Find a show you like and click the 
button. The show will be added to your My Playlist page and updated 24/7 with new videos.
Search Results
0 Views
02:01:26 05/25/12
Myth McConnell
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 02:01:26 05/25/12
In the wake of the debt-ceiling crisis he helped manufacture last summer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell boasted it was "a hostage that's worth ransoming" which "also is a new template" for the future. As it turns out, those threats were among the few true words McConnell has uttered. Because while he's promising once again to blackmail the White House over the debt ceiling, the Kentucky Republican claimed it's because "we'd like to do something about the nation's biggest problem, spending and debt, which of course is the reason for this economic malaise." Of course, as the data show, it's the very austerity policies here and in Europe which are costing jobs and hurting growth.
But Mitch McConnell's myth-making hardly ends there. On the economy, taxes, deficits, health care and so much else, virtually all of McConnell's talking points are tried - and untrue.
( Click a link to jump to the details for each below ):
* "Obama Made the Economy Worse"
* "No Evidence Whatsoever That the Bush Tax Cuts Actually Diminished Revenue"
* "Punishing Job Creators"
* "We Look a Lot Like Greece Already"
* Public Sector Layoffs Are a "Local" Problem
* 47 Million Uninsured Americans "Don't Go Without Health Care"
* The Public Option "May Cost You Your Life"
* Democrats Are "Sticking It to Seniors with Cuts to Medicare"
"Obama Made the Economy Worse"
For months, Mitch McConnell (for example, here , here and here ) regurgitated the GOP talking point that President Obama " made the economy worse ." Sadly for the trickle-down mythmakers of the Republican Party , the facts and the overwhelming consensus of economists - including John McCain's 2008 brain trust - prove otherwise. President Obama not only did not make the American economy worse; no thanks to obstructionist Republicans in Congress he saved the United States from "Great Depression 2.0" and put the nation on the path to recovery.
Start, for example, with the conclusions of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Despite Republican mythmaking that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) "created zero jobs," in November the CBO reported that the stimulus added up to 2.4 million jobs and boosted GDP by as much as 1.9 points in the previous quarter. As The Hill explained, the CBO has found that "President Obama's 2009 stimulus package continues to benefit the struggling economy": >
The agency said the measure raised gross domestic product by between 0.3 and 1.9 percent in the third quarter of 2011, which ended Sept. 30. The Commerce Department said Tuesday that GDP in that quarter was only 2 percent total...
By CBO's numbers, the $800 billion stimulus added up to 0.9 million jobs in 2009, 3.3 million jobs in 2010 and 2.6 million jobs in 2011.
Mark Zandi , an adviser to John McCain in 2008, was adamant on positive role of the stimulus. Federal intervention, he and Princeton economist Alan Blinder argued in August 2010, literally saved the United States from a second Great Depression. In " How the Great Recession Was Brought to an End ," Blinder and Zandi's models confirmed the impact of the Obama recovery program and other federal interventions dating back to 2008, concluding that "laissez faire was not an option": >
We find that its effects on real GDP, jobs, and inflation are huge, and probably averted what could have been called Great Depression 2.0. For example, we estimate that, without the government's response, GDP in 2010 would be about 11.5% lower, payroll employment would be less by some 8½ million jobs, and the nation would now be experiencing deflation.
"No Evidence Whatsoever That the Bush Tax Cuts Actually Diminished Revenue"
In his version of the Republican myth that " tax cuts pay for themselves ," President Bush confidently proclaimed, "You cut taxes and the tax revenues increase." As it turned out, not so much.
After Ronald Reagan tripled the national debt with his supply-side tax cuts, George W. Bush doubled it again with his own. (Reagan's performance would have been much worse, had he not raised taxes 11 times to help make up the shocking shortfall.) As a share of American GDP, tax revenues peaked in 2000; that is, before the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities concluded, the Bush tax cuts accounted for half of the deficits during his tenure, and if made permanent , over the next decade would cost the U.S. Treasury more than Iraq, Afghanistan, the recession, TARP and the stimulus - combined .
Nevertheless, as the Republican Party waged its all-out attack in 2010 to preserve the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy , the GOP's number two man in the Senate provided the talking point to help sell the $70 billion annual giveaway to America's rich. "You should never," Arizona's Jon Kyl declared, "have to offset the cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans." For his part, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell rushed to defend Kyl's fuzzy math: >
"There's no evidence whatsoever that the Bush tax cuts actually diminished revenue. They increased revenue because of the vibrancy of these tax cuts in the economy. So I think what Senator Kyl was expressing was the view of virtually every Republican on that subject."
That may have been a view universally shared by virtually every Republican, but it happens to be wrong.
"Punishing Job Creators"
For years, Senator McConnell has been among the legions of Republicans wrongly arguing that even the slightest increase in taxes for the wealthiest Americans is tantamount to " punishing job creators ." As his colleague John Boehner put it: >
"The top one percent of wage earners in the United States...pay forty percent of the income taxes...The people he's [President Obama] is talking about taxing are the very people that we expect to reinvest in our economy."
If so, those expectations were sadly unmet under George W. Bush. After all, the last time the top tax rate was 39.6 percent during the Clinton administration , the United States enjoyed rising incomes, 23 million new jobs and budget surpluses. Under Bush? Not so much.
On January 9, 2009, the Republican-friendly Wall Street Journal summed it up with an article titled simply, " Bush on Jobs: the Worst Track Record on Record ." (The Journal's interactive table quantifies his staggering failure relative to every post-World War II president.) The meager one million jobs created under President Bush didn't merely pale in comparison to the 23 million produced during Bill Clinton's tenure. In September 2009, the Congressional Joint Economic Committee charted Bush's job creation disaster, the worst since Hoover.
That dismal performance prompted David Leonhardt of the New York Times to ask last fall, "Why should we believe that extending the Bush tax cuts will provide a big lift to growth?" His answer was unambiguous: >
Those tax cuts passed in 2001 amid big promises about what they would do for the economy. What followed? The decade with the slowest average annual growth since World War II. Amazingly, that statement is true even if you forget about the Great Recession and simply look at 2001-7... >
Is there good evidence the tax cuts persuaded more people to join the work force (because they would be able to keep more of their income)? Not really. The labor-force participation rate fell in the years after 2001 and has never again approached its record in the year 2000. >
Is there evidence that the tax cuts led to a lot of entrepreneurship and innovation? Again, no. The rate at which start-up businesses created jobs fell during the past decade.
The data are clear: lower taxes for America's so called job-creators don't mean either faster economic growth or more jobs for Americans .
As Jared Bernstein aptly put it earlier this month: >
"Tax cuts and job growth? They're just not that into each other."
"We Look a Lot Like Greece Already"
As their last round of hostage-taking of the debt heated up last summer, Republicans including Mitch McConnell warned, "We look a lot like Greece."
hile FactCheck.org was quick to conclude that "whatever it 'looks like' through Sen. McConnell's eyes -- the fact is that the U.S. is not yet a fiscal wreck of Greek proportions," its analysis hardly does justice to the scale of the Republican myth-making. The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen summed it up quite succinctly: >
New rule: every time a confused Republican lawmakers compare the United States' fiscal conditions to that of Greece, an angel loses its wings.
Look, the very idea is just crazy. The U.S. has extremely low interest rates and foreign investor are happy to loan us money; Greece has extremely high interest rates and no one is eager to loan the country money. The U.S. has our own currency; Greece has the Euro. We have a great credit rating (for now); Greece has an awful credit rating. We have a manageable debt; Greece has a debt crisis. We're a large country with an enormous economy; Greece is a small country with a small economy. We have one of the world's most stable systems of government (at least until six months ago); Greece's government structure is a little shaky.
For his part, Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has been decrying the " Hellenization of economic discourse " for months. "Greece -- with a long history of fiscal irresponsibility, very high public debt, and a country without a currency -- doesn't bear much resemblance even to the other peripheral Europeans, let alone the United States."
>
Here's debt levels (if you ask me the IMF projections for Greece are too optimistic). >
Plus there's the having your own currency thing, and the fact that the interest rate on US 10-year bonds is 3.11 percent, on Greek bonds 16.82 percent. >
Otherwise we're exactly the same.
Public Sector Layoffs a "Local" Problem
Last fall, Minority Leader McConnell led the GOP opposition to President Obama's proposed $400 billion American Jobs Act. The loss of hundreds of thousands of police, firefighter, teacher and other public sector jobs, he insisted, was a "local" problem.
As it turns out, the 600,000 state and local government jobs already lost since December 2008 is very much a national issue. That " anti-stimulus ," it turns out, has added a full point to America's unemployment rate .
Last month, the Economic Policy Institute noted that the private sector had gained 2.8 million jobs while federal, state and local governments shed 584,000 just since June 2009. EPI concluded that the public sector job losses constituted "an unprecedented drag on the recovery": >
"The current recovery is the only one that has seen public-sector losses over its first 31 months."
Back in March, Paul Krugman expressed the same point , but with some inconvenient historical context for the Party of Reagan. "In fact, if it weren't for this destructive fiscal austerity," Krugman explained, "Our unemployment rate would almost certainly be lower now than it was at a comparable stage of the 'Morning in America' recovery during the Reagan era." >
We're talking big numbers here. If government employment under Mr. Obama had grown at Reagan-era rates, 1.3 million more Americans would be working as schoolteachers, firefighters, police officers, etc., than are currently employed in such jobs. >
And once you take the effects of public spending on private employment into account, a rough estimate is that the unemployment rate would be 1.5 percentage points lower than it is, or below 7 percent -- significantly better than the Reagan economy at this stage.
