The Truth about Mitt Romney

The elections are less than six months away. Everything seems to indicate that Mitt Romney will be the Republican Presidential Nominee, and after several failed attempts the presidency finally is within his reach. It must be really exciting for Romney, after all, he doesn't care how he gets what he wants as long as he gets it, whatever means necessary.

Mitt Romney has changed his views and opinions about everything, and not throughout the years as many of us do, but from one event to another. It's the "etch a sketch" strategy we have heard so much about.  It is obvious that this man is not campaigning on his values or principles, rather he is telling the American people whatever is necessary and suitable at the time in order to get their vote.

Many will claim this is politics as usual, and up to a point I agree. However, every candidate has an opinion that he or she will defend and not change, but not Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney is spending his time accusing President Obama of not knowing how to deal with current issues such as unemployment, energy, education, budget, government and any other issue you can think of. Every candidate employs these tactics and it shouldn't surprise anyone that Mitt Romney does the same. What it is surprising is that when he is asked what are his plans to solve any of these issues, what strategy he will use to fix the problems he claims President Obama is not handling correctly, Romney will not answer.  It is at moments like this that a candidate will take the opportunity to show the American people that they have a viable plan or idea and in the process show their platform hoping it will appeal to as many people as possible.  Instead,  Romney shifts the discussion to economics and how brilliant he is at it, never replying to the question he was asked. Invariably, he mentions how many jobs he saved and created over the years, how many companies he helped create or advance.  On the 2007 elections the GOP mantra was "Drill, baby, Drill" it seems that today's mantra is "Economics, baby, Economics."  We all agree that there is a global economic crises, however, there are other equally important issues that are in desperate need of attention and that are equally important to the quickly disappearing middle class.  Mitt Romney doesn't care about those, all that he is willing to talk about is economics because that is the only thing he thinks he knows and gives him the setting to glorify himself.  The only thing he hasn't said, so far, is that he has the Midas touch... but give him time, the elections are still a few months away!

I decided to write this post after watching the video I attached below. It is a forceful video that shows you exactly how Mitt Romney "saved" jobs. The caring that Mitt Romney has for the average American worker is the same a hungry shark would have for a lion seal. We are insignificant for him, spendable and the only thing that matters for Romney is the mighty dollar.  Now that he has amassed enough of it, he wants to buy a place in history by becoming the President of the United States.  What inspired him was not saving this country and certainly not saving our way of life and the middle class, to obtain what thus far has been unattainable:  to be the ruler of the most powerful nation in the world, the United States of America.

Obama-Biden 2012!

Can someone pass Santorum a bucket?

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“I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference; and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.”

- John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Greater Houston Ministerial Association, September 12, 1960

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Back in December 4th, 2010, Rick Santorum publicly rejected the separation of Church and State in a speech delivered at the St. Thomas More College of Liberal Art’s Symposium, referring to John F. Kennedy’s famous speech delivered on September 12, 1960. Recently when CBS host, George Stephanopoulos, asked Santorum about his speech, Santorum went as far as to say that he felt like throwing up when he first read Kennedy's famous speech script. Apparently, the reason for this repulsion was that John F. Kennedy (a Senator running for President at the time) stated in front of a Protestant congregation that his Catholicism was not going to be an impediment in his Presidency because he firmly believed in Separation of Church and State. It seems that Santorum has a "weak" stomach and even weaker intelligence.

Santorum said that “Kennedy chose not just to dispel fear, he chose to expel faith.” He went as far as to affirm that there was no separation of Church and State, “The idea of strict or absolute separation of church and state is not and never was the American model. It’s a model used in countries like France and until recently Turkey, but it found little support in America until it was introduced into the public discourse by Justice Hugo Black in the case of Everson v. The Board of Education in 1947.” It is not only sad but shameful that a person, any person, running for the highest position of the United States to be so misinformed and to know so little about the history of the country he or she is seeking to represent. It is his complete and utter ignorance about the history of this great nation that might have urged him to say that “the First Amendment was designed to protect churches from the government and nothing more.” How can a person be so ignorant and misinformed and be running for President? That is beyond my comprehension.

