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If the buzz is correct – Trump will reveal 12 year old Obama divorce papers on Wed… it is tacky and not helpful for his candidate, Romney. More opinion on the show.
Whatever he has, I wish Trump would shut it and go away through Nov 6.
I still think it’s that he has a siamese twin brother, Larry Obama, which explains the huge scar on the side of his head.
The Donald’s big reveal:
It will be interesting to see if it eclipses this:
Are you sure that Romney is Trump’s candidate? I always thought that Trump did Obama a huge favor by making the birth certificate thing a big deal when he did. Team O got a stage to ridicule it, released a photoshopped document online, and then announced that Bin Laden was dead. Everybody forgot about the BC, and Trump cooperated by promptly disappearing.
Oh…i do love this theory.
I think this theory assumes cooperation not just from Trump, but also from bin Laden. With the size of Donald’s ego, it’s highly unlikely that he had any grand agenda other than his own self-promotion.
Sorry O.T. but just saw this:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/24/us-usa-benghazi-emails-idUSBRE89N02C20121024
Please read, this is more than interesting, it’s a game changer..
It should be a game-changer. It should finish the lazy, disengaged narcissist’s presidency. But, will the press give it enough oxygen before Nov. 6? I don’t know the answer to that.
Just read that, too. Maybe this is why Mitt steered clear of the entire topic last night — he knew this was about to break all on its own?
What game will it change?
Obama supporters don’t care. And suddenly Romney supporters don’t seem to care. Looks like the two sides are bizarrely aligned again, like they are about drones. Their masters tell them what matters and what doesn’t, and they go along. Romney didn’t bother making anything of it during the foreign policy debate — and nothing post-debate indicates that bothered Romney supporters around here who were oh so outraged about it just days ago.
I’m totally baffled why no one seems to care about Benghazi. It’s as if the American public, like well-trained animals, is waiting for their master’s cue to respond. For now, it’s just binders and Big Bird that everyone seems to be yapping about. Very strange, and very sad.
At least CNN has this story front paged, above the fold even. That startled me more (CNN is actually reporting this?) than the “new” information. I mean, come on, of course the WH knew, anyone with half a brain had already figured that out. What I can’t figure out is why they lied about it.
Foreign policy is confusing to most people. The Benghazi cover-up has timelines that are hard to follow. Titillation is more interesting to our infantilized culture, which is why the obama divorce papers or whatever will garner more attention. I bet even Watergate would go unnoticed today.
Gxm: I’m a bit baffled too about why Benghazi isn’t featuring larger than it is. The right twitterverse is fairly vocal, but I’d expect even more noise — from everywhere. I blame the virtual press blackout on the story since 9/11/12. It’s starting to change, but still a slow drip, drip…
I’m trying to do my part:
https://twitter.com/noemptysuits/status/261191464770482176
“Maybe this is why Mitt steered clear of the entire topic last night — he knew this was about to break all on its own?”
That’s been my best guess too, Tamer. Either that or Romney learned something through his confidential intelligence briefings that gives him pause in debating it.
Some more tweets on #Benghazi:
My guess is Romney steered clear of it for the same reason Obama steered clear of holding Bush & Co accountable. They’re in the same big club and they protect each other because they know eventually they may need the same protection.
The divorce papers are supposedly ones filed by Mechelle? Doubtful they contain much more than embarrassments, unless we see listed as defendant: ‘barry barack dunham hussein obama soetoro soebarkah II’.
Guaranteed anyone who talks about it will be labeled a racist.
But, as Jack Ryan would agree, poetic justice is a bitch.
Yep, there’s the poetic justice bit.
Mind you, Trump put out his b.s. — it ain’t the divorce papers.
Well it looks like October surprises are being unwrapped just in time for Halloween festivities.
The Obamas may’ve been this close to divorce a dozen years ago. In a nation with a 50% divorce rate, chances are pretty good the Obamas could make this kind of revelation work for them. Maybe they’ll go on 60 Minutes and Michelle can even squeeze a tear out of her cold hard eye, that ought to touch the Dr Phil crowd. If anybody still cared about deviousness and deception the campaign might be hurt, if nothing else for the WH having lied about it when Ed Klein’s book came out, but of course lying has become as American as apple pie. These days you get attacked more fiercely if you aren’t deceptive.