47 Million Uninsured Americans "Don't Go Without Health Care"
McConnell the " strict obstructionist " was naturally in the forefront of the all-out Republican effort to block health care reform at any cost. As he repeatedly put it in June 2009 , "all of us want reform, but not reform that denies, delays, or rations health care." To prove his point, McConnell didn't merely trot out a Canadian patient who came to the U.S. for special treatment, but insisted to NBC's David Gregory that no American does without health care now. >
GREGORY: Do you think it's a moral issue that 47 million Americans go without health insurance? >
McCONNELL: Well, they don't go without health care. It's not the most efficient way to provide it. As we know, the doctors in the hospitals are sworn to provide health care. We all agree it is not the most efficient way to provide health care to find somebody only in the emergency room and then pass those costs on to those who are paying for insurance. So it is important, I think, to reduce the number of uninsured. The question is, what is the best way to do that?
That President George W. Bush, Tom Delay and Paul Broun among other Republicans also claimed "people have access to health care in America...after all, you just go to an emergency room" doesn't make it any more true. As the numbers show -- 50 million uninsured, another 25 million uninsured, 45,000 unnecessary deaths, one in five Americans "self-rationing" care and 62 percent of all personal bankruptcies being related to medical bills -- the crisis is far worse than the one Mitch McConnell pretends doesn't exist.
The Public Option "May Cost You Your Life"
While Mitch McConnell insisted that the lack of insurance doesn't prevent anyone from getting health care, in 2009 he suggested having coverage could prove fatal . Months before the passage of the Affordable Care Act without the so-called "public option," Minority Leader McConnell said it would be deadly.
That irresponsible fear-mongering came during an appearance on Dennis Miller's radio show in October 2009. Blasting the "opt-out" version of the public option then being considered in the Senate bill, the Senator from the state ranked 45th in health care performance insisted access to coverage could kill you : >
MCCONNELL: Well, it doesn't make any difference frankly whether you opt-in or you opt-out, it's still a government plan. You know, Medicaid, the program for the poor now, states can opt-out of that, but none of them have. I think if you have any kind of government insurance program, you're going to be stuck with it and it will lead us in the direction of the European style, you know, sort of British-style, single payer, government run system. And those systems are known for delays, denial of care and, you know, if your particular malady doesn't fit the government regulation, you don't get the medication. >
MILLER: Right. >
MCCONNELL: And it may cost you your life. I mean, we don't want to go down that path.
As a Harvard Medical School study found, each year the path of no health insurance leads 45,000 Americans to the grave.
Democrats Are "Sticking It to Seniors with Cuts to Medicare"
For two years running, Mitch McConnell has been among the 40 GOP Senator voting for Paul Ryan's House budget plan to privatize and inevitably ration Medicare now used by 46 million American seniors. In the late 1990's, McConnell joined in Newt Gingrich's effort to slash almost 15 percent from the Medicare budget so that the program would "wither on the vine." But when the Affordable Care Act called for savings from the private Medicare Advantage program used by only 15 percent of elderly beneficiaries, it was Mitch McConnell who warned seniors about the mythical danger.
In July 2009, McConnell tried to scare America's 46 million Medicare beneficiaries by declaring, "The administration plans to use Medicare cuts to fund yet another new government program." Hoping to build on the momentum of the GOP's disgusting and demonstrably false " euthanasia " talking point, McConnell cautioned: >
"Some in Congress seem to be in such a rush to pass just any reform, rather than the right reform, that they're looking everywhere for the money to pay for it -- even if it means sticking it to seniors with cuts to Medicare."
That salvo comes just two weeks after McConnell promised to defeat health care reform in the Senate, warning America's highest turnout voting block: >
"They are going to pay for this plan by cutting Medicare, that is cutting seniors."
Those claims, the New York Times pointed out the day after the Republicans' overwhelming triumph in the 2010 midterms elections were misleading at best and false at worst. But, sadly, they worked .
And so it goes.
As Joshua Green documented last year in the Atlantic , "Mitch McConnell is a master manipulator and strategist" whose "relentless tactics have made his party victorious." But that doesn't make him a truth-teller, except on those rare occasions when he reveals his true motivations. During the debt ceiling stand-off last summer , McConnell briefly got weak in the knees at the prospect of U.S. sovereign default not because it would be a disaster for the nation, but because it could damage his Republican Party : >
"I refuse to help Barack Obama get re-elected by marching Republicans into a position where we have co-ownership of a bad economy. ... If we go into default, he will say that Republicans are making the economy worse and try to convince the public -- maybe with some merit, if people stop getting their Social Security checks and military families start getting letters saying service people overseas don't get paid. It's an argument he could have a good chance of winning, and all of the sudden we have co-ownership of a bad economy," he said. "That is very bad positioning going into an election."
Especially an election which marks the culmination of Mitch McConnell's work over the past three and a half years: >
"The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."
(This piece also appears at Perrspectives .)
2 Views
22:48:30 05/17/12
It's Casual - Live in Studio B - Part 1 - The New Los Angeles
[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 22:48:30 05/17/12
Part 1 of It's Casual performing live at Mevio Studios in San Francisco
For the entire performance CLICK HERE
WEBSITE FACEBOOK TWITTER MYSPACE YOUTUBE
BIO:
Like most Angelenos, Eddie Solis is pissed about the traffic on the 101. Unlike most Angelenos, Eddie Solis writes songs about being pissed about the traffic on the 101.
Solis’ band, an impossibly loud punk/hardcore duo called It’s Casual, addresses transit issues with an urgency hitherto unmatched in the realm of urban planning. Imagine Henry Rollins at a City Council Transportation Committee meeting, all neck veins and municipal outrage, and you get the picture.
Onstage, Solis’ eyes bulge amid a shock of curly hair, his throat emitting the collective war cry of a million frustrated commuters: “Los Angeles! There’s too many people! I want them to go away!”
His isn’t the Los Angeles of Priuses, Pilates and brunch, but the L.A. of undocumented immigrants, hardcore music and bus-stop delays. After nearly 10 years of ceaseless yelling, It’s Casual have a busy year ahead of them, what with slots on Fu Manchu’s North American tour, a forthcoming sequel to their ’08 ode to the city, The New Los Angeles, and, maybe, a European tour.
“We’ve been working at it and believing in this kind of music — which I call L.A. hardcore or L.A. skate rock — every day,” says Solis. His gaze is unflinching, and his voice is smog-raspened. He calls It’s Casual “L.A.’s only two-piece hardcore band” and is serious about his art. “I don’t take it lightly. It all comes from deep within.”
It’s Casual formed in 2001, the name inspired by a line in Cameron Crowe’s obscure follow-up to Fast Times at Ridgemont High, called The Wild Life. In it, a character played by the late Christopher Penn replies with “It’s casual” every time he is asked a question. Solis currently has a similar relationship with drummers — he’s between them. As far as a third member? “We kept trying to find a bassist, and they kept flaking,” Solis says.
The band’s sonic boom is amazing, considering there are only two of them. The secret to their sound is a unique pedal and mic’ing system. Solis’ guitar is actually wired to two amps for added punch. The results are so thunderous that fellow musicians have been known to come early to shows to watch him set up. (“There is a special formula with different pedals,” he explains of his sound. He’s trying to register it as intellectual property.)
It’s Casual’s first record, The New Los Angeles, came out in fall 2007, and was inspired by Solis’ commute from Pico Rivera to Hollywood. Tracks include “EZ Pass,” about the public transit ticket, and “The Red Line” (the handy subway that connects North Hollywood to Union Station). Most of It’s Casual’s songs last around two minutes and contain no more than three or four lyrics, hammering home their message with a directness most public servants and council officials have yet to master. Even Councilman Bill Rosendahl, chair of Los Angeles’ Transportation Committee, is impressed. “Music is a good way to get transportation messages across,” he says during a recent phone call, adding that he hoped It’s Casual were aware that plans for the Purple Line are afoot. “They should write a song about the Purple Line!” he enthuses, suggesting possible lyrics, singing: “The Purple Line/In my lifetime!”
It’s not all subways and off-ramps. Solis ventures into other matters. “Cholas Are Loyal,” for example, is all about the advantages of dating Latinas. And It’s Casual’s next album, The New Los Angeles II: Less Violence, More Violins, is inspired primarily by the California education budget deficit. “Do you think It’s Casual will translate in Europe?” he wonders, aware of his band’s distinctly local messages. But wherever there is a rush hour, there are people who identify with Eddie Solis.
Born and raised in East Los Angeles County, Solis is “the result of basically growing up around a gang-infested area with lots of negativity.” He turned to music and skateboarding as an escape, and was 15 when he started his first band — a Ramones cover group called Endless Vacation, which played shows in his parents’ living room. He got “the heaviness” from his father, who used to carry his young son around the house on his shoulders while listening to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and the Who. “They weren’t handing me money to buy me instruments,” Solis says, “but they were, like, ‘Hey, listen, we know you wanna do this, so here’s our backyard and here’s our living room.’ Which is pretty punk.”
