....let me trip your fun meter
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Honey Boo Boo Beats Republican National Convention Coverage in Ratings
http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/entertainment-eonline/20120830/b342326/?cid=hero_media
The RNC asked Clint to speak about ObamaCare and he thought they said ObamaChair
A new poll reveals that Romney trails Clint Eastwood's empty chair after convention.
i'll bet they do
Jim Bob and Julie Sue were twins who couldn't find dates to the prom. So Julie Sue asked Jim Bob to go with her.
Jim Bob said, "No, you're my sister, that's gross."
Julie Sue said, "Come on. Promise me if you can't find another date, you'll take me." So Jim Bob said okay.
Well, Jim Bob couldn't find a date so he went with Julie Sue. They were just standing by the punch bowl, and Julie Sue asked Jim Bob to dance.
Jim Bob said, "No, you're my sister, that's gross."
Julie Sue said, "Come on. It'll be fun."
So Jim Bob said okay, and they had a great time. After the dance, Julie Sue asked Jim Bob to take her to Makeout Hill.
Jim Bob said, "No, you're my sister, it would be gross."
Julie Sue said, "We'll just talk, we don't talk anymore."
So Jim Bob said okay. They were at Makeout Hill talking, when Julie Sue moved to the backseat.
Julie Sue said, "Come on, Jim Bob, take me."
Jim Bob didn't argue.
When he moved on top of her, Julie Sue murmured, "You're a lot bigger than dad."
Jim Bob said back, "I know. Mom told me last night."
Although this married couple enjoyed their luxury fishing boat together, it was the husband who was always behind the wheel operating the boat. He was concerned about what might happen in an emergency. So one day out on the lake he suddenly said to his wife,
"Ok honey, this is a drill. Pretend that I am having a heart attack. You must get the boat safely to shore."
She was initially surprised and flustered, but she soon settled down and was able to safely drive the boat to shore.
Later that evening, the wife walked into the living room where her husband was watching television. She sat down next to him, grabbed the remote control, switched the channel, and said to him,
"OK honey, this is a drill. Pretend I'm having a heart attack. You must set the table, cook dinner, and wash the dishes."
One day Johnny asked his mom if she would kiss his cut and make it all better and the mother did and it worked . Later, when Johnny fell on his face and scraped his nose, his mommy kissed it. Johnny felt better and ran off with his toys.
Then he fell on his butt and ran to his mom crying.
The mother kissed his butt and the boy ran off with his stuffed animal. Later he came back and told his mom that his "peanuts" had been bitten and she has to suck the poison out.
She pulls down the little boys pants and sucks and sucks. Just then, the little boy says "no mom "peanuts" is my stuffed animal"
A man walked into a restaurant and seated himself. Soon, the waitress came over to take his order. "..and to drink?" she asked. The man said he would like coffee.
The waitress promptly returned with a cup of coffee, but spilled it on the man's lap when she stopped at the table.
"Oh my God! I am so sorry!"
"That's OK," the man said, sopping up the puddle on his pants with his a napkin. "But tell me, is this regular or decaf?"
"Regular," she replied.
"Oh great ... now this thing is going to be up all night!"
The doctor at the local health clinic was admonishing the redneck patient. "Until the penicillin cleans out your infection, you ain't to have no relations whatsoever!"
Pausing for a moment, the young patient replied, "Okay, but what about friends 'n neighbors?"
Q: What if mini-skirts got any shorter?
A: Well, there'll be two more cheeks to powder and much more hair to comb.
During a July revival an evangelist asked the people in line what they needed. Daze's request was for his hearing.
The evangelist spit on his finger, put it in the man's ear, prayed for him and asked him, "How's your hearing?"
Daze replied, "I don't know. It's not until next Tuesday."
i guess so altho i don't know the girls ;)
Dogs look up to you; cats look down at you; only a pig looks at you as an equal.
his hairline reminds me of eddie munster in the addams family ;)
It’s Becoming Clear That No One Actually Read Facebook’s IPO Prospectus Or Mark Zuckerberg’s Letter To Shareholders.
It’s Becoming Clear That No One Actually Read Facebook’s IPO Prospectus Or Mark Zuckerberg’s Letter To Shareholders.
kindly refer to this post asap
it applies to you
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=79123248
clint was a dolt u must admit that
it seemed so appropriate ;)
just for you and your gop ilk...
Women's 50 Rules For Dealing With Men
Do not say what you mean. Ever.
Be ambigious. Always.
Cry. Cry often. Tell them it's their fault.
Bring things up that were said, done, or thought years, months, or weeks ago. Get mad when they don't remember.
Make them apologize for everything.
Stash feminine products in their backpacks and in their books as cute reminders that you were thinking of them.
Gossip. Gossip about everything that walks.
Play Alanis Morissette's "You Outta Know," loud. Look at them. Smile.
Look them in the eye and start laughing.
Cry.
Get mad at them for everything.
Discuss your period in front of them. Watch them squirm.
Hold grudges.
Demand to be e-mailed. Often. Whine when they don't comply.
When complimented, make sure to be paranoid. Take nothing at face value.
