I Can Haz Freedoms?

Barron YoungSmith:

By all accounts Mitt Romney's 2012 bid for the presidency is moving full speed ahead. Last month, he gave a major address in which he laid out his view of international politics--and boy was it convoluted. Channeling the business jargon common at places like Bain Capital, the management consulting firm he founded, Romney tried to break down world politics as if he were giving a PowerPoint strategy presentation to a corporate board.

Which gives everyone great comfort, knowing how well the last CEO-in-Chief worked out for the country. YoungSmith asked a consultant friend to put together a PowerPoint presentation slide so we might get a graphical representation of Romney's worldview and this is what was provided.

Hitchens Bitch Slaps the Mitt

For better or ill, Mitt Romney gave his religion speech. Christoper Hitchens is not impressed:

According to the admittedly very contradictory scriptures of the New Testament, Jesus of Nazareth warned his disciples and followers that they should expect to be ridiculed and mocked for their faith. After all, how likely was it that God had decided to reveal himself to only a few illiterate peasants in a barbarous backwater? Those who elected to believe this stuff were quite rightly told to expect a hard time, and the expression "fool for God" or "fool for Christ" has been with us ever since. That concept has some dignity and nobility. Entirely lacking in dignity or nobility (or average integrity) is the well-heeled son of a gold-plated church who wants to assume the pained look of martyrdom only when he is asked if he actually believes what he says. A long time ago, Romney took the decision to be a fool for Joseph Smith, a convicted fraud and serial practitioner of statutory rape who at times made war on the United States and whose cult has been made to amend itself several times in order to be considered American at all. We do not require pious lectures on the American founding from such a man, and we are still waiting for some straight answers from him.

Mr. Hitchen's disdain for Mitt seems quite warranted in my estimation. Oh, and the prose is absolutely marvelous. If we could all write like that ... well then we wouldn't be blogging for free, would we?

An inconvenient god

Mitt Romney will give a Mormon speech this week. I don't know what this says about America and the Republican Party, but it is too bad he feels compelled to make such a speech. I suspect it has more to do with getting the nomination of his party than any worries he may have about the general election. Much of the Christian Right is quite suspicious, and biased against anyone they perceive to be a non-Christian.

I don't want Romney to be President, but that has to do with his willingness to be all things to all people to get elected. He might be the most obvious panderer in recent memory. With that said, I believe Romney should be challenged on the issues and not on his god of choice. If that is how we measure our politicians then Huckabee is definitely not a consideration for someone like me, based solely on the fact that he is an Evangelical Christian. In other words he aligns himself with people that believe in things so far from reality I have to wonder about their sanity. I could not vote for Huckabee because he is not an empiricist and does not believe in the supremacy of logic and reason. Science is less certain than his god? What? How is that possible. We have already suffered through two terms of a President that does not understand the basic workings of science. Another four years would be disastrous. I can't vote for someone who believes his god is so mighty that no one can understand that god. Huh?

Mike, I'm glad your god is an awesome god. You have your faith. I have logic and reason. That gives me the warm fuzzies, and helps me sleep well at night.

Remembering Dutch

Steve Benen has a great remembrance of the Real Dutch, and not the Dutch the Republicans wish to lionize. While the candidates for the Republican nomination dance around and remember the Dutch they are so fond of citing as the father of the current movement, the rest of us prefer the facts. But facts seem to be a scarcity out on the campaign trail these days. Not surprising, considering the Former Cheerleader and his Gang of War Criminals know no shame when it comes to the truth. These guys make Bubba sound like a straight shooter. Who'da thunk it?

Mitt Happens, Ctd.

OK first he says he needs to talk to his lawyers (not Congress) before he thinks about going to war. Now he wants us to pull out of an organization we already boycott. Oh, wait, what he meant to say is stop funding UNHRC. Ah, looks like Mitt should have consulted his brain before opening his mouth. Again. What's next? A call for regime change in Iraq?

Mitt Happens

Chris Kelly thinks Mitt may not be the shit.