Where Are The Leaders?

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Now that both political conventions have ended, I think it’s fair to make comparisons.

In watching the Republican National Convention, you saw a collection of mostly angry old white men.  Moreover, you saw few people who would deserve the title of leader.  Not Romney.  And certainly not Ryan.

As in 2008, the people on display not only seemed mean-spirited.  They were largely untruthful.  Those who have elbowed their way to the top of the GOP seem hollow; devoid of compassion and lacking ideas that would benefit anyone but the powerful and rich.

By contrast, there were many leaders on display at the Democratic National Convention; people with vision.  One doesn’t have to stretch the imagination to see Cory Booker, Tammy Duckworth, Elizabeth Warren, Ted Strickland, Julian Castro, Duval Patrick, and Vice-President Joe Biden occupying the White House.  And, of course, President Barack Obama seemed as presidential as ever.

Given the contrast, it’s difficult to imagine that the GOP will win the White House in the near future.  Of course, there’s always the possibility that their lies and voter suppression efforts might allow them to steal an election as they did in 2000.

Let’s make sure that voter turnout for President Obama is so overwhelming that the GOP’s attempts fail!

Why Romney’s Tax Returns Really Do Matter.

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Mitt Romney has broken with tradition, saying he will not release more than his tax return for 2010 and for 2011 “when it’s ready.” He refuses to release any more returns, saying in other words, “I took a look at the last 10 years and I paid a tax rate of approximately 13 percent.”

So why doesn’t he want to follow in the footsteps of his own father by releasing more returns?

Quite simply, he doesn’t want you to know the lengths to which he has gone in order to evade US income taxes.  He doesn’t want anyone peering into his off-shore accounts in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg and Switzerland.  And he wants to deflect the whole issue of his finances until after the election.

This isn’t the first time Romney has asked people to trust him about his finances.

He did the same when he ran for governor of Massachussetts.  Back then, he faced questions about the state’s residency requirements when his opponent claimed that Romney was actually a Utah resident.  Of course, Mitt denied it.  When asked to produce his tax returns, he refused, saying that he had filed tax returns as a Massachussetts resident and would prove it when his returns became available after the election.

And what did they find after Mitt won?  Why, of course, they found that his tax returns claimed residency in Utah.  In other words, he did not meet the Constitutional requirements to be governor.

That incident should tell you all you need to know about Romney.  1 – He cannot be trusted.  2 – He will do and say anything to be elected.

Liein’ Ryan.

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First, I must credit my friend, Mike Cosentino, for the title.  To my knowledge, he was the first to coin the description of the Teapublican Vice-Presidential candidate.  And Ryan has certainly lived up to the title ever since.  Indeed, his penchant for ignoring the truth was on full display at the Republican National Convention.

For example, Paul Ryan says that his budget plan will “save Medicare.” But in reality, it will leave the next generation of seniors at the mercy of greedy health insurance companies. Ryan says that his budget will cut the deficit. What he doesn’t tell you is that his plan will increase an already bloated defense budget and give large tax cuts to the wealthy while cutting healthcare and food stamps for the poor.

Ryan has lied so much and so often, he couldn’t even tell the truth about his only marathon time.

Prior to the convention, Ryan condemned Congressman Todd Akin’s remarks on “legitmate” rape as offensive. Yet Ryan co-sponsored a bill with Akin that would ban all abortions except for pregnancies that resulted from “forcible” rape.  In other words, you would be denied an abortion unless you could show that you had been bruised and beaten sufficiently in an attempt to fight off the attacker.

Moreover, Akin and Ryan co-sponsored a “personhood” bill that would give fetuses all of the rights and protections of the First Amendment thereby outlawing all abortions, even in vitro fertilization. And lest you think Aikin and Ryan are alone in their extreme beliefs, the GOP adopted a platform that would ban all abortions. No exceptions.

Of all the liars in the Republican Party, Paul Ryan is one of the most prolific. By himself, he could easily provide enough material to fill a second volume of the Teapublican Book of Lies.

Ted Strickland Outlines The Stark Differences Between Candidates.

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Michelle Obama and Duval Patrick gave great speeches at the Democratic National Convention. But, so far, nobody has done a better job of contrasting the two presidential candidates than former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland. In case you missed it, here is the text of his prepared remarks:

I’m Ted Strickland, and I come from Duck Run, Ohio. Let me tell you, folks in Ohio know what happens when you have a president who stands up for average working people.

