Hello, Old Friends... How I've Missed You...

Just in time to save America from  insane bigoted hateful and downright BS filled  campaign ads,  a few of the  cast of the  much missed  television show  The West Wing have come together to remind us all of the importance of reading the ENTIRE ballot...

Wow...Mitt Romney telling the truth!

Do you hear that?   That   muffled dull thud?    That  may well be the sound of the final nail  being hammered  into the coffin of the  Mitt Romney Presidential campaign.

Speaking at what  he thought was an off the record  private high -donor event.  The Republican Nominee  expressed his true feelings about the majority of Americans  who, unlike Mitt Romney were not born into wealth and privilege.   According to Mitt Romney, nearly half of all Americans (47%)  are lazy free loaders who, again according to Mitt,  pay no income tax and expect the Government to cater to their every whim...  (hat tip to Mother Jones).

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."

The Mother Jones piece goes on to report that  this fundraiser was held at the Boca Raton home of controversial private equity manager Marc Leder on May 17th

Leder has long been a fan of Romney. In January, the New York Times reported:

Years ago, a visit to Mr. Romney's investment firm inspired Mr. Leder to get into private equity in the first place. Mr. Romney was an early investor in some of the deals done by Mr. Leder's investment company, Sun Capital, which today oversees about $8 billion in equity.

The paper noted that Leder is something of a poster boy for private equity—and not in a good way:

Mr. Leder personifies the debates now swirling around this lucrative corner of finance. To his critics, he represents everything that's wrong with this setup. In recent years, a large number of the companies that Sun Capital has acquired have run into serious trouble, eliminated jobs or both. Since 2008, some 25 of its companies—roughly one of every five it owns—have filed for bankruptcy. Among the losers was Friendly's, the restaurant chain known for its Jim Dandy sundaes and Fribble shakes. (Sun Capital was accused by a federal agency of pushing Friendly's into bankruptcy last year to avoid paying pensions to the chain's employees; Sun disputes that contention.) Another company that sank into bankruptcy was Real Mex, owner of the Chevy's restaurant chain. In that case, Mr. Leder lost money for his investors not once, but twice.

But Leder does differ from Romney in one significant fashion: how he likes to have a certain sort of fun. In August 2011, the New York Post reported,

It was as if the Playboy Mansion met the East EBond at a wild party at private-equity titan Marc Leder's Bridgehampton estate, where guests cavorted nude in the pool and performed sex acts, scantily dressed Russians danced on platforms and men twirled lit torches to a booming techno beat. The divorced Sun Capital Partners honcho rented a sprawling beachfront mansion on Surf Side Road for $500,000 for the month of July. Leder's weekly Friday and Saturday night parties have become the talk of the Hamptons—and he ended them in style last weekend with his wildest bash yet. 

At Romney's fundraiser at Leder's Boca Raton home, no sex acts were  recorded, ...that we know of.

So, after being caught  with his silver foot so far down his own throat he effectively kicked his own ass,  what  did  Mitt Romney do?   He  doubled down of course.



Now  I don't know  if  Governor Romney  truly in his heart of hearts  believes that  47% of all Americans  are  lazy entitlement addicts,  but  the fact that  as a man running for  President of the United States,  he would say that,  and then  not even remotely understand  the magnitude of the insult and mistake of his words,  clearly  proves one thing;   

Regardless of politics  or ideology,   Mitt Romney is quite simply far too stupid to ever be  President of the United States. 
One small postscript to this story,  as of  this posting,  Fox News has yet to mention this story in any way.

Despite the fact that the Romney fundraiser story, and the assorted follow up details, are on  the front page of most every other  major American News Organization's  web site.



I don't know about you , but I am shocked! Shocked to think that Fox News might deliberately try to shield their viewers from any story that might put the GOP Nominee in a less than favourable light...

I can't wait for Election Day and see Fox News Cry...

It's interesting  watching  the  circus  of  hate, hypocrisy  and dysfunction that is the  Republican Party and it's  American Taliban owners.    But  particularly  this time around,  as this week,  I have  the rare opportunity to do so from inside a Muslim country,

While the  Romney campaign tries desperately to flog it's  talking point of  President Obama "apologizing for American values",  the  editorials and opinion pages here in  Malaysia  tell a very different story.

