Romney on Putin

Mitt Romney called the choice “disgusting”(see below), yet Time Magazine defends its choice of Vladimir Putin as Person of the Year, “TIME’s Person of the Year is not and never has been an honor. It is not an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest. At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and force shaping that world—for better or for worse.”

Yet I am not sure if it is the Person of the Year, or the statement by Mitt Romney is the news story here. According to the PEW Research Center Putin has wide support in his own country. Of course, most people in the west have a hard time with the policies of Putin, for good reason. But is Romney’s comment burning bridges before he would ever be able to set fourth any policy (will people want him to be the person to set policy?). Of course Romney is adapting Bush’s foreign policy, which means that he can spit at foreign leaders in the media then pat their backs and say good job, but . . . . Yet they (most likely the right-wing) will go and keep quiet about black sites and then preach about an external threat which holds down the people in this country. If Romney is trying to adapt and take on the Bush policies, G-d help us. Russia is not the only thing we would be the least of the problems when dealing with foreign policy.

Romney said on the Glenn Beck Show:

“You know, he imprisoned his political opponents. There have been a number of highly suspicious murders,” Romney said on Beck’s radio show. “He has squelched public dissent and free press. And to suggest that someone like that is the Man of the Year is really disgusting. I’m just appalled.”

Yet I wouldn’t doubt that Romney has read End of America by Naomi Wolf. I think he should.

Have You Heard?

Mike Huckabee loves Jesus. And for that reason he wants your vote. I have been reading and watching interviews, I find little else going for him other than his religion. Which I believe should be a non-issue. Yet, complete infused with the five page Newsweek article that I read and in ever interview and his own campaign ads, it is his only quality and issue that seems to come up. Is this just the media’s portrayal or specifically something that Huckabee wants to make an issue? I should say, I don’t live in Iowa, or a critical state that presidential candidates care for. Yet, this aura come out, that the media is falling for his pandering to the evangelical vote, which seems like the only vote he could pander for.

His is a social conservative, but not fiscally conservative. He is for social programs that help the poor and is a republican that is in favor of raising taxes for this purpose, which blows off the second half of the republican base, the wealthier fiscally conservative base.

Huckabee has never been wealthy, which can be a good thing to an Iowa or South Carolina voter, but not having money in a presidential campaign is an issue. Where is he going to get money and are the types of people he is trying to appeal to the type to give to politicians?

What really matters is Jesus. As with the new campaign ad:

But don’t fret, get a more balanced opinion and interview with Charlie Rose, or at least part of it:

Find the whole of the interview at: http://www.charlierose.com/features/charlie-rose-special-edition—the-candidates

Blogging The End of America

No No, this is not a rapture report or a blog about the state of a politicians lapel pin, but a look into the Nonfiction book by Naomi Wolf. Though I have to be honest, I believe I’ll have Mussolini filled nightmares. Or Hitler nightmares. Or Bush and Pinochet nightmares. I think this is possible since I saw a large pendulum with a dictators face on it just after reading the introduction last night. I am strong, I will survive.

The pendulum and an introduction to what Wolf believes are the ten steps to fascism is what inundated the intro. Here are two lines that got me:

“There are ten steps that are taken in order to close down a democracy or crush a prodemocratic movement, whether by capitalists, communists, or right-wing fascists . . . Impossible as it may seem, we are seeing each of these ten steps taking hold in United States today.”(11)

“The pendulum cannot work now as it has before. There are now two major differences between these past examples of the pendulum’s motion and the situation we face today . . .previous wars and emergencies have had endpoints. But President bush has defined the current conflict with global terrorism as bing open-ended. This is a permanent alteration of the constitutional landscape.”(13)

Of course this is all steeped in history, to understand why the pendulum has worked before you have to understand the history of our country and the times when other Presidents have tried to do things that are against the constitution or against the patriot, but usually they have corrected themselves. Hence the idea of the pendulum, then and now. Wolf lays out many of the bask historical events that shows the pendulum swinging back. Of course now, this is not so.

There is so much going on, that it is a cry to do something and stand up as patriots against torture, unlawful defense contractors, and against those who perpetuate fear on a continual bases.

Read history, understand our nations founding and what the constitution really says, not what White House lawyers tell us and to see that our civil liberties are fragile entity.

Lastly, I will leave you will a least a little smile, Naomi Wolf on The Colbert Report: