Things to Know - 13 September

I will be taking a 2-week vacation after this issue.   I will have my iPad on the road, but putting this together requires an iMac work station.

I may find a zinger to send out now and then, but chances area slim, but not as slim as Mitt's.

1.  The attack in Libya that resulted in the loss of life of our Ambassador and staff were the result of extremist thugs, hiding behind and using a mob protest against the United States.  Speculation is that the mobs were reacting to an anti-Islam You Tube video, and the thugs were avenging the loss of an Al Qaeda operative.  The government of Libya condemns the action.   However, as has been said before, the action by Mitt Romney and his camp to take advantage by criticizing Obama for his response, is a demonstration that Romney is desperate in his quest for the presidency.  Not satisfied by showing his foreign policy inexperience, and his lack of diplomacy, Mitt fires from the hip in a very craven fashion.  For this, he is receiving well-deserved blowback from the media, and other knowledgable people.  Romney seems to be tone-deaf and disconnected from the real world:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/12/mitt-romney-libya-egypt-media-reactions_n_1877266.html?utm_campaign=091212&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-media&utm_content=FullStory

2.  Romney has an energy plan.  Yes, he does.  Well, not exactly his.  You see, he does not know mitt about fossil fuels and renewable resources, but he does know that if he can get a bunch of campaign money from the oil barons that they can write an energy policy for him.  Easy money...."you write it and pay for it, and I buy it".  Just as Cheney had his secret energy meeting after he took office early in this century, Big Energy wrote out what they wanted, and then they paid big time for Bush to run with it.  Romney is doing the same thing, only he has no idea what it is all about:

http://www.nationalmemo.com/romneys-hamm-handed-energy-policy/2/

3.  Thom Hartmann on other news.  Yes, there is other news:

http://truth-out.org/news/item/11499-on-the-news-with-thom-hartmann-the-fukushima-crisis-is-prompting-the-japanese-government-to-rid-the-nation-of-nuclear-power-and-more

4.   Here's a sampling of the TV media reacting to Romney's attempt to politicize on the deaths in the attack on the US Ambassador and his staff:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/12/chuck-todd-romney-outrageous-and-irresponsible-for-politicizing-u-s-deaths-in-libya/

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2012/09/12/journalists-freak-out-romney-condemns-obamas-handling-libya

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/09/when_you_learn_theyre_not_ready.php?ref=fpblg

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-mitt-romneys-bucket-brigade/2012/09/12/1aa4fde0-fd2c-11e1-8adc-499661afe377_story.html?hpid=z2

That's enough for now.  I think you get the drift.

5.  EJ Dionne has an interesting presentation of the good old days and where we are now, and a glimpse of the future.  If you are in my age demographic, you probably get consumed by our peers who have gained enough basic computer skills that they are forever sending digital vignettes of the music, culture, and mindset of the 50's and early 60's about how those were really the good times.  They never take into consideration that there really was a lot of crappy music, unsafe automobiles, dumb RV programming, and civil unrest and racial discrimination, for example.  In politics, it is the same situation - our two parties try and cherry pick what was great and how we need to return, and how much better and simpler things were back then.  EJ runs the same study on the political nostalgia for us:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ej-dionne-jr-the-new-politics-of-nostalgia/2012/09/12/d134b5e6-fd04-11e1-b153-218509a954e1_print.html

6.  Gail Collins puts the op-ed commentary on Mitt Romney's latest foreign policy debacle.  I am sure that more columns like this will be popping up over the next few days.  The only sad thing about all of this is that he was able to convince enough people to nominate him as their standard bearer.  There seems to be a sense that Willard is really trying hard to fail.  Only an idiot with an unlikable factor as big as his, an embarrassing cargo hold of baggage of secret finances and tax returns, and a demonstrable display of dysfunctional awareness would do such a thing.   He's told us that he is a smart business man, which we are finding out means that he's really a slick card shark when it comes to gaming the IRS tax code.  I get the feeling that he is really not big enough, so it is possible to fail:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/opinion/collins-mitts-major-meltdown.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print 

7.  The repeal of "Obama Care" would be a disaster.  Ideas to take drop those who are are now being covered, and those who will be covered would spell a financial and economic disaster for many who are just barely able to get by, but who now have access to health care:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/opinion/fewer-uninsured-people.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

8.  California has not been a leader in abolishing the death penalty.  Others have already taken that action, and its not an issue there any more.  The arguments to keep capitol punishment in place don't wash well for several reasons, and those were argued, and have been shown to be old and tired arguments.   In these cash-strapped times, people are now focusing on how much it actually costs.  Just to ask a jury and judge to find someone guilty and to be put to death costs so much more than to just lock 'em up with no chance of parole.  The constant litigation that goes on while on death row, adds more costs.   Getting over the "kill 'em" mind set can change to life in prison very fast when all the costs are laid out.  California's Proposition 34 would do away with it:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cap-death-penalty-20120913,0,4773928,print.column 

--
Juan

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, but raptors are pretty dang scary. " 
       -- Devin J. Monroe

"Ever heard Victoria's REAL secret? Too much support hurts." 
       -- R. Stevens

"Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything." 
       -- Sydney Smith

"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." 
       -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age." 
       -- Lucille Ball