Friday, November 30, 2012

A Republican Woman Chairing a House Committee?

Facing loud guffaws from the left over his unisexual decisions in selecting House committee chairs, John Boehner today announced the lone woman to chair a House committee: Candace Miller of Michigan’s 10th congressional district.
 
It’s the House Administration Committee.
Congressperson Miller said that she was deeply humbled to get the committee chair assignment. And I’ll bet she was a bit surprised as well as Rep. Miller has never served on the committee and has no experience in its workings.
But still, she’s probably happy to get any chair position. She has probably already googled it and found that one of its charges is to ensure free and fair elections in the United States, and she’s excited about that.
Except for the fact that it is the states that are in control of whether their elections are free and fair.
Congressperson Miller is also probably the first House Member in a long, long time to serve as a committee chair who never received an education beyond high school.
And I’ll bet she is one of the few committee chairs in recent times to have received a House Reprimand. This reprimand was for the unethical pressuring of a fellow congressman to vote her way, and Tom DeLay’s way, in the Medicare vote in 2003. Even better, when the altercation appeared on Ms. Miller’s Wikipedia page she is alleged to have ordered her staff to scrub that information from the website.
Lovely. Candace Miller is now a House committee chair and all because of the mirth from the left on Republicans’ troubles with the female of the species. Next time, my liberal friends, when John Boehner appoints an all-male crew to head the House committees, just let him, OK?

Thursday, November 29, 2012

We Have Salvation Army Vouchers

I was walking into my nearby neighborhood grocery store this evening to pick up a few things and walked past the Salvation Army kettle and the bell ringer without placing a single copper-plated zinc penny in the kettle’s slot.

As is my habit.

I am boycotting the Salvation Army, you see, because of their anti-gay doctrine.
Well, “anti-gay” is perhaps a too soft term for the Salvation Army’s doctrinaire position on gays, as found in their induction manual, the Salvation Army Story.
They want gays to die, you see.
Die.
It’s right there on page 28 of their manual, citing Romans 1:32
 
“Though they are fully aware of God’s righteous decree that those who do such things (engage in homosexual acts) , deserve to die, they not only do them themselves, but approve and applaud others who practice them.”

This, a Salvation Army spokesman says, is “part of our belief system”.
Their belief system, that is, that gays deserve to die.
Usually I would like my snubbing of these kettles to communicate more than just not doing something, because most people walk by and don’t do anything as well. Do anything like drop some money in the slot, that is. So my protest is rather silent because I know that if I accost one of the bell ringers with my protest they won’t have a single clue to what I am talking about.
So now we have an answer. We have, if you will, a voucher system.  It is found here at HuffingtonPost, but I gladly provide a downloadable copy here.
 

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Powerball Wednesday… What Are the Odds?

It’s Powerball Wednesday again, and the rumor is that the jackpot tonight is going to total over a half a billion dollars.

A half a billion dollars is a lot of lucre, and winning it means, to the winner, the end of working for a living.

The beginning of Easy Street.

Heaven on Earth.

Lots and lots of people are forking over their cash in wanton frenzy tonight hoping to get in on a windfall and a complete change in life.

And MSNBC has an interesting article on eleven rarely occurring things with which we can compare to the odds of winning Powerball.

Like the odds of being elected President of the United States: One in Ten Million.
Or the odds of being attacked by a shark: One in Eleven Point Five Million.

Still other websites report that the odds of being struck by lightning twice is One in Nine Million.

But my favorite odds are the odds of giving birth to identical (monozygotic) quintuplets, at over One in Forty-Seven Million.

How does this stack up against the odds of winning the Powerball Lottery tonight? According to MSNBC the odds now stand at One in One Hundred and Seventy-Five Million Two Hundred and Twenty-Three Thousand Five Hundred and Ten.

Man.

That’s some heavy odds. Who in their right mind would even contemplate going out and buying a ticket? Who would fork the cash over?

