Blood Money and More Bad News for Romney

The hits keep coming for Mitt Romney. In the Huffington Post article "Mitt Romney Started Bain Capital With Money From Families Tied To Death Squads" Cole Stangler reports that Romney started Bain capital with money from rich Salvadoran families that also helped fund death squads that might have killed as many as 35,000 people during the 1980's.

The funny thing about Romney is that it seems that the GOP itself doesn't expect him to win. Many GOP "stars," like Chris Christie and Marco Rubio, don't want to be his running mate. How odd. It's like the GOP not only expect Romney to lose, they expect him to lose so badly that they don'w want anything to do with him.

The Hatred Continues

Last Sunday six people were killed and three wounded at a Sikh temple in Oak Park Wisconsin. The shooter, Wade Michael Page, was himself shot by police. Page served in the Army from 1992-98 but was discharged for drunkenness and going AWOL. He then joined several racist and Neo-Nazi groups.

Page was not simply another "lone wolf" killer. He was part of a racist sub culture that is willing to use violence against minority groups. Even if there was no wider plot behind the attack, it is clear that racist, neo-facist groups are a threat to all of us.

Aw Bull Cock!

Mitt Romney's recent trip abroad has turned into a PR disaster. His criticism of the London Olympics offended his hosts. He's been dubbed "Mitt the Twit" and a "wazzock" a term which originally referred to a bull's penis but which is now equivalent to what on this side of the Atlantic would be a "tool." For someone with a smarter-than-thou attitude he looks maladroit. His wife is a piece of work herself; every statement she makes carries the subtext "I'm better than you and don't you forget it." The Romneys come across as the neighbors from hell.

Constitutional Problems

I like the U.S. Constitution but there are some parts of it that don't work anymore. The electoral college, for instance, which only allowed the worst two term president in our history to get elected. Then there's the two year term for the House of Representatives, which doesn't allow for long term planning. Another provision that has to go is the Second Amendment. The original intent, as most scholars would point out, was to allow for a colonial militia, not a blanket ability to own weapons. The need for state militias has been made obsolete by the permanenst army, the border patrol and the National Guard, which serves most of the remaining functions.

In today's hyper-polarized political problems like these can no longer be addressed or solved. The entire political process has been hijacked by well financed, media savvy interest groups who pervert the political process for their own interests.

Another Piece of the Puzzle

Another culprit has emerged in the curious plot to declare that corporations are "persons" who have a "right" to free speech in the form of making unlimited political donations. Lewis Powell, a Nixon appointee who served on the US Supreme Court from from 1972 to 1987. His wrote the opinion in the matter First National Bank v. Bellotti that monetary donations were protected speedch. Powell was a corporate hack, who among other things worked as a representative for the tobacco industry. In 1971 he also wrote the Powell Memorandum to the US chamber of commerce, in which he declared that corporate interests should be more aggressive in influencing the political system. It is fair to say that "corporate personhood" is not a constitutional principal but a ruse for corporate interests to impose their agenda on everybody else.

A Moving Wall of Sludge

The recent scandal over the manipulation of the LIBOR (London interbank offered rate) keeps getting bigger. At first it was manipulation committed by Barclay's Bank. But now it seems that many other banks were involved; Bank of America, Citibank, Credit Suisse, and Deutsche Bank and several others were mixed up in it. It seems that the entire global financial system may be crooked. Surprise, surprise? It's no longer a case of a few "bad apples" it's the entire crop that's rotten.

Cut the Crap Already

Leave it to the Democrats to rescue defeat from the jaws of victory. You'd think that the Supreme Court upholding the affordable health care act would be a cause for celebration. Instead the President is maintaining that the mandate is "not a tax" while Congressional Demos act like they want to put it all behind them.

Why? Because the Demos are so convinced by medial consultants and whatever that the law remains unpopular. The law remains unpopular largely because the Demos have not put much effort into defending it. Of course its human nature to be more receptive to lies that are easily grasped than to complicated truths. But the Demos need to make more of an effort to win, if they actually want to win.