The Ultimate Reason to Vote Against Romney

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

In the year 2000, Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital took over KB Toys, a company that has made children happy since 1922.

In no time flat, Mitt Romney and his associates saddled KB with massive debt and drove it into bankruptcy while pocketing $83 million dollars for themselves.

The ramifications of this are obvious:

Mitt Romney doesn’t care about making children happy.

Mitt Romney doesn’t care about toys.

If Mitt Romney doesn’t care about making children happy and Mitt Romney doesn’t care about toys…

It means Mitt Romney doesn’t care about Santa.

And if Mitt Romney doesn’t care about Santa, then Mitt Romney doesn’t care about Christmas.

And if Mitt Romney doesn’t care about Christmas, then that means he’s part of the war against Christmas.

Don’t join the war against Christmas.

Vote Obama.

Thank you.

PAD

76 comments on “The Ultimate Reason to Vote Against Romney”

  5. Sorry, Mr. David, I see what you’re trying in this post, but I call B.S. I can’t imagine a stronger supporter of Christmas than Romney in the White House. He’s someone who would actually support things like saying a good old “Merry Christmas” instead of (always) “Happy Holidays,” as well as things like keeping God’s name and the American flag in public places, something so many Democrats seem to be opposed to . . .

    1. Drew,

      (1) Grow a sense of humor.

      (2) Learn reality and facts and not talking points.

      President Obama – “So I want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas, happy holidays, a happy New Year to you and your families — and that includes everybody here in the press corps. I know you guys have been working hard, and your families will be happy to spend a little more time with you over the next few days.

      I also want to make sure to send the warmest holiday wishes to all the men and women in uniform who are serving overseas right now and may not have a chance to see their families during this holiday season. We are grateful for everything that you do.

      All right? Thank you, guys. Aloha.”

      With video – http://www.mediaite.com/tv/president-obama-violates-newt-gingrichs-fake-merry-christmas-rule-in-payroll-tax-cut-victory-speech/

      2. By the way, here’s another strong supporter of Christmas and big Christian value guy –

        Bush ‘Holiday’ Cards Cause Stir

        Some U.S. conservative Christians who received Christmas cards from the White House this month are grumbling that something was missing, Christmas.

        As in every December since President George W. Bush took office, he sent out cards with a generic message, wishing 1.4 million supporters a happy “holiday season.”

        Bush “claims to be a born-again, evangelical Christian. But he sure doesn’t act like one,” Joseph Farah, editor of the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com, told The Washington Post. “I threw out my White House card as soon as I got it.”

        …

        “A spokeswoman for Laura Bush said while the first couple celebrates Christmas themselves, they wanted an inclusive greeting to be respectful of other traditions.”

        http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-250_162-1103160.html

        So tell us again how these talking points substitute for reality how?

      3. And, Drew? One last one.

        Romney wants his logo on your Christmas presents

        “But maybe we shouldn’t call them Christmas presents. Each Romney branded tag reads “Happy Holidays” instead of Merry Christmas. . .

        Merry Mittmas everybody!”

        So tell us again how these talking points of yours substitute for the reality the rest of us live in… how?

        (And for everyone else, yes, I’m being an absolute bášŧárd today. Thank you for noticing.)

    2. Drew, do you ever notice how a six-and-a-half line comment from a conservative always draws hald a dozen three-and-a-half page retorts from Jerry Chandler?

      For those without a sense of humor who just want the actual facts, here is the Bloomberg report on why KB Toys went bankrupt:

      Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) — KB Toys Inc., the 86-year-old toy retailer, filed for bankruptcy with plans to close its stores, citing a “sudden drop” in sales in the past two months.

      The Chapter 11 filing comes three years after KB Toys ended a previous bankruptcy by closing almost half of its 1,200 stores. The chain has shut hundreds more since amid increased competition from Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Toys “R” Us Inc. and Target Corp., which together control about two-thirds of the U.S. toy market, according to industry analyst Sean McGowan.

      “Just about everyone I’ve talked to in the toy industry has been concerned about their survival for years,” McGowan, at Needham & Co. in New York, said in an interview.

      KB Toys, based in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, operates 277 mall-based stores and 154 locations in outlet malls or strip centers. Its bankruptcy follows that of retailers Linens ‘n Things Inc., Circuit City Stores Inc. and Steve & Barry’s LLC heading into what may be the worst holiday-shopping season in four decades.

      “I think we’ll see more bankruptcies in the first six months of next year than we’ve seen in the past five years combined,” Britt Beemer, chairman and founder of America’s Research Group, said today in a Bloomberg Radio interview. “We’re in a retail environment that clearly I would describe as a retail freefall.”

      Distribution Sale

      KB Toys will try to sell its wholesale distribution business, according to papers filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware. The fate of its online operation, which sells toys and games through the http://www.kbtoys.com Web site, wasn’t mentioned in the court filing.

