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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (682021)	10/31/2012 11:38:46 PM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1571935

flipflopper Now, a week before Election Day, after of a massive disaster, Romney's campaign is reassuring voters that his administration wouldn't leave disaster victims in the lurch. The public's attention is locked on the devastation caused by Sandy at a time when Romney and President Barack Obama are locked in a close presidential campaign. With Obama heavily involved in getting federal funds to those in trouble, the Romney campaign moved quickly to reassure the public it supports a strong program of storm relief. "I believe that FEMA plays a key role in working with states and localities to prepare for and respond to natural disasters," Romney said in a statement supplied by his campaign Wednesday. "As president, I will ensure FEMA has the funding it needs to fulfill its mission, while directing maximum resources to the first responders who work tirelessly to help those in need, because states and localities are in the best position to get aid to the individuals and communities affected by natural disasters." Wednesday's statement came after the candidate ducked a spate of opportunities Tuesday to personally clarify his position and the statement essentially endorsed the current disaster aid system. But what the campaign wouldn't do is say whether a President Romney would insist that help for disaster victims be funded by cutting other programs in the federal budget, as many conservative Republicans insist. Running mate Paul Ryan is squarely on the side of cutting other spending to pay for disasters. Earlier this year, he tried but failed to scrap a new system, established in the 2011 debt ceiling-deficit cuts deal, that boosts disaster spending and budgets help for victims of hurricanes, tornadoes and floods before they occur. House leaders rebuffed him, siding with Appropriations Committee members of both parties who like the new system.

To: tejek who wrote (682021)	10/31/2012 11:39:37 PM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1571935

Romney Versus the Automakers When General Motors tells a presidential campaign that it is engaging in “cynical campaign politics at its worst,” that’s a pretty good signal that the campaign has crossed a red line and ought to pull back. Not Mitt Romney’s campaign. Having broadcast an outrageously deceitful ad attacking the auto bailout, the campaign ignored the howls from carmakers and came back with more. Mr. Romney apparently plans to end his race as he began it: playing lowest-common-denominator politics, saying anything necessary to achieve power and blithely deceiving voters desperate for clarity and truth. This started months ago when he realized that his very public 2008 stance against the successful and wildly popular government bailout of G.M. and Chrysler was hurting him in the valuable states of Ohio and Michigan. In February, he wrote an essay for The Detroit News calling the bailout “crony capitalism on a grand scale” because unions benefited and insisting that Detroit would have been better off to refuse federal money. (This ignores the well-documented reality that there was no other cash available to the carmakers.) When that tactic didn’t work, he began insisting at the debates that his plan for Detroit wasn’t really that different from President Obama’s. (Except for the niggling detail of the $80 billion federal investment.) That was quickly discredited, so Mr. Romney began telling rallies last week that Chrysler was considering moving its production to China. Chrysler loudly denounced it as “fantasies,” saying it was only considering increasing production in China for sale in China, without moving a single American job. “I feel obliged to unambiguously restate our position: Jeep production will not be moved from the United States to China,” Chrysler’s chief executive, Sergio Marchionne, said in a statement. “Jeep assembly lines will remain in operation in the United States and will constitute the backbone of the brand. It is inaccurate to suggest anything different.” In fact, 1,100 new jobs will be added in Toledo to produce a new generation of Jeep. The Romney campaign ignored the company, following up with an instantly notorious ad saying President Obama “sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China.” If the false implication wasn’t clear enough, the campaign put out a radio ad on Tuesday saying “Barack Obama says he saved the auto industry. But for who? Ohio or China?” What happened, the ad asks, “to the promises made to autoworkers in Toledo and throughout Ohio?” What happened was that those promises were kept. Nearly 1.5 million people are working as a direct result of the bailout. Ohio’s unemployment rate is well below the national average. G.M.’s American sales continue to increase, and Chrysler said this week that its third-quarter net income rose 80 percent. These companies haven’t just bounced back from the bottom; they are accelerating. What Mr. Romney cannot admit is that all this is a direct result of the government investment he would have rejected. It’s bad enough to be wrong on the policy. It takes an especially dishonest candidate to simply turn up the volume on a lie and keep repeating it. By doing that in a flailing, last-minute grab for Ohio, Mr. Romney is providing a grim preview of what kind of president he would be.

To: tejek who wrote (682021)	11/1/2012 12:35:36 AM
From: i-node	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571935

>> Watch a real president deal with a disaster. More of a "mini-disaster" by Katrina & 9/11 standards. Recap of remarks with no substantive comment missing. Let me be sure acknowledge all the politicians here. Let's get that out of the way. Then, let me thank the first responders (after all, they do all the work). And our hearts go out to the people who lost loved ones. We're from the government and we're here to help. We're concerned about four states -- NJ, NY, CT, and WV. We did the same things Bush did before Katrina. We are making sure FEMA is going out and talking to people. People can register for emergency assistance. No problem. Just use your cell phone (not working) or Internet (not working). Our biggest priority is getting power turned on (which the electric utilities we have nothing to do with are handling). I talked to the CEOs of the utilities from all across the country (they, of course, had already sent crews to the area before the storm, but we had nothing to do with that). We can get C130s to move "assets", but none have done anything yet. We have a Navy ship. But it isn't doing anything yet because we haven't identified anything to use them for yet. And we want to make sure people can get to work. We talked about that but havent' done anything about it yet. And the sooner we get kids back into school, the better. We have a lot of work to do. We want to make sure people have realistic expectations. We will not quit 'til this is done. I've given orders to not have red tape. I've told my people to return phone calls. I've talked to some young people who are helping out. We go through tough times but we bounce back and "we don't leave anybody behind" (WHAT A FUCKING JOKE). Okay, so, for this, we're paying $400K/year?

To: tejek who wrote (682021)	11/1/2012 12:44:04 AM
From: joseffy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571935

Obama really looks bad in that photo. AIDS?

To: tejek who wrote (682021)	11/1/2012 2:17:27 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1571935

>> Watch a real president deal with a disaster. Imagine for just a minute, that instead of water a couple feet deep in these flooded areas, the waster was six or eight feet deep. Instead of people holed up in their homes, they've crawled into their attics as their house filled with water. Instead of having access to whatever food and water they had in the house, even such niceties and toilets that don't work, they were in their attics at 120 degrees or higher. The suffering is just inconceivable. Instead of people complaining about being stuck in their houses for three days, they were stuck in their ATTICs for three days. The "rescue" operations in NOLA were people walking around neighborhoods with a spray can: Today, when you drive around New Orleans neighborhoods, this symbol is a vivid and stark reminder of the scope of the tragedy there. We won't be seeing those in NJ. It just doesn't even begin to compare. Floods are horrible, even those in the NE now. But Humvees can drive around in NJ right now. In August 2005, Humvees couldn't drive past these houses because they were under water up to the roof.