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.”

Exclusive Interview With Mitt Romney

Wall Street, NY.  by XB Cold Fingers

On the eve of the Republican National Convention I interviewed Willard Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican candidate for President.  It was a "Thought Interview," which did not take place in reality. However, given that so much does not take place in reality, particularly on the campaign trail, it seems reasonable to conduct interviews that do not take place in reality.

"Mr. Romney," I began, "Your father George Romney, released 10 years of his tax returns, and in fact began the tradition of candidates for President disclosing their income and tax returns. He paid at a rate of about 35%.  You released one year of tax returns and suggested that you pay taxes at a rate of about 13% - much less than the 35% rate paid by your father, and also much less than the rate paid by most American taxpayers. So my first question, sir, is will you release tax returns from other years?"

Romney leaned back, took a sip of orange juice, and said, well no, releasing his tax returns didn't help my father become President, why do you think it will help me?

"But the people expect it," I said.

"Well, the people expect lots of things," Mr. Romney replied. "Things like good job. unemployment compensation, health care, being able to retire.  That's part of the entitlement society that we have to change.  Americans need to take care of themselves."

"Why then does your budget plan award oil companies $2.3 billion in subsidies?" I asked. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/23/734721/big-oil-buys-gusher-5-pro-oil-planks-in-romney-energy-plan/?mobile=nc

"We need to support industries we believe in, to help them get off the ground," he said.

"But oil companies are 'off the ground.'" I said, "And a lot of Americans support solar, wind, geothermal, marine hydro and efficiency - the so called 'nega-fuel-watts' of sustainable energy and the 'nega-watts' of efficiency. The cheapest unit of energy," I said, quoting Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute," is the one you don't have to buy."

"Well, yes, but Cheney, Boone Pickens and the Koch Brothers don't support that. They can't charge people for sunlight or energy they don't buy. Get a grip man." he added, almost emphatically.

Moving on, I said, “Rep. Todd Akin recently said 'in the case of legitimate rape, women don't get pregnant, they have a way of shutting that whole thing down.' Do you believe that Mr. Akin's lack of understanding with regards to human biology should disqualify him in the eyes of the voters?”

“I have no comment,” Mr. Romney said.

“Rep. Akin co-sponsored with Paul Ryan – your running mate – several bills which sought to render abortion illegal. Would you push to overturn 'Roe v Wade' and make abortion illegal?”

“I have no comment,” Mr. Romney said, “other than to say that abortion is the law of the land and our platform would seek to overturn it.”

“Really?” I said.

He looked around. “Are we on camera?” he asked.

“No,” I said.

“No, Not really.” He said. “Abortion is a great issue for us. Those people get so riled up about it. They vote for us. We could say, 'Give us your houses, your cars, your money, because we're against abortion,' in fact we do, and they do. It's like gun control. Of course we should keep guns out of the hands of nuts. But a few isolated incidents keeps people afraid. And when they're afraid, they vote Republican.  It's also why we are gutting education. We don't want educated citizens who can think. We don't need them in our factories; they just cause trouble.”

“Turning to foreign policy,” I said, “President Obama ordered the mission in which Osama bin Laden was killed, in Pakistan. The Navy Seals who carried out the mission also brought back a treasure trove of actionable intelligence against Al Queda. He also ordered the successful drone attack on Al Awlaki. Doesn't that prove that the best way to fight terrorism is with intelligence and commandos or drones? and call into question the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?”

“I have no comment,” Mr. Romney replied.

“Regarding Iran,” I began, “You are on record for suggesting that 'All options are on the table.' How is this different from President Obama?”

“I am different than President Obama. Therefore it's different.”

He then asked me what time it is. I looked at my watch, told him.

“Well,” he said, “That's all the time we have. But I'd like your watch. May I see it?"
"Sure," I said, and handed him the watch. He put it on.

"You can never have enough watches,” he said.

I looked at the two secret service agents, and Paul Ryan, in boxing gloves.

“Thanks,” he said. “You realize that you're in trouble if I'm elected.”

“Yes, sir,” I said. “So are we all.”

– Copyright, ©, 2012. XB Cold Fingers. All Rights Reserved. Please note - this is a work of satire. At least, not in this universe. It might have happened in a parallel universe.

