Month: July 2012

Olympics Illustrate the Failure of Romney-esque Ideas

Trish

OlympicUniformsThe Olympics, known for being above politics yet always in the shadow of them, haven’t even started but the games are a showcase for the themes that are driving election year debate.

Privatization, a tenet of American conservatism and tea baggery, isn’t providing a very good answer to the question, “How’s that working for you?” The private security firm the British government hired at an equivalent of $444 million is unable to provide enough trained staff members in time for the games.

Guess who’s bailing them out? That’s right, Mr. and Ms. British taxpayer will provide army troops and police officers to make up the for the failure of the private sector to prepare security guards.

And then there’s outsourcing. American politicians and members of the public expressed outrage that the Ralph Lauren designed Team USA uniforms were — like almost everything else sold in this country — made in China. The company was caught short by the criticism, China was offended, and let’s face it, the entire country can be embarrassed that the lack of confidence corporations have placed in the American worker, coupled with our desire for more and ever cheaper goods, was exposed on the world stage. It did, however, lead to one of the lamest assurances ever released on company letterhead.

Ralph Lauren promises to lead the conversation within our industry and our government addressing the issue of increasing manufacturing in the United States and has committed to producing the opening and closing ceremony Team USA uniforms in the United States that will be worn for the 2014 Olympic Games.

Should we expect the role of tax cuts for the rich, issues around unionized labor, and restriction of women’s reproductive rights to make appearances before the games end?

Well, At Least They Weren’t Made in Burma

Trish

The torch relay clothes were NOT made in Burma. They were manufactured in Myanmar.

The response of the Salt Lake City Olympics organizing committee (aka, the Mitt Romney Olympics), after protests over the origin of uniforms in 2002. The committee apparently did not understand that Burma and Myanmar are one and the same, and that thousands of refugees were fleeing the military regime which had placed its rightful leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest for years.

McCain 2008 Opposition Research on Romney’s Economic Record in Massachusetts: Raised $700 Billion in Taxes, Spending Went up 24%, Left $1 Billion Deficit

Jon Ponder

The hits just keep on coming. After a week of pummeling by the Obama campaign over the Romney campaign’s conflicting record about Mitt’s exit from Bain Capital — did his control over the company end when he “retroactively retired” in 1999, before it outsourced thousands of American jobs overseas, as he claims now, or in 2002, as he claimed in sworn testimony later — now Buzzfeed has obtained the document used to vet Romney as a prospective vice presidential nominee by the McCain campaign 2008.

The entire document is here [Scribd] but here’s the McCain oppo research summary of Gov. Romney’s economic record. It’s no wonder they did not choose him — and it’s too bad Fox viewers will never see this. Their heads would explode!

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Prez Election to Be Decided by Less Than a Million Voters

Buck Banks

4%

Of the voters in six states — Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, New Mexico, and Colorado — or 916,643 people will decide the election, assuming that 48 percent of each state’s voters will go for Obama, and another 48 percent will decide for Romney. The American president will be selected by fewer than half the number of people who paid to get into a Houston Astros home game last year.