On the other side we have a Staples co-founder’s ugly years-long divorce, his close bud Mitt Romney’s sworn testimony, and an ex-wife who apparently wants to talk about what a shit Mitt Romney is. Personally, I’d rather hear Gloria Allred present her case in court than hear what Maureen Stemberg has to say about Mitt, but that’s me and I already know what a shit Mitt Romney really is.
Finally, you uncloack yourself – the reveal.
I already know what a shit Mitt Romney really is.
So, to hate obama means one must love Romney — it that the false dichotomy you impose on us, Piper?
Piper, there was never a cloak. Hatred of Romney seems to eclipse sanity and common sense in some cases. This is one of them.
I rather enjoy the entertainment.
Tamer,
I don’t hate nor advocate hate or love for any person running for office whether on a local, state or national level. I don’t hate or dislike obama on a personal level BUT I dislike obama’s policies just as much as I disliked both Bushes. I’ve been a registered Democrat for over 40 years voting only 3 times for the Republican candidate and yes I’ve already voted. No matter what everyone says about the great Dem. savior, he has a unsealed record which he is desperately trying to run away from this time. We did our research in 2008 and didn’t find obama to be credible or ready to be President.
BTW – We chose to vote 3rd party for the Senate as we had 2 terrible choices here.
…I already know what a shit Mitt Romney really is.
I could say I “know” what a shit Obama is, but then he’s been president for the last four years. (And he’s been a shitty one.) Did you live in Mass. when Romney was governor? Or do you know Mitt Romney personally? Did he give you noogies in high school? I’m just trying to understand the level of contempt you display toward the man. It’s not like he has the same record of dirty political tricks (unsealed divorce records, rigged caucuses) that Obama has, so I’m truly perplexed.
And it’s not like his political leanings are that much different than Obama’s. Heck, he might even be more center than Obama’s center right. We won’t really know until he gets into office. I won’t know and you won’t know until the man shows the world what kind of leader he is. So far, he’s seems on the up and up. But who knows what the next four years will bring. I have no idea and don’t pretend to. Though I’m guessing as bad as Obama’s been, it will give Romney ample room to best his performance. Let’s hope he does.
Piper, I’ve not been secretive about my opinion of Mitt Romney, nor have I about my opinion of Obama. Yet there are some people whose fantasies about others are stronger than even the most obvious things we reveal.
And I don’t hate Romney. One needn’t hate someone to recognize he’s a shit. Even if I didn’t have other reasons to think this about Romney, his locking a pet dog in a crate and strapping it to the roof of a car for a 12 hour ride, stopping briefly to hose down the dog and the car when pet had diarrhea and then continuing on, has always been a warning sign about him. A human being with anything approaching normal empathy puts the dog inside the car and luggage on the roof; even if he were too stupid to figure that out initially, the diarrhea would tip off a decent thinking person.
Okay. So it’s the dog thing. I get that. I guess you didn’t grow up around pick-up trucks. My dad always put the dog (and sometimes me) in the back of the pick-up truck. And my dad loved his dogs (and me). Personally, I’m more alarmed by people who prolong their pet’s pain and suffering with excessive medical intervention than I am by people who treat their pets like animals.
For me that’s not a plus.
You may have no idea but I do.
Just as I had a good idea about what Obama would be like as President, and I was right, I’ve learned enough about Romney to have an informed idea about what he’ll be like.
If Romney “seems on the up and up” to you then you are not skeptical enough. Just since becoming a candidate Romney has shown he’s misleading (or a liar) and surrounds himself with advisors who ought to give pause to liberals and moderates.
We had a pick-up when I was growing up. It was a treat to ride in the back and the dogs rode back there too. Up our driveway we even got to ride on the running board sometimes. That’s not the same as putting a crated dog on the roof of a car for a 12 hour trip.
Romney gives me plenty of pause. But he doesn’t make me question his sanity the way Obama makes me question his. I tend to agree with Tamerlane: Obama is dangerous. I’m not sensing that same level of danger in Romney, but we’ll soon see.