      More than a dozen U.S. retailers have entered bankruptcy this year as consumers cut spending during a yearlong recession, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Circuit City and Boscov’s Inc. have said they will reorganize and leave court protection as smaller chains, while Linens ‘n Things, Sharper Image Corp., and Value City Department Stores LLC all plan to liquidate.

      KB Toys owes as much as $500 million to creditors and has assets valued at the same amount, according to today’s filing. The debt includes $190 million owed to lenders. Among the top unsecured creditors listed in court papers are Li & Fung Toy Manufact 1/F, Hong Kong Spinners Inc., owed $27.2 million, and Mattel Inc., owed $1.3 million.

      Prentice Capital

      The company is controlled by Prentice Capital Management Inc., which acquired a majority stake when KB Toys left bankruptcy three years ago.

      Joel Waite, a lawyer for KB Toys, wasn’t immediately available for comment. Geoffrey Webb, the company’s director of advertising, didn’t immediately return a call.

      Of KB Toys’ almost 11,000 employees, about 6,500 are temporary workers brought in for the holidays, Controller Raymond Borst said in court documents.

      The company said it has about $480 million in sales annually, making it the leading mall-based toy retailer in the U.S. KB Toys holds no more than 2 percent of the U.S. toy market, and most of those sales will be absorbed by its three biggest rivals, McGowan said.

      20 Percent Drop

      Sales were little changed from Feb. 3 until Oct. 4, KB Toys said. Since then, sales have dropped almost 20 percent, the company said.

      “The liquidity crisis is directly attributable to a sudden and sharp decline in consumer sales,” Borst said in court documents.

      The company offered buy-two, get-one-free on its entire stock of Barbie dolls and accessories and Fisher-Price preschool toys until 12 p.m. on the day after Thanksgiving. On its Web site, KB Toys is selling dolls for as much as one-third off, electronics for as much as 50 percent off, and learning systems for as much as 75 percent off.

      McGowan estimates toy sales will drop 4 percent to 5 percent in the holiday season and about 4 percent for 2008. The holiday fourth quarter comprised 55 percent of Mattel’s total sales last year and 40 percent for Hasbro Inc., the maker of Transformers action figures and the Monopoly board game.

      McGowan said KB Toys also was hurt by “factors that were present in their first bankruptcy.” The company’s costs are too high, it struggles to compete with Wal-Mart, the toy industry isn’t growing much, and the retailer doesn’t carry video games, he said.

      The case is In re KB Toys Inc., 08-13269 U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

      * * *

      P.S. For anyone who cares to look further, go to the inflation charts and tables for the Fed and the ECB from 2007-2008. The central banks ran a stop sign in the fall of 2007 and, instead of making everyone take their whups for all the funny-money frauds, tried to keep all the balls in the air for another year, only to see the roof fall in. Yes, Jerry, it was George Bush’s Fed, but four years of Obama has not changed the funny-money policy, as anyone who watched last week’s press conference can tell you.

      Bernanke’s next target? Geoffry the giraffe!

      1. What’s it like having me in your head like that, Robert?

        What’s it like having me so much into your consciousness that you address entire rebuttals to other people’s points to me despite my not even having made a comment on the specifics of what you think you’re rebutting? How does it feel living with what appears to be such an unhealthy obsession with me that you obviously can’t even address Peter’s comments here without linking them to my postings and addressing them to me?

        And, by the way, you’re wrong in your rebuttal of Peter’s point. That line you quoted above?

        McGowan said KB Toys also was hurt by “factors that were present in their first bankruptcy.”

        That was about Bain Capital.

        Bain Capital paid $300 million for KB Toys in December of 2000.But, Bain Capital only put $18.1 million into the deal. They borrowed the rest and used KB itself as collateral. Then, less than two years later, KB Toys had to take out bank loans, more debt, to fund executive bonuses and dividends to Bain Capital totaling more than $120 million. In just about 16 months, Bain Capital had easily quadrupled its $18.1 million investment. It also crippled KB.

        When KB Toys then closed a number of stores and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early 2004, creditors alleged that the dividend deal and debt left from the Bain Capital dealings had weakened the company. They even sued various Bain entities and executives to get some of the money from the dividend deal back. KB Toys eventually emerged from bankruptcy proceedings in 2005 but, in a very much weakened state, they then fell victim to the economic crisis in 2008 and were liquidated.

        And that’s the Bain Capital model.

        Bain Capital made it pretty much impossible for KB and its new owners to do anything. They no longer had any capital with which to work at changing their business model and to fall back on at the start of the economic crash in late 2007 and 2008. But Bain Capital made millions by killing that company.

