Category: Politics Page 28 of 36

Presidential caucuses have been Connie’s specialty in Iowa as she followed the elections of 2004, 2008, 2012 and wrote the 2 books “Obama’s Odyssey: The 2008 Race for the White House.” She also continues to follow politics by avidly reading everything she can get her hands on, including “Rolling Stone,” “Mother Jones,” “Newsmax,” “Time,” etc.

I’d like to give full credit to the August issue of “Esquire” magazine with Jeremy Renner on the cover for these words about our economy and what we can expect post November, 2012. The original article appeared on page 44, with the title “But, Soft! What Light Through Yonder Widow Breaks!”
The basic contention is that our economy is going to improve no matter what happens this election season. To wit:
“I am convinced that the markets are poised to soar in November, as soon as the uncertainty about the political direction of our country is settled. Regardless of who wins the presidency and whether either house changes hands, regardless of Europe’s woes, the unprecedented amount of cash sitting on corporate sidelines will be deployed and will set in motion a growth spurt unseen since Monica Lewinsky, the peace dividend and the Internet.”
The article goes on to quote Jimmy Lee, a Texan who is the founder of one of the first online brokerages and also the former chairman of the Texas teachers’ pension fund, as administrator of which he invested $100 billion. Another expert quoted was Mickey Gooch, founder and CEO of GFI, a brokerage that trades in credit default swaps (CDs).

Here was Gooch’s argument for the contention above:
“The uncertainty will be taken out of the market (regardless of who wins the presidential election). Investors may not like an Obama re-election, but at least they will know what to anticipate in the tax code and will deal with it. The Bush tax cuts not being renewed is already priced into the market.” Gooch’s only caveat is in regards to Europe blowing up, which he views as having only a 20% likelihood of occurring.
“The bottom line is that capital has been accumulating at corporations at a never-before-seen pace. Companies have been stuffing this cash in the mattress because they don’t trust the government. But that’s an unnatural state of affairs. Companies need to grow like sharks need to swim. Whatever happens in November, expect the American economy to surge to life.”

“2016: Obama’s America” A Complete Hatchet Job- Read This And Learn the Truth!

By Connie Wilson

On August 26, 2012

In Editorial, Local, Movies, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics, Reviews

Mitt Romney spoke with “Time” magazine’s Rick Stengel and Michael Crowley in an interview on August 21st (September 3, 2012) and said, “I will not waste a campaign attacking him (President Obama) as an individual.”

Imagine my surprise, then, to see the movie “2016: Obama’s America,” supposedly a documentary (I use the term loosely), which was playing at my local Cineplex and rated a big notice in our right-leaning newspaper (The Small family which owns the paper, in decades past, contributed the most corrupt Republican Governor in Illinois history, eclipsing even the recent Rod Blagojovic).

Written by an Indian intellectual (Dinesh D’Souza) who is the president of New York City’s Kings’ College and produced by the semi-retired Gerald R. Molen, who divides his time between Montana and Las Vegas now, but once produced movies for Spielberg (and others) such as “Rain Man,” “Days of Thunder,” “Hook,” “Schindler’s List,” “Jurassic Park,” “Twister” and “Minority Report,” Molen is an ardent member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was once denied the opportunity to address high school students in his hometown because the principal of the school pronounced him to be “a right wing conservative” zealot.

That label goes double for D’Souza, who has written many books, served in Reagan’s White House, and had no less an authority than the “Washington Post” (5/1/2010) pronounce his book about 9/11 “The worst nonfiction book about terrorism published by a major house since 9/11.” (Whose fault was 9/11 according to Dinesh D’Souza? Why, liberals, of course! The “New York Times” in reviewing the book called it “a national disgrace.”)

So, how’s the movie/”documentary”?

Well, it’s about what you’d expect from this darling of shows like Hannity & Colmes on Fox News or Glenn Beck’s program. D’Souza has debated other intellectuals (among them the late Christopher Hitchens at Notre Dame) and admitted at the end of an appearance on Stephen Colbert’s “The Colbert Report” that he shares some of the same negative beliefs about liberal Americans as Islamic militants.

The film is a real hatchet job.

For instance, a segment is produced claiming to be an interview with a member of Obama’s distantly related relatives in Kenya (Sarah Obama), but the voice is that of Onekie Smallwood. You actually feel sorry for Obama’s distant relatives (his father was much-married and fathered many children by at least three different women, one of them, son George, not born until 6 months after his death). They obviously didn’t know what D’Souza was really up to when they spoke with the man.
What D’Souza was really up to was to try to use fear (cue the spooky music) and the Karl Rove-generated fear tactics used to elect “W” (“Love him or hate him, you don’t know him”—which can more accurately be claimed of their Republican nominee) technique that drove us into 2 disastrous wars under George W. Bush. This “make up any falsehood/ tell any lie” technique is used to blacken the reputation of the sitting president, who has been kept from helping the country pull out of the mess “W” left us in by what is dubbed “The Party of No” in another of the articles in this issue of “Time.”

As Mitch McConnell, the architect of this obstructionist tactic that would sacrifice the national interest of the United States at the altar of partisan politics designed the Republican tactic, “He wanted everyone to hold the fort. All he cared about was making sure Obama could never have a clean victory. (The words of Ohio Senator George Volnovich in the article, who further said, “If Obama was for it, we had to be against it”, p. 44, “Time,” September 3, 2012).

So, exactly what is D’Souza—whose reputation for fair play is not high—-up to with this “documentary”? (I use the term loosely.)With sweeping shots of Lady Liberty in New York City, D’Souza contrasts that with a journey to the most squalid places and people on earth, it would seem, dwelling on Obama’s trip to Kenya and trying to make the case that Obama “wears a mask” and making a big deal over Obama’s returning a bust of Winston Churchill to Great Britain.

D’Souza would have naive viewers believe it was some sort of repudiation of Churchill, when the reality, checked out by “New York Times” reporter Jake Tapper, is that there are TWO busts of Churchill. One was loaned to “W” as a show of solidarity after 9/11 and was scheduled to be returned before Obama was even elected. However, there is a second bust of Churchill still on the premises. Read about it here
Is the Churchill Bust Controversy a Total Bust? – ABC News abcnews.go.com/…/is-the-churchill-bust-controversy-a-total in an article written on July 27, 2012. There were at least 2 additional articles concerning this tempest-in-a-teapot, and it turned out that there were TWO busts of Churchill, one of which was returned, as previously scheduled, and one of which remains.

But is this really the most important issue this country faces in this day and age? [I didn’t think so.]

George Obama: Half-Brother of Barack Obama

D’Souza seems to think so, as he claims returning the statue shows that President Obama thought colonial countries who settled in far-flung empires like Indonesia or D’Souza’s native India, were simply there for the loot and that he is, therefore, “anti-colonial.” In an interview with Obama’s half-brother several times removed (a man over 21 named George), the obviously intelligent Kenya native expressed his opinion that colonialism was not responsible for Kenya’s bad luck, and that “Maybe if we’d let the whites stay a little while longer” the country would have done better, economically-speaking. George also expressed the opinion that he was “over age” and, when asked if Barack Obama should be helping support him, said, “Go ask him. I think he has a family of his own.” This remark was then shown with side-by-side shots of the White House and the hovel in which young George, [the half-brother who was born 6 months after their mutual father was killed in a car accident], now lives. The message for viewers was quite blatant: Obama doesn’t care about his own family members. D’Souza even made a reference to the Biblical story of Cain and Able. It’s ironic, considering that all articles on the Romney/Ryan ticket suggest (see “Time,” page 40) that the Republican duo’s “budget math is coldhearted towards the poor and the elderly.” It’s no News Flash that Paul Ryan is not Medicare’s friend.

