Mitt-Handled

Is Mitt Romney's handling of the controversy surrounding the release of his tax returns an example of how he will lead America on even more complex matters if he is elected to the White House?  Is Romney's fumbling of the Bain Capital outsourcing issue an example of how out of touch he is with real America? 

Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, has refused to release more than two years of his tax returns, even in the face of withering criticism from within his own party.  Most observers doubt that his earlier returns will show something illegal.  It is more likely that there may be something embarrassing.  Romney has admitted as much himself in an interview with the conservative National Review, "I'm simply not enthusiastic about giving them hundreds or thousands of more pages to pick through, distort and lie about."

So despite a fundraising advantage, fueled in part by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, and a sluggish economy, Romney finds himself on the defensive.  The candidate and his supporters are now ratcheting up the negative attacks to a whole new level.   But will desperate and outlandish charges offset Romney's weaknesses?  

While campaigning in Ohio, Romney told a crowd of supporters that in the past six months President Obama has held more than 100 fundraisers and no meetings with his jobs council.  Of course, the president deals with the economy every day, and his election year fundraising efforts are not unusual--it's the American way.

Earlier in the week, Romney attacked President Obama for not understanding how the American economy works.  He stated the president said Steve Jobs didn’t create Apple, Henry Ford didn't create Ford, and Papa John's was not created by, well, Papa John. 

The president actually did say, "If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”  His point was that there is an infrastructure in place in this country to help people become successful. 

But the comment was muddled just enough to give the Republican attack dogs something to chew on.  Romney surrogate and former New Hampshire governor John Sununu said President Obama "needs to learn how to be an American."  He later backpedaled a bit, "What I thought I said but I guess I didn't say is that the president has to learn...The American formula for creating business is not to have the government create business."

But Sununu wasn't through there.  "He has no idea how the American system functions, and we shouldn't be surprised about that, because he spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something, spent the next set of years in Indonesia, another set of years in Indonesia," he said on Fox News. 

These comments followed shortly after those spewed by America's leading conservative Republican, radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. "I think it can now be said, without equivocation - without equivocation - that this man hates this country," Limbaugh forcefully spouted, "He is trying - Barack Obama is trying - to dismantle, brick by brick, the American Dream."  His explanation, "He was indoctrinated as a child. His father was a communist. His mother was a leftist. He was sent to prep and Ivy League schools where his contempt for the country was reinforced."  (But Romney went to prep and Ivy League schools too?)

Many Republicans continue to paint President Obama as a foreigner, a radical socialist, and Un-American.  There is still a concerted effort by some to claim the president's birth certificate is fraudulent.  For sure, all of this energizes the extreme base of the party.  But it reflects a strategy laid down by leading party members on the day President Obama was sworn in.  Block, obfuscate, denounce and delay in Congress.  In Senator McConnell's words, do whatever it takes to make Barack Obama a one-term president.

But now the Republicans are in a pickle.  They held the most divisive presidential primary in decades and a flawed candidate emerged at the top of the ticket.  Romney was for abortion before he was against it.  He was for some gun laws before he was against them.  He was a moderate Republican before he became severely conservative.  He was against negative political commercials before he used them to crush Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich.  

Down deep inside true conservatives do not know if they can trust Mitt Romney.  By not releasing his returns, Romney may seem less trustworthy to more and more undecided and independent Americans as well.  

Maybe it's time for Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul to start warming up in the bullpen?

Limbaugh's Disgrace

Rush Limbaugh is a national disgrace. He is a blowhard and a bully who earns an enormous amount of money by fanning the flames of hatred and divisiveness in this country.

The tragedy is that several million people listen to his program and actually believe he is an intelligent, responsible and caring person. Even more outrageous is the fact that he has most Republicans so cowed that they are unwilling to speak out against him when he says something disgusting and maliciously hateful.