His parents let him build a halfpipe in the back, and Solis would “put Slayer on the radio superloud” and learn skateboarding tricks with his friends. “That would be Friday night, and then Saturday we would have a show on the ramp and take donations to keep it refurbished.” Skate videos informed his taste in music — the teenage Solis would grab a pen and paper and pause the VCR to jot down names of bands like Black Flag, Dinosaur Junior, Hüsker Dü, “… all the good stuff on SST.”
Fast-forward to 1993, when Solis started interning at metal record label Century Media, which gave him a taste of hardcore commuting. Taking the bus from Pico Rivera to the label’s headquarters in Santa Monica every day was a formative experience, but he only lasted about a month (“Well, you know, it was a long trek”). That job led to a position at Priority Records, down the street in the CNN building. That’s where he learned how to sell records, a job he still does today as sales manager at doom-metal label Southern Lord.
Solis also worked as a publicist for Black Flag at SST, under the label’s founder, Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn. Basically it was the gig of Solis’ 15-year-old dreams. “I took the job because I thought it would be great to work for an icon, a legend,” he says. It was there that he learned the philosophy of DIY.
Three years ago, while strolling down the road near the Southern Lord offices in East Hollywood, Solis came upon the Relax Bar, a 150-person capacity Thai karaoke bar with an orange awning. Solis has single-handedly transformed it into a hub for L.A.’s heavy music scene. He’s booked more than 400 thrash, doom, noise and punk bands there in the last three years. “I was going to lunch, walking past the Relax Bar and the door was open. I saw a stage and it had this dark, musty kind of vibe. Kind of grim in terms of the atmosphere but real positive in terms of what you could do there. I thought, if I could get these owners on the same page and book any format — whether it’s satanic black metal or really avant-garde stuff — that would be great.”
The Relax Bar’s owners, despite not being fluent in English, supported Solis’ vision, prompting the most unlikely cultural union since Weezer recruited Kenny G. “They had a guy translating as I tried to describe the kinds of bands I wanted to book, using metal as my main focus. I said ‘Ozzfest, no — not those kinds of bands. Stuff that’s a little more creative, full of more soul, and more organic.” He played them some It’s Casual and High on Fire and a selection of punk and grindcore CDs, and they seemed to like it. Turns out the ballad-loving Thai karaoke bar owners, like Solis, possessed an unyielding passion for DIY. “They know how much work it is to bring your gear out, record your own stuff and self-release records,” says Solis. “They are all musicians themselves.” It’s been a happy union ever since, with some of the gnarliest underground bands in L.A., from Municipal Waste to Chingalera, rocking the Relax Bar’s tiny stage amid the perpetual aroma of green curry and ginger — and, when the door pops open, the faint smell of bus exhaust.
0 Views
22:39:27 05/17/12
It's Casual - Live in Studio B - Part 2 - The Red Line
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 22:39:27 05/17/12
Part 2 of It's Casual performing live at Mevio Studios in San Francisco
For the entire performance CLICK HERE
WEBSITE FACEBOOK TWITTER MYSPACE YOUTUBE
BIO:
Like most Angelenos, Eddie Solis is pissed about the traffic on the 101. Unlike most Angelenos, Eddie Solis writes songs about being pissed about the traffic on the 101.
Solis’ band, an impossibly loud punk/hardcore duo called It’s Casual, addresses transit issues with an urgency hitherto unmatched in the realm of urban planning. Imagine Henry Rollins at a City Council Transportation Committee meeting, all neck veins and municipal outrage, and you get the picture.
Onstage, Solis’ eyes bulge amid a shock of curly hair, his throat emitting the collective war cry of a million frustrated commuters: “Los Angeles! There’s too many people! I want them to go away!”
His isn’t the Los Angeles of Priuses, Pilates and brunch, but the L.A. of undocumented immigrants, hardcore music and bus-stop delays. After nearly 10 years of ceaseless yelling, It’s Casual have a busy year ahead of them, what with slots on Fu Manchu’s North American tour, a forthcoming sequel to their ’08 ode to the city, The New Los Angeles, and, maybe, a European tour.
“We’ve been working at it and believing in this kind of music — which I call L.A. hardcore or L.A. skate rock — every day,” says Solis. His gaze is unflinching, and his voice is smog-raspened. He calls It’s Casual “L.A.’s only two-piece hardcore band” and is serious about his art. “I don’t take it lightly. It all comes from deep within.”
It’s Casual formed in 2001, the name inspired by a line in Cameron Crowe’s obscure follow-up to Fast Times at Ridgemont High, called The Wild Life. In it, a character played by the late Christopher Penn replies with “It’s casual” every time he is asked a question. Solis currently has a similar relationship with drummers — he’s between them. As far as a third member? “We kept trying to find a bassist, and they kept flaking,” Solis says.
The band’s sonic boom is amazing, considering there are only two of them. The secret to their sound is a unique pedal and mic’ing system. Solis’ guitar is actually wired to two amps for added punch. The results are so thunderous that fellow musicians have been known to come early to shows to watch him set up. (“There is a special formula with different pedals,” he explains of his sound. He’s trying to register it as intellectual property.)
It’s Casual’s first record, The New Los Angeles, came out in fall 2007, and was inspired by Solis’ commute from Pico Rivera to Hollywood. Tracks include “EZ Pass,” about the public transit ticket, and “The Red Line” (the handy subway that connects North Hollywood to Union Station). Most of It’s Casual’s songs last around two minutes and contain no more than three or four lyrics, hammering home their message with a directness most public servants and council officials have yet to master. Even Councilman Bill Rosendahl, chair of Los Angeles’ Transportation Committee, is impressed. “Music is a good way to get transportation messages across,” he says during a recent phone call, adding that he hoped It’s Casual were aware that plans for the Purple Line are afoot. “They should write a song about the Purple Line!” he enthuses, suggesting possible lyrics, singing: “The Purple Line/In my lifetime!”
It’s not all subways and off-ramps. Solis ventures into other matters. “Cholas Are Loyal,” for example, is all about the advantages of dating Latinas. And It’s Casual’s next album, The New Los Angeles II: Less Violence, More Violins, is inspired primarily by the California education budget deficit. “Do you think It’s Casual will translate in Europe?” he wonders, aware of his band’s distinctly local messages. But wherever there is a rush hour, there are people who identify with Eddie Solis.
Born and raised in East Los Angeles County, Solis is “the result of basically growing up around a gang-infested area with lots of negativity.” He turned to music and skateboarding as an escape, and was 15 when he started his first band — a Ramones cover group called Endless Vacation, which played shows in his parents’ living room. He got “the heaviness” from his father, who used to carry his young son around the house on his shoulders while listening to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and the Who. “They weren’t handing me money to buy me instruments,” Solis says, “but they were, like, ‘Hey, listen, we know you wanna do this, so here’s our backyard and here’s our living room.’ Which is pretty punk.”
His parents let him build a halfpipe in the back, and Solis would “put Slayer on the radio superloud” and learn skateboarding tricks with his friends. “That would be Friday night, and then Saturday we would have a show on the ramp and take donations to keep it refurbished.” Skate videos informed his taste in music — the teenage Solis would grab a pen and paper and pause the VCR to jot down names of bands like Black Flag, Dinosaur Junior, Hüsker Dü, “… all the good stuff on SST.”
Fast-forward to 1993, when Solis started interning at metal record label Century Media, which gave him a taste of hardcore commuting. Taking the bus from Pico Rivera to the label’s headquarters in Santa Monica every day was a formative experience, but he only lasted about a month (“Well, you know, it was a long trek”). That job led to a position at Priority Records, down the street in the CNN building. That’s where he learned how to sell records, a job he still does today as sales manager at doom-metal label Southern Lord.
Solis also worked as a publicist for Black Flag at SST, under the label’s founder, Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn. Basically it was the gig of Solis’ 15-year-old dreams. “I took the job because I thought it would be great to work for an icon, a legend,” he says. It was there that he learned the philosophy of DIY.
Three years ago, while strolling down the road near the Southern Lord offices in East Hollywood, Solis came upon the Relax Bar, a 150-person capacity Thai karaoke bar with an orange awning. Solis has single-handedly transformed it into a hub for L.A.’s heavy music scene. He’s booked more than 400 thrash, doom, noise and punk bands there in the last three years. “I was going to lunch, walking past the Relax Bar and the door was open. I saw a stage and it had this dark, musty kind of vibe. Kind of grim in terms of the atmosphere but real positive in terms of what you could do there. I thought, if I could get these owners on the same page and book any format — whether it’s satanic black metal or really avant-garde stuff — that would be great.”
The Relax Bar’s owners, despite not being fluent in English, supported Solis’ vision, prompting the most unlikely cultural union since Weezer recruited Kenny G. “They had a guy translating as I tried to describe the kinds of bands I wanted to book, using metal as my main focus. I said ‘Ozzfest, no — not those kinds of bands. Stuff that’s a little more creative, full of more soul, and more organic.” He played them some It’s Casual and High on Fire and a selection of punk and grindcore CDs, and they seemed to like it. Turns out the ballad-loving Thai karaoke bar owners, like Solis, possessed an unyielding passion for DIY. “They know how much work it is to bring your gear out, record your own stuff and self-release records,” says Solis. “They are all musicians themselves.” It’s been a happy union ever since, with some of the gnarliest underground bands in L.A., from Municipal Waste to Chingalera, rocking the Relax Bar’s tiny stage amid the perpetual aroma of green curry and ginger — and, when the door pops open, the faint smell of bus exhaust.