DRINKING:

There were also repeated references to excessive drinking by Obama’s birth father and by Obama’s Indonesian stepfather Lolo Soltoro. (“We drank with him”). More tribal music. More shots of squalor. Cue to old guy with bad teeth (Kogelio Oto). Kogelia tells us he had been drinking with Obama’s father “until 1:30 p.m.” before the senior Obama was killed in an auto accident on November 24, 1982. The narrator even works in lines like, “This father (Soltoro) is an abusive alcoholic. He kills a man in a car accident” and distorts the statements of a former professor of Stanley Ann Dunham’s (stressing that the couple met “in Russian class”). I felt sorry for Dr. Alice Dewey, Professor Emeritus of Hawaii, who obviously was “conned” into making statements that are twisted and misconstrued; it was like a bad version of “Borat.”

So, one message that the movie underhandedly attempts to convey is:

1) Obama doesn’t care about his relatives. Does anybody really believe this? And does anybody really believe he owes a family half a world away, whose relationship to him is tenuous at best (different mothers, never knew each other growing up, etc.) support and assistance when even the young man who is his half-brother says differently?

COLONIALISM:

2) Another message from D’Souza: “Colonialism was good.” (D’Souza is the author of an article with the title “Two Cheers for Colonialism”). We could debate this one for a long time. There certainly is a case to be made for some good things that came out of colonialism. But it is just as true that the colonial countries (England, Portugal, France, Spain, Italy, et. al.) journeyed to far-flung lands to bring back the wealth of those lands. Doesn’t anyone remember why the United States of America fought the Revolutionary War? (Hello?) Does the Boston Tea Party ring any bells? Colonialism may have helped educate and improve the standard of living of some countries (India comes to mind) but it certainly was NOT all “Days of wine and roses” for the countries being stripped of their riches and any high school history class in any classroom in this country touches on that salient fact. So, message number 2 from D’Souza, is that Obama—like his father(s) before him—is anti-colonialism, which seems like a fairly reasonable position in this day and age. [D’Souza uses as his most telling point the fact that Obama supposedly wants to give the Falkland Islands back to Argentina. (Does anybody really care about the Falkland Islands during this election season— except possibly the people who live there? And wasn’t that one-day wonder war fought when Reagan was in office? Sheesh. And is THAT statement even true, since so many of the other “truths” of this documentary are falsehoods? I’ll leave the research on that one to someone else. Let me know.)

3) With statements like this one: “Other presidents were known figures. Obama came out of nowhere,” and “What is Obama’s dream?” and “The son is realizing his father’s dream” D’Souza tries to connect Obama’s hopes/plans for our country to a man Barack Obama only met once in his life and never lived with. It is true that Barack had to deal with an absent father who was, as the movie puts it, “air brushed” in a positive way by his white mother, but it is more true that he never really knew the man. I do believe that Obama probably was driven to achieve so much because he wanted to prove his worth and, possibly, earn the love of his always-absent father, but that just makes me like him and feel empathy for him. It doesn’t make him a bad person, a Communist (implied), a person who hates whites (stated) or a person who wants our country to fail, as the Tea Party Congress seems willing to let happen. The words of Obama’s book about visiting his father’s grave in Kenya are used against him (DId Mitt ever write anything worth reading?). D’Souza quotes from Obama’s book “Dreams From My Father:” “Everything I was doing carried the full weight of my life. I sat between 2 graves and wept. The circle closed.”( Is there any person on the planet who is not a product of his or her parenting and upbringing, including D’Souza?)

Stanley Dunham, Obama’s Grandfather

Even more disgusting, the Grandfather (Stanley Dunham) who provided a positive male role model for Obama in his growing up years in Kansas is slandered in several ways, with statements like, “We got drunk and hammered together” and comments about how he was “on the left,” which, to D’Souza, is a little like saying he is from Hell, since D’Souza is so far to the right he makes Rush Limbaugh seem liberal.

4) Among other things that D’Souza suggests (without a shred of proof) is that Obama “hates whites,” that his plan is to spend the U.S. into oblivion (while cutting our nuclear arsenal), and that he’d like to see us reconcile more with Muslim countries (which, actually, sounds reasonable; do we HAVE to be the “most hated country in the world?”).

“The usual suspects” are trotted out to smear our sitting President, including Bill Ayers (the Weather Underground bomber who became an academic at the University of Chicago); the Reverend Jeremiah Wright (I think we all remember that flap, which ended in total repudiation of the pastor by the president); Frank Marshall Davis, who, because he was a Communist, obviously had to be his best friend (Here, D’Souza uses Paul Kengor to talk abut 22 references to Frank in “Dreams From My Father”), a little-known Brazilian economist and Edward Said of Columbia, who, claims D’Souza, is a leading critic of Israel. (D’Souza is trying very hard to lose Obama the Jewish vote and the votes of those who frown on drinking in any form, as Mormons do.—Mormons don’t even drink coffee or pop, so you can imagine how much support alcohol gets.)

GUANTANAMO

Another statement by D’Souza: Obama is “weirdly sympathetic” to those who want to close down Guantanamo. I’m sympathetic to closing down Guantanamo and it’s not “weird” at all. It would have been a great idea to bring those prisoners to the brand-new prison sitting idle in Illinois. The conditions in Guantanamo should not be visited upon another human being, and their suicide rate is extraordinarily high. (See “Mother Jones” issue for a more full description of the terrible living conditions there and many who were innocents detained for years without due process, from a variety of foreign countries. Apparently, the country from which they were taken used the sweep to get rid of many undesirables, including mental defectives and one person who was actually known as “Halfhead,” as I recall the article. A few were very young boys. Many were guilty and have been found guilty in courts, now, but many were not even involved in the war but were undesirables the country of origin wanted to deport.)

OUT OF CONTEXT

Brokaw at the DNC in Denver in 2008.

There is a brief shot of Charlie Rose and Tom Brokaw talking at the familiar round table, where Charlie mentions, “We don’t really know what he stands for, do we?” and Brokaw agrees in a two-second clip. I saw that program. Complete misrepresentation of the entire content of the program. I couldn’t help but think of how little we know about Mitt Romney, who won’t even release his tax returns for any but ONE year. A Brian Williams piece this past Sunday on the Mormon Church certainly showed a denomination that has turned the clock back on equality for women and has some other odd ideas, including equating blacks with “the devil” until quite recently, as was pointed out by comedian Chris Rock when a guest on a late-night talk show. ( And they like to baptize you after you’re dead, as they did with Ann Romney’s atheist father.)

