The Watering Hole: Tuesday May 1, Flip Flop

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Boy, I had an interesting week. In the Chinese sense. Thanks BnF for your post last Tuesday.

In the few moments I had for the internet, I came across this video of Mitt Romney blasting John Kerry for ..Flip Flopping.

Enjoy!

This is our Open Thread. How was your week?

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128 thoughts on “The Watering Hole: Tuesday May 1, Flip Flop”

  1. Happy May Day!
    –
    Mittens is delusional. Projection seems to be in GoOPer’s DNA!

  2. Conservatives do tend to think alike, and maybe that’s why they assume that everyone else thinks the same way they do. It would also explain why they see nothing wrong with racist jokes, because they think everyone else believes the stereotypes as much as they do. Look, I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the sanest person inthe qworld, but conservatives really are batscat crazy.

    • I think that the thing about racists jokes show a lack of knowledge or experience with being around that which you are joking about. I said my share of racist jokes growing up in a very conservative state and never thought a thing about it. You are right in that respect, everyone did it…until I got to college and started meeting people of other backgrounds and other races.. Exposure cured me of my racism… (another reason the right wants to increase the cost of higher education so that the diversity isn’t an issue and you can stir the fear of “other” for their agenda?)

      • I was the same way. Growing up in a conservative household, I used to tell those jokes until I actually met the kind of people I used to joke about and learned how wrong the stereotypes were.

  3. I can understand how Mitt Romney could get, say, seven “legitimate” votes in the 2012 election: one from Ann, five from his sons, plus his own. Beyond that, whatever the total winds up to be will effectively reveal and define the total number of imbecilic American voters present across the country. Far as I’m concerned, if he gets more than fifty total votes it’s high time to ponder the notion of leaving this electoral mess behind and relocating on an isolated island or somesuch, a place where there are no idiots allowed … perhaps a place where the population consists mostly of birds and giant tortoises. Intelligent creatures, i.o.w. The change would be profoundly pleasant I’m sure.

  4. I noticed this morning that according to my thermometer, at 7AM MDT the outside temp was 55 degrees F, the warmest morning we’ve had in months. I attribute it to the fact that 25 miles up the road on the southern edge of Pueblo there stands one of the major causes of global warming, a wind turbine which, according to Fox News, warms up the night air. I’m hoping that people wake up soon and demand the damn thing be dismantled and removed before we all perish from the heat!

  5. I love Mittens dissembling on his previous ‘Let the automakers go through a structured bankruptcy” stance.
    Only problem? Requires private investors to pick up the debt. At that time it was perfectly clear there were no takers.
    Nice Try Mittens. Asswipe.

  8. Remember, it’s not Flip-Flopping if you have an Etch a Sketch.

  10. I watched that whole thing and Mittens hasn’t gotten any better at giving a speech. He sure can stir up a crowd, huh? Those old folks seemed more interested in their breakfast than what Mitt had to say.

  11. I think a good campaign song for Rmoney would be a variation of a song from Fiddler on the Roof – “Yes, I am a Rich Man…”

    • Did you see the other link to the ski jump one:

      “Just remember to take your mittens off before wiping” —–> Cheeseflap!

    • Whew! there’s a pane of glass…for a moment there, I thought….Waaaaaaahoooooohooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

    • Well, my first thought was, at least you’ll know when to have the septic tank pumped.

  13. Thanks badmoodman, I have been unable to tear myself away from “inappropriate test answers from children”

        • Unless something changes, everyone in the workforce will wind up like Mary.

      • Lockheed or Martin? I worked for Martin in Denver back in the late sixties, but was in the aerospace arm and not the Titan missile factory.

        • I worked for Lockheed-Martin after their merger. I started with IBM, who sold their federal systems to Loral, who sold us to LM. I worked on undersea systems, primarily sonar signal processing.

    • Hmm, I didn’t see SAIC on that list – maybe not big enough in hardware – but in terms of surveillance and information systems related to the intelligence agencies ….

