Big Bird On The Brink of Extinction...and Other Debate Foibles

What a debate, hey?

In an attempt to lower the deficite Mitt came up with "firing Big Bird". You know that already though, it's all over the web, all over TV. It's the biggest meme to hit the internet since 'Eastwood's Empty Chair'

People are saying, wait "This is what you're taking from the debate?!"

Well, not exactly.

First, his big idea to cut PBS, and other programs likes it, seems a little...off. And how it would help the economy is a little illusive in the grand scheme of the federal budget.

PBS is .012%...yes, there is a decimal point AND a zero before the 1 and the 2...

He wants to CUT the .012% budget funding for PBS, but RAISE military/war spending this is already 20% of the budget...1

It's really a joke that writes itself.

There's a lot of reports from all over about how "he won" the debate, but then in turn they talk about how he did it with lies. He was a slicked up and 'smooth criminal' on-stage, what with the disingenuous smarmy look on his face half the time, forcing himself to appear the "caring" candidate, while re-branding the 47% as "less fortunate" and saying he's going to fire Big Bird. How sweet, right?

Anyway, our take on what details he actually provided, and our take on the night.

He wants to lower your taxes, but remove itemized deductions; deductions which LOWER your taxable income rate (if you file using itemized deductions), deductions like:

Child deductions
Home owners deductions
Classroom expenses for teachers and educators
Qualified performing artists and other professions
Traditional IRA deduction
Student loan interest deduction
Tuition and fees deduction
Health savings account deduction
Moving expenses
Self-employment tax deduction
Self-employment health insurance
SEP-IRA, SIMPLE IRA and 401(k) deductions for the self-employed
Early withdrawal penalty
Alimony paid
Domestic production activities deduction

Removing deductions potentially increases your taxable rate. He also wants to but a cap on deductions to the tune of $17000, which we understand, for household with children, you can hit the ceiling of that cap pretty fast.

Of course he won't tell anyone which of these deductions he's planning to cut, or which "loopholes" he will close...guess you'll just have to wait.

We also wish Obama would have brought up that in March, when he implored the GOP-dominated Congress to eliminate the $4 Billion in Big Oil subsidies (handouts), they said 'no' to the suggestions while simultaneously requesting to end tax credits for wind power development.2 Which actually caused a wind turbine manufacturing company in North Dakota to lay-off 345 this past week, and opt for moving those jobs to Brazil.3 We would have liked Obama to ask Romney how "his people" think that that means funding renewable energy, like he says he plans to do.

It's essential to fund renewable energy sources while raping the earth for it's non-renewable resources, because one day their won't be anything left to take. It also creates jobs, which is essential to fixing the economy.

The other thing we have an issue with is Romney's healthcare claim that those with pre-existing conditions WON'T be denied medical insurance under his plan, when the truth is that those who already have, or have had insurance in the last 3 months, are the ones who are protected, not those currently uninsured, as stated by Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's own advisor 4 ;and instead funding for them will have to come from the individual states.

Uninsured people with pre-existing conditions, like us...and over 50 million other Americans.5

Anyway. We're not sure if we'll be able to watch the other two Presidential debates in "real time", we're 18 days from closing on our new property and have inspections to arrange, moving to do, and we just found out last night that while they have finally gotten the well pump replaced, and the water running...the plumbing in the house isn't working. Just another thing we have to figure out and fix before the snow hits and stays.

In any case, hopefully you've done your election research, looked into claims by both sides, and continue to stay informed and un-biased as you can muster.

There's much fact checking to have a crack at.

Visit:
FactCheck.org - http://www.factcheck.org/ to read about who said what, and how much truth were in the words. Don't worry, "righties", it's actually a fair and balanced fact checking website.

Articles of Interest:

Mitt Romney wants to cap tax deductions. Here are five ways to do it, Dylan Matthews, Washington Post, October 3, 2012  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/10/03/mitt-romney-wants-to-cap-tax-deductions-here-are-five-ways-to-do-it/

At Last Night’s Debate: Romney Told 27 Myths In 38 Minutes, Igor Volsky, Think Progress, Oct 4, 2012 http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/10/04/958801/at-last-nights-debate-romney-told-27-myths-in-38-minutes/

Sources and Citation:
1) Does Washington have a spending problem or an income problem? We offer some key facts, Fiscal FactCheck, FactCheck.org, July 15, 2011 http://www.factcheck.org/2011/07/fiscal-factcheck/

2) 46 Republicans Claim Wind Credits Are Too ‘Costly’ After Voting To Retain Billions In Big Oil Subsidies, Rebecca Leber, September 26, 2012 http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/09/26/909151/46-republicans-claim-wind-credits-are-too-costly-after-voting-to-retain-billions-in-big-oil-subsidies/

3) LM Wind Power Eliminates 345 Workers In New Round Of Layoffs, NAW Staff, North American WindPower, September 27, 2012 http://www.nawindpower.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.10464

4) Top Romney Adviser: States Will Have To Cover People With Pre-Existing Conditions Under President Romney, Brian Beutler, October 3, 2012 http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/10/top-romney-adviser-states-will-have-to-cover-people-with-pre-existing-conditions-under-president-rom.php

5) Healthcare Reform: Help For Americans With Pre-Existing Conditions, Families USA, May 2010 http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/publications/reports/health-reform/pre-ex-conditions-findings.html

Drinking In The Presidential Debate

That's right, a drinking game based on the first Presidential debate of 2012.

