Looking back, not FORWARD

By now you’ve surely heard about, if not watched, Clint Eastwood’s tragic self-embarrassment at the Republican National Convention last night. It was painful to watch. “Cringe-inducing” comes to mind. As does somewhat guilty LOLing.

The best response we saw came from Rachel Maddow. When MSNBC cut back to her after Eastwood’s “performance”, she was uncharacteristically speechless, stammering and clearly not processing what she had just seen. Much like the rest of us.

After I DID process it, which took a good night’s sleep, I realized what a perfect metaphor this was for the Republican Party and for the Romney/Ryan ticket.

Video and commentary after the jump.

Welcome aboard, media friends

Yesterday, Greg Sargent at The Plum Line wrote a terrific piece titled “Call out the lies right in your headlines”. He, as well as others, are ratcheting up the call for our main media sources to start calling what Mitt Romney and his campaign are doing: blatantly lying. Making things up and then repeating them over and over again despite being debunked and fact-checked as false Pinocchios with their pants on fire.

It’s starting to work. Proof — lots and lots and lots of proof — after the jump.

You SURE you want that message?

Last night at the Republican Convention in Tampa, multiple speakers got up to tell us how much America sucks right now. Despite an economy that is recovering, they stood under a giant debt clock and declared “We built this”. It’s an odd message, given how responsible Republicans are FOR that national debt.

Yeah, you built that. Proof and much more commentary after the jump.

We ALL approve this message

A new video out from the group We Approve This Message does an amazing job of showing how there used to be great Republican leaders, even presidents, who looked out for the interests of America and Americans. And how that is no longer true.

The video is one of the most powerful pieces I’ve seen in a long time and features an image by Eclectablog’s very own Anne C. Savage.

Video and more after the jump.

Wait. You thought they’d let you vote?

Since the turn of the century, Republicans in power have recognized two things: hardcore religious and socially super-conservative white people could be a major voting bloc for them and they could NEVER let these people have any power of their own. So, each election cycle, they would trot out the “guns, God, and gays” fear machine to stoke up fear and anger and resentment and then channel that into heavy turnout at the polls for their candidate. This is, largely, how George W. Bush got elected. The issues of abortion, gun control, affirmative action, and gay marriage were useful tools for making this group of people useful tools.

Over time, that demographic has shifted into what’s now called the tea party and their patron saint is Ron Paul. More organized than before, this group is even more powerful (as we saw from the 2010 election) and the Republican Party machine knows this. That’s why they have gone to extraordinary lengths to strip Paul supporters of any significant role at the RNC Convention this week and have sent his remaining delegates to the nosebleed seats in the convention center.

Much more after the jump.

Workers and progressives unite!

Worker’s rights group Workers’ Voice is spearheading a massive grassroots effort to defeat Republicans, teaming up with another progressive force of nature, MoveOn.org:

On the weekend before the Republican National Convention, working families will kick off the national 2012 grassroots canvasses across the country to talk to their friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers about the radical Romney/Ryan agenda that will outsource jobs, end Medicare and raise taxes on middle class families to give tax cuts to millionaires…

Much more after the jump.

Aw, geez…

Wow. Even Republicans have to be flinching when their Number One Two on the ticket resorts to going full Palin on them. But that’s what Paul Ryan did on the campaign trail yesterday.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney and the Republicans continue to lie their asses off as if nobody is watching or cares.

Follow me over the jump.

Shameless shilling for their corporate benefactors

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has been around for 37 years. They are listed as a charitable organization, a 501(c)(3), and yet their entire goal in life is help pass laws around the country that favor corporations and wealthy individuals while harming their political enemies. Their model legislative bills are aimed at destroying unions, expanding voter suppression, restricting women’s access to abortion services, imposing harsh anti-immigrant rules, weakening gun control and expanding “stand your ground” laws, and limiting corporate liability when people are harmed by a product or in their workplace.

Across the country, ALEC is having an impact. Their model legislation is being passed into law at an alarming rate, aided and abetted by the influx of tea party lawmakers. Conservative and dogmatic, they are easy targets for ALEC’s cookie cutter laws. They simply make a few changes (or not, in some cases) and sponsor the bill. No need to write the law themselves; all of the hard work has been done for them.

This week, Progress Michigan published a 73-page report on ALEC in Michigan.

A successful myth, of course, but a myth nonetheless

A study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released last week shows that the claim by Republicans that allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire on the wealthiest among would harm small businesses is a myth. In fact, only 2.5% of small business owners are in the top two tax rates and only 0.5% of them are millionaires.

Ammunition to fight back against these lies after the jump.

Swing and a miss, Mitt

Mitt Romney attended a high dollar fundraiser at a country club recently and said this:

We’re accused, by the way — in our party — of being the party of the rich. And it’s an awful moniker, because that’s just not true. We’re the party of people who want to get rich. And we’re also the party of people who want to care to help people from getting poor. We want to help the poor.

Can we just back up a minute and take a look at what Republicans really stand for?

When was the last time a presidential candidacy imploded this early in the campaign???

If Wednesday was a bad day for Mitt Romney’s campaign (and it was), and if yesterday was an even worse day for Mitt Romney’s campaign (and it was), today isn’t going to be a whole hell of a lot better.

Much more after the jump.