On Wednesday, Rush Limbaugh decided to take on a college student, someone's daughter, for supporting a requirement that health insurance cover contraception. He called Sandra Fluke, a 23 year-old Georgetown law student, a "slut" on his radio broadcast. On Thursday Limbaugh continued his attack.  "A Georgetown coed told (Congresswoman) Nancy Pelosi's hearing that the women in her law school program are having so much sex they're going broke.  So you and I should have to pay for their birth control. So what would you call that?  I called it what it is," he harrumphed.  "So I am offering as compromise today: I will buy all of the women at Georgetown University as much aspirin to put between their knees as they want." 

The "aspirin between their knees" was obviously Limbaugh's tribute to Santorum supporter Foster Friess who left MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell stunned when he outrageously made the suggestion as an alternative to contraception on her program last week. But Limbaugh was not done with his tirade.  "So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you Feminazis, here's the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. We want you post the videos online so we can all watch."

 Later on Thursday 75 members of Congress sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner expressing their anger at Limbaugh's remarks and calling for Republican leaders to speak out.  But the Republican Party appears to have a tin ear when it comes to women's health issues, especially contraception. 

Leading Republican candidates are against having the federal government require employers to provide access to certain health care coverage including contraception.  An attempt by Republicans to pass such an amendment in the Senate on Thursday was defeated.  The Republicans are trying to spin this an issue of the federal government trying to interfere with religious freedom and the Catholic Church.  The Catholic Church has forbidden the use of contraceptives for 50 years.  However, most Democrats say the underlying issue is giving women access to the health care they need.

Now this debate has become central in the Republican presidential primary.  Candidates Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney (after a brief flip-flop) supported the Republican amendment that went down to defeat.  And Santorum, a Catholic, has been very clear about his view on contraception.  "One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country," he has said.  "Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that's okay, contraception is okay. It's not okay. It's a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be." 

  

But it appears that Santorum has staked out a position on contraception at odds with most women.    99% of all American women, and 98% of all Catholic women in the United States, have used contraception at some point in their lives according to published statistics.  For most of them it is a health issue. 

However, don't try telling that to Rush Limbaugh.  He is having too much fun harshly attacking a young lady for speaking her heartfelt opinion about an issue of concern to all women.   But how can his advertisers support his debasing rants? This world would be so much better off if Limbaugh put two aspirin between his lips and he kept them there!

Oil Exploitation

British Petroleum's Chief Executive, Tony Hayward, was all over the airwaves saying his company accepts responsibility for the disastrous oil leak off the Gulf Coast. At the same time there is a growing chorus of irresponsible and absurd comments from the far right linking the oil leak to possible sabotage.

First, President Barack Obama basher and radio blowhard Rush Limbaugh pointed the finger at "environmentalist wackos." He opined, "What better way to head off more oil drilling, nuclear plants, than by blowing up a rig? I'm just noting the timing here." Then Dana Perino, the former White House Press Secretary under President George Bush, said on Fox News, "You have to wonder whether there was sabotage involved." No Ms. Perino, Americans wonder why you and Limbaugh are so reckless with your comments.

Maybe Americans should wonder if Halliburton had a hand in this "sabotage." You know, the very same company where Vice President Cheney served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer from 1995 to 2000. The Wall Street Journal reported, "Scrutiny on cementing will focus attention on Halliburton Co., the oilfield-services firm that was handling the cementing process on the rig, which burned and sank last week." The company says, "It is premature and irresponsible to speculate on any specific causal issues." Apparently Perino and Limbaugh didn't get the memo.

Or maybe Vice President Dick Cheney himself played a role when his energy task force decided against requiring remote-control shut-off switches, at $500,000 apiece, because they are too costly, ineffective and the rigs had other backup plans. Brazil and Norway require the switches. But the United Kingdom, where BP is based, doesn't require the devices.

Were it not for the oilrig disaster, BP would have had a fabulous first quarter. They reported their profits had risen 135% from the same period a year earlier, to about $6 billion. With 11 oilmen dead and almost unimaginable destruction to wildlife, coastal areas and the devastation to fragile businesses that rely on the Gulf, BP may need every penny.