        The only aspect of this that comes under any question insofar as Mitt Romney is the time frame. When Newt launched his ad campaign and his PAC did it’s short, film-like piece on Romney, Romney was claiming no involvement at all with Bain Capitol after 1999. That defense is now in question. It’s also somewhat irrelevant in a way since Bain Capital did to KB what Romney helped to design Bain Capital to do and what Bain Capital did to other companies while Romney was absolutely connected to Bain Capital.

        That’s the Romney business model. That’s how he made millions. He took things over, he stripped them, he pocketed millions and then he walked away, let the businesses die and moved on to his next victims while businesses closed and people became jobless.

        That’s his business experience. And it’s his business experience that he’s claiming will make him a great POTUS.

        Yeah, no thanks.

  9. Hey, I watch my TV shows on DVD and don’t have cable or even local TV, so if this was a parody, I missed it. I’m sure you miss things sometimes too.

    Second, nowhere did I say that President Obama wasn’t a supporter of Christmas or the other things I mentioned. I’m not familiar about his views on such things. All I said was that Romney is. There’s a difference there.

    Is it too early to wish everyone a merry Christmas? 😉

    2. Cute how you skip over the broad generalization you made about Dems wanting to end Christmas and hide flags….

  10. You should send this to O’Reilly during the middle of his annual, bogus “War on Christmas” crusade (made funnier by the fact that he and Fox News sold “holiday” ornaments and such in their web shops until it was pointed out in the media by others.) It would be fun watching his head explode.

  11. Something else to keep in mind is that there’s a difference between someone trying to be inclusive and using “Happy Holidays” and someone else saying that “Merry Christmas” is politically incorrect and you should ONLY use “Happy Holidays.” We have lots of synonyms in English, and “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays” generally fill the same role for me. I use both. Heck, if I’m speaking to a Jewish friend, I intentionally use “Happy Holidays” (no need to be an absolute b@st—er, to be rude 😉 ).

    Just because I (or someone else) use “Happy Holidays” doesn’t mean I’m opposed to the use of “Merry Christmas.” It’s only when people try to tell me that I can’t or shouldn’t use “Merry Christmas” that my feathers get ruffled. It all comes down to word choice and having the ability to express yourself the way you want to.

    (And speaking of word choice, I apologize to anyone who noticed my use of the odd phrase “familiar about” above. It may not bug anyone else, but it makes me cringe, a classic case of swapping out a group of verbs and missing swapping out the preposition [“I don’t know much about” –> “I’m not familiar about”]. Oh well!)

    1. That’s where this whole “war on Christmas” malarkey began, Drew: the phrase “Happy holidays” began being used by businesses that serve the public at large, and many on the conservative side of the spectrum had a hissy-fit, demanding the exact opposite of what you’re saying. I’ve yet to see anyone insist that “happy holidays” MUST be used (just that it’s preferable as it’s more inclusive), while the “war on Christmas” folks DO insist that “Merry Christmas” should be the greeting in retailers’ materials, other, similar holiday festivals being held during the same period be dámņëd.

      That, and PAD was just being funny. 🙂

      –Daryl

      1. I, personally, can assure everyone that, if there’s a war against Christmas, it isn’t winning.

        I work for the Post Office.

    2. “Something else to keep in mind is that there’s a difference between someone trying to be inclusive and using “Happy Holidays” and someone else saying that “Merry Christmas” is politically incorrect and you should ONLY use “Happy Holidays.” ”

      And you can, of course, cite examples of this, you know, actually happening, right? To show you’re not just parroting talking points. Right?

  12. “In the year 2000, Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital took over KB Toys, a company that has made children happy since 1922.

    In no time flat, Mitt Romney and his associates saddled KB with massive debt and drove it into bankruptcy while pocketing $83 million dollars for themselves.”

    Isn’t this almost exactly what former mobster Henry Hill of “Goodfellas” said that “the mob” basically did to a restaurant before they eventually realized they couldn’t get any more money out of it so they decided to torch it?

    This is pretty much the same story except that with Bain it was all done legally. Maybe so, but it still doesn’t make it right.

    I remember KB Toys. It was a nice place to shop for a while then it went down hill in terms of both quality and merchandise before it finally closed doors.

  13. Nytwyng: I’m sure the situation you describe is sometimes the case, but the pressure comes from the other side as well. I’ve read about several instances of organizations and companies who traditionally use “Merry Christmas” being pressured or threatened into using “Happy Holidays” instead.

    I guess my views are rather middle-of-the-road. As I said, I use both, though I probably use “Merry Christmas” more.

    And while I don’t miss the cable bills or the commercials, it’s too bad going DVD for TV shows makes me miss out on Mr. David’s humor! 😉

    1. I’d go so far as to say that it’s not just “sometimes” the case, but that it happens far more frequently than the inverse. As I say, I’ve yet to hear of any significant pressure to switch from “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays,” just a “Hey…y’know…there are other holidays this time of year, too. Be cool to be inclusive, don’tcha think?”

