BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Okay, I’ll come clean. Obama has been my leader of choice from the get-go and nothing whatsoever I’ve heard from or about the other guy has so much as twitched the needle on my partiality meter. I will, however, admit to an atom of admiration for Romney’s extraordinary chameleon-like ability to change his stance on any given issue to suit the exigency at hand. It’s a talent even a squid could envy. But I digress. Most significantly, I hold unwaveringly to the belief that Barak is simply more concerned about more of us. I continue […]
VOTER GUIDE: Throw The Bums Out
BY MIKE WALSH In the big picture, the Democrats and the Republicans are just two different sock puppets on the same rich man’s hand. Elections will change nothing until the swamp of de facto bribery that is our current campaign contribution model is drained and elections are publicly financed. Only then will elected officials be responsive to the will of the electorate instead of the corporate paymasters that put them in office. Likewise, this country will continue to slide into a Second World Power until the two party stranglehold is broken and elections are opened up to the marketplace of […]
Top Ten Big Fat Lies of the Romney/Ryan Campaign
Artwork via SMEAR CAMPAIGN BY MIKE WALSH Romney and Ryan have lied their way through this campaign season so brazenly, effortlessly, and unabashedly, it’s tough to identify their top 10 lies, but let’s give it a shot: 10. Romney bragged during the debates that he worked in a bi-partisan manner with the Democrats who controlled the Massachusetts state house while he was governor of that state. Oh really!? It has since come to light that Romney defines bipartisanship as 800 vetoes by Romney, 750 of which were overridden by the state legislature. That’s not bipartisanship, that’s partisan warfare. 9. That […]
HECKUVA JOB, ROMNEY: Mitt Vowed To Dismantle FEMA, Called Federal Disaster Relief ‘Simply Immoral’
NEW YORKER: At a CNN debate in June, 2011, the moderator John King engaged the candidates in a discussion about the role of government. When he got to Romney, the exchange went like this: KING: What else, Governor Romney? You’ve been a chief executive of a state. I was just in Joplin, Missouri. I’ve been in Mississippi and Louisiana and Tennessee and other communities dealing with whether it’s the tornadoes, the flooding, and worse. FEMAis about to run out of money, and there are some people who say do it on a case-by-case basis and some people who say, you […]
OHIO STATE OF MIND: Bowzer & Me Save Democracy
EDITOR’S NOTE: Matt Goldfine has been working in Philadelphia and Harrisburg politics for the last five years. Tired of fretting over the polls from afar, he drove out to Ohio on Sunday to volunteer for the Obama campaign’s get-out-the-vote drive. He will be filing regular dispatches from Ohio up to election night BY MATT GOLDFINE As I drove through downtown Cleveland this morning, an eerie fog clouded the tops of skyscrapers off in the distance. All the streetlights were all out and the ordinarily bustling sidewalks were empty. I got a text message that the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party HQ, […]
WHAT’S HE HIDING: Trump Refuses To Show The Guardian His College Transcript And Passport Records
Illustration by DON COKER THE GUARDIAN: Donald Trump’s big “announcement” dropped Wednesday, when the real estate mogul offered $5 million for President Barack Obama to reveal his college transcripts and passport application. Trump, however, refuses to show his own records. The Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt contacted Trump’s office on Wednesday to ask for Trump’s college transcripts and passport records, to which an executive at the company responded that the newspaper’s request was “stupid.” MORE NMA WORLD EDITION: Donald Trump’s big Twitter announcement was basically a Dr. Evil-esque threat to the President. YAWN! It doesn’t seem that anyone was impressed with the […]
TEA PARTY SENATE CANDIDATE: Pregnancy Resulting From Rape ‘Is Something That God Intended To Happen’
CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Indiana GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock opposes abortion even in the case of rape and incest, he said at a Tuesday night debate, because pregnancy from rape is “something that God intended to happen.” Mourdock, who is in a tight race with Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly, was responding to a question about whether abortion should be legal in cases of rape or incest. “I know there are some who disagree, and I respect their point of view, but I believe that life begins at conception,” the tea party-backed Mourdock said. “The only exception I have, to have an […]
CRUEL & USUAL: The Obscene Living Conditions Inside Philadelphia’s House Of Corrections And The Inquirer Series That Helped Make It That Way
Painting by Fernando Botero BY JEFF DEENEY Recently I had a rare opportunity to go inside Philadelphia’s House of Corrections, the oldest jail in the Philadelphia Prison System, and see the conditions inmates live in. I was there in my capacity as a social worker and not as a writer and frankly I had no intention of writing about the experience. But as I walked the block prisoners implored me to, perhaps thinking I was a reporter, so I feel I must report on their behalf. “Tell them out there about this overcrowding you seen here!” “Put it in the […]
WORTH REPEATING: The New Yorker Endorsement
Photo by PLATON THE NEW YORKER: Romney has embraced the values and the priorities of a Republican Party that has grown increasingly reactionary and rigid in its social vision. It is a party dominated by those who despise government and see no value in public efforts aimed at ameliorating the immense and rapidly increasing inequalities in American society. A visitor to the F.D.R. Memorial, in Washington, is confronted by these words from Roosevelt’s second Inaugural Address, etched in stone: “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Old Wine In A New Bottle
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY The surprise appearance of George W. Bush at Tuesday’s debate, albeit in the form of a question from an undecided voter — as in ‘please tell us Governor Romney how you will NOT be just like George W. Bush’ — reminded me that I almost feel sorry for the guy. Almost. I suppose I could be accused of heresy for feeling the way I do about George Bush’s ostracism from all of impolite Republican society lately. Maybe it’s more a feeling of genuine puzzlement than anything else. I mean, it seems like the guy just […]
THE $32 TRILLION DOLLAR MAN: Do The Math, Mitt Romney Will Double The Deficit In 10 Years
BY MIKE WALSH You think the deficit is high now. Wait until Mitt Romney gets elected. $16 trillion in new debt is nothing for a man of Mitt Romney’s skills. He claims that Obama doubled the national debt. This is “factually inaccurate” or what I like to call “fucken’ bullshit.” When Obama took office, the national debt was about $10 trillion. It is now a little over $16 trillion. Now $6 trillion in debt is nothing to be proud of, but it is not double $10 trillion. That would be $20 trillion, Mitt. You’re only $4 trillion off. But it’s […]
JUDGE: On Second Thought, Maybe Ramming Through A Voter I.D. Law Just Months Before A Presidential Election Is NOT Good For Democracy
NBC NEWS: A Pennsylvania judge has blocked enforcement of the key section of a voter identification law which the state legislature enacted and Republican Gov. Tom Corbett signed last March, meaning that the law will not be in effect for the Nov. 6 election. Judge Robert Simpson said that even with the streamlined procedures that state officials proposed to make it easier for voters without ID cards to obtain them, “the proposed changes are to occur about five weeks before the general election, and I question whether sufficient time now remains to attain the goal of liberal access” to ID […]
RANDY NEWMAN: Dreaming Of A White President
Randy Newman, the legendary putdown/pick up artist, has been hoisting racist assclowns by their own petards since at least 1974’s “Rednecks.” Simply put, he’s better at bigotry than they are, and he doesn’t even mean it. Just in time for the holiday that shall mark the second coming of Barack Obama, aka election day, Newman is back with yet another poison pill for the haters, it’s called “I’m Dreaming” but instead of the ‘a white Christmas’ you might expect to follow such a declaration, he’s dreaming of a white president. Or more accurately, the character he plays in the song […]