      Just to remind everyone – the US spends more on ‘defense’ than the next 15 countries combined together! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures

      That’s right – add up the military budgets of China, Russia, UK, France, Japan, Saudi Arabia, India, Germany, Italy, Brazil, South Korea, Australia, Canada and Turkey and you still don’t get the same $s as the $710B+ US miltary budget.

      And of that list only one has actually attacked the US (and they got away with it) – Saudi Arabia.

      Hello! Anyone home? Anyone?

      • I was going to close that last ‘bold’ after the thrid last line – sorry ;)

      • Yes, well, harrummph. We must cut out the fat from our deficit riddled budget. You know, food stamps for lazy welfare queens, unemployment benefits for slackers who want a free lunch, blah blah bonerisms ad nauseum…..

        • Is it me, or is the conservative mantra about “no food stamps, no welfare, no ‘free rides’ etc…” explicitly a re-statement of the Communist anti-parasite law (1961? I think? … or it may have been modified slightly in 1961….). Sorry about no link, the google tubes aren’t my friend, and the gerbil running the wheel of my computer seems to have a bum knee.

          The gist of the Communist anti-parasite law is that “He who does not work does not eat,” as I understand it.

          If my correlation is correct, I find it intersting that the conservatives cling so fiercely to a ‘filthy Communist ideal.’ Wonder if someone should point this out to them?

          • I think Lenin wrote about it, though he probably meant it to apply to the Romneys rather than the poor. The phrase itself is from the Bible.

            • The communists cited the xtian bib-le? I am not questioning you, I am just surprised. I absolutely have that phrase as being used by the communist party of that period (it’s in a book right here… I swear!… though I’d have to find the page again….).

              The anti-parasite law allowed non-elected officials, with no specific educational requirements, to re-locate anyone who was deemed a parasite on the communist society (by not putting in their work). Of course, as most things in russia, it was seriously abused and often used to re-locate (banish) political activists and ‘dissenters.’

          • cagey, I can’t remember seeing you here, so welcome to the Zoo and forgive me if my memory serves me ill.

            The anti-parasite law you are talking about is a hallmark of just about any totalitarian regime. The Nazis had similar legislation, the Fascists in Italy and, you are correct, the communists as well. If you base a society on hate and oppression, you obviously need to have something to hate. Of course the communists abused this law, but same laws by fascists have been abusive by default, because they were triggered by the need of a hate object. Read up on Marine Le Pen nowadays in France, Swiss abuse of the Roma people, Orban in Hungary. I hand it to communism, that the obligation to work was mirrored by the right to work, a society based on solidarity needs everyone to take part. What communists didn’t do, they wouldn’t take work away from a huge number of people and then brand them as parasites. You wouldn’t be able to get the job of your choice maybe, but work would be given to you. And I am not denying there was forced labor, too. Albeit. Making humans redundant, sadly even in every sense of the word, that’s a capitalist trait.

            I am, due to the restrictions of a short comment, not vying for academic accuracy here, just some general thoughts that are, I believe not really far off the mark. Nevermind I have a tendency to sound confusing.

            • S’okay. Not confusing. Thanks for the detail.

              I’ve been here before, and a bit on TP before that — cagey cretin, sonofcagey, and (Bush’s first term) Mystic Agent.

  15. So, President Obama is not allowed to take any credit for the death of Osama, but if the mission had failed I’m certain he would have received all of the blame. I used to think Mitt was just an empty suit, blowing with the wind, ready to espouse anything if it would provide a means to advance his pathetic political career. I still believe all that, but now I can add petty and mean-spirited to the list.

    • Just like the market continually going up and Obama is never given any credit but it fell slightly the other day and his name came up. From the video above it is clear Mitt was a clumsy nerd and always will be. He wants to be president to prove wrong all the people who picked on him for being a dork.

    • Oh they’ll be pissing soon enough and we’ll hear no end of “Occupy is violent” and “the real domestic terror threat is not right wing gun freaks, but the violent left”.

      • Yeah he’s kinda saying that there was no intent to apprehend, which frankly he doesn’t know and is only assuming. He is bang on though that the policy of dropping bombs on people hoping to get one or two ‘bad guys’ is counter-productive and that Obama has done things Bush never did.

