Christie, Palatucci, & Jersey

Bill Palatucci, friend of NJ Gov. Chris Christie, left Community Education Centers for the law firm of Gibbons, PC. (For details click here or here.)

Community Education Centers, CEC, calls itself "A leading provider of offender reentry" is the company to which New Jersey has outsourced halfway houses.

It is also the company that allows felons to - in words Mitt Romney might use - "Self-Parole" and "Self-Pardon" - to walk away at will. The New York Times covered this at length. The Times, not known for sensationalist reporting, described Community Education Centers half-way houses as places where "bedlam" reigns (here).

Palatucci said that his resignation from CEC had nothing to do with Governor Christie's re-election campaign. He also said that he wants to have time to work on Republican campaigns in 2013.

If Gov. Christie runs his campaign the way Community Education Centers runs their half-way houses I expect Mr. Christie to lose his re-election campaign.

Mr. Palatucci and Mr. Christie go back a long way. Back in 1987 Christie joined the law firm of Dughi, Hewit & Palatucci. In '93 he was named a partner in the firm. In '98 he registered as a lobbyist for the firm. Between 1999 and 2001, Christie and Palatucci lobbied on behalf of GPU Energy for deregulation of New Jersey's electric and gas industry; the Securities Industry Association to block the inclusion of securities fraud under the state's Consumer Fraud Act; Hackensack University Medical Center for state grants, and the University of Phoenix for a New Jersey higher education license. in 2000, Christie and Palatucci worked as fundraisers for George W. Bush.

Obama v Romney, Election 2012, Mandate? Landslide?

Cultural Forensics would like to congratulate President Obama on his reelection. 

While sometimes we question his judgment - we think he should be moving more aggressively into the efficient use of renewable and sustainable energy, and away from fuel - and waste - based systems, and we think the citizens of the United States would be better served if the Veterans Health Administration was transformed into a Citizens Health Administration and if Medicare was expanded to cover all Americans - we also think that President Obama is an intelligent and thoughtful person who looks at the evidence before making a decision.

We also draw a distinction between questioning the President's judgement and criticizing a decision, and hoping the President fails. When the President fails, America fails. As patriotic Americans, we want the President to succeed so America can succeed.

Pres. Obama won by a greater margin in the popular vote and the Electoral College than Pres. Bush. The results in 2012 were: Obama: 65,138,059 to Romney 60,606,054, or 50.9% to 47.4%. In 2004, the results were Bush: 62,040,610 to Kerry 59,028,494, or 50.7% to 48.3%. In the Electoral College Obama won by 126 votes, 332 to 206, while Bush won 286 to 251, by 35 votes. So if Bush won a "Mandate" then Obama won a mandate.

2004 Election	Popular Vote	PV %	Electoral College
Bush	62,040,610	50.7	286
Kerry	59,028,494	48.3	251
Difference	3,012,116	2.4	35
2012 Election	Popular Vote	PV %	Electoral College
Obama	65,138,059	50.9	332
Romney	60,606,054	47.4	206
Difference	4,532,005	3.5	126

But put another way, had Kerry won Florida and Virginia, then he would have won the Electoral College. Like Kerry, Romney would have needed Florida and Virginia. He also would have needed, for example Pennsylvania and Michigan or Wisconsin.

And Romney and Ryan lost their home states!  That's may not be a landslide defeat - but then again it's a resounding defeat of their politics!

History of the Republican't Party

The Republican't Party started out as the Anti-Slavery party from New England. One of its founders was Frederick Douglass, however, that wasn't his name. It was an alias because he was a fugitive.The once Grand Old Party included such luminaries as Mark Twain, Emerson, Thoreau.

It reached it's peak as a progressive movement with Pres. Theodore Roosevelt - who was given the job of Vice President to promote him into a closet. Unfortunately for the men pulling the strings, McKinley was assassinated. After serving as 26th President, from September 14, 1901 – March 4, 1909, Roosevelt was thrown out of the GOP. Then there was Taft in 1908, Coolidge, 1920, Harding 1924, & Hoover 1928,

It seems that at this time it became the party of the wealthy. And the Democratic Party became the party of the people.

Eisenhower 1952, Nixon, 1968, Ford 1974 (not elected), Reagan 1980, Bush, 1988, Bush 2000 (lost the popular vote by 543,816 votes, won in Supreme Court 5-4).

