Category: Politics As Usual

Prisoners of Mitt

~ susie ~ 3 Comments


So it looks like Mitt’s successful rally yesterday (probably not the 35K claimed by conservatives –they do lie), in the upper-class Republican township of Lower Makefield, not only started off an hour late, the rest of it didn’t go exactly the way he planned:

YARDLEY, Pa. – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is promising real change in Washington to a crowd of thousands at a rally in suburban Philadelphia.

A large crowd waited several hours in 40-degree temperatures at a farm in the Philadelphia suburb of Yardley on Sunday night, and gave Romney a rousing welcome.

Romney told those gathered at Shady Brook Farm that on Day One of his presidency he’ll send Congress a bill to cut spending and work to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.

The Sunday rally is part of an 11th-hour Republican blitz to win Pennsylvania, a state that has voted for Democrats in the last five presidential elections.

[…] Thousands of people streamed into the Sunday night rally at Shady Brook Farm in suburban Bucks County. The stands were full, hundreds gathered in a field and hundreds more waited to gain entrance before Romney arrived for the event.

No question, it was a good turnout for Mittens. One attendee called it the “Republican Woodstock.”

But then we started seeing these tweets from reporters:

Michael Barbaro ‏@mikiebarb (New York Times political reporter):
W/ Romney more than an hour late (but now speaking), dozens of people stuck in the cold, begging staffers to leave, use the bathroom…

Then:

“We’ve got to get out! My daughter is frostbitten,” begs mom, asking to leave Romney rally. Staffer replies: “It’s not cold enuf for that.”

Ashley Parker ‏@AshleyRParker (also New York Times):
This is a big rally for Romney in PA, but dozens of people — cold and angry — are begging to be let out.

Jackie Kucinich ‏@JFKucinich (Writes for USAToday, Dennis Kucinich’s daughter):
Man just pulled me aside and said “My son is on the verge of hypothermia” just as staffer starts letting people out a few at a time.
[…]
People are literally sneaking out gates now bring told they can’t leave way pic.twitter.com/uvlPBys5

The Romney people later told reporters it was a security problem, not that they were trying to make people stay for the entire event. But I have to wonder how those Yardley helicopter parents felt about their inability to get their kids out.

Corruption, fraud and racketeering alleged at Bain

~ susie ~ 5 Comments

Who’d a thunk it?

Goldman Sachs took eToys public in 1999. At that time MNAT represented Goldman Sachs in Delaware (where eToys is formed as a company). Also in 1999, MNAT merged Mitt Romney and Bain Capital’s entity – “The Learning Company” – with Mattel Toys. The stock of eToys soared above $78, but the new public entity only received around $18. This classic pump-n-dump stock scheme gave Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital the perfect opportunity. All they needed was for the MNAT law firm (that also represented the Mormon Church’s claim on the Howard Hughes estate) – to LIE to the Chief Federal Justice in 2001 – and become eToys Debtor attorneys.
Then, Mitt Romney’s other secret attorney (Paul Traub) lied to become the eToys Creditors attorney. Upon the success of those schemes, MNAT and Mr. Traub then put in Barry Gold as President/ CEO of eToys. Barry Gold worked for Mitt Romney and Michael Glazer at Stage Stores bankruptcy in 2000. Traub had been working with Romney/ Bain since the NeoStar case 2 decades ago. He was also at Jumbo Sports and Stage Stores with Barry Gold.


When a bribe was offered to this consultant and turned down, Mitt Romney panics and resigns as CEO of Bain Capital. Colm Connolly was a partner at MNAT from early 1999 to August 2, 2001 (the very same time Romney wants to be “retroactive” from). Former Pres GW Bush nominated Colm Connolly to be the United States Attorney in Wilmington Delaware. For his entire 7 years of tenure, Mr. Connolly buried all investigations and/ or prosecutions of Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital. This takes care of the fraud and corruption.


How it gets built up into Racketeering is also simple. MNAT, Paul Traub and Barry Gold have already confessed that they lied to a Chief federal judge 34 times over several years. But, due to the federal corruption with Colm Connolly, no prosecutions transpired. Yet, due to this pesky consultant and some eToys shareholders pushing buttons, they also had to perpetrate frauds on the California courts, the Delaware District Court, the United States 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals and the New York Supreme Court (where case 601805/2002 is placed entirely Under SEAL). Being that it is the same people, over several years, in many states, many courts and hundreds of millions (if not billions of dollars) = that equals RICO.

The blackmail caucus

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

Paul Krugman addresses the argument that people should vote for Romney to avoid “partisan gridlock”:

The starting point for many “vote for Romney or else” statements is the notion that a re-elected President Obama wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything in his second term. What this misses is the fact that he has already accomplished a great deal, in the form of health reform and financial reform — reforms that will go into effect if, and only if, he is re-elected.


