Republicans Could Steal The Election
Posted by Michelle Moquin on October 10th, 2012
Good morning!
Alex: Like a few others who have commented here, including Mike, TM who seems to be in the know (Thanks Mike for all you contribute) , I too am concerned about the republicans stealing the election. (Notice how my title is different from the original title of the write below?) They got away with it once and this time they will pull out all the tricks they can, so it is even more dire that we get out and vote and do anything we can to prevent them from their ruthless behavior.
With respect to the write that I found and wanted to share, although this write talks about the digital – no paper back-up machines, causing a problem during voting, (the fist sentence is right on) it also talks of the real issues we face during voting this year. But as we know, the repubs will jump at this opportunity to make sure that the computers vote in their favor this coming November.
Voter fraud is a joke – as the write says, “…the risk of somebody impersonating you to cast your vote…is roughly equivalent to the probability that you’ll be struck by lightning.” So although all of voter fraud is basically hullabaloo over nothing, issues with computers and disenfranchisement is real.
Column: Computers could steal this election
Sometimes, the news media and our political leaders make us worry about the wrong things.
Man against voting machine: The worst voting machines are strictly digital with no paper backup, and they are still used in at least some counties in 16 states.
A recent Washington Post poll found that 74% of Americans favor requiring voters to show government-issued photo ID. A plurality cares more about voter fraud than the risk that some eligible persons will be denied the right to vote.
The potential for fraud in this year’s presidential election is real, but not in the form of voter impersonation. Remember those hackable voting machines that caused trouble in 2000, 2004 and 2008? Well, they’re back, and they still have the potential to steal your vote.
“It is highly likely that voting systems will fail in multiple places across the country,” says a report by a consortium of non-profits organized to track the problem.
On the other hand, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law has looked at some closely analyzed elections and evaluated the risk of somebody impersonating you to cast your vote. That risk, it says, is roughly equivalent to the probability that you’ll be struck by lightning.
Meanwhile, the danger that malicious hackers or accidental errors can change your vote is as real as ever. The worst horror story originated in Volusia County, Fla., where a corrupted memory card subtracted 16,000 votes from Al Gore‘s count in 2000.
Each party vulnerable
Problems have occurred in every election since, and the risk does not discriminate between parties. In 2004, memory limitations on new touch-screen voting machines in Carteret County, N.C., caused 4,500 votes to be lost. There was no way to retrieve them.
In Horry County, S.C., the 2008 GOP presidential primary was disrupted when touch-screen machines failed in 80% of polling places. There was a shortage of backup paper ballots, and confused voters were directed to other precincts. In a Palm Beach, Fla., municipal election last March, a software flaw gave votes to the wrong candidate in the wrong race. It took a court-sanctioned recount to set matters right.
The non-profits trying to drum up awareness in the brief time left before Nov. 6 are Common Cause Education Fund, the Newark Constitutional Litigation Clinic at the Rutgers School of Law, and a newer outfit called the Verified Voting Foundation. They have raised a variety of red flags.
The worst voting machines are strictly digital with no paper backup, and they are still used in at least some counties in 16 states. In those places, your vote goes into a black box with no way for you to tell whether your choices were correctly recorded. Just as bad, there is no independent, auditable trail for a post-election recount.
In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes a variety of opinions from outside writers. On political and policy matters, we publish opinions from across the political spectrum.
Roughly half of our columns come from our Board of Contributors, a group whose interests range from education to religion to sports to the economy. Their charge is to chronicle American culture by telling the stories, large and small, that collectively make us what we are.
We also publish weekly columns by Al Neuharth, USA TODAY’s founder, and DeWayne Wickham, who writes primarily on matters of race but on other subjects as well. That leaves plenty of room for other views from across the nation by well-known and lesser-known names alike.
Battleground states not prepared
Among the key battleground states, Virginia, with its 13 electoral votes, has inadequate provisions for post-election auditing, according to the consortium’s recent report. And Ohio, with 18 electoral votes, was rated “needs improvement” because it does not have a law requiring post-election audits.
In the swing state of Pennsylvania, most counties use paperless electronic voting equipment, “which makes independent audits impossible.”
Some states have improved. In my part of North Carolina, for example, a voter marks a paper ballot, then feeds it into a machine that reads the marks electronically. The paper record is kept in case a recount is needed.
