-inch spot for a bid of $15, 000.

Eric Hartsburg posted the eBay listing in August, and told ABC News that he was paid $15,000 by a Republican eBay user, who preferred to remain anonymous,  to get the Romney logo permanently inked on the side of his head. Hartsburg, who is an Indiana native, told ABC News that he agreed because the tattoo was something that he could live with.

Source: ABC News. Read full article. (link)

15 grand will allow him to pay for its removal and still turn a profit, but he’ll have a funny-shaped scar to explain to any women…

Republican Homosexual Group Endorses Romney, Campaign ‘Pleased to Have the Support’

Winning is all that matters to Mitt Romney; principles be damned…

A well-known homosexual group within the Republican establishment has officially endorsed Mitt Romney for president.

Log Cabin Republicans made the announcement Tuesday, stating that it was supporting the candidate for his economic and national security policies. The group said that it communicated with Romney and his campaign before making the decision, and also discussed the matter with other members of the organization.

“We are Republicans, and we agree with Governor Romney’s vision for America in which success is a virtue, equal opportunity is ensured, and leaders recognize that it is the American people, not government, that build our nation and fuel its prosperity,” said executive director R. Clarke Cooper.

Although Romney has stated that be believes a homosexual relationship cannot be defined as a “marriage,” but feels that homosexuals have the right to be “in a loving relationship and to even adopt children,” the group says they think Romney will be sympathetic to their cause.

“On issues of particular concern to the LGBT community, we believe Governor Romney will move the ball forward compared to past Republican presidents,” Cooper continued. “No matter who is in the White House, it is crucial our community always has a credible voice speaking out on behalf of LGBT Americans. Log Cabin Republicans will be that voice to President Mitt Romney.”

“Mitt Romney is not Rick Santorum, and Paul Ryan is not Michele Bachmann,” he said. “Otherwise, our decision would have been different.”

While a number of homosexual organizations have been angered over the endorsement, claiming that the Log Cabin Republicans are betraying their cause, Cooper said he disagrees.

“Those who point fearfully to potential vacancies on the United States Supreme Court, we offer a reminder: five of the eight federal court rulings against DOMA were written by Republican-appointed judges,” he stated.

Following the announcement, Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul told reporters that the Romney-Ryan ticket is thankful for the endorsement.

“Governor Romney is pleased to have the support of the Log Cabin Republicans and looks forward to working together for the future of our country,” she said.

What Foreign Policy Debate?

Demican or Republicrat, all the same…

Next week Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are scheduled to meet for their third and final presidential debate, this time focusing on foreign policy. Although he will be on the ballot in at least 48 states on November 6, Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party’s nominee, was not invited, lest an actual debate about foreign policy break out.

Johnson, a former Republican governor of New Mexico, believes that so-called defense spending should be used for defense, that the United States “should resort to military action as the last option and only as provided in the Constitution,” and that our foreign policy should be “reoriented toward the protection of U.S. citizens and interests.” Obama and Romney, by contrast, believe “it is the responsibility of our president to use America’s great power to shape history,” as Romney put it in a recent speech.

[...]

In a debate limited to Obama and Romney, you will not hear anyone question, as Johnson does, whether frustrating Iran’s nuclear ambitions is worth launching yet another war in the Middle East. You will not hear anyone wonder, as Johnson does, whether occupying Afghanistan for 13 years was the only way to “make sure that the Taliban does not come back in and give Al Qaeda a safe haven,” which is how Ryan described the aim of the longest war in American history.

Biden did allow that as of next year “it is the responsibility of the Afghans to take care of their own security.” What about Europe, Japan, and South Korea? That’s the sort of question Johnson asks but Obama and Romney never will.

Another Johnson theme neglected by the two major parties: The Constitution requires the president to obtain congressional approval before starting a war.

[...]

Like Johnson, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) worries that “we are in too many places, too often, and we don’t seem to even know the reason—or where we will end up when we’re done.” Instead of learning from foreign fiascos, Paul says in a recent CNN.com essay, “both parties rush headlong into more places they don’t understand.”

For strategic, fiscal, and moral reasons, we desperately need an alternative to what Paul calls our “‘act first, think later’ foreign policy.” Unfortunately, neither major party is offering one.

