The Romney-Trump Bromance.

Picture of the week: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney deplaning next to Donald Trump's private airplane. Romney was in Las Vegas to kiss Trump's ring so that he could get his greedy hands on Trump's tainted money. It's tainted because Trump deeply believes in the racially-tinged, conspiracy theory that our president isn't a legal, American citizen and therefore not a legitimate president.

Think about this for a minute, this isn't simply Romney appearing with an average supporter. He's appearing with a very wealthy and powerful man (Trump) who thinks our current president is serving in office illegally because of these false accusations that President Obama's birth certificate isn't legitimate!! By taking Trumps money and appearing with him on stage, Romney gives a certain legitimacy to Trumps nonsensical conspiracy theories and gives license to uninformed citizens and racists to keep asserting that our democratically elected president is a criminal.

Romney makes these weak statements saying that he can't be held responsible for the things that supporters say. Yeah, maybe not if that supporter is an average voter who can be heard calling Obama an "asshole" on the microphone in a crowd. However, Trump isn't your average voter and accusing Romney's opponent of not even meeting the basic presidential criteria of citizenship, isn't a minor charge. I half-way expect to hear the next charge to be that Obama isn't even human!! I'm sure if we give Trump enough time that he'd go there eventually.

Seeing Romney deplaning next to Trump's airplane also painted a stark and clear picture of just who Romney favors most--his corporate buddies. That picture practically screams out, "The Romney Campaign: Brought to you by Trump Industries." The fact that Romney is seen next to Trump's airplane and not that of a struggling local airline at a local airport exposes, yet again, that Romney favors the rich over the middle class. If he can't stand up to Donald Trump, do you think he'll stand with the average worker over greedy corporate titans like Trump and others? Do you think he'll honestly stand up to China and tell them to stop stealing American jobs? That is why Romney unwillingness to stand up to Trump and his wild conspiracy theories means something.

ADDENDUM: What is "Mr. Values" Romney doing hanging out in a Las Vegas casino, anyway? As a former Mormon I can attest to the fact that they oppose gambling and many wouldn't go into a casino, ever -- even if it was just to eat lunch with a friend!! This is because they think that even just being around the gambling environment is sinful. Avoid, "even the appearance of evil" is the saying. So, not only is Romney hanging out in a casino, he's taking the sinful money of casino magnates to fund his political career!! Oh, Mitt. Jesus would be so proud!!

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Why Won't Romney Talk About His Record As Governor?

Mitt Romney loves to criticize President Obama for having spent a lot of years in the public sector as a state Senator, U.S. Senator and now president. The irony though is that despite criticizing public service, Romney still wants to be president, which is the highest political job in the country!! Then there is the inconvenient truth that Mitt Romney served as Governor of Massachusetts, so as usual Romney is a hypocrite.

I find it annoyingly ironic that conservatives hate government, yet still want to be apart of government!! I think that such anti-government types want to be in government so that they can dismantle it. Their agenda isn't to make government work better for Americans, it's to whittle down to nothing so that government loses the last bit of power and influence it had over out-of-control mega-corporations.

Romney has nearly refused to talk about his time as governor, and with good reason. His much vaunted business experience did nothing much to help the State of Massachusetts. During his tenure, Massachusetts ranked 47th out of all 50 states in job creation!! His "business experience" at Bain Capital might make him good at making money off of buying and selling companies but that experience didn't translate well when it came to government economic policy.

If Mitt Romney couldn't do better for a geographically small state like Massachusetts than 47th out of all 50 states in job creation, how can anyone have confidence that he'll do better when he's the leader of the whole country?! He did such a poor job in his first term as governor that he didn't choose to run a second time!!

He claims to oppose government bailouts such as the one President Obama enacted to save the auto industry. But, this is the same guy, Romney, who hauled in hundreds of millions of dollars in federal spending to bailout of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic games. At the time of that bailout, fellow Republican and recent presidential candidate, Senator John McCain called it an, "incredible pork-barrel project" and a "rip-off of the taxpayers." In Romney-land, deficit spending is o.k. to fund a sporting event but not worthwhile when trying to save middle-class jobs such as in the auto industry. Given these facts, Romney looks less like a leader and more like a snake-oil salesman!!

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If Romney Wants Trump Money Then He Has to Take Heat for Birther Comments.

