enlarge

Credit: Perrspectives

Conservatives this week were quick to mock the Obama campaign's "The Life of Julia," an online slideshow highlighting how government investments in education, health care, small business and retirement security help enable the children of working families to climb the ladder of social mobility. Republican critics dismissed that common path to the middle class as the "condescension" of "cradle-to-grave, government-supported existence" supposedly championed by Democrats.

It is only fitting, then, that the Romney campaign offers its alternative vision. So here is "The Life of Mitt," a tale of a winner-take-all America in which government exists to ensure a privileged few stay that way.

Age Minus 9 Months: The son of American Motors magnate and Michigan Governor George Romney, Mitt fondly recalls being with his father for Detroit's Golden Jubilee. That celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the American automobile occurred on June 1, 1946, "fully nine months before Romney was born." Years later, Mitt would similarly "remember" seeing his dad march with Martin Luther King, Jr.

Age 8: Young Mitt Romney is living his American Dream; that is, being born to a father who achieved his own. "Only in America could a man like my dad become governor of the state in which he once sold paint from the trunk of his car." In Michigan, Mitt learned to love cars and trees which were the right height. He also begins to soak up valuable life lessons from his dad, like "Mitt, never get involved in politics if you have to win election to pay a mortgage." As for the millions of Americans unable to pay theirs, Mitt later concluded:

"Don't try and stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom, allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up and let it turn around and come back up."

Despite his filial devotion, Mitt forgets his father's warning that "rugged individualism" is "nothing but a political banner to cover up greed."

Age 12: After attending a public elementary school, young Mitt is sent to the prestigious Cranbrook School in elegant Bloomfield Hills. This experience leads him to declare he's just "a guy from Detroit," one who happens to support school vouchers and tax breaks for home schooling, while slashing funds for public schools.

While Mitt Romney would certainly never had to worry about "getting a pink slip," he stills gets a chuckle thinking about those who did when his father moved AMC jobs from Michigan to Wisconsin. It's no wonder he chides his former home town in 2008, declaring, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."

Age 16: In 1963, Mitt confronts personal tragedy, as "dear, close family relative" Ann Keenan dies as a result of an illegal abortion. As he later explained during a 1994 Senate debate with Ted Kennedy, it was that searing experience which made him a pro-choice Mormon:

"It is since that time that my mother and my family have been committed to the belief that we can believe as we want, but we will not force our beliefs on others on that matter. And you will not see me wavering on that."

Age 19: In 1966, Stanford student Mitt Romney takes part in his only college protest, one in favor of the Vietnam War. But thanks to the generous 4-D exemption from military service, Mitt like many Mormon young men of his age was able to secure multiple deferments in order to perform his church mission. During that two and half year period when other American men were fighting in the rice fields of Vietnam, Romney faced hardships in the vineyards of France. These apparently included pooping in a bucket during his of roughing it in a palatial church mansion in Paris. As he revealed in a 1994 interview with the Boston Herald, Romney was not exactly racked by guilt as the war raged in Southeast Asia:

"Romney, however, acknowledged he did not have any desire to serve in the military during his college and missionary days, especially after he married and became a father," the newspaper wrote. "'I was not planning on signing up for the military,' he said. It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam, but nor did I take any actions to remove myself from the pool of young men who were eligible for the draft. If drafted, I would have been happy to serve, and if I didn't get drafted I was happy to be with my wife and new child.'"

Thirteen years later, candidate Mitt Romney explained he passed on that tradition to his five boys:

"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."

Age 24: In 1971, Ann and Mitt Romney head to Cambridge, Massachusetts. There, Mitt starts a "terrific" four year program to get his JD and MBA at Harvard Business School, completing both degrees 37 years before accusing Barack Obama of spending too much time in the Harvard faculty lounge. Even with small children and Mitt in school, Ann avoided the "dignity of work" because "Mitt had enough of an investment from stock that we could sell off a little at a time. The stock came from Mitt's father."

That history might explain why Romney offered this advice in March to college students struggling to pay for his education:

"If you can't afford it, scholarships are available, shop around for loans, make sure you go to a place that's reasonably priced, and if you can, think about serving the country 'cause that's a way to get all that education for free."

Pell grants, schmell grants.

In 2012, Mitt tells college students to borrow money from their parents to start a business, advice his son Tagg took to the tune of $10 million.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (234)

PLAYS: (1283)

Embed

Here are two helpful reminders for apoplectic conservatives: Until Barack Obama shows up on a U.S. aircraft carrier in a flight suit and an over-sized cod piece, no GOP loyalist can criticize him for boasting about the operation that killed Osama Bin Laden. And no Republican can claim that "other presidents and candidates like myself" would have ordered that high-risk mission in Pakistan. After all, in 2008 John McCain said he wouldn't. Mitt Romney said we shouldn't. And despite his tough-talk about getting Bin Laden "dead or alive," George W. Bush simply couldn't.

On Friday, the still bitter McCain declared, "Shame on Barack Obama for diminishing the memory of September 11th and the killing of Osama bin Laden by turning it into a cheap political attack ad." For his part, the 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney scoffed that "even Jimmy Carter would have given that order." Unfortunately for the Republican propaganda machine, we know that neither John McCain nor Mitt Romney would have supported the Special Forces strike deep in Pakistan. We know this, because they told us so.

(Click a link below for the details on each.)

• McCain Said He Wouldn't Go After Bin Laden in Pakistan.
• Romney Said We Shouldn't Go After Bin Laden in Pakistan.
• Bush Couldn't Get Bin Laden, Period.

McCain Said He Wouldn't Go After Bin Laden in Pakistan.

Throughout 2007 and the first half of 2008, candidate McCain repeatedly pledged he would hunt down the Al Qaeda chieftain and "follow him to the gates of hell." For example, in May 2007, McCain described himself as the dog that'll hunt:

"We will do whatever is necessary. We will track him down. We will capture him. We will bring him to justice, and I will follow him to the gates of hell."

In January 2008, McCain reassured suspicious South Carolina voters as well, just in case they had missed his earlier promises on the point:

"My friends, I want to stand before you now and tell you that if I have to follow him to the gates of hell I will get Osama Bin Laden and I will bring him to justice. I will get him!"

And in perhaps his best performance of tough-talking, political pandering, McCain told workers at a small weapons factory in New Hampshire:

"I will follow Osama Bin Laden to the gates of hell and I will shoot him with your products."

But when Senator Barack Obama explained he would pursue Osama Bin Laden and his top lieutenants across the Afghan border, John McCain said no.

On August 1, 2007, then Senator Barack Obama delivered a major speech on foreign policy. In addition to pledging to unilaterally launch strikes against Bin Laden and other high-value targets in Pakistan, Obama promised he would ramp up the U.S. effort in the under-resourced effort across the border in Afghanistan. In July 2008, Obama explained:

"The greatest threat to that security lies in the tribal regions of Pakistan, where terrorists train and insurgents strike into Afghanistan. We cannot tolerate a terrorist sanctuary, and as President, I won't. We need a stronger and sustained partnership between Afghanistan, Pakistan and NATO to secure the border, to take out terrorist camps, and to crack down on cross-border insurgents. We need more troops, more helicopters, more satellites, more Predator drones in the Afghan border region. And we must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights."

Then in an October 2008 presidential debate with John McCain, Obama declared simply. "We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority."

In response, John McCain (the same John McCain who throughout 2003 and 2004 proclaimed "Nobody in Afghanistan threatens the United States of America" and "Afghanistan, we don't read about anymore, because it's succeeded") mocked Obama.

Continue reading »

For years, the lame Republican excuse for blocking any and all comprehensive immigration reform has been a single, vapid phrase: "Secure the border first."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) declared a comprehensive immigration bill dead on arrival if the government does not first do more to secure its borders.

John McCain:

"If we don't secure the borders first, we will find ourselves with another group of people who have come to this country illegally, and then we'll have to do it all over again."

Rick Santorum:

We are going to secure the border first, and that's the most important thing to do, then we'll have the discussion afterwards.

Lamar Smith (R-TX):

It is pointless to talk about any new immigration bills that grant amnesty until we secure the border, since such bills will only encourage more illegal immigration.

Mitt Romney:

“We’re going to have to secure our border first."

Well, guess what Willard? We have.

