The Watering Hole: Tuesday, April 24, 2102: Waz up?

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Anybody notice the moment Mr. Etch a Sketch became the presumptive Republican Nominee, polls showed him in a dead tie with President Obama?

Do The Powers That Be want a race so tight either one could win by a Diebold?

And if The Powers That Be really want Mr. Etch a Sketch, why is the price of gas going down? The surest way to destroy the economy is to raise gas prices above $5.00/gallon, and that’s where they were heading not too long ago?

Newt…why are you still here?

Austerity measures are being rejected in Europe. Maybe that’s because only the working class had to suffer austerity…the wealthy got wealthier while everyone else suffered. The French Government was the first to go. hmmmmm….sounds familiar…..

IT’S OPEN THREAD TIME – WAZ UP WID U?

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174 thoughts on “The Watering Hole: Tuesday, April 24, 2102: Waz up?”

  1. I saw that poll moment where Rmoney was statistically tied. I think there’s no question that the corporate media wants a ‘race’ they can get wood over from now until November. But will there be any discussion of the real problems – nah? F*** that. There will be manufactured issues like Hilary Rosen and Ted Nugent to create differences, but when it comes to prosecuting the banks, governing as if the opinion of the voters count, telling the truth about all kinds of things: the size of the US miltary budget, why Israel isn’t anyones ‘closest ally’ (f*** you Paul Begala, I heard you), why the US will never be energy self-sufficient – crickets will chirp and the media will trot out one ‘shiny object’ after another.

    The price of gasoline, while impacted some by speculation and the off-regulation ICE, is not that manipulatable, I don’t hold to that theory. Besides Obama has been the best Republican president since Lincoln. – why change horses in the midst of an Apocalypse? (that was an awesome bumper sticker I had – Chimpy, Cheney, Rummy and Rice as the Four Horsemen).

    And so far only Sarko looks like he’s losing, the French gov isn’t going anywhere just yet – its a Presidential election, not a parliamentary one. But agreed, Sarko is being ejected for not living up to his promises – what a thought.

  2. A cautionary tale for Obama, and maybe you. Ron Fournier and Sophie Quinton call attention to one American’s disastrous brush with our collapsing institutions in an era of recession. It’s quite the tale and helps bring to light the actual daily crises that the economic crisis continues to produce:

    “[Johnny] Whitmire tells a familiar story of how public and private institutions derailed an American’s dream: In 2000, he bought the $40,000 house with no money down and a $620 monthly mortgage. He made every payment. Then, in the fall of 2010, his partially disabled wife lost her state job. “Governor [Mitch] Daniels slashed the budget, and they looked for any excuse to squeeze people out,” Whitmire says. “We got lost in that shuffle—cut adrift.”

    The Whitmires couldn’t make their payments anymore. They applied for a trial loan-modification through an Obama administration program, and when it was granted, their monthly bill fell to $473.87. But, like nearly a million others, the modification was canceled. After charging the lower rate for three months, their mortgage lender reinstated the higher fee and billed the family $1,878.88 in back payments. Whitmire didn’t have that kind of cash and couldn’t get it, so he and his wife filed for bankruptcy. His attorney advised him to live in the house until the bank foreclosed, but “I don’t believe in a free lunch,” Whitmire says. He moved out, leaving the keys on the kitchen table. “I thought the bank should have them.” A year later, City Hall sent him salt for his wounds: a $300 citation for tall grass at 1900 W. 10th St. Telling the story, he swipes dried grass from his jeans and shakes his head. “The city dinged me for tall weeds at my bank’s house.”

    Whitmire could also be considered an “Obama independent”:

    He is among a group of voters most skeptical of President Obama: noncollege-educated white males. He feels betrayed—not just by Obama, who won his vote in 2008, but by the institutions that were supposed to protect him: his state, which laid off his wife; his government in Washington, which couldn’t rescue homeowners who had played by the rules; his bank, which failed to walk him through the correct paperwork or warn him about a potential mortgage hike; his city, which penalized him for somebody else’s error; and even his employer, a construction company he likes even though he got laid off. “I was middle class for 10 years, but it’s done,” Whitmire says. “I’ve lost my home. I live in a trailer now because of a mortgage company and an incompetent government.”

    http://www.nationaljournal.com/features/restoration-calls/in-nothing-we-trust-20120419

    • For the life of me, I do not understand how anyone can be truly “independent” enough to be willing to vote for either party on any given year. In my mind, you’re either paying attention to the issues or you’re not. People need to understand that they do have the option of not casting a vote for a particular line. If a Lefty doesn’t like the Democrat running in the race, then they can always just not cast a vote for that office; they don;t have to vote for the republican and make things worse. If a Righty doesn’t like the GOP choice, he has the same options.