Ina Sidney is a grandmother who lost her ability to provide for her family when they closed down the auto plant in Perrysburg, Ohio. Ina says thanks to Barack Obama for having the courage to back an industry that others had given up on. She’s an autoworker and a breadwinner once again.

As he celebrated the birth of his newborn baby boy, Brian Slagle lost his job just at the moment he needed it most. But today he’s back making auto batteries in a factory in Springfield Township, Ohio. And he said there’s one reason he has a steady paycheck again: Barack Obama refused to let the American auto industry die.

James Fayson felt like there was no tomorrow when he was laid off. “I believe in working every day,” he said, “and that was taken from me.” Today, James is working sixty hours a week on the Jeep Liberty line in Toledo. He is thrilled to say that his life right now is “eat, sleep and Jeep.” He’s back, he said, because Barack Obama gave us a chance for a comeback.

The auto industry supports one of every eight jobs in Ohio, and it’s alive and growing in America again. Late last year, Chrysler announced they were hiring eleven hundred new autoworkers in Toledo. Just last month, GM announced a plan to invest 200 million dollars in Lordstown, keeping five thousand jobs in Ohio and building the next generation of the Chevy Cruze—a car we are proud to say is made entirely in Ohio.

It’s been a long slog back, and we’ve still got a long way to go. But all over Ohio—all over America—men and women are going back to work with the pride of building something stamped “Made in America.” Before Barack Obama took office, it looked like that pride could have vanished forever, but today, from the staggering depths of the Great Recession, the nation has had 29 straight months of job growth. Workers across my state and across the country are getting back the dignity of a good job and a good salary.

Vince Lombardi was right when he said, “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get back up.” And my friends Ina Sydney, Brian Slagle and James Fayson were all knocked down. But Ina, Brian and James are all standing today. The auto industry is standing today. The middle class is standing today. Ohio is standing today. America is standing strong today.

That’s what happens when you have a president who stands up for average working people. President Barack Obama stood up for us, and now by God we will stand up for him. Quite frankly, Barack Obama knows what it’s like to pay a mortgage and student loans. He knows what it’s like to watch a beloved family member in a medical crisis and worry that treatment is out of reach. Barack Obama knows our struggles. And, my friends, he shares our values.

Now, Mitt Romney, he lives by a different code. To him, American workers are just numbers on a spreadsheet.

To him, all profits are created equal, whether made on our shores or off. That’s why companies Romney invested in were dubbed “outsourcing pioneers.” Our nation was built by pioneers—pioneers who accepted untold risks in pursuit of freedom, not by pioneers seeking offshore profits at the expense of American workers here at home.

Mitt Romney proudly wrote an op-ed entitled, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” If he had had his way, devastation would have cascaded from Michigan to Ohio and across the nation. Mitt Romney never saw the point of building something when he could profit from tearing it down. If Mitt was Santa Claus, he’d fire the reindeer and outsource the elves.

Mitt Romney has so little economic patriotism that even his money needs a passport. It summers on the beaches of the Cayman Islands and winters on the slopes of the Swiss Alps. In Matthew, chapter 6, verse 21, the scriptures teach us that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. My friends, any man who aspires to be our president should keep both his treasure and his heart in the United States of America. And it’s well past time for Mitt Romney to come clean with the American people.

On what he’s saying about the president’s policy for welfare to work, he’s lying. Simple as that. On his tax returns, he’s hiding. You have to wonder, just what is so embarrassing that he’s gone to such great lengths to bury the truth? Whatever he’s doing to avoid taxes, can it possibly be worse than the Romney-Ryan tax plan that would have sliced Mitt’s total tax rate to less than one percent?

My friends, there is a true choice in this election. Barack Obama is betting on the American worker. Mitt Romney is betting on a Bermuda shell corporation. Barack Obama saved the American auto industry. Mitt Romney saved on his taxes. Barack Obama is an economic patriot. Mitt Romney is an outsourcing pioneer. My friends, the stakes are too high, the differences too stark to sit this one out. Let us stand as one on November 6th and move this country forward by re-electing President Barack Obama.

Romney: A Corporate Wet Dream.

