Showing posts with label silver spoon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label silver spoon. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Romney's Fundraiser on Cayman Yacht "Cracker Bay"

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It's easy to grin
when your ship comes in
and you've got the stock market beat.
But the man worthwhile
is the man who can smile
when his shorts are too tight in the seat.
~ Judge Smails (Ted Knight) in Caddyshack

From ABC News, who broke the story
The floating party, hosted by a Florida developer on his yacht "Cracker Bay," was one of a dozen exclusive events meant to nurture those who have raised more than $1 million for Romney's bid.

"I think it's ironic they do this aboard a yacht that doesn't even pay its taxes," said a woman who lives aboard a much smaller boat moored at the St. Petersburg Municipal Marina.

. . . The Cracker Bay is owned by Gary Morse, developer of the Villages retirement community. Companies controlled by Morse gave nearly $1 million to the pro-Romney Restore Our Future superPAC. Registered in the Caymans, and flying a version of the Caymans' "civil ensign" or merchant flag, the Cracker Bay has an impressive art collection and can seat 30 for dinner.

It's all completely legal with our country's non-existent laws for political donations.
~ ABC Reporter Brian Ross in the video

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Saturday, May 19, 2012

Mitt Romney ~ Bully Boy of Cranbrook


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Commentary on Mitt Romney's school days at Cranbrook, a posh prep school in Michigan, back when he was a wealthy white-privileged teenage bully who attacked people with scissors.

From the original Washington Post Story by Jason Horowitz:
John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn’t having it.

“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection. Mitt, the teenage son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber’s look, Friedemann recalled.

A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.
And then there's this:
One venerable English teacher, Carl G. Wonn­berger, nicknamed “the Bat” for his diminished eyesight, was known to walk into the trophy case and apologize, step into wastepaper baskets and stare blindly as students slipped out the back of the room to smoke by the open windows.
. . . As an underclassman, Romney accompanied Wonnberger and Pierce Getsinger, another student, from the second floor of the main academic building to the library to retrieve a book the two boys needed. According to Getsinger, Romney opened a first set of doors for Wonnberger, but then at the next set, with other students around, he swept his hand forward, bidding the teacher into a closed door. Wonnberger walked right into it and Getsinger said Romney giggled hysterically as the teacher shrugged it off as another of life’s indignities.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m not going to be too concerned about their piece they talk about the fact that I played a lot of pranks in high school and they describe some that well you just say to yourself, back in high school well I did some dumb things and if anybody was hurt by that or offended obviously I apologize but overall high school years were a long time ago...
~ Mitt Romney, quoted by ABC News

I don’t remember that incident and I’ll tell you I certainly don’t believe that I, I can’t speak for other people of course, thought the fellow was homosexual. That was the furthest thing from my mind back in the 1960s, so that was not the case. But as to pranks that were played back then, I don’t remember them all, but again, high school days, if I did stupid things, why I’m afraid I got to say sorry for it.
~ Mitt Romney, quoted by the Washington Examiner


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Yo, Romney, like Eminem said: “F*** Cranbrook.
~ Mother Jones Tumblr

On multiple occasions over the last year, Romney has shown a tendency to dodge, weave, parse or deny in such a way that it outweighs the original offense. It’s his weasel problem, a real character flaw.
. . . what Romney seems to be implying — that bullying of effeminate-seeming boys didn’t happen in prep schools in the 1960s — is preposterous.
~ Timothy Egan in a NYT's Op-Ed entitled Romney's Weasel Problem

I think it’s worth noting that the framing of the Post story—the suggestion that Romney and the others picked on this schoolmate because they thought he was gay—is anachronistic. In spring 1965 long hair was associated with surfers (the Beach Boys had their first national hit record in 1964) and the Beatles (who made their first U.S. appearance in January 1965). And hair length was a big issue in the 1960s. Men of the World War II generation, who had memories of military short haircuts, took umbrage when teenagers left their hair grow, and fathers would badger their sons to get haircuts.
~ Fellow Cranbrook Alumnus Michael Barone
 
The Post reported that the abused boy was ultimately expelled from Cranbrook—for smoking a cigarette. Really. The victim got expelled for smoking a cigarette, but Mitt faced no sanctions for maliciously victimizing a vulnerable student and a teacher. It's good to be a prince. Maybe that's why Romney felt entitled to take a $10 million bailout for Bain, but opposed President Obama's bailout of the auto industry. He thinks there's one set of rules for the privileged, and another for the rest of us.
~ Paul Begala on The Daily Beast