      People who wait until right before the election to make up their mind which party they want to vote for clearly haven’t been paying attention to what’s been going on, which is why Republican won the House. Democracy really doesn’t work for the People if they don’t stay involved and pay attention to what’s going on. It’s also why Republicans win elections – voter ignorance.

      • In a another online forum many moons ago I used to take on the “independents” who felt they were big thinkers by being able to switch party every year. I started calling them “wishy washy.” They didn’t like it much.

        But I agree. There are certain core values that are going to tend to push you toward (even slightly) toward one end or the other. I’m sure there are some where certain issues don’t matter or resonate to them, but there just seem to be way too many of those folks.

      • Take a look at France – they have *four* candidates with more than 10% of the vote and a fifth with 9%. There is a clear opportunity to choose a variety of people of wide ranging politics. The far right got 20% of the vote and this ‘protest’ vote will do Sarko in.

    • It appears that Obama was the only one trying to help the Whitmires, but he’s getting the blame for the bullshit Gov Daniels and the bank pulled. That makes no sense.

      Maybe he thinks President Romney will be more interested in helping him?

  3. IMHO, I don’t, for a second, believe that the election will be as close as the polls tell the pundits to say it will be. That said, I think it’s good that they’re saying it will be close, because we need to make sure Lefties to not be complacent and go out and vote this November. And not just for Obama, but all the downticket candidates, too. When voter turnout is low, Republicans win.

    I was trying to find election results for the French Elections, but I couldn’t.

    • “French conservative leader Nicolas Sarkozy has narrowly lost to Socialist challenger Francois Hollande in the first round of the president election. Mr Sarkozy and Mr Hollande will now go into a run-off vote on 6 May.The far right’s Marine Le Pen took around a fifth of the vote while the far left’s Jean-Luc Melenchon won 12%, and the centrist Francois Bayrou took 9%, based on incomplete estimates.”

      – The Beeb.

      • Thanks, TtT. I wonder how the final election will play out with the people who voted for the other three candidates voting for either of the two run-off candidates.

  4. in other news,Turtle is reading ‘Unbroken’ by Laura Hillenbrand. I’ve reached the part where the Japanese are torturing the captured US servicemen in their ‘interrogation camp’ – and yes, they are being waterboarded …. until they pass out.

    • Yeah, but think of all the vital intel the Japanese got! Ask Dick Cheney, he’ll tell you!

  5. Newest swing state polls show Obama’s lead over RMoney at around 8 points. The key? WOMEN. They are becoming more aware of the Haindmaid’s tale future the Republicons have in store for them.
    Obama strategist Jim Messina points out
    “Romney’s run to the right may be winning him Tea Party votes,” Messina said in an interview, but he says it’s demonstrated that “American women can’t trust Romney to stand up for them.”

    Chickens, roosting, in play.

    • Did you see where he ran back to the microphone yesterday and claimed he was for keeping college loan interest low when he had just claimed he was for increasing the rate? What a moron.

  6. The American people are getting what they deserve for their ignorance and apathy.

    Mitt, this my cake moment for you.
    Newt and Ron, same story.

    • While I agree the people are at fault it doesn’t help that we have 24/7 propaganda being fed to the stupid.

  9. Poll: One-Fourth Of Americans Less Likely To Vote Because Of Super PACs

    A new poll by the Brennan Center of Justice found that one in four Americans is less likely to vote in 2012 because of fears that candidates are catering to interests of super PAC donors.

    “Unlimited spending by supposedly independent super PACs is creating widespread perceptions of corruption and undermining public confidence that elected officials serve in the public interest,” Adam Skaggs, senior counsel for the Brennan Center’s Democracy program, said in a statement. “The perception that super PACs are corrupting government is making Americans disillusioned, and an alarming number say they are less likely to vote this year.”