Use daddy as a weapon. Tell them about his gun collection, his quick trigger finger, and his affection for his "little princess."
Be late for everything. Yell if they're late.
Talk about your ex-boyfriend 24-7. Compare and contrast.
Go everywhere in groups, especially the bathroom. Do nothing alone. Independence is a sign of weakness.
Cry.
Make them guess what you want and then get mad when they're wrong.
Plan little relationship anniversaries, i.e. the monthly anniversary of the time you saw each other in the library...for five minutes. Then get mad at them for forgetting. Then cry.
Fall for your FAC.
Gather many female friends and dance to "I Will Survive" while they are present. Sing all the words. Sing to them. Sing loud.
Correct their grammar.
Constantly claim you're fat. Ask them. Then cry, regardless of their answer.
Leave out the good parts in stories.
Make sure to only be interested in guys in the same friendship group. Make sure to cause trouble.
Make them wonder. Confusion is a good thing.
Cry.
Declare that you are not wacko.
Criticize the way they dress.
Criticize the music they listen to.
Criticize their hair.
Ignore them. When asked, "What's wrong?" tell them that if they don't know, you're not going to tell them.
Try to change them.
Try to mold them.
Try to get them to dance.
Pretend you're interested, lead them on, then feign ignorance when confronted.
Cry.
When they screw up, never let them forget it.
Make them stay at religious services until they are close to fainting. Just because.
Blame everything on PMS.
Blame everything on PMS only after it has been blamed on them.
Whenever there is silence ask them, "What are you thinking?"
Get mad if they don't notice a haircut. Even if it's only a half inch.
Read into everything.
Over-analyze everything.
Cry.
Make it your goal to make them cry.
Women's Rules for Men
The female always makes The Rules.
The Rules are subject to change without prior notification.
No male can possibly know all The Rules.
If the female suspects the male knows all The Rules, she must immediately change some or all of The Rules.
The female is never wrong.
If the female is wrong, it is due to a misunderstanding which was the direct result of something the male did or said wrong.
If Rule 6 applies, the male must apologize immediately for causing the misunderstanding.
The female may change her mind at any time.
The male must never change his mind without the expressed written consent of the female.
The female has every right to be angry and upset at any time.
The male must remain calm at all times, unless the female wants him to be angry or upset.
The female must under no circumstances let the male know whether or not she wants him to be angry or upset.
The male is expected to mind read at all times.
The male who does not abide by The Rules cannot take the heat, lacks backbone, and is a wimp.
Any attempt to document The Rules could result in bodily harm.
If the female has PMS, all The Rules are null and void.
The female is ready when she is ready.
The male must be ready at all times.
Men's Rules For Dealing With Women
Don't call. Ever.
Lie.
If you don't like a girl, don't tell her. It's more fun to let her figure it out by herself.
Be as ambiguous as possible.
If you lose something that belongs to someone else, tell them you mailed it to them.
No matter what, it isn't your fault.
Never ask for help. Even if you really, really need help.
Women like it when you ignore them.
If you hurt someone, pretend you care. Don't.
Tell her you will call. Then, refer back to rule #1.
Deny everthing. Everything.
Use the best break up line, "It's not you, it's me".
Don't have a clue. If you get a clue, pretend you didn't and disregard it.
Feelings? What feelings?
"Love" is not in your vocabulary. Don't even think about saying it.
ALWAYS apologize. NEVER mean it.
It's OK if you forget trivial things, like your girlfriend's birthday and eye color.
Ignorance solves problems. If you can't see them, they can't see you.
It is never your duty to take responsibility for your actions.
Don't ever notice anything.
If you cheat on a girl, but no one finds out, then technically you've done nothing wrong.
If the question begins with "why", the answer is "I don't know".
If you ever find yourself in a position where you have been proven wrong, blame others.
If anyone asks you for a favour -
(a) make a big deal about how hard it is for you to do it;
(b) remind them of this huge favor you've done for them at least every day for the rest of their life.
Lie.
Paul Ryan Speech Built On Demonstrably Misleading Assertions
The Federal Bailout That Saved Mitt Romney ...
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-federal-bailout-that-saved-mitt-romney-20120829
eastwood
embarrassing...kind of sad
ain't it supah :)
Fact Check. "Federal spending during Reagan's two terms (FY 1981–88) averaged 22.4% GDP, well above the 20.6% GDP average from 1971 to 2009.
In addition, the public debt rose from 26.1% GDP in 1980 to 41.0% GDP by 1988.
In dollar terms, the public debt rose from $712 billion in 1980 to $2,052 billion in 1988, a three-fold increase."
Congressional Budget Office
Republicans blocked every jobs bill, now Romney is saying he's going to give us jobs, question, HOW???
This is a global economy and Mitt is promising somthing that I know he can't deliver.
He has not talked about one job creating idea except opening up our national treasury to be exploited by the rich.
Both Willard and Ryan's record speak volumes about their intentions.
A good predictor of future behavior in most cases, is past behavior.
