The Watering Hole: Wednesday, October 24, 2012: The Sketchy Deal

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Are we there yet?

The debates are finally over, and the top contenders have hit the campaign trail. Polls show the race is within a Diebold. And Romney has ties to a corporation that makes electronic voting machines sold to several key states.

Four years ago, Republicans joined hands and closed ranks in a concerted effort to prevent this country from fully recovering from the Great Recession they caused, just so they could use the continuing economic doldrums against President Obama. And that’s exactly what Romney did throughout the debates. And roughly half the country is ready, willing and able to buy

THE SKETCHY DEAL:

All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol’s World

THIS IS TODAY, OUR DAILY THREAD

WOULD YOU BUY A USED CAR FROM THIS MAN?

HOW ABOUT HIRING HIM TO BE IN CHARGE OF THE LARGEST MILITARY ON EARTH?

HOW ABOUT GIVING HIM POWER OVER WOMEN’S UTERUSES?

DO YOU TRUST HIM TO PUT YOUR INTERESTS FIRST?

?

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142 thoughts on “The Watering Hole: Wednesday, October 24, 2012: The Sketchy Deal”

  2. Welcome to the Zoo, helenofmarlowe.

    Our voting system is awful. Every state has their own policies and procedures. Some states are progressive and keeping up with the times such as Oregon, Washington and New Jersey. Other states, like Pennsylvania, are stuck in the dark ages.

    My question to the public is, “who do want to answer the 3:00 am phone call?” It can’t be Mitt as we don’t know which Mitt will answer the call. Ultra-Conservative Mitt? Moderate Mitt? Peacenik Mitt? Obama has already demonstrated that he can take the call and act appropriately.

  3. Question for any and all WillardRat supporters…How many Iranian oil tankers were unloaded at U.S. ports this year and last?

    Oh.
    Right.
    Zero.
    Just another example of the emptiness that occupies that suit.

    • ….Israel….Israel…Israel…..

      Who is in charge of this country’s foreign policy again?

    • Cancer and heart disease are God’s will too, right?
      Don’t seek treatment, just roll with it. No need for that pesky health insurance either.

    • By this logic, the anal rape that Mr Mourdock so richly deserves will also be God’s will, along with whatever complications ensue.

    • Men can forcefully fuck whomever they want without repercussion or punishment?

      The Sky Wizard has waived his magic wand over rapists?

  5. We watched debate 3 last night. We don’t have TV so had to do the YouTube version, but what the heck, the message still comes through. Message? Romney and ‘message’ in a single context? Hmm (pause for writing note to self).

    Ok, onward. Maybe it was all the talk about Iran during the debate, or more likely maybe it was that coupled with my (unfortunate) familiarity with the Republican party and its zipperheaded candidate named Mitt. Whichever, I started to laugh out loud as Mitt spoke of Iran, of how dangerous and nasty a place it is, of how Ahmadinejad should be charged with ‘genocide’ even though . . . well, you know the routine. I was instantly reminded of — and recited OUT LOUD! — a long-familiar and favorite quatrain from ancient Persian (Persia and Iran = same place, in case any Republicans should happen to be reading this and feeling confused thereby) poet-mathematician Omar Khayyam. He wrote the PERFECT! description of the Romney campaign’s ONLY enduring message!

    A Moment’s Halt–a momentary taste
    Of BEING from the Well amid the Waste–
    And LO!–the phantom Caravan has reach’d
    The NOTHING it set out from–Oh, make haste!

    And yep, “the phantom [Romney] Caravan” did, indeed, reach (yet one more time), “The NOTHING it set out from”! (with all available “haste”, of course)

    I still can’t imagine how that nitwit fuckstick named Romney can possibly get more than fifty votes nationwide (the fact that all fifty will come from people I happen to know here in Pueblo County, CO is beside the point, or should be, at least). The possibility of fifty-ONE votes for Romney does serve to beg the question(s), however, the questions which read: suppose the idiot wins? Is there a place somewhere on the planet to which one can escape? A place where sanity still prevails? Or is the entire (human) world as retarded as the USA has obviously devolved to become?

    Life can be hard, someone once said. But Jeebus, THIS hard? C’mon! :roll:

  6. First of all, Willard wasn’t, isn’t and never will be a “automobile man” as he puts it….his father was, and Willard reaped the millions whether inherited or gifted to him via a stock portfolio.

    George RMoney was a car man…..he reinvested some of his salary and bonuses back into AMC when he thought his earning were too high. he had a great relationship with the UAW, and he started profit sharing for AMC’s employees, something unheard of in the car industry.

    All this brings me to my point….I want to see Mittie’s birth certificate. He had to have been adopted.

