Mitt Romney, in the face of bullying accusations from his youth, says he has no recollection of the incident in question.
I wonder if he’s telling the truth.
Are there really so many similar acts of cruelty in his past that this particular one- in which he helped chop off tufts of a fellow student’s hair- doesn’t even register on the memory scale?
Either he’s lying, or he’s a sociopath. I tend to believe the latter.
We will not hire until Obama is gone
Sadly, it doesn’t surprise me that this business owner is unwilling to hire anyone while the President is still in office. He’s in good company, and the only thing that makes this particular man unique is his willingness to be upfront about it.
There are many people on the right- including a lot of the elected politicians- who do not want America to thrive in any way while President Obama is in office. If we, as a country, fail on his watch, they get to blame Obama without having to confront their personal racism against him.
Those same people will claim racism is dead in the US, pointing to our black Commander in Chief as proof, while simultaneously hijacking our country to all-but guarantee his failure.
… at the beginning of the day, I hadn’t recalled as much as by the end of the day.”
So said Herman Cain, during a Fox News interview with Neil Cavuto while discussing the allegations of sexual harassment against him. Cain was referring to the fact that when first asked about the allegations, he conveniently remembered nothing- that is, until he realized that those pesky women were not going to disappear.
Suddenly, by his own admission, his memory improved. The more detailed the accusations, the more clear it became that this wasn’t going to go away, the better his recollection.
Convenient.
Since these allegations hit the news waves, Cain has been on a non-stop publicity tour, speaking to any number of media outlets. He says he wants to be as visible as possible, sharing with the world that he “doesn’t have anything to hide”.
Cain wants us to believe he is being upfront about these allegations, but in reality, he spends most of his time piling on slightly hysterical-sounding denials. On the rare occasion that he’s willing to talk about it (only to sympathetic conservative news outlets, ironically) he peppers his denials with inconsistent statements.
First, he has no recollection of the incidents in question.
Next, he backs away from his assertion of amnesia, instead blaming his unwillingness to answer these accusations on the fact that the women in question were choosing to remain anonymous. How can he answer accusations from people who refuse to come forward and identify themselves?
So Politico provided him with the name of one of his accusers.
He still refused to answer.
Cain did eventually go on to confess that he had vague knowledge of the incidents in question, then later still admitted he was extremely familiar with the investigations and fully recalls them…
… Though he swore he had no idea about the financial settlements.
Some say we owe Cain the benefit of the doubt, as he’s found himself in a “he said, she said” situation in which no solid evidence of his lurid behavior has been brought to light.
Others claim that Cain is being attacked by left-wing liberals who simply hate the fact that a conservative black man is running for office (Cain himself has blamed Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and most recently, liberals). He wants America to believe the allegations against him are simply part of a vast Democrat conspiracy, liberals bent on sending him straight to hell.
Really?
Then how come the sole woman willing to come out and accuse Cain publicly is actually a conservative?
Wait- it gets even better- not only is she a conservative, but she’s a teabagger member of the Tea Party.
Ooh. There goes that whole Liberal-Left-Wing-Conspiracy theory.
That I do not trust nor believe Herman Cain has nothing to do with his politics, and it has nothing to do with the color of his skin. My views instead have everything to do with his own behavior, his tactics in choosing how to (or how not to) address the allegations laid at his feet.
This is not a “he said, she said” situation.
It is a “he said, they said” scenario.
They.
As in plural.
This is not a situation in which some crazy lone-wolf of a woman has come out of the woodwork and made baseless allegations against a man of power. There are women, all of which are saying the exact same thing.
As Cain attempts to convince us that he is not, in fact, a boneheaded sexist pig (anybody see the most recent debate, by the way? Where he calls Rep. Nancy Pelosi “Princess Pelosi”? Oh Sorry. I digress), he puts himself in a situation that invites more questions than answers. His “recollection” of the events in question change and evolve as the women’s allegations become more clear and detailed.
In a single day he goes from having zero memory of these incidents to suddenly remembering them, albeit not clearly.
Next, by his own statements, we learn that actually, his recollection of the events are crystal clear- but only where the investigations are concerned.
Financial settlements?
What financial settlements?
Even on this point, his memory has inexplicably improved, and now remembers that the National Restaurant Association, while under his direction, did pay these women some money.
First he said it was $10,000.
Next, it was $45,000.
But, he says, those were separation agreements, not financial settlements, the funds were paid without his knowledge.
Riiight.
Cain expects people to simply swallow his contention that despite the fact that he was president of the National Restaurant Association during the time the allegations were made against him, he had no knowledge that the organization- people who worked for him- entered into financial settlements with the women who- it bears repeating- were making allegations against him.