In a statement BP said it is "Committed to pay legitimate and objectively verifiable claims for other loss and damage caused by the spill - this may include claims for assessment, mitigation and clean up of spilled oil, real and property damage caused by the oil, personal injury caused by the spill, commercial losses including loss of earnings/profit and other losses as contemplated by applicable laws and regulations."

But one has to wonder just how much BP will actually pay in the end to the families of the dead, to small businesses, to the citizens who live on the Gulf Coast and to the American taxpayers. Especially considering that, while they have publicly accepted responsibility, they have said the accident is not their fault because they contracted with other companies to do the work.

Countless Congressional hearings, investigations and lawsuits will likely drag on for years. But corporate greed, lax regulations, transparency, oversight, and powerful political connections are likely to be at the bottom of this calamity. Sound familiar?

This massive disaster is far from over. The gravity of the destruction has yet to be fully realized. The people of the Gulf Coast are desperate for answers and an end to this nightmare. They must not be exploited for political and personal gain.

Anger Management

Former President Jimmy Carter has always had a knack to say things that are uncomfortable and ill timed. With his remarks to NBC News, and repeated yesterday, he has highlighted a problem as old as America itself and, in so doing, has complicated the debate over President Obama's agenda.

At issue has been the growing lack of civility in protests across the country and before a joint session of Congress directed at President Obama and the U.S. Government. Most appalling examples include signs carried by protesters comparing President Obama a monkey or a Nazi, or Congressman Joe Wilson's inappropriate outburst on the floor of the House calling the president a liar. They also include multimedia entertainer Glenn Beck calling Obama a racist toward whites, or radio show host Rush Limbaugh saying the president's birthplace is Kenya. Some of these acts and comments are so outrageous that they turn off many Americans, even conservative Republicans. So to broadly paint all dissenters with the malignant brush of racism will only drive the country further apart.

"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African American," President Carter said. "And I think it's bubbled up to the surface, because of a belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country."

Sadly there remain plenty of people in the United States who are racists. And the fact that President Obama received less that 15% of the white vote in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama is troubling. But it is a mistake to suggest that most of the 75,000 protesters who gathered in Washington last weekend were racists. It is equally wrong to say that most protesters who attended the recent "tea parties" were all racists.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell also sees it differently than President Carter. "The issue is not race, it's civility," Powell said, "This is not to say that we are suddenly racially pure, but constantly talking about it and reducing everything to black versus white is not helpful to the cause of restoring civility to public dialog."

President Obama made history when he became the first African American elected to the nation's top office with 53% of the vote, or nearly 67 million voters. Early on in his presidency he enjoyed a 70% approval rating. That number has now fallen to about 50%. Is President Carter suggesting that the defectors are largely racists?

The simple fact is that there is a lot of anger and frustration out there aimed squarely at Washington, and with good reason. Unemployment continues to grow, although the rate of increase is slowing. But unemployment is on track to surpass 10% in the very near future and many economists predict the nation is most likely to have a "jobless" recovery. At the same time the government has rescued the U.S. automobile industry with billions of American taxpayer dollars.

One year ago Lehman Brothers was allowed to fail and then the world economy collapsed. Government regulators missed all of the obvious warning signs, as bankers over-leveraged their companies and were richly paid in return. This forced the government to pump billions of taxpayer dollars into the financial industry. Today the financial industry is stable, bankers are being paid bonuses (Goldman Sachs paid out $11 billion) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is approaching 10,000. But most banks are sitting on their toxic assets, there has been no meaningful regulatory reform and some experts warn we a poised for another economic crisis. Meanwhile, comparatively little help has made it to the people on main streets where stores are boarded up and business is awful. And a frighteningly huge number of homes face foreclosure across the country. Millions of Americans are "under water."