  8. Welcome to The Zoo, helenofmarlowe.

    We need to repeal the HAVA (Help America Vote Act) since it wants everyone to vote on electronic voting machines. To hell with that! Paper ballots were good enough for our Founding Fathers, so they ought to be good enough for the “Originalists” on the Supreme Court. (I’d love to hear them come up with some argument for why we should do things differently than the way the Framers envisioned.).

  9. The New Yorker picks apart Willard’s healthcare proposals:

    “[T]he truth is that, despite the rhetoric, Romney’s main concern isn’t to bring down over-all health-care costs. In fact, he has regularly attacked one of the Affordable Care Act’s most aggressive cost-cutting measures—the independent board that can make binding recommendations on how to cut Medicare spending. What he wants is just to have the government less involved in health care. Insofar as his plans would lower federal health-care spending, it’s not because of the power of the free market; it’s because a Romney Administration would simply have the government do less.

    Romney would eliminate the Obamacare subsidies for health insurance. He would turn Medicaid into a block grant to the states and trim its annual budget, with the result that its funding would lag behind the rise in health-care costs. And, if he adopts his running mate Paul Ryan’s premium-support plan for Medicare, he would make Medicare recipients pay higher premiums. With these changes, the government would spend less, but only because it would provide less, and Americans would get less. It’s like saving on defense by protecting only two-thirds of the country.”

    http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2012/10/29/121029ta_talk_surowiecki

    • And yet – Gekko/Galt leads on this issue…..

      … America will get the president it deserves.

    • It’s like saving on defense by protecting only two-thirds of the country.”

      Let’s make sure that the 1/3 is the gummint welfare dependent Red states.

    • By turning all of MediCaid to the states, he would be transferring a huge unfunded mandate to State and local governments.

    • Just to fill in the despicable details..
      Peterson, 37, was facing 25 charges of assault, rape and kidnapping related to attacks on the women. If convicted, Peterson could have been sent to prison for the rest of his life. Peterson was released from jail on Friday after posting $2 million in bond.
      Utah authorities charged Peterson with the crimes in July and said he met several of his alleged victims on Mormon dating websites. The attacks allegedly took place in March, July and December of 2011 and April 2012. It wasn’t clear when the fifth attack allegedly took place.

      Using a Mormon dating site? Wonder how much money he funnelled to WillardRat…

  12. Having it both ways — repiggie style:

    THEN:
    “I’ve struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God,” Mourdock said during the debate. “And even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”

    NOW:
    “God creates life, and that was my point. God does not want rape, and by no means was I suggesting that he does. Rape is a horrible thing, and for anyone to twist my words otherwise is absurd and sick,” stated Richard Mourdock.

    Yeah, no. Not helping, Dick.

    • So he was for God intending rape/pregnancy before he was against God wanting rape/pregnancy?

    • Too bad that God doesn’t exist in some fashion other than as a ‘creation’ by an uninformed and uneducated human ‘mind’. Then Mourdock’s arguments might carry an ounce or two of gravitas. Given reality, however, they ain’t worth the powder it’d take to … well, on the other hand, that would be fun to watch!

  13. Compare our current navy to our navy in 1916. Their measure “of state naval power is based on a state’s total number of warships (non-fighting ships are excluded) and each ship’s available firepower”:

    “In 1916, the US controlled roughly 11% of the world’s naval power. This is an impressive number that ranks the US third in naval strength behind the UK (34%) and Germany (19%), and just ahead of France (10%). What about the US navy in 2011? In 2011, the US controlled roughly 50% of the world’s naval power putting it in a comfortable lead in naval power ahead of Russia (11%).

    Remember the GOP’s guiding principle in foreign policy: be afraid.

    http://themonkeycage.org/blog/2012/10/23/how-strong-is-the-u-s-navy-really/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+themonkeycagefeed+%28The+Monkey+Cage%29

    • In 2012, history will record that the US democratic system finally worked out that facts were not important, who told the truth was not important, what the truth was, was not important.

      I made the mistake of overhearing several ‘undecided voters’ reviewing Rmoney’s barrage of lies and policy shifts blurted out on Monday evening – what he said? – Not in the least bit important, how he sounded and looked …. the only thing that counted.

      The Rmoney Experiment in lying 100% of the time and having no fixed positions whatsoever has taken him to the brink of the presidency …. his understanding of how American politics works is breathtakingly brilliant in its simplicity. The shallowness and venality of the man is unparalleled, for to do what he has done for 8 years must take a sociopathy that may be talked about for decades.

      • If Romney wins after running the most deceitful, fact-challenged presidential campaign in American history, it will set a new standard for how future campaigns will be waged and the American people will then truly get what they
        deserve.

        Unfortunately, they’ll take the rest of us down with them.