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Contrary to the belief of the conservative majority of our Supreme Court, corporations are most definitely not people. They are not born. They are created by lawyers.

In fact, corporations have little in common with most living, breathing people. They do, however, have a great deal in common with Mitt Romney.

Like many large corporations, Romney seems to lack a moral compass. Like many large corporations, Romney has extracted as much money as possible from society while giving back little in return. And like many corporations, Romney evades taxes and any sense of responsibility to the common good.

Romney has spent the past four years sucking up to billionaires and big corporations, including all of Wall Street, in order to win election. Want a tax policy that rewards the wealthy and punishes the poor? Romney will give it to you. Want an energy policy that rewards Big Oil and Big Coal while destroying our planet? No problem! Want a foreign policy that will bully the world and fuel our defense industry? Of course! Want a social policy that forces narrow-minded religious values on women? Sure!

No presidential candidate has been so beholden to the wealthiest and most powerful in our nation. If Mitt’s elected, you can be sure they will be rewarded handsomely.

The rest of America, and the planet, will pay for it dearly.

GOP Convention: Lies, Lies And More Lies.

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That’s not just my opinion.

Surprising as it may be, the media finally seemed to be paying attention and checking facts! Sally Kohn of Fox News summed it up best when she wrote that the convention speech by Teapublican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan was “an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech.”

For example, Ryan tried to pin the downgrade of our nation’s credit rating on President Obama, but it actually happened because Teapublicans threatened to not raise the debt ceiling.  Ryan blamed the closure of the GM plant in Janesville, Wisconsin on Obama, but it actually closed under President Bush.  Ryan claimed that Obama said that government deserves credit for the success of private businesses, but that’s not what he said.  Ryan also claimed that Obama cut $716 billion from Medicare, but in reality, that amount is the result of savings from insurance companies and hospitals as the result of the Affordable Care Act.

Not to be outdone by his vice-presidential choice, Romney also lied about the Medicare savings.  He made misleading statements about energy costs.  And his claim that Obama began his presidency with an “apology tour” of the world earned a Pants on Fire rating by Politifact.com.

Of course, Romney and Ryan were not alone in showing a complete disregard for the truth during the convention.  Jeb Bush, Calista Gingrich, Nikki Haley, John Thune, Rob Portman, Rick Santorum, Scott Walker, Michele Bachmann, Artur Davis and others had difficulty with the facts.

Their statements weren’t the result of a difference of opinion, misunderstandings, or spinning the truth.  These were outright falsehoods, half-truths and intentionally misleading statements.  For Teapublicans, lieing is a strategy.

For more, read The Teapublican Book of Lies available at Amazon.com and other on-line bookstores.

America’s Collective Amnesia.

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It seems many Americans have forgotten what happened in 2008.  They can’t remember who was at the wheel when our economy was driven into a ditch.  They can’t remember who led us into an unnecessary and unfunded war.  They’ve blanked out the memory of the second-largest stock market crash in history.  They can no longer picture the deer-in-the-headlights look of the Bush administration when the housing bubble burst.

As a result, many Americans seem to accept the latest assortment of conservative lies.

Despite the fact that President Obama rescued our economy from the abyss, many voters seem to accept Teapublican claims that his policies have failed.  Despite unprecedented obstruction by Teapublicans, voters seem inclined to reward them for their disgusting behavior.

Nevermind that it was decades of “conservative” policies that resulted in the loss of American jobs and growing disparity between the rich and the middle class.  Nevermind that Republicans squandered the surpluses of the Clinton administration in order to give tax breaks to the wealthy.  Nevermind that Romney intends to reinstate many Bush administration policies, voters are considering giving him a chance to repeat the same failures.

(Sure, trickle-down economics and free-market ideologies have repeatedly failed in the past, but maybe they’ll work this time.)

President Obama has not only guided our nation back to solid economic footing.  He has restored America’s reputation throughout the world.  He has earned another four year term.

Indeed, if voters sought the truth, this coming election wouldn’t even be close.  But Teapublican lies seem to have placed the outcome in doubt.  Teapublicans seem to have convinced voters that the path to prosperity isn’t the high road after all.  It’s back through the same ditch they drove us into more than four years ago.

The Church Of Hate.

