Cong John Lewis on Civil Rights and Voter Suppression

Cong John Lewis' powerful speech given a few moments ago:


This speech should make everyone stop and think about what is happening with the voting rights of everyone after what has been happening in states across America who are attacking minority voting and in the case of PA, the Republican Speaker of the House said that their new rules were going to elect Mitt Romney.
In Ohio at one time the length of voting hours were more in Republican counties then Democrat counties per the Republican Secretary of State.  Now a judge wants the Sec of State to appear to answer why the hours were changed to less hours then in the past.
Those are two examples of bringing back voting rules that hurt minorities which is so wrong that I have to ask once again, "What is wrong with today's Republican Party?"  Time for Republicans who do not agree with the direction of the GOP to stand up and be counted by speaking out against voter suppression in any state.

Most Conservative Platform in Modern Times to be Voted on Monday by the Whole Convention

Wish I could say that it won't be rubber stamped as it is so far out of the mainstream of America, but the delegates at the Convention are mostly from the hard right this time so its passage will be a slam dunk.  Any hope of seeing this defeated is slim to none IMHO!  Once it is passed on Monday night, I will be able to say that the Republican Party just left me because I think this Platform in an insult to women, minorities, and anyone who can think for themselves.

Looks like the RNC Chairman Priebus just told Romney it is time to suck it up because this GOP Platform is not his platform but that of the Republican Party.  Never heard that before but there is a lot I have never heard before since the Koch Brothers installed Priebus as the RNC Chair.  The Chair might as well of said  the Platform is for the Vice Presidential candidate, Paul Ryan, the darling of the hard right.

Doubt if Romney expected this to happen when he made the decision to go hard right to get their votes.  Now he has to live with their hard right platform.  Must admit that this was the first time I have ever seen a GOP Chairman tell a candidate it is not their platform but the Republican Party Platform.  Presidential candidates always have a lot of input.  Doesn't look like this was the case in 2012.

Priebus:  GOP Platform not the Platform of Mitt Romney  

The official platform language poised for approval at next week's Republican National Convention doesn't fully represent the party's presumptive presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said Tuesday. 

Excerpt:  Read More at the First Read

Now the next question is who is going to govern the Country if they win (not happening)?  Romney or Ryan?   Would Romney be the ceremonial President while Ryan does all the policy?  Sure looks like that is the direction it is going.  This GOP Platform is so out of touch with mainstream Americans that it would be laughable if they were not serious.  The hard right has gone off the cliff with this Platform.  Every last Republican running for Congress in the House or Senate should be asked if they support this Platform.

One Senate Candidate, Scott Brown of MA, is definitely not supporting the Abortion Plank as he rebuked that hard right plank last night.  I didn't think a lot of Republican candidates would run on that Plank but then I didn't think that 227 Republicans would co-sponsor a Personhood bill in the House either.  We definitely need to re-elect Scott Brown as we we need at least a few Republican voices of common sense and reason  in the Senate.

The G.O.P. Platform

By ANDREW ROSENTHALAugust 21, 2012, 1:07 pm 

Every four years the two parties draft new platforms ahead of their presidential nominating conventions. These don’t necessarily indicate immediate legislative priorities, but they do indicate general direction. Since the 1980s, the Republican platform has been a test of how far the mainstream of the party is willing to move toward the right-wing fringe. Judging from the draft circulating this week, the answer is, pretty much all the way over. 

The draft is more aggressive than any I have seen in its opposition to women’s reproductive rights and gay rights. It calls for a constitutional amendment outlawing all abortions and one denying gay men and lesbians the right to marry. 

(snip) 

On abortion, CNN reported, the draft puts the party squarely in the ranks of the most extreme positions taken by anti-abortion activists. It calls not just for a “human life amendment to the Constitution” but also for legislation “to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.” That would effectively erase any right women have to make their own decisions about their reproductive lives and health – and, depending on how lawmakers phrase the proposed amendment, could threaten even birth control.  

Excerpt:  Read More at The New York Times

This hard right portion of the GOP Platform also threatens in vitro fertilization procedures when three of Romney's sons had children through this procedure.  This almost makes you think you are the one going crazy but you cannot make this up.  This is how far out of the mainstream this Republican Party is today where the hard right sponsored by the Koch Brothers have taken over the Party.

