Archive: September, 2012
For they shall inherit the earth, as soon as their GOP buddies repeal "the death tax." Seriously, this is a GREAT article from an unlikely source, in the business section of the Washington Post:
I am the misunderstood superhero of American capitalism, single-handedly creating wealth and prosperity despite all the obstacles put in my way by employees, government and the media.
So Romney is flying tonight on a plane -- having more fun sleeping over in Philly before a day of events tomorrow. There's a fundraiser at the Union League, which is just the setting to dispel the notion that he's the candidate of the 1 Percent. He also comes out to (barely) Delaware County, where he speaks at the Valley Forge Military Academy. The hard-discipline school -- which educated some kids of the Chicago mob in the 1960s, true story -- is apparently also a favorite stop for Republican candidates. In fact, it was there at VMFA in 2000, when I was the Daily News political writer and we actually went to stuff, that I "confronted" Dick Cheney face to face.
Now anyone who's been reading Attytood for the last 7-and-a-half years (or it's long forgotten "pilot" episode, called "Campaign Extra!" with an exclamation point) knows that Cheney is the bete noir of the blog, pure evil rendered into human form, walking among us lowly mortals. So you can imagine the hard-hitting questions I asked the GOP vice presidential candidate as we sat around a small table -- Cheney, his wife Lynne and a small gaggle of local reporters -- and gazed out at the football field and the late summer foliage.
On a regular basis, Attytood has taken President Obama to task for his drone warfare policies in South Asia that have killed scores of innocent civilians and in all likelihood inspired a new generation of anti-Americanism abroad. Should that be grounds for denying the president a second term? Well, there'd have to be a better, viable alternative.
You can tell the level of desperation on Team GOP by checking out what's on top of the Drudge Report every day. In today's edition, Mitt Romney's election chances skyrocket after an unhinged lady in Cleveland insists President Obama gave her a phone:
UPDATE: The truth about the Obama phone. (Spoiler alert: It's a Bush/Reagan phone.)
The buzz over Pennsylvania's planned execution of Philadelphia admitted killer Terrence Williams just keeps getting louder and louder. Tonight I saw this form from the Pennsylvania ACLUthat can let you plead for Williams' life to the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons (I guess Tom Corbett is a lost cause) and I imagine you'll see a lot more as Williams' date with state-sponsored death grows closer. It's been a couple of generations since someone in Pennsylvania who didn't want to die was executed, which is one reason why this is such a big deal even as down in the Deep South they scour to globe to get enough lethal injection drugs.
The legal back-and-forthhas basically centered on the issue of whether Williams was sexually abused by the two men he killed, a big-time mitigating factor that -- to a lot of observers -- is a powerful reason to block the execution. That said, I've found the counter-argument -- that the extent and viciousness of Williams' crimes went way beyond a crime of passion, and that most sexual-abuse victims don't kill their attackers (note: Jerry Sandusky is still alive) to be a strong case for the other side.
Speaking of pro football, did you ever watch the second half of a four-touchdown blowout, or a 10-0 game in baseball? You know, when the announcers start having long conversations about the steakhouse they ate dinner at, or some great old political player from 1953? What are an army of political commentators going to talk about between now and November? That time they got whomped upside the head back in Chicago in '68? Too bad they don't have September call-ups in politics -- it would be good to see if Chris Christie or Andrew Cuomo can hit a major-league curveball before they get a shot at playing every day next season, which is 2016.
What I'm trying to say is, it's over, people. The new swing-state polls that came out this morning are devastating for Mitt Romney, the political equivalent of fumbling on the 1-yeard-line and giving up a 90-yard touchdown on the last play of the half (like that could ever happen). The GOP is going to need a Miracle of the Meadowlands II-type event (like, a Spanish Civil War II...hey, could happen) to retake the White House.
We may not have the replacement referees to kick around for much longer, according to a report by Chris Mortensen of ESPN. The officiating debacle that marred the latest edition of "Monday Night Football" has reportedly brought the NFL and the NFLRA back to the bargaining table with renewed urgency.
To every football fan out there who watched in shock and the opposite of awe Monday night as replacement refs stole a game from the Green Bay Packers even after the Seattle Seahawks' Golden Tate failed to steal the football in the end zone, who set Twitter on fire after the blown call and vowed to boycott both NFL Commission Roger Goodell and his local bookie, who groans as a never-ending pasta bowl of "booth reviews" drags afternoon games into prime time and who wants their state lawmaker or President Obama or some higher power to ban scab officials, for the sake of the Republic, I ask only one thing:
President Obama's "dead innocents":
A new report published by the international law clinics at New York University and Stanford grapples with dead innocents. But it also highlights interviews with people living through the drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas. They are human reminders that America's drone campaign affects not only those hit by missiles, whether rightly or wrongly, but also innocents all around them.
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