Clipmarks | merrie's 'romney' clips

Is God Running For President?

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 16:36:55 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Romney wrote, "I am an American running for president, not a Mormon running for president."

Indeed.

I am no fan of Mitt Romney, but I have to agree with him here.

I wondered if that question would have been asked if a non-Christian candidate had been standing on that stage.

George W. Bush not only invokes his God in virtually every speech he makes, he also openly admits that he takes his instructions from his God. And look where that has gotten us. It brings to mind the words of Sinclair Lewis, who said, "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."

The religious right and their supporters in Washington have brainwashed the American public into believing that Christianity is patriotic. In fact, according to a recent survey by the First Amendment Center, 65 percent of Americans believe that the nation's founders intended the U.S. to be a Christian nation and 55 percent believe that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation.

Hogwash.

Tags: separation, of, church, and, state

Baptists: Let Ellison swear on the Qur'an

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:32:20 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: A strongly-worded editorial from the Baptist Studies Center on why Congressman-elect Ellison ought to be allowed to use the Qur'an for his swearing-in ceremony, and why religious freedom and disestablishmentarianism are historically key Baptist principles.

Clip Source: www.centerforbaptiststudies.org

"Should We Swear Congressman Ellison in on the Qur'an?"
By Walter B. Shurden

I believe . . .
          that we Christians have a hard time understanding that the United States of America is NOT a Christian nation but a constitutional republic that allows religious freedom for all its citizens. The issue surfaces again in the controversy over Minnesota Congressman-elect Keith Ellison’s desire to be sworn in by placing his hand on the Qur'an rather than the Bible. Should he be able to do that? YOU BET! Should Jews be able to use the Hebrew Bible? YOU BET! If Mormon faithful Mitt Romney is elected the president of the United States in 2008, should he be able to use the Book of Mormon? YOU BET! If an atheist wants only to swear on the Constitution of the United States, should she be able to do that? YOU BET!
          Of all people―OF ALL PEOPLE―we Baptists ought to understand and endorse Ellison’s call for free expression of religion! Our ancestors went to jail for that kind of freedom! Our ancestors suffered idiotic indignities for that kind of freedom. Our ancestors struggled for a century and a half in this country for that kind of freedom!! Some of our ancestors suffered physical abuse for that kind of freedom.
          Do we Baptists not remember any of our history at all? Have we really forgotten the sorry saga of Roger Williams being chased out of Massachusetts by Christian zealots and his subsequent heroic founding of Rhode Island where religious freedom could flourish? Have we forgotten the sad tale of Baptist fathers John Clarke, Obadiah Holmes, and John Crandall being jailed for conducting a worship service in a blind man’s house in Lynn, MA? Have we forgotten Obadiah Holmes' bloody whipping on the streets of Boston? Do we not remember that long list of jailed Baptist ministers in eighteenth century Virginia?

Tags: religion, opinion, christianity, islam, pluralism, politics, law, church_and_state

This Is Your Brain on Hillary

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:19:52 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

This Is Your Brain on Hillary: Political Neuroscience Hits New Low in New York Times

Brain scans of swing voters shown pictures of Mitt Romney reveal activity in the amygdala, an area associated with anxiety. John Edwards elicits disgust; Hillary Clinton, conflict. People feel connected to Fred Thompson, but don't feel much of anything about Barack Obama or John McCain.

Their observations, based on these composites, at first seem interesting. On average, women started out feeling favorable about Hillary Clinton but cooled down after watching her speak; men exhibited the same reaction to Rudy Giuliani. Mitt Romney evoked more neural activity than any other candidate. Fred Thompson stimulated empathy-associated structures, as did John Edwards -- but subjects who didn't like Edwards really didn't like him; their brains showed disgust.

A lunch hour's worth of conversation is bound to provide more insight.

Tags: politics, neuroscience, brain, mind

Romney Straps Dog To Car Roof

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:44:39 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.usatoday.com

BOSTON (AP) — An example of Mitt Romney's crisis management skills has turned into something of a political problem for the Republican presidential contender.