Me.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Full of Sound and Fury

Now I have gone on about all the demagoguery being vented on our UN ambassador, Susan Rice, and about how it serves no useful purpose whatsoever to rake her over the coals because of her incomplete explanation of events at Benghazi.
 
I have gone on about how it only serves to minimize the deaths of hundreds and thousands of Americans in Afghanistan by magnifying the deaths of 4 foreign service individuals in Libya.
But what I have not gone on about, up to now at least, is why do individuals in the US Senate single out this one person for all of their vitriol on the evolution of our understanding of the events in Benghazi last September 11th.
Why concentrate all the rhetoric on Susan Rice? Did Susan Rice have anything to do with the decisions that went into the state of the security forces in Libya before, during or after the terror attack? An ambassador to the UN? Really? Is that all they have? Do they really think that there is something to accomplish here?
Well obviously, they do. McCain and Graham, Republican senators who have mindlessly vented over what Susan Rice knew and when did she know it obviously have an agenda and events in Libya is the furthest thing from their minds
Susan Rice has been mentioned as a possible replacement for Secretary of State Clinton when she leaves office next year.  A woman vastly qualified for the role, just as Elizabeth Warren is a shoe-in member of the Senate Banking Committee. To deny President Obama of having an extremely effective Secretary of State would do damage to the presidency, and this, after all, is still the name of the game despite the fact that contrary to beliefs of the ultra-right fringe wingnuts, Barack Obama will not seek a 3rd term.
Now the Senate, next year, will be composed of 55 Democrats or senators who caucus with Democrats, and 45 Republicans. Any attempt to deny Barack Obama his choice for Secretary of State is doomed in a confirmation.
Unless, of course, the roadblock is, as it has been in the past, the 60 percent vote needed to bring anything to the Senate floor for a vote.
Senate rules, decided on with a simple majority vote, sets this condition, and it can be unset since it is not a constitutionally mandated thing. My guess is that Democrats, to avoid the blockages of the past, will have to alter the rules, and my other guess is that Republicans, in rattling their swords so early in the game have decided to make the Democrats do just that.
To which I say “great.” Bring it on. Demographics are changing in this country and the Republican Party, the party of angry old white men, is slowly degrading into a regional party as we old white men transition back into dust.
The words of McCain and Graham are simply this: a tale told by an idiot.
And signify nothing.

Monday, November 26, 2012

On Getting Stuck Behind the Door

The Johnson Space Center in Webster, Texas didn’t rate getting one of the very few space shuttle orbiters to go on permanent display in places other than Space City (as the City of Houston proudly proclaimed itself). And I suspect that it was all politics.
 
Pete Olson was once the congressman representing JSC. And Pete Olson is a Republican who opposed the Obama administration in his puppet-like voting record.
So Pete Olson did not get a space shuttle for his district.
Now Pete Olson’s CD 22 does not encompass the JSC campus, and now, it seems, JSC is getting a 747. One of the 747s that served as a shuttle shuttle.
It was going to be used for spare parts, but since no spare part on the 747 was deemed worth anything, the next best thing is to give it to Space City.
Who else after all, can lay claim that they have one of the 747s that shuttled the space shuttle?
Now there’s some braggin’ rights.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Starting to Get a Little Concerned...

Republicans and Democrats have apparently engaged in a game of chicken. First one side and then the other side has opined that going over a fiscal cliff wouldn't be so bad. Some have relabeled it a fiscal slope.
 
Need I remind everyone that the fiscal cliff was one that neither side wanted to have happen, a set of circumstances that is not palatable to any party. But now it has become a game of who blinks first.
 
The cartoons that I have assembled here reflect some of my concerns. But only one of them really and truly reflects what is actually going to happen after all of the speeches, gestures and posturing is done in DC: a temporary fix, a kick of the can.
 
That after all, is all we can expect of our congress, a hopelessly broken congress that does not reflect the will of the majority anymore.