Public debate over possible voter impersonation draws attention away from this problem. The motivation behind the pressure to require voters to show government ID was confirmed with admirable frankness by Mike Turzai, Republican leader in thePennsylvania House of Representatives. A widely viewed YouTube clip shows him checking off a list of accomplishments to applause at a June meeting of the state’s GOP Committee. His list included:
“Voter ID, which is going to allow Gov. Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”
In other words, the Voter ID laws work against the ideal of an unbiased election. People without passports or driver’s licenses tend to be some combination of old, poor, or frail, all categories that tend to vote Democratic.
But that kind of bias is at least open and subject to negotiation. Poll taxes, literacy tests and the all-white Democratic primary were once used to keep blacks from voting in the South. The civil rights movement eventually built enough support to overcome them. The new ID laws might someday fall on the same basis.
But hackers, corrupted memory cards and machine failures are much more difficult to see and overcome. Somebody could steal an election, and we’d never know it. Both parties are at risk.
“There is still time to fix the problems,” says Pamela Smith, head of the Verified Voting Foundation.
But the hour grows late.
******
Readers: It’s hump day. – what’s going on in your world? Blog me.
& 
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October 10th, 2012 at 9:47 am
Romney used a tactic that is outlawed in college debates. That tactic has a name, which I have forgotten(Gist or Gish or something in that line).
The tactic is quite simple, you rapidly rattle off a series of lies interspersed with a few truths. The load on the opponent is to decide, instantly, to use all of their time rebutting the lies or to go along with them and present their arguments, hoping the audience realises what are lies.
It was like the debate would have been about airplanes(or aircraft) and your opponent talks endlessly about submarines. Still bad that Obama didn’t think on his feet faster, or better.
October 10th, 2012 at 9:48 am
Dr. Stengler’s Cold and Flu Protection Plan
Every year, I advise my patients to protect themselves against colds and flu. The best defense against these illnesses is a strong immune system. Here’s how to protect yourself this winter…
MY FLU-PREVENTION PROTOCOL
As many of you know, I don’t recommend the flu vaccine for healthy people, although I do suggest that some people consider getting the flu vaccine (see below).
Instead, I recommend a powerful protocol for flu prevention that my patients, my family and I all follow. My strategy this year is different from that of years past because several relatively new, well-researched remedies now are available.
(All can be found at health-food stores and online.) Begin this protocol now—and continue it through April.
The protocol includes…
Influenzinum.
I have recommended this homeopathic remedy on its own for the past 15 years. The manufacturers of Influenzinum reformulate it annually based on the flu viruses expected to predominate that year.
One French survey found that 90% of 453 people who took Influenzinum did not get the flu.
Dosage: Follow label instructions.
Adults and children (age six and older) should take one dose (three pellets of a 9C potency) dissolved under the tongue once weekly for six weeks, beginning at the start of flu season. (For infants starting as young as one day old, crush one pellet and place on the tongue.)
Influenzinum is available at health-food stores and online. It is made by several manufacturers including Boiron.
Vitamin D. Many studies show an association between low levels of vitamin D and respiratory tract infections. A study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that only 10% of school-age children who took vitamin D got the flu, compared with 18% who took a placebo.
Dosage:
Adults and children age 13 and older should take 2,000 international units (IU) daily, then increase to 5,000 IU during peak flu months (January through March). This is higher than the dose I typically recommend, which is 1,000 IU to 2,000 IU, but these higher doses of vitamin D are safe.
Infants and children up to age 12 should take 1,000 IU daily, then increase to 2,000 IU during peak flu months, though for infants, check with a pediatrician before increasing the dose to 2,000 IU.
N-acetylcysteine (NAC). This antioxidant helps prevent flu and reduces severity of symptoms if infection occurs. A landmark Italian study found that only 25% of older people who were injected with flu virus after taking NAC for six months experienced flu symptoms, versus 79% who took a placebo.
Dosage:
Adults and children age 13 and older should take 1,000 milligrams (mg) daily. Children ages six to 12 can take 500 mg daily. At the first sign of flu symptoms, increase to 4,000 mg daily for adults and 1,500 mg daily for children, and continue until symptoms subside. Higher doses, such as 4,000 mg, may cause digestive upset. Reduce the dose if needed.
