MooPig City Desk Department :: "Those Loathsome Republicans"

Self-loathing Seminars Available
Retrieved by Pat Darnell | Jan 20, 2013 | Bryan TX

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Obama won the popular vote with 65.9 million votes, or 51.1 percent, to Romney’s 60.9 million, or 47.2 percent, and won the Electoral College by a wide margin, 332-206 electoral votes.

There are other signs that Republican state legislators, governors and veteran political strategists are seriously considering making a shift, as the GOP looks to rebound from presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s Electoral College shellacking and the demographic changes that threaten the party’s long-term political prospects.  (HERE)

Among the motivational speakers invited to address the retreat is Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind man to climb Mt Everest and thus the perfect person to inspire Republicans as they grope their way towards the heights of government. (HERE)

Republicans Retreat To Reassess and Figure Out How to Talk to Negroes and People With Lady Parts | Common Dreams: "Republican lawmakers have gathered in Williamsburg, Virginia to consider their political past (not so rosy) and future (not so rosy either), discuss topics from the debt ceiling and gun control to how to game the electoral college, and attend seminars titled "What Happened and Where Are We Now?" (good question!) ...

"How Is America Changing?" and "Successful Communication with Minorities and Women" - the last held in the Burwell Plantation Room, so named for a fine old slave-owning family, and located in the tony Kingsmill Resort, site of another fine old slave plantation.

Presumably, breakout sessions will include do's and don'ts on nappy hair and how to distinguish from illegitimate, oh-really-it's-nothing rape and actual, maybe-this-is-not-so-okay rape-rape, which the three white men and two women on the panel can hopefully figure out."

'via Blog this'

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., who heads Republicans' campaign efforts, deflected a question regarding the irony of a panel trying to help the GOP woo minorities happening in a room named after a slave-owning family’s plantation.

"I don't pick the rooms we meet in," Walden said. "I know the Democrats have held their retreats here too and I assume you'll go and figure out if they ever held meetings in that same room."

When pressed on why there were three white men (half the group) on a panel regarding minority outreach Walden said, "Actually, I don't do this part of it, by the way, somebody can fill you in on all the names, but it is more than just three white guys on the panel, and it was filled out after that went to press."

Walden made known that minority outreach and recruiting minority House GOP candidates were a “top priority” and that the GOP had a “good message” for minorities but had suffered from a recent "bad communications." (Luke Russert and Frank Thorp, NBC News. 2 days ago. HERE)

[Picture LINK] ... The resort was once the Kingsmill Plantation.

Panels will take place in the resort’s “Burwell Plantation” room, named after the family that once owned the plantation. The luxury resort is now owned by billionaire Philip Anschutz, a conservative political donor.


___________________________Reference
http://www.commondreams.org/further/2013/01/18-5
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/17/16569649-gop-plans-focus-on-women-and-minority-outreach-at-retreat?lite
http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/18/gop-eyes-new-election-laws/
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/01/17/what_are_republicans_learning_at_their_retreat_anyway.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2013/jan/17/republicans-retreat-virginia-golf-resort
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/17/16569649-gop-plans-focus-on-women-and-minority-outreach-at-retreat?lite
http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/18/gop-eyes-new-election-laws/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2013/jan/17/republicans-retreat-virginia-golf-resort
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/01/17/what_are_republicans_learning_at_their_retreat_anyway.html

MooPig We Love Maps Department :: "Election maps"

The 2012 Election :: Maps to Gander
Retrieved by Pat Darnell  |  Dec 31, 2012  |  Bryan TX

[Map LINK] Blue is Obama, Red is Republican ...

Election maps: What can we learn from Maps? Cartography is not dead? Maybe. The captions from the web page say this:

" ... The explanation for this apparent paradox, as pointed out by many people, is that the map fails to take account of the population distribution. It fails to allow for the fact that the population of the red states is on average significantly lower than that of the blue ones. The blue may be small in area, but they represent a large number of voters, which is what matters in an election.

We can correct for this by making use of a cartogram, a map in which the sizes of states are rescaled according to their population (ibid.)... "

   'via Blog this'

As you can see, the states have been stretched and squashed, some of them substantially, to give them the appropriate sizes, though it's done in such a way as to preserve the general appearance of the map, so far as that's possible. On this map there is now clearly more blue than red.

__________________Reference
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2012/

MooPig's Fact-Checker Department :: "Harry Reid"

Public Record is not so Public, is it?!
Picked up by Pat Darnell  |  Nov 28, 2012  |  Bryan TX

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It doesn't matter now, Romney got shellacked in the election, but did he or did he not pay income taxes for ten years? I still would like to know how far old Mitt went in his money grubbing years with Bain Capital.

It looks like this is something a member of the citizenry of the USA is not meant to know. DRAT!

Another factchecking fiasco : CJR: "A week ago, The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein and Ryan Grim published an article repeating Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s claim that GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney hadn’t paid taxes for ten years. Though Reid provided no evidence other than hearsay about what he was told by an unnamed Bain investor (which HuffPost clarified in the ninth paragraph of the story), the story set in motion a controversy that exemplifies how partisans and ideologues exploit the structural weaknesses of journalism and factchecking." (Brendan Nyhan. Wednesday, November 28, 2012. LINK)

'via Blog this'


Read entire article HERE ...