If they are elected let the crying games begin.
thanks for all the hard work u do ;)
The 10 Big Lies of Multi-Level Marketing
by Robert L. FitzPatrick
The multi-level marketing (MLM) field grows and its member companies multiply. Solicitations to join the movement seem to be everywhere. The impression accordingly grows that it is indeed the "wave of the future", a business model that is gaining momentum, growing in acceptance and legitimacy and, as its promoters claim, will eventually replace most other forms of marketing and sales. Many are led to believe the assertions that success can be found by anyone who faithfully believes in the system and steadfastly adheres to its methods and that, eventually, all of us will become MLM distributors.
My analysis of the MLM business is based upon fourteen years experience in corporate consulting specifically in the distribution field and more than 10 years of research and writing about the MLM model. This has included serving as expert witness in state and federal court cases, corresponding directly with more than 1,500 participants, writing a book, being interviewed for local and national radio, television, newspapers and magazines, and carefully studying numerous MLM marketing and pay plans.
This research has shown that the MLM business model, as it is practiced by most companies, is a marketplace hoax. In those cases, the business is primarily a scheme to continuously enroll distributors and little product is ever retailed to consumers who are not also enrolled as distributors.
In general, MLM industry claims of distributor income potential, its descriptions of the 'network' business model and its prophecies of a reigning destiny in product distribution have as much validity in business as UFO sightings do in the realm of science.
Financially, the odds for an individual to achieve financial success under those circumstances rival the odds of winning at the tables in Las Vegas.
The very legality of the MLM system rests tenuously upon a single 1979 ruling on one company. The guidelines for legality that are set forth in that ruling are routinely ignored by the industry. Lack of governing legislation or oversight by any designated authority also enables the industry to endure despite occasional prosecutions by state Attorneys General or the FTC.
MLM is not defined and regulated like, for instance, franchises are. MLMs can be established without federal or state approval. There is no federal law specifically against pyramid schemes. Many state anti-pyramid statutes are vague or weak. State or federal regulation usually involves first proving that the company is a pyramid scheme. This process can take years and by then, the damage to consumers is done. Indeed, even when MLM pyramids are shut down, often the promoters immediately set up new companies under new names and resume scamming the public.
MLM's economic score card is characterized by massive failure rates and financial losses for millions of consumers. Its structure in which positions on an endless sales chain are purchased by selling or buying goods is mathematically unsustainable and its system of allowing unlimited numbers of distributors in any market area is inherently unstable.
MLM's espoused core business - personal retailing - is contrary to trends in communication technology, cost-effective distribution, and consumer buying preferences. The retailing activity is, in reality, only a pretext for the actual core business - enrolling investors in pyramid organizations that promise exponential income growth.
As in all pyramid schemes, the incomes of those distributors at the top and the profits to the sponsoring corporations come from a continuous influx of new investors at the bottom. Viewed superficially in terms of company profits and the wealth of an elite group at the pinnacle of the MLM industry, the model can appear viable to the uninformed, just as all pyramid schemes do before they collapse or are exposed by authorities.
Deceptive marketing that ably plays upon treasured cultural beliefs, social and personal needs, and some economic trends account for MLM's growth, rather than its ability to meet any consumer needs. The deceptive marketing is nurtured by a general lack of professional evaluation or investigation by reputable business media. Consequently, a popular delusion is supported that MLM is a viable business investment or career choice for nearly everyone and the odds of financial success in the venture are comparable or better than other trades, professions, employment or business ventures.
MLM's true constituency is not the consuming public but rather hopeful investors. The market for these investors grows significantly in times of economic transition, globalization and employee displacement. Promises of quick and easy financial deliverance and the beguiling association of wealth with ultimate happiness also play well in this market setting. The marketing thrust of MLM is accordingly directed to prospective distributors, rather than product promotions to purchasers. Its true products are not long distance phone services, vitamin pills, health potions or skin lotions, but rather the investment propositions for distributorships, which are deceptively portrayed with images of high income, minimal time requirements, small capital investments and early success.
The word, lie, is provoking and it is used here for provocative purposes. At some level, everyone who participates in MLM in which little retailing is occurring is unconsciously lying to himself or herself. Many at the top of these organizations are consciously lying to everyone else. Deception is inherent in this type of MLM scheme and is pervasive in its marketing. Here are 10 of the biggest lies I have found to be present in almost every MLM I have encountered.
Lie #1: MLM is a business offering better opportunities for making large sums of money than all other conventional business and professional models.
Truth: For almost everyone who invests MLM turns out to be a losing financial proposition. This is not an opinion, but a historical fact. Consider some notable examples from among the largest MLMs.
In the largest of all MLMs, Amway, only 1/2 of one percent of all distributors make it to the basic level of "direct" distributor, and the average income of all Amway distributors is about $40 a month. That is gross income before taxes and expenses. When costs are factored, it is obvious that nearly all suffer a loss. Making it to "direct", however, is not a ticket to profitability, but to greater losses. When the Wisconsin Attorney General filed charges against Amway, tax returns from all distributors in the state revealed an average net loss of $918 for that state's "direct" distributors.
Extraordinary sales and marketing obstacles account for much of this failure, but even if the business were more feasible, sheer mathematics would severely limit the opportunity. The MLM type of business structure can support only a small number of financial winners. If a 1,000-person downline is needed to earn a sustainable income, those 1,000 will need one million more to duplicate the success. How many people can realistically be enrolled? Much of what appears as growth is in fact only the continuous churning of new enrollees. The money for the rare winners comes from the constant enrollment of armies of losers.
