I haven’t yet seen the film, but this clip from “The Iron Lady” with Meryl Streep couldn’t help but make me think of Faye Dunaway in “Mommie Dearest”….
I’m going to have to force myself to see this movie. I can’t imagine 2 more hours of Margaret Thatcher after we had to deal with her for 11 years in power….
I just hope I’ll be pleasantly surprised and “The Iron Lady” is at least half as entertaining as “Mommie Dearest”- even if I’m sure it’s not as campy….
At least Faye delivers the message more succinctly, if less elegantly….
Mitt Romney is really a master of this Republican trait.
He has the uncanny ability to look people in the eye and lie like a cheap rug on a concrete floor…
And the national press won’t call out anyone for lying anymore since the GOP has convinced them that facts are relative to one’s political views….
Sorry. A fact is a fact is a fact. Period.
We’ve just fallen through the looking glass into an unreal world that doesn’t recognize this simple truth….
Here are Paul Krugman’s comments from today’s New York Times:
I mean, is there anything at all in Romney’s stump speech that’s true? It’s all based on attacking Obama for apologizing for America, which he didn’t, on making deep cuts in defense, which he also didn’t, and on being a radical redistributionist who wants equality of outcomes, which he isn’t. When the issue turns to jobs, Romney makes false assertions both about Obama’s record and about his own. I can’t find a single true assertion anywhere.
I think it is a requirement that, to be a Republican Candidate, you have to be an unabashed liar….
This one is actually amusingly stupid….
From Talking Points Memo:
Missouri gubernatorial candidate Dave Spence liked to tout his “economics” degree on his website and at campaign events — but in reality his degree was less about bookkeeping and more about housekeeping.
Until Thursday, Spence (R) had claimed on his campaign website that he “earned a degree in Economics” from the University of Missouri (screenshot here). But on Tuesday, Jake Wagman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch pointed out that this was a bit of a stretch — Spence’s degree was in home economics.
From the Dispatch:
The school says that Spence majored in family economics and management — also called consumer economics —which earned him a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Home Economics in 1981.
On Thursday, Spence, who is challenging Dem incumbent Jay Nixon, updated his website to include the more accurate information: “After high school, Dave attended the University of Missouri-Columbia where he majored in family economics and management (also known as consumer economics) and earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Home Economics.”
But it wasn’t just the website. The Associated Press reports that one of his campaign fliers, handed out at a GOP event on December 6, claimed that “after high school, Dave attended University of Missouri-Columbia School of Business and earned a degree in Economics.”
Spence told the AP that he was unaware of the flier’s claims but that he takes responsibility. “I have said all along that I will not or do not lie,” he said. “A lot of this is overblown, as I was not aware of any place that said business school.”
It must be so sad to finally come out of the closet and no one cares….
We all knew….
All I can think is she really must need some cash and really want a new sitcom and is hoping the publicity will make her marketable again…
So sad….that I am so cynical.
She is a really talented actress. I think she could have been as great as Jodie Foster if she had been more secure…
But Gay people of our generation had a different journey. I can understand her fears, but it’s just too late to matter that she’s coming out….
Most of us who are Gay and her age bit the bullet and came out years ago. She could have, too.
While I always want Gay Actors to come out, it would have meant so much more if “Buddy” had confirmed our knowledge that she was Gay years ago.
Still, we can’t judge and look back…
I wish her the best….
Gay people always love a comeback!
From People Magazine, of course:
Kristy McNichol has been out of the public eye for 20 years. Now she’s chosen to come out – to try to help kids who are being bullied.
McNichol, 49, who has lived with her partner Martie Allen, also 49, for the past two decades, decided to make a statement about her sexuality and share this photo because she is “approaching 50” and wants to “be open about who I am.”
She “is very sad about kids being bullied,” her publicist Jeff Ballard tells PEOPLE. “She hopes that coming out can help kids who need support. She would like to help others who feel different.”
Best known for her Emmy Award-winning role as Buddy Lawrence in the ’70s show Family and later as Barbara Weston in Empty Nest, McNichol left it all behind when she dropped out of Hollywood to focus on her health.
Done with acting, McNichol spends her time focusing on tennis, yoga, travel and raising her beloved miniature dachshunds. “She is very happy and healthy,” says Ballard. “And she enjoys living a very private life.”
Kind of like my family is of me being a Progressive…
My family has always been much more upset that I’m a Progressive than that I’m Gay….
I can understand and sympathize….
But they still need to jerk a knot in the little fascist….
From The Daily Beast:
But the elder Santorum matriarch doesn’t understand why he has diverged so far from the family’s longtime political stance. “In Riva del Garda his grandfather Pietro and uncles were ‘red communists’ to the core,” writes Oggi journalist Giuseppe Fumagalli, likening the family to “Peppone” after a famous fictional Italian communist mayor who fought against an ultraconservative priest known as Don Cammillo and about which a popular television series is based. “But on the other side of the ocean, it’s like his family here doesn’t exist. Instead he draws crowds as the head of the ultraconservative faction of the Republican party, against divorce, gay marriage, abortion, and immigration.”
Those politics don’t play well in Riva del Garda, a community of ultraliberals. On the campaign trail, Santorum often touts his grandfather’s flight from Italy “to escape fascism,” but he has neglected to publicly mention their close ties with the Italian Communist Party. “Rick’s grandfather Pietro was a liberal man and he understood right away what was happening in Italy,” Mrs. Santorum told Oggi. “He was anti-fascist to the extreme, and the political climate in 1925 was stifling so he left for America. After a few years he returned to Italy with his wife and children, including Aldo, Rick’s father, who passed away late last year. It’s a shame he won’t have the joy to see his son’s success in his bid for the White House.” She goes on to explain how the family then became pillars of the Communist Party in Italy.