For those of you that might agree with his point of views, I have to implore you to read the history of this great country. I do know that most of you hate history and therefore don’t bother to read it and prefer just to repeat what others say, as long as you agree with it; but history has been written so we don’t repeat the same mistakes, for future generations to know what, why and how it happened and for all of us to understand it.

To begin with, many affirm that this nation was founded by Christians and that is not entirely true. Not all the Founding Fathers were Christians; actually, the majority were Deists. I will not try to proof or disproof this since that will lead us nowhere. However, the idea that they wanted to have religion as part of our way of government it’s completely false, quite contrary, they made sure to keep Church and State separate and I will try to prove this, not with my opinion which is just as good as yours, but with facts.

What John F. Kennedy said back in 1960 was and still is completely correct. Our Founding Fathers wanted the separation of Church and State – after all, the Separatist Pilgrims came to this country fleeing from England escaping religious persecution from the Church of England. That is the first unsubstantial proof; the Pilgrims were seeking religious freedom, from a Church not a government. When the Founding Fathers wrote Article VI of the Constitution stating that “The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” I am certain that they were reinforcing that religion shouldn’t be part of or a requirement to hold a position in government. Actually, nowhere in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights or any other document drafted by the Founding Fathers you will see that the Bible was needed to take the Oath or Affirmation; actually not all presidents have used a bible  when taking the oath and the above article is the only mention of religion in the Original Constitution. You will think that if religion was that important for the Founding Fathers they would have mentioned religion or God more often, but they didn’t. Further, this separation is ratified by the First Amendment (adopted on December 15, 1791 and the one Santorum mentioned and used to reinforce his opinion) which reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” It is unbelievable that Santorum interprets this Amendment as the Church being protected from government but not the other way around. This Amendment is clearly separating the two, government can’t enforce a religion because we are free to worship as we wish, hence, government can’t worship, can’t be affiliated, associated or related to any religion. It is extremely difficult for me to understand why Santorum or the extreme religious people of this country can’t understand something as simple as this, except that fanaticism blinds them. I do know that those people will argue that they do know what the Founding Fathers wanted, how Christians were they, etc. You see, they tend to interpret things their own way, just like they do with the Bible… The problem is that, unlike the Bible, there are documents from the time, LEGAL DOCUMENTS, that destroys those arguments completely and without a trace of a doubt shows that the Founding Fathers wanted the separation of Church and State. Back in November 4, 1796 the new nation of the United States entered in their first treaty, this treaty was with Tripolitania, and was signed by John Adams.  This document leaves no doubt about the religious founding of this country. In the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary, commonly known as the Treaty of Tripoli, this becomes irrefutably clear:

“As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen,—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”

This document is never mentioned because its not a very known document, but it states in no uncertain terms that this country, the United States of America, was not founded on Christianity.

So Mr. Santorum, vomit all you want… but Religion never had and shall never have a place in government just as government has no place in religion. You want God in your life? Do all of us a favor, go to church, pray privately and adore whoever you want, just don’t force the citizens of this country, who will be paying your salary, to believe in what you believe, after all, there are Atheists and Agnostics too and they constitute the 4th largest group in this country, there are more Atheist and Agnostics than there are Jewish, Mormons and Muslims… combined!



Changing Course

I love this country and it hurts to see the downward path in which it’s going thanks to the Christian Fundamentalists.