The vast majority of the losers in MLM drop out within a year. In a 1999 court case brought against Melaleuca, one of the country's largest MLMs, the company claimed it has the highest "retention" rate among distributors in the entire MLM industry. Melaleuca boasted a drop-out rate is 5.5% per month. This equates to about 60% per year, if the dropouts are replaced each month.
In its annual report to the SEC, Pre-Paid Legal, another large MLM, revealed that more than 1/2 of all its customers and distributors quit each year and are replaced by another group of hopeful investors.
This pattern of 50-70% of all distributors quitting within one year holds true also for NuSkin, the industry's second largest MLM. NuSkin also exemplifies the accompanying pattern in which a tiny percent of the distributors gain the majority of all company rebates. In 1998, NuSkin paid out 2/3rds of its entire rebates to just 200 upliners out of more than 63,000 "active" distributors. The money they received came directly from the unprofitably investments of the 99.7% of the others.
In 1995, Excel Communications, another "fast growing" MLM, reported to regulators an 86% turnover rate of distributors and 48% drop-out rate among all customers.
To obscure their dismal numbers, some MLMs classify their distributors as "active" and "inactive." The Active group includes only recent participants and those still buying products or receiving rebates. Payout and retention statistics are then disclosed only on the "active" group.
If ALL distributors who participate are included the losses and the average incomes are exposed as much worse. And, if all the distributors who enroll and quit over several years are included, the odds of success for a new distributor/investor are shown to be absurdly low. Yet, these companies typically advertise their business as "an opportunity of a life time" with "unlimited potential."
Lie #2: Network marketing is the most popular and effective new way to bring products to market. Consumers like to buy products on a one-to-one basis in the MLM model.
Truth: If you strip MLM of its hallmark activity of continuously reselling distributorships and examine its foundation, the one-to-one retailing of products to customers, you encounter an unproductive and impractical system of sales upon which the entire structure is supposed to rest. Personal retailing is a thing of the past, not the wave of the future. Retailing directly to friends on a one-to-one basis requires people to drastically change their buying habits. They must restrict their choices, often pay more for goods, buy inconveniently, and awkwardly engage in business transactions with close friends and relatives. The unfeasibility of door-to-door retailing is why MLM is, in reality, a business that just keeps reselling the opportunity to sign up more distributors.
Lie #3: Eventually all products will be sold by MLM, a new form of marketing. Retail stores, shopping malls, catalogues and most forms of advertising will soon be rendered obsolete by MLM.
Truth: MLM is not new. It has been around since the late 1960's. Yet, today it still represents less than one percent of US retail sales. In year 2000, total US retail sales were $3.232 trillion, according to the Dept. of Commerce. MLM's total sales are about $10 billion. That is about 1/3rd of one percent and most of this sales volume is accounted for by the purchases of hopeful new distributors who are actually paying the price of admission to a business they will soon abandon. Not only are MLM sales insignificant in the marketplace, but MLM fails as a sales model also on the other key factor maintaining customers. Most MLM customers quit buying the goods as soon as they quit seeking the "business opportunity." There is no brand loyalty.
These basic facts show that, as a marketing model, MLM is not replacing existing forms of marketing. It does not legitimately compete with other marketing approaches at all. Rather, MLM represents a new investment scheme that uses the language of marketing and sales of products. Its real products are distributorships which are sold with misrepresentation and exaggerated promises of income. People are buying products in order to secure positions on the sales pyramid. The possibility is always held out that you may become rich if not from your own efforts then from some unknown person who might join your 'downline,' the 'big fish' as they are called.
MLM's growth is a manifestation not of its value to the economy, customers or distributors but of the recently high levels of economic fear and insecurity and rising expectations of quick and easy wealth. It is growing in the same way day trading on the stock market, legalized gambling and lotteries are.
Lie #4: MLM is a new way of life that offers happiness and fulfillment. It is a means to attain all the good things in life.
Truth: The most prominent motivating appeal of the MLM industry as shown in industry literature and presented at recruitment meetings is the crassest form of materialism. Fortune 100 companies would blush at the excess of promises of wealth and luxury put forth by MLM solicitors. These promises are presented as the ticket to personal fulfillment. MLM's overreaching appeal to wealth and luxury conflicts with most people's true desire for meaningful and fulfilling work in something in which they have special talent or interest. In short, the culture of this business side tracks many people from their personal values and desires to express their unique talents and aspirations.
Lie #5: MLM is a spiritual movement.
Truth: The use of spiritual concepts like prosperity consciousness and creative visualization to promote MLM enrollment, the use of words like 'communion' to describe a sales organization, and claims that MLM is a fulfillment of Christian principles or Scriptural prophecies are great distortions of these spiritual practices. Those who focus their hopes and dreams upon wealth as the answer to their prayers lose sight of genuine spirituality as taught by all the great religions and faiths of humankind. The misuse of these spiritual principles should be a signal that the investment opportunity is deceptive. When a product is wrapped in the flag or in religion, buyer beware! The 'community' and 'support' offered by MLM organizations to new recruits are based entirely upon their purchases. If the purchases and enrollment decline, so does the 'communion.'
Lie #6: Success in MLM is easy. Friends and relatives are the natural prospects. Those who love and support you will become your lifetime customers.
Truth: The commercialization of family and friendship relations or the use of 'warm leads' which is required in the MLM marketing program is a destructive element in the community and very unhealthy for individuals involved. Capitalizing upon family ties and loyalties of friendships in order to build a business can destroy ones social foundation. It places stress on relationships that may never return to their original bases of love, loyalty and support. Beyond its destructive social aspects, experience shows that few people enjoy or appreciate being solicited by friends and relatives to buy products.
Lie #7: You can do MLM in your spare time. As a business, it offers the greatest flexibility and personal freedom of time. A few hours a week can earn a significant supplemental income and may grow to a very large income making other work unnecessary
Truth: decades of experience involving millions of people have proven that making money in MLM requires extraordinary time commitment as well as considerable personal wiliness, persistence and deception. Beyond the sheer hard work and special aptitude required, the business model inherently consumes more areas of ones life and greater segments of time. In MLM, everyone is a prospect. Every waking moment is a potential time for marketing. There are no off-limit places, people or times for selling. Consequently, there is no free space or free time once a person enrolls in MLM system.
Under the guise of creating money independently and in your free time, the system gains control and dominance over people's entire lives and requires rigid conformity to the program. This accounts for why so many people who become deeply involved end up needing and relying upon MLM desperately. They alienate or abandon other sustaining relationships.
Lie #8. MLM is a positive, supportive new business that affirms the human spirit and personal freedom.
Truth: MLM marketing materials reveal that much of the message is fear-driven and based upon deception about income potential. Solicitations frequently include dire predictions about the impending collapse of other forms of distribution, the disintegration or insensitivity of corporate America, and the lack of opportunity in other professions or services. Conventional professions, trades and business are routinely demeaned and ridiculed for not offering 'unlimited income.' Employment is cast as wage enslavement for 'losers.' MLM is presented as the last best hope for many people. This approach, in addition to being deceptive, frequently has a discouraging effect on people who otherwise would pursue their own unique visions of success and happiness. A sound business opportunity does not have to base its worth on negative predictions and warnings.
Lie #9. MLM is the best option for owning your own business and attaining real economic independence.
Truth: MLM is not true self-employment. 'Owning' an MLM distributorship is an illusion. Some MLM companies forbid distributors from carrying additional lines. Most MLM contracts make termination of the distributorship easy and immediate for the company. Short of termination, downlines can be taken away with a variety of means. Participation requires rigid adherence to the 'duplication' model, not independence and individuality. MLM distributors are not entrepreneurs but joiners in a complex hierarchical system over which they have little control.
Lie #10: MLM is not a pyramid scheme because products are sold.
Truth: The sale of products is in no way a protection from anti-pyramid scheme statutes or unfair trade practices set forth in federal and state law. MLMs that sell useful, quality products have been successfully prosecuted under anti-pyramid scheme laws by state and federal officials. MLM is a legal form of business only under certain rigid conditions set forth by the FTC and state Attorneys General. Many MLMs are currently in gross violation of these guidelines and operate only because they have not been prosecuted. Recent court rulings are using a 70% rule to determine an MLM's legality. At least 70% of all goods sold by the MLM company must be purchased by non-distributors. This standard would place most MLM companies outside the law. The largest of all MLMs acknowledges that only 18% of its sales are made to non-distributors.
Robert Fitzpatrick is president of Pyramid Scheme Alert and co-author of the book, False Profits: Seeking Financial and Spiritual Deliverance in Multi-level Marketing and Pyramid Schemes. He is the publisher of THE EAGLE, a quarterly journal on distribution-related issues in the printing and digital imaging industries, continuously published since 1981. He is an author of numerous articles and monographs on distributor marketing in mature industries and he has provided direct consulting services to major manufacturers and distributors including DuPont, Fuji Film USA, Polaroid, and many others. He is a featured speaker at corporate and trade association conferences in the US and abroad. He occasionally serves as expert witness in cases brought by state Attorneys General or by distributors against multi-level marketing companies charged with operating as pyramid schemes. Robert Fitzpatrick can be reached at 1522 Lilac Rd., Charlotte, NC 28209, Tel: (704) 334-2047, email: RFitzPatrick@pyramidschemealert.org, websites: http://www.pyramidschemealert.org and http://www.falseprofits.com
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Mitt Romney launched his fall campaign for the White House in a Republican National Convention finale Thursday night, declaring "what America needs is jobs, lots of jobs" and promising he has a plan to create 12 million of them.
"Now is the time to restore the promise of America," Romney said in excerpts released in advance of his prime-time speech to a nation struggling with 8.3 percent unemployment and the slowest economic recovery in decades.
"Many Americans have given up on this president, but they haven't ever thought about giving up. Not on themselves, Not on each other. And not on America," Romney said. Romney muted his criticism in the advance excerpts of President Barack Obama, his quarry in a close and unpredictable race for the White House.
