On the front of today’s Globe and Mail (Toronto), there was a photo of Governor Christie and President Obama comforting marina owner Donna Vanzant in Brigantine.  You can see every deeply etched line in her face from her years out in the sun and wind and on the water, taking care of her marina; but made deeper today from her distress  to see her life’s work upended.   

When Governor Christie said the loss was almost incalcuable, I thought, of course it is: the insurance companies are trying to calculate the losses right now.  Only later did I realize he was also  talking about a way of life, a personal history. That is why the Politico statement above (“Obama/Christie mutual admiration society…gushed praise for one another while touring damage from Hurricane Sunday) is such a cheap shot.

Why is Bloomberg going ahead with the NYC marathon?
The news this AM cut from a stories about countless people and filling stations without power to pictures of huge generators sitting in Central Park awaiting the marathon.

Business abandons Romney as Bloomberg News and The Economist endorse President Obama. 

Romney used the tax-exempt status of the Mormon Church, according to a 2007 filing, to defer his taxes for more than 15 years. At the same time he is benefiting, the trust will probably leave the church with less than what current law requires, according to tax returns obtained by Bloomberg News this month through a Freedom of Information Act request.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-29/romney-avoids-taxes-via-loophole-cutting-mormon-donations.html

Mitt Romney’s campaign has been training poll watchers in Wisconsin with highly misleading — and sometimes downright false — information about voters’ rights.
Documents from a recent Romney poll watcher training obtained by ThinkProgress contain several misleading or untrue claims about the rights of Wisconsin voters.In total, eight such trainings were held across the state in the past two weeks and 17 since late September.

The training also encouraged volunteers to deceive election workers and the public about who they were associated with. On page 3 of the packet, Romney poll workers were instructed to hide their affiliation with the campaign and told to sign in at the polls as a “concerned citizen” instead. As Kristina Sesek, Romney’s legal counsel who just graduated from Marquette Law School last year, explained, “We’re going to have you sign in this election cycle as a ‘concerned citizen.’ We’re just trying to alleviate some of the animosity of being a Republican observer up front.”

I just wanted to comment on my mailbox here in MA – Scott Brown and supporters seem to be determined to eliminate USPS debts single-handed. Endless mailings – and almost none of them about Brown. Just about Warren’s “secrets”. To be expected, but the ones about Brown are the funniest. The closest they come to calling him a Republican is calling him the “independent”. And how bipartisan he is. Brown is running as the “other” Democrat.

I agree wholeheartedly with Abbie Evans.  Let’s shorten our election runs, quit wasting money on telling half truths and attacking opponents, and get to work finding solutions that don’t decimate our planet.

Only one presidential candidate has a plan to effectively deal with Climate Change. That candidate is Jill Stein. That plan is the Green New Deal. She is fighting on the front lines of the battle to end climate change. Only this week she was arrested helping to block the Keystone XL pipeline in Texas, which both Obama and Romney support. This pipeline, if completed and used as intended by TransCanada, will spell Game Over for the climate. http://www.jillstein.org/

Why is there never any mention, in the light of the Embassy attack in Libya, of the Reagon administration’s Lebanon attack on the US Marine barracks ( over 200 Marines murdered)? Also, there was not reaction on Reagon’s part.  We just pulled out!

Personally, I am sick and extremely tired of all of Romney and his cohorts’ lies and rewriting of histoy.

Jim

Roxbury, MA

Did Talev say “Obama is leading in some states within the margin of error”?

Please, please: You’re all professionals. You should be able to read a poll.

When Candidate X is ahead of Candidate Y by 4% in a poll with a 4% MofE, that doesn’t mean they’re statistically tied!!!

That particular example means an 84% probabiliy that Candidate X is ahead. Anyone want to give me an even-money bet on a contest I have an 84% chance of winning?

Can’t anybody here report on this game?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/blogphotos/Blog_MOE_2008.gif

Romney now has WI in the bag.

Bart Starr just came out and endorsed Romney.

compare Hurricane Sandy’s response to Hurricane Katrina

As someone who was living in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit, my heart goes out to all those in Hurricane Sandy’s path.  That said, I feel it is appropriate to comment on the elephant in the room.  While Sandy may have thrown up logistical roadblocks for both the Dem & GOP campaigns down the home stretch, for the GOP it’s not just a bump in the road; it’s more like an embarrassing elephant in the room reminding voters of the failure of Bush’s “limited govt.” response to Katrina.