It's tonight, by the way.

You should know that, if you are American.

The debate starts tonight, October 3rd, 2012, at 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on your local channels. (Click for Time zone map for the time-zone-challenged) Tonight's debate focuses on DOMESTIC policy, that means things that will effect you and your fellow Americans on the home front. Social and economic issues: Equal rights (women's reproductive rights and fair pay, gay marriage rights, healthcare, ect.), economy (jobs, stock market, small business, big business, etc.) and education. From watching the weeks leading up to this debate, it's going to be sloppy, entertaining and, hopefully, informative. The Republican debate trainers has been touting it's "bag of zingers" for days...that Romney has been practicing some for months (maybe that's why he has no idea how to define his economic plan in specific numbers, to busy memorizing "zingers") - clueless as to how childish and petty that seems. The debate isn't about personal jabs and zingers, it's about the information people need to make an informed decision at the poles. There will likely be a couple heated moments. American people love theatrical drama, how else can you explain the "reality television" craze.

(Note: The Foreign Policy debate is October 22, 2012)

Yes. We're trying to make politic seem fun, because it's important. Some might disagree the importance of the government, but at this point in America, if we didn't have a government like we do we would surely be attacked by increasing amounts of "enemies" on our homeland.
If you don't think we have something that other countries want, you're kidding yourself.
And no, that thing they want it NOT freedom. There is actually a lot of freedom in a lot of countries, and a growing amount at that; it's narrow-minded, false-nationalistic, and xenophobic people who don't educate themselves that don't understand that. Who don't understand the atrocities and violence that are carried out each day in our own country, the ever increasing limit on personal freedom; who focus on the sensationalization of limited and targeted coverage of other countries by the television news organizations to juxtapose their own country. That thing that other countries want is land. Not the people, not the freedom.

BACK TO THE DRINKING GAME!

You should watch the debate, because word is the Mitt Romney is finally going to tell you what his plan it to help America, not simply that they have a "framework" that you should blindly trust. It's all well and good to claim you are going to help, but a growing number of people want to hear exactly how. Tonight has to be the night he tells us. It's a month until the election. (November 6, 2012)

Speaking of framework, that's one of the key, or buzz, words.

The list, in no particular order:
Economy
Jobs
Framework
Middle Class
Numbers

The "rules":
So, you take a drink when you hear these words. Simple as.
(For a get-you-drunk-faster-game, scroll down).

ALSO: No harassment if you are playing along on-line (we will be on-line with our usual snark). That's it. Don't be a fucking dick to people on Twitter (or Facebook, or G+, or whatever social media entity you use), try to be an adult, encourage discourse...and pay attention. Try to refrain from name-calling. Swearing is obviously okay, because we're all adults here, in theory.

REMEMBER: Tomorrow (Thursday), when you wake up... research things you've heard..and keep researching, keep reading, be informed, it's a few hours out of your life in the grand scheme of things. Ask questions, demand answers. Be informed.

RECOMMENDED FACT ✓CHECKING RESOURCES
Fact Check.org
Media Matters Action Network
Media Matters for America
Open Secrets - Center for Responsive Politics
PolitiFact

OR, alternatively you could play by this guideline, it's far more involved and you won't make it off the floor at the end of the night:

Thanks goes to @IAmTheCrew for sharing this today on Facebook!

Have fun, be safe, watch the debates.

On A Platform Of Understanding

We obviously had to watch some of the DNC (Democratic National Convention) this week, figuring it would only be fair after watching some of the RNC (Republican National Convention) last week - an entire evening of it, plus part of the next.

The only reason we were planning on not watching it is that we know the Democratic platform. We research and read about their platform all the time. We understand and agree with their platform. We had faith, and still do, that the claims they make will be based on, at least, well rounded facts and data...comparably anyway, when juxtaposed with the "content" of the Republican National Convention last week. We have faith that the Democratic platform involves real people helping real people, involves a more united philosophy, a free America. An America where the American Dream can be a real tangible thing.

And we'd be more familiar with the Republican platform...if they had a clear one that didn't primarily involve gutting the working people of the United States from both pocketbook and personal rights. If their platform didn't make our heart ache and our head pound...if it didn't conjure up images of donning a black veil for the death of the America we know.

We really wanted to watch the Democratic National Convention to see if they dropped as many outrageous "bombs" filled with lies that scattered shrapnel of wild-eyed hate, one way, or another, as the previous weeks political party convention had.

For all intent and purpose, the first night of the DNC was a yawner, for anyone who gets off on wild accusations and froths at the mouth with hatred for what they do not understand...well, there would be not wet panties or raging hard-ons. There wasn't hate-speech, or attacking, no wild accusations to incite rage.

Honestly we flipped the channel right before the speech made by Michelle Obama, which, from what we understand, was amazing. We were sure it was going to be touching, just as Ann Romney's appeared to be, and like we said, we know the platform. We know Mrs. Obama supports pro-choice, supports equal wages for women, supports love between any consenting adults. She supports women. She supports America.

The second night (Wednesday night) we didn't switch over once to the convention, but after Bill Clinton did his speech, we wish had. Twitter was all a flutter over him, even some of our most conservative Republican followers seemed enamoured. And when we flipped over to Facebook and The Father (our dad), our Right Wing Christian Republican father (hi, dad!) had written: "Ah ya, they don't call him slick Willie for nothin !" (not that he meant it in a positive way, however) on his Facebook page...well...there was no question about it, we were going to have to watch it.

So, we caught some highlights on CNN. And holy shit. We got the link this morning so we could watch it end to end (and supply it to you). It was everything a political speech should be.

Bill Clinton can talk, eloquent, witty, unaided by a Teleprompter, from his heart, and with honesty...not just because he believes what he is saying, but because what he is saying is true, and based on well-rounded data, research and facts.

In case you missed it...

 

(please let us know if this video gets removed from YouTube, or does not show up)

But what about the FACT checking? Just because we support the platform doesn't mean we are blind to folly. We wanted to make sure the people we support are keeping it on the up-and-up.

At the top of our morning our searches kept coming back to, and referencing, this article:

Fact check: Bill Clinton at the DNC
By Lori Robertson, with Eugene Kiely, Brooks Jackson and Robert Farley, FactCheck.org
USA Today, September 6, 2012
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-09-06/clinton-fact-check-democratic-convention/57627036/1

but if you want a quick video because...wow, you have read this far, and it's not over yet...then this brief (but not as in-depth) video from Bloomberg.com (we couldn't get the link to embed properly, so here is the link: No False Claims in Clinton's DNC Speech http://www.bloomberg.com/video/no-false-claims-in-clinton-s-dnc-speech-c2Ha7CgMRqm9CIwOZMH2mA.html (Bloomberg TV, September 6, 2012)

Of course you'll be able to find much more information, articles....and a whole lot of other opinion pieces, as the day progresses (For those "Google search challenged", you might want to try search words like "Bill Clinton" "DNC Speech" and "Fact Check"). Content full of information and specualtion about how facts may have been skewed, or how he mis-stepped in some places, how some of his claimed were a little exaggerated, just those same articles will be guilty of the same thing; and the opposition will come out with their guns blazing...but there's not much of a target for them; and it will make some of the more ignorant ones wild with rage and spew unfounded, angry, and hateful. Poor frustrated them.

It's sad to think of the people who will choose to vote this year based on personal agenda, like not being able to accept the idea of two consenting adults in love, of the same gender, being married - as if somehow it effects them on a daily basis; people who think the reproductive rights of a woman they don't know is their responsibility - even though it has nothing to do with them personally; wanting to "Keep America American" (funny enough the same slogan of the KKK in the 1920's), all the while destroying it - stripping people of their person freedom, making it harder to crawl from beneath poverty by reducing PELL grants for higher education, cutting nutrition programs in schools, reducing and wanting to eliminate fail-safes that so many American people depended on in the last recession, supporting big business by giving it more rights than people, keeping the American Dream just that, a dream.

These are parts of the Republican platform. All while doing things like registering their yachts in the Cayman Islands (to avoid taxes), cutting taxes for their rich friends, and hiding thier money in offshore accounts to avoid their responsibilities (taxes) as Americans - completely out of touch with what being American means.

That is not our America.

So, despite the possibility of both political party nominations being no better than the other, we are still going to vote, we are going to vote with the side that feels like it cares about the inalienable rights of the America people. The people who understand what it means to be a responsible compassionate American, and who understands that it doesn't mean forcing a personal, religious, agenda on people.

In the end, we feel even better about our vote than we did before. So much better that we're planning on donating, for the first time in our 15 years of adult voting ability, to a political party. Not just for us, for all the people our donation, our vote, stands for; women, children, the elderly, the poor and middle class, immigrants. For the people that make this country what it is. Our American family.

This year we're donating to the Barack Obama Presidential Campaign
https://contribute.barackobama.com/donation/index.html

Because we value truth, and we value freedom.
We value human rights and we value progress.
We value our future. We value America.
And we believe in America.