0 Views
22:21:27 05/17/12
It's Casual - Live in Studio B - Part 3 - EZ Pass
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 22:21:27 05/17/12
Part 3 of It's Casual performing live at Mevio Studios in San Francisco
For the entire performance CLICK HERE
WEBSITE FACEBOOK TWITTER MYSPACE YOUTUBE
BIO:
Like most Angelenos, Eddie Solis is pissed about the traffic on the 101. Unlike most Angelenos, Eddie Solis writes songs about being pissed about the traffic on the 101.
Solis’ band, an impossibly loud punk/hardcore duo called It’s Casual, addresses transit issues with an urgency hitherto unmatched in the realm of urban planning. Imagine Henry Rollins at a City Council Transportation Committee meeting, all neck veins and municipal outrage, and you get the picture.
Onstage, Solis’ eyes bulge amid a shock of curly hair, his throat emitting the collective war cry of a million frustrated commuters: “Los Angeles! There’s too many people! I want them to go away!”
His isn’t the Los Angeles of Priuses, Pilates and brunch, but the L.A. of undocumented immigrants, hardcore music and bus-stop delays. After nearly 10 years of ceaseless yelling, It’s Casual have a busy year ahead of them, what with slots on Fu Manchu’s North American tour, a forthcoming sequel to their ’08 ode to the city, The New Los Angeles, and, maybe, a European tour.
“We’ve been working at it and believing in this kind of music — which I call L.A. hardcore or L.A. skate rock — every day,” says Solis. His gaze is unflinching, and his voice is smog-raspened. He calls It’s Casual “L.A.’s only two-piece hardcore band” and is serious about his art. “I don’t take it lightly. It all comes from deep within.”
It’s Casual formed in 2001, the name inspired by a line in Cameron Crowe’s obscure follow-up to Fast Times at Ridgemont High, called The Wild Life. In it, a character played by the late Christopher Penn replies with “It’s casual” every time he is asked a question. Solis currently has a similar relationship with drummers — he’s between them. As far as a third member? “We kept trying to find a bassist, and they kept flaking,” Solis says.
The band’s sonic boom is amazing, considering there are only two of them. The secret to their sound is a unique pedal and mic’ing system. Solis’ guitar is actually wired to two amps for added punch. The results are so thunderous that fellow musicians have been known to come early to shows to watch him set up. (“There is a special formula with different pedals,” he explains of his sound. He’s trying to register it as intellectual property.)
It’s Casual’s first record, The New Los Angeles, came out in fall 2007, and was inspired by Solis’ commute from Pico Rivera to Hollywood. Tracks include “EZ Pass,” about the public transit ticket, and “The Red Line” (the handy subway that connects North Hollywood to Union Station). Most of It’s Casual’s songs last around two minutes and contain no more than three or four lyrics, hammering home their message with a directness most public servants and council officials have yet to master. Even Councilman Bill Rosendahl, chair of Los Angeles’ Transportation Committee, is impressed. “Music is a good way to get transportation messages across,” he says during a recent phone call, adding that he hoped It’s Casual were aware that plans for the Purple Line are afoot. “They should write a song about the Purple Line!” he enthuses, suggesting possible lyrics, singing: “The Purple Line/In my lifetime!”
It’s not all subways and off-ramps. Solis ventures into other matters. “Cholas Are Loyal,” for example, is all about the advantages of dating Latinas. And It’s Casual’s next album, The New Los Angeles II: Less Violence, More Violins, is inspired primarily by the California education budget deficit. “Do you think It’s Casual will translate in Europe?” he wonders, aware of his band’s distinctly local messages. But wherever there is a rush hour, there are people who identify with Eddie Solis.
Born and raised in East Los Angeles County, Solis is “the result of basically growing up around a gang-infested area with lots of negativity.” He turned to music and skateboarding as an escape, and was 15 when he started his first band — a Ramones cover group called Endless Vacation, which played shows in his parents’ living room. He got “the heaviness” from his father, who used to carry his young son around the house on his shoulders while listening to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and the Who. “They weren’t handing me money to buy me instruments,” Solis says, “but they were, like, ‘Hey, listen, we know you wanna do this, so here’s our backyard and here’s our living room.’ Which is pretty punk.”
His parents let him build a halfpipe in the back, and Solis would “put Slayer on the radio superloud” and learn skateboarding tricks with his friends. “That would be Friday night, and then Saturday we would have a show on the ramp and take donations to keep it refurbished.” Skate videos informed his taste in music — the teenage Solis would grab a pen and paper and pause the VCR to jot down names of bands like Black Flag, Dinosaur Junior, Hüsker Dü, “… all the good stuff on SST.”
Fast-forward to 1993, when Solis started interning at metal record label Century Media, which gave him a taste of hardcore commuting. Taking the bus from Pico Rivera to the label’s headquarters in Santa Monica every day was a formative experience, but he only lasted about a month (“Well, you know, it was a long trek”). That job led to a position at Priority Records, down the street in the CNN building. That’s where he learned how to sell records, a job he still does today as sales manager at doom-metal label Southern Lord.
Solis also worked as a publicist for Black Flag at SST, under the label’s founder, Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn. Basically it was the gig of Solis’ 15-year-old dreams. “I took the job because I thought it would be great to work for an icon, a legend,” he says. It was there that he learned the philosophy of DIY.
Three years ago, while strolling down the road near the Southern Lord offices in East Hollywood, Solis came upon the Relax Bar, a 150-person capacity Thai karaoke bar with an orange awning. Solis has single-handedly transformed it into a hub for L.A.’s heavy music scene. He’s booked more than 400 thrash, doom, noise and punk bands there in the last three years. “I was going to lunch, walking past the Relax Bar and the door was open. I saw a stage and it had this dark, musty kind of vibe. Kind of grim in terms of the atmosphere but real positive in terms of what you could do there. I thought, if I could get these owners on the same page and book any format — whether it’s satanic black metal or really avant-garde stuff — that would be great.”
The Relax Bar’s owners, despite not being fluent in English, supported Solis’ vision, prompting the most unlikely cultural union since Weezer recruited Kenny G. “They had a guy translating as I tried to describe the kinds of bands I wanted to book, using metal as my main focus. I said ‘Ozzfest, no — not those kinds of bands. Stuff that’s a little more creative, full of more soul, and more organic.” He played them some It’s Casual and High on Fire and a selection of punk and grindcore CDs, and they seemed to like it. Turns out the ballad-loving Thai karaoke bar owners, like Solis, possessed an unyielding passion for DIY. “They know how much work it is to bring your gear out, record your own stuff and self-release records,” says Solis. “They are all musicians themselves.” It’s been a happy union ever since, with some of the gnarliest underground bands in L.A., from Municipal Waste to Chingalera, rocking the Relax Bar’s tiny stage amid the perpetual aroma of green curry and ginger — and, when the door pops open, the faint smell of bus exhaust.
0 Views
14:33:15 05/11/12
euronews interview - Michel Barnier: Banks should pay for banks
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 14:33:15 05/11/12
euronews interview - Michel Barnier: Banks should pay for banks
www.euronews.com For a little over two years, Michel Barnier has been the European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services. Part of that brief is to calm the markets and complete the single European market. Those are two challenges which the current debt crisis has made even more urgent. Euronews talked to him about these challenges. The Commissioner who has held several ministerial jobs in France also gave his opinion on the difficult balance between austerity and growth. Audrey Tilve, euronews: "Michel Barnier, welcome to Euronews. At the European Commission, you are on the frontline in the fight against the crisis and its causes, I want to return to that. But first, I would like to discuss with you Europeans' frustration at what is seen as the dogma of austerity. We saw this recently in the Netherlands where the government fell. Do you not think it is time to think again on these austerity measures and instead give priority to growth?" Michel Barnier: "The austerity measures have been put in place in several countries to reduce their deficits, to lessen the countries debts. It has been made more difficult because for 20 or 30 years some countries have been badly managed, writing blank cheques secured against the future generations and spending more than they earned. 'That's why it is such a difficult situation today and so action has to be taken quickly because if these countries, not just Greece, do not make the effort to control, to better manage their ... From: Euronews Views: 135 4 ratings Time: 07:23 More in Shows
0 Views
14:25:50 05/11/12
euronews interview - Michel Barnier: Banks should pay for banks
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 14:25:50 05/11/12
euronews interview - Michel Barnier: Banks should pay for banks
www.euronews.com For a little over two years, Michel Barnier has been the European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services. Part of that brief is to calm the markets and complete the single European market. Those are two challenges which the current debt crisis has made even more urgent. Euronews talked to him about these challenges. The Commissioner who has held several ministerial jobs in France also gave his opinion on the difficult balance between austerity and growth. Audrey Tilve, euronews: "Michel Barnier, welcome to Euronews. At the European Commission, you are on the frontline in the fight against the crisis and its causes, I want to return to that. But first, I would like to discuss with you Europeans' frustration at what is seen as the dogma of austerity. We saw this recently in the Netherlands where the government fell. Do you not think it is time to think again on these austerity measures and instead give priority to growth?" Michel Barnier: "The austerity measures have been put in place in several countries to reduce their deficits, to lessen the countries debts. It has been made more difficult because for 20 or 30 years some countries have been badly managed, writing blank cheques secured against the future generations and spending more than they earned. 'That's why it is such a difficult situation today and so action has to be taken quickly because if these countries, not just Greece, do not make the effort to control, to better manage their ... From: Euronews Views: 119 3 ratings Time: 07:23 More in Shows
0 Views
15:58:35 05/06/12
Driving Test Arriving Late
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 15:58:35 05/06/12
According to a report in the DSA's online despatch magazine, driving examiners have seen an increase in the number of people arriving late for their practical car tests. This is surprising considering the current economic climate where a no show will at least cost a candidate a minimum of £120 (assuming they were using their own car, not taking lessons and excludes holiday or loss of pay due to time off work).
