by David Safier Jeff Biggers got some local love for his new book, "State Out of the Union: Arizona and the Final Showdown Over the American Dream." The Weekly published a long excerpt, One of Those Little Barefooted Mexican Kids, about Raúl Castro. Add that to another excerpt published in Salon last week. Tonight's the … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Time once again for Steve Benen's weekly fact check of the shameless shapeshifter and pathological liar, Willard "Mittens" Romney. Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XXXVI:
When Mitt Romney talked to "60 Minutes" last week, he said President Obama has "repeatedly shown a reckless disregard for the truth." If there's ever been a more blatant example of political "projection," I don't can't think of it.
And yet, Romney is increasingly invested in this. This week, several reports noted that Romney intends to use next week's debate to do some "fact check" the president. The Obama campaign, unimpressed, released a video this morning on the subject. (Video below the fold).
Of course, if the 2012 presidential race comes down to which candidate is more dishonest, Romney's in trouble. Consider, for example, the 36th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. Romney argued just yesterday that the crisis of military suicides would be made worse by looming cuts to the defense budget.
2. In same speech, Romney said, "You realize we have fewer ships in the Navy than any time since 1917."
This one again? Romney dropped this lie a while ago, but it's apparently back.
3. Romney went on to say, in reference to the president, "[H]is plan also calls for trillion dollar deficits."
Obama's plan calls for trillions in deficit reduction.
4. Romney added, "It is the same series of policies he's put in place over the last four years and they have not worked. And if you don't, why, look at the price of gasoline."
To blame gas prices on the president's policies is ridiculously untrue.
5. Romney also said in reference to Obama, "He's put us on a road to Europe."
The irony is, Europe is trying to grow through austerity, just as Romney intends to do here. He's lying in a self-refuting sort of way.
6. In a speech at Westerville, Ohio, Romney boasted, "We got unemployment down [in Massachusetts] to 4.7 percent."
Well, in reality, the unemployment rate in Massachusetts dropped because so many people dropped out of the state's workforce. The fact of the matter is Massachusetts' job creation record during Romney's term was "one of the worst in the country," ranking 47th out of 50 states.
Continue reading Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XXXVI.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Willard "Mittens" Romney really doesn't want you to believe that he is the heartless vulture capitalist that his GOP primary opponents and the Obama campaign have portrayed him as. The problem is, Mittens never cleaned up all the evidence he left behind that proves otherwise.
David Corn at Mother Jones has another video, this one from a CD-ROM created in 1998 to mark the 25th anniversary of Bain & Company. NEW ROMNEY VIDEO: In 1985, He Said Bain Would "Harvest" Companies for Profits | Mother Jones:
Mother Jones has obtained a video from 1985 in which Romney, describing Bain's formation, showed how he viewed the firm's mission. He explained that its goal was to identify potential and hidden value in companies, buy significant stakes in these businesses, and then "harvest them at a significant profit" within five to eight years.
The video was included in a CD-ROM created in 1998 to mark the 25th anniversary of Bain & Company, the consulting firm that gave birth to Bain Capital. Here is the full clip, as it appeared on that CD-ROM (the editing occurred within the original) (video below the fold):
by Pamela Powers Hannley
Besides their views on Mexican American Studies, one of the most telling questions at Wednesday's Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) candidate forum was about labor unions. There were definitely differences of opinion about the role of teachers' unions and how the union issue relates to the shift toward charter schools (which are not unionized).
Seven of 12 candidates for TUSD governing board candidates participated in a candidate forum sponsored by Dinking Liberally Tucson.
After the jump, listen to the candidates' thoughts on working with labor unions. This is the third in a series of videos from the forum. Here is a link to my You Tube channel where this and other video clips reside.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The latest Obama campaign ad, "My Job," simply puts pictures to Willard "Mittens" Romney's own words to devastating effect.
Mitt Romney:
"There are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what …"
"… who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it …"
"… And they will vote for this president no matter what …"
"… And so my job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
Video below the fold.