As with Katrina & more recently Hurricane Isaac, GOP Governors could be seen frantically teeing up their state of emergency declarations, but ultimately unable to avoid the appearance of blatant hypocrisy after their Party’s standard bearer’s advocacy of draconian budget cuts that would cripple the very same federal agencies these Governors depend on for storm monitoring info as well as emergency preparedness, response & relief.

Further, some in this extremist iteration of the GOP have foolishly called for dismantling FEMA.  Romney in a 2011 primary debate said as much when he “absolutely” agreed that disaster relief should be moved to the States or privatized.

The inescapable, inconvenient truth that Romnesiacs hope the electorate will forget is that the Romney/Ryan budget would drastically cut funding for NOAA & NWS.  The 14.6% cutback envisioned in their budget would reduce forecasting accuracy to such an extent that governors & mayors in areas impacted by storms like Sandy would have to order evacuations lasting twice as long or covering areas twice as large as they would otherwise.  In addition, a Romney admin. would seek to decrease  total non-entitlement fed. spending from 12% to 3.5% of GDP–a decrease that would without doubt starve FEMA of the money needed to carry out effective emergency preparedness, response and recovery efforts in the future.

Just look at the GOP record on funding weather forecasting & disaster relief after the Tea Party took over Congress.  In 2011 the House Appropriations Committee voted to cut NOAA’s Hurricane Hunter program by 40%; they also tried to reduce FEMA’s First Responders grant program by $816 million & FEMA’s National Pre-Disaster Mitigation Fund by $50 million.  Since 2010 the GOP has forced a 43% reduction in primary grants from FEMA that pay for disaster preparedness.

If that’s not enough to convince you that a Romney admin. would jeopardize our country’s capacity to plan for & mitigate natural disasters, then simply look at what the GOP did in response to Hurricane Irene last year.  Dems wanted emergency funds for FEMA to help the victims of Irene, but Republicans insisted that the new spending be offset by cuts elsewhere in the fed. budget–a requirement that the GOP ignored for years under Bush and yet another example of GOP willingness to engage in the politics of extortion in order to create gridlock in Washington and to undermine our collective capacity to deal effectively with not only natural disasters, but also man-made financial disasters like the Great Recession.

Anyway, I’ll be very happy to see “Nasty Ken” Brown out of the senate. I have been really disgusted by his campaign, which amounts to “you’re not a native American and I’m bipartisan, I’m bipartisan, I’m bipartisan….”  Screw you, “Ken”, I don’t want bipartisanship with the TeaOP. It’s like saying “elect me, I’ll negotiate with terrorists”. Get a real job.

To Ed75, who intimates that Sandy exemplifies God’s wrath for…[fill in the blank with whatever hate-filled lie he wants to tell us about the reasons of moral decay in society, e.g., gay marriage, legal abortion, etc.], deus ex machina. The idea of nature intervening may just be a literary device, but then it may have upset just enough of the electorate’s fence sitting to sway people toward putting Obama back in office.

Wouldn’t that be something for Ed to put in his pipe and smoke. The very so-called wrath manifested in a super storm might just be the thing to put what he perceives as the antichrist back in the ultimate position of power…

“I remember once, we had a football field at my high school. The field was covered with rubbish and paper goods from people who’d had a big celebration there at the game. And I thought, ‘how are we going to clean up all the mess on this football field?’ There were just a few of us. And the person responsible for organizing the effort said, ‘just line up along yard lines. You go between the goal line and the 10-yard line, and the next person between the 10 and 20, and just walk down and do your lane. And if everybody cleans their lanes, we’ll get it done.’ And so today, we’re cleaning one lane if you will.” 

-Mitt Romney comparing cleaning up after Hurricane Sandy to cleaning up after a high school football game.

Now that’s leadership! It has that “heck of a job, Brownie!” ring to it…

On the show this morning, when they played the soundbite from Romney’s fake “relief rally,” he said that the canned goods in front of him (the ones his campaign bought and distributed for the fake photo op, and, which, the Red Cross specifically asked people NOT to donate) “…might benefit one or two people.” I guess by the “one or two people,” he meant himself/Paul Ryan? 

