I have a few questions (rhetorical and otherwise):
• OK, ‘fess up: Who thought it was a good idea to run Gabby Saucedo Mercer against Raúl Grijalva? Somebody high up in the Republican Party had to have had a “fight fire with fire” moment, and then others had to have agreed.
She’s H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E!
• A lot was made of the numbers thrown around during the first presidential debate, most of which were false. For example, Mitt Romney claimed that 50 percent of all “green energy” companies that received government funding went bust when, in fact, the percentage is in the single-digits. (For some wacky reason, Barack Obama decided not to challenge that.)
But the number that struck me most was when Mitt Romney said, “I’ve been in business for 25 years.”
Dude, you’re 65 years old. What happened to the other 40 years? We’ll give you 25 years to account for all the schoolin’ and begattin’ in the early days. Then you were governor for four years, and you spent a couple of years with the Salt Lake City Olympics (which is generous, since records show you were still handling your bidness and reaping the benefits). That still leaves almost a decade missing.
Some on your side might argue that you’ve been running for president for a while, but you made $14 million last year. That had to have come from business. Certainly, you’re not in the hands-on, fun end where you get to fire people and ship jobs overseas, but you’re still in business. Besides, your running mate, Paul Ryan, constantly refers to you as a businessman.
If you can’t get the small numbers right, how do you expect us to believe that you’ll be able to handle the large numbers?
Oh, another thing: I’ve heard both Romney and his wife crow about the fact that he didn’t accept the money he inherited from his millionaire father.
However, his father paid for Mitt’s exclusive boarding-school education, Mitt’s college education and Mitt’s law-school education, and he bought the newlyweds a house! Other than that, Romney didn’t accept money from his father.
Actually, that seems rather petty. I mean, who among us did not have our first house bought for us by our parents?
• I recently saw these headlines: “Texting, Smoking Woman Falls Off 60-Foot Cliff.” “Ohio Woman Killed by Falling Llama.” “Man Wins Roach-Eating Contest, Dies.”
Who can read those and not ascribe to Darwin’s natural selection?
• Will somebody please correct University of Arizona football coach Rich Rodriguez’s grammar in that TV commercial for the bank?
I’m a big fan of what Rodriguez has done with the Wildcats program, even after watching Arizona blow that late-game, 14-point lead against nationally ranked Stanford. But that commercial drives me nuts! He’s walking down the street and saying something to the effect of, “When you move to a new city, you need someone you can count on.” Then he says (and I quote) “For my family and I, that’s … (some bank).” I can’t really tell you the name of the bank, because after he says, “For my family and I … ,” I just hear screaming in my head.
Please tell him that the rule of thumb is that you take out the words “my family” and then go from there. He wouldn’t say “for I”; he would say “for me.” This is important. He’s a leader of young men, and then there is that omnipresent stereotype of some football players not speeching good.
• Exactly how low can someone go? Dinesh D’Souza, who recently became a very rich man by making a “fear the Negro” documentary called 2016: Obama’s America, now has a book out in which he scrapes the bottom by slut-ifying President Obama’s long-dead mother. D’Souza writes, “Ann’s sexual adventuring may seem a little surprising in view of the fact that she was a large woman who kept getting larger.”
Really?! What a jackass!
• I have another question for Mitt Romney, one that really needs to be asked by someone before the election: How can somebody who is separated by one generation from polygamy dare to come out against same-sex marriage?
It seems rather hypocritical to me; they’re both outside of what many consider to be the mainstream, and I’m sure there are a whole lot of people who would find polygamy way more offensive than same-sex marriage.
I’m a lifelong Catholic, just like Joe Biden and that department-store mannequin he debated last week. But my marriage to my wife isn’t threatened by what other adults do. On this matter, I swerve way over into extreme libertarianism. If consenting adults want to enter freely into nontraditional arrangements, including plural- and same-sex marriages, I really don’t care.
(Let’s be clear here: What is going on in places like Colorado City does not involve consenting adults and is, therefore, institutionalized child abuse.)
Mitt Romney has received a pass from the media concerning his religion, which is the way it should be. But his stance on same-sex marriage represents the height of hypocrisy and deserves to be addressed.
This article appears in Oct 18-24, 2012.
The coach is not paid for his grammar but if he were then he might point out that “ascribe” in the previous sentence is a transitive verb.
Mark Stegeman corrects Tom’s grammar! I love it and he earns my vote!
How sad that Tom falls into the real garbage of political analysis by liberals. If you don’t like what you hear, call it racist. I watched 2016 on dvd last night and found d’Souza’s analysis very thoughtful and troubling. The only question one has to ask about that film is whether it is appropriate for anyone to attempt to analyze another’s motives for their actions. Liberals do it all the time.
So Tom, you are upset that someone would have the audacity to make critical comments about Obama’s mamma, but prior to that you knock Romney’s father for being rich.
I guess it is always OK to be envious of the wealthy.
