The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    MuddyPolitics's picture

    Will SCOTUS decide Florida in Romney v. Obama, circa 2000?

    Since reading “Romney Can’t Win Without Florida,” a post on the scholarly, non-partisan website TeabaggersOfAmerica.com, I can’t stop thinking about the Sunshine State.

    Not the palm trees and manatees and Cubans, but the prospect that Florida voters very well may decide the 2012 election, just like they did in 2000.

    Sort of.

    MrSmith1's picture

    If ...

     
    If you have any Republican friends on Facebook, no doubt you've seen all the "We have to take our country back!"  banners that Tea Party types like to post ad nauseam. 
     
    I saw one again the other day that read:  "NOT a Democrat, NOT a Republican, Just an American that wants to take his country back!!"  Being in a snarky mood, I posted: a response that simply said, "From Whom?" .. My comment was deleted within minutes..

    Paul Ryan and Cousin Eddie in the Villages

    In case you've never heard of a retirement community in Florida called The Villages, it's a destination plot for Midwesterners who want to sit back and enjoy life, and on most weekends, act like teenagers. Some of my friends from high school live there, including my cousin, Eddie, whose wife died several years ago from a massive stroke. Eddie describes his life now in what could be termed a steroidal wish fulfillment of those Saturday nights when we wrestled with our dates at the drive-in movies back home. 

    The Villages is one of the strangest environments I have ever encountered. It eerily resembles the totalitarian and idyllic setting of the Patrick McGoohan T.V. series, "The Prisoner"---which was based in a fictional town/resort known as---you guessed it---The Village. Words have failed to describe the Villages in Florida until the recent appearance of an article by Michael Van Sickler in the Sunday Tampa Bay Times. (link in comment below) It is delicious reading. The writer describes the very much in control Republican owner of the Villages and his attendant bastion of forty thousand reliable Republican voter/residents. As goes cousin Eddie and the Villages so goes the Ryan/Romney ticket in Florida.

    acanuck's picture

    Morsi makes his move

    Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi stunned the country today by firing the military leaders who were his chief rivals for power, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and chief of staff Sami Anan:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19234763

    I think Morsi has pulled it off.

    For one thing, he's named a bunch of other SCAFers to succeed Tantawi and Anan, and those guys aren't whining about his right to do so.

    Paul Ryan and the age of selfishness.

    Why Paul Ryan was picked seems pretty clear to me. Romney was losing and he was being hammered by the right wing of his own party, without which support he couldn't even win the Republican base, let alone the middle of the electorate. Romney's Freudian slip that Ryan "is the next President of the United States" helps confirm, to my mind, that as a party, and given that Romney was losing, the future of the party itself was a major ingredient in the pressure Romney was receiving and his final V.P decision.

    Monday Morning Quarterbacking: Follow the RMoney

    Pull up a chair, kiddos, Uncle Paracles has a Fable.

    Once upon a time there was a bad bad man with lots of money....

    People seem confused about the Romney selection.

    Why does he need to please the base so much?

    He has plenty of money....

    The base are still likely to vote for him - he needs the independents...

    Okay, here's the deal - the choice of Ryan means Romney's been captured by tea party/nuttism.

    And that nuttism, as seen from Kansas the last few weeks, has been brutally effective.

    Goodbye Paul Ryan

    For the first time I think we've got a chance.

    " We" being those of us who want to see Obama preside over the implementation of Obamacare. Could happen, now,

    Until now I've felt our goose was Koched: the overwhelming financial advantage Romney will enjoy would be used to "Harry & Louise" or "Swiftboating" Obama..

    coatesd's picture

    Why Promising to Save the Middle Class May Just Not Be Enough!

    This is the lull before the storm, the final moments within which to settle the character of the presidential campaign of 2012. Even in the lull, however, the likely lines-of-march are already clear – lines that, if unaltered, should give far more comfort to conservatives than they do right now to progressives.

    Midwesterners move en-masse to Mass.

    Following an announcement by the Romney campaign that universal healthcare was available somewhere back East, Interstate routes 80, 70 and 40 were clogged with old cars, pickup trucks and U-Hauls in what looked to be the largest mass migration since the 1930's.

    Google map servers crashed as millions searched for information about Massachusetts. In the confusion Wikipedia opened a page on a state called Massatuusetts, and wily contributors had a field day misdirecting folks to out West somewhere---"it's between California and Nevada", people were yelling out to others in the McDonalds drive-thru lanes.

    Coincidences

    One:

    On August 5, 2012, a mass shooting took place at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek Wisconsin. A lone gunman...

     

    Two:

    Fire destroys Missouri mosque in second blaze at the Islamic center in 5 weeks; no injuries Published: August

    JOPLIN, Mo. — Investigators say it will take a few days to determine if the fire that destroyed a southwest Missouri mosque was arson.

