new president Archives - Where Is The Outrage?

How big a liar is Mitt Romney?

Well, I would admit that it is hard to quantitate lying. I have talked about Mitt Romney lying several times. Steve over at MaddowBlog has a long list of Mitt lies.

Let’s look that these two statements Mitt Romney said in the recent past. Are they the same or different?

So Mitt gave his foreign policy speech today and said – Finally, I will recommit America to the goal of a democratic, prosperous Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with the Jewish state of Israel. On this vital issue, the President has failed, and what should be a negotiation process has devolved into a series of heated disputes at the United Nations. In this old conflict, as in every challenge we face in the Middle East, only a new President will bring the chance to begin anew.

Mitt told private donors – I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and these thorny issues, and I say there’s just no way … the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish … [S]o what you do is, you say, you move things along the best way you can. You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem…and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it.

I think that Mitt believes that he is on a roll. He is trying to capitalize. He thinks that he can talk foreign policy. He can’t. The Middle East is complex. He is trying to fool Americans into believing that all the Middle East needs is a strong leader and will fall in line. Horse feathers. Wasn’t Bush a strong leader? Why didn’t he get it done? Wasn’t Reagan a strong leader? Why didn’t he get it done? The problem is that the problems in the Middle East run very deep. They run to the core of Israel and Palestine. During arguments folks will whip out the Bible, the old testament, to support their arguments. You can’t fix that with some knucklehead flexing his muscles talking about strong leadership. It simply will not work.

By ecthompsonmd|2012-10-08T19:38:51-04:00October 8th, 2012|Elections, Foreign Affairs, Party Politics|1 Comment

Jennifer Granholm at the DNC

Who would have thought that Jennifer Granholm, former governor of Michigan, could give a short six-minute speech which had the Democratic Convention on their feet cheering, clapping and euphoric? This is how you give a simple speech that everyone will remember.

Transcript of Jennifer Granholm’s speech at the DNC:

Good evening, I’m Jennifer Granholm, from the great state of Michigan, where the trees are just the right height! Let me tell you a story about the dark days in my home state. Towards the end of my time as governor, Ford closed one of its biggest factories, a factory in Wixom, Michigan. The Wixom plant had employed thousands of middle-class men and women in neighborhoods near—yet worlds away from—the place Mitt Romney was raised.

When Ford’s decision hit, I went down to the local union hall. It was almost empty; a few workers milled about in shock and grief. I talked to a 45-year-old guy who told me, “This is the only place I’ve ever worked.

I’ve been loyal. I’ve done everything they’ve ever asked. And just like that, it’s gone.” He looked around the hall and said, “So, governor, is it over for us? Is the American auto industry dead?” Honestly, at that moment, I just didn’t know. And that was just the beginning. When the financial crisis hit, things got a lot worse – and fast. (more…)

By ecthompsonmd|2012-09-09T19:36:50-04:00September 9th, 2012|Economy, Elections, Party Politics|4 Comments

Sandra Fluke at the DNC

Sandra Fluke was pulled into the national spotlight by right wing reactionaries when she was called a slut. Her strong stance has earned her praise and a spot at the DNC.

During this campaign, we’ve heard about the two profoundly different futures that could await women—and how one of those futures looks like an offensive, obsolete relic of our past. Warnings of that future are not distractions. They’re not imagined. That future could be real.

In that America, your new president could be a man who stands by when a public figure tries to silence a private citizen with hateful slurs. Who won’t stand up to the slurs, or to any of the extreme, bigoted voices in his own party. It would be an America in which you have a new vice president who co-sponsored a bill that would allow pregnant women to die preventable deaths in our emergency rooms. An America in which states humiliate women by forcing us to endure invasive ultrasounds we don’t want and our doctors say we don’t need. An America in which access to birth control is controlled by people who will never use it; in which politicians redefine rape so survivors are victimized all over again; in which someone decides which domestic violence victims deserve help, and which don’t. We know what this America would look like. In a few short months, it’s the America we could be. But it’s not the America we should be. It’s not who we are.

We’ve also seen another future we could choose. First of all, we’d have the right to choose. It’s an America in which no one can charge us more than men for the exact same health insurance; in which no one can deny us affordable access to the cancer screenings that could save our lives; in which we decide when to start our families. An America in which our president, when he hears a young woman has been verbally attacked, thinks of his daughters—not his delegates or donors—and stands with all women. And strangers come together, reach out and lift her up. And then, instead of trying to silence her, you invite me here—and give me a microphone—to amplify our voice. That’s the difference.

Over the last six months, I’ve seen what these two futures look like. And six months from now, we’ll all be living in one, or the other. But only one. A country where our president either has our back or turns his back; a country that honors our foremothers by moving us forward, or one that forces our generation to re-fight the battles they already won; a country where we mean it when we talk about personal freedom, or one where that freedom doesn’t apply to our bodies and our voices.

We talk often about choice. Well, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to choose.

By ecthompsonmd|2012-09-07T05:09:50-04:00September 7th, 2012|Civil Rights, Elections, Party Politics|Comments Off