Saturday, November 24, 2012

Obamacare is the Law of the Land and Will Stay That Way

Oh how I love it when Republicans can look the three million Americans in the face who voted for Barack Obama, and not Mitt Romney, and tell them that what they wanted, what they voted for, a full implementation of Obamacare, will not ever happen.
Through some magic known as oversight, John Boehner says Obamacare will be trumped by the will of the minority that, through gerrymandering on a cosmic scale, is a majority in the House.
OH, John Boehner, make my day. Make my day and deny 25 million Americans of federally guaranteed healthcare coverage.
Obamacare is the law of the land and will stay that way, despite the worst intentions of the minority/majority that still thinks it has some sort of mandate from the last election.
Dreamers dream, but Boehner is just living in a nightmare.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Tis the Season…

...to riot at Walmart’s Black Friday celebration.
 
What was the apple of these holiday shoppers’ eyes?
SmartPhones.
Yes, ironically these people were rioting over SmartPhones at double discount prices.
For the first time in history  the IQ of the purchase item exceeds that of the purchaser.
Want to see Americans at their worst at the worst and most Anti-American (and pro-Chinese) institution in America? Go to Sam Walton’s legacy at the big box nearest you.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

It's Thanksgiving Again

Once more into the breach. One more tryptophan overdose.

Thanksgiving Day, a function which originated in New England two or three centuries ago when those people recognized that they really had something to be thankful for -- annually, not oftener -- if they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, during the previous twelve months instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians. Thanksgiving Day became a habit, for the reason that in the course of time, as the years drifted on, it was perceived that the exterminating had ceased to be mutual and was all on the white man's side, consequently on the Lord's side; hence it was proper to thank the Lord for it and extend the usual annual compliments.
 
- Mark Twain
 



Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Picture Obama in Granite

My great grandmother lived in Keystone, South Dakota for a time, and was a witness to the carving of Mount Rushmore by Gutzon Borglun and his son Lincoln.
 
Now, I don't know what my great grandmother's politics were, but I know that if she approved of the liknesses of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore, she might like the fifth sculpture depicted below.


And yes, this just might make a given Republican's head explode with shock and awe.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

I Hope Hope Heals

Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade is cashing it in after 4 and a half years on the job overseeing the election process in the state.

She claims it is just because she has other things she wants to do and is happy to leave office.

I hope so. But I doubt it.

Andrade oversaw a voter roll purge just short weeks before the General Election where the voter lists were compared to lists of the deceased maintained by the Social Security Administration. Thousands received notices that they had to verify that they were still alive or they would lose their registration.

This earned Andrade a brief moment in the spotlight as we learned of other such attempts to purge voter lists so that Republicans could win their races.

But here’s what I think. I think Andrade was coerced into conducting this purge, and those actually behind the effort to reduce the voter rolls ducked for cover when news got out and a lawsuit was filed, giving Andrade full and complete blame for the affair.

I believe Andrade was set up, and then made the scapegoat of a Republican move to do a nearly impossible thing: make Texas a redder state than it already is.

Hopefully Hope will heal, and maybe someday we will find out who was truly behind the voter suppression purge in Texas this past election cycle.


Monday, November 19, 2012

Cashing in on Twinkies

I’ve been wondering about the Hostess bankruptcy in light of the fact that the blame is being placed squarely on unions for its fiscal problems. Unions, it seems, are under fire from every side. Unions brought us things like the weekend, the 40 hour work week, workman’s compensation, health insurance, and child labor laws. Things that we take for granted these days.
 