On the same day that loud-mouth Donald Trump will host a fundraiser for Mitt Romney in Las Vegas, he repeated his false claims that our president, Barack Obama, isn't an American citizen. "It all wouldn’t matter," Trump said, "except if you’re born in a foreign country, you’re not allowed to be president, so you know this is a minor detail." For his part, Romney said the following when asked about Trump's discredited, radical beliefs:

“You know, I don’t agree with all the people who support me and my guess is they don’t all agree with everything I believe in,” Romney said. “But I need to get 50.1% or more and I’m appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people.”

TPJ: Good people??? Donald Trump thinks that our country's highest leader is an illegal alien, and by extension an illegitimate leader worthy of imprisonment!! That's the kind of person that Mitt Romney thinks is "good people?!!" Romney's response makes it sound like Trump's comments were as benign as a policy disagreement, when in reality they are questioning the very citizenship of our democratically elected leader!! That serious of a charge is about as severe as it gets in American society except perhaps calling Obama the "Anti-Christ" though some have absurdly thrown that out there too.

Romney's explanation for defending Trump is that he'll take all the help he can gain? That's the worst kind of opportunism I can imagine for a presidential candidate. He's already shown he doesn't mind hanging around with people who threaten the life of our president like Ted Nugent, so who's next? I'm sure the Ku Klux Klan agrees with Trump that Obama isn't a legitimate citizen, so will Romney now solicit their endorsement and money? You have to wonder given the ilk he has associated himself with so far!!

I use to think that Romney was a man of values, until this election, but anyone who would embrace the likes of Donald Trump just for money isn't someone with integrity and good character. In saying, "But I need to get 50.1% or more and I’m appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people" Romney is in keeping with his image as someone willing to do anything, say anything and schmooze anyone to garner money and votes. Disavowing yourself from Trump isn't a hard choice, the hardcore "birthers" won't ever vote for Obama regardless if Romney repudiated the "King of the Birthers, Trump. But, by not repudiating him, the independent voters are turned off. Independents don't like extremism. Romney could have looked like a man of principle to independent voters by standing up to Trump. But, it's really too late for Romney to backtrack now without looking like a flip-flopper, yet again. Romney has already accepted Trump's endorsement and is now set to accept his dirty money.

I watch these Republican analysts on the news who claim the Romney-Trump association is "much to do about nothing." Bullshit. Imagine if Obama was holding a fundraiser with a wealthy, liberal, political donor like George Soros, or some Hollywood figure who said Romney was a polygamist or an illegitimate American!! The Republican Party would be outraged, and rightfully so!! Romney can embrace his conspiracy theorist buddy, Donald Trump all he wants but it shows a pitiful lack of leadership and judgment.

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Memorial Day Message.

Each Memorial Day, Americans take time to honor and celebrate the lives of soldiers living, and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice -- giving their lives to ensure our freedom. We owe them everything, and more.  On Memorial Day, I think of the grandfather that I never knew. He suffered major lung and heart damage from mustard gas during World War 1. I pay so much attention to politics and the news because of his sacrifice. Democracy takes active participation. I owe him my duty as a citizen, and I refuse to let him down.

Thank-you, Grandpa Spencer. Even though a simply thank-you isn't ever enough to pay you back for your sacrifice, I am deeply grateful.

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Romney Embraces Donald Trump, the "King of the Birthers."

Mitt Romney happily accepted the endorsement of loud-mouth, Donald Trump despite Trumps insistence (as recently as this week) that President Obama wasn't born in the United States. Now, Romney is cuddling up to, "The Donald" yet again. This time at a fundraiser. It seems, once again, that Romney favors money over integrity. It's shows a pitiful lack of leadership that Romney would even want to associate with a person like Trump whose accusations hurled at President Obama suggest our leader is a criminal!! 

Can you imagine if this scenario was with Obama and not Romney? The calls of condemnation from the Republican Party would be deafening!! They're would be accusations of treason, mobs clambering at his campaign office and death threats hurled around. Just look at the firestorm over the Reverend Jeremiah Wright controversy. Obama disavowed himself of Rev. Wright, gave a laborious public speech explaining every little interaction he had with the pastor and resigned his membership with that church.

Mitt Romney made a short statement that he didn't agree with Trumps "birther" views, but still accepts the Trump endorsement, takes Trumps money and campaigns with him!! Can you imagine if Obama had said that while he doesn't agree with Reverend Wright, he still wants to appear with him, take his money and campaign with him across the country?!! He would have been ridden out of the country on a rail!! How can Romney look at himself in the mirror after being such a fraud? Yet some people still think he'd be a good leader for our country. Sad.

Romney Wants to Bring Back Bush Era.

It seems Americans these days have a short memory because half of America is seriously considering a vote for Mitt Romney despite his economic policies consisting of failed Bush ideas that caused this economic mess. He wants the Bush tax cuts for the rich to be permanent despite the truth that they did nothing to prevent the Great Recession. The only thing they did boost is the federal deficit, which is ironic considering Romney is trying to convince voters that he's against increased federal spending!! He's such a fraud on so many levels. But, wait, it gets worse. Not only does he want to make the Bush tax cuts for the ultra-rich permanent, he wants even more tax breaks than Bush did for the very wealthy bastards that got us into this economic mess in the first place!!

What's perhaps worse is that Romney would do nothing to change the loose rules on Wall-Street that gave permission to big banks to take risky bets with other peoples' money. Apparently he thinks Wall-Street didn't collapse hard enough, so he wants to double down on little regulation. We've painfully seen the repercussions that a lack of regulation caused the greater economy. You simply can't trust greedy people to not steal money or break the rules without oversight!! It's like giving a child access to the cookie jar and telling them to only take one cookie when you aren't around. It's in the nature of a toddler to take more than one cookie, as it is with a lot of businesses to be tempted to bend the guidelines in the face of lax rules. 

What about foreign policy? Mitt Romney would populate his agencies with the same "war hawks" who derailed our military and economy into the throws of the unnecessary Iraq War. Romney also does nothing to ask our military to cut back expenses despite asking other programs like Medicare and Social Security to make drastic reductions in benefits. 

We all want to see the economy grow faster but it takes a good decade to fully recover from a near depression. Things are improving, albeit slowly. But, let's not get so impatient with things that we go back into the arms of the very team that crashed the economy into the ditch. Give President Obama a chance to complete this economic recovery. Then we can have a debate about which party is best suited to take the country into the future, but switching economic policies in the middle of a growing recovery is risky and foolish.

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Obama Isn't Attacking Capitalism by Questioning Romney's Bain Record.

Mitt Romney is claiming that President Obama is attacking the free enterprise system, (capitalism) by calling into question Romney's tenure at Bain Capital. That's laughably absurd. That would be like Democrats claiming Romney was criticizing capitalism by questioning Obama's economic policies!! It is fair to question Mitt Romney's time at Bain Capital, especially when Romney claims it's proof he'd be a good president and a "job creator." Romney inserted it into the discussion and he can't now claim it's "character assassination" when Obama questions that record.

How can Romney be a "job creator" anyway when Bain Capital isn't in the business of creating jobs. They aren't an employment agency or a major manufacturer like G.M. or Ford. They are a venture capitalist corporation whose main goal is wealth creation. They invest in companies, not hire people. If one of those companies that Bain Capital invests in, creates jobs, that doesn't mean that Romney gets the credit for those jobs. It means Romney gets credit for increasing Bain Capital's revenue because that company is successful enough to hire.

But, under Romney's stewardship, the minute that company lost money for Bain Capital, he would have sold it off for a profit, which means jobs lay-offs. That company is merely part of a diversified portfolio of companies invested in by Bain Capital for the sole purpose of wealth creation for themselves and their shareholders. Romney taking credit for jobs created by those companies is like me taking credit for General Electric hiring more workers because I have stock in G.E.!!

I don't have a problem with venture capitalism itself, nor in making a lot of money. President Obama doesn't begrudge people for being wealthy either. But, if you're going to make money the Bain Capital way, which means buying and selling companies like stocks, regardless of what happens to the employees of those companies, then that's fair game to criticize. Especially if you're going to claim that's your experience as a "job creator." I know rich guys like Romney aren't use to being questioned on their business practices but he'd better get use to it if he wants to be president.

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Spending vs. Austerity

President Obama has been roundly criticized by conservatives, such as Mitt Romney, for investing American tax dollars into companies and industries that would help grow the American economy. At the time, Wall-Street was collapsing around us in 2008. The stock market was at a pitiful 6,000 points, and the world's largest auto industry hung over the abyss. Conservatives opposed infusing Wall-Street with tax dollars, as they repeated libertarian mantras of "laissez-faire" capitalism. In other words, their idea was to essentially do nothing, let the market shake out the winners and losers.