Yesterday was  "Malaysia Day" here.  The national holiday commemorating the founding of Malaysia as an independent nation  47 years ago.   Yet the opinion pages of the major  news papers  were full of letters to editors from  Muslim Imams and  Clerics  all  expressing  their horror, shock and dismay at  brutal attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi Libya, and  asking  faithful Muslims the world over to  condemn the extremists  who are murdering  in the name of their religion.

Not  blaming America,  not  saying it's  America's fault , not saying the film maker is to blame,  but  saying the mobs who attacked our diplomatic missions and murdered  our  citizens  are  the ones to blame and who are the real insult to the Islamic faith.

Funny how Fox News  never reports that huh?

So many conservatives,  people I know  to be  reasonably intelligent,  thinking people  have  jumped on the apology talking point knowing full well  it is  a bald faced lie.   The  Twitter posting  the  US Embassy in Cairo put out  condemning an anti-Islamic film  in the United States  was done before the protests occurred, and was not in any way,  any sort of apology for  American values.  But,  the wing nuts  who now own the GOP don't care.  Facts don't matter any more.  The truth is just  inconvenient  liberal bias.  These people are insane, racist, anti American nut-jobs  who  don't care about the welfare of the United States,  they just  hate  President Obama.

At the latest  American Taliban Hate-fest  they even admitted out loud  that to buy into the  load of crap they are spewing you have to be pretty stupid.



Of course when Rick Santorum  says  "the church and the family", he means only  his church, and only his family.   If you are not a right wing theo-fascist  who hates the idea that United States Constitution applies to everyone then the America the "Values Voters" seeks to bring about  probably doesn't have much room in it for you .

Personally I can't wait for  Election Day,  so much so that I will even be  flying back to the United States to  be there  when President Barack Obama  is re-elected to a second term.   When that happens,  and  the certainly of that  has been made all the more clear this past week watching the  hate fuelled lunacy that now passes for the modern GOP,   I will be there  television set  tuned  to FOX News,   because I cannot wait to see these  lunatics  literally  lose their minds.

For all my friends  who still support the  insanity that is the GOP,  here is a photo to keep in the back of your mind,  you will soon be seeing it live  again, come  January 2013

 .   

Hello from Asia!

Hey there folks,  blogging is going to be  sporadic  over the next two weeks,  as I am currently on Vacation in  Malaysia and China..  Pictures and updates  when I can!

Six Glorious Weeks....

As  tonight's  closing  ceremony  to the Paralympic games  brings  the Summer of  London 2012 to a close,  Londoners  across our city are still marvelling at it all.

The Transport system worked...
The Venues  were ready ahead of time...
The Athletes were nothing less than superhuman...
It didn't rain... much.
Everybody felt so proud to live in our amazing city...

Well done London!

A Tale of Two Cities: Tampa & Charlotte

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Like many people who voted for President Obama in 2008,  I went into watching  the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida with a sense of dread.   I knew that  the  GOP,  deciding  they were not bound by the need for facts,  would throw stink bomb after stink bomb at the President and the Democrats.  I  had to force myself to watch, fully expecting a massive perfectly produced info-mercial for a Romney Presidency.  The speakers would invoke a Norman-Rockwell image of America,  and stoke  a fire under voter impatience with a sluggish economic recovery.  It would be a media blitz that Democrats would never be able to compete with,  and would leave supporters of the President even more disheartened.

What a difference  two weeks makes,  huh?

First in Tampa,  the sense of angry entitlement  that permeated the  GOP gathering  was at times overwhelming.  When Ann Romney  exclaimed  that "this country belongs to us!"  it came across not as a positive statement of  populist  inclusion; but rather it echoed  the shrill protest of someone who didn't want anyone different from them  allowed in their country club.

The crowd in the hall in Tampa  was overwhelmingly older  and white.  I watched  the cameras focus on the same three African Americans  so often I found myself feeling embarrassed for them.   The demographic problem on the floor of the GOP convention served only to amplify  the argument that  Republican sponsored  "Voter Fraud prevention" efforts  are clearly  more about preventing  people who don't look like the GOP convention delegates,   from getting to the polls.

But what was most striking  about the GOP convention was the lack of any clear message of why  Americans  should vote FOR Mitt Romney.  There was  lots of air time spent on why Americans should vote AGAINST  President Obama.   But even the convention's   marquee speakers  seemed to go  out of their way to NOT mention their own party's nominee.   New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's speech was  a total non-case for electing  Mitt Romney in 2012 and a clear kick off speech for a Christie 2016 campaign.