That and so much more.
But for some reason, unions are bad and corporations are good.
And Hostess, maker of such fine American products as Twinkies, Sno-balls, and an endless line of food products made of air and corn syrup has announced that it cannot proceed with business with the bad old unions driving them to bankruptcy court.
Never mind the fact that Americans equate Hostess products with Junk Food to such an extent that the former San Francisco County Commissioner who murdered Harvey Milk and George Moscone used what has been called the “Twinkie Defense” as an excuse for his crimes.
Hostess products, even in this age of American obesity, are such low sellers that it is a good thing that they are so heavily laced with food preservatives so their shelf life compares to that of a desert tortoise.
So I really doubted that their union problems were the sole reason for their financial troubles. And now I see that the other shoe has dropped. Hostess is declaring bankruptcy a little prematurely, according to afederal bankruptcy judge, as they have not yet gone into mediation with the unions.
It seems that they are just a little anxious just to get the whole thing over.
And now it seems that the US Trustee has determined that Hostess, in its bankruptcy settlement, is being a little too generous to its upper management and insiders.
In short, the company appears to be liquidating to line the pockets of its upper management under the smoke and mirrors of being abused by cruel and calculating unions.
But don’t worry, I won’t call for a boycott of Hostess products. No one I know buys the stuff anyway.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

The Worst Thing We Do

Do you know what the worst thing that Americans do? The least humane, the least honorable, the least civil, the least patriotic thing that Americans do?
 
In my opinion, the worst thing that Americans, or anyone else for that matter, can do is to make political hay out of the tragic deaths of others. Demagoguery of the most heinous kind, committed by those who seek political gains on the backs of the dead.
That’s what we have going on right now in Washington DC by the callous right wing who want heads to roll because of the tragic deaths of 4 foreign service workers in Benghazi last September 11th.
These aren’t Monday morning quarterbacks, mind you, who are simply expressing how they would have handled the situation had they been in charge. In the fog and confusion of events, no one knows with clarity what they could have or would have done had they been in control of the country.
What it all comes down to is this: the Obama campaign was making huge points in the days leading up to the election about the successes that have occurred in areas of overseas military actions against our enemies. Successes that were denied the previous administration. Now comes a clear crisis in the Middle East and we have to deal with the tragedy of loss of life. It behooves the opposition then, to use this event to its benefit before the election, hoping for a miracle to occur and Romney to win the election.
Now that Romney was denied the win, it further behooved the opposition to continue the diatribe, only to find that when looking for skeletons in in the closet, all they could come up with was the sad truth that everything that could be done was done, that the facts were slow to come to light, and a total truth-telling would reveal classified sources.
Outting intelligence sources is a Republican thing that they have still not unlearned.
But the demagoguery continues with angry bald fat white men with veins popping out of their foreheads stridently calling for an explanation for the deaths of the four foreign service personnel. These same people stand silent at the deaths of 2155 Americans in Afghanistan since 2001, let alone the six who were killed just in the past week.
These people have no decency, and in truth are not worth the volume of air that they displace.

Friday, November 16, 2012

In Texas It Won’t be PerryCare

Rick Perry has officially notified Health and Human Services Secretary Katherine Sebelius today that he will not be setting up a healthcare exchange system for Texans. In short, we will not, in Texas, have a Republican version of Obamacare in Texas, ObanacareLite, or as I have come to call it, PerryCare.
 
PerryCare promised to be a Republican shell that would do nothing for the state’s 25 million uninsured citizens. PerryCare would have been a joke of a healthcare exchange system.
But apparently Rick Perry is FED UP. Fed up with federal intervention into state matters. Fed up with Obama. Fed up with intrusions into what is a local matter.
So he is just saying NO to Obamacare, er, PerryCare.
So now, in Texas, we get to have full blown federal Obamacare, because one of the stipulations of the Affordable Healthcare Act, probably put in there by Republicans, is that states get to opt to construct their own local version of Obamacare. Another stipulation is that the state partners with the federal government to set up their exchanges. And another option is to let the federal government set up the exchanges with no state participation.
That, obviously is what Rick Perry is going to opt for. No state control, total federal control of federal healthcare in Texas.
I find that amazingly ironic, that this governor who has championed states’ rights and the Tenth Amendment is opting for total federal control of the healthcare system that will be set up in his state.
As one who makes his home in Texas, I could not be more pleased with this turn of events because I want no state officials meddling in my federal healthcare program.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Cutting Taxes is Code for the N-Word?

