Movie Review - Mitt

Mitt Romney was the candidate no one wanted, but still, everyone agreed that he would be the Republican nominee in the 2012 presidential election. Romney wasn’t the most charismatic, he wasn’t that convincing, and in a time of deep economic recession, no one liked the idea of a rich white guy calling the shots. He was a Mormon, the son of a rich business executive and governor, and he himself had made millions - some would say - buying up companies, firing everyone and selling them for parts. It’s not hard to paint Mitt Romney as unlikeable, but that’s part of the reason that Mitt is such a surprise.

Dazed and Confused

As the U.S. government enters week two of its shutdown, America's primary source of information, its beloved lat night comedians, have pointed out some of the buffoonery that's driving the debate, specifically in regards of the Affordable Care Act. The ACA, or "Obamacare" if you like, was the lightening rod for the shutdown, with many in Congress demanding that if Barack Obama wanted to keep the government open, then he had to defund/repeal/stall the implementation of his signature piece of legislation.

Newsmakers and Mad Men

Before we adjourn for Christmas, a couple of things caught my eye in today's news.

Graduating from Gun Nuts to Just Nuts

The National Rifle Association and their various surrogates did themselves no favours this morning on the Sunday talk shows. So dedicated they were to the idea that the answer to the question of what to do about America's seemingly monthly plague of gun violence is to arm even more people, that even Republcian stalwarts like Lindsey Graham were doing difficult feats of linguist contortion to keep themselves separate but equal from the NRA. And frankly, any stand that has the seriously right-wing Graham taking a step back from you should automatically give you pause if you're someone like NRA President Wayne Lapierre. But then again, a ban on assault weapons should be a no-brainer after the death of 20 kids no older than 7, but here we are.

Remember way back in 1999 when the NRA had a convention in Denver mere weeks after Columbine. People protested, and I think even local Colorado politicians asked the lobby's leadership to at least postpone such a gathering in the municipality immediately adjacent to what was then the home to the worst school shooting in American history. But what came out of those protests, famously, were the words of then NRA President Charlton Heston, who held up a long gun rifle over his head and promised to the gathered supporters, "From my cold, dead hand."

In Memoriam

 Hopefully this is the last word on the U.S. Election, and appropriately, it's a remembrance reel. From last night's Real Time with Bill Maher, one last chance to remember all the misanthropic, malcontent, and misguided politicians that made the 2012 election season more memorable. Click on play after the jump:

Pierre Poutine Strikes Again?

There were a number of issues with Florida as voting got underway Tuesday morning. There was the mysterious case of Florida Governor Rock Scott's dead set refusal to allow early voting to carry on, there was the case of the ballot machine touch screen that made every vote for Obama count for Romney, and there was an incident eerily familiar to Canadians in at least one Florida county, a case of the robocalls.

From the Tampa Bay Times: 

"This message is from your Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections," a woman says in the prerecorded call. "The general election is tomorrow. If you want to vote and return your mail ballot, please take it to any ballot dropoff site by 7 p.m. tomorrow. If you decide to vote at your polling place, please bring your mail ballot with you so it can be canceled and you can avoid delays." 

Twitter Breakdown

Donald Trump got a lot of press - and let's face it, that's what we likes best - about his now deleted, explosive and borderline treasonous reaction to Barack Obama's re-election on Tuesday. "He [President Obama] lost the popular vote by a lot and won the election. We should have a revolution in the country," Trump Tweeted as the vote was still being counted before adding, "Lets fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us."

But would you believe that Trump wasn't alone as high profile conservatives tweeting crazy things on election night?

Four More Years, And The Aftermath

Oh, what a night! Tonnes of surprises, and some other things that were not so surprising. On the one hand, Barack Obama, a man that had been written off so many times, beat handily Mitt Romney, a man who has been written off so many times... And although the election, like the campaign, was really close, there were some big winners and losers of the this past U.S. election. Let's break it down.

The Trumped Card

He said it was going to a "bombshell" and he said that news organizations like Fox News would want to cover it "big time," but what Donald Trump delivered was yet another instance of his seemingly bottomless capacity for idiocy and self-promotion.

On Monday, Trump called in to "Fox & Friends" and told them that he had a "bombshell" about Barack Obama that he was going to announce on Wednesday. As we all know, Trump is an avowed "birther" that has squandered precious time, money and air on the subject of the President's alleged (and untrue) status as a non-American. So when he went on air Monday morning, even the most Trump-skeptical, Obama-loving, left-crazy liberal were wondering what the real estate mogul and reality TV host might have on the President. 