America is not an empire – yet it has colonies…

Never mind, good citizen-subjects; just use neo-con logic:

New Romney ad: ‘Abortion Should Be An Option’

“I’m Mitt Romney, and I approve this message.”  No traditional conservative, he…

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign has released a new ad stating the candidate believes that “abortion should be an option” in cases of rape, incest, and to save the life of the mother.

The ads feature a woman named Sarah Minto, who said pro-Obama ads painting the governor as an anti-contraception and anti-abortion extremist made her investigate his real record.

“Romney doesn’t oppose contraception at all,” she said. “In fact, he thinks abortion should be an option in cases of rape incest, or to save a mother’s life.”

“This issue’s important to me, but I’m more concerned with the debt our children will be left with,” Minto says.

You’ve been shafted again, fellow pro-lifers!  The Republicans just want you to shut up and vote for them, regardless.

Up to you if you want to keep going back for more abuse, like a battered wife who blames herself, but you’re fools to do so.

Billy Graham Launches Ads For Romney

Because Christians should all vote the same. (sarcasm)

Just a week after meeting and nearly endorsing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney at his Montreat, N.C., home, an ailing Rev. Billy Graham is encouraging votes for candidates supporting “biblical values” that include opposition to gay marriage.

Source: Huffington Post. Read full article. (link)

Heaven forbid evangelical Protestants make up their own minds…  Even the Pope doesn’t tell Catholics who to vote for…

Hey, BG: ever hear of 2K?  Didn’t think so…

Obama, Romney Agree: Employers Must Cover Contraception

There’s a reason why they get called ‘Obamney’…

During the second presidential debate between incumbent Barack Obama and his Republican contender Mitt Romney, both agreed that employers should be mandated to provide contraception coverage to their staff.

The debate was held Tuesday night at Hofstra University near Long Island, New York, and was moderated by CNN’s Candy Crowley.

While the night centered mostly on taxes, the deficit and lowering gas prices, in answering a question about pay equity for women in the workforce, Obama began to segue into discussion about contraception.

“[A] major difference in this campaign is that Governor Romney feels comfortable having politicians in Washington decide the health care choices that women are making. I think that’s a mistake,” he said. “In my health care bill, I said insurance companies need to provide contraceptive coverage to everybody who is insured, because this is not just a health issue; it’s an economic issue for women. It makes a difference. This is money out of that family’s pocket.”

“Governor Romney not only opposed it; he suggested that, in fact, employers should be able to make the decision as to whether or not a woman gets contraception through her insurance coverage,” Obama continued. “That’s not the kind of advocacy that women need.”

When Romney was granted his turn to speak, and was presented a question by an audience member as to how he differs from former president George W. Bush, he stated that he wished to first clarify Obama’s remark. Romney advised that Obama had mischaracterized the Republican candidate’s views on contraception, as he does indeed support their use and believes that employers should be mandated to provide them.

“I’d just note that I don’t believe that bureaucrats in Washington should tell someone whether they can use contraceptives or not, and I don’t believe employers should tell someone whether they could have contraceptive care or not,” Romney noted. “Every woman in America should have access to contraceptives.”

“And the president’s statement of my policy is completely and totally wrong,” he added.

As previously reported, Romney had made a similar statement in January during a Republican primary debate.

“I can’t imagine a state banning contraception. I can’t imagine the circumstances where a state would want to do so, and if I were a governor of a state or a state legislature, I would totally and completely oppose any effort to ban contraception,” he outlined.

Romney also reportedly attended a fundraiser with Teva Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of the morning-after pill, in May of this year.

Gutless moderate…

Ross Perot Endorses Mitt Romney

I’m sure he was hoping for that…

Texas billionaire Ross Perot has endorsed Mitt Romney for president, saying the future of the country is at risk.

“At stake is nothing less than our position in the world, our standard of living at home, and our constitutional freedoms,” Perot wrote in a statement. “Mitt has the background, experience, intelligence, and integrity to turn things around.”

Source: Washington Post. Read full article. (link)

Sesame Street urges Obama Campaign to Drop Big Bird Ad

Barack Obama and his people are pathetic and retarded.

The Obama team has sent activists in Big Bird costumes to Romney campaign events

The creators of Big Bird have called on the Obama campaign to withdraw a new advertisement that uses the character in an attack on rival Mitt Romney.

The ad mocks the Republican candidate for singling out the public broadcaster behind Sesame Street for spending cuts.

Mr Romney said in a presidential debate last week that he would slash funding to PBS, despite liking Big Bird.