NATURAL COLD REMEDIES
Colds can be hard to distinguish from flu. Colds come on slowly with symptoms affecting the chest, neck and head. Flu comes on quickly with more intense symptoms, including bodywide aches and pains, high fever and often digestive complaints.
Even if you follow my immune-boosting flu-prevention protocol, there’s always a small chance that you will catch a cold. Take one or both of the herbal remedies below at the first sign of a cold until symptoms are gone.
There are no side effects, except as noted—and you can safely take more than one of these remedies at the same time. For dosing information for adults and children, follow label instructions.
Pelargonium sidoides. The focus of more than 20 clinical studies, this South African plant has been found to be effective in relieving cold symptoms, sinusitis, sore throat and bronchitis.
It is available in many forms, including syrup, lozenge and chewable tablet. Brand to try: Nature’s Way Umcka ColdCare or Umcka Cold+Flu (www.NaturesWay.com).
COLD–FX. This remedy contains Panax ginseng extract, which is used in Chinese medicine to increase energy.
Studies show that COLD-FX can strengthen the immune system to beat the common cold. A study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that healthy adults who took COLD-FX had 25% fewer colds per person than those in the placebo group. COLD-FX is available online and at health-food stores.
GET THE FLU VACCINE?
I have concerns about flu vaccines—mainly because we don’t know the long-term impact of using them. However, the flu vaccine (mercury-free is best) should be considered by those who are over age 65…suffer from chronic pulmonary or cardiovascular disease…have a weakened immune system from a chronic disease such as cancer…
and by women who are pregnant. Contrary to the recommendations of mainstream medicine, healthy caregivers do not need to get the vaccine.
Source: Mark A. Stengler, NMD, is a naturopathic medical doctor and leading authority on the practice of alternative and integrated medicine.
Dr. Stengler is author of the Health Revelations newsletter, author of The Natural Physician’s Healing Therapies (Bottom Line Books), founder and medical director of the Stengler Center for Integrative Medicine in Encinitas, California, and adjunct associate clinical professor at the National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon. http://MarkStengler.com
October 10th, 2012 at 9:52 am
Obama tried to take his message to the people and not dig in against Romney. The next debate will be different, there will be blood.
October 10th, 2012 at 10:07 am
Snow White, Superman and Pinocchio are walking along. They see a sign: “Contest for World’s Most Beautiful Woman.” Snow White goes in, later comes out smiling, wearing a crown.
They walk along and see another sign: “Contest for World’s Strongest Man.” Superman goes in, later comes out smiling, wearing the belt.
They walk along and see a sign: “Contest for World’s Greatest Liar.” Pinocchio goes in, later comes out with his head down crying. “Who the hell is Mitt Romney?” Pinocchio sobs.
October 10th, 2012 at 10:12 am
During Wednesday night’s president debate, Mitt Romney claimed that “half” of the green firms Obama invested “have gone out of business” and noted that “a number of them happened to be owned by people who were contributors to your campaigns.”
Fact checkers quickly pounced on the claim, explaining that only a tiny percentage of firms that received grants or loans from the Recovery Act have actually filed for bankruptcy.
And now, the Romney campaign itself is walking back the GOP presidential candidate’s claim. From Michael Grunwald, author of The New New Deal: The Hidden History of Change in the Obama Era:
October 10th, 2012 at 10:13 am
Grunwald estimates that less than 1 percent of green firms have gone bad in terms of dollar value.
Romney also singled out Tesla Motors, which designs and manufactures electric vehicles, and received a $465 million loan from the Department of Energy.
Last night, he quipped, “I had a friend who said you don’t just pick the winners and losers, you pick the losers, all right?” But the company is not a loser.
“Founder Elon Musk says it will accelerate its payment of the principal in the spring — and the Department of Energy isn’t complaining it’s not getting its money back.” Romney, unfortunately, has turned to rooting against an American company in his effort to unseat Obama.
October 10th, 2012 at 10:15 am
THE PRESIDENT IS PLAYING THE LONG GAME:
Being far from an undecided voter in this election season, I’ll admit that I was thrown a bit by last night’s debate performance by President Obama. At first, I thought,“Oh my God! POTUS just got mugged on national television!
Why didn’t he go after Romney more? How could he let the lies Romney told just stand?” It wasn’t registering with me –at first.
