The Right Of Stupidity (Without A Clue)

Recently I had a conversation with a couple of friends in which I asked what they thought of African-American actress Stacey Dash’s support of Mitt Romney. They both said they didn’t understand the criticism as she’s entitled to free speech and can support whoever she likes and why don’t people just leave her alone. Their reaction surprised me a bit but I agreed with them…to a point. What angers me with people trotting out free speech rights is they assume those rights come without consequences. I think that most people will agree that Stacey Dash is an idiot and no one really cares what she thinks and in fact this may be some ridiculous effort to gain publicity because her career certainly isn’t going anywhere but come on, what did she think would happen? We are all free to express ideas and opinions but when someone exercises their right to free speech and calls you out on it you don’t have the right to whine like a bitch and claim your rights are being trampled. When you pose in a skimpy red bathing suit in front of the American flag and make stupid ass statements in support of candidates who are in direct opposition to your rights as not only a woman but as an African-American you come off as unintelligent and for lack of a better word Clueless and people are bound to react. The fact is everyone in America is entitled to free speech, it’s a constitutional right. Hell, you can support Bugs Bunny for president if you want but using my free speech rights, I’m also allowed to call you a dumb ass.

Using free speech as an excuse to be hateful, intolerant and discriminatory has become an all too common tool used by bigots, racists and homophobes. When Hank Williams, Jr. uses his first amendment right to make hateful racist statements regarding the President I am completely within my free speech rights to call him out as a bigot. If you as a businessman tell me you don’t like African-Americans because you believe them to be God’s mistake and you therefore support efforts to prevent them exercising their civil rights, it is completely within your rights as an American to say so. It is also within my rights as an American to make sure people are aware of your feelings and organize protests against your business. However, when tactics such as boycotting or even picketing are used or even if I’m critical of your statements suddenly I’m trouncing on your free speech rights and you portray yourself as the victim. And far too often people fall for it…Chick fil A anyone?

Stacey can't even articulate a coherent reason for her endorsement. She says “I chose Mitt not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character." Really Stacey? Character? (I’ll pause for a moment to allow Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to roll over in his grave) This character you support wants to cut aid to the poor and elderly, repeal healthcare for millions who otherwise would have no access, increase military spending for senseless wars, allow the rich to pay less in taxes than the poor and middle class and suppress your rights as a woman. Not to mention shipping his money to foreign banks avoiding income taxes and then refusing to divulge his tax returns …yeah, some character. All of this would have been obvious to her if she had spent more time researching Romney and his positions instead of tweeting her boobs out to the world. Of course her candidate with character also wants to cut funds to education which will only aid in producing more stupid people like herself.

Finally I gotta say I’m sick of people who say African-Americans vote based on color, which was an obvious inference in her statement. I’ve always found that to be so insulting as if we’re too stupid to vote intelligently. If this were true Herman Cain, Allen West and even Clarence Thomas would be a lot more popular in the black community. What’s more truthful is that White people are more likely to vote based on color…or the lack of it. How about we know to vote based on what’s best for us as a people and a community. How about we’re intelligent enough to know who the best candidate is regardless of race. How about we can’t comprehend why someone would endorse a man who lacks the aptitude to make up his mind and has demonstrated the inability to express a core principle or belief, a man who is clearly clueless about the less fortunate among us. How about that Stacey. Of course I wouldn’t want to trounce on your right to free speech by making you think so please, speak on…dumb ass.

Horses and Bayonets

Silly me, I had no idea Mitt Romney agreed with President Obama on so many of his administration’s policies but after watching last night’s third and final presidential debate it was abundantly clear. Mittens new strategy seems to be to just to repeat whatever the President says and act as though he said it first and then claim it was his own plan. He even said at one point during the debate, “I agree with the President but I would have done it earlier.” Really? That’s what ya got? President Obama came out strong. He was his usual cool self but this time he was completely in control. Several times he checked Romney on his lies and inconsistencies such as when he said to Romney, “I know you haven't been in a position to actually execute foreign policy, but every time you’ve offered an opinion you’ve been wrong.”…ZING! How do you come back from that? Well if you’re Mitt Romney you whine like a twelve year-old kid and accuse the President of attacking you. President Obama gave him a look that said “My bad ya little sissy, I thought this was a debate.”

As pointed out by the President, Romney was clearly out of his league on foreign policy. When asked about Egypt he said he agreed with the President and then brought up the U.S. economy. When President Obama responded and effectively tied the poor economy to Bush’s unpaid wars and tax breaks for the rich, Romney trotted out his deficient Five Point Plan again with those non-specific solutions. When the President said Iran would never have nuclear weapons as long as he was president, Romney responded by saying “Syria is Iran's only ally in the Arab world. It's their route to the sea”…ok, somebody has been studying the Sarah Palin book of geography. Syria and Iran are not even bordering countries and Iran is not exactly land locked. Has this man never heard of the Persian Gulf or the Gulf of Oman? Both are territorial waters of Iran buddy and lead directly to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. And by the way if you’re pretty much promising you’re going to attack a country, you might want to know where they’re located…just saying.

Throughout President Obama was quick witted in his responses which appeared to throw Romney off what little game he had. Take this exchange.