        • You know if it’s all image in the end, I move we put all campiagns in the future into a much more simple and entertaining format – say Dancing with the Stars, or American Idol, or even MXC Challenge (‘ Ooh, I think President Christie’s pre-election diet hasn’t made much of a dent, he’s at a disadvantage on the spaceball run here’ ‘Right you are Kenny’).

          At least we get some entertainment for all the corrupt corporate money drowing the country’s democracy.

    • Wasn’t DumpTruck, er TrumpDuck going to make some amazing announcement today? Was that it?

  17. Everything about Willard is fake:

    “The color he’s choosing is totally not believable. It’s a dead giveaway… They’re clearly using way too dark a formula for his skin tone, It’s just like, ‘Oh my God, he got sprayed. It’s just so obvious,’” – Anna Stankiewicz, owner of the New York-based spray tan company Suvara on Romney’s fake tan.

    Can we also agree that he obviously dyes his hair as well? The president at 51, has more gray hair than Romney at 65. The dye-job is particularly noticeable from the back, where the dark helmet gives way at certain angles to a white mop underneath.

    • Donald Trump’s October Surprise: He’s a twat! – But that’s not really a surprise, is it?

      • That video is just embarrassing. Rump does a big publicity thing leading up to THAT? I doubt Rump can feel embarrassment, but I just cringe.

    • We should start a collection. For every day that Trump (and maybe Palin) don’t go on TV, we’ll donate money to the same causes. The longer they stay quiet, the more those kids will benefit from our donations.

    • Beside being completely idiotic, this was a dog whistle that blew out the eardrums of dogs all over the world.

      Let’s see if the “boy” really is as smart as he claims to be. Let’s not pay any attention to the evidence of Obama’s intelligence that exists in front of our eyes; he’s black, and ya’ll know how diabolical they can be. *PUKE*

      This racist bullshit only makes people, who already weren’t voting for Obama, hate him even more, but Rump’s unintended consequence is that it enrages people who will vote for Obama, motivating them more than ever to get into the voting booth.

      • Trust me, that’s just how he talks when he’s trying to be the center of attention. We’ve been putting up with this joke of a failed entrepreneur for decades. He thinks that just because he isn’t currently in bankruptcy proceedings, he’s the last word on economics and politics. He isn’t. He’s a joke and he knows it. Zooey wonders if he feels embarrassed. No, he doesn’t. He has no shame. He’s nothing but a (currently) wealthy attention whore.

        I’ll be tweeting him some choice words when I get home tonight.

    • How odd. Those records don’t mean anything to me. I would like to see Donald Trumps birth certificate because I am not convinced that Trump is a human being.

    • WTF???? How will they pay to have roads maintained, and police to combat crime, and firefighters to keep the state from burning down at the first fire? How will they pay for teachers (such as the ones at the state university)? How will they pay to have their municipal water and sewage treatment plants maintained?

      Maybe there’s something about this I’m just not getting, but this strikes me as one of the most insanely stupid idea any legislature has passed, and I know it says other states have done it, but where and how and why?. BTW, I don’t blame this on any particular party, I blame it on a sick, twisted, idiotic, selfish, ideology called Conservatism.

    • I heard a discussion on the radio about this the other day. Tom Corbett is the piece of shit that the dumbfucks in PA voted for. He cut education funds and gave 4 of this staff a $10,000 raise. The staff was already making $140,000.00/year. The good news is that he has a 32% approval rating and that will not be enough to get him re-elected. If it was’t for the greater metropolitan area surrounding Philadelphia and the city itself and Pittsburgh and State College, Pennsylvania would be in competition with Alabama or Mississippi for the bottom of the food chain.

  21. Smack down against Ann Coulter for her vile hate.

    An Open Letter to Ann Coulter | The World of Special Olympics

    An Open Letter to Ann Coulter

    Posted on October 23, 2012 by

    John Franklin Stephens
    The following is a guest post in the form of an open letter from Special Olympics athlete and global messenger John Franklin Stephens to Ann Coulter after this tweet during last night’s Presidential debate.
    Dear Ann Coulter,
    Come on Ms. Coulter, you aren’t dumb and you aren’t shallow.  So why are you continually using a word like the R-word as an insult?
    I’m a 30 year old man with Down syndrome who has struggled with the public’s perception that an intellectual disability means that I am dumb and shallow.  I am not either of those things, but I do process information more slowly than the rest of you.  In fact it has taken me all day to figure out how to respond to your use of the R-word last night.
    I thought first of asking whether you meant to describe the President as someone who was bullied as a child by people like you, but rose above it to find a way to succeed in life as many of my fellow Special Olympians have.
    Then I wondered if you meant to describe him as someone who has to struggle to be thoughtful about everything he says, as everyone else races from one snarkey sound bite to the next.
    Finally, I wondered if you meant to degrade him as someone who is likely to receive bad health care, live in low grade housing with very little income and still manages to see life as a wonderful gift.
    Because, Ms. Coulter, that is who we are – and much, much more.
    After I saw your tweet, I realized you just wanted to belittle the President by linking him to people like me.  You assumed that people would understand and accept that being linked to someone like me is an insult and you assumed you could get away with it and still appear on TV.
    I have to wonder if you considered other hateful words but recoiled from the backlash.
    Well, Ms. Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge of honor.
    No one overcomes more than we do and still loves life so much.
    Come join us someday at Special Olympics.  See if you can walk away with your heart unchanged.
    A friend you haven’t made yet,
    John Franklin Stephens
    Global Messenger
    Special Olympics Virginia