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If, upon reading that headline, you don’t immediately think of the Westboro Baptist Church, you simply haven’t been paying attention.  For the few who don’t know, the Westboro House of Hate is the group that pickets military funerals with signs that read “God Hates Fags,” “God Hates All Nations,” and “God Hates Fag Enablers.”

One can only ask, how the Hell would they know?  If there is a God, He certainly wouldn’t speak to the Westboro haters – at least not in any civil way.

This is a group that will picket anything they dislike or don’t understand, which means they’re picketing almost all of the time.  Not only do they picket virtually every military funeral because they’re angry that the Pentagon allows gays in the military.  They have picketed Catholic churches, Methodist churches, newspapers, political gatherings…even other Baptist churches.  And, after writing this, they may even picket me.

Even after President Obama signed a bill prohibiting Westboro members from picketing within 300 feet of a military funeral, the group responded by saying “there’s prime real estate at 301 feet.”

Yes, there are a lot of wackos out there.  So what makes the Westboro House of Lunatics unique?  What sets them apart from other asylum escapees is that you help pay for their activities.  That’s right.  As a “church” the Westboro Home for the Mentally Disturbed pays no taxes.  No property taxes.  No income taxes on donations.  No taxes on investments.

Where’s Jim Jones and his vat of Kool-Aid when you need him?

To learn about another wacko group, check out my book The Teapublican Book of Lies available at Amazon.com and other on-line bookstores.

Most Problems With Government Are Local.

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It is said that all politics are local.  The same could be said for government interference.  While Teapublicans rage at the federal government for “over-regulation,” the truth is that most federal regulation is necessary.  As with most everything else, the Tea Party’s anger is misguided.

Without the EPA, our rivers would still be on fire, our drinking water would be filled with chemicals, and the simple act of breathing would life-threatening.  Without the FDA, packaged food companies might still be peddling unsafe meats and food additives.   Without the National Transportation and Safety Department, our cars might still be unsafe at any speed.  And without the FAA, airlines might feel free to cut corners on aircraft maintenance.

I think you’d agree that most federal government regulations are necessary, and they don’t really threaten job creation.

Most federal programs are surprisingly efficient.  Medicare is more cost-efficient than private health insurance.  Social Security spends a small percent of its budget for administrative costs.

It’s much different at the local level where red tape and burdensome regulations abound.  Want to build a manufacturing plant?  You need to wade through city, county and state governments to do that.  Want to open a retail store?  Welcome to the licensing and zoning commission.  Want to rent out the basement of your home?  You need to check zoning laws and buy a license for that.

There’s an old saying that you can’t fight City Hall.  There’s a reason it doesn’t mention Washington.

For more, read The Teapublican Book of Lies available at Amazon.com and other on-line bookstores.

GOP Platform Full Of Hate, Fear And Greed.

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Under the new GOP platform, every fetus will be protected or avenged, and women’s reproductive systems will be controlled by the people who know best…male politicians and churches.

Under the GOP, our borders will be secure.  Those foolhardy enough to cross will be shot or imprisoned.  And Latinos will never be without papers.

Under the GOP, the military will be made more powerful to protect “American interests.”  So our corporations will be free to extract resources and money from anywhere on the planet.

Under the GOP, billions of dollars for Social Security and Medicare will be liberated from the evil government’s control to earn profits for corporations.  The power to decide who lives and dies will be returned to those who know best – large insurance companies and PhRMA.

Under the GOP, the wealthy will pay fewer taxes.  Corporations will pay no taxes.  And the rest of us will have to work harder and longer to make up for it.

Under the GOP, there will be no Environmental Protection Agency and no Endangered Species Act.  Nothing to interfere with the profiteering of Big Oil.

Under the GOP, the “sanctity” of marriage will be protected from “sinners” such as gays and lesbians.

Under the GOP, people of color will have their right to vote protected.  But only if they have proper ID and are willing to stand in long lines.

Under the GOP, the deficit will be reduced at the expense of the poor.  There will be no Medicaid.  No public education.  No food stamps.  No unemployment insurance.  No welfare.  Charity is only for churches, and today’s evangelicals are only interested in your soul and your fetuses.

If elected to control the White House and Congress, the Guardians Of Privilege vow to “Restore America” – to the 18th century.  And if you think I’m exaggerating, you definitely haven’t been paying attention.