Jack Beatty’s comments again stress the President’s words, not actions.  President Obama may speak fondly of the EPA but he, by executive authority, rolled back existing regulations on power plants.  Here’s the truth any Obama evaluation always comes to – his words are right, his actions are wrong.  He hasn’t the character to make anything he says he believes in happen.  Conservatives don’t all hate the environment, some of us see Texas making more wind energy than any other state while Massachusetts enters its 10th year of hearings over whether a couple windmills are okay a few miles off shore.  Liberals in general think well and do bad when they do at all.

The superstorm and the people affected is certainly the most important issue in our country this week, but just a last thought as election day approaches.  I’m sure everyone has made up their mind by now and Democrats are not going to change Republicans minds and visa-versa.   Our country will survive, whoever wins the election, as it always has.  I personally will put my trust in president Obama, especailly as I listened closely to the debates as Romney consistently dodged questions cleverly.  Is Romney really going to end the war in Afghanistan?  Is medicare truly going to be a voucher program and available for those under 54?  Will there again be an attempt to privatize SS(nonsensical)?    He is a polished speaker, but his basket is empty.   Vote carefully!
            

More bad news for Lord R:

Geez, it’s all been downhill since the first debate. Even the righty corporate media is finally calling him on his dishonest ads, Sandy has reminded everyone of his statements that disaster relief should be privatized and the house TeaOP’s heartless demands of “offsets”, Christie has had a love-fest with the President, they’re doing their best to hide Ryan but he keeps peeping his class warfare scripts, and the economy is strengthening.

One thing he got away with was not releasing his taxes. Everyone else does 10 yrs, but no, Lord R gets a special deal. Why did the media drop the ball on that one? Anyway, looks like there’s a “November surprise” on the tax front re his profiting from the auto bailout. No wonder he won’t come clean on his taxes! Seems he hid some profits under his wife’s name, too. Such a disgusting excuse for a human being. 

I hope this shows up in some last minute ads. Also I wonder, why don’t they replay Rick Perry’s “When Bane Capital Came to Town”?

Go away, Lord R, stay out of public life, and take “Nasty Ken Doll” Brown with you.

Advisory: UAW files ethics charge on Romney auto bail-out profiteeringWednesday, October 31, 2012

Unions, Good Government Groups to File Ethics Complaint Against Romney For Failing To Disclose His Big Auto Rescue Profit

Groups Urge Office of Government Ethics to Make Romney Disclose or Divest

WASHINGTON – A coalition of community, labor and good-government organizations is calling on the U.S. Office of Government Ethics to investigate GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney for noncompliance with the Ethics in Government Act and compel him to either disclose his investments or divest them.

“The American people have a right to know about Gov. Romney’s potential conflicts of interest, such as the profits his family made from the auto rescue,” said UAW President Bob King. “It’s time for Gov. Romney to disclose or divest.”

In a Nation magazine cover story, investigative reporter Greg Palast reported that the Romney family personally profited at least $15.3 million from the auto loans of 2009 through his investment in the Delphi Corp. auto parts company. Yet Romney’s June 1, 2012, Public Financial Disclosure Report to the Office of Government Ethics did not reveal this windfall because he did not disclose the underlying holdings of his private equity and limited partnership funds.

“While Romney was opposing the rescue of one of the nation’s most important manufacturing sectors, he was building his fortunes with his Delphi investor group, making his fortunes off the misfortunes of others,” King added.

Mr Market wants Obama. Just the facts:

http://static.cdn-seekingalpha.com/uploads/2012/11/2/saupload_Obama_Reelection.png

It is ironic that a weather event like Sandy, which has no factual connection to climate change, is focusing the debate on fossil fuels. Storms – no matter how vast – are stochastic events, and there is not enough data to link Sandy to climate change.

On the other hand, make no mistake: Man-made global warming is REAL. There is NO scientific controversy about the data or its implications, which are DIRE.

COAL is the primary contributor to global warming emissions. If coal use grows as projected for another century or two, we seriously run the risk of repeating the Permian-Triassic extinction. To learn more about this E.L.E. you can just look it up on Wikipedia or any historical geology textbook.

Facing such a threat, you would think that we would unite and look for ways to create a sustainable and renewable energy infrastructure. We would, if it was not for a handful of global coal billionaires…

Broken promises and our country worse off, time to try something new again.

Romney campaign kinda lost momentum in the last 3 weeks.