      On the other hand, every year, the conservative media machine spins up its “war on Christmas!” meme, boycotts are called on stores that use the more inclusive phrase, and we’re hit with a barrage of how those evil liberals are out to do away with religion.

      I’m fairly middle-of-the-road on it, myself, believe it or not, as I’m an atheist who practices a secular form of what’s easiest to call “Christmas.” But, the disingenuous nature of the “war on Christmas” brouhaha really ticks me off.

      Oh…and there are audio-only variants of the DirecTV commercials on radio, too. Really, the only thing you’re missing by not hearing them is a familiarity with the slippery-slope structure PAD used.

      Unless he was going for just a plain, non-specific “look how silly this is” slippery-slope presentation, in which case…well…I still got it, and didn’t make a connection to the DirecTV spots anyway.

      –Daryl

  14. I don’t know . . . I’m not just trying to be argumentative here, but I’d say there’s a lot of holiday-related pressure from the left too. Just Google “forced to take down nativity” (without the quotes) to see a sampling of the pressure coming from some on that side . . .

    1. In most cases, I’ve found that the push to take down nativities occurs when the nativity in question is on public-/government-owned property. Goes back to that whole “won’t establish a national religion” thing. As mentioned earlier, other religions have similar festival holidays in the final month (give or take) of te calendar year. So, on such property, I’d say it would need to be an “all or nothing” scenario…put up similar displays for all religious festivals being held during that period, or put up none. Otherwise, you’re tip-toeing into the realm of establishing a religion (ground already getting a bit of weight by December 25th being a national holiday). So, I’m not quite sure how a desire to be inclusive of all is a “war on Christmas.” Is anyone looking to outlaw the holiday? No. Well…some fringe people, possibly. But, I’d imagine their scope applies to all public religious celebrations.

      –Daryl

  15. Excellent use of the ‘Weighs-the-same-as-a-piece-of-wood,-therefore-she-must-be-a-witch’ syllogism, Peter.

  17. Well that explains what the R in toys r us stands for.

    quick change of subject, was at comic store Wednesday and was told X-factor was being canceled. say it isn’t so

  19. Awww… This post made me sad. I worked for KayBee for a bit more then three years (four Holiday seasons, as I originally started as seasonal help, and had the good fortune to be kept on afterwords) and am one who basically went down with the ship. I spent most of mt time there as an Assistant Manager, was finally promoted and given my own store… then within a month, the news came down that the end was neigh.

    So I stayed on through the liquidation… Was a sad time, but I didn’t have anything else lined up right away, so I figured I’d tough it out and stick through ’till my store was done. (Heck, afterwords I even went to another store until they were done, too, before finally leaving myself.) Had some bright spots… Was able to get a few nice deals on some things myself, and it was also nice to finally have a chance to tell off an in-the-wrong customer with little fear of reprocution. (I even mentioned the “telling off” to my DM so he could hear it from me first in case she tried to call and complain, and his response was, basically, “At this point, who cares?” And in my defense, I am typically a quite take it in stride and try and keep people happy type of person, this lady really had it coming.)

    But then the end came… It was sad. I still feel a bit sad whenever I see anythink KayBee. But I landed on my feet and am doing well, so life goes on.

    But still… Mitt is a monster for limiting my choices on where to buy toys! Yet another reason to vote Obama! 🙂

  20. I don’t know what’s sillier, the post, which greatly amused precisely because of various ultra-conservatives who insist others are engaged in a ‘war on Christmas’ or the people who are rushing to defend Romney and Bain.

    Bain is a business. It exists to make money for its owners. If it creates lots of jobs for others doing so, great. If it destroys lots of jobs for others doing so, great. It is only there to make money for the owners. It doesn’t care about any others. It’s not in business to care. It’s in business to make money for the owners.

    Romney ran Bain. His job was to help the company make money for the owners. Nothing more.

  21. For those who are interested in what inspired the foregoing–the following is excerpted from the Sept 13th issue of Rolling Stone, in which they have a staggeringly detailed article about the rapacious business tactics of Bain (a remarkably Dickensian name if you consider their typical tactic was to break the backs of companies):

    “In a typical private-equity fragging, Bain put up a mere $18 million to acquire KB Toys and got big banks to finance the remaining $302 million it needed. Less than a year and a half after the purchase, Bain decided to give itself a gift known as a “dividend recapitalization.” The firm induced KB Toys to redeem $121 million in stock and take out more than $66 million in bank loans–$83 million of which went directly into the pockets of Bain’s owners and investors, including Romney. “The dividend recap is like borrowing someone else’s credit card to take out a cash advance and then leaving them to pay it off,” says Heather Slavkin Corzo, who monitors private equity takeovers as the legal senior policy adviser for the AFL-CIO.”