The mantle of "Progressivism" has been shifted to what Howard Dean calls the "Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party.  As Sean Prophet, a spokesperson from National Progressive Talk Radio said on Facebook,

If the GOP loses this presidential election and does as poorly in the Senate as expected, not only will it be a huge relief for progressives and a huge win for the country, it will also mean the following:

1.  Even in the age of Citizens United and unlimited corporate spending, they STILL couldn't defeat the voices of the people and millions of small donations.  
2. Even having the most-watched news channel in the country as a bought-and-paid-for party organ of the GOP couldn't help them.   
3. Rapid declines in church attendance over the past 15 years means theocracy as a political force is almost spent.

What will happen next? Many possibilities. If the Republican'ts win, and they take the "Tea Party" ideology to its logical conclusion, then the Federal Government will collapse, the United States will evolve (even tho evolve is a dirty word to the no-nothings of the Tea Party) just as the Soviet Union evolved, and there will be 50 independent countries, or perhaps only 10 independent countries. We probably won't need passports to go from New York to New Jersey, but we may need them to go from New York to Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, or Alabama.

You heard it here first. Contact me if you want to sketch this into a film.

Alternatively, if the Democrats win then smart Republicans will quietly vote with their feet. Some will join the Democratic Party.  Progressives who believe in, or understand privacy and the need to preserve the biosphere will join like-minded Democrats and build the Green Party.

You heard this here first, too.  Contact me if you want to sketch this into a film.

Romney, Big Bird & Bin Laden

“I’m sorry, Jim. I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I’m going to stop other things. I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you, too. But I’m not going to — I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it.”

- Mitt Romney, at the debate, October 3, 2012.

Three questions.

1. Romney's method of choice for financing government expenditures, 
2. His grasp of numbers, and 
3. His focus and priorities.

First, Romney's method of choice for financing US government expenditures.

Romney said,

"I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it." 

I don't understand why China - or more accurately, bond holders in China - is Romney's method of choice for financing US government expenditures. What's wrong with borrowing money from bondholders in England? US Bondholders? Or taxing US taxpayers for US government expenditures? (That is, after all, what it means to “Balance the Budget.”) Looking to bondholders in China - which is the Chinese government or Chinese Communist Party - seems to be one of those “Entangling Alliances” that Pres. Washington warned us not to get into. 

Second, his grasp of numbers.

The Federal Budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is $338.9 million for fiscal 2012 - $338,900,000. That's a lot of money. However, the Federal Budget of the USA is 3.5 Trillion - $3,500,000,000,000.

Budget

PBS:        $338,900,000

USA:  $3,500,000,000,000

Diff: $3,499,661,100,000 - which rounds to $3.5 Trillion.

The funds allocated to the Public Broadcasting System are 0.00968% of the Federal budget - a rounding error. Looked at another way, recognizing that the population of the US is roughly 307 million people, the Federal budget is roughly $11,400.65 per person. The funds allocated to PBS are $1.10 per person. Without PBS: the budget is $11,399.55. 

Per Capita

PBS:       $1.10

USA:  $11,400.65

Diff: $11,399.55

So either Romney can't do math, which, I think, suggests that he'd not be a very good President, or he has another reason for wanting to eliminate PBS, one that he should share with the taxpayers.

This brings up Romney's focus and priorities.

Gov. Romney may have a good reason for wanting to eliminate PBS, and he may be thinking like an investment banker, thinking that CPB operates at a financial loss; that there's no quantifiable return on investment. I think this was how he operated as Governor of Massachusetts. And it suggests, to me, that he would not be a good President, at best like Herbert Hoover, at worst, like George W. Bush.

Remember what Romney said in 2007?

“It's not moving heaven and earth and spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.” 

This may be why John McCain was the Republican nominee in 2008. And as Biden said,

“We will follow that SOB to the gates of hell.” As Biden said, more recently, “Bin Laden is dead and GM is alive.”

Romney, Hitler & Energy

"Gosh, Hitler, during the second world war, I guess, because he was concerned about losing his oil, liquefied coal—that technology's still there. Why don't we develop those sources? I think government has a role to do that, by the way."

- Mitt Romney, in a video posted May 15, 2012, on Buzzfeed. See also Brian Merchant's post on Treehugger,

Well . . .

As Brian said, 

Obviously, Romney isn't pro-Hitler. But what right-minded politician seeking office in the 21st century ever considers it a good idea to let fly a statement endorsing Hitler's ideas? It's f@$&ing Hitler!