Then, I began to realize something… had the President gone on the attack, ignored the moderator, and gleefully rebutted everything he could think of to bolster his image and put down his opponent, what would the press be talking about this morning? The tactics of AN ANGRY BLACK MAN, used by the “Gangster-In-Chief” in order to game the debate!
Not only would Obama’s debate performance have been nearly UNIVERSALLY DENOUNCED as the most unsporting, un-presidential comportment of an incumbent in a presidential debate, EVER. It would have been “a national disgrace”.
What the President needed to do IS EXACTLY WHAT HE DID. He behaved in a gentlemanly, professional manner, was courteous to the moderator, and polite to his opponent without being deferential. He didn’t lose.
HE SET THE STAGE… because moving forward into the next two debates, absolutely no one will blame him for being MORE AGGRESSIVE, MORE BLUNT and LESS POLITE about being LIED ABOUT TO HIS FACE by an unscrupulous plutocrat.
On its face, Pearl Harbor was a loss, too; but it was one battle, not the war. All the MYTH ROMNEY has done is AWAKENED A SLEEPING GIANT — AND FILLED HIM WITH A TERRIBLE RESOLVE!
October 10th, 2012 at 10:18 am
I wanted to fill you in on what’s happening around the country — thanks to your generous support.
Soon we’ll know what we can do in the final three weeks. This Saturday, important decisions will be made about how we’ll distribute resources, how many final field offices we can open, and how many organizers we can bring on board in the last leg of this campaign.
Before that happens, here’s a look at what we’ve already built together:
1. The road to November 6th
Watch this inspiring video from the campaign trail: Vice President Biden rallying supporters in Virginia, President Obama energizing the Bowling Green community in Ohio, and the First Lady Michelle Obama (and an entire marching band) marking the first day of voting in Iowa. Check it out here.
2. Voter registration efforts
This week, several states run up against voter registration deadlines, so volunteers and organizers on the ground are working overtime to get as many voters registered as possible. While thousands of people every day check their status with our online tool, passionate volunteers and organizers are going door to door. Check out the latest stories here.
3. 30,000 supporters gather in Madison, WI, to see the President
“Wow” is the first thing I hear when I show folks this panoramic photograph of the President in Wisconsin. Last Thursday, a sea of people fired up to support Barack Obama gathered on the usually quiet Bascom Hill at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and this photo of the event has already gone viral — see it for yourself and share it with your friends here.
4. Mitt Romney’s misleading claims about his tax plan
Lately, Governor Romney has kept our Truth Team busy around the clock. At the debate, he misled the American people about his tax plan and its harmful impact on the middle class. Despite the fact that multiple independent experts and fact-checkers have debunked Romney’s claims, he continues to ignore the facts and just say whatever he thinks will win the moment. We’re not buying it. Watch these Truth Team videos, and then share them with your friends and colleagues.
5. Milestone: 10 million donations from grassroots supporters like you
This number is incredible — and a record in politics. More than 1 in 100 Americans have chipped in to build this organization. And with 10 million donations so far in 2012, we’ve proved that our democracy isn’t for sale to a few billionaires and special interests. Thanks for being part of that, Bill.
6. Going local with the President’s accomplishments
Did you know that 201,700 private sector jobs were created in Ohio from February 2010 to August 2012? The campaign has put together an interactive online tool to visualize what these numbers really mean for Americans at the local level. You can travel through a virtual United States and see how Barack Obama has helped your state or community. Check it out here.
7. The National Call Team is reaching thousands of voters a day
The National Call Team is a growing online presence. Whether it’s 5 calls a day or 500, volunteers across the country are having the one-on-one conversations that will help re-elect President Obama. It’s exciting to be a part of, and a great way to further your involvement in this campaign. If you haven’t already — join the National Call Team today.
There’s a lot of work to do, and it’ll be a tough few weeks.
We’ll win this election if we keep up the momentum and never lose sight of our goal. Thank you for everything you’re doing to support this campaign.
This race will stay close until the very end, and we have to stay focused.
I’ll be in touch,
Jen
Jen O’Malley Dillon
Deputy Campaign Manager
Obama for America
October 10th, 2012 at 10:47 am
Girlfriend: I have something to tell you
Boyfriend: I’m listening
Girlfriend: I pregnant
Boyfriend: That’s impossible!!!
