Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Obama campaign is up with a new ad today entitled "Rebuilding." Description:

Voiceover:

"A decade of war that cost us dearly and now for president a clear choice. President Obama ended the Iraq war. Mitt Romney would have left 30,000 troops in Iraq and called bringing them home tragic. Obama's brought 30,000 soldiers back from Afghanistan and has a responsible plan to end the war. Romney calls it Obama's 'biggest mistake'. It's time to stop fighting over there and start rebuilding here."

Video below the fold.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

As I have been posting about for some time, the foreign policy advisers to Willard "Mittens" Romney are the very same Bush-Cheney regime Neocon war mongers responsible for the greatest intelligence failures in U.S. history and for propagandizing this country into an unnecesary and illegal war in Iraq. Romney is getting the boys in the band back together for another tour, this time in Syria and Iran.

Ari Berman at The Nation writes Mitt Romney's Neocon War Cabinet:

Romney is loath to mention Bush on the campaign trail, for obvious reasons, but today they sound like ideological soul mates on foreign policy. Listening to Romney, you’d never know that Bush left office bogged down by two unpopular wars that cost America dearly in blood and treasure. Of Romney’s forty identified foreign policy advisers, more than 70 percent worked for Bush. Many hail from the neoconservative wing of the party, were enthusiastic backers of the Iraq War and are proponents of a US or Israeli attack on Iran. Christopher Preble, a foreign policy expert at the Cato Institute, says, “Romney’s likely to be in the mold of George W. Bush when it comes to foreign policy if he were elected.” On some key issues, like Iran, Romney and his team are to the right of Bush. Romney’s embrace of the neoconservative cause—even if done cynically to woo the right—could turn into a policy nightmare if he becomes president. […]

I hope Parker doesn't look too dark in this picture, so I am not accused of racism by the GOP… By Michael Bryan I recently took a close look at the CD9 Congressional Debate between Vernon Parker and Kyrsten Sinema (and some obnoxious Libertarian perennial candidate), and one exchange really stood out for me: Kyrsten … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Obama campaign is up with a new web ad in advance of Monday night's foreign policy debate, "Mitt Romney's Easy Five-Step Approach to Foreign Policy." Description:

Mitt Romney's easy five-step approach to foreign policy:

Step 1: Get the facts wrong.
Step 2: Undermine long-standing relationships with your allies.
Step 3: Frequently highlight your lack of experience.
Step 4: Assemble a team of ideologues committed to endless war.
Step 5: Mistake your enemies.

Video below the fold.

Posted by AzBluemeanie: I previously posted about the New York Times report Election-Year Stakes Overshadow Nuances of Benghazi Investigation – NYTimes.com, and the Washington Post's national security pundit David ignatius' column that CIA documents supported Susan Rice’s description of Benghazi attacks. On Sunday, the L.A. Times also confirmed the New York Times report in No … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The caption above is frequently attributed to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Hat tip to urbanlegends.about.com for this source:

A historical source has been found for one variant of this quote. The source is Boris Bazhanov's Memoirs of Stalin's Former Secretary, published in 1992 and only available, so far as I know, in Russian. The pertinent passage, which appears near the end of chapter five, reads as follows (loosely translated):

You know, comrades," says Stalin, "that I think in regard to this: I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how.

So with what the media villagers tell us is a "tied" election based upon their unscientific polling and media narrative, it should raise concern that many of the voting machines in several critical "battleground" states are owned by a subsidiary of Bain Capital. All Voices:

Romney family buys voting machines through Bain Capital investment

Tagg Romney, the son of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has purchased electronic voting machines that will be used in the 2012 elections in Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, Washington and Colorado.

"Late last month, Gerry Bello and Bob Fitrakis at FreePress.org broke the story of the Mitt Romney/Bain Capital investment team involved in H.I.G. Capital which, in July of 2011, completed a "strategic investment" to take over a fair share of the Austin-based e-voting machine company Hart Intercivic," according to independent journalist Brad Friedman.

But Friedman is not the only one to discover the connection between the Romney family, Bain Capital, and ownership of voting machines.

Truth out reports:

"Through a closely held equity fund called Solamere, Mitt Romney and his wife, son and brother are major investors in an investment firm called H.I.G. Capital. H.I.G. in turn holds a majority share and three out of five board members in Hart Intercivic, a company that owns the notoriously faulty electronic voting machines that will count the ballots in swing state Ohio November 7. Hart machines will also be used elsewhere in the United States.

In other words, a candidate for the presidency of the United States, and his brother, wife and son, have a straight-line financial interest in the voting machines that could decide this fall's election. These machines cannot be monitored by the public. But they will help decide who "owns" the White House."

Both The Nation and New York Times confirm the connection between the Romney family, Solamere and the Bain Capital investment in the voting machine company, Hart Intercivic, whose board of directors serve H.I.G. Capital.