To all my Jewish and non-Jewish friends -- call your Zeyde

Zeyde is Yiddish for Grandfather:

Mitt Romney debates . . . Mitt Romney

Pretty funny . . .  if it weren't so scary!

Romney Shrugged (an involuntary apology)

 

Was he lying then?

Or is he lying now?

In May, when Mitt Romney said to a roomful of his wealthiest donors that 47% of Americans saw themselves as “victims” and, as President, his job was “not to worry about those people” – was he lying to his donors then in order to get their money?


Or is he lying to us now in order to get our vote?


Why did it take Mitt Romney nearly 3 weeks after the video became public to apologize?  Was it because his poll numbers plunged precipitously as a result of his comments?  Was it because other Republicans were distancing themselves from him in order to save their own campaigns?


If Romney really felt he was wrong, why didn’t he apologize as soon as it became public instead of defending his extremely callous and disparaging comments for 3 weeks?


What does that 3-week delay say about Mitt Romney’s character?


More importantly, what does it say about what he truly believes?


Like an unscrupulous salesman, Romney seems to tell us whatever he thinks we want to hear, in order to seal the deal.


Here's what he said to his donors:

Here's what he told you and me:     

   

Which do you think is the real Mitt Romney?

 

 

Are you willing to risk America's future that you are right?

   



Heckler Interrupts Romney with Question on Climate Change . . . . Watch What Happens

A fascinating video clip from earlier today at a Romney campaign stop where an audience member unfurls a banner and shouts: "What about climate change? That’s what caused this monster storm."
  
But that’s not the fascinating part. What occurred after is like something out of a Twilight Zone episode as the crowd begins chanting "USA, USA" – as if chanting “USA” is somehow the answer - or solution -- to the issue of climate change!
   
And then Romney, after a long pause, continues with his speech as if the issue never came up at all.
 
Truly a bizarre occurrence.
 
Watch it for yourself in this brief, 1-minute video clip:

Employees' Jobs Threatened if they Vote for Obama, Romney Encourages It

With encouragement from Mitt Romney, a number of employers have told their employees that, if they vote for President Obama on November 6th, it will cost them dearly.  They have been informed that if they vote for Obama, they may have their hours cut back . . . lose their insurance . . . or lose their jobs.

This is not a joke.  I wish it were.

As illegal as this tactic sounds, I was shocked to learn that the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling makes this sort of employee intimidation and coercion completely legal!

If there was any doubt in your mind that next week's election has far-reaching consequences -- well beyond who occupies the White House for the next 4 years -- this ought to put your doubt to rest.

This is all the more reason why we need to do everything we can to encourage everyone we know to vote on November 6th.

Because, if we don't -- they will.


Please share this information with your friends.  It's not just our country, but our entire Democracy that is at stake.


Here's a few quotes from the articles (links to articles follow below):

"Terry McTaggart, the president of a Michigan convenience store, liquor and home heating conglomerate, sent his employees a letter this month suggesting they vote for GOP nominee Mitt Romney and threatening to cut their hours in order to save money under President Barack Obama's health care reform law.

McTaggart joins a handful of CEOs who have urged their employees to oppose Obama, including Westgate Resorts founder David Siegel and the Koch Brothers. Corporations were banned from pressuring their employees on voting for decades, but the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision freed employers to campaign among their workers as a form of free speech.

Romney has encouraged employers to pass their views along to their employees. The National Federation of Independent Business, which almost exclusively backs GOP candidates, will host an event this week to educate bosses on how best to pressure their workers come Election Day."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/17/mitt-romney-employees-voting_n_1975636.html


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/28/terry-mctaggart-forward-corporation-obamacare_n_2034907.html?ref=topbar


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/27/us/politics/bosses-offering-timely-advice-how-to-vote.html?pagewanted=all


http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/10/can-your-boss-threaten-to-fire-you-if-you-dont-vote-for-romney/263709/
   
 

Romnesia Alert Issued

  

WARNING: U.S. Health Alert Issued Earlier Today

The Federal Center for Disease Control issued a warning earlier today that an outbreak of Romnesia has been identified in several states and is spreading rapidly. All Americans are advised to remain calm, but to be alert for common symptoms, which include:

Rapidly shifting statements of your positions and beliefs
Shortness of memory
Discomfort with 47% of Americans
Absence of self-awareness


Additional Romnesia symptoms may include:
believing women dwell in binders;  mistaking corporations for actual people;  confusing your dog with your luggage;  eagerness to randomly and casually make $10,000 bets;  not knowing which of your houses your key unlocks;  and believing $200,000 to $250,000 is middle-class income


At risk groups include:
women, seniors, students, the working class, immigrants, gays and lesbians, scientists and researchers, and the easily deceived

The risk to your health remains high.