Girlfriend: Why
Boyfriend: It was rape fantasy night, your body is supposed to take care of that.
October 10th, 2012 at 10:49 am
Maybe what the media could do would be to go through memberships on key committees in the House and the Senate and examine the qualifications of each member (Democrat and Republican) to be on these committees.
As far as I’m concerned, Akin and Broun have no business serving on any committee that purports to concern itself with science affairs. What other questionable qualifications are possessed by members of this committee, the budget committee, etc.
Just because you wish to serve on a committee does not mean you are eminently qualified to serve on that committee.
October 10th, 2012 at 10:54 am
If our White House Wonder is re-elected. Many companies will face challenges in order to pay the taxes for those unemployed – just adding to more being unemployed.
Major purchases will be delayed as well, further stagnating the GDP.
True story …..
“I’ll try to make this as short and to the point as I can. One of my
salesmen here had a women in his office yesterday wanting to lease a
brand new Focus. As he was reviewing her credit app,he noticed
she was on social security disability. He said you don’t look
like your disabled or unable to work. She said well I’m really not, I
could work, but I make more now then I did when I was
working and got hurt (non-disabling injury). She said the gov’t sends
her $1500.00 a month in 1 check, she gets $700.00 a month on an EBT
card (food stamps), and $800.00 a month for rent, and 250 mins
free on her phone. That’s almost $3500.00 a month. When she
worked she was making $330.00 per week. Do the math and
then ask yourself why the hell should she g o back to work. If you
multiply that by millions of people, you realize the scope of
the problem we face as a country. She didn’t lease the Focus because the dealer down the road beat
our deal by $10.00/month.
October 10th, 2012 at 10:56 am
if the Bummer is reelected. Bummer certainly doesn’t care about the workers. NO BOMA 2012
Permalink
October 10th, 2012 at 10:57 am
I am a conservative, and I know that Obama is taking away my religious freedom, my freedom of speech and is taxing out of this world.
Did you know that the corporate tax in the United States is the highest in the world, and people blame companies who take their companies overseas. Obama is wrecking our economy. I pray to God that Romney is elected.
October 10th, 2012 at 11:00 am
John, Your “true” story is absolute Bull Shit. The max on EBT is $200 per month and it is ZERO if you make more than $1174 a month.
On $1500 a month disability, she cannot get ANY rental subsidy. NONE!
So either you are lying…or you are passing on a lie you heard. NO body gets that kind of money on the system.
Frankly, I am tired of you republicans telling any lie to move the votes toward your candidate. How about telling the truth and allowing the voter to choose which political philosophy he/she prefers?
Cindy
October 10th, 2012 at 11:04 am
John;
Your post is so full of inaccuracies it’s laughable. Just for starters: EBT averages $134 a month. Try living on $134 a month of food from the grocery store.
Then, if after a month you are still strong enough to depress the keys on your keyboard, come back and tell us.
October 10th, 2012 at 12:02 pm
Cindy and Melanie, you are both correct. My friend gets $25 a month for food stamps, which is why I often stop by her house after a trip to Costco and drop her off stuff so she has enough to eat.
October 10th, 2012 at 12:47 pm
Annika, the people who put those lies about Welfare recipients know that they are lying. They do it to gain a political advantage.
The republicans like their candidate Romney will do and say anything to win.
Terry
October 10th, 2012 at 12:47 pm
GOOD MORNING TO EVERYONE!
“Big Bird hates me and Osama bin Laden is dead”
That should probably be the next campaign slogan for the flailing Obama re-election since the others don’t work. After the lovable children’s character told the president’s campaign to take the advertisement down, the campaign is truly back to square one. Where can they go? What can they do or say to regain the momentum lost by Obama’s first debate performance? Tomorrow’s veep debate will be crucial.
As always, stick to Human Events throughout the debate as we will be tweeting and providing up-to-the-minute analysis of the first and only vice presidential debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan. To give you a preview, we have a piece from Newt Gingrich where the former speaker writes on what topics the two men should debate over.
Also, we have an op/ed from Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), in which the retired lieutenant colonel picks a part the dangerous Obama foreign policy. That piece, and more, is below.
Talk to you all tomorrow,
– Adam Tragone, Managing Editor
October 10th, 2012 at 12:54 pm
Michelle, when I read you article this morning I called a friend and told him to check it our. He did and later sent me this:
The Republican Party could steal the 2012 US Presidential election with relative ease.