The largest wave of immigration in history from a single country to the United States has come to a standstill. After four decades that brought 12 million current immigrants—more than half of whom came illegally—the net migration flow from Mexico to the United States has stopped—and may have reversed, according to a new analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center of multiple government data sets from both countries.

The standstill appears to be the result of many factors, including the weakened U.S. job and housing construction markets, heightened border enforcement, a rise in deportations, the growing dangers associated with illegal border crossings, the long-term decline in Mexico’s birth rates and changing economic conditions in Mexico.

And look at these numbers:

Apprehensions of Mexicans trying to cross the border illegally have plummeted by more than 70% in recent years, from more than 1 million in 2005 to 286,000 in 2011—a likely indication that fewer unauthorized immigrants are trying to cross. This decline has occurred at a time when funding in the U.S. for border enforcement—including more agents and more fencing—has risen sharply.

As apprehensions at the border have declined, deportations of unauthorized Mexican immigrants—some of them picked up at work or after being arrested for other criminal violations—have risen to record levels. In 2010, nearly 400,000 unauthorized immigrants—73% of them Mexicans—were deported by U.S. authorities.

So, where will the GOP move the goalposts now?

There are 311,000,000 Americans living in this country.

There are 100 senators representing those 311 million Americans.

There are 435 voting members in the House of Representatives, six non-voting members.

There are dozens of living former presidential candidates.

So out of this vast pool of people that have just as valid an opinion on the news of the day as anyone else, who has the privilege of being the most frequent guest on Meet the Press? John McCain, who surpassed Bob Dole with his 64th appearance on the show. Since the beginning of this year (a total of twelve weeks), McCain has been booked eight times, far and away more than any other person, including the actual GOP presidential candidates.

Congratulations, Meet the Press, you have just confirmed your utter disdain to informing your viewership and your complete irrelevance.

DOWNLOADS: (172)

PLAYS: (1850)

Embed

While the Village press keeps presenting Willard as "the moderate" or "the technocrat" or the "sensible" Republican, the candidate himself is giving no indication he's anything of the sort. Check out this completely bizarre exchange in which a wingnut supporter asks Willard if he's going to "come and get my gun."

GUN NUT: There are over 9 million of us in that voting bloc and I just wondered what you're going to do, are you going to allow me to keep my gun, to protect myself and my family, in my home, and not come and get my gun. Because I want to keep it to protect myself and my wife and my family and against a tyrannical government, which I think we're approaching and we are in, very close.

ROMNEY: Thank you, thank you. I believe in the Second Amendment...

For Willard to stand there and thank this loon for saying that the federal government poses a physical threat to him and his family is truly appalling -- a dereliction of duty -- and should instantly disqualify him from the presidency. Seriously. The idea that you need to own a concealed weapon to fight off the FBI and ATF is beyond crazy -- it's black helicopter, Clinton-killed-Vince-Foster, McVeigh-Was-Right crazy.

At least when John McCain was confronted with similar ugliness, he responded appropriately.

Anyway, I hate to break it to this whackjob and thousands of other mouth-breathers just like him, but if the "tyrannical gubmint" -- which has a bunch of missiles, tanks and gunships lying around -- actually decides to take his gun, his cute little concealed hand gun isn't going to be much help.

Moran.

(h/t David)

Willard may have had a big night on Tuesday, but the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, who's a Willard supporter, is still downgrading his chances of beating President Obama.

“This is like watching a Greek tragedy,” McCain told the Boston Herald, saying that negative campaigning and increasingly personal attacks “should have stopped long ago.”

See, when I watch the 2012 GOP primary, I don't think Greek Tragedy. I think "Three Stooges."

“Any utility from the debates has been exhausted, and now it’s just exchanging cheap shots and personal shots followed by super PAC attacks,” said the senior senator from Arizona, one of two states with primaries today.

[...]

“I know he’s going to be the nominee, but I also worry about how much damage has been done,” McCain said.

And if there's anyone who knows about doing damage to your presidential aspirations, it's John McCain.

But for the record, the reason the GOP primary's been so ugly is because it's not a campaign of ideas. It's an ideological purity test. Instead of Lincoln-Douglas, the GOP is giving us the Salem Witch Trials.

McCain is right to be worried. Witch hunts usually don't end well.