During the last thirty years or so, slowly at first and rapidly during the last ten years, the country has seen the Christian Fundamentalists; exercise their influence in Congress, ignoring our Constitution for their personal religious gain, while claiming that they want to honor the Constitution. These Fundamentalists, now better known as the Tea Party, will rally behind any white politician that is willing to dance to the tune they play, which it’s usually anything that is against science, technological advances and respecting every individual’s right to choose, whether this choice is to have a family or to choose a spouse of the same sex. If the Fundamentalists aka The Tea Party doesn’t like what you like, too bad for you. They feel they have the right to interfere in your personal life, in who you choose to love, whether you choose to have a family or terminate a pregnancy for whichever reason you may have; no one chooses an abortion lightly the woman that chooses to terminate a pregnancy does so after serious thoughts about that action, it is always a hard and difficult decision but it should always be a personal decision, not a government decision or a community decision. But to the Fundamentalists, it doesn’t matter that you might be an atheist and therefore you have no fear of the afterlife or if you will burn for eternity in the fire pits of hell – the Fundamentalists believe that their God is a vengeful god and apparently they have a direct line to the almighty where He tells them what to do and who can do it and you, a mere mortal, have no saying in the matter – out the window goes the ‘free will.’ They believe in Judgment Day but, they have decided that their God might not be a very good judge to ‘prosecute’ you so instead; they have decided to be judge, juror and executioners. This same group of Fundamentalists while Liberals make fun of them, have shown they’re smart enough or at least their leaders are, to invade our political system, manipulated it in their favor and now they even have members of Congress that proudly claim to be part of The Tea Party. Fundamentalists long for the good old days, where white mobs were free to lynch black people without being brought to justice, they long for the Victorian age, they long for the time where Civil Rights were nonexistent or were only applied to white people. They want to live in the past, no matter how obscure this past was, for them it was the ‘Golden Age.’

It is time to fight fire with fire. It is imperative that we elect Obama in 2012 and that we get more liberals and progressives to fill the House and the Senate; we must kick out from Congress as many Fundamentalists, Republicans, Blue Dogs and “Teapers” as we possibly can; We, as a nation, must continue fighting to maintain the position as leaders of the Free World, the country of all. The only country whose Preamble to the Declaration of Independence clearly states “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” We can’t allow these words to lose their meaning. We can’t allow Fundamentalists to choose who is an equal or who is entitled to Life, Liberty and above all, pursuit of Happiness. They yearn for a past long gone and we should never look back; it is our duty to look optimistically and work towards a better future for ALL. We should never go back in time, it can’t be done, and it’s futile. We can't continue to look backwards, not to the preceding administration nor to the previous century; the time is well overdue to set our eyes in the future, no nation has ever advanced while immovable, no nation can be in the past and pretend to be leaping forward, the future always lays ahead, never behind... The choice should be clear that in order for this nation to continue leading the world into the future, it must learn from its history but never remain a slave of the past. 

Trickle down... Politics?

And as usual, the Republican contenders for the Presidential nomination, after discrediting, insulting, pointing fingers and all the usual exhibition of egos that takes places at political debates, are falling, one by one.

The first one to go, when he couldn’t control the sexual harassments from invading the news and he could no long cover the sun with his thumb, was Herman Cain. He didn’t last long and we all knew he was going to be the first to go, after all, the only reason the RNC ‘allowed’ him to run was to prove that the GOP is not a racist party, the same reason why they elected Michael Steele to be Chairman, regardless of his poor credentials. To be honest, Herman Cain and his ‘999’ plan were not missed but he did bring some sort of entertainment to such a boring group, but his 15 minutes of fame were over pretty fast. So far, he has not endorsed any of the candidates; he says he prefers to endorse “the people” unless by “the people” he was referring to corporations, one might never know. Some people belong more to the entertainment industry than the political arena, but then again, these debates resembles more a circus than a serious political debate.

But we still had Michele Bachmann and of course, we can’t forget about Marcus. The two provided us with so much fun during the campaigns! The comedy shows were having a blast at their expense, after all, Michele seemed eager to provide fresh material every time she was in front of the cameras, I think comedy writers never had it so easy, they didn’t have to make things up, Michele made sure of that. But, as it happens when something is too good, she too had to quit – we must not forget that as entertaining as she was, she was running for President of this country and I think people were amused, entertained for a while but finally they realized it was time to get serious. It was no surprise when after she announced her resignation she endorsed Ron Paul; after all, birds of a feather flock together.

At that time, everyone thought that Rick Perry was going to call it quits, but the cowboy decided to stick to his guns and continue in the race… some people are too dumb or too stubborn or both to know when to leave.