[...]

Sesame Workshop, the non-profit behind the long-running children’s show, said in a statement that it was a nonpartisan organisation.

“We do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns,” the organisation said.

“We have approved no campaign ads and, as is our general practice, have requested that the ad be taken down.”

Black Pastors Say ‘Stay Home’ Election Day

An excellent development; white pastors should consider doing likewise…

In the past, pastors in the black community have been significant in  encouraging their people to vote.  Often this has led to votes for Democrats.   This year, it seems that their message has changed.  Many are looking to be  theologically consistent across the board on the candidates.

NewsMax reports,

Some black clergy see no good presidential choice between a Mormon candidate  and one who supports gay marriage, so they are telling their flocks to stay home  on Election Day. That’s a worrisome message for the nation’s first  African-American president, who can’t afford to lose any voters from his base in  a tight race.

The pastors say their congregants are asking how a true Christian could back  same-sex marriage, as President Barack Obama did in May. As for Republican Mitt  Romney, the first Mormon nominee from a major party, congregants are questioning  the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its former  ban on men of African descent in the priesthood.

In 2008, Obama won 95 percent of black voters and is likely to get an  overwhelming majority again. But any loss of votes would sting.

Romney Jokes: ‘Nobody Asked to See My Birth Certificate’

Ah, trolling after the ‘Birther’ vote, are you?

He might not officially be a birther, but Mitt Romney knows how to play into that crowd’s conspiracies, as he showed at a rally in Michigan on Friday. Romney, standing alongside his wife Ann at campaign stop in Commerce, joked: “No one asked to see my birth certificate. They know this is the place that we were born and raised.”

I don’t believe it; I believe Romney was actually born on the Planet Kolob! ;)

No Ron Paul Revolution at Convention

Of course not.

The Republican establishment has quelled the Ron Paul Revolution, at least for 2012.

Using a mix of charm and procedural hardball, Mitt Romney’s campaign and his allies who control the Republican National Committee have ensured that the Texas congressman will neither speak nor be formally nominated at next week’s convention. It’s a significant victory for Romney, who could have been faced with a raucous rebellion from the Paul crowd if he hadn’t extended an early, and diplomatic, olive branch to what’s become a key constituency.

The libertarian septuagenarian controls the state delegations from Nevada, Iowa and Minnesota. But a candidate needs five states to be officially recognized on the floor. Paul supporters have made claims to Louisiana, Massachusetts, Oregon, Oklahoma and Maine. But Romney’s coterie of lawyers skillfully used the rules and interpersonal negotiations to peel each away.

The 168-member Republican National Committee approved a report Thursday by the Romney-friendly “committee on contests” that invalidated Paul delegates elected in Maine based on irregularities at the state convention. The RNC voted to split the at-large delegation in half, effectively depriving Paul of control.

Paul’s high command and key supporters were disappointed by their defeats but surprisingly conciliatory. Most are adamant that there will be no trouble during the televised proceedings that begin Monday.

“We knew we were walking into a snake pit, but you’ve got to put up the fight,” said Virginia delegate Christopher Stearns, who worked closely with the Paul campaign on the convention platform and the rules. “You’ve got to have a discussion. Otherwise, it appears as though there’s nothing going on.”

“It was a fair hearing, and I thought it was an acceptable environment,” Stearns added. “The majority rules, and the will of [the] minority shall be heard. It’s unfortunate, but that’s the circumstances we have right now.”

To dissuade Paul supporters from disrupting this week’s pomp and circumstance, the Romney campaign and its surrogates have bent over backward to show respect to the Paul forces. There have been months of previously unreported, behind-the-scenes phone calls and meetings between Romney and Paul acolytes to try to build bridges and reach compromise agreements. The establishment made significant concessions on the platform to the Paul folks even before the group convened, and then they allowed up-or-down votes on proposals from Paul supporters during pre-convention meetings at the Marriott hotel here.

It’s a marked contrast from four years ago, when party leaders for all intents and purposes froze out Paul completely. While Republicans held their convention in St. Paul in 2008, Paul drew more than 10,000 people to a counter convention across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.

So, the Ron Paul crowd made some gains, it seems, but how much that ultimately matters, is the question…

This Is How Proud Romney Was to Be Pro-Gay Rights in 1994

Flip-flop, flip-flop, that’s the Romney way…

Back when Romney was pro-gay-rights, after he had said anti-gay rights remarks previously (too bad he hadn’t been consistent from that original point onwards).

Mitt Romney earned huge cheers at a conservative conference in February when he bragged, “On my watch, we fought hard and prevented Massachusetts from becoming the Las Vegas of gay marriage.” But in 1994, running for Senate against Ted Kennedy, he told a local gay and lesbian paper he was even more pro-gay rights than Kennedy. Romney’s February declaration was an attempt to calm social conservatives’ fears that he was too moderate during the Republican primary campaign. But the reason he had to shift his position on gay rights rightward in 2012 is that he’d had to shift leftward in 1994. During that campaign, members of Romney’s congregation had told the press that he’d called gays and lesbians “perverse” in a speech the previous year. Romney denied it, and promised to be a moderating force in his party. “I think the gay community needs more support from the Republican Party and I would be a voice in the Republican Party to foster antidiscrimination efforts,” he told Bay Windows, a New England gay and lesbian newspaper. He also wrote a letter to Log Cabin Republicans saying he’d make “equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern.” The Bay Windows interview has been reported on during this campaign — the Boston Globe mentioned it in May, for example — but the image of the front page, dug up by Reddit readers, is more striking.

Audio Surfaces of Paul Ryan’s Effusive Love of Ayn Rand

Captain Underoos’ running mate is a Randroid.

Why do lefties keep accusing Rep. Paul Ryan of making Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged required reading for his staff? Maybe because he said, “It’s inspired me so much that it’s required reading in my office for all my interns and my staff,” and now we can hear him say it. Last week, when Ryan called it an “urban legend” that he was a Ayn Rand devotee — “I reject her philosophy,” he told the National Review — it seemed like part of an effort to take Ryan more mainstream, now that he’s a potential running mate for Mitt Romney. (A profile in The New York Times Monday goes further in humanizing him, revealing that the congressman is a Rage Against the Machine fan and gym rat.) But The Atlas Society, the group devoted to Rand that hosted Paul’s talk, is making the mainstreaming more difficult by posting the audio of his address. You listen to the whole clip, but as the quotes from the audio below show, in 2005, before it seemed like an immediate possibility that his national ambitions could be fulfilled, Ryan was proud to be a total Ayn Rand fanboy:

  • “I just want to speak to you a little bit about Ayn Rand and what she meant to me in my life and [in] the fight we’re engaged here in Congress. I grew up on Ayn Rand, that’s what I tell people.”
  • “I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are, and what my beliefs are.”
  • “It’s inspired me so much that it’s required reading in my office for all my interns and my staff. We start with Atlas Shrugged. People tell me I need to start with The Fountainhead then go to Atlas Shrugged [laughter]. There’s a big debate about that. We go to Fountainhead, but then we move on, and we require Mises and Hayek as well.”
  • “But the reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand.”
  • “And when you look at the twentieth-century experiment with collectivism—that Ayn Rand, more than anybody else, did such a good job of articulating the pitfalls of statism and collectivism—you can’t find another thinker or writer who did a better job of describing and laying out the moral case for capitalism than Ayn Rand.”
  • “It’s so important that we go back to our roots to look at Ayn Rand’s vision, her writings, to see what our girding, under-grounding [sic] principles are.”
  • “Because there is no better place to find the moral case for capitalism and individualism than through Ayn Rand’s writings and works.”

[...]

The congressman posted a video talking about the author on his Facebook page in 2009; he said Rand’s thinking was “sorely needed right now.” Maybe Ryan looks back on his Ayn Rand fandom the way most of us look back on our Rage Against the Machine phase — as a slightly embarrassing but amusing youthful indiscretion. One that lasted until he was 39.

Mitt Romney Comes Out in Support of Homosexual Boy Scout Leaders, Members

Once a liberal, almost always a liberal…

A spokesperson for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has advised that the former Massachusetts governor disagrees with the Boy Scout’s current policy prohibiting open homosexuals from serving as members and leaders.

According to The Associated Press, Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul told the news outlet in an email that Romney still stands by his beliefs that homosexual men should be able to serve in the organization. She specifically noted that Romney had outlined his views in 1994 during a political debate, and that his stance has not changed.

“I support the right of the Boy Scouts of America to decide what it wants to do on that issue,” Romney stated during the debate. “I feel that all people should be able to participate in the Boy Scouts regardless of their sexual orientation.”