The problem was that the "losers" hit the hardest were the American middle-class, especially blue-collar workers who are the backbone of the economy. There were a lot of unemployed families who were in deep poverty, which breeds further poverty. It's a vicious cycle. So, Obama recognized that unemployed Americans needed a small stipend of unemployment benefits to keep them financially afloat until they could find a new job. This was a good investment because the unemployed spend that money immediately to buy necessities like food and gas. This keeps the workers afloat and keeps money pumping through the economy. In fact, according to Mark Zandi of the respected investment service Moody's, every dollar spent on unemployment benefits, boosts GDP by about $1.60.

In the meantime, President Obama used tax dollars to offer emergency loans to save the big, three auto companies, given they employ (directly, or indirectly) a huge percentage of the Midwestern region of the country. Mitt Romney opposed those loans and told Detroit to "go bankrupt." But thanks to President Obama's foresight, the American auto industry is back stronger than ever. All in all, the American economy is growing. It's growing slower than we'd like, but it's growing, which can't be said of Great Britain. Led by conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, Great Britain choose the path Republicans wanted for America. It's a path of austerity which has predictably reduced growth, stagnated employment and is now leading England into another recession. I think it's clear given these two examples that President Obama made the correct decision. He hasn't been perfect, but at least we aren't dipping back into recession.

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Mitt Romney Says He Wants to End Divisiveness--Except He Isn't.

At a campaign stop in Hillsborough, New Hampshire this afternoon (May 18th), serial flip-flopper, Mitt Romney claimed that if he's elected president he'll, "stop this dividing American against American." He must not include himself because just yesterday he said President Obama has, "been attacking economic freedom from the first day he came into office."


WARNING: HEAVY SARCASM AHEAD...What could possibly be divisive about questioning the president's commitment to a free economy, in a country such as America that worships freedom!! It's not like America has had a history of falsely accusing politicians of essentially being communists!!  Oh wait, yes it has, (Google, "McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare").

Once again Mitt Romney has shown that he has one set of standards for himself, and another set of standards for others. That's not being a leader, that's called being a fraud, and a cowardly one at that!!

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Romney: Obama Wants America to be a "Less Christian Nation."

"The Hill" news outlet said today that Mitt Romney repudiated a proposal by a Republican-leaning group to attack President Obama in commercials for his former ties to Reverend Jeremiah Wright saying the focus should be on the candidates respective records. Romney went on to say that President Obama's campaign has been focused on "character assassination" for questioning Romney's business practices while working at Bain Capital. Being an out-of-touch multi-multi-millionaire, Romney must not be use to people questioning his actions. Because most people wouldn't consider questions about a candidate's business record to be "character assassination." Especially in an election year centered on the economy.

It's ironic to hear Mitt Romney complain about "character assassination" in the first place when he said on Sean Hannity's show earlier this year that President Obama wants America to be "less Christian." According to "The Hill," Romney said, "I’m not sure which is worse, him [Obama] listening to Rev. Wright or him saying that we must be a less Christian nation."

TPJ: Mitt Romney needs his brain examined if he thinks questions about his business record are unfair, "character assassinations" but accusing President Obama of purging Christianity from America is acceptable!! Oh, and what happened to being the classy guy and avoiding the Jeremiah Wright issue? It seems he'll tell the general public that he'll avoid attacking the president's religious affiliations but do the opposite when he's around his conservative buddies. In other words, he change positions depending on the crowd he's addressing. Besides, does Mitt Romney really want us to make the candidate's personal religious beliefs a valid consideration in this presidential election? Because as a former Mormon, I can tell you all kinds of things about Romney's beliefs that you might find shocking.

According to, "The Hill" news outlet, when asked about his comments to Sean Hannity, Romney replied, "I'm not familiar with precisely what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was," Romney said.

TPJ: How can he not remember saying something so momentous as accusing the president of saying that we, "must be a less Christian nation?!!" And, what kind of leader stands by whatever they said in the past, even though they can't remember what they said.?!! Finally, if Romney is such a "positive campaigner" then why did he air highly-negative ads during the Republican Party's primary election? He is a shameless fraud who must think we're too stupid to notice. His money might be able to buy negative ads but he can't hide from the truth, and sooner or later people will notice that you can't trust Mitt Romney to be who he says he'll be.