    • While I’m glad Osama got what he deserved, I do agree that it made no difference operationally, and that continuing to kill random Afghans and Pakistanis will create more enemies than it will eliminate.

    • Considering that the towers on 9/11 had not finished falling and the news was blasting pictures of OBL as the ‘mastermind’ behind it all, and all the cowboy rhetoric of Bush to follow, the political necessity for America WAS to ‘get’ OBL. Wasn’t one of Bush’s rallying cries, “Dead or alive”?

      I would say (or the ex-military in me would say) that capture or killing of OBL was a national necessity, at least because of the bluster Bush made about it. At least, until he gave up on chasing down his ‘family friend’… I mean, ‘sworn enemy’. Not as a matter of pride, but of international politics.

      OBL was not a pacifist cheese-maker in a third world country — he ‘made’ himself an enemy of America (9/11 nonwithstanding). He was a “bad man” — a dangerous sociopathic fanatic who revelled in the death of random innocent people, and the death of “his own”. I think the world is a better place without him.

      That said, I think that it is relatively rare to find in history moments where a single person being captured or killed has ended any aggressive movement. Capturing Saddam Hussein did not end the Iraq conflict. People fanatically driven by any ideology will continue to follow that ideology.

      But President Obama owns that as a ‘successful event’ under his leadership, and ALL politicians, from all nations, use their ‘successes’, and rightly so. However, making a “big deal” out of this event I think is far more of a response to the endless barrage of the conservative narrative, for to a great part the conservatives have controlled the direction and tone of our political landscape, and their narrative is ubiquitously violent. Throwing this event out there so prominently is to put it back in their face (“we” did it better than you). What it does not do, however, is break the fanaticism of conformity that they live in. Had Bush ‘got’ OBL, we would STILL be hearing about it, in gory detail, and on a daily basis. The conservatives do not ‘appreciate’ the act because it was not ‘one of their own’ that led it. I think it is useful to keep it out front as an ‘accomplishment’, but it will not sway conservative fanatics to support the president, and I hope that they do realize that.

    • That was great!
      He ‘s right of course, Americans used to believe that our blessings came with commensurate responsibilities.

    • Now I feel homesick. Whatever happened to make a Bavarian feel homesick for Britain, I don’t know.

  20. Rupert Murdoch ‘Not A Fit Person’ To Run Major Company, Phone Hacking Report Says

    A parliamentary committee has judged that Rupert Murdoch is “not a fit person” to run a major international company such as News Corp. due to his handling of the phone hacking scandal.

    The verdict, from the Culture, Media and Sport committee in the House of Commons, is an unexpectedly damning one. Committee members made clear on Tuesday that it was not a unanimous one, setting up a political fight when the entire House votes on some of its findings.

    What does it take to run a major corporation; a greedy streak much larger than average, and empathy much lower than average. Murdoch almost seems ideal.

    • Well, if it was the corporation that did these things that they are accused of and corporations are people, then throw the damn thing in jail or give it the death penalty.

  22. Keith Olbermann ‏ @KeithOlbermann
    Romney seeks to depoliticize Bin Laden death by staging non-political event with Rudy Giuliani. Title: “A Clown, a Blurb, and 9/11.”

  25. It will be interesting to read what the right-wing nut jobs have to say.

    Obama in Afghanistan to sign security pact

    Under intense security and the cover of night, President Barack Obama slipped into Afghanistan on Tuesday to sign an agreement cementing a U.S. commitment to the nation after the long and unpopular war comes to an end.
    Obama was to be on the ground for about seven hours in Afghanistan,

  26. Predictable:

    Conservatives force Grenell’s ouster

    …From the left, Grenell proved to be controversial because of a series of social-media messages that targeted women in politics and media with sexist language. From the right, Grenell was criticized for being gay, which some religious right activists found outrageous because, well, they just don’t like gay people.

    Today, Jennifer Rubin reports that Grenell has been “hounded form the Romney campaign by anti-gay conservatives,” just two weeks after joining Team Romney.