As Rome burns members of Congress are mud wrestling over health care. Many proposals are confusing and complicated; take end of life counseling or a "public option." They lend themselves to demagoguery and preposterous claims, like "death panels," government run health care and cuts in Medicare services. Everyone agrees that health care costs are out of control, but insurance companies and their lobbyists are fiercely fighting to protect their profit margins. Adding to the noise and mendacity Glenn Beck accuses President Obama of favoring "eugenics" and Rush Limbaugh calls him a "Nazi.

But it is "the economy stupid." Deficits from growing health care costs, government stimulus packages, bank and auto bailouts, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are adding trillions to the national debt. The last President to have a budget surplus was Bill Clinton and it there is no plan in place to repeat that rare feat.

Can you name a single president who has actually made substantial cuts to the federal budget? They always speak of "waste, fraud and abuse" but nothing happens. Why do we still have troops based all over the world? Why do we still pay out so much in foreign aid? Huge deficits are likely to lead to serious inflation and higher taxes. They are being underwritten by China and Japan, and threaten to severely weaken America globally. Our children and grandchildren will be left with a legacy of debt and serious problems.

"The gap between our citizens and our Government has never been so wide. The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual." So said President Carter in a speech to the nation in July 1979. It was his so-called "malaise" speech, a word he never used but was successfully pinned to it by candidate Ronald Reagan. Nonetheless, rather than talking about racism, President Carter might have been more constructive if he pointed to his comments given in that summer of long gas lines and high inflation. For instance:

"What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well-financed and powerful special interests. You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends."

Yes, sadly racism is alive in America and we have a long way to go, but conditions for most people of all races have improved and, with more minorities achieving influential positions, it will thankfully continue to do so.

On the other hand Washington hasn't changed. It's the same old smash mouth politics. In fact, the explosion of media outlets, multi-platform distribution and instant bloggers and Twitterers has exacerbated the problem. Politicians are too focused on scoring short term political points and securing corporate donations for their campaign. This is the most serious political problem facing our nation today, and there is no incentive or willingness to change the status quo. No wonder everyone is so angry.


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-peyronnin/anger-in-america_b_290588.html

Reverse Thinking

Immediately after President Barack Obama announced Judge Sonia Sotomayer as his nominee to the Supreme Court, conservatives unleashed a torrent of snarky criticism led by their pit bull and spiritual guide, Rush Limbaugh. So shrill were the criticisms that it is no wonder that the party of "NO" is dwindling into the party of NO ONE!

With less than one quarter of the country identifying themselves as Republicans, the party is struggling to find its way. Today few Americans have empathy (pardon the expression conservatives) for what's left of the GOP, and no wonder. The notion that Judge Sotomayer practices "reverse discrimination" is absurd and reflects the Republican tendency to use scare tactics.

A key element of the attacks is Judge Sotomayer's 2001 speech made at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law entitled, "Raising the Bar: Latino and Latina Presence in the Judiciary and the Struggle for Representation." At one point Judge Sotomayer said, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who just hasn't lived that life."

Conservatives have seized on this statement as evidence that she is racist. They do not understand that this is an aspirational statement, not a condemnation of white males. It is also an incomplete representation of what she said. The judge went on to say, "I am reminded each day that I render decisions that affect people concretely and that I owe them constant and complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives and ensuring that to the extent that my limited abilities and capabilities permit me, that I reevaluate them and change as circumstances and cases before me requires. I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences but I accept my limitations. I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate."

Another criticism centers on Judge Sotomayor's role in a dispute between the city of New Haven and a group of white and Hispanic firefighters. Here she was on a three judge panel that unanimously ruled the city was within its right to throw out results of a promotional exam because too few minorities scored high enough. The decision relied on precedent not on judicial activism. The case, known as the New Haven 20, is now before the Supreme Court.