Look- I know that was a monster of a run-on sentence, but it was necessary.
Read it again.
Cain simply refuses to give Americans credit for having a brain. He refuses to acknowledge that as individual people we are capable of forming our own opinions based on the evidence- yes, even circumstantial- laid before us. This despite the nonsense he continuously tries to force-feed us.
If it walks like a duck…
The story has completely fallen apart. Cain did that to himself. His own words, his own contradictions, his own back-pedaling has made him unbelievable in the eyes of the public. The Democrats didn’t do it to him, nor did his skin color.
He simply did it to himself.
*Poof!*
And that, my friends, is the sound of a sinking ship.
Will he run or won’t he?
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels isn’t one of the more talked about GOP potential candidates for President, though he is definitely Obama’s biggest threat, should he choose to run.
I was going to hold off a li’l while before posting my opinion on Nancy Pelosi, and whether or not she was briefed by the CIA on the Bush Administration’s use of torture.
Most people seem to have already made up their minds on the matter- even as the majority of the facts remain unknown- and the story is beginning to die out in the news.
Rather than run the risk of posting on an irrelevant topic later (God forbid!), I guess I’ll put my two cents in now.
First of all, I am saddened at how fast so many people- politicians and regular folk alike- jumped to conclusions on this subject, labeling Rep. Pelosi a hypocritical liar before any actual facts could even be substantianted.
I’m not saying she’s not a hypocrite, nor am I saying she isn’t a liar. I’m not even saying she handled herself appropriately with regards to the CIA’s use of waterboarding.
What I’m saying is that we just don’t know.
Not yet, anyway.
I’ve heard Pelosi discussing the CIA briefings she received as a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
These so-called briefings have been a pet peeve of hers for a long time, certainly before this waterboarding controversy ever hit our radar screens.
When Congressional members of the Committee are briefed by Intelligence officials, they are not necessarily given complete or truly accurate information. The CIA (especially, one assumes, during this country’s most dangerous and dishonest administration) simply is not held accountable for briefing Intelligence Committee members with complete information.
Once the oft-incomplete briefing is held, the members of the committee are not allowed to ask questions for clarification purposes or to be given more information. In addition, they are not allowed to discuss the briefing with anyone else- including their own attorneys or staff members.
Pelosi isn’t saying the CIA didn’t “brief” her. She’s simply saying they didn’t give her the details that are now public knowledge, and even if they had, she wasn’t allow to do or say anything at all about any of it.
Pelosi is not the only Representative to level this charge. Bob Graham is another vocal critic of the briefings, and in fact backs Rep. Pelosi’s version of events as well.
Considering the CIA’s use of torture is illegal, are we really to believe that the organization, under the command of the likes of Bush and Cheney, really gave Pelosi all the information she would have needed to be able to determine that they were breaking the law?
Of course not.
They wanted to continue torturing people… they’re not going to give one of their adversaries the rope she needs to hang them.
Beyond all the did-she-know-or-didn’t-she-know nonsense, are we not missing the point entirely?
The point, people, is torture.
The illegal, immoral use of torture, and the lies we were all told by the Bush Administration for years, to justify violating the Geneva Conventions, thus making us less safe.
The GOP, it seems, is using Nancy Pelosi to defend such horrors as waterboarding, in effect saying “Pelosi should have stopped us and because she didn’t, we tortured people over and over again”.
As if George Bush, prior to signing all those executive orders was really looking to Pelosi, screaming, “For the love of God!! PLEASE STOP ME!!!”
Give me a break.
All I can say is, any one of you who believe Nancy Pelosi deserves to go down as a result of these briefings, and her alleged inaction as a result, better be supporters of Bush/Cheney and friends being charged with war crimes.
If you aren’t in support of the Bush Administration being taken to task for its lying, torturous, war-time transgressions, then you really need to shut your mouth where Nancy Pelosi is concerned.
For even if she is guilty of every single one of these allegations against her, they still pale in comparison to what our previous Commander-in-Chief was up to.
Representative Wilson Falsely Claims Obama Lied… Will You Stand With Joe?
Representative Joe Wilson from South Carolina sure did cause a stink Wednesday evening.
Wilson was the guy who famously hollered, “You lie!” in the middle of the President’s speech about health care reform to the Joint Sessions of Congress Wednesday night. Obama was in the process of addressing a pesky falsehood about the health care bill, one stating that should the legislation pass, illegal immigrants will be offered free, government-sponsored health insurance. Mr. Wilson decided he wasn’t going to let the facts deter him, even though this particular myth has already been debunked by just about everybody.