  24. QOTD:

    “I don’t want to be too judgmental, but Donald Trump couldn’t be dumber if you cut his head off.” – POLITICO’s Roger Simon

  26. Molly Ball visited Obama and Romney field offices in various swing states:

    “These basic characteristics were repeated in all the offices I visited: The Obama offices were devoted almost entirely to the president’s reelection; the Republican offices were devoted almost entirely to local candidates, with little presence for Romney. In Greenwood Village, Colorado, I walked in past a handwritten sign reading “WE ARE OUT OF ROMNEY YARD SIGNS,” then had a nice chat with a staffer for Rep. Mike Coffman. In Canton, Ohio, the small GOP storefront was dominated by “Win With Jim!” signs for Rep. Jim Renacci. Obama’s nearest offices in both places were all Obama. In Canton, a clutch of yard signs for Sen. Sherrod Brown leaned against a wall, but table after table was filled with Obama lit — Veterans for Obama, Women for Obama, Latinos for Obama, and so on.”

    Note the graph with office numbers:
    http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/10/obamas-edge-the-ground-game-that-could-put-him-over-the-top/264031/?utm_source=feedburner

  27. well, it’s official:

    Amid ongoing controversy surrounding Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock’s comments about pregnancies resulting from rape, the Romney campaign said today it will stand by the candidate, even while Mitt Romney “disagrees” with him regarding abortion policy.

      • Romney’s policy positions now resemble a quantum probability wave. He is taking up all positions at once, each position with a finite probability of it’s own.

        Heisenberg predicts what happens next – the act of asking Mitt what his position is on something, collapses the wave and instantaneously we see what position Mitt has taken – then the instant we turn off the camera and switch the microphone, the quantum probability function of Mitt Romney’s policy positions reestablishes itself once more.

        I’m going to have to ask Stephen Hawking if he thinks that some of Mitt’s policy positions actually have a finite probability of radiating from a Black Hole, like Hawking Radiation does.

      • and voters take him seriously……or are they just caught up in the basic bigotry of conservatism operating under the guise of a campaign my a man no one likes or wants to vote for?

    • I wonder how someone becomes such an egomaniac? Overcompensation for the deep knowledge that he’s really a loser, or endlessly and undeservedly propped up by mum and dad as the greatest human ever pushed out?

      I’m sorry, but I hope he has a stroke or cancer that leaves him unable to speak.

  36. Not at all Wayne, it’s that 3 hour difference across the country.
    Just getting around to dinner…

    • This afternoon found a conjunction of low tide and a break in the rain; went to the beach, came back drenched and cold.
      Tried to compensate by putting habeneros, serranos and jalapenos in the burritos.
      Overdid it, and had to go get more beer. It’s all good now.

      • You have me easily beaten….. managed one beer (the last one) with left over pasta….. two more days to do to the weekend….

  38. Mitt Romney goes into a bar and orders a beer.
    The bartender says “Aren’t you Mitt Romney? You don’t drink!”
    “That’s true” says Mitt, “I don’t.”
    “Then what do you want a beer for?”
    “I don’t know, but if you can give me a reason I’ll agree with you and then you’ll vote for me, right?”

    • I only know:

      a libertarian, a liberal and a conservative walk into a bar
      the bartender says: “hi mitt!”

  42. Oh my Colbert just offered Trump $1m if he lets him dip his balls in his mouth (teabag him) before 5pm on Halloween….

    … well he probably did 3 hours ago and i’m just seeing it.

    • It means that once those countries figure out they can dump unlimited amounts of cash from undisclosed sources to influence our elections – -

  44. Yes, Mr. Colbert did promise to write a check for a million $ to any charity Trumptwunt names, if he would allow Mr. Colbert’s balls to enter his mouth. Yes he said that, and it was hilarious. The caveat, however, was that Mr. Colbert’s balls must likes it. Seems fair to me. Also I’d like to profer what I think the October surprise will be. Senator Reid will anounce who his source is concerning Mitt having not paid any income tax for the past ten years. K?

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