If you arrive more than 5 minutes after your scheduled driving test appointment , it will not go ahead and you will lose your test booking fee , no matter what excuse you give, as the examiners have a very tight schedule and can not risk cancelling the next appointment.
The best time to arrive is about 10-12 minutes before your driving test appointment, this should leave enough time for you to do the bay parking exercise while at the same time not being in the way of any examiners who might be finishing off a car test. You can then take a few minutes to relax and refocus for the next crucial 40 minutes once called by the DSA examiner.
The most common reason a lot of people arrive late is not knowing how long it takes to get to the test centre because they are not local or take into account if there was an incident on the way. Another reason is arriving at the wrong test centre especially when there are 2 close to each other like is the case with Mill Hill and Hendon Test Centre .
Driving Test Advice : Let me give you some good advice when it comes to booking a driving test centre. Do not choose a centre or time just because you can get an early appointment. You should take your test in one of the centres closest to where you normally take driving lessons, not only because you will have a local instructor familiar with the area and what the examiners expect, but it means when you are nearer test standard it will be must easier for your lessons to include test routes without you having to book a 3 hour lesson. I have heard of people in Hackney driving all the way to Mill Hill just because they want to avoid the long wait at Wood Green test centre. Not everyone is able to still learn and remember skills after a 3 hour lesson, and you must remember that to have a good chance of passing the driving test (by avoiding a major driver fault) you need to arrive at the test centre fresh and alert.
Having to drive for 1.5 hours through busy traffic conditions is no good for you as a candidate especially if there is a chance of you arriving late if there is an incident on the way, and the instructor does not have the local knowledge to get round the back streets. It is not in your own interest to arrive for a test stressed, drained or exhausted so make sure you have planned your journey and know what it takes to arrive early at your chosen driving test centre. Do not forget both parts of your driving licence either!
Independent Driving on the Test Video Advice
If you require high quality affordable driving lessons from a very helpful, patient and fully qualified instructor, then why not call or send me a text message on 07956233032
Thinking about becoming an ADI? Read my article on why I advice Do Not Become a Driving Instructor . I you still do want to, then carry out a proper and thorough research and know all the ADI training options available to you.
Subscribe to my Driving Test Tips so you don't miss any future articles and get DSA updates direct to your inbox by Email . The service is provided and powered by Google Feedburner, so I don't personally keep your email addresses, and you can remove yourself anytime after passing the driving test with just one mouse click, you can also follow UKADI on twitter or join my UKADI Facebook page. Please let me know your views by posting a comment on the blog at http://www.ukadi.co.uk
0 Views
22:05:28 04/25/12
Arizona's Immigration Law Heads to the Supreme Court
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 22:05:28 04/25/12
Arizona's Immigration Law Heads to the Supreme Court
"As long as there is not a direct conflict, which the federal government did not do a very good job of pointing to today, the Arizona law gets to stand under the Preemption Doctrine," says Reason's Damon Root, who was at the Supreme Court during Wednesday's oral arguments surrounding Arizona's controversial immigration law. "The federal government is saying that 'we have the power to stomp out all of the state experiments in immigration law enforcement.'" Much like the Health Care arguments before the Court in March, Root does not see this as a good day for the Obama administration, in part due to Solicitor General Donald Verrilli's poor performance. "At one point," Root explains "Justice Sotomayor interrupted [Verrilli] and said "look I am terribly confused by what you are saying." Runs about 3.50 minutes. Produced by Meredith Bragg. For more of Reason.tv's coverage of immigration, go here: reason.com Scroll down for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube Channel to receive automatic updates when new material goes live. From: ReasonTV Views: 5493 133 ratings Time: 03:48 More in News & Politics
7 Views
05:00:00 04/05/12
EVERY1 Campaign: Let's start the conversation about consensual sex
[LESS INFO] 7 VIEWS | ADDED 05:00:00 04/05/12
No one owes anyone sex, but everyone deserves respect. It's not about assigning blame. It's about making sure everyone's having a good time! It's about making sure your friend, your girlfriend, your roommate--the acquaintance you were just introduced to--is sober enough to be going home with that guy, that girl, a friend, or you. It's about understanding how people think about those questionable situations where consent is assumed. When we forget that no one wants to be forced, pressured, or not remember. Healthy sex isn't just using protection. And real communication can mean the difference between "What did I do?" and "What did he/she/they do to me?". What happens to one person affects all of us. Nothing will change if we refuse to talk about it. It's a problem that affects everyone. Let's make EVERY1 part of the solution. Let's start the conversation. Thank you: Jeremy Blum and Jeff Ayars for help with editing; Leah Salgado, Rachael Blumenthal, Nicole Offerdahl, and Erica Sutton for helping organize, run, clean up, and make creative decisions throughout the filming; and everyone who participated in the video itself (including those who are not featured in the final piece).
3 Views
22:45:53 03/21/12
'The Hunger Games' To Join Ranks Of Top Grossing Sequels?
[LESS INFO] 3 VIEWS | ADDED 22:45:53 03/21/12
'The Hunger Games' To Join Ranks Of Top Grossing Sequels?
The Hunger Games Trailer bit.ly bit.ly - Click to Subscribe! Facebook.com - Become a Fan! Twitter.com - Follow Us! The hunger games have sold more tickets than any non sequel! So what does this mean for the sequal??? Possibly the best of all time?! As if we needed any more proof that The Hunger Games is going to be a box-office blowout this weekend, Fandango announced yesterday that the movie has sold more advance tickets on its website than any other non-sequel ever. AND The Hunger Games accounted for 92% of the daily ticket sales!!! However, The Hunger Games hasn't cracked the site's Top 5 Advance Ticket-Sellers list JUST YET. The current top five advance ticket-sellers are: (1) The Twilight Saga: New Moon, (2)Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows %mdash Part 2, (3) The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn %mdash Part 1, (4) The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, and (5) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows %mdash Part 1. Not to worry, Im pretty sure Katniss will be on that list in NO TIME. Even though The Hunger Games is only the first entry in Lionsgate's planned movie franchise, it's already selling pre-release tickets as if it were a highly anticipated sequel. At this point, the predicted 100 million take in will FOR SURE be reached. a weekend debut of at least $100 million seems assured...and we are thinking if the oroignal is doing THIS well the sequel will only do better! Now I turn to you---- I want to know who out there are the biggest hunger games fans and how you plan to celebrate the big ... From: ClevverMovies Views: 3841 68 ratings Time: 01:37 More in Film & Animation
25 Views
14:00:46 02/20/12
60 Minutes: This Successful Jobs Program Focuses On Finding The Right Jobs
[LESS INFO] 25 VIEWS | ADDED 14:00:46 02/20/12
It's as if the 99ers are wrapped in Harry Potter's cloak of invisibility. Four million people whose lives are hanging by a thread - lost homes, ruined marriages, no health care coverage, savings that have disappeared - are mostly ignored in the public conversation. The only voices who consistently raise their situation are in the Occupy movement. So it's a rare ray of light that 60 Minutes takes a look at a program bent on helping the long-term unemployed prepared get real jobs again: >
It was bad enough for Frank O'Neill to be unemployed for over three years, but something he read while seeking a job stabbed him in the heart. "I've seen it in print...I've actually seen, "If you are unemployed, you need not apply."
O'Neill is part of the long-term unemployed, a new minority group being legally discriminated against by want ad copy such as "Must Be Currently Employed." Joe Carbone is president of The Workplace, which has replaced what used to be the state unemployment office for southwest Connecticut. He explains why employers would do this. "There's a sense that if a person has been out of work for a year or longer, they might be lazy...would prefer to be home...lost too much already to be useful to me," he tells Pelley. "It's unfair and it's wrong."
That's why Carbone started Platform to Employment, a boot camp for the long-term jobless. The program teaches job applicants how to look for a job and to respond to inquiries about gaps in their resumes, but even more importantly, it re-instills the dignity and confidence long-term joblessness can rob from people . Another key aspect of Carbone's program is the paid internships that lead to permanent jobs. There are about a hundred people in the program, mostly middle-aged and college educated, mostly seeking similar jobs to the ones they lost. After five months, 53 of them got jobs; O'Neill was one of them.
He was attracted to the program because of its focus on finding the right job for him. "I was so prideful and so stubborn that I would not apply for part-time positions...at the grocery store...I wasn't going to flip burgers. I have a college education," O'Neil says. "I've been successful at work. I've been working for 30 years...so when this opportunity for Platform to Employment came along, I joined it and it changed my mindset," he tells Pelley.
Pelley speaks to several others who are among the lucky few who are reclaiming their own American dreams through Carbone's program in Stamford, Conn. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there are four million people who have been out of work for 52 weeks or more and two million out for 99 weeks or more . Carbone calls this "carnage."
"I can't think of a better word in this case...We ought to be angry, we ought to be giving every moment of our time figuring out how we are going to restore for them the American Dream."