The facts that would exonerate or validate the income tax dodge "went by way of misleading half-truths and strategically ambiguous language to promote agendas."

" ... No one, including Reid, has seriously contested the claim that his accusation is unsubstantiated. Instead, Romney opponents and critics of factchecking organizations have relied on a series of semantic maneuvers to try to change the issue. This approach has often been successful—in part, it seems, because the GOP nominee has breached a norm in not releasing more tax returns, creating an impression among reporters that he has something to hide. ... "

" ... The highest ranked Democrat in Congress, Reid is known more as a back room brawler than a public flamethrower. So his willingness to throw this private conversation into the media frenzy over Romney's taxes underscores the low opinion he has of the Republican candidate. (HUFF POST. 07/31/2012. LINK) ... "

BLIMEY!

___________________Reference
http://www.cjr.org/swing_states_project/another_fact-checking_fiasco.php?page=all
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/31/harry-reid-romney-taxes_n_1724027.html?view=print&comm_ref=false
http://www.rightspeak.net/2012/11/romney-and-obama-to-meet-in-white-house.html
http://www.newser.com/article/da2r2j9o0/white-house-obama-to-meet-privately-with-romney-on-thursday.html

MooPig Report from the Middle :: The Initials have been Changed to Protect the Innocent PART TWO

by Pat Darnell  |  June 13, 2012  |  Bryan TX

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Today, June 13th, is my older brother's birthday. We are both pain-in-the-ass June babies, seven years apart. The initials are changed to protect the innocent. Yes, we have brought on the pain over the years.

*

It so happens that a word in use has been spotted by the MooPig "Verses, Commentaries, Concordances Department." That word is "convoluted." It has been spotted used in many different places for the last year or so. What does convoluted mean?

Well it goes something like this: "

" ... Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked consideration of a Democratic bill to prevent the doubling of some student loan interest rates, leaving the legislation in limbo less than two months before rates on subsidized federal loans are set to shoot upward.
NOTE:
YES = vote to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling
NO = vote to allow student loan interest rates to double (See Poll Results HERE ) ... "

Is this a good thing or a bad thing -- WHO THE HELL KNOWS??!!!

A married couple trying to put two through college will see this as a slap in the face... since the student loan system has been the only way to put a kid in college of late. Suddenly, the convoluted government decides to let the interest rates double for some unwitting moms and dads? The loan programs have been around since the 60's...!

Convoluted: " ... highly complex or intricate and occasionally devious; "the Byzantine tax structure"; "Byzantine methods for holding on to his chairmanship"; "convoluted legal language"; "convoluted reasoning"; "the plot was too involved"; "a knotty problem"; "got his way by labyrinthine maneuvering"; "Oh, what a tangled web we weave"- Sir Walter Scott; "tortuous legal procedures"; "tortuous negotiations lasting for months" ... " (online dictionary. HERE)

Byzantine, eh?

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That's our Report from the Middle, where men are good looking, women are strong, and children are all above average ... not convoluted.

I WoTED.... Did You?

Endorsements :: Colorado Elections

We want Someone to Be One of Us .. Right?
by Pat Darnell

Who is the real insider? Who will lead us into the face of untruth; Why should you vote for me? i DON'T wear high heels.

This story is about partisans fighting for Colorado legislator. First heard on Public Radio last week, here is some follow up.

"I'm glad Jane wasn't offended,"

[SOURCE] ... Buck replied. "It wasn't meant in an offensive way."

Buck and Norton then left personal disputes largely untouched until late in the half-hour session, when they exchanged sharper words over which one of them can control a budget.

Asked whether voters can believe them on any subject, Norton leaped forward to say politicians should "do what you say you're going to do." She repeated that she cut the budget she controlled as head of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, while Buck's budget as Weld County prosecutor grew quickly.

"She continues to repeat those lines as if repeating them will make them true," said Buck, disputing Norton's figures on how much his department expanded. In the end, he said, "it was a good investment" because of steep reductions in Weld County crime. ..."  (King, Stephen; had absolutely nothing to do with this post)


MooPig moans: A debate that could have turned into a blast fest for us, just pooped into a regular pile of sun fresh election manure slinging. Shucks.

KABOBfest says "Thanks" to Gov Sarah Palin

And MooPig would like to say "Thank you" to Muslims for not eating either beef or pork.

Sunday, October 26, 2008 | Thank you Sarah Palin
By QuiQui [SOURCE]
Since we're on the topic of having to thank even the vile for coming to the defense of the Muslim faith...
One of the two VP candidates just said that religious discrimination is both inappropriate and unacceptable and that their party welcomes all Muslims. That candidate wasn't Joe Biden. And that party wasn't the Democrats.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
Sarah Palin Welcomes Muslims To Republican Party
[SOURCE] By Davin Hutchins on Oct 23, 2008


Amid a growing distrust among her conservative Christian supporters of anything Islamic, Sarah Palin goes on record stating emphatically that Republicans and the McCain-Palin ticket welcome all Muslims, adding "it is not acceptable in my book" to discriminate on the basis of religion. Her message of tolerance comes amid a growing tide of Islamophobia at McCain-Palin presidential rallies in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. How Christian fundamentalists interpret her remarks in the last days of the campaign is anyone's guess.