It turns out he's got nothing. Or rather, he'd like to bribe Obama into self-incriminating. 

More Disasters in Tweeting

Yesterday, I talked about Danielle Smith's unfortunate tweet suggesting that the tainted beef from the XL plant in Alberta could be cooked and served to the homeless rather than deposited hook, line and sinker into a landfill. But Smith's slip of the tongue looks rather benign next to something the Toronto Sun's Sue-Ann Levy said on Twitter about Barack Obama Monday night.

You know Sue-Ann Levy, she's the Sun columnist that's constantly whiny about how her precious tax dollars are being spent on the homeless and city employees, and people not as lucky as her to sit behind a computer all day and spew her (mostly) misguided opinions. Like this one:

The Post Game

Well that was painful to watch. Even Barack Obama's political foes had to admit that during last night's presidential debates, the president wasn't playing at par. Will there be a long term impact on the campaign? Has Republican nominee Mitt Romney stopped the slide after weeks of bad press? And just what the hell was that format? Let's break it down.

The West Wing Reunites for an Important (and Funny) Message

I don't know anyone that loves politics - left, right, up, down, whatever - that doesn't love The West Wing. It seems that the website Funny or Die feels the same. And in this time of tremendous partisanship is seems fitting that we get another dose of the administration of Jed Bartlett.

The video, part reunion special and part educational video, features such West Wing regulars as Allison Janney, Janel Moloney, Bradley Whitford, Martin Sheen, Mary McCormack, Richard Schiff, Melissa Fitzgerald, Joshua Malina, and Lily Tomlin. It also does a pretty good job of copying Aaron Sorkin's signature dialogue patter and includes a little in-joke involved real life judge Bridget Mary McCormac, sister of actress Mary. 

 But enough with the preamble. For the first time since the series was cancelled in 2006, let's tune in now to an all new episode of The West Wing:

The Mitt Hits the Fan

It was roughly this time in 2008 that the event called "The Great Recession" began rolling. Lehman Brothers, a huge financial services firm, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 15th, 2008, thus beginning a domino effect of big banks and financial firms shuttering their doors, filing for Chapter 11 or announcing that suddenly their huge profits were really huge deficits.

As the world fell (or seemed to), then Republican Presidential candidate John McCain boldly said that he would suspend his campaign in order to return to Washington to work directly on the crisis. However, while he was in Washington, attending meetings on the crisis on all levels, instead of looking like a leader, he looked like he was barely paying attention. By contrast his opponent, then Democratic candidate Barack Obama, said that a president must be able to balance several priorities at once, and in those same meetings, looked attentive, active, asking follow-up questions and making notes; in other words, he looked like a working president. September 2008 is more or less seen as the point in the last election where McCain had officially lost his bid to become President of the United States.

Welcome to September 2012, a point where many, even Republicans, are saying that Mitt Romney lost his presidential bid.

Compounding on a series of gaffs already jamming the political pipeline is this week's release of a tape from a Romney fundraiser in Boca Raton. In it, Romney basically dismisses nearly half the electorate as moochers, beggars and parasites, people so hopelessly attached to the government teat that they'll vote for Obama out of sheer reflex. They can never be convinced to look to alternatives, because they're too busy being a leech to society, riding high on the government hog and not knowing the important American value of pulling yourself up by your boot straps. He also said, to somewhat less fanfare, that he'd be having an easier time if his father had been born an actual Mexican rather than just being born there.

I'd say that Mitt Romney shouldn't give up his day job, but running for president is his day job.

Heart of Darkness?

This week, the Democratic National Convention kicks off in Charlotte, North Carolina. But despite the eagerness of American Democrats to put on their pageant and get the word out about the awesomeness of four more years of Obama, there's still some lingering insanity from last week's Republican National Convention, and it comes in the form of action superstar and former Texas Ranger, Chuck Norris.

Any recent cool points Norris bought for himself appearing as one of the ensemble in The Expendables 2, paying off his debt as a Mike Huckabee supporter in 2008, have all been lost in an instant with this video, which, to say the least, is the worst Romney infomercial ever to hit the internet.

To break it down succinctly, Norris and his fembot wife are concerned that America is "going down the path of socialism of something much worse." They want to encourage evangelicals to get out the vote invoking that quote from Edmund Burke about how evil triumphs when good people do nothing, and further suggesting Obama's re-election will plunge the United States into 1,000 years of darkness. There was also a salute to Saint Ronald Reagan in there somewhere.