"I wish President Obama had succeeded because I want America to succeed," he said. "But his promises gave way to disappointment and division." "This isn't something we have to accept," he said, appealing to millions of voters who say they are disappointed in the president yet haven't yet decided to cast their votes for his Republican challenger.
In a speech that blended the political and the personal, Romney talked in his excerpts of the importance of the love he felt from his parents and that he and his wife Ann have sought to give their children and grandchildren.
"All the laws and legislation in the world will never heal this world like the loving hearts and arms of mothers and fathers," he said. Yet the economy is issue No. 1 in the race for the White House, and Romney presented his credentials as the man better equipped than the president to help create jobs.
"When I was 37, I helped start a small company," he said. "That business we stated with 10 people has now grown into a great American success story." More than the political hoopla, the evening marked one of a very few opportunities any presidential challenger is granted to appeal to millions of voters in a single night.
The two-month campaign to come includes other big moments — principally a series of one-on-one debates with Democrat Obama — in a race for the White House that has been close for months. In excess of $500 million has been spent on campaign television commercials so far, almost all of it in the battleground states of Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada.
Romney holds a fundraising advantage over Obama, and his high command hopes to expand the electoral map soon if post-convention polls in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and perhaps elsewhere indicate it's worth the investment.
Romney's aides scripted a Thursday night program that included a video tribute to Ronald Reagan, the two-term president revered still by conservatives. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush also had his moment on the podium, and Newt and Callista Gingrich shared one of their own.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was tapped to introduce Romney. Romney aides said the convention's final night was designed to fill out a portrait of the GOP nominee as a successful businessman, last-minute savior for a troubled 2002 Olympics and a man of family and faith. A portion of the convention podium was rebuilt overnight so he would appear surrounded by delegates rather than speaking from a distance, an attempt to soften his image as a stiff and distant candidate.
But these aides did not say whether he would offer any new information on what has so far been a short-on-details pledge to reduce federal deficits and create 12 million jobs in a country where unemployment stands at 8.3 percent.
Romney has called for extension of tax cuts due to expire at all income levels at the end of the year, and has proposed an additional 20 percent cut in tax rates across the board. But he has yet to sketch out the retrenchment in tax breaks that he promises to prevent deficits from rising.
Nor has he been forthcoming about the trillions in spending cuts that would be needed to redeem his pledge of major deficit reduction, or about his promise to rein in Medicare or other government benefit programs before they go broke.
His vice presidential running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, has called for remaking Medicare into a program in which the government would send seniors checks to be used to purchase health care insurance.
Under the current approach, beneficiaries pay premiums to the government, which then pays a part of all of their medical bills, and Democrats say the GOP alternative would expose seniors to ever-rising out-of-pocket costs.
Romney said in his fundraising email, as he often does in his speeches, "We believe in America, even though President Barack Obama's failed policies have left us with record high unemployment, lower take-home pay and the weakest economy since the great Depression."
Obama's surrogates missed no opportunity to criticize Romney, the convention proceedings or Ryan's own acceptance speech. "He lied about Medicare. He lied about the Recovery Act," Obama's campaign manager, Jim Messina, emailed Democratic donors in a plea for cash.
"He lied about the deficit and debt. He even dishonestly attacked Barack Obama for the closing of a GM plant in his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin — a plant that closed in December 2008 under George W. Bush."
For Romney, 65 and the first Mormon to become a major party presidential nominee, the evening sealed a triumph more than five years in the making. He ran unsuccessfully for the nomination in 2008 after a single term as a moderate Republican governor of a liberal Democratic state.
This year, as then, he was assailed as a convert to conservatism, and a questionable one at that, as Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and other rivals battled him for the nomination. With a superior organization and an outside group that spent millions criticizing his foes, Romney eventually emerged as the nominee in early spring.
His selection of Ryan, a young lawmaker admired by fellow conservatives for his understanding of the federal budget, reinforced Romney's appeal to the right. The economy alone makes the race a close one, and polling makes clear that Romney enters the fall campaign with strengths and weaknesses.
In the most recent Associated Press-GfK poll, conducted Aug. 16-20, some 48 percent of registered voters said Romney would do a better job handling the economy, while 44 percent chose Obama. The Republican was also favored narrowly on job creation and held a 10-point advantage on the issue of reducing federal budget deficits.
Yet by 51-36, registered voters said Obama better understands the problems of people like them, that the president is a stronger leader and also a more honest and trustworthy candidate. Polls also show Romney trails Obama among female voters and Hispanics, and the convention was scripted from beginning to end to try and cut into the GOP ticket's disadvantages in those areas.
The first night of the GOP convention drew an estimated 22.3 million TV viewers, the vast majority over 55. The Nielsen ratings company said that figure was down from the 23.1 million who watched the first full night of the 2008 convention, which nominated John McCain. Nielsen said just 1.5 million of those who watched Tuesday's convention session were in the 18-34 age group.
rec'd via an email
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Mitt Romney launched his fall campaign for the White House in a Republican National Convention finale Thursday night, declaring "what America needs is jobs, lots of jobs" and promising he has a plan to create 12 million of them.