As I said before, I question the “empathy” of people who treat their pets like family to the point of making the animals endure prolonged agony through medical intervention. Putting the dog in the car roof crate, IMO similar to the back of the pick-up, all that tells me is that Romney doesn’t confuse animals with humans. It’s nowhere near the everyday horror so many “attentive” pet owners deliberately inflict. That, my friend, is a lack of empathy and this country is awash in it.
I agree our country is severely short on empathy and I also agree a lot of people have developed attitudes about pets that seems to confuse animal with human. But while people who prolong their pets lives through too much medical intervention may be short on good sense, I’m not sure they haven’t empathy.
As to the Romneys, treating an animal like an animal is putting them in the utility back section of the station wagon, not on the roof of the car. You’re making up a ridiculous defense and that alone is an alert.
I agree Obama is dangerous and I don’t only question his sanity, I’ve also said for years he’s a sociopath. And I mean that. However, I’m equally certain Romney would be dangerous as President, though he’d be dangerous in a different way. Obama and Romney are not the only options voters have, just as leaving the dog home or putting him on the roof were not the only options the Romneys had.
Actually, I’m not defending Romney. I “get” why the crate/roof story sends some people to the fainting couch. I’m just not one of them. I’m much more alarmed by pet owners who inflict unnecessary pain on a sick and/or dying animal because they (the owners) can’t “bear” to let go. A person with empathy would (painlessly) put the animal down. Only a self-absorbed and callous person would prolong the animal’s suffering through medical intervention. Disregarding the animal’s pain and inability to comprehend why it’s being tortured in such a way, IMO requires a huge lack of empathy. Sorry to go off on a rant but it’s a subject that really pisses me off and is in no way meant as a “defense” of Romney (who I think needs no defense on this issue, either the car/crate thing disturbs you or it doesn’t). FTR, I rant about this all the time in real life; it’s a particular peeve of mine.
Back to Tamer at 8:22: this false dichotomy makes O-bot (family, friends nearly all) heads explode. They can’t fathom why if I so vehemently oppose O with “extreme pessimism” I don’t embrace Mitt. I can’t, on principle, but that doesn’t mean I can’t listen to a debate, weigh in calmly as to who wins “on points” with my Speech students, and vote 3P as I have since the mid-’90s. I get blamed “for Nader” regularly and I am yelled at this time around for allowing the nation to return to fascism by voting 3P again.
“I agree our country is severely short on empathy”
Nah. Face to face, Americans have plenty of empathy. It’s here in the anonosphere that it completely goes out the window.
As it happens I agree with you, it bothers me as well, but I’ve talked with people who’re keeping dying animals alive and what I’ve seen is not a lack of empathy but poor judgment. That’s not to say everybody who does that is empathetic, but it stands to reason that most people investing money and effort into keeping an animal alive aren’t doing it out of cruelty. You may conclude it’s a cruel thing to do but that’s not the same as a lack of empathy motivating their actions.
The same could be said about Romney putting a dog on the roof of a car for a 12 hour highway trip, rather than putting the luggage up there and keeping the dog inside the car, that it’s poor judgment rather than a lack of empathy. But it is at least very poor judgment. And IMO it also indicates an attitude about the vulnerable he has power over and a responsibility for that is troubling. And that attitude, which clearly hasn’t changed for the better or the Romney’s response to questions about that incident wouldn’t defend it, tells me something about how he’ll make choices as President and Commander in Chief.
And PS, if what’s being leaked about the part Romney played in the Stemberg divorce is true, it’s another example of the choices Romney makes about the vulnerable. If, if, reports today are true then Romney again used whatever clout he had to side with the rich and powerful in its greed and effort to hurt the vulnerable. When there is a pattern, and in Romney’s case his professional life in private equity definitely feeds into the pattern as well, of behavior then only foolish people ignore what it tells us about the choices that person will make in the future.
Oh, please, Zal…you’re descending into pure silliness.
“Tamer 8:22″ sound like you’re quoting scripture. I promise not to let it go to my head!
I believe that Romney believes he cares about other people, and animals, too, and that he *believes* he treats them well. I don’t believe he always treats them well, though. I believe that obama is a sociopath, and in his world, there are no other people or animals, just objects to use and discard.