But why take my word for it? Let's go to crazy already in progress...

Romney's Speech: A Critic's Commentary

Last night, Mitt Romney accepted the hotly contested Republican nomination for president before the crowd of the party's faithful in Tampa, Florida. Neither hurricane, nor differences in policy, nor grumpy old men talking to empty chairs could throw Mitt off his course, the role he's been working his way up to for his entire adult life. Now, only Barack Obama's re-election stands in his way of taking the presidency, and despite the months of primary posturing, last night was his opening argument.

You can read the entire text of the speech here, but in the space below I've cut and pasted a few choice segments and offered some rebuttals.

Tonight I am asking you to join me to walk together to a better future. By my side, I have chosen a man with a big heart from a small town. He represents the best of America, a man who will always make us proud – my friend and America’s next Vice President, Paul Ryan.
In the days ahead, you will get to know Paul and Janna better. But last night America got to see what I saw in Paul Ryan – a strong and caring leader who is down to earth and confident in the challenge this moment demands.

But what America got to see in Ryan last night was a big fat liar. Even Fox News, which is no stranger to perpetuating right-wing falsehoods, was taken aback at just how badly Paul Ryan lied. Fox News contributor Sally Kohn even took a time out to detail the lies in Ryan's speech Wednesday Night. But hey, Ryan's still a great dad and has got an awesome playlist on his iPod...

Republicans Behaving Badly

It's a curious thing how Americans can be so easily divided when so many people in one of their two main political parties continue doing and saying things that should put even the most loyal, but still sound-minded supporters on their heels. 

Take Rep. Todd Akin, now candidate for the U.S. Senate, for example. Yesterday, he made a gaff so embarrassing, so misinformed, so misguided, that he might as well have said that he believes that leprechauns are real and that on the weekend he chases rainbows to find the pot of gold at the end. Of course, if Akin did actually do that, it's his own affair; no more a looney a pass time as collecting stamps or Star Wars memorabilia. But Akin's ignorant comments have real implications, and dangerous ones at that. 

Ryan Rebuttle

It didn't take long for the Obama-Biden ticket to start cranking out the counter spin to today's announcement of Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wi) as Governor Mitt Romney's running mate in this fall's U.S. Presidential election. Surrogates on behalf of President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden sent out two e-mails in eight hours to supporters in an effort to start deflating the GOP's celebratory mood, by attacking Ryan on his background and policy, particularly his proposed federal budget, Roadmap for America’s Future, which includes new tax cuts, deep spending cuts and privatization of entitlements like medicare.

The Blind Leading the Blind?

It was announced late last night that former Governor Mitt Romney had selected Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin to be his running mate in this year's U.S. Presidential election on the Republican ticket. It's a move that's seen as both strategic and complementary. Ryan, a darling of the Tea Party and widely seen as one of the intellectuals of the current right, bolsters Romney's conservative credentials while Ryan seems to be one of the few people that Romney's been comfortable campaigning with. In other words, he humanizes Romney, a factor that the embattled former Massachusetts Governor desperately needs. 

A Dark Night Rises

The preference for a lot of people today in discussing The Dark Knight Rises, one of the most hotly awaited movies of the year, should have been whether or not it's a good movie on it's own or whether it falls short of the rather high water mark of Christopher Nolan's last Batman film, The Dark Knight. Instead, a real life madman barged into a midnight screening of Rises in Aurora, CO, set off tear gas and proceeded to shoot over 70 people, killing 12, with the small arsenal he brought with him. It's now the worst mass shooting in American history.

Aside from the visceral anger towards the perpetrator, and the outpouring of sympathy for the victims and family members, there are a number of questions persisting this evening. Here are a few:

The 'Bozo Eruption' Vote

It was one of those "Dewy Beats Truman" moments, the type of political upset where the decision of voters goes entirely against the media marketed expectations, as Alison Redford led the Progressive Conservative party to it's 12th straight provincial victory in Alberta yesterday after weeks of absolute certainty that Danielle Smith's upstart Wildrose was about to end the PC dynasty.

But the PCs didn't just barely win, they won a landslide majority of 61 seats. Wildrose now forms a distant opposition with only 17 seats, which almost doubles the number of seats won by the Liberals and the NDP combined with 5 and 4 seats, respectively. Considering that some polls had Wildrose up by 15 per cent over the PCs earlier this month, the fact that they fell so hard with only 17 seats to show for their efforts is being attributed to the "Bozo Erupion" and the strategic voting it prompted.