The Beaglez

In Imperial Rome times, when a victorious leader entered the city in a Triumph (a type of parade), a slave was stationed inside the leader’s chariot, holding a laurel over his head and saying repeatedly, “Remember you are only a man.”   This was supposed to remind the honored one that the Emperor was still above him, and that he shouldn’t get big headed about his accomplishments.   If only Newt had someone in his group to remind him of that.  But, then again, that kind of humility would definitely not fit a candidate who talked about himself as President even when his staff quit and he was losing badly.

Saddest of all for poor Newt, the news of his early release video thanking his supporters was in the lower third of most news websites today, and his “grand exit” is being over-shadowed by the trip to Afghanistan, TV ad controversy, Romney’s dog problem, Romney’s gay staffer quitting problem, Romney’s female voter problem, and Romney’s swiss bank account problem.   Newt is already erasing from our minds, as we dismiss his inflated ego and overreaching claims to pay attention to the problem of the day.

Fare Thee Well, President Gingrich.  Whoever you were.

Posted in 2012 Election, campaign strategy, Candidate, MItt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Politics
Tags: Beagles, Beaglez, Newt ends candidacy, Newt Gingrich drops out, Romney Swiss Bank account, swiss bank account

The only thing more laughable than Jimmy Kimmel’s  “Pot smokers are a voting block” speech at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner (as if the Republican Party is going to usher in a new era of free love and high times), is the current war between the Romney and Obama campaigns on which candidate it more out of touch with modern Americans.   Of course they are out of touch! If we wanted a President who was in touch with what normal people like – We’d elect Survivor/Amazing Race producer Mark Burnett!

However, when it comes to smart moves, the GOP is currently winning the “farthest from getting it” award.  They continue to tout racist laws, have advanced over 400 pieces of legislation limiting the rights of women, and are in favor of doubling student loan interest rates, all the while stalling an economy that isn’t even providing college grads with jobs.  And what do they do for the white, male, older constituency they have left?  Promote the Ryan Budget that threatens to end Medicare and gut Social Security.    There’s no question Romney bought the nomination. But purchasing an electoral majority may be too pricey – even for him!

Posted in 2012 Election, Birth control, campaign strategy, Health Care, Ideas, Image, MItt Romney, Voting
Tags: Beagles, Beaglez, GOP war on women, Jimmy Kimmel Marijuana, Medical Marijuana, pot smokers, student loan interest

What’s wrong with Belle’s picture?  A BEAGLE sitting beside a bowl of food.  Beagles are natural chow-hounds, but Belle has always been kinda an odd dog, and she doesn’t pay attention to food.  What’s as weird as that? Poor people supporting the Paul Ryan Budget.  It guts almost every entitlement and kicks the money up to the 1%.

Ryan got a wake up call this week when Catholic Scholars from Georgetown wrote a public letter reprimanding him for saying it fit in with their ideas about what Jesus wants.  They made it clear that Christ as for helping the poor, not hurting them.  Now,  it’s one thing for Politico to fact check you – but when you get a letter from God’s people saying you’re messed up – that’s darn bad!!!

Still – it makes no sense to me that the Tea Party – who gets its numbers from a lot of poor, and less educated people – is backing up a bill that does nothing but encourage poverty, hunger and loss while giving kickbacks to the wealthiest people.   People can argue about Ayn Rand til the dogs come home – but the truth is – when you take food away from hungry people, you are NOT helping the nation.

Posted in Congress, Economy, GOP, Ideas, Misinformation, National Debt, Politics
Tags: Beaglez, Beagles, Paul Ryan Budget, Ayn Rand and Paul Ryan, House Budget guts poor

Again today the paper was full of half-endorsements and regrets about Mitt being the nominee.  The GOP is like a man who woke up in a Las Vegas hotel room to discover he is now married to a person he hardly knows and doesn’t like. But the ring is on the finger and there is nothing to do about.  Mostly, instead of supporting or endorsing Romney, the talk has turned to voting against Obama.  I’m seriously beginning to wonder if Romney can, in fact, win an election with the campaign slogan, “I’m not him”.  I’m also seriously wondering if we shouldn’t just draw straws for President.  Then at least no one would be buying the office and we wouldn’t be deciding our future by declaring what we don’t want, instead of getting a vision for what we do.

Posted in 2012 Election, campaign strategy, Candidate, GOP, MItt Romney, Obama, Voting
Tags: Beagles, Beaglez, Not wanting Mitt Romney, Voting against, Voting against Obama

There wasn’t much in the is news tonight that was new.  Some old GOP articles with people choking out halting endorsements of Romney, some new smutty details about the not-so-secret service, Bachmann said something stupid (really? that’s news?),  “Tea Party is ruining the party for the rest of us mentality”… all pretty standard.

Then at the bottom of a page I saw a news clip of a very uncomfortable interview with Eric Cantor and Politico’s Mike Allen.  Allen was trying to get Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in the House, to admit there was Anti-semitism in the House.  Cantor would not deny it, but he wouldn’t confirm it either.  Now, usually, I think of Eric Cantor as next in line for the “Dick Cheney- I need a heart and soul” award but I did respect his discipline to not turn on his party.  Still – the “Work to do” comment reminded me of how many times I’ve heard that phrase lately.

• Homophobia:  Work to do.
• Classism: Work to do.
• Racism, Ageism, Nationalism, Sexism… Work to do.

We have all this “Work to do” and yet NOTHING is getting done.  It seems equality and equality of respect might just be too much work for any one person or politician to achieve.  Seems like – there’s so much work to do – the only way to do it – is to work together.

______________________

* Cantor Quote  2012, Mike Allen Video

* President Obama quote, 2009, Howard University Commencement

* Diaspora Quote, 2011, Secretary Clinton’s Global Diaspora Conference,  Daniel Yohannes Address to the Secretary

Posted in Agenda, Communication, Eric Cantor, GOP, Media, Politics, World politics
Tags: Antisemitism, Beagles, Beaglez, Change in the US, Eric Cantor, poverty, Racism, Work to do

Homage to the great Walt Kelly whose Pogo comic strip spoke volumes to a generation and come up with Belle’s tag-line.  As for the War on Women – the GOP better figure this out.  They can claim Palin didn’t bring McCain out of the running all day – but I know of many conservative men and women who did not vote for McCain because they could not put Palin that close to power.  It’s gonna be the same after this election.  If Romney loses – there will be analyst after analyst saying “It was the women! The women voted for the other guy.”    The GOP needs to do some of that fuzzy math they are always blamed for, and figure out the more women they make angry – the more of a majority they are losing. (at least, in the popular vote).

Posted in 2012 Election, Abortion, Agenda, Birth control, campaign strategy, Economy, GOP, Image
Tags: abortion, Beagles, Beaglez, conservative men, contraception, GOP war on women, War on Women, women

And now for this week’s “Manufactured by the Media” crisis – its the Secret Service partying and visiting prostitutes before the President showed up on Columbia.  Representative Issa — fresh from his birth control hearing made of all men — has vowed to “get to the bottom” of this scandal.  Seriously?  Just fire them so they can become high priced security consultants and move on.  Don’t waste our time, effort and money chasing down the perverts – get done with it and move on to something important like the budget, unemployment or Iran weapons plans.   Worse things have happened. Worse secrets have been kept.  Let’s move on.

Posted in Administration, Bush Administration, Communication, Congress, Corruption, Media, Obama
Tags: Beagles, Beaglez, Bush torture memo, Rep Issa holds hearing, Secret Service Prostitutes, Secret Service Scandal, Secrets