1. The sad thing about a “documentary” like this is that many people believe implicitly what they are told, if it is told skillfully enough, even though most of it is total hogwash. For one thing, the space program was being dismantled by Obama’s predecessor (“W”) before Obama was even elected, because it wasn’t the money-maker that George the second thought it would be. (See article here on NASA, from a visit there: President Obama Vows Support for a New, Improved NASA Space …

voices.yahoo.com/president-obama-vows-support-improved-nasa-58…Cached

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Apr 15, 2010 – “I Am 100% Committed to the Mission of NASA and Its Future…” Connie Wilson, Yahoo! Contributor Network Apr 16, 2010 “Share your voice on …

2. Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Challenger Explosion – Yahoo! Voices

voices.yahoo.com/twenty-fifth-anniversary-challenger-explosion-77…Cached

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Jan 26, 2011 – The next 5 years saw increases in budgeting for NASA. …. Connie Wilson has written for five newspapers and taught writing at six Iowa/Illinois …

When I read the log-line (short for a scriptwriter’s one-line summary of a film’s plot): “Love him or hate him, you don’t know him!” I couldn’t help but think how much more we know about Barack Obama than we do about Mitt Romney, who lives the life of a millionaire member of an unusual religious group not given to openness. The sad truth is that Romney won’t tell us whether he supported the United States with many tax dollars and has absolutely refused to release more than ONE year of his tax returns, despite his own father (Michigan Governor George Romney) pointing out, when he was Governor, that it takes several years to get a good idea of a person’s finances.

At the end of this total hatchet job, which suggests without factual basis that Obama would cut our military superiority and WANTS to spend us into debt, as well as many other misrepresentations about him, this travesty ends with, “The future is in your hands.”

A rather large woman in the audience, as the lights went up, began chanting, “NObama!” I stood up and said, equally loudly, “Let’s not forget who got us into two totally unnecessary wars to spend us into this debt.” This caused the rather large—okay, fat—-woman to say, “Oh, come off it!” and I thought we were going to have an old-fashioned donnybrook right there in the aisle of the Great Escape Theater in Moline, Illinois.

This film is nothing but (more) Karl Rove fear-mongering (see previous article on how Rove has his finger in all Romney pies). It is a disgrace to have an interview statement from Romney in “Time” in which the candidate CLAIMS he is not going to go after Obama personally but then lets the campaign (or the PACS, with their $1.8 BILLION dollars collected!) paint Obama’s biological father (whom he barely knew) as a no-good-nik, and also slam his paternal grandfather, who really raised him, and declare the president (who had a white mother, after all) to be anti-white, anti-colonialism (good for him) and state that he wants to close down Guantanamo (so do I).

It is unfortunate that the REAL important issues are either glossed over or are presented in such a ridiculous and unfair and untruthful light (witness the Winston Churchill bust stupidity).

The final line (“The future is in your hands”) makes me want to point a finger on one of those hands at Dinesh D’Souza and John Sullivan and say, “Shame on BOTH of you!” (And that goes double for the fat Tea Party woman who wanted to hit me.)

I did a piece on “Influential Figures in the Life of Barack Obama” by request for Yahoo. Here is a link to it. It is far more accurate than this smear job. Read it if you want to know the truth about the real influences on Barack Obama’s life. (And, no, I didn’t do it for this election cycle, but I thoroughly researched it and it is the truth, not a smear job like “2016: Obama’s America.”

1. Influential People in Barack Obama’s Life – Yahoo! Voices – voices …

voices.yahoo.com/influential–people–barack–obamas–life-1539933.ht…Cached

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Jun 6, 2008 – Influential People in Barack Obama’s Life. Who Are Some of the People Who Helped Form Barack Obama’s Life and Career? Connie Wilson …

The 2012 Presidential Campaign & How It’s Being Financed: Read It and Weep

By Connie Wilson

On August 22, 2012

In Editorial, Health/Medicine, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics

As Yeats wrote

The closest I’ve come to meeting Barack Obama (DNC, 2008)

, “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.”

Let me immediately give credit where credit is due and say that this information comes from the newest issue of “Vanity Fair,” which did not hit newsstands until today. It is a capsule “Cliff Notes,” if you will, summarizing the article “Boss Rove” that runs in the newest issue (Craig Unger, pp. 228-234). If you have issues with the content, take it up with “Vanity Fair,” which has done the nation a service by tracking down the unfettered spending that is going on in the 2012 presidential election and ferreting out who is behind this massive spending spree. I thought I’d save all of you a bit of time and shorten the essential facts, so read on, if you dare.

In this unsettling issue, you will learn to what extent Pillsbury Doughboy Karl Rove—once known as “Bush’s Brain—-is involved in this year’s Republican presidential race. As former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently said on one of the late-night talk shows where she was a guest, “Democrats are the party of the many—not the party of the money.” (Ain’t it the truth?)

I’m going to excerpt just a few startling facts from “Boss Rove” so you will at least be aware of them, in regards to the astounding amounts of money being spent this election season (by both parties.) First the article (which begins on page 228 of the September issue) re

Rush Limbaugh & Sandra Fluke,
whom Limbaugh insulted during her Senate testimony.

Pillsbury Doughboy (aka Turd Blossom)

I saw Karl Rove in person once. He came out on a balcony in Denver in 2004 at the Coors Amphitheater with the woman from Texas named “Karen” who was “W’s” other big favorite. Rove, DID, indeed, look like the Pillsbury Doughboy. In fact, George W. Bush, himself, who was a fan of giving everyone a demeaning nickname, called him ‘Turd Blossom.” Aptly named.

Rove left public view briefly in 2007 under a cloud and barely escaped indictment, as the article states ( page 229.) The president he served (George W. Bush) left office with the lowest rating in the history of the presidency (22%). The Supreme Court, in December 2000, handed down the notorious decision placing George W. Bush in the White House (“Bush v. Gore). Then, the Supreme Court appointees of our least favorite president of all time (Clarence Thomas, John Roberts and Samuel Alito) joined forces on “Citizens United” recently to allow the electoral process to be subverted forever by allowing corporations to donate unlimited amounts of money, much of it anonymous and untraceable. It overthrew the previous campaign finance bill, McCain-Feingold, which was actually known as the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act.

In American elections now, anything goes. Money talks (and bullshit walks). And don’t let those complete commercial misstatements about how Obama doesn’t think people receiving welfare should work bother you, either; both the “New York Times” and the “Washington Post” completely debunked the ad that is running non-stop in swing states (and on TV Channel 6 in the Quad Cities of IA/IL).

So, Karl Rove (aka “Bush’s Brain”) immediately met with Ed Gillespie, the former Republican National Committee Chairperson (who had also served in the Bush administration) and they became a dynamic duo, with Gillespie eventually sent over to work with Romney’s people. One wag said, “Ed’s got the better rap and Karl’s got the better Rolodex,” referencing Rove’s prodigious fund-raising ability.

Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons, a longtime donor to Rove’s causes was recruited. Within three weeks of the Supreme Courts’ controversial decision in “Citizens United,” American Crossroads, a new 527 advocacy group, had a web-site up and running. Very shortly after its inception, the group had commitments of $30 million, which was 4 times what the RNC had on hand. Four OTHER groups were formed: American Action Network, the American Action Forum, Resurgent Republican and the Republican State Leadership Committee. None of these groups had to disclose the identity of their contributors because they were nonprofits. American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS planned to spend $300 million to help GOP congressional candidates in battleground states like Florida, Colorado, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Iowa. Their anti-Democratic ads would run thousands of times and “Under the new laws, all of this could take place with virtually no oversight.” (p. 230).

The war chest the GOP amassed now approaches $1 billion. John McCain spent only $370 million on his entire presidential campaign in 2008. American Crossroads was considered to be an alternative to the RNC, which more-or-less collapsed under the leadership of its token black leader, Michael Steele.