    • Hmmm. I think I disagree with the author’s accusation that mittens was not showing backbone by suporting the aide — the republicans are focused on ideological purity. “Different is bad” to them. They do not promote any sort of new ideas or free thinking — only new ways to enforce their old, stagnant ideology. Re-reading a dusty book in the home library, Political Institutions (C:1962), filled with a wide range of essays, the conservative ideology (down to “protect the corporations, uber-wealthy, and MIC, etc.”), was apparently prevelant then, as well.

    • File this under: “Well, that was quick.” Although it still amazes me why any gay person would belong to the Republican party or work for them in the first place given their obvious hatred of teh gay.

  27. Grenell’s statement was revealing:

    “…While I welcomed the challenge to confront President Obama’s foreign policy failures and weak leadership on the world stage, my ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign. I want to thank Governor Romney for his belief in me and my abilities and his clear message to me that being openly gay was a non-issue for him and his team.”

    But it was very much an issue for the base:

    “The ongoing pressure from social conservatives over his appointment and the reluctance of the Romney campaign to send Grenell out as a spokesman while controversy swirled left Grenell essentially with no job.”

    But here’s the thing, he was John Bolton’s spokesman. If a Boltonite can’t be allowed to speak about foreign policy because he is gay, is there any place for any gays in the GOP? No.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/exclusive-richard-grenell-hounded-from-romney-campaign-by-anti-gay-conservatives/2012/05/01/gIQAccGcuT_blog.html

    • bmm, if I was Romney I’d need a shower every five minutes I would feel so dirty about being myself.

    • From the same article:
      “Right Turn has learned from multiple sources that the senior officials from the Romney campaign and respected Republicans not on the campaign contacted Ric Grenell over the weekend in an attempt to persuade him not to leave the campaign.”

      Did they want him there, not because of his experience, but as the “token gay”? As in, “See! See! We’ve got a gay in our camp, so gays should come vote for mittens!” (but said in a whisper, of course)

      • Rmoney has now alienated just about every “group”: Women; Hispanic; LGBT.
        Certainly they felt having Grenell would assist in persuading “teh gay” to vote against their own best interest and mark that Mittens box..

      • Well, NOW my blood pressure is up. That guy needs a visit from some bikers with baseball bats. Just sayin’…. (normally I’m a very pacifistic person, but a few topics get me…. grrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!……..)

        • I don’t know if it’s the same guy. I heard that some “pastor” had recommended such treatment for the gayness. Unbelievable.

          • Beyond “unbelievable” — it’s “unacceptable”… I know, preaching to the choir here on that….

  31. Breeze Beretta Johnston.

    Geeze, the white trash from Alaska just keeps on comin.’

  33. Hackers Pick Google’s Pocket With Mac Virus

    A virus infecting Macintosh computers is picking Google’s pocket by hijacking advertising “clicks,” tallying as much as $10,000 daily, according to Internet security firm Symantec.

    A component of the widespread Flashback virus targets Google search queries made using Chrome, Safari, or Firefox browsers and directs people to pages dictated by the hackers, Symantec said Tuesday in a blog post.

    Those clicking online ads can be re-routed to websites of different merchants or publishers, with hackers getting paid the eight cents or so that would have been paid to Google for the referral, analysis of the virus showed.

    I thought nobody ever hacked Apple. Anybody experiencing unusual redirects?

    • There have been reports of a trojan horse virus on macs in April, but they have a security patch since April 13th, I think. But I have read that macs are becoming more targets lately just because their market share is increasing.

  34. Obama speech from Afghanistan.

    Transition to Afghan security forces to lead combat op next year.
    U.S. in support role.
    Reductions to continue with more and more troops coming home.

    Enduring partnership w/Afghan: as you stand up you will not stand alone.
    Shared commitment to combat terrorism.
    Will not be building permanent bases in this country.

    http://blog.al.com/wire/2012/05/obama_addresses_nation_from_af.html

    • I’ll be looking for the transcript as the above is incomplete (opened it up late).

  37. Favorite Occupy May Day sign:
    “Regulate Banks, Not Vaginas”

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