    WTF? This is exactly when people make sure they DO vote. Arrgggghhhhhhh!!!!

    • If they were convinced that either party was willing to do *anything* about it, they probably should vote…. but since no one is invested in doing anything about it – there is no choice on offer.

        • Would be an interesting thread for our lawyer to kick off – what exactly *are* the options for getting corporate personhood out of American politics?

          Constitutional amendment to clarify 14th amendment and eliminate over a hundred years of bullshit case law? It took 10 years to figure out Prohibition was a bunch of bollocks and that was easy to understand and popular

          Is that it? Ccos if it is it won’t happen

    • One of the ‘unintended consequences’ that the SCROTUS assured us weren’t in play in their poorly disguised attack on democracy.

  12. Ann Romney can relate…

    “I know what it’s like to finish the laundry and to look in the basket five minutes later and it’s full again,” Romney said. “I know what it’s like to pull all the groceries in and see the teenagers run through and then all of sudden all of the groceries you just bought a few hours ago are gone. I know what it’s like to get up early in the morning and get them off to school. I know what it’s like get up in the middle of the night when they’re sick And I know what it’s like to struggle and to have those concerns that all mothers have.”

    But you didn’t have to search the sofa and car cushions for quarters to put into the machine, or decide if you have enough gas to get to the laundromat and back, and still have enough gas to get to work until payday. You had enough money to buy more groceries.

    “Some people think that I didn’t work,” Romney said. “I didn’t have help for many, many years.”

    Romney said it was only after the birth of her youngest son, Craig, when she had to have emergency surgery, that she enlisted help with running the household.

    “I love the fact that there are also women out there that don’t have a choice, that they must go to work and they still have to raise the kids,” Romney said. “Sometimes life isn’t easy for any of us.”

    Uhhh, what? What the fuck does that mean? You love the fact that other women don’t have the choices you have? You love the fact that although many of them would rather raise their own children, but simply don’t have that choice available to them? That makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, does it? Did you “mis-speak” like Hilary Rosen?

    Ann Romney can go fuck herself.

    • WTF does that last statement even mean? She loves the idea of moms having to work while raising their kids? I thought Mittens had a foot-in-mouth problem, but she’s possibly worse at this.

    • Notice that no one commented after the article? Z, maybe you should ‘add your thoughts’ heh.

      Note also that, once poor, poor Ann got her kids off to school, she didn’t have to immediately run out the door to go to work. When she had to get up in the middle of the night for a sick child, she didn’t have to worry about the possibility of having to take a day off from work. Once she got done with the laundry and the basket was full again, she still had plenty of time to do another load of wash. And, as Z pointed out, when the kids wiped out the groceries, she didn’t have to worry about whether or not she could afford to buy more.

      Oh, yeah, sure she can relate to working moms. The woman has no fucking clue how stupid her remarks are.

      • Like someone in the comments on TP said: How would she feel if someone said “I love the fact that there are also women out there who have MS, that they must go to work and they still have to raise the kids. Sometimes life isn’t easy for any of us.”

      • I thought we should give her little speech the Doocy treatment with a little editing:

        “I know what it’s like to finish the laundry [in one of the three dryers] and to look in the basket five minutes later and it’s full [of brand-new clothes] again,” Romney said. “I know what it’s like to [drop a few hundred bucks on] groceries and see the teenagers run through [on the way to polo lessons] and then all of sudden all of the groceries you just bought a few hours ago are gone [and you need to phone for another delivery]. I know what it’s like to get up early in the morning and get them off to [prep] school [and have to hustle to get to my pedicure]. I know what it’s like to get [Mitt] up in the middle of the night when they’re sick And I know what it’s like to struggle [with seating arrangements] and to have those concerns that all [obscenely wealthy] mothers have.”

        • Right on!

          Santorum is still on the ballot in PA. It will be interesting to see how many votes he gets. I don’t know if the news will report his votes but I can get the number of votes from my precinct as they will be posted on the door, early tonight as turnout is REALLY LOW.

    • That looks like a hooker scam site to me. Notwithstanding the model with her legs pinched together on the cover page…
      Attractive people fly for free, if they’re willing to accompany a fat slob like Rush Limpbaugh.