Now the GOP has the distinction of having the 'Most Conservative Platform in Modern History' which is out of touch with mainstream America who outnumbers the hard right by a lot.  Reading this when I cared what happened to the Republican Party would have made my blood boil.  In this case, I can truly say that the brand of conservatism I have seen in my adopted state of Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and other states has now gone nationwide which is not a good thing for most Americans.  Find this narrow minded thinking archaic, out of touch, disgusting, and an insult to the women of America that this group of hard right think they have the right to tell the rest of us how to live and how to think.

Minorities didn't far too well either in the GOP Platform but then Cong Akin thinks the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts should be repealed.  Since so many hard right conservatives came to Akin's defense, how many of them agree with Akin on these acts?  From what we are seeing in PA, OH, and FL, I would say there are plenty more like Akin in the Republicans Party.  With the uproar over Akin on Rape and Abortions, that little detail was missed that he was against those Acts believing they belong in the states not handled by the Federal Government.  This attitude left me speechless.

This is a quick synopsis of what the GOP Platform contains:

GOP Approves ‘Most Conservative Platform In Modern History’

By Aviva Shen on Aug 22, 2012 at 9:23 am 

A week from the 2012 Republican National Convention, Republican committee members spent Tuesday articulating and affirming the principles they stand for in a draft of the official party platform. Led by Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) and featuring other Tea Party stars like Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), the committee approved a draft of the platform McDonnell said “will reflect the heart and soul of the Republican Party” and one committee member called “the most conservative platform in modern history.” 

Here are some highlights:

• NO ABORTION IN CASES OF RAPE OR INCEST. The proposal for a “human life amendment” passed without a hitch — and without any exceptions for rape or incest. The committee didn’t stop there; they also adopted language that would ban drugs that end pregnancy after conception, which could potentially include Plan B, the “morning after pill.”

• SALUTE TO MANDATORY ULTRASOUNDS. The GOP officially praises states’ “informed consent” laws that force women to undergo unnecessary procedures, require waiting periods and endure other measures meant to discourage them from getting an abortion. One such law receiving a “salute” was crafted by committee head McDonnell, who passed a notorious mandatory ultrasound requirement after he signed an unsuccessful bill to require an even more invasive transvaginal probe ultrasound during an abortion consultation.

• NO LEGAL RECOGNITION OF SAME-SEX COUPLES. The committee embraced extreme anti-gay language, even rejecting a proposal to endorse civil unions for gay couples after vehement objections from Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Romney adviser Jim Bopp, who called it a “counterfeit marriage.” The rejection of civil unions, along with the refusal to include a line affirming the legal equality of same-sex couples prompted the organization GOProud to declare, “Those who have engaged in this public platform fight have provided distraction from important issues and damaged Mitt Romney’s campaign.”

• REPLICATE ARIZONA-STYLE IMMIGRATION LAWS. Kris Kobach, who wrote the now mostly invalidated immigration laws in Arizona and Alabama, pushed for language calling for a border fence, a national E-Verify system to make it harder for undocumented workers to find employment, the end of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants and an end to sanctuary cities. The committee overwhelmingly approved the proposals, as well as a line chastising the Department of Justice to halt the lawsuits against draconian immigration laws in Arizona, Alabama, South Carolina and Utah: “State efforts to reduce illegal immigration must be encouraged, not attacked.”

• AUDIT THE FED. The pet project of Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) to audit the Federal Reserve has now been embraced as an official Republican goal. For the first time, the platform calls for an annual audit of the Federal Reserve.

• NO WOMEN IN COMBAT. The platform condemns “social experimentation” in the military, which covers everything from the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to allowing officers to wear their uniforms in gay pride events to letting women serve on the front lines.

• NO STATEHOOD, MORE GUNS FOR WASHINGTON DC. FRC’s Perkins, who recently blamed President Obama and the Southern Poverty Law Center for the shooting at FRC’s Washington headquarters, requested and received a section specifically urging the DC Council to expand gun rights. The same section also opposes DC statehood, which would allow the District to govern itself and put an end to Congressional attempts to impose abortion bans on DC.