DOWNLOADS: (189)

PLAYS: (789)

Embed

Stop me if you heard this one before: A rising Republican star cultivates a reputation as a hardline immigration opponent, and sets his sights on jumping from Pinal County Sheriff to the US House of Representatives. He's saying all the right things to attract voters in the state that also elected Jan Brewer and Russell Pearce and up until this week, looked likely to win. He's even ingratiated himself into the national Republican establishment by becoming the Arizona chair for the Mitt Romney campaign. But it turns out that this Republican star, Paul Babeu, had a very dark secret:

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu — who became the face of Arizona border security nationally after he started stridently opposing illegal immigration — threatened his Mexican ex-lover with deportation when the man refused to promise never to disclose their years-long relationship, the former boyfriend and his lawyer tell New Times. [..]

Informed of the situation, Nancy-Jo Merritt, a longtime Phoenix immigration attorney, says such a threat would be indicative of an "atmosphere that's been created politically in this state, so that if you get angry at someone who is Hispanic, you immediately jump down to the level of threatening to deport him.

"If what [Babeu's attorney] says is correct [about Jose's being illegal], either the sheriff had a long relationship with someone he knew was undocumented, while all the time being Mr. Bluster about the border and using it for political gain," or he threatened to deport someone he just broke up with, Merritt says.

"That's just the worst kind of hypocrisy."

For his part, Babeu admits that he is gay, quit the Romney campaign, but denied that he threatened his boyfriend (whose immigration status is under question) with deportation if he outed him. Howie Klein:

Meanwhile, Babeu, a former boarding school headmaster who claims he was repeatedly molested as a child by a Catholic priest, is still deluding himself that he can continue running for Congress against GOP incumbent Paul Gosar. That should be over by Monday. Babeu's press conference a couple hours ago is stunning. He admitted he's gay and tried painting himself as a victim, although he did acknowledge the relationship between himself and Jose.

Arizona senator John McCain--whose impeccable ability to judge character includes asking Sarah Palin to be his running mate and the architect of our current financial woes Phil Gramm as his economic advisor--was quick to defend his "friend":

“Well of course Sheriff Babeu is a friend of mine. I do not know the details except what has been published in the media and I am sure there will be a through and complete investigation if there is any allegations of wrongdoing,” said McCain, R-Ariz.,. “All I can say is that he also deserves the benefit, as every citizen does, of innocence until proven guilty.”

Well, that's all fine and good, but will Sen. McCain actually say something if the allegations are proven true?

DOWNLOADS: (180)

PLAYS: (1010)

Embed

It must really tick Sen. John McCain off to see his signature legislation (the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform) made irrelevant. He seems to be relatively sincere in his appearance on This Week with Jake Tapper, at least the segment when he's talking about finance cash. The rest? He's just doing his job as a campaign surrogate for the floundering Mitt Romney, like when he gets in that dig about the K Street Project and call out Rick Santorum on his not-so-distant past:

TAPPER: Good morning, everyone. George Stephanopoulos has a well-deserved morning off. We're now just over one week away from the crucial Michigan primary. Michigan is Mitt Romney's home state, where his dad was governor. And both the Romney and Santorum camps consider the contest there to be a potential game-changer in this bitterly fought Republican nomination battle.

To discuss that fight and more, key Romney-backer and the Republican nominee from four years John McCain joined us just a few moments ago from Afghanistan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Senator, I'm going to get to international relations and foreign policy in a second, but the news this week has been dominated by politics. And, in fact, you've become part of the conversation. I want to play Rick Santorum in Columbus, Ohio, yesterday, talking about Mitt Romney's leadership of the Salt Lake City Olympics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANTORUM: He heroically bailed out the Salt Lake City Olympic Games by heroically going to Congress and asking them for tens of millions of dollars to bail out the Salt Lake -- John McCain called it potentially the worst boondoggle in earmark history. Does the word "hypocrisy" comes to mind?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Does the word "hypocrisy" come to mind, asks Senator Santorum. Well, does that word come to mind? Because Senator Santorum is right. He did request that money as head of the Olympics. You did criticize it. And now Mitt Romney is criticizing Rick Santorum for earmark spending. What's your reaction?