Jon Huntsman was kind of an enigma to me. While we must admit that he is an intelligent, well educated - he even speaks Mandarin, experienced (certainly more than the rest of the pack), he was dignified even when the others were attacking him and then, for reasons I don’t know, he changed tactics and decided to attack Mitt Romney by saying that Romney likes to fire people and he didn't. He was doing pretty decent until then, holding to third place but he had the charisma of a stone. And after South Carolina he decided to quit and endorse the very candidate he chose to criticize: Mitt Romney.

And today we are blessed with another drop out, Rick Perry. It was not a surprise to anyone; actually we were surprised he lasted longer than Huntsman if only by a few days. Perry didn’t bring any substance to any of the debates, except to show his homophobic tendencies, his flip flopping (remember, he started his political career as a Democrat), and his constant display of either bad memory or what most of us suspect, a complete lack of knowledge on most subjects. Besides the entertainment contributions made by Perry, he will not be missed. He was prompt to offer his endorsement to none other than Newt Gingrich. We must forgive him, with that endorsement he confirmed what we knew all along, Rick Perry is an idiot.

Now is down to four. We all know that Rick Santorum is next; he is an improved version of Rick Perry. I am sure he will endorse Ron Paul; he can’t endorse an adulterer or a Mormon.

Ron Paul will be gone too. Regardless of his followers, the RNC will not let him get to the end of the race because of what he is proposing – small government, legalizing drugs, etc. - goes against what Republicans really want. So he will be history, again, and Paul will endorse Mitt Romney.

The last two candidates that will remain till the very end will be Romney and, yikes! Gingrich. Romney is charismatic, good looking, energetic and has enough money to take the race all the way to the end. Also, Romney serves as a proof that the GOP is open to all creeds, just as they allowed Cain to run to prove that they’re not racists. Sure! Gingrich will be fighting all the way, there is much money to be make afterwards with his Super PAC, books and his so-called documentaries – so the longer he stays, the more money he’ll make, but he knows he will not be the republican presidential nominee, he is not in the race to win the position but to win money and lets not confuse the two. Mitt Romney will be the republican candidate for the presidency, and I am glad about this, he is no contender to debate Obama. Romney is too arrogant, as a speaker he is awful and he will be debating a great one. At the end, indirectly, Mitt Romney will be endorsing Obama!

The Left Must Unite or We Will Lose our Country

I keep hearing that Obama must start working for "WE the people" and how he hasn't done all he has promised, believe me, I have been one of those too... until I stopped and analyzed the situation he finds himself in. First, and this is important, he is the President of the United States of America, he is not the President of the United Democrats of America or the President of the Liberals of America, or whatever party you may choose to insert in substitution for a political ideology. Yes, it was us who put him there but, he said it clearly during his campaign and we must admit it, we loved it when he said it: "Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America - there's the United States of America." - I remember wanting to cry when I heard him say this. Now, 3 years later, we criticize him for listening to all sides.

Then, there has to be a super majority of votes to pass anything through Congress and the Republican's, whose #1 objective, openly admitted, is for Obama to be a one term president and in order to achieve their goals, they vote NAY on everything that might be beneficial to this country and therefore, for Obama. And we blame Obama. We blame Obama because we want him to break the rules to do what we want - and need too, don't get me wrong - but according to the rules of Congress, he can't. And now, how are we reacting? By splitting the liberals and democrats, as if we will gain something by it. If we keep doing this, we will have no one to blame but ourselves when a Newt, Romney, Paul or any other nut in the GOP walks into the Oval office and take charge of this country, taking it back to before the '60s. I know a lot of you will blame Obama, it is always easier to blame someone else for our own demise. I hear people saying that they will either not vote or vote for a 'green' candidate or anyone else, even if that candidate has no chance in winning; the results? We're split, but not the far right. Way to go!! We might as well place the White House on a silver platter and hand it to the next son of a bitch from the GOP that will make our lives a living hell. You think we have it bad now? Allow this to happen and you will really learn what hell is all about!

(the picture depicted in this article has been copyrighted and is the property of this author - not for distribution unless authorized)