“I support the right of the Boy Scouts of America to decide what it wants to do on that issue,” and “I feel that all people should be able to participate in the Boy Scouts regardless of their sexual orientation.” are contradictory positions, because what the Boy Scouts want to do is continue doing what they’ve always done, which is ostensibly in opposition to Romney’s stated belief that all people should be able to belong to it, regardless of sexual orientation.

So which is it, talking-out-of-both-sides-of-your-mouth Mitt?

Porn Star Jenna Jameson Endorses Mitt Romney

I’m sure he’s real happy to have her endorsement.

Adult film star Jenna Jameson poses with her wax likeness at Madame Tussaud’s Las Vegas in the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2006. Jameson, a native of Las Vegas, is the first adult film star to be featured at the museum.
[WS: Which one is which, though? They look so alike...]

Porn star Jenna Jameson chose a familiar stage to make her endorsement for the 2012 presidential election Thursday night. At a San Francisco strip club, the former adult actress and stage performer said she was ready for a Romney presidency.

“I’m very looking forward to a Republican being back in office,” Jameson said while sipping champagne in a VIP room at Gold Club in the city’s South of Market neighborhood. “When you’re rich, you want a Republican in office.”

Of course!  Marilyn Manson said the same thing about Bob Dole, looking forward to lower taxes.

BTW, this puts Jameson at odds with Larry Flynt.  The porn world is divided!

“Kiss My Ass, This is a Holy Site for the Polish People”

Snarls a Romney aide to the press.  Oops!

At least it wasn’t Mitt Romney who said it.

After an international tour highlighted by the Republican presidential nominee being verbally spanked by British Prime Minister David Cameron and then being accused of making “racist” comments in the Middle East, the last thing Romney needed was another flare-up in the media.

But a top Romney aide provided that Tuesday in Warsaw, Poland when he told reporters to “shove it” and “kiss my ass” as they hurled questions about the gaffes on the trip.

Travelling press secretary Rick Gorka grew furious as reporters shouted questions after Romney visited the Polish Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Romney was headed back to his car when reporters began asking questions from behind a rope line, Politico reports.

“Kiss my ass, this is a holy site for the Polish people,” Gorka said to the press crops. “Show some respect.”

He also told a CNN reporter to “shove it.”

Romney’s foreign tour was disastrous, from start to finish.

Speaking in the Polish capital Tuesday, Romney chided Russia and evoked Poland’s struggle against the Iron Curtain.

“In the 1980s, when other nations doubted that political tyranny could ever be faced down or overcome, the answer was, ‘Look to Poland’,” Romney said in a speech in the library of Warsaw University. “And today, as some wonder about the way forward out of economic recession and fiscal crisis, the answer is to ‘Look to Poland’ once again.”

Romney has said that Russia is “without question our No. 1 geopolitical foe.”

Way to alienate the Russians further, Romney.

On Monday, Romney was forced on the defensive after he told a group of wealthy Jewish donors at a breakfast in Jerusalem that their culture was one of the reasons Israelis were more economically successful than Palestinians.

“And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things,” Romney said citing an innovative business climate, the Jewish history of thriving in difficult circumstances and the “hand of providence.”

The comment drew immediate criticism.

“It is a racist statement and this man doesn’t realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation,” Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told The Associated Press.

“It seems to me this man (Romney) lacks information, knowledge, vision and understanding of this region and its people,” Erekat added. “He also lacks knowledge about the Israelis themselves. I have not heard any Israeli official speak about cultural superiority.”

Diplomacy means speaking carefully, not blathering the first thing that enters one’s brain, while travelling abroad…

Globalism Is Not A Conservative Value

Thus argues Tom Piatak.

If Romney wishes to overcome this attack, he will not follow the example of Kevin Williamson of National Review, who was indignant at the suggestion that American jobs should remain in America.  Any such concerns, Williamson wrote, reflect “xenophobia,” “backward, ignorant chauvinism,” and the presumably racist views of “economically illiterate yokels” who worry about “Poor desperate Third World brown types” taking American jobs.  By contrast, enlightened people like Williamson realize that corporations that send jobs overseas are actually engaging in “collective, coordinated global cooperation to solve the world’s most pressing problems.”

The jackass and the elephant, are ultimately indistinguishable, when it comes to governing…