Regarding the Book of Tamer 8:22, I totally understand why not liking Obama does not = liking Romney. To be clear, I don’t “like” Romney as much as I’m finding it difficult to dislike him. Definitely don’t like his politics, but as a man, he’s just not scaring me. That said, I am not as naive as some folks think, and I’m perfectly aware that he could turn out as bad as they predict, but I also think he might surprise his detractors. After the last 12 years, I’m really, really hoping he makes a better than average president.
What was I thinking calling Benghaazi-gate a game changer ? I have often thought Obama could murder someone mid-field during the Super Bowl and the bots would cheer.
However this incident could explain why, as some here have opined, he doesn’t seem to want to win..
I thought and posted here a while back, that if he won a second term, he would be impeached.
The scandals just keep coming.
People are much more interested in Allred and smearing Romney in a case that has nothing to do with him other than his giving testimony 25 years ago as to the value of Staples stock because THAT is what really matters.
Small minds like small things.
The release of those emails does change the ‘game’ of the Benghazi cover-up story. Whether the Benghazi cover-up changes the ‘game’ of the election is another matter.
Benghazi-gate should have been a game changer over a month ago. I can’t even begin to comprehend why the electorate is, seemingly, ignoring it and focusing on Big Bird, or the latest trivial distraction, instead.
Last night was another 3rd party candidate debate on C-SPAN.
Apologies John and readers/ commenters, for being ot. Not to derail any serious debate, but I just wanted to share this audio of Noc the Beluga whale talking. It totally cracks me up. Every – single – time.
Also makes you wonder what the humans caring for Noc sounds like.
“Ooops! Sorry. My bad!”
HOW BILL CLINTON MAY HAVE HURT THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/how-bill-clinton-may-have-hurt-the-obama-campaign/?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes
(Actually, I think thesummer-long smug arrogance of the Obots and their leader did a better job of that)
The final comment at the above link:
“To be fair we’ve never seen a liar of this magnitude before and we’ve never seen the press give this kind of pass to anyone who lies and flip flops as much as Romney. It’s been stunning.”
Surpassed only by Obama, in my view.
Of course the whore-ish NYT would start cushioning Barry’s fall. Redirecting the Obots’ anger toward the Clintons. Lovely. Serves WJC right for becoming O’s handmaiden….no tears shed for him. But, as usual, Hillary will suffer…that I do mind.
I must confess to being struck, of late, by how over-the-top obot-like Zal’s attacks on Romney are. I wonder, now, if I owe an apology to Run, Angie, Lola, and Anthony for scoffing at their suspicions on this score.
(And no, Tamer, before you ask, rhetorically… it’s not the same type or quality of attacking that you and other Romney-opponents engage in. It just feels different.)
Oh please, not you too?! This blog already has a Joe McCarthy.
Zal’s comments are pretty much out-of-the-box Liberal. Go read some of the Obama-supporting blogs and you will see a wide disparity between his comments and theirs.
By the way, the word Obot didn’t used to mean “generic Obama voter/supporter.” It used to refer to a particularly annoying, in your face, koolaid snorting, rationalizing every thing Obama did as 11-dimensional chess, rabid kind of supporter. It was not a description of how someone would vote as much as it was an assessment of their personality disorder with respect to the candidate. This year, the Obots are on the other side of the aisle.
“I wonder, now, if I owe an apology to Run, Angie, Lola, and Anthony for scoffing at their suspicions on this score.”
No. We don’t. The notion that Zal is shilling for Obama remains utterly absurd to the point of being other-worldly.
Please explain how the belief that testifying in a divorce case between two rich people is to “side with the rich and powerful in its greed and effort to hurt the vulnerable” is “out-of-the-box Liberal”? Good grief, I’m far left and know full well that this October surprise is an October snooze. It says nothing about Romney’s character. But it says everything about how delusional people are who think it does.