7 Views
18:59:48 02/02/12
"Pro/Con"
[LESS INFO] 7 VIEWS | ADDED 18:59:48 02/02/12
"Pro/Con" 2:39 “Pro/Con” is a song about the light & dark parts inside all of us. I shot the video in Culver City, CA on January 8, 2012 with the help of a lot of talented people, who are listed below. Please share with your friends and help spread the word... If you want more, you can visit http://mrnapkins.com, follow me on Twitter (@zachsherwin), and buy my album on iTunes. I'm a vegan Jew, so please don't take “flavor like provolone and prosciutto” too literally. Credits and lyrics: Beat by Upryz (http://upryz.com) Director/Director of Photography: Jacki Moonves Editor/Effects: Jon Berkas Production Designer: Sam Rhymes Sound: Pon Franco Gaffer: Chris Saulnier Special thanks: Rita Sherwin, Lloyd Ahlquist, Gabe Michael, Rafael Serrano, Flynn Adam, Marc Chester, Atul Singh, Nice Peter, Maker Studios, Alexis Brodey, Ian Brownell, and Heather Goldberg. “PRO/CON” What I want to provide is a bit of context Help you get with the program, bring you on board with the concept Positive vs. negative like a proton-electron contest I just hope that a verse this hot is not gonna make my palms sweat Rap professional comin' atcha from every angle like a protractor Flavor like provolone and prosciutto, written down or freestyled pro bono Rarely profane, not fuelled by propane, I would rather eat rappers to get my protein And I'd proclaim myself pretty proficient at procuring my preferred provisions Profoundly prolific, this MC is; proprietor of fire like Prometheus Ego's as big as my nose is, aka my prodigiously-proportioned proboscis Props to producers spinnin' those records, and b-boys spinnin' like propellers And all my graf writers with paint and propellant? I love 'em man! But on the other hand: Sometimes I lack confidence and as a consequence I can't concentrate My negative thoughts just congregate as I contemplate with consternation My constant content constipation. Writer's block is like confirmation that No concert connoisseur would consider me a star in his consummate-MC constellation. And there's no consolation for my contempt for me. Au contraire: I'm convinced that congested and confounded is what I'm condemned to be. I'm the opposite of conceited. I should have stopped and quit and conceded long ago I'm out of control and I need to confront these demons Everybody has pros and cons, happy and sad emoticons Offs, ons, yesses, nos, yins, yangs, cons, pros Each of us contains a proliferation of contradictions That conspire to promote a profusion of confusion and provoke conniption fits That leave us twitchin' and twisted and with emotional bruisin' Man I'm talking convulsions, also contortions, contusions But I'll proffer this proposal, and convey my conviction That being prone to inner conflict and contention is just the proverbial human condition There is no magic bullet, no projectile that can be conjured All we can do is proceed and continue, lace up our Pro-Keds and Converse No procrastination, gotta go hard like concrete, get proactive Concoct that projection, construct that prototype, make it happen I'm pro-creation, like I was the consequences of promiscuous Conjugal relations that are not protected by condoms, prophylactics, and contraceptives Wide-open palms protruding, proving I'm no con artist I meant every word, prologue to conclusion Title: “Pro/Con.” Artist: Napkins. [prolonged confetti] Submitted by: mrnapkins Regular Keywords: pros cons mc mr mister napkins comedy rap hip hop aggressive bee epic rap battles stephen hawking albert einstein Views: 1,808
2 Views
21:00:11 01/29/12
Newt on This Week: Mitt Can't Tell The Truth, Has A 'Character' Problem
[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 21:00:11 01/29/12
video platform video management video solutions video player
Now, I'm going to assume that you didn't come in during the third act of Newt's career, and therefore you can appreciate just how funny it is when, on This Week , he's whining to Jake Tapper about how hard it is to pin someone down who will just lie about anything ! >
TAPPER: In many ways, you are where you are because of your debate performances. Last week, you had a couple that were not your strongest, to say the least.
GINGRICH: Yep.
TAPPER: Why do you think that was? What happened?
GINGRICH: I was amazed. I mean, I'm standing next to a guy who is the most blatantly dishonest answers I can remember in any presidential race in -- in my lifetime. And I've seen, I think, every presidential debate -- presidential campaign debate or virtually every one. And, you know, he would say things that were just plain not true.
Look, it's a little bit like yesterday's L.A. Times report. I mean, now it found 23 foreign accounts he never reported until he released his taxes. He would say -- he would say thing after thing after thing that just plain wasn't true.
And I had -- I don't know how you debate a person with civility if they're prepared to say things that are just plain factually false. And that's going to become a key part of this. I think the Republican establishment believes it's OK to say and do virtually anything to stop a genuine insurgency from winning because they are very afraid of losing control of the old order.
We tried a moderate in 1996 for president. He lost. We tried a moderate in 2008 for president. He lost. It's very hard to take Romneycare and Obamacare and have a debate and have the Republican win that debate. You need to have a conservative who is a very big distance away from Obama, because you've got to have the space so that, in fact, you can communicate with the American people.
TAPPER: I want to follow up on some of these comments you're making about Mitt Romney. The race has taken something of a nasty turn. Here's an ad that you are currently running in Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(UNKNOWN): What kind of man would mislead, distort and deceive just to win an election? This man would, Mitt Romney. If we can't trust what Mitt Romney says about his own record, how can we trust him on anything?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: It sounds as if you're saying in that ad, and here this morning, that Mitt Romney is unfit and does not have the character to be president.
GINGRICH: I am saying that he would not be where he is today, the debates this week wouldn't have been where they were, if he had told the truth. And I think that's a very serious problem for somebody. I think that you look at -- again, he's supposedly a great manager, yet he can't explain 23 different foreign accounts that weren't reported. He's a great manager. He can't explain being on the board of directors of the company which got the largest Medicare fine in history for fraud?
Somehow, every time it's bad, he didn't know about it or he wasn't aware about it. He didn't really understand the Planned Parenthood by law, the largest abortion provider in the United States, is in Romneycare? Romneycare literally defines Planned Parenthood in a key -- in a part of the bill. He didn't seem to quite know it.
Every time you turn around, this great manager consistently doesn't understand whatever it is that would have hurt him. And you just have to look back and say, why can't you be candid with the American people? You cannot be president of the United States if you cannot be honest and candid with the American people. And that's compounded, frankly, by a number of the ads he runs, which are just plain false.
TAPPER: So you're saying that he does not have the character to be president of the United States, because he's, in your view, not honest.
GINGRICH: I'm saying it is a very -- it's a -- it is a very serious problem when you have somebody who on item after item after item -- I mean, the clip you had just now, he knows what he said in that clip is not true. I did not resign in disgrace. I did not pay a fine. And, in fact, CNN ran an entire piece recently in which they pointed out that on every single substantive count in the ethics investigation, every single one, that I was vindicated, including vindication by a federal judge, vindication by the Internal Revenue Service, vindication by the Federal Elections Commission . Now, Romney knows that.
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: Well, the clip -- the clip...
GINGRICH: So he's run a campaign of vilification.
TAPPER: The clip I just played was actually one of your ads, but let's get to that Romney ad that you're talking about...
GINGRICH: No, no, but I'm talking about the earlier -- I'm talking about -- I'm talking about the clip you showed of him campaigning yesterday.
TAPPER: Oh, OK.
GINGRICH: What he said yesterday, this wasn't true.
TAPPER: There...
GINGRICH: And so at some point, I don't quite -- I don't quite -- to be honest, Jake, I don't quite know how you deal with an opponent, because you want to deal with them with civility, you want to deal with them in a positive way. I want to talk about big issues.
I talked about space this week, which I think is important for the country's future. I talked about housing. I talked about creating jobs. I talked about the record I had working with Ronald Reagan to create jobs and the record I had working with Bill Clinton to create jobs. We talked about welfare reform as the first great entitlement reform.
There are all sorts of positive things. We have a proposal on Social Security which would allow every young American the option of having a personal Social Security account on the model of Galveston, Texas, and the country of Chile. So there are a lot of positive things.
And if you'll notice, when you get outside the zone where Romney carpet-bombs with Wall Street money, and you look at what's happening in the rest of the country, I'm ahead in all three national polls that were released this week. I'm ahead by a big margin, because when you come to positive ideas, I represent real change in Washington, I represent unleashing the spirit of the American people to get us back as a country, rebuilding the country we love. And when we get to a positive idea campaign, I consistently win.
It's only when he can mass money to focus on carpet-bombing with negative ads that he gains any traction at all.
1 Views
21:00:11 01/29/12
Newt on This Week: Mitt Can't Tell The Truth, Has A 'Character' Problem
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 21:00:11 01/29/12
video platform video management video solutions video player
Now, I'm going to assume that you didn't come in during the third act of Newt's career, and therefore you can appreciate just how funny it is when, on This Week , he's whining to Jake Tapper about how hard it is to pin someone down who will just lie about anything ! >
TAPPER: In many ways, you are where you are because of your debate performances. Last week, you had a couple that were not your strongest, to say the least.
GINGRICH: Yep.
TAPPER: Why do you think that was? What happened?
GINGRICH: I was amazed. I mean, I'm standing next to a guy who is the most blatantly dishonest answers I can remember in any presidential race in -- in my lifetime. And I've seen, I think, every presidential debate -- presidential campaign debate or virtually every one. And, you know, he would say things that were just plain not true.