Lee Atwater, former advisor to Ronald Reagan and veteran of South Carolina politics was tape recorded in an interview in 1981, while he was working in the Reagan administration, by a Case Western Reserve professor. The recording has been in hiding until now, and has been outted by James Carter IV, President Carter’s grandson  - the same person who released Mitt Romney’s infamous 47% video.
 
What Atwater revealed is truly astounding. Atwater opined to the prof an analysis of how the Republican Party can appeal to racists in an era where overt racism is political suicide.
Take a listen to this YouTube recording, your hair will stand on end.

What Atwater essentially said was that you could appeal to racists in 1954 by shouting the N-word, but not in 1968 – nor 1981, nor now. Now, Atwater said, you have to be more abstract, more coded.
The code at the time, as revealed by Atwater was “forced busing” and “state’s rights.” Either of these codes appealed to racists. But now, or in 1981 (and apparently ongoing until this day), Atwater claims that a more abstract, but equally appealing code word that appeals to racists is “cutting taxes.”
Cutting taxes, he explains, is an economic issue but an abstraction that appeals to racists as it hurts African-Americans more than most of us. How that happens I will leave up to the racists.
So it’s quite a revelation, isn’t it? All of this talk of cutting taxes is just code words to appeal to racists to vote for the Republican Party.
As if they needed a code word.
 

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Houston: the Next West Berlin

Have you seen all of the petitions at Whitehouse.gov requesting that this or that state be allowed to secede from the union rather than tolerate 4 more years of a Barack Obama presidency? There’s one from every southern state and a couple of redneck western states. Oh, and New York.
 
New York, the state that gave Obama 3,875,876 (and counting) votes, that’s 62.6% of the vote, and 29 electoral votes.
But oh well, who’s counting.
Not surprisingly, Texas is in and among the crowd with its own petition, one that Governor Rick Perry, lately of the secessionist movement of 2011 has disavowed. And therein lies the present story.
Apparently there is a group of Houstonians who have answered to the Texas petition and have their own petition at Whitehouse.gov beseeching the federal government to allow the City of Houston to secede from the seceders and remain a part of the United States of America.
The text is a delight to read.
“We petition the Obama Administration to: Peacefully grant the city of Houston Texas to withdraw from the state of Texas & remain part of the United States.”
“We, the city of Houston, think those asking for secession of the state of Texas are mentally deficient and do not want them representing us. We would like more education in our state to eradicate their disease. Thank you. Please help us with these people.”
Imagine the possible outcomes should all of these petitions be granted. Texas would become a sovereign state, or a state allied with other states run by delusional people. I even have a name for such an alliance of states: The Delusional States of America.
But Houston would be an island, a city within another country much like West Berlin during the bad old days of the Cold War.
Should another hurricane hit the area, Houston would have FEMA, but the surrounding areas would have to wait for private enterprise to restore power and infrastructure let alone get food and water to the impacted areas.
Should Houston become a haven for Texas escapees who tunnel under the Houston Wall to freedom (or education) they might have to endure an airlift program from the USA to bring in supplies.
And like the wall that these people want to build along the Mexican border, the United States will likewise have to build a wall between them and Delusionals. And not to keep their citizens in, but to keep the Delusionals out. Such a wall will not necessarily be forbidding in its structural soundness, but more in the way of a repellant.
I suggest one made of scientific textbooks and watchtowers blaring hip hop music day and night.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Dump Your Kroger Stock Now