This afternoon, President Obama issued an urgent statement to all Americans regarding Romnesia:  (it's pretty funny!)

The FCDC reminds you to take all necessary precautions when you vote on Tuesday, November 6th in order to prevent Romnesia from reaching epidemic proportions.



If you found this announcement helpful, you may also like:  
37 Reasons You Might Want to Vote Republican:
http://johnsvor.blogspot.com/2012/10/37-reasons-you-might-want-to-vote.html 

FDR's Post-Crash 1936 Speech Provides Surprising Parallel to 2012 Election

The parallels between the recovery in 1936 and in 2012 are unexpectedly surprising. In many ways, FDR could have been describing the circumstances of the past 4 years and the current political climate . . .



[note: the following introduction is taken from David Remnick's 10/13/12 New Yorker blog]:

In 1936, Franklin Roosevelt was faced with a vicious reelection campaign. He was vilified for the New Deal reforms. The word “boondoggle” was popularized in the U.S. the year before to describe alleged abuses of the New Deal. Opposition politicians and critics compared F.D.R. to Lenin. The Depression was still on, and unemployment, which had dropped significantly, was still high, over fourteen per cent. What Roosevelt had going for himself was a real set of policies and the capacity to speak on their behalf—a willed capacity to state things plainly, forcefully, and effectively. Never more so than on September 29, 1936, at the New York Democratic State Convention, in Syracuse.

Excerpts from FDR's speech to the New York Democratic State Convention 9/29/1936:

The task on our part is twofold: First, as simple patriotism requires, to separate the false from the real issues; and, secondly, with facts and without rancor, to clarify the real problems for the American public.

There will be—there are—many false issues. In that respect, this will be no different from other campaigns. Partisans, not willing to face realities, will drag out red herrings as they have always done—to divert attention from the trail of their own weaknesses.

This practice is as old as our democracy. Avoiding the facts—fearful of the truth—a malicious opposition charged that George Washington planned to make himself king under a British form of government; that Thomas Jefferson planned to set up a guillotine under a French Revolutionary form of government; that Andrew Jackson soaked the rich of the Eastern seaboard and planned to surrender American democracy to the dictatorship of a frontier mob. They called Abraham Lincoln a Roman Emperor; Theodore Roosevelt a Destroyer; Woodrow Wilson a self-constituted Messiah.



In the spring of 1933 we faced a crisis which was the ugly fruit of twelve years of neglect of the causes of economic and social unrest.

Most people in the United States remember today the fact that starvation was averted, that homes and farms were saved, that banks were reopened, that crop prices rose, that industry revived, and that the dangerous forces subversive of our form of government were turned aside.

A few people- a few only—unwilling to remember, seem to have forgotten those days.



Why did that crisis of 1929 to 1933 pass without disaster?

The answer is found in the record of what we did.

We met the emergency with emergency action.



Let me warn you and let me warn the Nation against the smooth evasion which says, "Of course we believe all these things; we believe in social security; we believe in work for the unemployed; we believe in saving homes. Cross our hearts and hope to die, we believe in all these things; but we do not like the way the present Administration is doing them. Just turn them over to us. We will do all of them- we will do more of them we will do them better; and, most important of all, the doing of them will not cost anybody anything."

But, my friends, these evaders are banking too heavily on the shortness of our memories. No one will forget that they had their golden opportunity—twelve long years of it.

Remember, too, that the first essential of doing a job well is to want to see the job done. Make no mistake about this: the Republican leadership today is not against the way we have done the job. The Republican leadership is against the job's being done.



You cannot promise to repeal taxes before one audience and promise to spend more of the taxpayers' money before another audience. You cannot promise tax relief for those who can afford to pay, and, at the same time, promise more of the taxpayers' money for those who are in need. You simply cannot make good on both promises at the same time.



Who is there in America who believes that we can run the risk of turning back our Government to the old leadership which brought it to the brink of 1933?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt




You can watch or read FDR's entire speech here:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=15142 


Here is a link to Davdi Remnick's New Yorker article which brought FDR's 1936 speech to everyone's attention:
www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/10/roosevelts-message-to-obama.html#ixzz29LQv3i9h