    • Why and when did Republicans become so proud of their inhumanity toward their fellow human beings? (And, yes, I am giving them the benefit of the doubt when I called them human beings.) Must all their runs for office consist of bragging about who can be the biggest asshole? We have to try to get the media to start revealing the fact that what the Republicans are about is selfishness and greed, and what the Democrats are about is less of that and more of being kind to their fellow citizens and human beings. Not all Democrats are like that (like the Blue Dogs), but I think many are.

      • I think the Blue Dogs think that a Mitt Romney presidency will be good times all over again….. I think they’ll just be stuck up on the roof and have to sit in their own Romney until 2016

  18. I voted today in the PA primary. Santorum is still on the ballot and I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets a significant number of votes today. As for the “new voter ID” requirement, the voters are being told that today is “practice for November” and we are asked for a photo ID. I told the judge of elections who by the way is a Democrat and does a really good job at the polls, that I was aware that I wasn’t required to show ID today but I will be required to do so in November. With that, I showed my driver’s license and said, “I don’t look anything like that picture” which is true. My hair was blond and it was quite a bit longer when I had my picture taken and today I was wearing a hat with greasy, short, brown hair sticking out the back (I had a massage earlier). We all laughed because I know these people. The judge thanked me for my sense of humor and told me that some voters were really angry and loud about this voter ID requirement. This anger not only comes from the Democrats in the area, but the Republicans are pissed off, too. Out here in the sticks of PA, privacy is highly valued. There are many “guns and bible” people living in the non-metropolitan areas of PA and they don’t like having people, especially government people, asking them questions.

    I did my civic duty :)

    • Here in Arizona, which seems to be a proving ground for ALEC legislation like voter ID and immigration laws and draconian requirements before one can get an abortion, hardly anyone got mad about having to show ID when they instituted this several years ago… they just follow sheep-like to slaughter.

      • The teabaggers in PA are all about “freedom” and gov’mint ID’s are a violation of “freedom”. The PA government is being ruled by the Republics with sleezy Corbett leading the pack and all the laws that were written since the take-over that began in 2011 are right out of the ALEC book of prescribed legislation.

    • I have long wondered how the paranoid Reichwhiners will react to the gubmint asking for ID. Plus, what happened to anonymous voting? I’ve known of quite a few politicians that I wouldn’t want to know who voted against them.

      • There was a deputy in uniform at the poll today. In 15 years, this was the FIRST time that there was a deputy in uniform working at the poll. I’m wondering if the Republics were expecting trouble. I voted at 1:00 and I was number 86. There are approximately 1000 registered voters in my precinct. Looking forward to 8:30 this evening to read the results. I heard that a voter was turned away in another precinct because they didn’t have ID. Typical fucked up PA politics. The voting in PA is ass backwards.

        • Looks like Bank of America has stopped paying them to stand outside banks punching any hippies who chance to come by.

          • I just found out that this was a constable and that the constable can often be seen at polls. In all my years, there has NEVER been a constable inside wearing a uniform. It was really weird.

    • Fox News has to be careful. They are indisputably opposed to Barack Obama’s existence (let alone his presidency.) But if, as they like to claim, the “media is in the tank for Obama,” then wouldn’t that prove, by their own logic, that they aren’t really media?

      • Heads are exploding in basements, trailers and suvivalist bunkers in Red States across the land….. well those who just read Wayne’s comment here anyway.

      • Since they seem to suffer from a complete inability to recognize irony or hypocrisy; no. The idea that FAUX”News” isn’t a genuine news outlet will never cross their minds even if Bill0 and inSeannity go on a month long tirade proclaiming that they aren’t really a news outlet.

  21. Oh, the humanity…

    Top Republicans Accuse President Obama Of Making Economy Worse, Say America ‘May Never Recover’

    WASHINGTON — America’s top two Republican leaders fired blistering broadsides Tuesday at President Barack Obama, saying that the president had made the economy and the future worse and that the United States “may never recover.”

    House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) laid down the starkest warning, telling Fox News, “America can’t live for four more years with Barack Obama as president. His policies will turn America in a direction that we may never recover from.”

    • And that freak, Issa, has been running around claiming that Obama is presiding over the “most corrupt” government in history. It seems to me that most of the corruption is left over from Bushco.

      • If I were Issa, I’d watch how much I talked about corruption. He may be the richest member of Congress, but he’s also the only member with a criminal record (I think).