George Romney was a good man. He lost his shot at the Presidency by speaking out against the Vietnam War and he was willing to quit his religion over the issue of civil rights (of which he was a strong proponent). I didn’t knock George Romney for being rich; he earned his money. And I don’t dislike rich people. I dislike greedy people.
Oh yeah, one other thing. Whoever wrote and/or directed the commercial should have fixed the grammar. Rodriguez is busy fixing the football program.
Well, fundamentalist Christians/Obama haters, it looks like your exalted author and brilliant movie director had to slink away from his job in disgrace after his fellow fundamentalists discovered that he was bumping uglies with a women who was not his wife and had stayed with her in a hotel room while attending an event espousing your Christian values. It also seems that he has been spending the last few months pimping his celluloid opus instead of tending to his duties as a college president. I just love it when you suckers get taken in by a sanctimonious con man who knows how to push your fundamentalist buttons. P.T. Barnum was right and you are the proof.
It’s easy to sling ‘Horrible’ at things you don’t like, and ask questions only about one side you don’t like (totally ignoring the other side). I don’t like your journalism-it’s horrible. That’s why you’re at a weekly in Tucson AZ.
While George Romney may have threatened to “quit his religion”–Willard has always wholeheartedly embraced it; although it seems to be “untouchable” when speaking to the press or during debates. Could it be that there are substantial portions they prefer to keep “hidden?” Every Mormon is expected to find & embrace their “Calling” as young as they can. While girls are pushed to “Callings” of home & family; the men are given power and status. In fact, Mormonism is even more patriarchal than Catholicism. There are 12 “Living Apostles” that Willard is beholden to. Their “Savior” rules his own planet and exists in human form as a 6’2″ while male. At death, each man gets his own planet…I’m not kidding! Check for yourself. Seriously, if you’re considering a vote for Romney, you should check the facts.
I sent Vantage West credit union a message telling them to correct RichRod’s grammar!!
Gabby Mercer is awesome. Not articulate, since English is her second language. I’ll take her honesty over Grijalva’s duplicity any day. Grammatical and typographical errors intended as stated.
p.s. I do enjoy Mr. Danehy’s columns; otherwise I would not have read this one.
Tom, you ask ” exactly how low can someone go ?” Allow me to answer. How about as president of the United States getting your knob polished in the Oval Office by an intern young enough to be your daughter ? Then looking the American people in the eye and denying it ? Hmmmmm ?
How low? How about invading a country that had not attacked you and had nothing to do with 9/11 while speciously claiming WMDs while ignoring the proof that they weren’t there? Billy boy got a blow job and lied about it, Georgie invaded a country killing thousands of young Americans, wounding tens of thousands of Americans and killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians. You’re mad about a blow job and a stupid lie? Obviously your priorities are on track.
I find it amusing, and sad, that so many people cannot distinguish between an op-ed piece and a story. The former is someone spewing forth their opinion (hence its location in the Opinion section) and the latter is a researched bit of journalism that may or may not have both sides of the story. I say may or may not because sometimes the “other side” refuses to be interviewed and the journalist is left with trying to determine what their side is. People like Miller and Mercer can’t substantiate their inanity and so they curl up into a little ball (like Miller) or spew forth such shameful rhetoric as to be deemed “bat shit crazy”.
The Senate and the House approved Georgie’s request to invade Iraq by votes of 77-23 and 296-133 respectively. Without their approval it never would have happened. Take a Civics class, Chump ! I don’t care who blew Honest Bill. It’s when he gets caught and lies to the whole country that I get pissed. Speaking of priorities, my buddy Tom gets all upset when some guy writes something about Obummer’s mom when there’s so much other stuff to opine on.
regardless of approval, congressional or otherwise, my point remains valid. the fact that bush said he wanted a war with iraq (even before 9/11) and his cronies made it happen is the despicable low part. all presidents have lied to the american people. bill’s blow job didn’t get thousands of americans killed, tens of thousands wounded and it didn’t get hundreds of thousands of iraqi citizens murdered; bush’s did.
I rest my case. Why I’m a proud conservative. Bush ( with a capital B) told you he wanted a war with Iraq ( with a capital I) Nice to be in the in crowd. I guess all the Democrats who voted for the war were secretly Republicans. You’re too easy to defeat. Tom, are you going to teach this numbnut some grammar lessons like you do with me? For example, their called CAPITAL letters. Too easy. C’mon Tom, don’t let me down.
i’m sure you meant ‘they’re’ not ‘their’, since your a grammar nazi, i’m sure you new that already. that being said, el generalissimo busho made his intentions very clear early on. it’s documented, i’m sure someone with your superior intelligence could pick it up. as I said before, approval notwithstanding my point remains valid.
Poor Mitt and Ann had to sell stock so they could not work while they went to college. They ate canned tuna. Such hardships.
Romney told 27 lies in 38 minutes in the first debate. In the second one he told 31 lies in 41 minutes. And that doesn’t bother anyone?