Romney placed his family dog, an Irish setter named Seamus, into a kennel lashed to the top of his station wagon for a 12-hour family trip from Boston to Ontario in 1983. Despite being shielded by a wind screen that Romney erected, Seamus expressed his discomfort with a diarrhea attack.

When Romney's eldest son, Tagg, and his four brothers complained about the brown runoff down the back windshield, their father quietly pulled the car over, borrowed a gas station hose and sprayed down both the dog and the kennel before returning to the road.

Romney dismissed any outcry about the 24-year-old incident, saying the dog enjoyed his rooftop perch.

"He scrambled up there every time we went on trips," Romney said at a campaign stop in Pittsburgh Thursday. "He got it all by himself and enjoyed it."

Tags: frigging, idiot

Campaign credits McCain for bailout bill; bill fails!

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:27:09 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Laudatory comments from four surrogates prior to the vote; McCain fails to deliver Republican votes. Promised he wouldn't go to debate unless it was settled; Obama called his bluff.

Clip Source: sage

"[T]his bill would not have been agreed to had it not been for John McCain.

a bipartisan success. And if people want to get something done in Washington, they just watch John McCain." —

Mitt Romney, 9/29/08

"Earlier in the week, when Senator McCain came back to Washington, there had been no deal reached. ... What Senator McCain was able to do was to help bring all the parties to the table, including the House Republicans." — Senior adviser Steve Schmidt, 9/28/08

"But here are the facts, and I’m not overselling anything

John didn’t phone this one in. He came and actually did something.

Thank God John came back." — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), 9/28/08

"Before John McCain suspended his campaign yesterday, the situation that we’re looking at today looked very different then. After he showed leadership and called for bipartisanship, for us to partisanship aside and tackle this solution head on, here we are." — Spokesman Tucker Bounds, 9/25/08

Tags: mccain, bailout, economy

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, You F**king Morons

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 00:27:23 GMT

clipped by: Geshizar

Clip Source: www.236.com

Ann Romney, Mitt's wife, said, "I have total faith in the American people."

A really stupid Southern blond contestant on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader asks host Jeff Foxworthy, "Isn't Europe a country?" before saying "Hungry? Hungry is a country? I've heard of Turkey." She fails to see the humor and Foxworthy fails to spit his drink in her face.

The Tonight Show's "Jaywalking" segment shows that many people cannot identify a picture of Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice or Shakespeare, but everyone recognizes Paris Hilton. Leno somehow manages to avoid killing them.

A Miss Teen South Carolina contestant becomes a YouTube sensation when she botches a question about why Americans can't read maps. Everyone laughs thinking they are superior to her, and they still can't read a map.

Tags: american stupidity

NYTimes lauds Obama race speech: "a higher plane"

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:47:02 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "an honesty seldom heard in public life"

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

There are moments — increasingly rare in risk-abhorrent modern campaigns — when politicians are called upon to bare their fundamental beliefs.

Inaugural addresses by Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt come to mind, as does John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech on religion, with its enduring vision of the separation between church and state. Senator Barack Obama, who has not faced such tests of character this year, faced one on Tuesday. It is hard to imagine how he could have handled it better.

Mr. Obama had to address race and religion, the two most toxic subjects in politics. He was as powerful and frank as Mitt Romney was weak and calculating earlier this year

He put Mr. Wright, his beliefs and the reaction to them into the larger context of race relations with an honesty seldom heard in public life.

There have been times when we wondered what Mr. Obama meant when he talked about rising above traditional divides. This was not such a moment.

he raised the discussion to a higher plane

Tags: opinion, politics, obama, race

Vote for Romney = “a vote for Satan.”

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:23:10 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead

Clip Source: www.google.com

Clip Source: www.kansascity.com

A televangelist who harshly criticizes other religions said Friday his late-night program was pulled off the air because of pressure from a Muslim group.

Officials from the Council on American Islamic Relations this month wrote the TV station’s owners asking for an investigation of the show it broadcasts, “Live Prayer With Bill Keller.”

In a May 2 broadcast, Keller said Islam was a “1,400-year-old lie from the pits of hell” and called the prophet Muhammad a “murdering pedophile.”