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Republicans Not Blameless on Debt and Deficit.

The Republicans love to criticize the Democrats for using tax dollars to fund things like schools, health care and infrastructure improvements. They, and Mitt Romney, try to portray the Democratic Party as being irresponsible spenders and themselves as debt reducers, but as usual the Republicans aren't showing you the whole picture. The Bush tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy are still in effect and the money to pay for those tax cuts must be borrowed from China -- therefore contributing to the deficit. According to the, "National Priorities Project" (link here) tax cuts going to the top 5% of richest Americans are currently costing America upwards of $1 trillion!! So, the next time a Republican claims Democrats are the deficit spenders, ask them how we pay for the $1 trillion in tax cuts  they continue to dish out for the richest people in America?

Thus, rather than being a debate about who borrows and spends more money, we should be talking about which party is spending that money wisely. The Democrats generally spend money on programs that help the working class and working poor, whereas the Republicans usually spend that money in the form of tax giveaways to people who are already doing very well financially. Their hope is that if we give money to the wealthy that they'll spend it and it will spur the economy. The problem is that the Bush tax cuts have been in effect since the year 2000, or so and not only did they fail in sustaining a strong economy, they led to the Great Recession of 2008.

Another favorite spending area for Republicans is with the military and war spending. Even though the Pentagon itself says that it wants to cut spending, the Republicans refuse to approve those cuts because they think any amount of cutting will somehow hurt the military's ability to defend the country. Despite the reality that America's military has such an over-whelming advantage in size and ability that a modest amount of cuts to their budget would hardly be felt in its ability to dominate any other military.

Democrats aren't opposed to cutting spending, despite Republicans trying to portray it that way. It's simply that we disagree with Republicans on what to cut and by how much. A year ago, Democrats proposed a compromise debt reduction plan that would have cut $2 trillion in spending but the Republicans opposed it. They rejected it because the Democratic Party's plan dared to ask the wealthy oil and gas companies to give up their government subsidies (i.e., hefty bonuses care of the taxpayer). This is at a time when oil companies are making the biggest profits in human history. It is also a time when tax payers are feeling the financial bite of the slow economic recovery most. Therefore it's wrong for the Republicans to portray Democrats as unwilling to reduce the debt, and it's important to underline that Republicans, too, add to the debt.

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Romney's Vaunted Business Experience is Misleading.

There are unfortunately a lot of low-information voters who think Mitt Romney is best suited for job creation because they heard that he was a "businessman." The problem with that depiction is that Romney's business wasn't your normal pizza shop run by Mom and Dad, or the local factory.

Mitt Romney made his hundreds of millions as a venture capitalist at, "Bain Capital." A venture capitalist like Romney is someone who buys distressed companies, trims their budgets (often by firing people) and sells them off at a profit. That's not creating jobs. Romney's goal at "Bain Capital" was to make money, lots of it. I don't begrudge Romney for being rich -- I want people to succeed but not at the cost of the middle-class. Some of his companies created a few jobs, but overall, Romney's business expertise wasn't in job creation. He was an investment guy, so he probably knows less about creating jobs than the night manager interviewing a potential employee at the local sandwich shop.

But, you don't have to rely upon my editorial here to believe it. We have an example of what Romney's job's record would mean for the United States. Under Mitt Romney's tenure as governor of Massachusetts, the state was one of the worst states for job creation in the entire country -- 47th out of all 50 states!! Under President Obama, we have stemmed the plunge in unemployment and are slowly but progressively lowering the unemployment number. President Obama brought back the auto companies and jobs a long with it, so I'd rather stick with what I know in President Obama than take a chance voting in a Wall Street tycoon like Mitt Romney!!

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Mitt Romney The Bully.

As The Washington Post exposed recently, Mitt Romney was known for being a bully at his elite Prep School. Classmates recall Romney holding down a perceived gay student and cutting his long hair while the victim teared up and cowered in fear. Another incident found him heckling another perceived gay, male student in class saying, "at a girl" when the boy answered a question correctly. In a third incident, he was the ringleader in harassing a blind teacher. What all of these victims have in common is that they were vulnerable and marginalized people that Romney preyed upon.