As I said, gxm, I’m basing my tentative assessment on if the reports today are true. According to what I’ve read, Maureen Stemberg ended up with very little money and in financial distress, which was later exacerbated by health problems, including cancer, and her ex husband canceling her health insurance — anyway her complaint about Romney is apparently that he gave testimony that undervalued the worth of the stock she and her ex owned jointly, leaving her with much less than she was entitled to. I repeat, I don’t know if that’s true, it’s what’s been reported so far.
It was not two rich people after the divorce, it was a rich man and an ex-wife dealing with financial hardship.
That was 30 years ago. Since then she’s become a successful interior decorator and wealthy on her own. But the part Romney apparently had a part in, if reports are true, would speak to his priorities and choices.
You certainly don’t owe me an apology, NES. I figured you would see it for yourself sooner or later
” This year, the Obots are on the other side of the aisle.”
Oh please.
“It says nothing about Romney’s character. But it says everything about how delusional people are who think it does.”
Correct, gxm. It also says a lot about the gullibility of people who don’t see that this Allred divorce-records gambit comes straight out of the Obama Campaign’s playbook.
“As I said, gxm, I’m basing my tentative assessment on if the reports today are true.”
“But the part Romney apparently had a part in, if reports are true, would speak to his priorities and choices.”
Hilarious. Alinsky hilarious, actually: first the execution, then the trial.
NES, if you’re a smart attorney it’s hard to believe you don’t understand that people’s behavior is generally consistent and that the best way to figure out what a person will do is understanding his thought process and priorities that’s revealed through what he’s done in the past.
If you don’t get that, if you don’t assess a person’s probable future choices by what he’s done in the past, how exactly did you know about Obama in ’08?
And one thing I’ve learned about powerful observation, about assessing situations and people, is to pay attention to detail, especially the thing in the crevice that most people pass by or the thing that true believers dismiss as silly.
Right – I’m the one who’s otherworldly when Zal is now trying to make a BFD out of the stupid Gloria Allred – “there’s something about Romney in someone else’s divorce records” bullshit. His antics are the equivalent of Obama birthers – which makes him the one that’s in outerspace, not me with my understanding of who he is actually supporting. If you had someone who spent a sentence on Romney being a rampant capitalist – which he is, but then comment after comment after comment on Obama being from Kenya, a secret manchurian candidate, on drugs, etc etc. you would be right to think that he is a Romney supporter no matter what he says. You would be naive to think differently
Back after a wonderful bike ride – trying to enjoy all the warm weather before onset of winter.
We’ve all done things that didn’t turn out as well as expected but we have the ability to learn from our mistakes. We did our homework finding a lack of empathy and compassion from obama from early on – ex. not helping people in his district who were living in substandard housing (no heat, rats, broken windows, etc.), voting present on fetuses that survived abortions (have always been pro choice but this is obscene), going to LV for a fund raiser after Ambassador Stevens was murdered – was he so tired that no one woke him up to relay the news or was it more important for him to seek adulation from the masses. Just a few bumps in the road.
Many years ago we flew from Minnesota to Michigan with puppy in tow (he was refused cabin seating although he was a small dog thereby ending up in baggage compartment. When we picked him up, he was wet from excessive drooling – poor guy was terrified. That was the First and Last time he ever flew – all our trips since that time have been by car.
Even though my kid is a vet and we love our animals dearly, every time someone brings up the ‘dog story’ you are playing right into the hands of the Chicago thugs… While on the subject of dogs, I feel sorriest for the gorgeous Bo, who is dragged out for photo ops, and obviously lives with his handler the rest of the time. I hope he has bonded with his keeper.
I get that a lot of people don’t care much about these things, but the Romneys’ strike me as a sincerely loving and supportive family. Mitt has loved, and apparently been faithful to, one woman all his life, he has supported and nurtured his sons and his grandchildren. His wealth does not bother me, I admire success, sure he started on second base, but he would not be the first to throw it all away and end up broke..I am in awe of his double degree in Law and Business from Harvard, all while having their first two babies. I don’t think lack of intelligence is his problem. I went to grad school when I still had teens at home, I thought I was losing my mind some days. I too was blessed with a faithful, patient, helpmate who never gives up,raises his voice, or whines i.e. a grownup…My path would not have been possible without him..
Sorry to be corny, but ‘corny’ has been good for me and my family. It has been given a bad rap these days.