It's About the Middle Class, and Elephants

James Carville and Stan Greenberg on "On Point," Wednesday, 7/11/12. (here) said

1. Obama is tied or only slightly ahead of Romney in the polls. 
2. Obama and Romney present profoundly different visions of the challenges facing the United States and the world, and, consequently, strikingly different solutions.Actually, Romney offers no solutions, only vague promises that he can do things.
3. In order to win re-election, President Obama has to focus on the future and the middle class. 

I agree. I also think Obama is doing a good job, particularly on foreign policy. Bin Laden is dead and American combat troops have left Iraq. Operation "Olympic Games" is slowing down Iran's nuclear ambitions. (Part of the reason for this may be that the Rush Limbaugh, the Koch Brothers, Rupert Murdoch Sheldon Adelson, the Republicans in Congress and on the Supreme Court, etc. - can't stymie the President on foreign policy the way they can on domestic policy.)

Carville and Greenberg focused on the economy.

• Unemployment is at 8.2%, 
• Under-employment is another 4% to 8%, 
• That's 13 million unemployed and another 6.5 million to 13 million underemployed. 
• Wages, for people who work for a living, are stagnant or dropping. 
• Energy costs are going up, real estate taxes are going up, housing values are, at best, stabilizing.
• College costs are rising, and the career prospects for recent college grads are in the toilet. 

Carville and Greenberg basically said "In order for Obama to win re-election, he needs to present a vision for the future that addresses these issues." I agree there too, however, I see a herd of elephants in the room that I didn't hear them talk about:

1. Obama's mother was a white woman from Kansas, his father, however, was African, and Barack Houssein Obama is a funny name for a US President. Still, enough people were inspired by his candidacy, rhetoric, and character to vote for him in 2008.  Martin Luther King, Jr., would have been proud.Yet Obama is an African American. Still, it seems to me, white boy that I am, that there may be some people who are "concerned" about Obama's race, and this is the real sentiment under all that "Birther" nonsense.
2. While he's African-American, he doesn't talk like Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr., or Mohammed Ali. He's a cerebral, analytical, lawyer. If Bill Clinton was the first black President, then Obama is the first Jewish President. Actually, he's the first Vulcan President, or at least the first since Wilson. Obama's a "Servant Leader." Ambitious but not arrogant. Sure of himself but not full of himself. Not full of self-doubt and insecurities, but full of an awareness that while he's unique and wonderful, so is everyone else.  He's a President who, if - when - his wife says "take out the garbage;" he takes out the garbage. I can see George H. W. Bush doing that, and Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton (course he would smile at Hillary and she would melt), and Al Gore, but not George W. Bush or Willard Mitt Romney. They would have help to do that - servants. ("W" would joke with them, give them nicknames, and dimly be aware of the ages of their children. Romney wouldn't even know their names.) Most of the folks in Washington don't understand this. Clinton might. And Richard Lugar, the soon to be former Senator (R) from Indiana.
3. Fox News, the GOP, the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson (Newt Gingrich's Sugar Daddy), Rush Limbaugh, etc. have been focused, since before the inauguration in January, 2009, with trying to make Obama fail, pretending that trying to force the President to fail is not the bad for the United States. When in reality 
4. Our environment is increasingly polluted. And our economy - and the global economy - is on a largely unsustainable path.  We have, mostly in the last 50 years, burned so much coal, oil, and methane that we have added about two trillion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, increasing the concentration of CO2 by about 50%, from about 260 ppm to 390 ppm. The scientific consensus is that this is sufficient to change climate and weather.  As Bill McKibben put it, we have changed Earth into Eaarth.

Mittens and He Who Should Be Neutered

Why is Buddy Roemer excluded from the GOP debates? It's not that I don't like Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul, it's that I have nothing but contempt for Mittens, he who should be neutered, and Santorum (who's name doesn't really mean what Google says it means) and ... Ron Paul is a white supremacist. Or he may not be, but he's their boy.

Gingrich cheats on wife 1, Jackie, with Other Woman 1, Marianne, who becomes Wife 2. Then cheats on Wife 2, Marianne, with Young Intern / Other Woman 2, Callista, who becomes Wife 3. This last while blasting Clinton for having a relationship with an intern. What Hypocrisy! What Arrogance! I mean "The Gingrich Wives" - sounds like the title of a film - a porn film.