"Now is the time to restore the promise of America," Romney said in excerpts released in advance of his prime-time speech to a nation struggling with 8.3 percent unemployment and the slowest economic recovery in decades.
"Many Americans have given up on this president, but they haven't ever thought about giving up. Not on themselves, Not on each other. And not on America," Romney said. Romney muted his criticism in the advance excerpts of President Barack Obama, his quarry in a close and unpredictable race for the White House.
"I wish President Obama had succeeded because I want America to succeed," he said. "But his promises gave way to disappointment and division." "This isn't something we have to accept," he said, appealing to millions of voters who say they are disappointed in the president yet haven't yet decided to cast their votes for his Republican challenger.
In a speech that blended the political and the personal, Romney talked in his excerpts of the importance of the love he felt from his parents and that he and his wife Ann have sought to give their children and grandchildren.
"All the laws and legislation in the world will never heal this world like the loving hearts and arms of mothers and fathers," he said. Yet the economy is issue No. 1 in the race for the White House, and Romney presented his credentials as the man better equipped than the president to help create jobs.
"When I was 37, I helped start a small company," he said. "That business we stated with 10 people has now grown into a great American success story." More than the political hoopla, the evening marked one of a very few opportunities any presidential challenger is granted to appeal to millions of voters in a single night.
The two-month campaign to come includes other big moments — principally a series of one-on-one debates with Democrat Obama — in a race for the White House that has been close for months. In excess of $500 million has been spent on campaign television commercials so far, almost all of it in the battleground states of Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada.
Romney holds a fundraising advantage over Obama, and his high command hopes to expand the electoral map soon if post-convention polls in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and perhaps elsewhere indicate it's worth the investment.
Romney's aides scripted a Thursday night program that included a video tribute to Ronald Reagan, the two-term president revered still by conservatives. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush also had his moment on the podium, and Newt and Callista Gingrich shared one of their own.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was tapped to introduce Romney. Romney aides said the convention's final night was designed to fill out a portrait of the GOP nominee as a successful businessman, last-minute savior for a troubled 2002 Olympics and a man of family and faith. A portion of the convention podium was rebuilt overnight so he would appear surrounded by delegates rather than speaking from a distance, an attempt to soften his image as a stiff and distant candidate.
But these aides did not say whether he would offer any new information on what has so far been a short-on-details pledge to reduce federal deficits and create 12 million jobs in a country where unemployment stands at 8.3 percent.
Romney has called for extension of tax cuts due to expire at all income levels at the end of the year, and has proposed an additional 20 percent cut in tax rates across the board. But he has yet to sketch out the retrenchment in tax breaks that he promises to prevent deficits from rising.
Nor has he been forthcoming about the trillions in spending cuts that would be needed to redeem his pledge of major deficit reduction, or about his promise to rein in Medicare or other government benefit programs before they go broke.
His vice presidential running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, has called for remaking Medicare into a program in which the government would send seniors checks to be used to purchase health care insurance.
Under the current approach, beneficiaries pay premiums to the government, which then pays a part of all of their medical bills, and Democrats say the GOP alternative would expose seniors to ever-rising out-of-pocket costs.
Romney said in his fundraising email, as he often does in his speeches, "We believe in America, even though President Barack Obama's failed policies have left us with record high unemployment, lower take-home pay and the weakest economy since the great Depression."
Obama's surrogates missed no opportunity to criticize Romney, the convention proceedings or Ryan's own acceptance speech. "He lied about Medicare. He lied about the Recovery Act," Obama's campaign manager, Jim Messina, emailed Democratic donors in a plea for cash.
"He lied about the deficit and debt. He even dishonestly attacked Barack Obama for the closing of a GM plant in his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin — a plant that closed in December 2008 under George W. Bush."
For Romney, 65 and the first Mormon to become a major party presidential nominee, the evening sealed a triumph more than five years in the making. He ran unsuccessfully for the nomination in 2008 after a single term as a moderate Republican governor of a liberal Democratic state.
This year, as then, he was assailed as a convert to conservatism, and a questionable one at that, as Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and other rivals battled him for the nomination. With a superior organization and an outside group that spent millions criticizing his foes, Romney eventually emerged as the nominee in early spring.
His selection of Ryan, a young lawmaker admired by fellow conservatives for his understanding of the federal budget, reinforced Romney's appeal to the right. The economy alone makes the race a close one, and polling makes clear that Romney enters the fall campaign with strengths and weaknesses.
In the most recent Associated Press-GfK poll, conducted Aug. 16-20, some 48 percent of registered voters said Romney would do a better job handling the economy, while 44 percent chose Obama. The Republican was also favored narrowly on job creation and held a 10-point advantage on the issue of reducing federal budget deficits.
Yet by 51-36, registered voters said Obama better understands the problems of people like them, that the president is a stronger leader and also a more honest and trustworthy candidate. Polls also show Romney trails Obama among female voters and Hispanics, and the convention was scripted from beginning to end to try and cut into the GOP ticket's disadvantages in those areas.