Conservatives also cite a speech Judge Sotomayer made at Duke University in 2005 as evidence she will make policy from the bench. She said, "Court of appeals is where policy is made. And I know this is on tape and I shouldn't say that because we don't make law." But they leave out or dismiss the follow on sentence, "I'm not promoting it, I'm not advocating it . . . " She went on to clarify her comment, "When you're on the district court, you're looking to do justice in the individual case, so you're looking much more to the facts of the case than you are to the application of the law because the application of the law is not precedential, so the facts control. On the court of appeals, you're looking to how the law is developing so that it will then be applied to a broad class of cases. So you're always thinking about the ramifications of this ruling on the next step of the development of the law."

Judge Sotomayer may have been blindsided by an anonymous quote that she in not really smart. The fact that she finished second in her class at Princeton University and edited the Yale Law Review seems to indicate the opposite. But that did not persuade Republican strategist Karl Rove from spouting this comment: "I know lots of stupid people who went to Ivy League schools." Never mind that his former boss, President George Bush, was barely an average student at Yale.

At best, these points will make for a lively discussion when Judge Sotomayer seeks confirmation before the Senate Judiciary Committee. But Republicans have to tread carefully or they risk alienating the few Hispanic supports they do have. There are already more Hispanics in the United States than there are Canadians in Canada. Soon there may be more Hispanics than Republicans.

Judge Sotomayer's life story is powerful and compelling. Raised in a Bronx housing project, she has had to overcome great obstacles to achieve success. Unless something more serious comes up, Judge Sotomayer will take her place on the Supreme Court. She will be the third woman and first Hispanic to serve her country as a justice. She is living the American dream.

Ignore Limbaugh

America, can you trust a man who says he wants President Obama to fail?

President Barack Obama should not have referred to radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh in his recent remarks directed to Republican Congressional leaders. Why elevate Limbaugh's status and give him more to talk about? His twenty million weekly listeners are largely on the far right of American politics and Limbaugh needs to continuously feed them fresh meat.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans are dead in the water on all fronts, foreign and domestic. Their leadership is weak and shaken. They are struggling to come up with an issue, a cause and a reason to rally their troops. Yes, you won Mr. President. But history's battlefields are littered with the armor of once victorious leaders.

Limbaugh is a successful entertainer who is enormously well paid to spin stories, twist facts and turn clever phrases aimed at his loyal following. Shinning a light on him is counterproductive; besides he thrives on being at the center of attention. And, sure enough, now that you have shined the spotlight on him he has responded with a plan.

The "Obama-Limbaugh" stimulus package would divide up $1 trillion dollars of U.S. taxpayer's money along the lines of the percentage of the vote in the national election. Obama got about 54% of the vote and Senator John McCain about 46%. Therefore, $540 billion would go to rebuild infrastructure and invest in new technologies as Obama wants, and $460 billion would go to reduce taxes on businesses. Limbaugh and many Republicans argue that reducing corporate taxes, among the highest in the world, would free up money sooner for businesses to invest in jobs. He calls the "Obama-Limbaugh" package a truly "bipartisan" approach and concludes, "We'll see which stimulus works best."

No doubt Limbaugh and his economic advisers have spent a considerable amount of time studying all the relevant research and economic models to devise this well thought out plan. And no doubt millions of Americans and the Republican leadership in Congress will seriously consider enacting the "Obama-Limbaugh" package. Or, possibly, most people will come to realize that Limbaugh is just making a mockery of our nation's problems, and of the people charged with the responsibility of digging America out of its huge debt and deep recession.

Republicans had their chance these past eight years to perfect America's democracy and reduce its debt. They failed and the American electorate voted for change. Now the challenges are enormous and time is of the essence. Obama is moving swiftly, but there are questions about some of the infrastructure expenditures. And while he has reached across the aisle to partially accommodate Republican wishes for tax relief, they want more. This goes to underscore the fact that there are no easy answers to the myriad of complex problems facing this country on all fronts.

After one week as president, Obama enjoys the good will of most Americans who want the severe financial crisis ended and their country to succeed. Most Americans, that is, except for Rush Limbaugh, who says he wants Obama to fail, even though it would mean more suffering for Americans.

Mr. President, please do what most Republicans can't do, ignore Rush Limbaugh.