Electronic voting machines in Ohio.
Six basic factors make this year’s theft a possibility:
1. The power of corporate money, now vastly enhanced by the US Supreme Court’s Citizens’ United decisions;
2. The Electoral College, which narrows the number of votes needed to be moved to swing a presidential election;
3. The systematic disenfranchisement of—according to the Brennan Center—ten million or more citizens, most of whom would otherwise be likely to vote Democratic. More than a million voters have also been purged from the rolls in Ohio, almost 20% of the total vote count in 2008;
4. The accelerating use of electronic voting machines, which make election theft a relatively simple task for those who control them, including their owners and operators, who are predominantly Republican;
5. The GOP control of nine of the governorships in the dozen swing states that will decide the outcome of the 2012 campaign; and,
6. The likelihood that the core of the activist “election protection” community that turned out in droves to monitor the vote for Barack Obama in 2008 has not been energized by his presidency and is thus unlikely to work for him again in 2012.
October 10th, 2012 at 1:34 pm
Hi, just wanted to address yesterdays comments…#4, Phedre, it’s ok to disagree, I was simply stating my case and in the cases that came afterwards clearly life can fall into the ‘it’s complicated’ category (which was/is exactly my point) and Glenn #7 said it also, no absolutes in life (absolutely, Glenn) and I’ll tell you this: the worst thing a woman can do to a man is shame him/disrespect him publicly and (handle whatever that is about very carefully even in private for best results), and the worst thing a man can do is…leave a woman alone/lonely – in other words, in a relationship in looks (house, kids, stuff…) but not in feeling (feeling = someone who is actively engaged, intimately and passionately).
…if you must know you were incorrect about my marriage, we did not break up over anyone cheating, not sure where you got that info(?) – (btw, I don’t kick anyone ‘to the curb’ but more about your usage of words later) and to this day we have a respectfully held place for each other and we have contact that leaves us both with heads held high (he was present for our family dog’s last breath as well bc I felt that it was important to invite him).
#10 Owen, shades of grey could replace ‘it’s complicated’ – I like it and it’s true, very true, again that was my point.
Sorry, pastor, forgot your name and # of comment but that was a poignant story about ‘shades of grey’ – thank you for sharing.
So, Phedre, you can get high-horsed and ‘applaud’ (or not) though I believe sometimes/most times, people implicitly or explicitly agree to an ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy (and sometimes bc the affair, think of Holly here, isn’t more emotionally meaningful to them, they’re not leaving the marriage, so it is done to protect a partner from hurt feelings, you can argue that but it is true for people who separate sex from love, just bc you are not one of them it doesn’t make that statement any less true).
Words/verbiage such as ‘cheater’ or worst ‘serial cheater’ and ‘tolerate’ and all that are victim words that will hold you back from your own personal growth, please rethink that type of terminology. I’m NOT saying the behavior is not hurtful, it is, though…read on…
A serial cheater as you would call it truly just has a ‘social contract’ that’s pretty clear after time #2 (no?), if you don’t like it/the terms; then leave it/accept it, don’t indulge in sex with that person, don’t ever see that person again, engage in an open relationship, (or you could just be living with a ‘want cake and eat it, too’ type and again this is an implicit ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ – many trophy wives married to wealthy men without a whole lotta love know this one well), – there are several choices that are available to you – although by staying you are implicitly agreeing to be a party to all of that goes with it, so stop the blaming and handle yourself, head held high. His/Her behavior is his/her behavior and it does not mean anything at all, I used to think C’s behavior reflected in me, and sometimes it did, I picked him, though often bc he is his own person, it did not (follow that?).
If you prefer less game playing, I wish you the best, monogamy forever is hard to find and is it a realistic expectation really (for 15, 30, 3 years?)? Especially a good question if you are attracted or married to a sex is separate from love type.
My point now is not justifying bad behaviors, clearly ‘cheating’ is not optimal and honesty is preferable (though how many of you would agree to allow a man/woman to step out every other year – or ever – for a few month affair? I thought not, and I can tell you: people don’t take chances on sealing the deal by stating that part of their sexual relationship reality)- as Esther Perel states in her book, every relationship at some point has an ‘other’ involved in the mix.