He also called the Qur’an a “book of fables and a book of lies.”

Keller, a regular guest on satellite radio’s “Howard Stern Show,” is critical of many religions.

He regularly refers to the Mormon church as a cult and told readers of his online column that a vote for presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a Mormon, “is a vote for Satan.”

Tags: televangelist, religion, idiots, narrow-minded imbecile

McCain won't be the candidate in November

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:35:30 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Interesting theory . . .

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

McCain will not be the Republican candidate in November.

John McCain will announce that he has decided that he can not accept

The reason will be health releated

The reasons are simple. He can't win

some Democrats that think the Republicans are planning to let McCain lose and 'sit this one out'

But that just isn't how they play

So, who will be the Republican Candidate

Condoleezza Rice (Secretary of State)
Colin Powel (fmr Sec. of State)
Marilyn Musgrave (Colorado Congresswoman)
Mitt Romney (fmr Massachusetts Governor)
Mike Huckabee (fmr Governor of Arkansas)
Charlie Crist (Florida Gov. )
Tim Pawlenty (Minnesota Governor)
Bobby Jindal (Louisiana Gov.)
Mark Sanford: (Governor of South Carolina)
John Thune (Senator from South Dakota)
Dick Lugar (Senator from Indiana)
Chuck Hagel (Senator from Nebraska
MIchael Bloomberg (nyc Mayor)

They'll come on the scene late, with a press corps that is looking for a horse race and a new story

Tags: mccain, elections, politics

Republican presidential candidates back nuclear strike against Iran

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 17:13:10 GMT

clipped by: laceym
clipper's remarks: Blitzer: If it came down to a preemptive US strike against Iran’s nuclear facility, if necessary would you authorize as president the use of tactical nuclear weapons?
Hunter, Giuliani, Gilmore, and Romney were the only ones directly asked the question, but five others—Senator John McCain, Senator Sam Brownback, Congressman Tom Tancredo, former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee—had ample opportunity to object or to distinguish their positions from this endorsement of mass murder.
Only one candidate chose to do so, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas

Clip Source: inteldaily.com

Nine of ten candidates for the Republican presidential nomination explicitly or tacitly supported a US attack on Iran using nuclear weapons

the most important moral issue facing the country

Several of the Republican candidates gave predictable responses, citing abortion and the “right to life,” a right which they are not prepared to concede to the people of Iraq, Iran or any other country that stands in the way of American imperialism. Congressman Paul’s response is worth quoting, since it demonstrates how far the “mainstream” of American bourgeois politics has gone in embracing mass killing as an instrument of state policy.

Paul: I think it is the acceptance just recently that we now promote preemptive war. I do not believe that’s part of the American tradition... And now, tonight, we hear that we’re not even willing to remove from the table a preemptive nuclear strike against a country that has done no harm to us directly and is no threat to our national security!”

Tags: politics, election, republicans, ron paul, nucular, nukes, mass murder

Love it - Giulliani sliding in Florida

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:18:04 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: His biggest mistake was not realizing that the more people got to know him, the more they'd see what a phony he is. His best strategy would have been to be everywhere - make little appearances t talk about what a hero he is (at least he thinks so) and then get out of town.

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

(CNN) -- Just days away from the Florida primary, Rudy Giuliani has lost his grip on the state he once called "crucial" to his presidential chances.

New polls out Thursday show Giuliani competing for third in Florida with barely-present Mike Huckabee and behind John McCain and Mitt Romney.

But a break might not be enough. In an average of recent polls in Florida, Giuliani only registers 16 percent among Republican primary voters. That puts him in a tight race with Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, who has spent little time in the state and has only a fraction of the organization Giuliani has there.

Tags: politics, rudy giulliani, election

Romney's Feelings Hurt

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:12:14 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: The taboo against having one's faith criticized should be examined and discarded. Honest and rational questioning of religious thought and policies should not be treated any differently than are other ideas that people hold. We question political views constantly. We question ideas about child care constantly. We question ideas concerning medical treatments constantly. Why not religion? Because it can't stand the heat. Members would drop out. People would open their eyes and see religion for the scam it is. There are other ways to view the world besides through the illusion of a belief in a mythical creator.