Here’s a stock tip. If you own Kroger stock right about now you may have noticed that since its announcement this morning that it was setting up to limit the hours of some of its 350,000 employees nationwide, because of the increased costs it would have to pay for Obamacare, its stock went up half a point, but then around mid-afternoon, someone realized the true implications of this announcement, and the stock went back down to finish where it started today.
It seems that the good news about lower labor costs, and the business was being proactive in handling the costs of fair health insurance for its third of a million employees, met with the obvious bad news as investors realized that a lower labor force meant longer checkout lines, dirtier aisles, unattended to spills, shopping basket pileups in the parking lot, and meat and produce that was less fresh.
News that did not escape the notice of Houston area rival HEB markets, whose stock price started to rise in the mid afternoon.
Houstonians and suburbanites who have the choice to frequent both will have the opportunity to decide whether to continue shopping at Kroger, which apparently has little concern for its employees, little concern for their health and welfare, and are willing to play off this lack of concern for customer service and customer satisfaction. They apparently have little concern for their customers whom they hope won’t notice any difference in service.
So if you have stock in Kroger, sell it, and buy HEB who have yet to make such an unpatriotic announcement.
Better yet, do all of your shopping at HEB from now on.
The produce section is better and cleaner anyway.
Disclaimer: I am not a stock expert or a licensed stock broker. You take my financial advice at your own peril. The stuff about a better produce section at HEB is an absolute fact, though.

UPDATE: A reader called me on this posting, which I knew to be rightwing claim without basis. See the comments.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Karl Rove’s Tantrum

On November 6th, at ten minutes after 10 PM Central Time, every network news organization in the universe declared Barack Obama the winner of the 2012 Presidential Election, having won Ohio’s electoral votes, putting his count over 270.
 
Campaign advisor Karl Rove, however, wasn’t so sure.  Mitt Romney, in Rove’s rabid mind, was a shoe-in to win the thing, and a declaration of victory for Obama was clearly premature. I am thinking that Rove must have had Al Gore’s premature concession in 2000 in mind when news organizations gave Florida to George W. Bush, when there were problems too numerous to mention in the Florida vote count.
Bush eventually carried Florida by 537 votes.
Not so in Ohio. In Ohio, the vote wasn’t even close.
Obama beat Romney in Ohio by over 107 thousand votes.
But Karl Rove was adamant, and this vexed Mitt Romney even more than he already must have been. Mitt thought he was going to win, too, and had his transitional government website live and online. At Rove’s insistence, Mitt Romney refused to concede to Obama for what seemed like an eternity to those of us who could see that he didn’t have a chance after Cuyahoga County votes started coming in.
And now Bart Simpson is weighing in.
 
 
On November 6th, at ten minutes after 10 PM Central Time, every network news organization in the universe declared Barack Obama the winner of the 2012 Presidential Election, having won Ohio’s electoral votes, putting his count over 270.
 
Campaign advisor Karl Rove, however, wasn’t so sure.  Mitt Romney, in Rove’s rabid mind, was a shoe-in to win the thing, and a declaration of victory for Obama was clearly premature. I am thinking that Rove must have had Al Gore’s premature concession in 2000 in mind when news organizations gave Florida to George W. Bush, when there were problems too numerous to mention in the Florida vote count.
Bush eventually carried Florida by 537 votes.
Not so in Ohio. In Ohio, the vote wasn’t even close.
Obama beat Romney in Ohio by over 107 thousand votes.
But Karl Rove was adamant, and this vexed Mitt Romney even more than he already must have been. Mitt thought he was going to win, too, and had his transitional government website live and online. At Rove’s insistence, Mitt Romney refused to concede to Obama for what seemed like an eternity to those of us who could see that he didn’t have a chance after Cuyahoga County votes started coming in.
And now Bart Simpson is weighing in.
 
 
On November 6th, at ten minutes after 10 PM Central Time, every network news organization in the universe declared Barack Obama the winner of the 2012 Presidential Election, having won Ohio’s electoral votes, putting his count over 270.
 