A telling quote: “The center of energy will always be where the money is. Karl is playing for control of the party. That’s where the power and the money are.” WABC radio host John Batchelor (a Republican) is quoted this way: “American is a two-party state. There are the Democrats. Then, there’s Karl Rove.”

All of us, by now, are aware that Rove turned up on Fox News and “The Wall Street Journal” also gave him a bully pulpit.

Mitt Romney on the campaign trail in Davenport, IA.

On April 5^th, Ed Gillespie left American Crossroads and joined the Mitt Romney campaign as a senior adviser. This was well before Romney had locked up the nomination. Through Gillespie, Rove now had oversight of Romney’s campaign for the presidency of the United States. Rove became the gatekeeper over who would contribute how much to whom. Quote from Wayne Slater, (reporter for the “Dallas Morning News”): “When Karl put his imprimatur on you, it was clear that the money was going to go to you.”

Here’s a sobering paragraph from page 232: “The only way Romney can get back into the race quickly will be through the expenditures of substantial Super PAC dollars,” said Doug Schoen in “Forbes” magazine. “Specifically, the key actors in this process will be Karl Rove, whose Super PAC American Crossroads has raised $300 million, as well as the pro-Romney Super PAC, Restore Our Future. But make no mistake about it: the 2012 campaign now is not Obama versus Romney. It is Obama versus Karl Rove, American Crossroads, and Restore Our Future.”

And so, goes the article on page 232, “The great consolidation began between Rove’s super-PACS and Romney’s operation.” Beth Myers, who was so close to her boss that “The Washington Post” called her his “office wife” would be in charge of the selection of Paul Ryan as VP.

Rove then began bringing in those who had strayed from the cause, like Sheldon Adelson, the seventh-richest man in America ($24.9 billion) who had given $21.5 million to Newt Gingrich’s book tour-cum-campaign. After some hemming and hawing, Adelson gave $10 million to Restore Our Future” and said, “He (Rove ) is going to be the Republican Party’s 800-pound gorilla in defeating Barack Obama.” (this from an Adelson friend to CNN.)

Then there are the multi-billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch, who recently threw so much money into keeping Wisconsin’s Scott Walker in office as Governor when he began dismantling all unions and faced a recall. By early spring, Marc Short, a Koch operative, had begun attending the Weaver Terrace gatherings of Romney’s people. They had initially planned to steer $200 million to conservative groups and causes in 2012, but they doubled that to $400 million. Former “W” consultants” put that figure in context: “Think the $$ political system is screwed up? Koch brothers alone are planning to spend more money than McCain’s entire presidential budget.”

So, we have Grover Norquist’s “Americans for Tax Reform;’’ the National Right to Life committee; Ralph Reed’s “Faith & Freedom Coalition,” the National Rifle Association and the “American Future Fund,” all allied to spend money on Tea Party candidates and against Obama. Peter Stone (journalist) wrote: “By spreading their wealth throughout the conservative ecosystem the Kochs can exploit trusted brands with passionate followings that reach beyond the Tea Party base,” while at the same time leaving no trace of their involvement.

Romney now has a total of $1.8 billion dollars, with the RNC commanding another $800 million. In Virginia, Tim Kaine who was running for the Senate, was outspent 3 to 1. On Kaine’s behalf, as of late March, 380 ads ran, while Crossroads GPS and the Chamber of Commerce aired 1,980 attack ads against him. And it was a well-known fact that the Wisconsin recall effort was funded by the Koch Brothers and outspent those who wanted a new Governor about 4 to 1. Fox News, always glad to air an attack ad against the president, aired an attack ad on no fewer than 7 separate news shows in one 24-hour period, which means, as RNC strategist Brad Blakeman said, “Karl has gotten more earned media than the amount he invested in the ad.”

With Wall Street deserting Obama over some presidential feeble attempts to rein in the circumstances that caused the near-collapse of the country (no banker has yet gone to jail), Brent Budowsky wrote in “The Hill:”

“The inability of the Democrats to play in the same league as Karl Rove financially is a humiliating debacle that might be unprecedented, (measured by comparing wealthy donors of one party to wealthy donors of the other), in the history of presidential politics. The president and Democrats seem befuddled by how to react to the Citizens United decision, while Karl Rove understands with crystal clarity. Rove mobilizes his army, rallies his wealthy, organizes his ventures and puts his money in the bank.”

In 2008, more than 550,000 people gave more than $200 to Obama. In so doing they created the longest list of individual donors in American political history. According to BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith & Rebecca Elliott, at this point in 2012, nearly 90% of people had NOT come back to donate that amount again. Bush is gone and so are the donors Barack Obama needs to defeat the Mittster. Furthermore, the Democratic Super PACS are feeble. By mid-April, 4 of the biggest and 2 allied nonprofits had only $8.3 million on hand. Bill Maher and James H. Simons were responsible for a million each. Meanwhile, Rove’s groups had spent more than $11 million on attack ads against Obama.

George Soros.

At this point, George Soros, the famously liberal Democratic donor, tried to put together a strategy to combat Rove’s onslaught. He prepared to invest $100 million in Democratic super PACS and nonprofits, focusing on grassroots organizing, voter registration and turn out, rather than negative advertising. As Michael Vachon (a Soros adviser) told the “Huffington Post,” “Culturally, the left doesn’t do Swift Boat. It’s not what we do well.”

Rove’s strategy with all that cash is this: All Romney has to do is take 3 states: Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia—states that McCain and Palin lost in 2008, and recapture 2 big battleground states that Bush won in 2004 (Ohio and Florida) and—beyond that—-win just ONE swing state. It could be Iowa, where both Obama (his 13^th visit) and Romney are visiting repeatedly. Rove wrote it up this way: “The self-portrait the president has painted is of a weak liberal, buffeted by events. That will make this election more like 1980 when Ronald Reagan defeated an ineffectual Jimmy Carter than like 2004.”

Said Roger Stone: “No one else can construct a power center like he (Rove) can.” Rove has been the brains behind one of—if not THE—-worst presidents in U.S. history, who started 2 horribly expensive wars and, having inherited a booming economy from Clinton, left the nation in near economic collapse. But now that the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson have fallen into line, Rove has consolidated the warring factions within the Republican Party and is in command, with complete control.

Running for the Republicans is a team (Romney/Ryan) with the thinnest foreign policy background since 1944 (Dewey/Bricker) and the man who wants to dismantle Medicare and deny all abortions, even for rape and incest, and deny women many basic health care needs,, (Paul Ryan), the VP candidate. Ryan spent 14 years in Congress and never ran anything other than his House office. Ryan’s slashing of Medicaid (by $800 billion over 10 years) would reward the strong and abandon the needy, balancing the budget on the backs of the middle class while the rich are spared and protected. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, in “Time’s” August 27^th issue, called Ryan’ budget “an uncompromising right-wing Tea Party manifesto that provides big tax breaks to wealthy Americans at the expense of everyone and everything else.” Said the “Time” article (“Ryan’s Hope”), “Ryan is to budget math what Carl Sagan was to the science of the cosmos.” Said Joe Klein in the same issue, “Mitt Romney has effectively outsourced his job as intellectual leader of the ticket to his occasionally specific junior partner” (which Romney once called “marvelous.”)