    “Bain ended up earning a return of at least 370 percent on the deal, while KB Toys fell into bankruptcy, saddled with million in debt…

    “I asked Slavkin Corzo what Bain’s justification was for the giant dividend recapitalization in the KB Toys acquisition. ..”It wasn’t like, Yay, we did a good job, we get a dividend.,” she says with a laugh. “It was like, ‘We can do this, so we will.”

    “KB’s demise was hastened by a host of genuine market forces, including competition from video games and cellphones. But there’s absolutely no way to look at what Bain did at KB and see anything but a cash grab–one that followed the business model laid out by Romney. Rather than cutting costs and tightening belts, Bain added $300 million in debt to the firm’s bottom line while taking out more than $120 million in cash–an outright looting that creditors later described in a lawsuit as “breaking open the piggy bank.”

    “Bain’s experience in the toy industry…was precisely bupkus. They didn’t know a dámņ thing about the business they had taken over–and they never cared to learn. The firm’s entire contribution was $18 in cash and a huge mound of borrowed money that gave it the power to pull the levers.”

    “In the end, Bain never bothered to come up with a plan for how KB Toys could meet the 21st century challenges of video games and cellphone gadgets that were the company’s ostensible downfall. And that’s where Romney’s self-touted reputation as a turnaround specialist is a myth. In the Bain model, the actual turnaround isn’t necessary. It’s just a cover story. I’t nice for the private equity firm if it happens, because it makes the acquired company more attractive for resale or an IPO. But it’s mostly irrelevant to the success of the takeover model, where huge cash returns are extracted whether the captured firm thrives or not.”

    I suggest anyone interested in seeing the caliber of this corporate tool and friend to the rich that issue for the story “Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital.” You may also want to read the accompanying story that describes how back in the 90s, Mitt Romney–who today decries the auto bail out as a terrible idea–managed to survive Bain rough waters thanks to a government bailout.

    It is insane to me that anyone could possibly buy into his story. His track record is irrefutable. Putting Mitt Romney in charge of the US economy is like putting a serial rapist in charge of guarding the Vestal Virgins.

    PAD

    1. “You may also want to read the accompanying story that describes how back in the 90s, Mitt Romney–who today decries the auto bail out as a terrible idea–managed to survive Bain rough waters thanks to a government bailout.”

      Sigh. Isn’t that always the case with “free marketeers”? They’re all against government intervetion, except when it’s to help them. Then, they will be glad to take it.

      1. If this story is true, then Romney is not a free marketer. True free marketers don’t pull crap like that.

    1. Julia, did you actually read the piece? It said that an extreme right-wing, pro-Newt Gingrich Superpac created an anti-Romney ad that distorted and exaggerated the facts. I hardly think that needed the services of a Pulitzer prize winning website; from a “distorted and exaggerated” POV, you had me at “pro-Newt Gingrich.” THAT is what FactCheck said was inaccurate. There’s really nothing in there that contradicts anything Rolling Stone said.

      No one’s denying there were other forces at work, but there’s no denying that Bain came sweeping in and, rather than endeavor to salvage KB, saw it merely as an opportunity to flip millions of dollars for themselves while bringing nothing to the party save for their own avarice.

      If you’re dying of thirst in the desert, and you have barely any water left but you’re rationing it, and a guy walks up with a canteen and, rather than offering you any, drinks all the water, takes your canteen and walks away laughing while you keel over and die, what killed you? The desert? Or the man who just robbed you?

      PAD

      1. While Bain certainly made a mess of things while they owned KB, the specific implication that FactCheck said was “Mostly False” was that Romney had any say in their decisions at the time (even if he did profit from them).

        -Eric

      2. Well, according to SEC filings, Romney claimed at the time to be CEO of Bain Capital, so either he’s lying to us now (which is one thing – it merely impugns his claims to being the more honest candidate), or he lied to the SEC then (which is a felony).

      3. , so either he’s lying to us now (which is one thing – it merely impugns his claims to being the more honest candidate), or he lied to the SEC then (which is a felony).

        So the concept of still being the owner/figurehead of a property while one is in the process of divesting oneself (or for that matter, just doing something else) is utterly foreign to you? According to the Washington Post, your logic gets you three Pinocchios. Enjoy!

        http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/do-bain-sec-documents-suggest-mitt-romney-is-a-criminal/2012/07/12/gJQAlyPpgW_blog.html

    2. You also didn’t read “these lively discussions ” in this thread. Had you done so, you would have seen this comment already posted here –

      “The only aspect of this that comes under any question insofar as Mitt Romney is the time frame. When Newt launched his ad campaign and his PAC did it’s short, film-like piece on Romney, Romney was claiming no involvement at all with Bain Capitol after 1999. That defense is now in question. It’s also somewhat irrelevant in a way since Bain Capital did to KB what Romney helped to design Bain Capital to do and what Bain Capital did to other companies while Romney was absolutely connected to Bain Capital.”

      http://www.peterdavid.net/2012/09/16/the-ultimate-reason-to-vote-against-romney/comment-page-1/#comment-771150

      One of the things that gets it a mostly false claim is that Romney did it. At the time of the fact checking, as I noted above, the general line was that Romney was not in control of Bain Capital at all by that point. There is now some question about that.