MCCAIN: Well, my reaction is that I, of course, oppose earmarks, and I've opposed them of all kinds. All I wanted them to do was go to Congress and go through the normal process of authorizing and then appropriating. I certainly wanted to save the Salt Lake Olympics, as most other Americans did.

Ooo, take that, Rick Santorum!

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (143)

PLAYS: (755)

Embed

More proof that if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail:

Arizona Senator John McCain on Sunday warned that the situation in Iraq is "unraveling" due to recent U.S. foreign policy actions there - and that a "very chaotic situation" could give way to a rise in Iranian influence in the region.

McCain, speaking to Bob Schieffer on CBS' "Face the Nation," argued that the recent U.S. military drawdown from Iraq is creating a dire situation in that country.

"It's unraveling because we didn't keep residual force there, because the President of the United States pledged to get out of Iraq," McCain said. "We could have kept a residual force there and kept some stability. And instead it's unraveling, and Iran's influence is increasing and there's every possibility you could see a very chaotic situation there."

Oh for crying out loud. That president who pledged to get us out? That was George W. Bush in 2008, you bonehead. If you had won the 2008 election (God forbid), it would have been you that would have overseen the final drawdown of troops.

There's no question that chaos still remains in Iraq. One day after the last troops left Iraq, an arrest warrant was issued for Sunni VP Tariq Al-Hashemi and just this Thursday, 73 Iraqi civilians were killed by bombs. However, I'm at a loss as to how continuing American troop involvement would mitigate that.

Worse, this just looks like yet another front to make Iran the next bogeyman to fear. George Galloway published an op-ed this week warning on just such an attempt:

Obama has officially announced what has long been known to be the new military doctrine — to draw down as many forces as possible in Europe and the Middle East and to redeploy into a more aggressive posture encircling China.

Hence the withdrawal from Iraq and the doomed attempt to exert influence there from an absurdly named “embassy” of 16,000 people including 5,000 mercenaries, which means that the private sector picks up the bill for their pensions, missing body parts and so on.

This is precisely the point. For decade after decade the US state could provide guns as well as butter in the form of rising living standards and economic growth. Now it can provide no butter. But it has every intention of providing guns.

According to its own warped logic it has no alternative.

Facing a growing China and shifting balance in the world economy, the one thing that US capitalists have is a super-abundance of guns which can be used to extract other people’s butter.

So don’t imagine that financial strictures and the strains of shifting the military balance to the Pacific mean that there is more likelihood of the US, with its allies, accepting Iran as a major, independent regional power in the Gulf — the most important oil-producing area on the planet.

The opposite is the case. It is more likely to lead them to calculate that it is better to “take down” Iran now, which is why they are concerned about Syria, in order not to leave a gigantic problem as they are forced to refocus elsewhere.

Wednesday in New Hampshire, John McCain endorsed Willard at a town hall event. After the love fest, they opened it up to questions -- which was a big mistake.

The fist question was by an Occupier, and he really let Willard have it.

“It seems that the U.S. is a great place to be a corporation,’’ the man said, “but increasingly a desperate place to live and work.’’

“Where do you think corporations’ profits go?’’ Romney asked.

“It goes to the 1 percent of Americans who own the 90 percent of stocks,’’ the man responded and continued to press him.

That's how it's done, ladies and gentlemen. Willard then pathetically replied,

“You’ve had your turn,’’ Romney said. “Now it’s my turn. . . . Corporations are made up of people and the money goes to people either to hire people or to pay shareholders. They’re made up of people. So somehow thinking that there’s something else out there that we could grab money from and get taxes from and everything would be better . . . why, they’re still people.’’

Here's hoping Willard keeps up this "corporations are people" stuff all throughout 2012. Winning message.

Later, a woman tells Willard that she doesn't think much of Reaganomics.

“After 20 years of Reagan economics, trickle down theory, it didn’t help me,’’ she said. “My tin can is still empty.’’

“Let me ask you a question: Can you tell me where it’s better to live, where the income per person is better than in America?’’ Romney responded.

In other words, "Suck it up, lady -- or go back to China." Super classy.

I think Willard laid out a couple good campaign bumper stickers there. "Romney 2012: Corporations Are People" or "Romney 2012: Be Grateful You're Not Living in a Third World Country."

Add yours in comments.