But would Mr. Obama be able to negotiate a Grand Bargain on the budget? Probably not — but so what? America isn’t facing any kind of short-run fiscal crisis, except in the fevered imagination of a few Beltway insiders. If you’re worried about the long-run imbalance between spending and revenue, well, that’s an issue that will have to be resolved eventually, but not right away. Furthermore, I’d argue that any alleged Grand Bargain would be worthless as long as the G.O.P. remained as extreme as it is, because the next Republican president, following the lead of George W. Bush, would just squander the gains on tax cuts and unfunded wars.


So we shouldn’t worry about the ability of a re-elected Obama to get things done. On the other hand, it’s reasonable to worry that Republicans will do their best to make America ungovernable during a second Obama term. After all, they have been doing that ever since Mr. Obama took office.


During the first two years of Mr. Obama’s presidency, when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, Republicans offered scorched-earth opposition to anything and everything he proposed. Among other things, they engaged in an unprecedented number of filibusters, turning the Senate — for the first time — into a chamber in which nothing can pass without 60 votes.


And, when Republicans took control of the House, they became even more extreme. The 2011 debt ceiling standoff was a first in American history: An opposition party declared itself willing to undermine the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, with incalculable economic effects, unless it got its way. And the looming fight over the “fiscal cliff” is more of the same. Once again, the G.O.P. is threatening to inflict large damage on the economy unless Mr. Obama gives it something — an extension of tax cuts for the wealthy — that it lacks the votes to pass through normal constitutional processes.


Would a Democratic Senate offer equally extreme opposition to a President Romney? No, it wouldn’t. So, yes, there is a case that “partisan gridlock” would be less damaging if Mr. Romney won.


But are we ready to become a country in which “Nice country you got here. Shame if something were to happen to it” becomes a winning political argument? I hope not. By all means, vote for Mr. Romney if you think he offers the better policies. But arguing for Mr. Romney on the grounds that he could get things done veers dangerously close to accepting protection-racket politics, which have no place in American life.

Why the Dems won’t take the House

~ susie ~ 6 Comments

I don’t know if I believe this (remember 2006?) but Ralph Nader makes a compelling argument:

Of course, there are more factors involved. When I asked a top House Democrat what the real reason was for deep-sixing the minimum wage increase to catch up with 1968, he rubbed his thumb and two fingers together, and said, “They feel they’d raise less money if they did that.” Money, it seems, counts more than votes in this bizarre equation of the people with whom the party should stand.


So Cong. George Miller sits on his recently introduced bill to increase the minimum wage to $9.80 by 2014 because he is waiting for Obama. His House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi waits for Obama. So do the close campaigns of Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Chris Murphy in Massachusetts and Connecticut respectively, along with many close House races. (See Time For a Raise for more information.)


When I spoke to other leading progressive Democrats to assert themselves, jurisdictional turf presented itself. No senior Democrat in the House runs first with any labor issues other than Cong. George Miller, from the progressive San Francisco area, no less. Nor do any other senior Democrats run first with any energy and environmental issues other than ranking Committee member, Cong. Ed Markey. Markey and his allies privately wring their hands over Obama’s silence on climate change during the President’s daily campaigns. But the word from all quarters of the Democratic Party is not to move if Obama doesn’t move. You would not want to show up the President’s inaction, would you?


Yet, the Democrats have their own interest in winning their own Congressional elections, whether or not Obama cares about them. Doesn’t seem to matter. Following Obama means they may follow him as a party over the cliffs of defeat while he rides to the top of the Hill. You see the vast majority of incumbent Democrats are in safe districts and their seats are secure. Retaking the majority in the House is another matter. Personal career complacency does not vigorously propel a party drive to win back the House, regardless of what Obama chooses to permit.


What do the House Democrats owe Obama anyhow? He raises no money for them. He campaigns without them, thereby depriving them of mass media coverage. Even the Congressional Black Caucus is replete with indignation at how Obama has dissed them and their poverty issues since day one of his presidency.


After Election Day, November 6, contemporary historians will write that the Congressional Democrats waited too long on Obama and wasted their chance to win back the House and gain more seats in the Senate.


This is the politics of presidential personalismo run riot – inexplicable precisely because it has become so suicidal to the Congressional Democrats and to justice for the people for whom they claim to speak.

Penn State

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

So this is getting very interesting. These charges mean Gov. Corbett and his former AG’s staff can be called as witnesses about the Sandusky case:

“These charges are the work of a vindictive and politically motivated governor working through an un-elected attorney general, Linda Kelly, whom he appointed to do his bidding and who will be a lame duck five days from now.”


Mr. Spanier’s attorneys accuse the governor of “manipulating public officials and resources to settle a personal score” against their client.


Mr. Lewis said as an example that he has witnesses who will testify that after the Penn State board of trustees’ meeting when Mr. Spanier resigned last November that Mr. Corbett and his staff were seen celebrating Mr. Spanier’s departure at a State College restaurant.


“We also have been made aware that Corbett was furious that Dr. Spanier was seen hosting his opponent for governor, Dan Onorato, in the president’s box at a home football game during the campaign,” Mr. Lewis said.