  23. My God, PAD makes a mostly humorous blog post and the Ones With No Humor and Shrouded Ones dig in their heels…It’s ridiculous…Sometimes it’s okay to take a breath and chuckle before jumping into battle again..honest

  24. OR….we can vote for a guy who picks and chooses which immigration laws he wants to enforce. You know, the guy who guts immigration law to appease ‘La Raza’ and all the other hispanic/illegal-alien rights groups to secure their voting block?…as far as this being a ‘mostly humorous blog post and the Ones with Humor and Shrouded Ones dig in their heels,’ yeah, the humor would be more apparent if PAD hadn’t written so many numerous anti-Republican/anti-Romney blogs in the future. It’s like the ‘humor’ of George Carlin-he was just kidding, but he wasn’t.

    1. The blog posting was humorous. My attitude toward the pro-millionaire, anti-middle and lower class, hypocritical, lying, thieving, business-destroying, job-destroying, lining his own pockets, robotic representative of the anti-woman, anti-gay, Tea-party-hugging, union hating, voter disenfranchising, insanely extremist, frequently racist party, not to mention his mealy mouthed, semi-incoherent, services-slashing, Medicare destroying sidekick, is not funny.

      PAD

      1. PAD —

        I think you summed up my issue with Romney very well. He made a fortune in the private sector (certainly his right) and then decided to run for president but chose to deride the sacrifices associated with working in the public sector (e.g. “not having a real job,” for instance). Then when people raise serious objections to the type of work he did, he then claims you’re against free enterprise (as though there’s no difference between a Steve Jobs or a Mitt Romney).

        And of course, for someone whose business experience consists of seizing control of a struggling business, making lots of money for a select few and pulling the rug out from under a large number of people while bankrupting the company in the process, one might be concerned about how that “business experience” will be applied to the U.S.

      2. PAD in a completely non threatening non creepy way, I love you.

    2. “It’s like the ‘humor’ of George Carlin-he was just kidding, but he wasn’t.”

      Part of the role of the comedian, going all the way back to the tradition of the court jester, is to point out hypocrisies perpetrated by those in power. The fact that you note that “he was just kidding, but he wasn’t” indicates that Carlin was doing his job; the fact that you placed “humor” in quotation marks indicates that you didn’t “get it.”

      The fact that you didn’t get it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re humorless (it could just be a simple mismatch of communications style between you and Mr. Carlin), but that you note yourself that you have greater difficulty seeing humor based on the political leanings of he who delivers the message (“the humor would be more apparent if PAD hadn’t written so many numerous anti-Republican/anti-Romney blogs in the [past]”) is somewhat telling [1].

      When one’s political opponents fail to distinguish the serious from the utterly ridiculous, then we have much to fear in their coming to power. For how can we be sure that they will govern with wisdom if they cannot discern comedic fantasy from reality?

      This is why Peter and other “court jesters” like George Carlin *must* continue to do what they do: in order to rule with wisdom and justice, the king must maintain a degree of humility. How difficult must it be for Mr. Romney (and President Bush, before him) to be humble when whenever one of his hypocrisies is pointed out, legions of his followers immediately attack?

      A great man (a Republican, no less) once reminded us that ours is a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” When choosing a President, we need to be sure that our candidate remembers that. We need to be sure that our candidate has the empathy to understand the plight of the majority. We need to be sure that our candidate has the humility not to separate himself and any elite class to which he may belong from that of those he would govern.

      When Mitt Romney declares that middle-income is “$200- $250,000” [2] while the actual median income is in the $50,000 range [3], it shows a fundamental lack of empathy on his part toward the average American. It shows him to be isolated, elite, and lacking in humility. It shows that comments like Peter’s are necessary to remind him that the United States government is not a for-profit organization, and it cannot be run like Bain Capital: of the dollar, by the dollar, and for the dollar. The United States government exists to serve the public trust (more specifically, to “promote the general welfare” — that’s in the Constitution). Running the government isn’t about improving the profits of those who run it; it’s about improving the livelihoods of the greatest number of its citizenry, and the citizenry should never be confused with the dollars they possess.