The first night of the GOP convention drew an estimated 22.3 million TV viewers, the vast majority over 55. The Nielsen ratings company said that figure was down from the 23.1 million who watched the first full night of the 2008 convention, which nominated John McCain. Nielsen said just 1.5 million of those who watched Tuesday's convention session were in the 18-34 age group.
spot on
6 Worst Lies In Paul Ryan’s Speech
By Aviva Shen posted from ThinkProgress Election on Aug 30, 2012 at 9:38 am
Vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is taking flack on the morning news shows for his keynote address at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night. His speech was riddled with false claims, so much so that even Fox News wrote, “To anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to facts, Ryan’s speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech.”
Here are the most glaring lies from his speech:
1. “A downgraded America.” Ryan blamed the president for the nation’s credit downgrade in August 2011 after Republicans threatened to allow the government to default on its debt for the first time in history. But the ratings agency explicitly blamed “Republicans saying that they refuse to accept any tax increases as part of a larger deal.”
2. “More debt than any other president before him, and more than all the troubled governments of Europe combined.” Romney has made the almost identical claim, that Obama has amassed more debt “as almost all of the other presidents combined.” But their math doesn’t add up: when Obama took office, the national debt was $10.626 trillion. It has increased to slightly above $15 trillion.
3. Shuttered General Motors plant is “one more broken promise.” Ryan described a GM plant that closed down in his hometown, Janesville, Wisconsin, and blamed Obama for breaking his promise to keep the plant open when he visited during his campaign. But Obama never made that promise, and the plant shut down in December 2008, before Obama even took office.
4. Obama “did exactly nothing” on Bowles-Simpson. Ryan said, “He created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.” In fact, Ryan was instrumental in sabotaging the commission, leading the other House Republicans in voting against the plan.
5. “$716 billion, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama.” Ryan’s favorite lie is a deliberate distortion of Obamacare’s savings from eliminating inefficiencies. Furthermore, Ryan’s own plan for Medicare includes these savings. Romney has vowed to restore these cuts, which would render the trust fund insolvent 8 years ahead of schedule.
6. “The greatest of all responsibilities is that of the strong to protect the weak.” Ryan closed the speech with an invocation of social responsibility, saying, “The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves.” However, numerous clergy members have condemned Ryan’s budget plan as “cruel,” and “an immoral disaster” because of its devastating cuts in social programs the poor and sick rely on. Meanwhile, Ryan would give ultra-rich individuals and corporations $3 trillion in tax breaks.
its congress as well you know going from 10 trillion to 17.5 Trillion next year in 5 years time from 2008 to 2013 that's 75% growth rate in debt in 5 years time that's unsustainable.
Amazing we can have record debt at record low interest rates... and with record breaking budget deficient its really record breaking if you do it according to GAAP Accounting and include unfunded liabilities like social security and medicare liabilities...
Anyway it's a Huge Debt Bubble and when it goes bust and by bust i mean when interest rates start to rise and the value of bonds start to fall and all the banks and everyone is caught holding the bag then the party will be over.
If you think that the house bubble bust was bad just wait till the debt bubble bust happens you haven't seen nothing yet that will send the economy into a tail spin...
17.5 Trillion Every 1% rise in rates would cost the federal goverment a extra 175 Billion a year in intrest payments
2% 350 Billion in increased payments
3% 525 Billion
4% 700 Billion or about what we spend on Defense each year
5% 875 Billion anyway you see how this spirals out of control
7% like Spain today 1.2 Trillion Dollars or Half the federal tax revenues
anything higher then that and yeah over half every tax dollar goes to just pay interest on the national debt its a receipt for bankruptcy
and hell like i said they dont even include the debt numbers for social security or medicare in those figures start to figure that crap in and hell the numbers goes off the charts its astronomical
We're a bankrupt national spiraling out of control in debt and its a ticking time bomb that will one day explode in all our faces
Well, after reading this headline, I bet many ain't voting for Mitt
"In a rather alarming headline broken by Poker Players Alliance (PPA)
Vice President of Player Relations Rich TheEngineer Muny on Tuesday
afternoon, a GOP platform entitled "Renewing American Values" calls for
the prohibition of internet gambling. The platform was finalized on Tuesday
night with the anti-internet gambling language included."
It's trivial to most but I loved to play poker on the internet, from the
safety and comfort of my own home. Saved money also from not
having the extra costs of driving 2 hours to the nearest casino.
But hey, if I want to spend unlimited cash at the local grocery store
on lottery tickets and scratch offs, that's perfectly fine.
I just wish the govt. would let me make my own decisions when it comes
to how I want to spend my time and money. Money that I paid taxes on.
Mitt just cost himself a ton of votes imo with this talk of banning online
gambling. Most of the Vegas casinos are already set up for online poker,
just waiting for the govt. to legalize and regulate it. You start threatening to
erase future millions of dollars in revenue from the heavy hitters and you
might end up losing the election.
Hopefully.
Paul Ryan has never had a Non Govt Job
ok maybe in hi school he mowed grass
but as an adult he's never had a job...
outside govt first as a staffer then speechwriter then got elected
and this is the guy that says people should not rely on the federal govt?
does he think we are complete idiots?
Romney Adviser Admits GOP Budget ‘Probably Doesn’t’ Have Support In ‘Most Places’
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