Of course, we all did stupid and sometimes cruel things when we were young and it isn't fair to hold him accountable now as a candidate for something he did in high school. However, what bothered me into writing this post was how Romney responded to this incident when asked about it. Despite five of his co-conspirators in the hair cutting incident vividly remembering the cruel act, Mitt Romney now claims he doesn't remember it, and I find that hard to believe. And that cold denial is worth taking into account in this election because it speaks to a lack of leadership and accountability. How is it that the other conspirators vividly remember the torment they caused the perceived gay student but Romney doesn't recall it one bit? It is this failure to recognize his bullying past and  apologize for that specific incident that disappoints me. It shows a pitiful lack of leadership and an almost unconscious habit Romney has of denying facts or changing positions to suit his political agenda.

In response to his past, Romney "apologized" generally for doing "stupid things" and "pranks" in high school but it wasn't a true apology. By the way, a prank is putting a whoopee cushion on another student's chair, whereas holding a kid down and cutting his hair off is bullying pure and simple. Romney coldly said if people were offended then he apologizes. What does he mean, "if?" How could you not be hurt and offended by a gang of bullies chasing you, holding you down and then cutting off your hair?!! In other words, he means the apology "if" someone took offense, which isn't exactly showing true contrition and recognition of what he did all those years ago. Perhaps it's not the most relevant aspect of this presidential campaign, but I think it exposes a failure of leadership by Romney.

He could have really showed his human side, (which has been lacking) in admitting that he regretfully bullied these students and admits to it changing him to be a better person. As well as saying, without equivocation, that he was wrong regardless of whether or not someone took offense. Then he could have shifted it to show leadership by saying this incident has propelled him to make the bullying epidemic in our schools a top priority in his campaign. It would show that he's an honest, contrite and changed man, but this pseudo apology and failure to recognize the trauma he inflicted underlines the reputation he has for being a fraud. I don't think he should be judged as a candidate on his actions as a young man, but his response to this incident was severely lacking in character, integrity and leadership.

ADDENDUM: Another incident that I forgot was how Romney failed to stand up to the lady at his rally who stated Obama was guilty of treason. He exposed his lack of leadership abilities by not disavowing himself from her comments. It would have won him a lot of respect and leadership credibility to simply say to that women, "I have a lot to criticize the president on but he is not guilty of treason" and move onto the next question. It's that simple. Until he stands up to any of these bullies in his party, I think it's reasonable to assume he lacks a certain amount of character, integrity and leadership ability.

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Marriage Equality In-Keeping with Conservatism.

The conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, famously said that he supports gay marriage, not despite his conservative ideology but because of his conservative ideology. At the heart of conservatism lies a general desire to be free from government interference in one's private life. This is often summed up in America by the State of New Hampshire's motto, "Life free, or die." Conservatives in America don't want the government telling them what to eat, what to buy, what to believe or not believe and so on. And, for the most part, I agree with them. But, for some reason, a lot (but thankfully not all) American Conservatives are really concerned about controlling the sex lives of people, which is seen most clearly in opposition of same-sex marriage.

It seems that it comes down to their strict religious beliefs that oppose homosexuality, which is their choice to believe. However, it is not their right to use their personal religious beliefs about marriage to control the personal lives of Gay-Americans. Marriage is largely a personal affair that sometimes involves being married by a religious leader, but it is also legal to be married by a judge. This allows people of non-religious beliefs to marry, so that they don't have to adopt the religious beliefs of others in order to simply wed. It also ensures that religions can marry, or not marry whomever they decide. 

Yet somehow in America, a lot of religious Conservatives think their religious rights extend beyond their church and home to allow them the power to control the marital rights of others who don't believe what they believe. That isn't freedom. You don't have the freedom to tell others what to do with their personal lives, which is why banning same-sex marriage is undemocratic. The only reason I can see that's justified in opposing gay marriage is if the proposal tried to force private religious institutions to marry homosexuals. But, since that has never been the aim of same-sex marriage proponents, it seems completely antithetical to conservative ideology to seek to control the personal lives of homosexual Americans.