Why use words like ‘tolerate’ ‘put up with’ and ‘serial cheater’ (an oxymoronic term) and I’m speaking primarily to women who do have choices in this matter, I am not speaking to women who have no other choice/voice due to society/religious issues. In those cases, women must do what they must to make life livable and I would hope that reframing a situation would still provide some self empowerment. Since I was coimmenting on YM/YW and YW is either married or involved with 1-2 others, this is not a gender based statement on my part.
I could be wrong…on any of the above…though my point originally was ‘shades of grey’ exist so why play the blame game, victimization, etc…I’m off the soapbox now…
Luv, Zen Lill
October 10th, 2012 at 6:13 pm
Cindy, You are so right about John. Where did he ever get those exaggerated numbers. Different states have different rules, but nobody recieves what John is claiming or anywhere near those amounts. John is Just another LSOS asshole, like the rest of the GOP.
John, go and wash your mouth with soap and gargle with clorine.
October 10th, 2012 at 10:55 pm
GOOD MORNING TO EVERYONE!
After Mitt Romney’s debate performance, polls are drastically changing in his favor. Meanwhile, a floundering Obama campaign is cutting ads from one particular portion of last week’s debate: cutting of PBS.
The Obama campaign is clinging to and driving a narrative that Romney hates kids and will deprive kids from their blessed Big Bird. But, as Mark LaRochelle points out this morning, Big Bird will still live, even if a Romney presidency cuts the taxpayer-subsidized television station.
I expect Sesamegate to continue, because this campaign’s best weapon is scare tactics and creating bogeyman at every turn.
– Adam Tragone, Managing Editor
October 10th, 2012 at 10:57 pm
Why Romney’s victory is critical to US economy? Romney has a stellar track records to turn businesses, state, Olympics around. He has a profound understanding of how business and economy functions, while Obama lacks of basic understanding and experiences, and holds wrong philosophy.
1. How jobs are created? Jobs are created where businesses prosper, so companies need to hire more people to produce products or provide services, which are in high demands. Jobs are not created for the sake of creating jobs.
2. How businesses prosper? Business prospers when their products and services are in demands. Business typically prospers in environment of low land costs, low labor costs, low energy costs, low taxation, etc.
3. What’s the downside of money printing? Money printing promotes unfair wealth transfer, borrowing, speculation and moral hazard, while discourages hard working and saving.
4. Why big government is never the answer? Market economy is more efficient in allocating resources.
5. Why Obama is not qualified as President? He lacks basic understanding of how business and economy work. He doesn’t understand priorities and urgency in managing the economy.
In conclusion, Romney understands how to generate economic growth, create jobs, balance budgets, get rid of Bernanke’s money printing, and consolidating government. He is the man who can turn US around and make US prosper again for generations to come!
Please feel free to pass the above message around or write your own. Together we can make a difference!
October 11th, 2012 at 6:18 am
Four years ago the GOP turned America into a country where the minorty party’s main mission became fighting for failure at any cost. If you think that things are bad now, you haven’t seen anything yet.
October 11th, 2012 at 6:24 am
I’d say it’s a fair bet the Repugs WILL try to steal the election, since they’ve already cheated in several states during the primaries to railroad Ron Paul out of contention.
The larger question, unaddressed by the two writers of this article, is: Will it make any difference?
And to give a further shade of nuance to the authors’ concern for the dysfunction of our democracy, I would hasten to add that even if the Repugs DON’T cheat in November, our democracy won’t really be any the healthier, since the policies implemented by either party since 2001 follow an agenda set in place after the 2000 coup d’état of GW Bush, which no one with any power has seen fit to question.
Even a “legitimately” elected president like Barry, in choosing policy, heeds not the concerns for which he was elected, but only the dictates of the military-industrial-financial behemoth that actually calls the shots. Literally.
Fitrakis’ and Wasserman’s persistent belief in grass-roots democracy is admirable and touching, but short of creating a powerful third-party alternative (which certainly isn’t going to happen in this election cycles), such fine ideals will get swept away again this year by the tsunami of greed and blood lust that drives our political machine.
Only an equally massive political juggernaut informed by the will to justice and to radical change from the bottom up can have any hope against the instituted powers, and it certainly won’t happen this November. Our only hope is that it will happen, sooner or later, in the streets.