• NO NEW TAXES, EXCEPT FOR WAR. The platform calls for a Constitutional amendment requiring a super-majority to approve any tax increase, “with exceptions for only war and national emergencies.” It would also deliberately hobble future Congresses through a cap limiting all government spending to historical average percentage of GDP — “so that future Congresses cannot balance the budget by raising taxes.”

Today's Republican Party does not speak for me with this Platform and what I have been hearing in recent years.  The hate that comes out of the conservative pundits and hard right Republicans is not something I want to be associated with.  The lies told about this President don't stop and even when you can can prove they are lies so many of the far right won't believe you.  With this Platform, I can truthfully saw that the Republican Party has left me and my beliefs which go back to when I was growing up and watching my hero President Eisenhower start the integration of educational institutions.  I was so proud of the Republican Party for helping pass the Civil Rights Act.  Now I am embarrassed to be a member of the same party with the people who wrote this Platform.

Romney’s ‘We Did Build This’ Events Feature Businesses Built With Government Subsidies And Contracts (OOPS!)

In my lifetime it is hard to remember a campaign that is so dishonest as that of Mitt Romney and so non-transparent.  What was the RNC and the so-called establishment thinking getting behind his nomination?  Was it the big donors because they (RNC) needed to fund the Convention and campaign?  Have news for them if they had held fair debates, same rules for all states in the primary, and not supported a culture of win at any costs for the Romney campaign including cheating, we wouldn't be at this spot today.  They would have had the money from honest donors who didn't want anything in return.

Anyone who says a businessman does everything on his own without help to build the business is a buffoon.  Romney told Olympic athletes that they had help which they all acknowledge.  He has given speeches about the help businesses receive from the Government and infrastructure.  Guess the businesses in today's Romney World are different because they did in all on their own using their own hands according to this ad:




OOPS!  There is a slight problem:

In “These Hands,” the Romney campaign repeated the out-of-context quote, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else did that.” Jack Gilchrist, the owner of Gilchrist Metal Fabricating in Hudson, New Hampshire, incredulously asks, “My father’s hands didn’t build this company? My hands didn’t build this company? My son’s hands aren’t building this company? …Through hard work and a little bit of luck, we built this business. Why are you demonizing us for it?”  

In context, Obama’s speech was not “demonizing” small business owners but simply challenging the idea that wealthy and successful individuals have never benefited from government services.

And, as it turns out, Jack Gilchrist is no different. The New Hampshire Union Leader reports today that Gilchrist benefited from millions of dollars of government loans and contracts to get his business on its feet: 

In 1999, Gilchrist Metal received $800,000 in tax-exempt revenue bonds issued by the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority “to set up a second manufacturing plant and purchase equipment to produce high definition television broadcasting equipment,” according to a New Hampshire Union Leader report at the time…

Last year, Gilchrist Metal also received two U.S. Navy sub-contracts totaling about $83,000 and a smaller $5,600 Coast Guard contract in 2008, according to a government web site that tracks spending. 

The businessman now famous for the ad admits he did take Government help to build the business. Nothing wrong with that as that is what these programs are for but what is terribly wrong is to represent that you had no help and built the business with only your hands and hands of family members.  Guess his family built the building where  they are located only with their own hands as well.

Fox News and Rush Limbaugh led the Romney camp in the direction they wanted him to go even it was a total misstatement of what the President said due to the editing of Fox News.  It is like Limbaugh is a puppet for Fox News today and Romney is a puppet for Fox News and Rush.  Romney or his surrogates run out to make fools of themselves routinely parroting what Fox News or Rush has to say with no fact checking.  Fox News is about the last place I would quote today.  If you want to find investigative reporting with links, you now have to use more liberal sites.

It is simply mind boggling what has happened to Conservatives who are backing Romney.  They turn into pretzels and refuse to hear anything negative about the man or positive about Obama.  Facts don't matter today.  The people on the right who yelled the loudest about Obama not releasing his college records (he should have released them) are the ones turning into crickets on Romney's tax returns and Bain Capital.  We are not supposed to go after the "perfect" candidate in their minds.

Is this what happens to a political party when it is taken over by the followers of Ayn Rand, who make up a large portion of the far right and Tea Party, along with big donors like the Koch Brothers?  Truth doesn't matter, it is the narrative?