• Romney: ”Our naval fleet is the smallest it’s been since 1916”
• President Obama: “We also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military's changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.”
• Romney: “Waaa, why are you attacking me, waaa.”

Or how about this one from the President, “The 1980’s called and they want their foreign policy back.”…Hilarious!

Romney was sweating like a racehorse and came off as desperate and nonsensical. When responding to the fact that the president took out Osama Bin Laden he said “We can't kill our way out of this mess." And yet, not five minutes later he made a comment about killing our enemies Whenever he was clueless on a foreign policy question, he trotted out his memorized Republican talking points which again offer no specific solutions on how to fix problems and instead advance spiteful and bigoted ideas regarding the President such as his supposed World Tour apologizing for America, which never happened. President Obama was clearly in command of the truth and facts while Romney poked and twisted and lied as he's done all along. The man has never said anything of substance and will bend whichever way the wind blows. One minute he wants to partner with China the next minute they’re the enemy. Seriously, who was that man who showed up last night? He’s so far in the middle now he makes Bill Clinton look conservative. He's run his whole campaign with secrecy, dishonesty and vagueness and when the President finally called him out on it he claims he’s being attacked…not very presidential. Although President Obama did stare him down with a look that said “Tell one more lie asshole and I’m a fuck you up.”…made me nervous.

So anyway, looks like I was right. President Obama utilized Ali’s Rope a Dope strategy to full effect because last night was undoubtedly a knockout. Romney’s foreign policy knowledge, as well as his knowledge of geography are sadly lacking and would be disastrous for this country. President Obama has done an excellent job in exposing this man and hopefully American voters will see him for what he is. A man who has been all over the political map in his career and will say anything to get a vote then deny that he said it. How can anyone trust this man when you don't know what he actually stands for? Why is this even a race?

Rope a Dope

I’m sure everyone remembers the first time Muhammad Ali revealed his Rope a Dope technique if not let me just say it was really painful to watch. He lay back as George Foreman beat him like a runaway slave. After Foreman had tired himself out, Ali came off the ropes, went on the attack took charge of the fight and beat that ass. I can only hope that’s what President Obama had in mind at last night’s presidential debate because Mitt Romney was all over him. The President was his usual cool self although you could see he was visibly irritated with Romney and at one point I thought he might bitch slap him, maybe he should have, but he remained unprovoked.

Now to be clear Romney still hasn’t said anything of substance he just managed to say nothing louder. No details just “I’ve got a plan”, well what the hell is it? Why not share it, is it locked away in the Cayman Islands along with all the money you don’t pay taxes on? I kept hoping President Obama would employ more sarcasm like when he said, "At some point, you have to ask, is he keeping all these plans to replace programs secret because they're too good, "Families are going benefit too much from them?" Classic. And the lies, the fact checker sites almost crashed, they couldn’t handle the pressure. Apparently that’s Romney’s latest strategy, rather than flip flop as he usually does just deny, deny, deny. The man walked back so far on some of his core positions he had to hail a cab back to the debate. He denied his own tax plan, denied plans to cut Medicare, denied he was against government regulations, I was expecting him to deny he was at the debate next. So now suddenly he agrees with the President on just about everything…so why is he even running?

Say what you will about President Obama’s performance last night but he stayed on point and he remains likeable. Romney hogged the time and the spotlight avoiding questions, cutting off the moderator and several times flat out refusing to stop talking when asked, even insisting on the first question that he should get the last word before he even answered the question. The man obviously has no idea how arrogant, self-absorbed and obnoxious he really is. He always has that superior look on his face that says, “Now you know I’m smarter than you because I’m white, right?”…come on, we’ve all seen that look. And this man will throw anyone under the bus to win. At one point during the debate he even referred to his kids as liars to make a point…disgusting.

The funniest thing to me is how he insists that President Obama has been a partisan President refusing to work with Republicans. Huh??? This seems to be the latest talking point for conservatives, you know how the President is so difficult and hard to work with. Romney said that if elected he would sit down with Democrats the next day to work out a plan going forward and suggested President Obama should have done the same. Ok, but that would have been a little difficult considering the night he got elected Republicans were already behind closed doors into the wee hours of the morning plotting to ensure he would be a one term president…but he’s the one who’s partisan. I’m pretty sure they would have been all blurry eyed, grouchy and uncooperative from a lack of sleep…and would have blamed him.

So today all over the internet are claims that Romney won. Maybe, but what did he win really, loudest, rudest most self-important liar? Ok I’ll give him that but I don’t think that bought him any new votes. Sure he fired up his party but he had nothing of substance to say and I don’t think his blatant lies and distortions changed any minds. And now that he has so clearly changed his positions with those lies, he’s going to have to stick with them and if he doesn’t it will give President Obama more ammunition the next time out. At any rate this momentum will only last to the next debate and you never know what’s gonna come out of Vice-President Joe Biden’s mouth. He may call out Romney as the liar he is or he may tell Paul Ryan to kiss his ass…one can only hope. He may even stop the debate and ask for a moderator with some balls…something that definitely would have helped last night. To be honest by the last debate no one will even remember this one and by that time our President will be off the ropes.