Romney may be 'Wall Street.' But Gingrich is a lobbyist for Wall Street. Oh, I forgot- Gingrich is an historian.

Why don't I like Romney? He's not Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates, Tom Watson, Henry Ford, Bill Hewlett, Dave Packard, Walt Disney: They created stuff. Romney looked for companies to raid.

Romney on Obama: "He had no jobs plan." But he saved all the union jobs at GM and Chrysler. "He never even managed a corner store; he was a community organizer (helping poor people). Romney didn't create jobs; he created poor people.

Mittens, Newter, Santorum, and Ron Paul will solve poverty by eliminating food stamps, Medicare. They will save poor people by allowing them to die.

So the problem with the Republican Party is that it has become the party of the lunatic fringe. Why is Buddy Roemer exlcuded from the GOP debates?

Romney: “Obama apologizes for America.” How, Mitt? By killing bin Laden? By going after Quadafi? Romney should apologize for driving for 12 hours with his dog strapped to the roof of his car.

 

John McCain was called a "Maverick" because he actually worked with Democrats.

Republican field narrows in the 2012 Race to Lose to Obama

The loss of Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump leaves Republicans Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Michelle Bachmann, Chris Christie, Herman Cain, and Ron Paul in the race to lose to Obama. On the Democratic side, Russ Feingold has indicated that he will challenge President Obama. Dennis Kuchinich is also said to be contemplating a run for the White House. Martha Coakley, who recently lost her bid to represent Massachusetts in the United States Senate, is also planning on registering as a candidate. She is not, however, planning on running an actual campaign.

The Democrats are planning Primary Debates in the historic Fraunces Tavern, in New York City, and the Green Dragon Tavern, in Boston, Mass. These are symbolic: a victorious General George Washingon said farewell to his troops, at Fraunces Tavern, and was inaugurated a block or two north, on the balcony of Federal Hall, on the Corner of Wall and Broad Streets, in 1789. (click). John Adams, Sam Adams, Paul Revere, and other Sons of Liberty ate, drank, and planned the Revolution at the Green Dragon. Before, after, or during their debates, someone, somewhere will say, "A black man, a Jew and a Pollack walk into a bar. The bartender asks 'What'll ya have?' The African American says 'Oval Office, straight up.' The bartender replies 'It's on the rocks.' The Jew and the Pollack say 'We'll have what he's having.' The bartender says, 'I can only serve one every four years, and he has dibs.' "

In a move that may disappoint social Conservatives, Mike Huckabee, Republican Governor turned Fox News commentator / entertainer announced that he is not running against President Obama in 2012. "I lost to McCain in 2008, I don't want to lose to Obama in 2012. Maybe I'll run in 2016. I should be able to beat Biden. And I'm making $2 Million at Fox. Why give that up?" Like most of the Republicans, he spends most of his time pandering to the far right and groveling to would-be kingmakers. But when he is candid and honest; he's refreshing and almost charismatic. Like Pres. Reagan, who raised taxes 11 times over the course of his Presidency, Huckabee, as Arkansas' Governor, raised taxes to pay for schools. He also referred to the "Club of Growth" as the "Club of Greed." Conservative kingmaker Grover Norquist seeks to apply to the United States the "Starve the Beast" tactic, a variation of the "Feed it till it Bursts" tactic Reagan applied to the Soviet Union. This has resulted in a terrible loss of infrastructure in the United States as our roads are full of potholes, bridges are crumbling, schools are declining and as the Europeans, and Chinese are pulling ahead in manufacturing, solar power, wind power, and railroads.
Donald "The Donald" Trump, the real estate mogul from New York City, in a move that was sure to disappoint comedians, also bowed out of the race. Despite giving more support to Democrats than Republicans while George Bush was President and Republicans had a majority in both the House and the Senate, Trump was talking about running as a Republican and was proud of his major accomplishments: inheriting a fortune, going bankrupt once or twice, marrying three models, divorcing two, firing people on television, hiring people to write trivial books about Donald Trump, and demanding that President Obama ask Hawaiian authorities to release his birth certificate. As profoundly important as these accomplishments may be, "The Donald" appears to believe that he was trumped by the President's recent accomplishment - authorizing the successful "Capture or Kill" mission against Osama bin Laden, which resulted in bin Laden's death and the capture of a treasure trove of information, albeit with the loss of one American helicopter. Trump will return to what he does best, firing people and boasting.