The Romney's "We Did Build This' Events are not exactly what they imagined as the info below points out.  Seems these business people rounded up by the Romney camp did have help which was exactly what President Obama was saying.  The Romney camp has proved Obama's points were correct when you get passed the redacted Fox News/Limbaugh spin: 

Romney’s ‘We Did Build This’ Events Feature Businesses Built With Government Subsidies And Contracts 

By Aviva Shen on Jul 25, 2012 at 3:12 pm 

Today, the Romney campaign is hosting an entire series of campaign events based on President Obama’s misinterpreted comment about small businesses. While Obama’s full speech made a “no man is an island” argument, the Romney campaign has seized on the quote, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that” as evidence of Obama’s disdain for small business owners.

 Romney, ignoring the fact that he has echoed this same sentiment on multiple occasions, organized 24 “We Did Build This” events in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Virginia, Ohio, Iowa, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Nevada. At each event, local business owners are speaking about their self-sufficiency in running a business and how government is hindering their growth. 

But, like the New Hampshire business owner showcased in Romney’s attack ad on the issue, many of these business owners have received significant support from the government, a ThinkProgress analysis finds.

• Ball Office Products hosted the “We Did Build This” event in Richmond, Virginia. The company received a loan of $635,000 through the Small Business Administration in 2012, according to USASpending.gov. The company was also awarded a lucrative $52,525 contract with the General Services Administration just a year after its founding.

• Midwest Tape, a media distributor of Holland, Ohio, was showcased at a local event and has been contracted by the Department of Defense since 2008, earning a cumulative $13,659.

• Columbus Truck and Equipment was featured in a neighboring event and has received $6,643 in contracts with the Department of Defense.

• Cranston Material Handling Equipment Corporation, the owner of which spoke Wednesday morning at a campaign event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has reaped a total of $61,729 in contracts with the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs since 2007.

• Systems Engineering Co.The owner of Systems Engineering has received a total of $180,200 in DOD contracts, as recently as last year.

• Brady Industries in Las Vegas has received $54,425 in contracts with Veterans Affairs since 2009.

• Pennsylvania business PRL Industries Inc. received a $167,847 contract through the Department of Homeland Security for ship and boat propulsion components for the U.S. Coast Guard in August 2008. Janis Herschkowitz, who spoke on behalf of PRL, Inc. used to be a director of the National Consumer Cooperative Bank, which, defined in Herschkowitz’ own words, was created by Congress “to meet personal, social or business needs, especially in low- and moderate-income communities by forming cooperatives.”

• An Iowa event featured Competitive Edge, Inc. which was contracted by Veterans Affairs for $3,543 to make informational refrigerator magnets.

• J & W Cycles of Missouri was awarded $25,808 in contracts from the DOD and Department of Interior.

• Total Resource, featured in a Sparks, Nevada campaign event, has been a federal contractor since 2010, and received a $11,200 contract from the DOD in 2009.

• Applegate Insulation, which hosted one of the events in Michigan, benefited from an energy saving federal tax credit worth 30 percent of the installation project, up to $1,500.

• Home Instead Senior Care supported Romney in Roanoke, Virginia, even though home health care companies receive 75 percent of their funding from public programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Home Instead franchises in Virginia have received at least $3,613,549 in federal funding through the Department of Veterans Affairs since 2008. Chris Head, who represented Home Instead at the event, has previously lamented the low Medicaid reimbursement rates in Virginia and told the Roanoke Times that he wished state funding had helped save the now-defunct local Mill Mountain Theatre.

• Ed Nagle of Nagle Trucking in Ohio also took issue with Obama’s speech, which mentioned roads and bridges as examples of essential government support. But less than a year ago, Nagle protested an idea to privatize the Ohio Turnpike, noting that the privatized Indiana toll road “has diminished in its quality and it’s become a lot more expensive.”

While the “We Did Build This” event was intended to “allow small business owners the chance to respond to President Obama’s claim,” it is clear that many of these owners exemplify the combined powers of individual effort and government support that Obama — and Romney — have praised. 

Additional reporting by Steven Perlberg.  

Source:  Think Progressive

Once again Romney and his campaign are proving to the American people they will say and do anything for votes even knowing it was a lie from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh that started this.  It is the narrative which the Romney campaign plays by and in the process have thrown truth and honesty out the window with the win at any cost mentality.

Does he have an enemies list like Nixon?