Even worse, many of Ryan’s most prized ideas have already been tried and have already failed. The drastic cutting of taxes was tried under Reagan and did not work. Even the stupidest American can understand that, when bills are mounting, it is necessary to get more money. Maybe the average American takes a second job, but he or she tries to get more money to pay the mounting bills, and the nation needs to get more money to pay both our horrendous debt (Thanks, “W”!) and to pay for social programs like Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid and such things as infrastructure improvements.

In Ryan’s plan (quote from “Time”) “Average folks are taxed because they haven’t had the good sense to become wealthy.” Ryan’s budget is balanced on the backs of the poor and elderly. It would eviscerate medical help for the elderly poor and force those who are addled, decrepit and elderly to wade through the complicated market choices of private insurance, as their benefits would almost certainly not cover their medical needs under Ryan’s “voucher” plan.

What the Democrats have going for them, at this point, is a candidate who is genuinely likeable and not just a Gumby doll, some signs that economic unrest is at least under control for the moment in Europe (as well as somewhat stable in the Middle East, save for Syria), and a slowly improving economy. Obama was in Ohio today, but Mitt will be hitting the Quad Cities again tomorrow, at 12:30 p.m., while Ryan is going to Pennsylvania.

(Gallup Poll of 8/21): Twenty-two% of registered voter s like Ryan; 23% say they don’t like Ryan. 54% say it doesn’t make any difference in their vote, if they are registered Republicans.

Now if Barack Obama only had an educated, informed electorate that read, he’d be home free! But I’m watching an attack ad right now, paid for by Americans for Prosperity and, during Obama’s recent visit, the ratio of Republican ads to Democratic ads was 4 to 1. There’s one running right now, as I write this, which claims, quite ridiculously, that the Romney/Ryan plan will “protect Medicare,” when the opposite is the truth,.

But do people read these articles and know this?

“Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.”

President Obama & Michelle Obama to Visit Village of East Davenport on Aug. 15th, 2012

By Connie Wilson

On August 15, 2012

In Local, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics

President and Michelle Obama are welcomed to the Village of East Davenport near the site where he will speak on the evening of August 15, 2012.

President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are visiting the Village of East Davenport (in Davenport, IA) tomorrow (Aug. 15, 2012) for a speech as he swings through the state on his custom-made black bus. It is President Obama’s 13th visit to Iowa.

Those who weren’t paying close attention to the seating chart within the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver may not have realized this, but Iowa and Illinois had the 2 most prized right-down-front positions. That is because Iowa, in its first-in-the-nation primaries “gave me a chance,” as now-President Obama has put it. He has not forgotten this salient fact, and neither have I.

At the time, I was writing for Associated Content and had made it my job to go out and attend each and every campaign rally of each party. I could tell something “big” was building on the ground, just talking to the natives. I went out on a limb and predicted that Barack Obama would carry Iowa and the next thing you know, I had at least 5 or 10 people telling me how nuts I was and how they would come back AFTER the primaries to watch me eat those words.

Workers unload large vans in preparation for President Obama’s speech, which will be given outdoors in a grassy field often used for Re-enactors and/or art fairs.

I think we all know how that played out. It was not an easy victory for President Obama, running against Bill Clinton’s wife, Hillary, our former First Lady, but he pulled it out. And the prominent place given Bill Clinton at this years DNC can only mean one thing: we may not have heard the last of Hillary as a candidate. (2016, anyone?)

No matter what your feelings towards the candidates, this is a Big Deal in our neck of the woods. River Drive is totally disrupted (summer construction) keeping traffic to the Village down. The Secret Service will block access from the Locust Street side. The tickets were given out starting at noon and the line was long.

I went over to Logomarcino’s Ice Cream Shoppe today and spoke with the employees, who informed me that they would be closed for business until after the president speaks, which is scheduled to be 5:30 p.m., which means it will be closer to 6:30 or 7 p.m. Some of the Logomarcino family have already been told that they will get to meet the president.

The photographers are busy taking pictures of OTHER photographers.

The woman who made me a chocolate soda told me of the day that candidate Barack Obama visited the RME (River Music Experience) when she was working there. “I was all dirty and holding a mop..a real mess. He came in with all these Secret Service people in business suits and came right over to me and shook my hand and said, ‘How are you?’ and asked my name. He was real. He was genuine. He got my vote right there.”

Meanwhile, at the Des Moines (IA) State Fair, Paul Ryan, who would dismantle Medicare in this Land of the Old and Home of the Geriatric Generation, was booed.

I’m just wondering if the Mittster has a dog on top of the bus he and Paul Ryan will now tour the swing states in. Hopefully, they’ll let the little fellow out once in a while, if they have a mascot with them.

ThrillerFest in New York City & Other Things That Have Kept Me Away from the Blog

By Connie Wilson

On August 6, 2012

In Books, Music, Politics, travel

I’ve been away from the keyboard for a variety of reasons:

1) I attended ThrillerFest in New York City July 11-14 and had the opportunity to hear wisdom from many great writers. Pictures are a few. The HWA’s own W.D. Gagliani was on one panel, as was Nate Kenyon (“Diablo: The Order”). I had the opportunity to see the Terra Cotta soldiers at the Discovery Center on W. 44th Street and, as a special treat, I got to wait in LaGuardia airport from 6 p.m. until almost midnight (the plane was supposed to leave at 8 p.m.)

ThrillerFest in NYC in July.

Joseph Finder, author of “Paranoia,” “Company Man,” et. al.

Lady Liberty has a small wardrobe malfunction n Times Square.

: Jon Land, author of the Caitlin Strong series.
Grand Central Terminal, right next to the Hyatt where Thrillerfest was held.

2) Upon our return, we spent some time at the beach with Scott, Jessica, Ava & Elise.

Ava & Elise with Grandpa at the 31st St. Beach in Chicago.

3) Then, of course, there was my birthday. We dined at Nellicoat, which used to be a different restaurant on Randolph, but is now very fancy.

Nellicoat, the fancy restaurant on Randolph Street where we dined on my birthday with son Scott and daughter-in-law Jessica.

4) July 28, Saturday: Chicago and the Doobie Brothers at Northerly Isle Pavilion (birthday celebration).

Northerly Isle Pavilion, July 28th, 2012: Chicago and the Doobie Brothers.

The Doobie Brothers appeared with Chicago this year (7/29/2012).

Chicago skyline at dusk.

5) Last, but certainly not least, I’ve been putting the finishing touches on “Hellfire & Damnation II,” which went “live” as an E-book on July 28th. It’s a truly entertaining book, with illustrations for each story and a great cover from Vincent Chong of the UK, plus a Fro the Author section explaining the inspiration for the stories. There will be a 5-day period when the book on Amazon Kindle will be free, but that has yet to be determined. Stay tuned for the exact dates, which will probably be near Halloween.

“Hellfire & Damnation II” available now in paperback from Amazon and Barnes & Noble and in Kindle E-book from Amazon. Stay tuned for free download dates, which will be somewhere near Halloween.

6) Lollapalooza has been ongoing in Chicago all weekend. I’ve been listening to the groups from my balcony, except when a very bad storm caused authorities to evacuate the park. The last band that got to play its set as originally scheduled was “Moon Taxi” from Nashville, friends of my daughter’s. At about 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, the high winds and rain swept in. However, the concert continued after a brief period of time, allowing the Red Hot Chili Peppers to perform, at least. On Sunday, Florence & the Machine and Jack White played and they sounded great.

: Lollapalooza, August 3-5.

NATO Protests End with a Whimper, Not A Bang!

