WilliamPitt
WilliamPitt's JournalIf anyone here needs a smile...
Look at his face. Look at her face.
Yes, Virginia, there is justice in the world.
Happy Friday, all.
Jonathan Chait | The Poetic Justice of Romney’s Self-Immolation
I’ve been wrong before, and I’ll be wrong again, but I may never have been as wrong as I was when I initially predicted that Mitt Romney’s heinous diatribe against 47 percent of America would have little direct impact on the election. It’s an absolutely crushing blow. Obviously it doesn’t guarantee his defeat — if a secret video surfaces depicting Obama promising to impose Sharia law in his second term, Romney will stand a good chance of coming back — but it destroys his public standing in ways that make a comeback nearly impossible. Here is Obama’s latest ad using Romney’s comments: ***Video at Link Below***
(snip)
Worse still, the comments destroy Romney’s fundamental credibility. Here America sees what he says behind closed doors. Nothing he can say in public can possibly overcome the damage of these comments, because voters will quite correctly assume that he is telling them what they want to hear. George W. Bush’s campaign figured out how to do this to both Al Gore and John Kerry — by painting them as liars, Bush destroyed them as a message delivery platform. Romney has, essentially, done it to himself.
(snip)
It will be fair because Romney has spent the last five years refashioning himself in the image of his party, discarding his most decent elements along the way, only to be caught in the end speaking bluntly. I’ve argued that the comments reflect his true beliefs now, but it scarcely matters. America has now seen Mitt Romney talking about us (or 47 percent of us, which offends many more of us) behind our backs.
And then, finally, there is a poetic justice in the substance of Romney’s self-immolation. This is not a random gaffe, a joke gone bad, or even a terrible brain freeze. It is Romney exposed for espousing a worldview that is at the heart of his party’s mania. The idea he summed up at that fund-raiser was a combination of right-wing fever dreams I’ve been analyzing since Obama took office — the Ayn Randism, the fact-free class warfare, the frantic rage at a changing America. The Republican Party is going down because its candidate was seen advocating exactly the beliefs that make the party so dangerous and repellant.
The rest, with vid: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/09/poetic-justice-of-romneys-self-immolation.html
GOP Senator Anonymously Blocks COLA Increase for Veterans (UPDATED: Hold removed)
Source: VetLawyers
After passing the House of Representatives, the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) increase for VA benefits was blocked in the Senate by an unknown Senator, according to Senate staffers who alerted Bergmann & Moore.
The Veterans COLA affects a number of key benefits for veterans: disability compensation, pension as well as survivor benefits. The uncontroversial bill adjusts VA benefits to keep up with inflation and easily passes Congress each year.
Until now.
Paul Sullivan, a Gulf War veteran and Director of Veterans Outreach for Bergmann & Moore, LLC, a law firm concentrating on VA disability law, said, “This secret hold is unconscionable: it will take up to $500 next year out of the wallets of disabled veterans and their families: money they need to pay their rent and put food on the table for their children.”
Read more: http://vetlawyers.com/vetblog/index.php/2012/09/va-cost-of-living-increase-blocked-in-the-senate/
Sen. Parry Murray statement on the anonymous block: http://www.murray.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/newsreleases?ContentRecord_id=65d3f84b-29cb-47c0-ae77-5fea93ea6fcb
Military.com has the story now: http://www.military.com/daily-news/2012/09/27/senator-puts-secret-hold-on-veterans-cola-bill.html?comp=7000023317828&rank=1
The Navy Times has the story: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2012/09/military-senate-delay-could-mean-late-colas-retirees-092712w/
My take: http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/17539-the-scum-of-the-earth-gop-senator-blocks-bill-to-increase-benefits-for-veterans
"The Roman method for dealing with corruption was to sew the offender into a sack with a wild animal and have that bag thrown into the river. In these enlightened days, I'd be satisfied to sew whoever blocked this legislation into a sack with five veterans who depend on the benefits earned with their blood and service, and let nature take its course."
UPDATE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/patty-murray-says-gop-senator-blocking-vets-cola-increase/2012/09/27/da47ac88-08cb-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_blog.html
The chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee complained Thursday that an unnamed Republican senator blocked a bill last week to provide veterans with an annual cost of living adjustment, a maneuver that could delay payments for recpients.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) brought the bill to the Senate floor Sept. 21. The bill was cleared by Senate Democrats but was held up by an unnamed Republican, according to her office. The Senate subsequently recessed without passing the bill.
After Murray issued a statement Thursday morning calling the development “stunning,” the office of Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the ranking Republican on the Senate veterans’ committee, said the issue had been resolved.
“It has cleared our side, meaning there is no hold,” David Ward, a spokesman for Burr, said Thursday afternoon.
A Love Story in 22 Pictures
He went to war. He lost all his limbs. He came home. She was there.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/txblacklabel/true-love-in-pictures-only-28m7
Samuel L. Jackson's pro-Obama ad: "Wake The Fu*k Up!"
The YouTube vid has been taken down, but you can still see it here: http://wtfu2012.com/
Not safe for work but still 
Mitt's going all-in with an "I care" message...and the DNC has an absolutely LETHAL response.
Greg Sargent reports that, beginning on Friday, the Romney campaign will be bombarding nine swing states with the "I care about poor people" ad in order to counteract the impact of his devastating 47% remarks.
The DNC has an answer ready to go.
If I were on the Romney campaign, watching this ad would make all the blood fall out of my body.
Absolutely lethal.
ANOTHER sad, sorry, pathetic Romney videoclip...and Joe Scarborough's priceless reaction.
Scarborough reaction at 0:55...
I just facepalmed so hard that I can now smell the back of my neck because I pushed my nose through my skull.
The first Obama ad on the "47%" was good. This second one is simply outstanding.
Boom.
Ann Romney in Iowa today...Wow...just a lot of Wow. WOW.
“Stop it. This is hard. You want to try it? Get in the ring. This is hard and, you know, it’s an important thing that we’re doing right now and it’s an important election and it is time for all Americans to realize how significant this election is and how lucky we are to have someone with Mitt’s qualifications and experience and know-how to be able to have the opportunity to run this country.”
- Ann Romney, today in Iowa, on Republicans criticizing her husband, Teh Candidate
Yeah, no, seriously. That happened.
"Get in the ring" makes it awesome, but what makes it art isn't when she said "This is hard," but when she said it twice. Then it was art. High art.
Art.
Where I found it: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/09/seems_to_be_going_great.php?ref=fpblg
...with bonus points to Josh Marshall for a truly inspired headline.
Profile Information
Name: William Rivers PittGender: Male
Hometown: Boston
Member since: 2001
Number of posts: 58,179