Bring up Clinton’s blowjob and lying about it all you want. It doesn’t make any of Romney’s lies truthful.
Mary, welcome to the Weekly’s on-line edition. Another liberal to use as a punching bag. Where did you get these bits of wisdom? Debbie Blabber Schultz? Stick around. You’re gonna be fun !! Take a hit off your bong for me.
Well, ‘know-it-all’ neoconservatives are fun to play with; you’re so cute with your righteous indignation and inability to see past your rigidly programmed non-thought soundbite talking points.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Rigidly programmed non-thought soundbite talking points. A.K.A. FACTS. What’s that T-shirt the kids wear? It must suck to be you.
“He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999,” Herskowitz told me in our 2004 interview, leaning in a little to make sure I could hear him properly. “It was on his mind. He said to me: ‘One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander in chief.’ And he said, ‘My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait, and he wasted it.’ He said, ‘If I have a chance to invade . . . if I had that much capital, I’m not going to waste it. I’m going to get everything passed that I want to get passed, and I’m going to have a successful presidency.’ ” -Interview of Mickey Herskowitz, a Texas journalist who was George W. Bush’s co-author on a preliminary version of the latter’s 2000 book A Charge to Keep. You’re entitled to your opinion, but the facts are on my side this time.
Here’s the punchline, courtesy of the National Security Archive summary:
At this point, the weight of evidence supports an observation made in April 2002 by members of the covert Iraq Operations Group – Iraq “regime change” was already on Bush’s agenda when he took office in January 2001. (Note 33) September 11 was not the motivation for the U.S. invasion of Iraq – it was a distraction from it.
Because Mickey Herskowitz said it that makes it a fact. Dreams is a good name for you. It’s all you do. You wouldn’t know a fact if it bent you over and…….
i figured you’d say as much, that’s why i added the NSA summary. again, you’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts. i’d rather be a dreamer than ignorant of reality. i harbor no such illusion as to think we’re not constantly lied to by our elected officials. the difference, one of many i imagine, is that i keep moving on-you seem stuck in 1998.
Oh, Mickey Herskowitz said so. Now that changes everything. I’m starting to think you’re putting me on. That or you have serious mental issues. Mickey Herkowitz. Of course, of course.
mmmm, i see the facts got your tongue-tied. another ad hominem attack mayhaps?
Want facts ? Somehow, someway 82 Democrat members of the House and 29 Democrat Senators felt that Bush was right to see Iraq as a potental threat and war against them was necessary.
Mayhaps ??
Did your mother have any kids that lived ?
I never disputed that people were duped into agreeing with the warmongering, warmongering is in our blood. We like to kill brown, yellow, black, red and white people and it gets politicians votes. We’ve got an industry, a very profitable industry, focused specifically on finding wonderful new ways of killing people. The evidence that Bush produced was manufactured to make Iraq appear to be a threat, they weren’t a threat to us. Bush, before gaining office, was already developing a plan to make the Iraq war happen. It cost us trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives. My original statement is true, Bush’s crime of manufacturing the Iraq war is lower than Bill Clinton getting a blowjob and lying about it. Obfuscate all you want, I’m still right. Changing the subject and personal attacks don’t change THAT fact. You are not a conservative, you are a NEOconservative, there is a big difference. You should probably spend more time educating yourself about the differences because you’re giving actual conservatives a bad name.
Nobody with one tenth of a brain wants war. However, if the colonists didn’t bear arms against the British ( another right I’m sure your against) You and I wouldn’t have the freedom to rag on each other. If we didn’t get involved in W.W. 2 God only knows what kind of world we would be living in today. I wasn’t the biggest Bush fan, but I’ll take him over Hitler’s offspring. I came this close to going to Nam. Would I have? Sure. Did I agree with the war ? Hell, no. Call me what you please, I find most of it amusing. From here out we’ll agree to disagree. I’m just curious what your hang up with blow jobs is. You should try one. Recieving that is !!!!!
As far as educating goes. I notice you had all kinds of numbers to back up your arguments.
Then I guess Bush, Rumsfeld, and Cheney all have less than 0.10 a brain-chicken hawks usually do. I own 5 firearms, 3 long guns and 2 handguns. We were attacked, WWII was inevitable (some people voted to keep us out of it, but it’s what helped save our economy); Iraq didn’t attack us and was never a threat, it helped ruin our standing in the world and added 1,000,000,000,000’s to our deficit. You’re trolling pretty hard there, stay on task-you’re the one with a self-professed blow job issue. You’re the one arguing that Clinton getting a blowjob and lying about it is morally lower than Bush lying about Iraq and 3000+ Americans dying and another 30,000+ being wounded (many of them with TBI) and 500,000+ Iraqi citizens murdered. Did I successfully use my numbers correctly? I know it can be tough to understand them when they’re spelled out instead of written as numerals. Words win in the end my friend, and your animus towards me proves the point.