Bray New World

Context Is Everything

Jeff — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:38:15 +0000

Earlier this year, Romney aired an ad where showing Obama saying “if we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose”. Which was, of course, Obama quoting McCain, not Obama confessing weakness on the economy. When pressed about this deceptive ad, Romney’s team offered no apologies, and said the ad was “intentional” and that it “worked”.

Yesterday, Mitt Romney said he is “not concerned about the very poor”. Not long thereafter, as this quote got widely circulated, he followed that up with this:

“No no no no. I — no, no. You’ve got to take the whole sentence, all right, as opposed to saying, and then change it just a little bit, because then it sounds very different,” said Romney.

I say we stick with his original policy. So you heard it, folks: Mitt Romney says he’s not concerned about the very poor. I’m sure that quote was “intentional”.

The Super Bowl: Socialism At Its Best

Jeff — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:09:49 +0000

Bill Maher explains it:

Dogs Against Romney

Jeff — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:00:42 +0000

We’ve mentioned before Mitt Romney’s appalling treatment of his own dog.

That’s why we’d now like to refer you to Dogs Against Romney.

Mitt’s Office

Jeff — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:36:12 +0000

Starring Justin Long!

What Would Romney’s Bet Be Like For You?

Jeff — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:22:22 +0000

During a GOP debate, Mitt Romney challenged Rick Perry on one of Perry’s claims about Romney. Romney, sure he was right, challenged Perry to a $10,000 bet on who was correct. Critics said this made Romney look out of touch to the average taxpayer, for whom $10,000 is a huge amount of money.

Now that Romney has released his tax returns, and since we know he earns $56,986 per day, we can find out exactly how much of a dent $10,000 would put in Romney’s pocket. And we can compare it to your pocket.

Take your annual income and divide it by 2,080. That’s the same impact on your wallet that $10,000 has to Mitt Romney. (For instance, if you make $50,000 a year, the equivalent bet for you would be $24. TWENTY-FOUR DOLLARS.)

And that is why Romney could make an off-the-cuff $10,000 bet. It’s chump change for him.

Spreading Romney

Jeff — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:00:54 +0000

Search for “romney” on Google, and the #4 hit is already this.

As a dog owner, I approve of this meme.

O Canada, You Rule

Jeff — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:57:25 +0000

Wondering why Canada doesn’t have Fox News? Because it’s literally against the law there. And going to stay that way.

Canada’s broadcast regulator has rejected a proposal from Canada’s right-wing government to loosen a law that prohibits misleading or false news. As Media With Conscience put it:

Fox News will not be moving into Canada after all! The reason: Canadian regulators announced last week they would reject efforts by Canada’s right-wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news.

Canada’s Radio Act requires that “a licenser may not broadcast … any false or misleading news.” The provision has kept Fox News and right-wing talk radio out of Canada and helped make Canada a model for liberal democracy and freedom. As a result of that law, Canadians enjoy high quality news coverage, including the kind of foreign affairs and investigative journalism that flourished in this country before Ronald Reagan abolished the “Fairness Doctrine” in 1987.

Class Warfare

Jeff — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:51:47 +0000

According to the Pew Research Center,

…about two-thirds of the public (66%) believes there are “very strong” or “strong” conflicts between the rich and the poor—an increase of 19 percentage points since 2009…

According to the new survey, three-in-ten Americans (30%) say there are “very strong conflicts” between poor people and rich people. That is double the proportion that offered a similar view in July 2009 and the largest share expressing this opinion since the question was first asked in 1987.

As a result, in the public’s evaluations of divisions within American society, conflicts between rich and poor now rank ahead of three other potential sources of group tension—between immigrants and the native born; between blacks and whites; and between young and old.

As John Fugelsang put it, “‘Class Warfare’ is when the bottom 98% fights back.”

A Long List of the Most Terrible Things Rick Santorum Has Ever Said

Jeff — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:22:56 +0000

I want to make a joke here using Santorum’s last name and “bullshit”, but really, when you see all these quotes put together, it really stops being funny and you realize what a dangerous nutjob this guy is.

Go on. Read the list.

Colbert and the SC Primary

Jeff — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:59:24 +0000

For those not following Stephen Colbert’s involvement in the SC GOP primary, his editorial in The State recaps it quite well. In brief: the SC GOP insisted that taxpayers cover much of the costs of the primary, so Colbert’s “Super PAC” agreed to cover the bill if they got naming rights (“The Colbert Super PAC South Carolina Republican Primary”), and if SC put a non-binding referendum on the ballot about corporate personhood.

The GOP agreed… at first.

Then the unthinkable happened — the activist judges of the S.C. Supreme Court ruled that the counties, not the GOP, would be responsible for funding the primary. And, in what I can only see as a personal attack on corporate persons, they ruled that all non-binding referenda be struck from the ballot.

The S.C. Republican Party no longer needed my $400,000, but being Southern gentlemen, they gracious[ly] offered to still want it.

Colbert’s editorial has the whole (hilarious) story.