By Connie Wilson

On May 22, 2012

In Interviews, Politics

Protesters gathered in Grant Park on Sunday, May 20th, 2012.

I’ve just spent the last four days following protesters through the streets of Chicago. My feet, despite wearing my good walking shoes, are like bloody stumps. The problem was the inability to use the ell or buses, because you could not carry a bag that was bigger than 14” or deeper than 4”. Since I don’t own a purse that small, I’ve been walking.

Later, I considered the fact that I have a bicycle here and could have used it. Usually, I am fearful of all the Chicago traffic. There has BEEN no Chicago traffic to speak of, as the city is like a ghost town. Many South Loop merchants actually boarded up their plate glass windows as though a hurricane were coming.

My new friend, Jonathan Morris, sitting in the middle of an empty Lake Shore Drive, looking south.

The hurricane did not materialize. It was more a rainy day. The protesters did come, but so did the cops. There were more police in the city of Chicago—-10,000, I was told—than at any time in history. The entire state of Illinois sent policemen with special training (3 months of special training) to assist Rahm Emanuel’s troops in quelling any riots. The last thing that was wanted was another black eye for the city of Chicago like that incurred during the Democratic National Convention of 1968.

I still remember watching the DNC on my hospital television set, having just given birth to my oldest child. It was unbelievable! On top of that, commentators Gore Vidal (liberal) and William F. Buckley (conservative) got into verbal fisticuffs that deteriorated into physical fisticuffs, with both men rolling around on the studio floor. (“Listen, you God-damned queer, you say that one more time and I’ll punch you in the face!” to which Vidal responded by calling Buckley a “crypto-Nazi” and they were off to the races.)

Jesse Jackson, preparing to speak at the Petrillo Band Shell on Sunday, May 20th.

No such excitement this time around in Chicago. I muse on the demonstrations of my youth and my misspent adulthood, and I wonder what the difference is. I have some theories, which I will share here:

1) Back in the 60s, the demonstrators were primarily college-aged youth. Why? The draft, of course. Not many of my male classmates were too thrilled about the concept of going off to Southeast Asia to fight the Vietnam War. I couldn’t have agreed with them more, so I, too, drew blood, signed my name on a long roll in protest, and marched to the steps of Old Capitol in Iowa City to “protest.” However, the REAL City of Protests was Berkeley, where I attended in 1965, the hey-day of Mario Savio. I had to smile when I revisited the campus a few years back to find a statue of Mario, who is now deceased. Back in the day, they were hauling Mario off to jail with great regularity. Both campuses (Iowa City and Berkeley) learned that it is too easy to break out bookstore windows during a riot. The Republicans learned this during the Republican National Convention of 2008 when demonstrators, despite heavy security, ran through the streets breaking out windows. So, is it any wonder that some local South Loop merchants just closed up shop, boarded up their windows, and stayed home?

2) In the days of my youth, there was ONE thing being protested: i.e., the war in Vietnam. How many of us remember the chants of “Hey! Hey! LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?” and the “Hell, no! We won’t go!” sentiments? In Chicago in 2012, it’s hard to tell who is protesting what. Of course, there are those who simply don’t like NATO. Then there are signs that declare “Bring ‘Em Home!” (anti-war). Then there was a woman protesting evictions. Another woman, clad all in pink, was trying to secure signatures to run on the Green Party ticket.

The Storm Troopers Await.

Yet another country heard from: veterans of both the Vietnam War and the Iraq War, who were out in force and planning on returning medals earned during a dramatic set-to with the police that took place on Sunday about 4 p.m. at the juncture of Michigan and Cermak Streets, a 2 and ½ mile walk from Grant Park’s Petrillo Band Shell, where the festivities kicked off at 10:30 a.m. with Tom Morello (lead guitarist of “Rage Against the Machine”) playing. It was too bad that the sound system was defective, because Morello was recently voted the 26^thbest guitarist of all time by “Rolling Stone” magazine, but only played for about 20 minutes. I enjoyed the time in the park, as Haskell Wexler, Oscar-winning cinematographer (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”) was in the park with a female camerawoman, whom he introduced as being a “very good filmmaker.” Haskell should know! It was a thrill to meet this icon, the last cinematographer to receive an Oscar for a black-and-white film and still going strong at 90 years young. (I was beginning to feel sorry for myself for being so old until I ran into Haskell.)

Oscar-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler, age 90, was in Grant Park interviewing protesters. Haskell was the last person to win an Oscar for black-and-white cinematography. He was the cinematographer for both "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

I struck up a conversation with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. There were three men present who showed me the map of the protest march route: the bespectacled Billy Kelly; the bearded Ron Arm, who served in ‘Nam in ’68 and ’69; and Bill Homans, aka “Watermelon Slim.”

Left to right: Billy Kelly, Bill Homans (aka "Watermelon Slim") and Ron Arm ('Nam, 68-69).

Bill, who was leaning heavily on a cane, told me he grew up North Carolina and Oklahoma and Mississippi, but now lives in Clarksville, about 75 miles southwest of Memphis. He has recorded 12 records, singing the blues, as Watermelon Slim, and his plan this night was to sing at Simone’s on 18^th Street around 6 p.m. The veterans shared with me that the city had provided them with a stage set up in the back of a flat-bed truck. This would be their impromptu stage where medals from veterans who fought in our nation’s wars would be returned in protest. Some of the medals were coming from expatriates who fled the Afghanistan War. (Obviously, they would not be there in person.) When asked how many medals, in all, would be returned, the answer was 35.

Slim said, “I’m 63 and I’m breaking down. I enlisted. My dad fought the Nazis and I knew it was not a matter of if, but of when I’d go (to Vietnam). I enlisted as a truck driver, because I really didn’t want to kill anyone. When I came back, I had a lot of survivor guilt, but I’m not going to take any money from the government. There are young people with their whole lives ahead of them that are coming back in worse shape than I’m in now. I’ve finally got a little house of my own and a woman…although we don’t live together. I’m doing all right.”

When I shared with Slim that I was older than he is, he gallantly declared that to be impossible.

ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) Observers.

Next, I caught sight of a sign that declared that we should all “Rise Up!” Yet the bearer of this sign, Taylor Nimey from Seattle who had come with 10 other Occupy Seattle people, was sitting on the grass smoking a cigarette, which struck me as ironic. I sat down next to him and a young (18 years old, a sophomore at DePaul) journalism student asked if she could speak with us about what we were there protesting. I quickly told her I was not really a protester (although I have been), but was a journalist, as she is training to be. (I spent a fair amount of time telling her she needed a “Plan B” in order to survive financially).

Our bright-eyed bushy-tailed young interviewer asked Taylor some questions and he declared that the protest was, “Definitely a great gathering of people around the world.”

Tom Morrell, lead guitarist for "Rage Against the Machine," who lives in the Chicago suburbs and was named the 26th best guitarist of all time by "Rolling Stone" magazine.

The young interviewer asked, “What do they represent?”

Taylor actually started to make some sense, pontificating about how “money doesn’t do anything but feed greed’ and that the government “Should listen to the people and start making changes to their policies.”

Taylor’s answers prompted me to ask him if he had gone to college, and he had, in fact, attended a junior college in Washington state.

“What do you do for a living?” I asked him.

“I work for the post office,” he shared.

I wondered if Taylor was aware that he was working FOR the very government he was protesting AGAINST. And then he came out with his Big Bright Idea: “anarchist communes.” O………….K……….