      These are real issues: issues that should be considered by the electorate. But they’re dry, boring, and hard to think about. So we bring them to public attention with humor. Then the other side deflects that attention by trying to connect the first side to some kind of demonized group (e.g., ‘La Raza’) [4]. And then the first side “righteously” retaliates as well [5].

      If only we could have laughed together, perhaps we could have shined a light on some serious issues. While we might disagree, that shared joke might have granted us greater understanding as to why and how another person could take a stance in opposition to us. And when we cast our votes, at least they’d be informed votes.

      But some people just can’t bear to laugh.

      -Eric

      [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_fallacy
      [2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/14/romney-middle-income_n_1883819.html
      [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States
      [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_fallacy
      [5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque

      1. Well, in fairness, what Romney was trying to say was that he felt that “middle class” left off somewhere between $200k and $250k per year. He never mentioned a bottom end – he just put his numbers in the wrong order.

        (Which seems a bit odd, from someone who’s made his fortune fiddling with numbers, but hey…)

      2. A $200,000-$250,000 a year salary is roughly in the 98th percentile. The national poverty threshold is a little above the 12th percentile.

        If Jonathan (the other one) is correct in his claim that what Romney was trying to say was that middle-income tops out at $200,000-$250,000, a value that separates the “middle” from the top 2% of the population, then we should infer that it bottoms out at a value that separates it from a similar proportion of the population, which leads us to the conclusion that about 10% of the US population is simultaneously “middle class” and impoverished.

        Oh, I see: it’s not that Romney doesn’t understand the average American; it’s that he doesn’t understand math!

  25. Actually, wouldn’t hating Santa make Romney more attractive the “War on X-Mas” whiners?

    Santa distracts from the “True Meaning” of the X-mas, the birth of one of the most popular fictional characters of all time. Jesus sounds like a great guy it’d be fun to have a beer with. Too bad most of his followers are hate-spewing intolerance machines. Santa takes away from the celebration of the birth of Christ.

    1. Just like most Muslims want to kill everyone who isn’t Muslim. And most Buddhists know kung fu.

      1. What I found heartening was that there’s been news footage of Muslims waving signs that effectively say, “We’re not all like this!” Just as it’s ridiculous to condemn all Christians by the actions of the KKK, moderate Muslims are trying to make it clear that many of them are appalled by the actions of “thugs” and “extremists.”

        Although also amusing was Bill Maher showing a photoshopped sign, supposedly being displayed by a moderate Muslim, declaring, “Death by chocolate to America!”

        PAD

      3. PAD those signs made me cry. I actually spoke to my TV when I saw them. “We don’t blame you man. We have religious extremists too.”

      4. moderate Muslims are trying to make it clear that many of them are appalled by the actions of “thugs” and “extremists.”

        I don’t envy them; their task isn’t made any easier when the Egyptian Government issues arrest warrants for US residents who made a movie about 5,000 miles out of their jurisdiction. When our religious extremists become, say, Attorney General, they put tarps over statues in the Department of Justice and call it a day.

      5. Some of the photos I saw were from Benghazi the day after the attack on the consulate and the death of the Ambassador, the FS officer and the two guards.
        .
        Two things, taken in tandem, made me gulp.
        .
        First, about half of the photos showed different people holding the same (English and poorly spelled) sign saying, essentially, “This Was Not Us.” The sign was written across two pages of a school notebook, possibly belonging to the young teenager holding it up in a couple of the photos.
        .
        Second, every person holding that sign (and others) made sure the camera could see their faces. Think about this for a minute. These people were twenty-four hours removed from a terrorist attack by people in their own midst: any one of them, having put their face behind an expression of apology and support for the US, could be the next target of these murderers, pour encourager les autres. Even that cute 13-year-old. And they did it anyway.
        .
        That is guts, folks.

      6. And that, Don Hillard, is what the media really needs to focus on, those signs, rather than feeding the anti-muslim fanaticism showing the foaming-at-the-mouth-insane-zealots that media so loves…

    2. Santa takes away from the celebration of the birth of Christ.

      Except that isn’t the right day either. But don’t tell certain individuals that…

      1. Well, since the actual date is unknown, December 25th techbically has a 1 in 365 chance of actually being the right day.

  26. How nice as a first-time poster to get direct responses!

    Sorry for the delay in replying…”stuff” got in the way.

    Yes, Peter, I did read the FactCheck piece. Since your (very humorously presented) premise was that “In no time flat, Mitt Romney and his associates saddled KB with massive debt and drove it into bankruptcy…” I felt the FactCheck ruling (posted below) was applicable. It appeared, to me at least, that the video referenced made basically the same claim.

    Begin quote: Our ruling

    The video King of Bain: When Mitt Romney Came to Town, claims that “Romney and Bain bought the 80-year-old company in 2000, loaded KB Toys with millions in debt, then used the money to repurchase Bain stock. The debt was too staggering. By 2004, 365 stores had closed.” The clear implication is that Romney and Bain were responsible for the toy company’s demise.