The current legislation, in each and every version that is being debated, states unequivocally that credits for coverage will not be extended to any persons who are not legally residing in this country. According to Politifact’s Bill Adair, the bill (H.R. 3200), goes to great lengths to make sure that “illegal immigrants do not get the credits for the health care exchange that would allow them to get free care”.
How ironic that in the process of trying to tell the world that President Obama is a liar, Rep. Wilson was, himself, perpetuating one helluva whopper.
Ah, politics at its finest.
The only reason I stop short of calling Joe Wilson a liar is because I am unsure of his motives. Afterall, I have no way of knowing whether he really believes the nonsense he’s spewing. Nor do I know if he’s consciously spreading false claims, caring not the slightest about honesty and decency, all in an effort to simply keep the bill from passing.
I would argue, however, that it doesn’t matter.
The fact remains that one of South Carolina’s elected officials willfully and knowingly openly disrespected the President of the United States during a formal speech.
This was not some informal townhall gathering in local Mayberry, USA. The yahoos who lack the common decency to respect the President when he is speaking were not supposed to be in attendance Wednesday night. That the people who do not know how to temporarily hold their tongues and allow the Leader of the Free World to speak, uninterrupted, have joined the ranks as politicians- Congressional representatives, for God’s sake- is disheartening. I expect them to behave better than this, even as they oppose the subject that is being spoken of.
Representative Wilson certainly has bad manners.
Politicians, pundits, and talk show hosts alike have ample opportunity twenty four hours a day, seven days a week to express their displeasure on anything and everything. Whether that displeasure stems from the recent actions of the President, fellow politicians, celebrities or just some Joe The Plumber type guy they happened to run into one day, there are plenty of appropriate venues in which to express oneself.
This is the age of technology, after all.
Wilson could have taken his grievance public by putting thinking cap on and writing a blog. He could have written an open letter, printed in any number of news publications, to the President to voice his displeasure. He could have called just about anyone over at Fox News and been welcomed on their airwaves and into our living rooms with open arms. He could have called a press conference to discuss his issues. He could have put a scathing statement expressing his displeasure on his website. Or he could have sent out a mass e-mail telling the thousands of folks who are no doubt on his mailing list exactly how he feels.
Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, isn’t that what Twitter and Facebook are for? Those two websites have worked wonders for Sarah Palin, after all.
In fact, not only could he have done all of these things, he could have done them all simultaneously.
Instead, our esteemed member of Congress, hailing from the great state of South Carolina, chose to make an ass out of himself on national television by rudely interrupting the President in a bizarre outburst that truly accomplished nothing more than making him look unhinged.
He has been forced to apologize- twice now- and while Democrats were predictably outraged by Wilson’s actions, even Republicans have soundly given him the ol’ smack upside the head for using such terrible judgment.
It doesn’t appear that his outburst had any sort of negative effect on the speech itself. In fact, early numbers show that after watching Obama speak Wednesday night, Americans are beginning to change their mind about the health care bill.
While health care support was inching up, the President’s approval ratings were doing the same- the President realized a double digit jump, even as Joe Wilson’s popularity plummeted.
In fact, Wilson’s likely opponent in 2010, Rob Miller, raised an astounding $350,000 for his campaign in less than 24 hours after Mr. Wilson’s unfortunate gaffe.
Stepping neatly into the role of victim, Joe Wilson is claiming that he is being punished for speaking out against the “critical issue of healthcare”. He is begging his supporters to send him money, and “Stand with Joe”.
How sad.
Representative Wilson is not in trouble for speaking his mind. He is in trouble for his appalling lack of manners and respect. He is in trouble for lacking the self-control to keep his temper in check while the President of the United States was speaking. Most importantly, it was his own actions, his own words, his own bad timing that got him into trouble. Had he kept his mouth shut for the short time Obama was speaking, it never would have been necessary for him to apologize, or answer calls for his censure to begin with.
Poor Joe.
Posted by C Haze on September 10, 2009 in Barack Obama, Blogging, Comments, Congress, Current Events, Democrats, Elections, Fox News, Healthcare Reform, House of Representatives, Joe the Plumber, Joe Wilson, Life, News, Politics, President, Republicans, Sarah Palin
Tags: Barack Obama, Congress, Current Events, Democrats, Fox News, GOP, House of Representatives, Joe Wilson, Joint Sessions of Congress, Life, News, Obama, Politics, President, Republicans, Sarah Palin, Senate, South Carolina, Speech