There is simply no other politician I can think of that would ever dream of voluntarily and publicly casting Hitler's ideas in a positive light, apropos of nothing. 'Well, nation, Hitler had some good ideas' is perhaps the single least effective rhetorical framing device in the world.

Actually, there may be two: David Duke, a perennial GOP Presidential candidate - expelled from Germany in November, 2011 (Question More / wikipedia). And Pat Buchanan, the "Pundit" who used to talk about the American auto industry and drive himself around in his Mercedes? He also also lost a GOP Presidential primary run in the 1980's and went on to become one of President Reagan's advisers.

Duke was a Grand Wizard in the Ku Klux Klan. His slogan could have been "All the way with the KKK," altho he would have needed a Madison Ave "Creative" to come up with it and even the ones that are not Jews think like Jews. Buchanan persuaded Reagan that "We must mourn the Nazi SS victims of World War II." Those guys are Nazis. 

Mitt Romney, on the other hand, is probably not a Nazi. After all, some of Romney's best friends are Jews: men like Shelly Adelson and Bibi Neranyahu, and the boys from Wall Street. These are real humanitarians, the best friends money can buy. Unlike, say, Todd Akin or Sarah Palin, Romney probably doesn't even believe Jews have horns.

And remember: Romney's a Morman. The members of The Church of the Latter Day Saints love Jews. LOVE JEWS - especially the light-skinned ones. They Baptize Jews after they die - at least the light skinned ones. It's wonderful, in a creepy sort of way. But it's kind of nice; they're saying "We like you, we want you with us in heaven." That's better than offering Jews Mel Ginson's choice:  "Baptism or Hell." Or Torquemada's choice: "Baptism or die," or the choice favored by Romney's dead energy maven, Hitler: "die or die."

But in his defense, Romney is only suggesting we adopt one of Hitler's bad ideas, and one on energy policy, "Burn Baby Burn," not his domestic policy, "Burn Baby Jews." And it makes sense that the Repulican'ts would look to the Nazis for energy policy. German-American Republicans in the 1930's like Lindbergh were Nazis. German-American Republican'ts today, like Karl Rove, Donald Trump, and Newt Gingrich use Nazi propaganda tactics when talking about their opponents (Newt Gingrich: Language A Key Mechanism of Control). Goebbels would be proud.

But bad politics aside, Coal Liquification is also bad policy. We should be moving off fossil fuels. Pioneered in Nazi Germany because we cut off their oil supply, and further developed in Apartheid South Africa because of the embargo on that regime, coal liquification is simply a technology that furthers "Burn, Baby, Burn." Pursuing it will lead to "Rise, Oceans, Rise," "Swim, Baby, Swim," and "Drown, Baby, Drown."

And  quoting Hitler on the campaign trail, illegal in Germany, is like telling senior citizens about the beauty of turning Medicare into a voucher program - it's "Stupid, Baby, Stupid."

Mitt or W, Let's Compare

Round 1 - Papa.
Mitt - His father, George Romney ran AMC, then ran for President & lost.
W - His father George H. W. Bush ran the CIA, then ran for President & won.
Round 1 goes to W
Score: Mitt: 0: W: 1

Round 2 - early adult life.
Mitt - spent a few years in his 20's in France prosetizying for the LDS.
W - spent a few years blowing coke then turned away from present day sinners
Round 2 goes to Mitt
Wait - didn't Mitt strap his dog to the roof of his car for a trip from Boston to Montreal or Toronto or somewhere in Canada? Didn't the dog subsequently run away?
Round 2 - Mitt disqualified, loses half-a-point
Score: Mitt: -0.5: W: 1 

Round 3 - Graduate School
Mitt - Harvard MBA & Harvard Law
W - Harvard MBA
Round 3 goes to Mitt
Score after 3 rounds: Mitt 0.5, W 1.0

Round 4 - Professional Experience
Mitt - Bain Capital made a fortune downsizing failing businesses
W - Oil company and Texas Rangers - Made a fortune in failing businesses
Round 4 - a tie.
Score after 4 rounds: Mitt 1.5: W: 2.0

Final Round - Electability
Mitt - except for his lovely wife, people don't like him. Seems unlikely to be elected President
W - able to git enough people to vote fer him that, despite losing popular vote by 543,895 votes (50,999,897 to 50,456,002) won that crucial vote in the Supreme Court.
Round 5  we hope Round 5 goes to the American People

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