Zal, the couple were divorced over 30 years ago.
My interest isn’t about them or their divorce, it’s what Romney’s actions, 30 years ago and 20 years ago and 10 years ago and this year, reveal about the way he thinks, his priorities and allegiances. I used the same kind of information and analysis to see who Obama is. I don’t believe people when they tell me who they are and what they’re going to do, I believe what their actions and behavior show about them and what they do.
Zal, you’ve been around show business enough to know that there isn’t much difference between pols and actors. There is no way any of us can ‘know’ a pol, in the same way we know a friend or even a neighbor.. We can only consider their deeds and the way they seem to live their lives..Some are idols with feet of clay, some are all clay, but they are impossible to really know.
I once had a cleaning lady who also cleaned for a pol, described as ‘someone you see in the news all the time.’ She told me wild stories about piles of cash, sex toys and ‘visitors.’ I didn’t care about the last two, but the piles of cash tales were definitely interesting. She was a very pious woman and I had no reason to doubt her. She said the person was the ‘last person’ one would associate with this behavior, so I knew it wasn’t Giuliani.
You’re right we can’t know them the way we know friends or neighbors, though a lot of people sure think they do.
I don’t assess them as friends (and I don’t assess friends as I do pols), and I steer clear of trying to know their personal relationships – unless they bleed into the professional.
However, as with candidates I’ve considered when hiring over the years, I find out as much as I can about behavior and choices, paying particular attention to patterns. Because the truth is human beings tend to be consistent, and as with all observation some of the most revealing details may be found in unlikely crevices. That’s why, for instance, in using a story like the dog on the roof to assess Romney, I consider not only the original story but also his (and his wife’s) response to questions about it years later; was that event something that deviated from their normal choices, was it something that afterwards they regretted, do they now realize it was a poor choice or is it something they defend to this day.
The more I know about someone, and organize and understand the pieces, the better I can assess who they are and the way they make decisions.
I dunno Zal, dog on the roof (dog survived) or our ambassador’s corpse dragged through the streets. Sorry but one of these things is not like the other.
I drew no comparison between the two.
And as both Tam and Jay have pointed out, apparently to deaf ears, rejecting Obama as my choice for President doesn’t mean I have to embrace Romney. It is possible to recognize both men shouldn’t be President, and that another option is available.
BTW, in case it isn’t obvious, this is a minor element of assessing Romney as POTUS candidate.
Two headlines on NYT right now:
U.S. Sues Bank of America for $1 Billion Over ‘Brazen’ Fraud
2 Years for Former Goldman Director in Insider Trading Case
Hmm. The timing here couldn’t possibly be political, could it?
I doubt anybody but Obamabots will credit him with those events.
And one of Romney’s great achievements during this campaign is that people (the rank and file I’ve read and listened to anyway) don’t connect Romney with banking and Wall Street in a way that makes them wary of what will happen if we have a financier in the Oval Office. It’s a tremendous feat.
The ‘occupista’ is tuned into these things — and I’d bet they’re an ‘undecided’ bunch.
Nonetheless, you may be right that it’s a stretch to think it’s politically timed — though I can’t help but give it three sardines on the ‘fishy’ scale (three out of ten).
Jimminie Crickets, this Obot’s desperate Hail Mary pass offends me:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kergan-edwardsstout/romney-lgbt-rights_b_1980231.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false#sb=682123,b=facebook
Some here are a bit down about losing their Lib creds, but Liberalism, like the Democrat party, ain’t what it used to be.. I know I’m getting to be a codger, but liberalism used to be about peace equality, freedom and opportunity for all We danced to our own music and wanted everyone else to dance to theirs.. I don’t recall it being about ‘what have you done for me lately?’ It has morphed into giveaways to corrupt unions, special interest groups, and hatefulness. In some respects, they are more Republican than the Republicans these days.
I am profoundly disappointed in Hillary too.
BTW: hope everyone here talking about this idiotic “surprise” of a divorce case only concerns Romney to the extent that he was testifying to the value of a company. He may have been called by one side, but you’re stretching, again, into birtherism territory to think there’s anything there that says anything about Romney one way or another.