    Bain Capital bought KB Toys in 2000, after Romney retired. He wouldn’t have been involved in financial decisions, though he would have profited from them. The company did choose to take on debt, buy stock and pay investors a dividend, even as the toy store chain struggled to find its niche in a volatile industry.

    But toy industry analysts agree that far more than debt drove KB Toys into bankruptcy court. It was a troubled company before Bain bought it, and Bain wasn’t able to fix it. Did more debt hurt? Probably. But to blame Romney and Bain for the chain’s downfall is to ignore critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate this claim Mostly False. End Quote

    Jerry, while you referenced this article, I do not believe you posted the link or quoted the entire ruling? If so, I missed both. Here’s the link again for anyone interested: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jan/13/winning-our-future/video-blames-bain-capital-demise-kb-toys/

    No offense it anyone on either side of our great political divide, but I’m fact checking claims by both campaigns. Unfortunately, it appears that major “misdirections” are being made by both campaigns. I want an impartial, informed source to rule on everything being said, and this FactCheck site seems to be one…to me at least….

    1. In the end, whether Bain or even Romney himself was personally responsible for the death of KB Toys isn’t the point. The really dámņìņg thing for me is that even though “Bain wasn’t able to fix it” and “Did more debt hurt? Probably”, they still decided to pay themselves a 400% bonus. And then they left. You don’t get to point the finger at Welfare Moms or Seniors on the dole when you yourself demand money for failure.

      1. You seem to have missed the point i made above.

        “The only aspect of this that comes under any question insofar as Mitt Romney is the time frame. When Newt launched his ad campaign and his PAC did it’s short, film-like piece on Romney, Romney was claiming no involvement at all with Bain Capitol after 1999. That defense is now in question. It’s also somewhat irrelevant in a way since Bain Capital did to KB what Romney helped to design Bain Capital to do and what Bain Capital did to other companies while Romney was absolutely connected to Bain Capital.

        That’s the Romney business model. That’s how he made millions. He took things over, he stripped them, he pocketed millions and then he walked away, let the businesses die and moved on to his next victims while businesses closed and people became jobless.

        That’s his business experience. And it’s his business experience that he’s claiming will make him a great POTUS.”

        I don’t care that Politifact said that Romney wasn’t involved with Bain. There has, since the writing of that piece, been some dispute of just how involved Romeny really still was by that point and, even if he wasn’t involved at all with the day-to-day of Bain by then it’s an irrelevant fact to the matter at hand.

        What Bain did with KB is not in dispute. Their business model, the business model that Romney designed for them as we can see Romney himself saying in recently uncovered video, was to come in, destroy and harvest profits fast before getting out. Bain didn’t create debt at KB by spending money on changing their business model or by getting loans to rebuild their distribution base to something more efficient. Noooooo… Bain leveraged them against their own debt and then made even more debt for KB in order to have KB pay Bain big paydays. Nothing Bain did with KB was about fixing, strengthening or improving KB as a company. All they did was strip money out, pocket it and then walk off with three or four times what they spent and leave behind a crippled shell of a business that they saddled with massive debt.

        That’s the Bain model. That’s the Romney model. That’s the business experience that he’s claiming makes him a great option as Prez. So, again, no thanks.

  27. Just had to say it again: the “War on Christmas” is the stupidiest thing to appear in Western Culture in ages. It’s stupidiest than Twilight. It’s stupidiest than Rob Liefeld. It’s stupidiest than a Twilight comic illustrated by Rob Liefeld.

    If you are a Christian, then celebrate the birth of your God and stop worrying about what other people are calling it.

    If you are not a Christian, then you might as well enjoy the parties, the gifts, the opportunity to meet with family and friends, and stop worrying about what other people are calling it.

    In any case, Christian and non-Christian alike, Conservatives and Liberals, stop being áššhølëš and just enjoy Christmas/Holidays/Whatever. Why make everything a battleground?

    2. Why, oh why didn’t Liefeld do a “Twilight” comic book before the first film came out?

      Then the world wouldn’t have been forced to pretend that Stephenie Meyer was a successful writer and that Kristen Stewart had any acting ability.

  28. Pingback: I’m voting for Obama: Part 1 | CreativeJamie.com

  29. Someone said that Bain is just a business, and Romney fulfilled his role whereby he made money for the business. People who were laid-off were just collateral damage.

    I guess that is fine and dandy, but now Romney wants to treat governent like a business. The quickest way for any business to boost the bottom line is to lay-off workers. That means, most likely, government workers have the most to lose if Romney succeeds. It’s true the nation will have a short-term boost, but in the long-run there will be a huge loss as those people’s loss of earnings slow the economy further.

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