Then we had what is now the most memorable moment of the entire GOP gathering.  Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood and....  the Chair.



The Eastwood disaster  would go on to overshadow  the most important speech of Mitt Romney's political life to date.

So we move on to the following week.. This past week in  Charlotte, North Carolina, and Democrats  found themselves  feeling  .... unexpectedly pretty good.    But  this being the Democratic Party,  a party that has a clear historical track record  of  snatching  defeat  from the jaws of victory at every opportunity;  I was still nervous.   The Democratic Convention had to hit the ball out of the park from  Day One.  So still feeling a sense of trepidation, I  sat down on our couch, and  tuned into the  CSPAN feed being carried on the BBC Parliament channel, and  saw this...



Michelle Obama,  Julian Castro, Cory Booker and Deval Patrick didn't just hit  home runs,  they all knocked  the ball clear out of the park.   I  found myself  sitting on the edge of the couch, my eyes glued to the screen and for the first time since  the 2010 midterms,  thinking  the Democrats may actually  know what they are doing!

Still,  the roller coaster of  ups and downs  that has been  the past four years has taught me to be more cautious than optimistic.   Fully aware than day one could well have been just a well planed fluke.  I tuned in for day two.



Like Mitt Romney,  Barack Obama may find that his own speech accepting  his party's nomination was overshadowed by a previous speaker.   But unlike at the GOP convention  the speech  that overshadowed  the President's  was a full throttle, brilliantly constructed  case for  why Americans  should vote for Barack Obama,  by a man who can truly say he understands  what it's like to  sit  behind the resolute desk in the Oval Office.  



What  was most striking to me, watching both  conventions  pretty much gavel to gavel,  is  how the opposing party responded  during  the other's convention.   During the  GOP convention,  Democrats and liberal pundits  had a field day  fact checking the major speeches to point out  the  inaccuracies and misstatements.   The best the GOP could muster during the Democratic shindig  were half-hearted whines about how the DNC Platform didn't mention "God" or  say how the  capital of Israel should move from Tel Aviv to  Jerusalem.

When that didn't  gain any real traction  the big talking point for the GOP and conservative pundits was how the decision to move the last nights speeches indoors from a stadium to convention hall to avoid predicted thunderstorms,   was really prompted by a fear of empty seats.  What Fox News somehow forgot to report today  was how the stadium was in fact sold out,  and  it poured rain in Charlotte last night.

But as we know,  the GOP has decided  they are not going be hampered by facts...

The election is still  60 days away, and that is a lifetime in Presidential politics.  Attention now shifts towards the upcoming Presidential and  Vice Presidential debates.    As they say in  punditry,  anything can happen.   But  as we turn the page on the 2012 political conventions,  it's clear the momentum is with the Democrats.



And it's about time ....

Ok DNC.... You Got Me Back... I'm Excited.

After the  hate fest and  lie-apalooza  that  was the the Republican National Convention.  I was feeling  kinda down.



I was worried that the Democratic Party would do what it has historically  always done.   Fret,  wring  our  hands about how mean the GOP is,  stand before the country and  mumble quietly about how we want to do better things  and  then just hope it all works out.

Turns out  I have never been so happy to be wrong.  Finally it seems somebody over that Democratic National Committee has figured out that the GOP will say anything, literally anything  to win this election So it was time for the Democratic Party to stand up and speak the truth to America.

Speakers on the first day of the Democratic National Convention  did just that.   They spoke the truth.  The truth about the Democratic Party and its Platform.  The truth about  President Obama's record of achievement.  The truth about Mitt Romney and the GOP's record of catastrophic failure, and the truth about the choice America as a nation is facing in November.

It's about time too....

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro Rocks the DNC

The Definition of a "First Lady"....

The Last Word on the GOP National Convention...

Goes to The Daily Show and  Leonard Nimoy...

Hal David: Legendary Songwriter Dies at 91 After Stroke

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Hal David, who along with partner Burt Bacharach penned dozens of timeless songs for movies, television and a variety of recording artists in the 1960s and beyond, has died. He was 91.

David died of complications from a stroke Saturday morning in Los Angeles, according to Jim Steinblatt, spokesman for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. David was a longtime member and former president of ASCAP.  Bacharach and David wrote many top 40 hits including "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head," ''Close to You" and "That's What Friends Are For."

A entire new generation was recently introduced to David's work thanks to the hit FOX TV show "Glee"