Campaign advisor Karl Rove, however, wasn’t so sure.  Mitt Romney, in Rove’s rabid mind, was a shoe-in to win the thing, and a declaration of victory for Obama was clearly premature. I am thinking that Rove must have had Al Gore’s premature concession in 2000 in mind when news organizations gave Florida to George W. Bush, when there were problems too numerous to mention in the Florida vote count.
Bush eventually carried Florida by 537 votes.
Not so in Ohio. In Ohio, the vote wasn’t even close.
Obama beat Romney in Ohio by over 107 thousand votes.
But Karl Rove was adamant, and this vexed Mitt Romney even more than he already must have been. Mitt thought he was going to win, too, and had his transitional government website live and online. At Rove’s insistence, Mitt Romney refused to concede to Obama for what seemed like an eternity to those of us who could see that he didn’t have a chance after Cuyahoga County votes started coming in.
And now Bart Simpson is weighing in.
 
 
On November 6th, at ten minutes after 10 PM Central Time, every network news organization in the universe declared Barack Obama the winner of the 2012 Presidential Election, having won Ohio’s electoral votes, putting his count over 270.
 
Campaign advisor Karl Rove, however, wasn’t so sure.  Mitt Romney, in Rove’s rabid mind, was a shoe-in to win the thing, and a declaration of victory for Obama was clearly premature. I am thinking that Rove must have had Al Gore’s premature concession in 2000 in mind when news organizations gave Florida to George W. Bush, when there were problems too numerous to mention in the Florida vote count.
Bush eventually carried Florida by 537 votes.
Not so in Ohio. In Ohio, the vote wasn’t even close.
Obama beat Romney in Ohio by over 107 thousand votes.
But Karl Rove was adamant, and this vexed Mitt Romney even more than he already must have been. Mitt thought he was going to win, too, and had his transitional government website live and online. At Rove’s insistence, Mitt Romney refused to concede to Obama for what seemed like an eternity to those of us who could see that he didn’t have a chance after Cuyahoga County votes started coming in.
And now Bart Simpson is weighing in.
 
 
On November 6th, at ten minutes after 10 PM Central Time, every network news organization in the universe declared Barack Obama the winner of the 2012 Presidential Election, having won Ohio’s electoral votes, putting his count over 270.
 
Campaign advisor Karl Rove, however, wasn’t so sure.  Mitt Romney, in Rove’s rabid mind, was a shoe-in to win the thing, and a declaration of victory for Obama was clearly premature. I am thinking that Rove must have had Al Gore’s premature concession in 2000 in mind when news organizations gave Florida to George W. Bush, when there were problems too numerous to mention in the Florida vote count.
Bush eventually carried Florida by 537 votes.
Not so in Ohio. In Ohio, the vote wasn’t even close.
Obama beat Romney in Ohio by over 107 thousand votes.
But Karl Rove was adamant, and this vexed Mitt Romney even more than he already must have been. Mitt thought he was going to win, too, and had his transitional government website live and online. At Rove’s insistence, Mitt Romney refused to concede to Obama for what seemed like an eternity to those of us who could see that he didn’t have a chance after Cuyahoga County votes started coming in.
And now Bart Simpson is weighing in.
 
 
On November 6th, at ten minutes after 10 PM Central Time, every network news organization in the universe declared Barack Obama the winner of the 2012 Presidential Election, having won Ohio’s electoral votes, putting his count over 270.
 
Campaign advisor Karl Rove, however, wasn’t so sure.  Mitt Romney, in Rove’s rabid mind, was a shoe-in to win the thing, and a declaration of victory for Obama was clearly premature. I am thinking that Rove must have had Al Gore’s premature concession in 2000 in mind when news organizations gave Florida to George W. Bush, when there were problems too numerous to mention in the Florida vote count.
Bush eventually carried Florida by 537 votes.
Not so in Ohio. In Ohio, the vote wasn’t even close.
Obama beat Romney in Ohio by over 107 thousand votes.
But Karl Rove was adamant, and this vexed Mitt Romney even more than he already must have been. Mitt thought he was going to win, too, and had his transitional government website live and online. At Rove’s insistence, Mitt Romney refused to concede to Obama for what seemed like an eternity to those of us who could see that he didn’t have a chance after Cuyahoga County votes started coming in.
And now Bart Simpson is weighing in.