What I see is an opportunity for Mitt Romney to lead and really be an advocate for decreasing bullying. It’s sad to hear what occurred many years ago characterized as ‘pranks’ and ‘horsing around.’ We’re no longer conformable with the notion of describing bullying as ‘kids will be kids.’ This was a presidential moment, and this should be a teachable moment for him.
~ Lee Hirsch, the director of “Bully”, a new documentary that focuses on bullying in U.S. schools, in a phone interview with TPMemo

Imagine holding someone down on the ground against their will. Imagine raising scissors to their head because you didn’t like the style of their hair. Imagine cutting the hair while the boy or girl beneath you struggled to get free. Is she crying? Is he? Is this a moment you could forget? Once you had matured would you want to? In the best scenario, a lesson is learned and behavior changed; in the worst, the behavior is rationalized and outwardly forgotten, finding rest in the dark recesses of the soul.
~ Tim Durnin, Santa Barbara Noozhawk











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Sunday, April 22, 2012

Spooning Up More Controversy




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I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Michelle wasn't, either. But somebody gave us a chance. Just like these folks up here are looking for a chance.
~ President Barach Obama in a speech to a group of students in Elyria, Ohio, from MSNBC, Official White House transcript HERE

Speaking of rhetoric, he (President Obama) had some fiery rhetoric pointed at you yesterday. He said 'Unlike some people, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth.'
~ Fox and Friends Steve Doocy, misquoting President Obama during an interview with Mitt Romney in order to watch the reaction, Video Here

Well, you know, the president is really taking aim at anybody he can find these days. In fact, in my case, I'm certainly not going to apologize for my dad and his success in life. He was born poor. He worked his way to become very successful despite the fact that he didn't have a college degree....But I know the President likes to attack fellow Americans. He's always looking for a scapegoat, particularly those who have been successful like my Dad. And I'm not going to rise to that.
~ Mitt Romney's shocked reaction to Doocy's misquote of Obama

We all know when you’re talking about somebody born into privilege it can only mean Mitt Romney. So petty, and it is bound to backfire on the president, because being born rich is Mitt Romney’s greatest accomplishment.
~ Stephen Colbert, quoted in the LA Times

Excellent reporting, Steve Doocy, and I know good reporting. I am an independent news man, not some smug, self-satisfied brown-noser toadying for the Republican establishment… unlike some people.
~ Stephen Colbert also from the LA Times

As Doocy prepares his remarks, he might consider not only clarifying the real quote but also retracting the smirk that accompanies his false question. The smirk tilts from right to left along Doocy’s smug mug (left to right if you’re Doocy himself). It spans the 10-to-13 second mark of the video at the top of this post. It’s the sort of signal, so often seen on Fox, that lets Republicans interviewees know they’re welcome here.
~  Eric Wemple on Washington Post

“Last week President Obama talked about not being born with a silver spoon in his mouth. That was interpreted as a big dig at Mitt Romney....When I was interviewing Governor Romney on this show I asked him about it. However, I did some paraphrasing that seemed to misquote the president. So to be clear, the president’s exact quote was, ‘I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth.’ And I hope that clears up any confusion.”
~ Steve Doocy of Fox News, quoted on Talking Points Memo






I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth.
~ Rocker Pete Townshend of The Who, from the 1966 song "Substitute" - lyrics on Songfacts

'Unlike some people, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth,' Obama said. That’s not just snotty — it’s woefully ignorant of the American spirit.
~ The New York Post, requoting Steve Doocy's misquote instead of the President


The GOP....My father was dirt poor and worked hard. OR my grandfather was dirt poor and became a self made man. LOL GOP the party of their parents and grandparents.
~ A comment from Biltmore on Huffington Post

So to be fair, he wants to take your silverware and spread it around.
~ Tweet from apparently bitter Would-Be Republican Presidential Candidate and ex-Senator from Tennessee, Fred Thompson

"Obama's War on Spoons" ~ Headline from Fox News Nation

The silver spoon since I’ve been alive has been an affirmative action silver spoon.
~ Pundit Ann Coulter quoted on Daily Caller

Those of you who have covered President Obama know that he has used that phrase to describe his background many times in the past. And I suppose anybody who thinks it was a reference to them might be a little oversensitive -- unless they think that when President Obama said it three years ago it was in reference to them.
~ Press Secretary Jay Carney, quoted by ABC News


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