    Wade Page Quintessential Member, GOP Base?

    The Sikh Temple shooter, essentially a member of the quintessential core of the Republican Base, at least before he went on his deadly rampage? Ignorance, stupidity, violence, guns and hate, he had it all. The same day, a mosque is burned, for the second time, in Joplin, Missouri, also supposedly 'heartland values' territory like Wisconsin.

    Romney's epitaph: "put up or shut up"

    Epitaph---not epithet, or even epaulet. The phrase, "Put up or Shut up" will most likely become the epitaph of Romney's campaign. For when you hurl an epithet at an enemy you play a game which can easily backfire. 

    Its a Small Thing, Its Right, Do It

    The Penn State sexual abuse scandal was big news for a while, as it should have been. As it should be. Articleman presented here at Dagblog a long, well researched, well presented opinion piece which I felt made some good arguments. Others did as well. Respondents who disagreed with parts of A-man's argument made strong points as well.

    jollyroger's picture

    Mortgage chief to Prez: "Drop dead. No reduction for underwater loans." Will August bring a recess replacement?

    Because the Repugnants in the Senate minority routinely refuse confirmation of any presidential nomination, Acting Director Edward De Marco's tenure as overseer of the now nationalized mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is unprotected from termination by replacement should a new acting director be named.

    jollyroger's picture

    when you live in a christian theocracy, it is good to be a christian

    I have elsewhere voiced my opinion that under the regime of George W. Bush it made sense to conduct one's business as a christian church. The tax benefits alone are substantial. More importantly, your self declared religious enterprise is entitled to numerous exemptions from otherwise onerous public laws

    Romney Tosses Turd in Punchbowl; King David Hotel

    Warning, "In the News" piece repeated below. As part of a rather long comment re: NBC's skipping the Olympics 7/7 memorial & demands for a Munich moment of silence, I'd made a snide aside re: memorializing the King David Hotel bombing (location of once-PM and famed Irgun warrior Menachem Begin's greatest atrocity against the British soldiers enforcing the Palestinian Mandate).

    Brits toss a bone to Romney; no one notices

    By now we've heard about the rather feeble and desperate attempt of Mitt Romney to call upon Britain's Special Relationship to save his stumbling efforts, with the not so subtle hints to throw the Games.

    What hasn't been heard is the role played by the Queen herself. Originally non-plussed over the presumptiousness of the request - after all, hadn't he spent his missionary days in France of all places - she soon found a warm spot when she discovered Mittens had had dog trouble hounding him through his campaign.

    Bloomberg targets Warren

    Email I received today, from a group, Bold Progressives:

    Billionaire New York mayor Mike Bloomberg calls himself "independent." But he shows no independence from Wall Street bankers.

    Last year, he cracked down on Occupy Wall Street. Yesterday, he endorsed Republican Senator Scott Brown against Wall Street's biggest foe -- consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren. He's even pulling together other rich donors to raise money for Brown.

    Read 'em and weep

    US healthcare is no laughing matter

    Excerpted from Gary Silverman, Financial Times July 27

     

    Comedy can be dangerous work in the US. I was reminded of this.....when I chanced upon a website seeking donations for...Caleb Medley (a victim) of the shooting in Aurora, Colorado.

     

    The website tells the story of an affable..dreamer who wound up living a nightmare...Medley grew up in a. ...small town called Florence, married his high school sweetheart and put down roots in Aurora so he could try....stand up comedy ...in.Denver.

     

    The Brits return Romney's bust to Utah.

    Where's the outrage from Rush Limbaugh, Fox News and the rest of the right wing media cabal? Not only is Romney being trashed by the British press, but the Prime Minister himself ridiculed the great American state of Utah, calling it the middle of nowhere!  What arrogance. I've had enough of these insults. Romney took the trouble to grace the shores of England only to meet a disrespectful host. He should finish his fund raising, dump that small meaningless country, which, if it hadn't been isolated from Europe by a choppy channel, would have been overrun by Hitler in WWII. The fact is that Romney should just come back home.......oh.

    Romney's faux pas in London illustrate the essential truth of the man and the campaign. Seldom has a Presidential candidate been as internally compromised as this Republican nominee is. The reason he says nothing of any substance about himself is because most of what a normal candidate would say about his experience leads down a booby trapped path. Romney is like the guy whose wife has just discovered his affair. There is nothing he can say which isn't worse than simply keeping his mouth shut and looking dumb. All Romney had to do was romance our ally for a couple of days and not bust the Queen's furniture. It should have been an easy assignment. But he blew it.   

    News of the long slow lingering death of NYC's Democratic machine

    Just a news compilation thread for my own reference, perhaps to update from time to time

    First news item:

    Councilman, Convicted of Fraud, Vacates Seat
    By Benjamin Weiser, New York Times, July 26/27, 2012

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