The biggest falsehood spread by religious opponents of same-sex marriage is that gay marriage violates the "traditional," definition of marriage, which is one man and one woman. Except that there is no traditional marriage. Marriage has evolved over time from polygamy, to arranged marriages, to marriage based on property to marriage based on love. You can't isolate the past 100 years or so from the marriage timeline of history and say that's the "traditional and historic" definition of marriage. You can say that I guess, but it's not accurate. And, besides, if the marriage of one man and one woman is the only acceptable marriage under the Judeo-Christian, "God" then why do they revere all the old testament prophets? Because they all had more than one wife!! Even modern day Mormonism doesn't allow that anymore.

So, you see, it's all a matter of personal preference and freedom. Let gays and lesbians marry by judges, and continue allowing religions to not marry gay citizens; and let's move on to solve the real problems in America, such as poverty, hunger and health care affordability!!

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Romney Undeservedly Takes Credit for the Resurgent Auto Industry.

Mitt Romney, the man who coldly said the Detroit auto companies should "go bankrupt" during the Great Recession, is now taking credit for that industry's resurgence!! He must think that voters are stupid. But, we will remind any voters who have forgotten, that it was President Obama would stepped in to save them. If you remember, it was a rough time for Wall-Street and the investment banks. No one, from large corporations to small business owners could get loans. It was about this time that Romney urged Detroit to go bankrupt and restructure. However, as I said, none of Romney's friends in the big banks were willing to lend the auto industry the kind of money they needed to restructure.

Obama favored restructuring too, but since Romney's venture capitalist buddies weren't interested in investing to save an industry that is the heartbeat of the Midwestern economy, President Obama stepped up to the plate. He put his political career on the line by advocating for government loans to save the auto industry. And he got those loans. But he also got a lot of criticism from Republicans like Romney and others. They called him a "socialist" for coming to the rescue of an industry that has allowed proud, blue-collar Americans to have a piece of the American, middle-class dream. 

And, now Mitt Romney thinks he can take credit for a plan that he not only opposed but said wouldn't work?!! That's the kind of audacity you expect from a ultra-rich guy who is so out-of-touch with blue-collar workers that he thinks they'll buy his re-writing of history. Blue-collar auto workers aren't stupid. They know who stood on their side when the chips were down, and it wasn't Mitt Romney!! Romney is so void of integrity that it leads one to wonder if the man has any core convictions, or if they were just accumulated along the way out of political expediency to spit out at opportune times. If someone from abroad asked me, "Who is Mitt Romney?" I could tell them about things he claims to be, but I honestly don't know if there is a real, Mitt Romney. I wonder if anyone knows, including Romney himself!! I'll leave you in the capable hands of the great Chris Matthews for the rest of this post. Here he is talking about Romney's "grand theft" of Obama's major economic accomplishment:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Traitor Comment Shows Romney Lacks Honor and Leadership Abilities.

In 2008, when Republican Senator John McCain ran for president, a women in the audience at a campaign stop stood up and told him that President Obama was an "Arab." She wasn't saying "Arab" in a positive tone. No, it seems that in her mind, all "Arabs" are terrorists. But, the war-hero John McCain stopped the woman and corrected her that Barack Obama is not an "Arab." McCain went on to say, "You do not have to be scared about [Obama] as President of the United States. He's a decent, family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign is all about."

Despite being a Liberal who voted for Obama, I admire John McCain greatly for putting country over party by defending what was right regardless if it helped him politically, He is an honorable and honest man who believes in this country rather than just getting ahead. He could have scored political points by doing nothing to discourage the women's fear of President Obama, but he has integrity.

Mitt Romney, however, is not an honorable man and has no integrity. At a recent campaign rally, a woman accused President Obama of treason!! Treason is one of the worst crimes an American can be accused of. It is to betray your country by actively attempting to overthrow the government and aid the enemies of America. It is punishable by death. With such a wild accusation you'd think Governor Romney would be honorable enough an opponent to President Obama to correct her wild accusations to the crowd. Well, you'd be wrong. Mitt Romney did and said nothing, and that silence betrayed his lack of leadership abilities.

Romney wants us to believe that he can lead all of us--all Americans, as President of the United States. Yet he's not even willing to make sure his opponent isn't smeared as a traitor??? It's a question of leadership, a real leader, such as John McCain would have made a point to correct the traitor comment while the crowd was gathered. It reckless to let that kind of lie fester in the minds of Americans because some are willing to believe it. And no presidential election should be decided by questioning a man's loyalty to his country!!

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