    • Doesn’t matter what the truth is… those that want to believe it will believe it…

    • We can’t live another four years with the repiggies filibustering EVERYTHING that might actually help the economy.

    • “America may never recover’ – sounds like a weepy Boner country western tune.

  22. Romney’s Etch A Sketch Campaign Begins — Daily Intel

    omney has now endorsed Obama’s call for extending lower rates for federally-subsidized loans. Romney says he supports the measures “in part because of the extraordinarily poor conditions in the job market.” Apparently, he has been informed of the poor job market since wrapping up the nomination, when he was still advising graduates concerned about debt to acquire a high-paying job.

    One could get whiplash watching Romney’s change in positions.

    • “Our prayer circle has never failed to acheive our hosts granting of the scripture we pray. for direct intervention against you as you are a true demon to America. Luke 9:1 We will not stop our prayers until you stop the evil you do with Lucifer on a daly basis. Luke 9:1″

      In Christ’s name we hope you die, mutherfukker/.
      Xian’s and their silly mind games. Never fails to amuse me. Puke 9:2

    • Ah yes. The “we love Jesus so much we wish he would kill you” church. They’re the only human agency that has killed as many people as smallpox.

    • In America which is Jesus’ country we can pray all we want for anything we want.

      Beyond idiotic.

  30. Happy Birthday! Gideon Sundback.

    When Gideon Sundback introduced his “Hookless No. 2″ zipper – a design that would forever change the fashion industry – the world greeted his invention with a resounding “Meh.”

    Tuesday’s Google doodle celebrates the Swedish engineer and the zipper, a ubiquitous feature for today’s pants, boots, backpacks, and dresses. But when the “Hookless No. 2″ debuted in 1914, people didn’t get it. Why ditch buttons, hooks, and clasps, they asked? Do clothes really need newfangled technology?…

    • I bet he also Believes that Colbert is a “Conservative Christian”. Why else would he go on the show to display his idiocy?

    • Well he is correct – evolution has absolutely no use for an imaginary Sky Wizard … Tex speaketh sooth.

      • Okay, one more, in Robin’s honor, one of the prettiest Bee Gees songs. This was from 2001, but Robin still had his chops enough to put everything into it.

        One of my personal favorites, “I Started a Joke”

  39. Out of ~ 1000 registered voters, only 161 voted today at the precinct where I vote. Here are the Republic results for President: Romney 54 votes, Santorum 18 votes, Gingrich 14 votes, Paul 17 votes.

    • You could also interpret that as ~946 people voting “Not Romney” by either picking someone else or staying home. They’ll report that as ~34%, but it’s really more like ~5.4%.

      • Indeed. One of the stories that the “librul media” doesn’t seem to want to report is the dismal turnout in many, many, GOP primaries. Even when the field was full there wasn’t a one of them who would bring me out and I get the impression that a whole lot of GOoPers feel the same way.

  40. When members of the armed forces eliminate public enemy #1, that has nothing to do with the President.

    But when the Secret Service hire hookers, and the GSA is blowing tax money in Vegas, and now the RNC embroils Obama in the North Carolina Democrats’ sexual harassment scandal, it’s proof of his failure as a leader.

    • The only qualification for being a Republican Senator in a red state is the ability to reach into your ass to pull stuff out at a moment’s notice.

    • How did he manage without a chart?

      Who was the reich-winger complaining that homosexuals were security risks? Only closeted self-loathing, Republican homosexuals are blackmail targets. ‘Out’ gay Democrats have nothing to hide about their sex life, do they?

  42. Mittens lies:

    “I’ll tell you about how much I love this country, where someone like my dad, who grew up poor and never graduated from college, could pursue his dreams and work his way up to running a great car company,” Romney. “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.”

    All he has to do is keep lying, and since it comes so naturally to him, it shouldn’t be too difficult.

    BTW Mittens seems to be trying to hijack Obama’s “only in America could a story like mine be possible.” But he doesn’t do it well.

    • It doesn’t work quite as well when it is your father who pulled himself up be his bootstraps when you’re the one running for President.

  43. “he once sold paint from the trunk of his car.”

    Why would anyone buy paint from a car trunk? Maybe he sold paint out of the trunk of his car.

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