Disappointing both her supporters and the comedians, Sarah Palin has been strangely quiet. This is particularly upsetting to Tina Fey and the writers and producers of Saturday Night Live. Palin's last known public statement, that former President Bush deserves credit for the mission President Obama authorized that killed bin Laden, can only be described as a "gift" to comedians and "baffling" to rational people.

That leaves Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Michelle Bachmann, Chris Christie, Herman Cain, and Ron Paul.
Newt Gingrich, the 69 year old former Congressman, college professor, and intellectual, who married and divorced as often as Trump, but who did not marry models, is eminently qualified to work with John Boehner and Paul Ryan as they work to end Medicare, privatize Social Security, and dismantle the government. Gingrich is committed to, as Seth Meyers put it, "stop using my tax dollars to take care of me." As the force behind the 1994 "Contract On America," Gingrich is credited with shutting down the U. S. government, and helping Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election. Maybe Gingrich's real goal is to help Obama win re-election and thereby pave the way for a Republican to lose a challenge to Joe Biden in 2016. Gingrich, who began his campaign with a Twitter note and a Youtube video, wants to hook up with young people. Depending on the age of the young people he hooks up with, Gingrich could be looking at charges of statutory rape, or just being creepy.

However, by describing the Paul Ryan budget as “Radical” and “Right wing social engineering” Gingrich, while telling the truth, may have shot his campaign in the foot. (click). What the Republican and Tea Party rank and file seem to have just found out, is that the people funding the GOP and the Tea Party LIKE Radical right wing social engineering.
Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, looks to this self-styled pundit as the putative Republican front-runner in the campaign to lose the election of 2012. While Romney opposed the Cape Wind offshore wind farm that will generate electricity without pollution, he can honestly be credited with passing the Massachusetts Health Care Plan, also known as Obama-Care 1.0. (click). Voters, however, will have to ask themselves "why elect a moderately liberal Republican like Romney when they can elect a moderately liberal Democrat like Obama.
Tim Hosni Pawlenty is an American of Polish and German, not middle-eastern origin. While he can count on the support of Hosni Mubarek, and Republicans of middle eastern-origin, he probably cannot count on the support of Democrats or independents of middle-eastern origin.
Michelle Bachmann, stepping in to fill the void left by Sarah Palin, aspires to be the next hot middle aged babe on the Republican ticket. It really doesn't matter what she says, as long as she smiles appropriately. This is terrific news for Saturday Night Live. Sources tell us that Kristen Weig is rehearsing echoing platitudes, staring into space and looking away from the camera.

Disappointing Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and Progressives in New Jersey, Chris Christie is steadfast and adamant that he is not running, yet. "I wish he'd run," said a gay, Vegan, tree-hugging community organizer, on the condition of anonymity, "it would limit the damage he'd do here in Jersey."
Herman Cain, the Pizza Guy, one of about 1.1 million African Americans in the 55 million strong Republican Party, said, "Hey, I know I don't have a snowball's chance in hell of beating Obama. And I don't know if I want to. He's doing a good job, and all those black kids look up to him. But can you imagine how many pizzas I'm gonna sell with this? Do you have any idea of the Return On Investment of this 'candidacy'? Man, it's huge. Huge! And I'm talking to Murdoch about my own reality show. We'll call it 'Pizza Man' or 'President? or Pizza Man?' or Pizza Man President! I'll get Eddie Murphy to play me."
Ron Paul, the uncompromising libertarian physician turned Congressman, who's medical practice was devoted to Medicare patients, wants to legalize all drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, LSD and heroin, and eliminate all government programs, including education, research, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, NASA, NOAA, the ATF, the IRS, the CIA, the NSA, the FBI, and the Defense Department. "Fergit the 1950's, we need to return to the 1850's," he said. When it was pointed out that the US in 1850 had about 23 million people, and about 3.2 million were slaves, the wiley Texan said "Yep, so, what's yer point? I mean, we're all slaves to our hearts and our debts."

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Copyright © 2011. Larry “XB Cold Fingers” Furman. This is a work of satire. Any resemblance to the facts is tragic, or hilarious. I report. Or I make it up. You decide.