So, IMHO, Romney is not entitled to any apology. Nor is any other religious person whose religious tenets are questioned.

Clip Source: www.sltrib.com

Romney: Repeated campaign attacks on Mormon religion troubling

"Clearly, any derogatory comments about anyone's faith -- those comments are troubling. The fact they keep on coming up is even more troubling" Romney said on Saturday.
The Mormon church is one of the fastest-growing religions and claims about 12.5 million members worldwide, but many evangelical Christians in key primary states such as Iowa and South Carolina consider the faith a cult.

Romney's comments follow an apology from GOP rival John McCain's presidential campaign for comments about the Mormon church allegedly made by a volunteer earlier this year.

That apology came just days after Republican presidential hopeful Sam Brownback issued a similar one for a campaign staffer's e-mail to Iowa Republican leaders that was an apparent attempt to draw unfavorable scrutiny of Romney's religion.

Tags: religion, mormon, romney, faith

Theocracy? Is This Good for America?

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:56:42 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: Click on the link and view the embedded video to gain an awareness of the total wackiness of these people. Make no mistake about it, these people are intent on making this a Christian Nation. And if your "brand" of Christianity doesn't conform with what they deem appropriate you're as much on the outside as any non-believer. Maybe those depicted in the video are not of the Fred Phelps ilk, they are much more of a danger because of their numbers and organizational influence in politics.

You've been warned!

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Theocracy Now!

On October 20 and 21st, I attended the Value Voters Summit, a massive gathering hosted by the Colorado-based Christian right mega-ministry, Focus on the Family, and its Washington lobbying arm, the Family Research Council. With the pro-choice Rudy Giuliani leading in the race for the Republican nomination and the threat of another Clinton presidency looming, the stakes for the Christian right were high.

At the Summit, I witnessed all of the major Republican presidential candidates compete for the affection of so-called value voters. Rudy Giuliani, the current frontrunner, sought to assuage movement leaders' concerns about his multiple marriages, pro-choice politics, and penchant for cross-dressing. Mitt Romney pledged to fight for a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, hoping his newfound conservatism would somehow lessen evangelical resentment of his Mormon faith.

Tags: theocracy, religion, theism, politics

The pundits say it will be a surprise. I say no surprise

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:35:26 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: McCain WILL pick Mitt Romney. Take it to the bank. Though I still wish it would be Palin.

Clip Source: features.csmonitor.com

James Carville, Greenberg’s longtime political partner (the two were central to Bill Clinton’s improbable victory in the 1992 presidential campaign), has a more colorful way of assessing vice-presidential picks. Does the candidate “make the opposing campaign manager throw up.”

Carville doesn’t name names, but he predicts McCain will surprise us. “McCain and I share something in common,” says the Ragin’ Cajun. “We’re both craps shooters. And just by nature, craps shooters always want to put their stack in the middle of the table.”

The Democratic analyst and pollster Stan Greenberg said Wednesday they see nothing to fear from a Romney pick, await a surprise.

Whoppers from Repub Debate

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 18:37:15 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Most amazing comments by Repub Presidential candidates from debate of Jan 24.

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

* McCain said that the invasion of Iraq was justified because Saddam Hussein was "hell-bent on acquiring" weapons of mass destruction. Actually, he wasn't.

* Mike Huckabee, voicing his support for Bush's invasion of Iraq, said that just because the United States didn't find WMDs in Iraq that "doesn't mean it wasn't there."

* Moderator Tim Russert asked McCain about a comment McCain had supposedly made-

McCain shot back, "I don't know where you got that quote from; I'm very well-versed in economics." Well, McCain did tell the Baltimore Sun, "The issue of economics is something that I've really never understood as well as I should." So much for being "well-versed."

* Romney claimed that under Hillary Clinton's universal health care proposal, everybody will get their coverage "from the government." Here's how Clinton describes it: "If you have a plan you like, you keep it.

That's not a government-only plan.

Tags: repub debates, romney, mccain, huckabee