National Coming Out day began in 1988 on the anniversary of 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. In the more than two decades since the first Day O’ Coming Out, the victories for equality have been small – the first gay characters and kiss on TV – and large – ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, California […]

It took some doing but Mitt’s just the man for the job!

Mitt Romney has been accused of flip-flopping on pretty much every single major policy position and issue that has been discussed in the presidential election. Abortion. Taxing the rich. Budget policy. Health insurance reform. Raising taxes on the middle class. You name a major issue and Mitt Romney has taken both sides at some point in the past decade.

What’s lost in this discussion is the fact that, by doing so, Mitt Romney hasn’t just appeased everyone. He’s also pissed off everyone. For every issue that is important to any particular group, he hasn’t just sided WITH you; he’s sided AGAINST you.

Much more after the jump.

Nothing new under the sun

When computer companies want to command headlines and freak out their competition into making bad decisions, they announce “vaporware”. Here’s the description from Wikipedia:

Vaporware is a term in the computer industry that describes a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is never actually released nor officially cancelled. Vaporware is also a term sometimes used to describe events that are announced or predicted, never officially cancelled, but never intended to happen. The term also generally applies to a product that is announced months or years before its release, and for which public development details are lacking… At times, vendors are criticized for intentionally producing vaporware in order to keep customers from switching to competitive products that offer more features.

This is the perfect description of Mitt Romney and the Republicans. Details and the media’s evisceration of Mitt Romney’s “major foreign policy speech” after the jump.

A Republican is a man who will let not truth get in the way of what he believes. If you were the Captain of the Hindenburg or the Titanic, you probably wouldn’t put that on your resume. But across the country on November 6, hundreds of candidates will put “Republican” next to their names on ballots. If your party blew […]

It’s all about the constitution…until it’s inconvenient

Republican State Representative Bill Rogers is pissed. He’s pissed because Ingham County judge ruled last week that a new law that he introduced is unconstitutional. The new law would have required members of a state employee pension fund to contribute 4 percent of their pay toward the fund, effectively reducing their wages.

Rogers is quoted in the Livingston County Press & Argus as saying, “What the courts are basically saying is, ‘Tough luck. Go bankrupt…How are we going to fix anything if that’s the way they’re going to treat it?”

Actually, Mr. Rogers, what the courts are “basically saying” is that you have to follow the law and the constitution and your anti-union law does neither.

Details after the jump.

If 99% of America showed up to vote, it wouldn’t matter what the 1% wanted. It’s important to remember that the Founders weren’t particularly interested in making voting a right available to all citizens. They knew the vote was so important that they employed the prejudices of their time to restrict to white male property owners. Sometimes it seems that […]

Ah. So THAT’S how it works.

As majority African American communities in Michigan are forced to live under the rule of unelected dictators, formerly called Emergency Managers and, now, once again called Emergency Financial Managers, efforts by two Republicans in the heart of Republican Livingston County are hoping to avoid the same fate for their own, mostly white, communities. Fiscal troubles that can be laid largely at the door of state legislators Cindy Denby and Bill Rogers would be conveniently remedied by a new law that Rogers and Denby co-sponsored. Even though these communities are in trouble due to fiscal mismanagement on the part of their government leaders, they, unlike Benton Harbor, Flint, Pontiac and other Michigan communities, would receive a state bailout, not a takeover of their town by a state-appointed dictator.

Details after the jump.

Dude, don’t you get dizzy?

Mitt Romney is out in the open telling two completely different stories about how he both WILL and WON’T lower taxes on America’s wealthiest citizens. He WILL, he says, because it will spur the economy. He WON’T, he says, because he’ll be closing some as-yet undisclosed loopholes.

Both sides of his face revealed after the jump.

What is it with Republicans and outsourcing of our jobs?

Republican Congressman Dan Benishek doesn’t just lock his constituents out of his office. He also supports the outsourcing of American jobs to foreign companies. The Communications Workers of America aren’t having it and are running radio ads encouraging people to fight back.

Listen to their radio spot after the jump.

Say, Mitt, when will these guys take personal responsibility & care about THEIR lives?

With Mitt Romney bloviating about how half the country are tax cheats that feel “entitled” to things like food and healthcare and housing, I got to thinking about who else in the USA doesn’t pay taxes. Then I remembered a report by the Citizens for Tax Justice (pdf) that came out earlier this year. It was a report that showed 26 Fortune 500 companies — PROFITABLE Fortune 500 companies, I should add — that paid no taxes or actually got a rebate every year since 2008.

Major rant after the jump.

What does it tell you when your Representative is afraid of talking to his constituents???

A group of senior citizens recently tried to visit the Gaylord office of their U.S. Representative, Dan Benishek, to talk to him about his vote to kill Medicare. When they got to the office, it was locked with the blinds drawn and instructions to press the buzzer and state the nature of their business. They were eventually allowed in, one at a time while the others were forced to stand in the hallway, and then only because there was a reporter present.

Video and more after the jump.