Look, it's a little bit like yesterday's L.A. Times report. I mean, now it found 23 foreign accounts he never reported until he released his taxes. He would say -- he would say thing after thing after thing that just plain wasn't true.
And I had -- I don't know how you debate a person with civility if they're prepared to say things that are just plain factually false. And that's going to become a key part of this. I think the Republican establishment believes it's OK to say and do virtually anything to stop a genuine insurgency from winning because they are very afraid of losing control of the old order.
We tried a moderate in 1996 for president. He lost. We tried a moderate in 2008 for president. He lost. It's very hard to take Romneycare and Obamacare and have a debate and have the Republican win that debate. You need to have a conservative who is a very big distance away from Obama, because you've got to have the space so that, in fact, you can communicate with the American people.
TAPPER: I want to follow up on some of these comments you're making about Mitt Romney. The race has taken something of a nasty turn. Here's an ad that you are currently running in Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(UNKNOWN): What kind of man would mislead, distort and deceive just to win an election? This man would, Mitt Romney. If we can't trust what Mitt Romney says about his own record, how can we trust him on anything?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: It sounds as if you're saying in that ad, and here this morning, that Mitt Romney is unfit and does not have the character to be president.
GINGRICH: I am saying that he would not be where he is today, the debates this week wouldn't have been where they were, if he had told the truth. And I think that's a very serious problem for somebody. I think that you look at -- again, he's supposedly a great manager, yet he can't explain 23 different foreign accounts that weren't reported. He's a great manager. He can't explain being on the board of directors of the company which got the largest Medicare fine in history for fraud?
Somehow, every time it's bad, he didn't know about it or he wasn't aware about it. He didn't really understand the Planned Parenthood by law, the largest abortion provider in the United States, is in Romneycare? Romneycare literally defines Planned Parenthood in a key -- in a part of the bill. He didn't seem to quite know it.
Every time you turn around, this great manager consistently doesn't understand whatever it is that would have hurt him. And you just have to look back and say, why can't you be candid with the American people? You cannot be president of the United States if you cannot be honest and candid with the American people. And that's compounded, frankly, by a number of the ads he runs, which are just plain false.
TAPPER: So you're saying that he does not have the character to be president of the United States, because he's, in your view, not honest.
GINGRICH: I'm saying it is a very -- it's a -- it is a very serious problem when you have somebody who on item after item after item -- I mean, the clip you had just now, he knows what he said in that clip is not true. I did not resign in disgrace. I did not pay a fine. And, in fact, CNN ran an entire piece recently in which they pointed out that on every single substantive count in the ethics investigation, every single one, that I was vindicated, including vindication by a federal judge, vindication by the Internal Revenue Service, vindication by the Federal Elections Commission . Now, Romney knows that.
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: Well, the clip -- the clip...
GINGRICH: So he's run a campaign of vilification.
TAPPER: The clip I just played was actually one of your ads, but let's get to that Romney ad that you're talking about...
GINGRICH: No, no, but I'm talking about the earlier -- I'm talking about -- I'm talking about the clip you showed of him campaigning yesterday.
TAPPER: Oh, OK.
GINGRICH: What he said yesterday, this wasn't true.
TAPPER: There...
GINGRICH: And so at some point, I don't quite -- I don't quite -- to be honest, Jake, I don't quite know how you deal with an opponent, because you want to deal with them with civility, you want to deal with them in a positive way. I want to talk about big issues.
I talked about space this week, which I think is important for the country's future. I talked about housing. I talked about creating jobs. I talked about the record I had working with Ronald Reagan to create jobs and the record I had working with Bill Clinton to create jobs. We talked about welfare reform as the first great entitlement reform.
There are all sorts of positive things. We have a proposal on Social Security which would allow every young American the option of having a personal Social Security account on the model of Galveston, Texas, and the country of Chile. So there are a lot of positive things.
And if you'll notice, when you get outside the zone where Romney carpet-bombs with Wall Street money, and you look at what's happening in the rest of the country, I'm ahead in all three national polls that were released this week. I'm ahead by a big margin, because when you come to positive ideas, I represent real change in Washington, I represent unleashing the spirit of the American people to get us back as a country, rebuilding the country we love. And when we get to a positive idea campaign, I consistently win.
It's only when he can mass money to focus on carpet-bombing with negative ads that he gains any traction at all.
14 Views
00:00:40 01/06/12
Mitt Romney, a Profile in Cowardice
[LESS INFO] 14 VIEWS | ADDED 00:00:40 01/06/12
For months, likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has made Barack Obama's supposed "failure of leadership" a centerpiece of his campaign. But like his ill-advised comparison of President Obama to Marie Antoinette , Romney's sound bite could well boomerang. After all, when Multiple Choice Mitt isn't comically reversing his stands, he's too afraid to take any at all .
That cowardice starts with his tax returns . While John Kerry and John McCain at least presented a summary of their (and their well-to-do wives') payments to Uncle Sam, the $250 million Mitt has so far refused to do so. Despite his famous demand in the 1994 Senate race that Ted Kennedy release his tax returns to show he has "nothing to hide," Romney reiterated his own paperwork would not be forthcoming. "We don't have any current plans to release tax returns, but never say never," Romney said, adding: >
"I can tell you we follow the tax laws, and if there's an opportunity to save taxes, we like anybody else in this country will follow that opportunity."
Or as he put it to CNN's Wolf Blitzer last week (at around the 6:40 mark): >
"I don't put out which tooth paste I use either. It's not that I have something to hide."
That's one interpretation. Another is that Mitt Romney is desperate to avoid the horrible political optics his tax returns would inevitably produce. After all, because Romney's continuing millions in annual income from Bain Capital (a company the Los Angeles Times recently explained "often maximized profits in part by firing workers") are taxed at the 15 percent capital gains rate, Mitt already pays a much lower share to Uncle Sam than most middle class families .
Romney's pusillanimity extends to his own tax proposals as well. Unlike virtually all of his GOP rivals , Romney has held back on endorsing either a flat-tax or the complete elimination of the capital gains tax. As he seemed to suggest to the Wall Street Journal , discretion is the better part of valor when it comes to telling voters about the massive windfall the Romneys would reap under the tax policies that dare not speak their name: >
What about his reform principles? Mr. Romney talks only in general terms. "Moving to a consumption-based system is something which is very attractive to me philosophically, but I've not been able to sufficiently model it out to jump on board a consumption-based tax. A flat tax, a true flat tax is also attractive to me. What I like--I mean, I like the simplification of a flat tax. I also like removing the distortion in our tax code for certain classes of investment. And the advantage of a flat tax is getting rid of some of those distortions"... >
Amid such generalities, it's hard not to conclude that the candidate is trying to avoid offering any details that might become a political target. And he all but admits as much. "I happen to also recognize," he says, "that if you go out with a tax proposal which conforms to your philosophy but it hasn't been thoroughly analyzed, vetted, put through models and calculated in detail, that you're gonna get hit by the demagogues in the general election."
Mitt Romney's fear of getting hit was also on display during the debt ceiling debate this summer. As the GOP's brinksmanship over defaulting on the U.S. debt reached its climax in late July, Romney turned his tail and fled. As MSNBC reported at the time: >
NBC's Garrett Haake reported that Mitt Romney told reporters in Ohio yesterday that he would not comment on the debt negotiations in Washington. And so far, he has refused to either endorse Boehner's legislation (as Huntsman has done) or oppose it (as Pawlenty and Bachman have done). Our question: How does someone who wants to be the leader of the Republican Party not have a position on one of the biggest issues facing Washington, especially after the dueling primetime speeches by Obama and Boehner? It's actually quite surprising; this isn't just another Washington fight. Is the lack of a position proof of how fragile Team Romney believes its front-runner status is right now?
(Ultimately, Romney used Facebook to announce his support of the Boehner bill, but only after it passed the GOP House .)
As it turns out, Ohio was the scene of another of Mitt Romney's moments in cowardice.
After visiting a Republican phone bank calling voters about the state's controversial Issue 2 curbing public unions , Romney amazingly refused to take a position: >
"I'm not saying anything one way or the other about the two ballot issues."
Embarrassed by his obvious lack of backbone, Romney endorsed the measure the next day. Ohio voters, who handily defeated the Republican measure, won't soon forget Romney said goodbye to his spine in Columbus.
Romney's vertebra similarly went missing on immigration and abortion , two issues near and dear to the Republican primary voter's heart. As Steve Benen recounted, Mitt's campaign simply would not answer Joe Klein question about what President Romney would do about the 12 million illegal immigrants already in the country: >
The evasion wasn't exactly graceful. Klein asked what Romney would do with the undocumented immigrants who are already here, and Fehrnstrom replied, "He would not grant them amnesty." Right, Klein said, but instead of amnesty, what would Romney do with these people? "He would not grant them amnesty," Fehrnstrom answered. Got it, Klein said, but what, specifically, would Romney do? "I just told you, he's not going to grant them amnesty," the campaign spokesperson said. When Klein then explained that this isn't actually an answer, Fehrnstrom, once again, said, "He would not grant them amnesty."
The Romney camp built a similar stonewall after their man seemingly came out in support of the soon-to-be defeated "personhood" initiative in Mississippi . But the day after the ballot measure went down to crushing defeat, Team Romney insisted "he's being falsely characterized as supporting a proposed amendment to define a fertilized egg as a 'person.'"
On matters small and large, duck and cover is Mitt Romney's posture. Afraid to admit that he has obviously been running for President without interruption since his failed campaign four years ago, Romney's wife claimed his 2012 run was all her idea. As Ann Romney told Wolf Blitzer last week (starting around the 2:30 mark in the video above): >
BLITZER: Is it true that you had to talk to Mitt into running again? >
ANN ROMNEY. ROMNEY: It is true...after the last campaign, it was kind of ironic that I was the one that said I'd never do this again, and now, this time around, I'm saying, you know what, Mitt, you've got to do this again.
But in Mitt's telling, his latest White House bid is all due to Barack Obama. As he told the Wall Street Journal just days ago, Mitt was content to hang out in his $12 million, soon-to-be doubled-in-size California beach side home : >
The Republican presidential candidate says he never intended to run for office again after 2008--"I went back and bought a home which was far too expensive and grandiose for the purposes of another campaign," he jokes. He was drawn back into public life amid Mr. Obama's bid to "fundamentally transform" the country, to use the president's own words, into "an entitlement society," to use Mr. Romney's.
Given his Boston area townhouse and lakeside mansion with man-made beach in New Hampshire, a third palatial retreat would have seemed excessive for a candidate Romney. After all, Mitt Romney's running for office as a " man of the people "; he can't have mansions, for Pete's sake .
"If it seems like this keeps coming up with the former governor," Benen concluded, "it's not your imagination." >
Romney refused to take a stand on Paul Ryan's budget. Romney refused to take a stand when asked about voters booing a U.S. soldier serving in Iraq during a Republican debate. Romney refused to take a stand when Rick Perry dabbled in Birtherism. Romney initially refused to take a stand on Ohio's campaign to undermine collective-bargaining rights, and then sheepishly backpedaled when the right complained. >
There's going to come a point next year when the Obama campaign is likely to say, "Mitt Romney lacks the courage and the character to be a leader." And the criticism will sting because it's based in fact.
And so it goes for the man George Will rightly described as a "recidivist reviser of his principles." On the issues where he doesn't change his mind, Mitt Romney - the man who would be leader of the Free World - lacks "the courage of his absence of convictions."
(This piece also appears at Perrspectives. )
10 Views
00:00:40 01/06/12
Mitt Romney, a Profile in Cowardice
[LESS INFO] 10 VIEWS | ADDED 00:00:40 01/06/12
For months, likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has made Barack Obama's supposed "failure of leadership" a centerpiece of his campaign. But like his ill-advised comparison of President Obama to Marie Antoinette , Romney's sound bite could well boomerang. After all, when Multiple Choice Mitt isn't comically reversing his stands, he's too afraid to take any at all .
That cowardice starts with his tax returns . While John Kerry and John McCain at least presented a summary of their (and their well-to-do wives') payments to Uncle Sam, the $250 million Mitt has so far refused to do so. Despite his famous demand in the 1994 Senate race that Ted Kennedy release his tax returns to show he has "nothing to hide," Romney reiterated his own paperwork would not be forthcoming. "We don't have any current plans to release tax returns, but never say never," Romney said, adding: >
"I can tell you we follow the tax laws, and if there's an opportunity to save taxes, we like anybody else in this country will follow that opportunity."
Or as he put it to CNN's Wolf Blitzer last week (at around the 6:40 mark): >
"I don't put out which tooth paste I use either. It's not that I have something to hide."
That's one interpretation. Another is that Mitt Romney is desperate to avoid the horrible political optics his tax returns would inevitably produce. After all, because Romney's continuing millions in annual income from Bain Capital (a company the Los Angeles Times recently explained "often maximized profits in part by firing workers") are taxed at the 15 percent capital gains rate, Mitt already pays a much lower share to Uncle Sam than most middle class families .
Romney's pusillanimity extends to his own tax proposals as well. Unlike virtually all of his GOP rivals , Romney has held back on endorsing either a flat-tax or the complete elimination of the capital gains tax. As he seemed to suggest to the Wall Street Journal , discretion is the better part of valor when it comes to telling voters about the massive windfall the Romneys would reap under the tax policies that dare not speak their name: >
What about his reform principles? Mr. Romney talks only in general terms. "Moving to a consumption-based system is something which is very attractive to me philosophically, but I've not been able to sufficiently model it out to jump on board a consumption-based tax. A flat tax, a true flat tax is also attractive to me. What I like--I mean, I like the simplification of a flat tax. I also like removing the distortion in our tax code for certain classes of investment. And the advantage of a flat tax is getting rid of some of those distortions"... >
Amid such generalities, it's hard not to conclude that the candidate is trying to avoid offering any details that might become a political target. And he all but admits as much. "I happen to also recognize," he says, "that if you go out with a tax proposal which conforms to your philosophy but it hasn't been thoroughly analyzed, vetted, put through models and calculated in detail, that you're gonna get hit by the demagogues in the general election."
Mitt Romney's fear of getting hit was also on display during the debt ceiling debate this summer. As the GOP's brinksmanship over defaulting on the U.S. debt reached its climax in late July, Romney turned his tail and fled. As MSNBC reported at the time: >
NBC's Garrett Haake reported that Mitt Romney told reporters in Ohio yesterday that he would not comment on the debt negotiations in Washington. And so far, he has refused to either endorse Boehner's legislation (as Huntsman has done) or oppose it (as Pawlenty and Bachman have done). Our question: How does someone who wants to be the leader of the Republican Party not have a position on one of the biggest issues facing Washington, especially after the dueling primetime speeches by Obama and Boehner? It's actually quite surprising; this isn't just another Washington fight. Is the lack of a position proof of how fragile Team Romney believes its front-runner status is right now?
(Ultimately, Romney used Facebook to announce his support of the Boehner bill, but only after it passed the GOP House .)
As it turns out, Ohio was the scene of another of Mitt Romney's moments in cowardice.
After visiting a Republican phone bank calling voters about the state's controversial Issue 2 curbing public unions , Romney amazingly refused to take a position: >
"I'm not saying anything one way or the other about the two ballot issues."
Embarrassed by his obvious lack of backbone, Romney endorsed the measure the next day. Ohio voters, who handily defeated the Republican measure, won't soon forget Romney said goodbye to his spine in Columbus.
Romney's vertebra similarly went missing on immigration and abortion , two issues near and dear to the Republican primary voter's heart. As Steve Benen recounted, Mitt's campaign simply would not answer Joe Klein question about what President Romney would do about the 12 million illegal immigrants already in the country: >
The evasion wasn't exactly graceful. Klein asked what Romney would do with the undocumented immigrants who are already here, and Fehrnstrom replied, "He would not grant them amnesty." Right, Klein said, but instead of amnesty, what would Romney do with these people? "He would not grant them amnesty," Fehrnstrom answered. Got it, Klein said, but what, specifically, would Romney do? "I just told you, he's not going to grant them amnesty," the campaign spokesperson said. When Klein then explained that this isn't actually an answer, Fehrnstrom, once again, said, "He would not grant them amnesty."
The Romney camp built a similar stonewall after their man seemingly came out in support of the soon-to-be defeated "personhood" initiative in Mississippi . But the day after the ballot measure went down to crushing defeat, Team Romney insisted "he's being falsely characterized as supporting a proposed amendment to define a fertilized egg as a 'person.'"
On matters small and large, duck and cover is Mitt Romney's posture. Afraid to admit that he has obviously been running for President without interruption since his failed campaign four years ago, Romney's wife claimed his 2012 run was all her idea. As Ann Romney told Wolf Blitzer last week (starting around the 2:30 mark in the video above): >
BLITZER: Is it true that you had to talk to Mitt into running again? >
ANN ROMNEY. ROMNEY: It is true...after the last campaign, it was kind of ironic that I was the one that said I'd never do this again, and now, this time around, I'm saying, you know what, Mitt, you've got to do this again.
But in Mitt's telling, his latest White House bid is all due to Barack Obama. As he told the Wall Street Journal just days ago, Mitt was content to hang out in his $12 million, soon-to-be doubled-in-size California beach side home : >
The Republican presidential candidate says he never intended to run for office again after 2008--"I went back and bought a home which was far too expensive and grandiose for the purposes of another campaign," he jokes. He was drawn back into public life amid Mr. Obama's bid to "fundamentally transform" the country, to use the president's own words, into "an entitlement society," to use Mr. Romney's.
Given his Boston area townhouse and lakeside mansion with man-made beach in New Hampshire, a third palatial retreat would have seemed excessive for a candidate Romney. After all, Mitt Romney's running for office as a " man of the people "; he can't have mansions, for Pete's sake .
"If it seems like this keeps coming up with the former governor," Benen concluded, "it's not your imagination." >
Romney refused to take a stand on Paul Ryan's budget. Romney refused to take a stand when asked about voters booing a U.S. soldier serving in Iraq during a Republican debate. Romney refused to take a stand when Rick Perry dabbled in Birtherism. Romney initially refused to take a stand on Ohio's campaign to undermine collective-bargaining rights, and then sheepishly backpedaled when the right complained. >
There's going to come a point next year when the Obama campaign is likely to say, "Mitt Romney lacks the courage and the character to be a leader." And the criticism will sting because it's based in fact.
And so it goes for the man George Will rightly described as a "recidivist reviser of his principles." On the issues where he doesn't change his mind, Mitt Romney - the man who would be leader of the Free World - lacks "the courage of his absence of convictions."
(This piece also appears at Perrspectives. )