“There are Santorums who would roll over in their graves to hear [Rick’s] rhetoric.”
The matriarch lauds her distant relative as a “masterpiece” of the family, whom she calls a man of high intelligence and integrity. “He would be a great president,” she told Oggi. “But if he wants to make it, he will have to soften some of his positions. To take a stand against homosexuality or to oppose divorce is harmful. Principles count, but in politics one must have the capacity to be open-minded.”
I somehow don’t think he’s going to want to talk about this, either….
This is really going to annoy some of the other Republicans and Tea Partiers….
More fun to come!
From, The Last Word at MSNBC:
As Willard M. Romney’s campaign plows ahead toward the Republican nomination for president, little-known details on his personal background are popping up.
On the campaign trail, for instance, he’ll gladly chat about his huge family. But what about his Mexican cousins? It’s a branch he ignores in public.
NBC News correspondent Mike Taibbi filed a fascinating report on Rock Center with Brian Williams, profiling Romney’s relatives who are Mexican citizens. In 1885, Romney’s Mormon great-grandfather, Miles Park Romney, fled from the United States to Mexico in order to escape prosecution for practicing polygamy. His own father was born there and went on to become the governor of Michigan — the quintessential poster boy for the Dream Act. About 40 cousins still live south of the border, and directly oppose cousin Willard on his own anti-Dream Act stance.
Earlier today, Romney’s campaign released a new TV ad, en español, reaching out to Spanish-speaking voters in Florida.
This woman may be the spiritual Grandmother of Occupy Wall Street and the biggest One Percenter Robber Baron in the GOP Game is quoting her…
Although I’m sure he doesn’t know who she really was and what she really stood for-typical shoddy work by the GOP Candidates.
The only thing that saves the GOP Candidates from embarrassment over incidents like this is the fact their voters don’t care about little things like facts…
And are too poorly educated and fanatical to get the point anyway….
And the candidates will just shamelessly lie their way out it if anyone calls attention to these disconnects…
From ThinkProgress.com:
Mitt Romney regularly incorporates lyrics from “America the Beautiful” into his stump speeches. Little does he probably realize that the hymn was written by a progressive feminist lesbian who composed it to critique country’s greed, excess, and growing economic inequality. The original third-verse lyrics Katharine Lee Bates wrote in 1894 were as follows:
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!
She later rewrote the stanza, toning down the rhetoric but maintaining that wealth was not what made America great:
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!
Given Romney’s vast personal wealth and his ongoing defense of the one percent, plus his opposition to same-sex marriage and other LGBT rights, he might wish to rethink which American poets he chooses to highlight in his speeches.
Both Rick Santorum and Rick Perry fell into a similar trap last year when they highlighted Langston Hughes’ “Let America Be America,” despite Hughes’ record as pro-gay, pro-union, and pro-immigration. (HT: Mombian.)
I can understand how people get RuPaul and Ron Paul confused.
They are very similar in so many ways (tongue firmly in cheek).
And I can promise you I would vote for RuPaul for President before I would vote for Ron Paul or any other Republican likely to be nominated by the GOP this year-or any -year.
And RuPaul is definitely as credible and qualified a candidate as Sarah Palin…
From Politico:
RuPaul, the world’s most famous drag queen, is on his way to the Red Arrow Diner in New Hampshire to spread his message. What would that message be? The host of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” would like to promote a little love and remind folks in The Granite State that he is not 2012 candidate Ron Paul.
RuPaul explained to POLITICO: “I’m going to N.H. on a mission to spread love and set the record straight: contrary to recent reports, I am NOT Ron Paul. And I am not running for president of the United States. I hope to meet Ron Paul in person so we can be seen together to put the rumors to rest once and for all. And to remind Mr. Paul and all the Republican presidential candidates ‘if you can’t love yourself, how in the hell are you going to love somebody else. Can I get an ‘Amen?’”
RuPaul described himself in a press release as “not a political person by nature,” but added, “any time a man leaves the house in a wig and a pair of cha cha heels, he’s making a political statement. Let us not forget that this great nation was founded by a bunch of men wearing wigs.”
My favorite 80-something bloggers are back with a new post.
Here is a brief excerpt and a link to their full post on their blog:
So that leaves us with Romney, Paul and Santorum. Three wise men who couldn’t find a star on a moonless night much less a family of three in a manger. And even if they could, Romney wouldn’t be able to decide on which star to follow; Paul would want to argue about the price of gold, frankincense and myrrh; and Santorum would be too busy molesting the cattle lowing in the stable.
Folks, let’s get serious. Since 2008 we’ve reduced our wars by 50%, avoided another Great Depression, advanced women’s rights in the workplace, ended Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and passed a law intended to provide healthcare for the sick and the poor. Not bad for a Muslim born in Kenya. Republicans not wanting to re-elect Obama isn’t exactly newsworthy. They like war and they hate gays, women and those damn government-cheese-sucking poor people. But wanting to put Rick Santorum in the White House? He thinks birth control should be outlawed. Without birth control you’re going to have more government-cheese-sucking poor people.
This is how the Republican Party recovers from nominating Sarah Palin as VP? Honey, that man-on-dog just don’t hunt. If this pack is truly the best your party has to offer, maybe you should consider a new party – one where they don’t serve tea.
Forget 2012 and nominate a serious candidate in 2016. I mean it. Really.
Lost in the 21st Century 