Moving on, I spoke with Kenneth Justus, who had been on Michigan Avenue the night before in a strange get-up. There he was again, only this time dressed as a court jester. I began to think that Kenneth is or was a professional protester.

Protester Kenneth Justus.

As someone who attended Berkeley back when Mario Savio was leading protests (now, he’s dead and there’s a statue dedicated to him on campus) and the Free Speech movement was just getting started (1965), I’ve seen some protests.

As someone who ran alongside the protesters in St. Paul as they broke out windows (despite the George W. Bush attempts to heavily fortify the city and also staff it with storm troopers), I did not find the NATO

Kenneth Justus on Sunday, May 20th.

demonstrations to be very intense, very well-organized or very effective. Some of the people leading certain groups were from out-of-town and would take wrong turns. The police were not letting the protesters cross the bridge and disrupt the Miracle Mile (one protester whose first name was “Taylor” was arrested for pushing a bicycle policeman’s bike against his chest, and I wondered if it was the “Rise Up” Seattle Taylor). I also witnessed demonstrations in Denver at the DNC in 2008 and also at rallies for George W. Bush and John McCain, and there was none of the enthusiastic vigor or over-the-top violence. This was undoubtedly viewed as a good thing by the PTB. Nobody wanted Chicago to come off as a town full of over-zealous storm troopers who would just as soon bash your head in as look at you, as they did in 1968. I am among that number, so I am not upset that there were so few real “moments” during the past 3 days of the NATO summit.

Grant Park, May 20th, 2012.

The only problem was that my reports from the front made everything sound so tame and well-behaved that the world, watching the few who were arrested or carted away (the technique being to cut the trouble-maker from the pack and get them away quickly, in a surgical strike), especially my very nice editor in Denver for Yahoo, couldn’t quite figure out how it was that I was seeing such a very different series of events.

I can’t figure it out, either. I think that more mature people do not take the risks that

Lawyer observers.

young people took in the 60’s, when it was their life on the line. I think that the “mix” of causes contributed to the disorganization and the failure to have an overriding cause. Yes, people are angry that the policies of our government seem to be widening the gap between the rich and the poor, and the poor are definitely paramount amongst the Occupiers. If you were to see how they must exist to occupy, you would understand that Occupying is not a pursuit for sissies (like me) who love their creature comforts. How many among us would willingly go without a shower or a bath or washed hair or brushed teeth for days on end? Not many, I’m sure.

The one “big news” story that came out of the NATO summit was the plot to use Molotov cocktails on Obama’s headquarters and to shoot an arrow through Rahm Emanuel’s house window. The 3 brainiacs who thought this up were not from Chicago.

They were also not students. One was 27; one was 25; one was 20. Only the 20-year-old sounds like he fell in with the wrong crowd. The others sounded like professional trouble-makers. One, in fact, quit his job as a cook to “occupy” in a variety of cities. There was also talk of a 37-year-old unemployed social worker who was arrested and of a Wisconsin man who was driving around Canal Street with rounds of live ammunition on the back seat of his car.

This group of young people was excited to have their picture taken on the closed down Columbus Drive.

Tomorrow, it’s all over and the city will return to normal. So much for my strolls through Grant Park after dark, alone. It was truly safe there this past 3 days because most of the police on duty were lolling around there. I saw a uniformed officer using his cell phone to take pictures of a man walking his 2 little dogs (terriers). I said, to my companion: “There ya’ go. Your tax dollars at work!”

Afghananistan War Should End…Soon

By Connie Wilson

On April 6, 2012

In Editorial, Politics

Here is an excerpt from April 5th’s “The Daily Beast:”

” Popular support for the Afghan War has sharply eroded in recent months, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll. Sixyt-nine percent of those surveyed now think that the U.S. should not be involved in the war in Afghanistan. That is a significant change from four months ago, when only 53 percent said that the U.S. should no longer be fighting in that country. The poll also found that perceptions of the war effort have changed dramatically. Sixyt-eight percent now feel the war is going “somewhat badly,” while only 42 percent of those surveyed felt that way back in November.”

In the March 26, 2012 “Time” this quote appears, from Richard Fontaine, former foreign policy adviser to Senator John McCain, who is now with the Center for a New American Security: “There’s a sense that things are out of control and that it is going to be difficult to find a successful endgame”

Well, gee whillikers, guys! Any Tom, Dick or Harry could have told you THAT with just Vietnam as our referent.

Newt Gingrich on the campaign trail in Davenport, IA.

Later, in the same article, entitled “No Easy WayOut: Obama Wrestles with a Withdrawal from Afghanistan” (Michael Crowley) the comment is made that a clear majority of Americans oppose the war (see the “Daily Beast” poll above) and that “the once resilient support of Republicans has begun to slip.” The article mentions the Newtster saying, “We are not going to fix Afghanistan. It is not possible.”
Did the Russians’ experience in trying to do exactly that not teach us anything?

On top of the sickening feeling that more American lives will be lost in a futile cause, the article gives Karl Rove’s argument, which is that Republicans must cast retreat as “emboldening America’s enemies.” Ha!

The only hopeful comments in the article are that Obama is considering withdrawing 10,000 more troops by year’s end and an additional 10,000 to 20,000 by mid 2013. To quote Representative Adam Smith, top Democrat on the Houes Armed Services Committee: “Momentum is gathering for the idea that we need to draw down sooner rather than later.”

Obama inherited the Afghanistan War and then escalated it by sending in 51,000 more troops. But Osama bin Laden is dead and too many of our brave American boys and girls are also dead or injured.

It is time. Stop the insanity. End the conflicts that “W” instigated and bring our boys (and girls) home.

Super Tuesday, March 6th, 2012 Versus Super Tuesday, 2008

By Connie Wilson

On March 7, 2012

In Politics

Mitt Romney in Davenport, IA.

Super Tuesday, 2012, is over. In a few ways, it was like Super Tuesday, 2008. There were more ways, however, in which it bore little resemblance to four years ago. For one thing, the enthusiasm in 2008 was at fever pitch. The Republican race is more like warmed-over left-overs. There are fewer contests this time, (none on the Democratic side), and the “winner-take-all” formula that helped McCain win the 1,144 votes needed for the Republican nomination has been changed in many states.

Romney Can’t Seal the Deal

The failure of Mitt Romney to decisively put away the states on the ballot on March 6, 2012, means that, much like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards in 2008, this campaign will slog on to a far-off finish line. There aren’t too many big electoral vote states having contests until April.

Kansas is next on March 10. On March 13, Alabama, Mississippi and Hawaii vote. Super Tuesday was Mitt Romney’s chance to pull away from the pack, especially upstart former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. He failed to do so. Now, Romney’s gearing up for a big campaign in Illinois on March 20.

Mitt carried Ohio, a must-win state, by only about 12,000 votes. This slim victory margin caused more concern than celebration. No Republican has ever won the nomination without taking Ohio. Romney also won Massachusetts, Vermont, Idaho and Virginia. (In Virginia, however, only Romney and Ron Paul were on the ballot.)

Newt Gingrich in Davenport, IA.

Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich carried his home state of Georgia, vowing (like Edwards before him) to fight on (although Edwards quit after Nevada) and Santorum racked up wins in North Dakota, Tennessee and Oklahoma. [Alaska—which seemed to be trending towards Romney—-was still out as of this writing.] Totals: 386 for Romney; 156 for Santorum; 85 for Gingrich; and 40 for Paul.

Romney/Santorum vs. Clinton/Obama in 2008

A CNN commentator said, “It was a slog. It took forever. His (Romney’s) negatives are shooting up because of all the negative campaign ads.” All agreed that Romney’s fundamental problem is that he cannot coalesce the Republican base. Said Donna Brazile on CNN, “I feel that is very weak.”

Compare Romney’s failure to win the hearts and minds of voters with the miracle in the cornfields of the Iowa caucuses that set Barack Obama on the path to the White House. With his first win in Iowa in 2008, there was talk of Obama’s “momentum in the Heartland.” This was especially sweet for Obama because, as described in the book Game Change, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, Hillary Clinton decided to “double down” on Iowa.

She poured millions of additional dollars into the campaign. It was a political gamble with a huge upside, if she won. The downside was that Hillary burned through a lot of her campaign cash. If Hillary didn’t win in Iowa, a huge deficit faced her campaign in New Hampshire and beyond. Funding can hurt the lesser candidates (Paul, Gingrich), but Romney’s inability to close the deal may also hurt him. Santorum’s strong showings have swelled his war chest to $9 million.

Women Voters

Rick Santorum in Des Moines on Iowa caucus night.

One way in which 2008 and 2012 mirrored one another is that women voters went to the victor. Barack Obama took women voters away from Hillary Clinton in Iowa, but she came back in New Hampshire with her teary moment, won them back, and scored a victory there. Exit polls showed that this time women went for Romney over Santorum, 42% to 38% in Ohio.

Conclusion

Any way you analyze the results, Texas Governor Rick Perry was correct. He said, “This wasn’t a super night for anyone.” From now on, money woes could well plague those who did the least well.

Rush Limbaugh Goes Too Far in Sandra Fluke Fiasco

By Connie Wilson

On March 4, 2012

In Editorial, News, Politics

Rush Limbaugh & Sandra Fluke.

The big news on Saturday, March 3, 2012, was Rush Limbaugh’s belated apology to third year law student Sandra Fluke. Ms. Fluke was barred from testifying at the Senate’s health care hearings on women’s access to contraception. [Republican Darrell Issa of California called her “unqualified.”]

A panel of all-male others (including a male Catholic priest) were allowed to testify. This exclusion of Ms. Fluke prompted the Democrats to hold a forum where Ms. Fluke was allowed to tell her story of a friend whose struggle to secure birth control pills from Georgetown University (a Catholic institution) to prevent cysts took so long that medical complications cost her an ovary.

The attacks on Sandra Fluke started on the first day of Women’s History Month. Rush Limbaugh insulted and demeaned Ms. Fluke on his show for three full days. He called her “a slut” and “a prostitute” on day one. He moved on in the next two days to suggest that, if birth control pills were provided to female students, they should be required to post sexual videos online.

It is not the first controversy for Rush Limbaugh, whose antics provoked Senator Al Franken’s book Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot, in which he proved that Limbaugh did little fact-checking, preferring to broadcast inaccurate information if it would shock his audiences. Rush has mocked Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease and called Michelle Obama fat. He laughed at the Japanese earthquake disaster and made the outrageous statement soon after the 2008 presidential election, “I hope Obama fails.”

Limbaugh is not the only commentator who intends to provoke outrage. Bill O’Reilly often stirs things up. Bill Maher was taken to task for making fun of white men, (in the sexting scandal that involved Brett Favre.) Maher, on September 17, 2001, took on 9/11 saying, “We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That’s cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it’s not cowardly.” That remark cost Maher his ABC program, “Politically Incorrect.”

Perhaps the radio commentator most closely paralleling Limbaugh’s current brouhaha, however, is Don Imus, who was fired by CBS radio when he called the Rutgers University women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hoes.” Despite repeated apologies and a two-week suspension, Imus was fired.

CBS said, “In our meeting with concerned groups, there has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people..That consideration has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision.” The fact that Imus scorned “women of color trying to make their way in this society” did not escape comment by CBS, but the rest of the CBS remarks apply equally to Sandra Fluke.

On Facebook, Carbonite’s CEO, David Friend, said that Limbaugh had overstepped “any reasonable bounds of decency” and added, “No one with daughters the age of Sandra Fluke, and I have two, could possibly abide the insult and abuse heaped upon this courageous and well-intentioned young lady.” Carbonite canceled all current and future advertising on Limbaugh’s show.

Most apropos of all Imus comments, however, came from then-Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, back on April 11 of 2007: “…there’s nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude…It was a degrading comment. What we’ve been seeing around this country is this constant ratcheting up of a coarsening of the culture that all of us have to think about…Insults, humor that degrades women, humor that is based in racism and racial stereotypes isn’t fun. And the notion that somehow it’s cute or amusing, or a useful diversion, I think, is something that all of us have to recognize is just not the case. We all have First Amendment rights. And I am a Constitutional lawyer and strongly believe in free speech, but as a culture, we really have to do some soul-searching to think about what kind of toxic information we are feeding our kids.”

That was before Barack Obama became President Obama. President Barack Obama called Sandra Fluke to tell her that her parents should be proud of her (something Limbaugh had ridiculed on the air, saying, “Can you imagine, if you’re her parents, how proud you’d be?”)

Limbaugh’s defense?

In an apology on March 4 (after three days of attacks on Ms. Fluke) in which Limbaugh went totally off-topic ( “Will we be debating if taxpayers should pay for new sneakers for all students that are interested in running to keep fit?”) Limbaugh said: “My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choice.”

What Limbaugh doesn’t understand is that it’s not just his word choice, nor his insincerity in apologizing after three days of attacks. Rush Limbaugh insulted every female of child-bearing age in America with disregard for the truth and honesty of Ms. Fluke’s message. He insulted the mothers of America—all of us, regardless of age. It’s not Limbaugh’s word choice. It’s everything and everyone he ridicules, whether it is Michael J. Fox’s debilitating Parkinson’s disease or Michelle Obama’s weight (when a good long look in the mirror should tell him that mocking others’ weight is a bad idea.) It’s the lack of common human decency and mutual human respect.

Advertisers are defecting in droves from Limbaugh’s show. Perhaps, our long national nightmare will soon be over and Rush Limbaugh will be fired, as unlikely as that seems? As Bill Maher said, on September 18, 2006, after his own ill-timed remarks cost him his TV show, “And so, to anybody who gets fired like I did, my advice would be you never know—it could be a good thing. It really could.”

Update on the Status of 40 Foreign Nationals Detained in Egypt

By Connie Wilson

On January 31, 2012

In Local, News, Politics

Sam LaHood and recent bride, Katie.

From “The Daily Beast.” Sam LaHood, son of Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and his wife are among those foreign nationals being refused permission to leave the country as of January 31, 2012.

2. Egypt Refuses to Release Americans
Egypt’s justice minister on Tuesday returned a letter to a U.S. ambassador asking Egypt to end a travel ban on Americans who are being investigated for illegally funding pro-democracy groups in the country. The minister said publicly that the letter should have been sent to the investigating justice, and that only those affected by the ban were entitled to make such a request. Egypt’s Parliament speaker, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, said the letter was “interference by the American embassy.” Several Americans were banned from leaving Egypt after their nongovernmental organizations were raided by the Egyptian military and are currently taking refuge at the U.S. embassy in Cairo.