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Sunday Roundup

Posted: 09/16/2012 12:00 am

This week saw the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya that resulted in the death of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. It also saw Mitt Romney's reaction to the tragic events, which was to the 2012 campaign what John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin was to 2008 -- the kind of desperate act that makes even one's allies worry about their candidate's fitness to lead. It's a bell that cannot be unrung. The week also brought word that over 46 million Americans remained below the poverty line last year, while a new study found that poverty is "nearly invisible in U.S. media coverage of the 2012 election." When you have 46 million people living in poverty and neither the candidates nor the media want to talk about it, you know the American Dream is in serious trouble.


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07:00 AM on 09/17/2012
"Mitt Romney's reaction to the tragic events, which was to the 2012 campaign what John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin was to 2008 -- the kind of desperate act that makes even one's allies worry about their candidate's fitness to lead" Its not Romney's leadership that's called into question Its Obama's. Romney wasn't responsible for leaving our embassy defenseless It was Obama.
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Unca Wiggilie
I am but a meager bookworm...
10:58 PM on 09/16/2012
Brava Arianna, Spot ON!
It is indeed a bell that cannot be unrung...
For it is The Death Knell of the GOP's 2012 presidential campaign!
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tbone99
cruisin' duality
10:55 PM on 09/16/2012
Joblessness about to get a lot worse as Obama negotiates more job outsourcing in secret and okays a treaty that will allow corporations to sue governments

http://truth-out.org/news/item/11563-obama-says-one-thing-in-spotlight-another-behind-closed-doors

I'm sure Romney would totally approve
10:36 PM on 09/16/2012
"It also saw Mitt Romney's reaction to the tragic events, which was to the 2012 campaign what John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin was to 2008 -- the kind of desperate act that makes even one's allies worry about their candidate's fitness to lead." The person we should be checking leadership skills on is the guy who left the embassy undefended not the guy who made a comment. Romney bears no responsibility for Stevens death Obama clearly does.
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PrairieLady
recycle, reinvent, reuse
10:11 PM on 09/16/2012
The GOP ideas will increase poverty. Mitts said "the poor are ok because they have a safety net". Remember the GOP are talking about cutting Medicare, Social Security, food stamps, school nutrition programs, headstart, women's health services...
What will happen to all these kids, elderly, handicapped, mentally ill and working poor when those sad safety nets are gone?
Are all these relegious zealots, who spout family values, going to adopt homeless families into their homes or perhaps find them places to live and furnish the home and pay the bills? Will their churches do more than make quilts for the homeless? Will each and everyone of them donate to keep a fragile elderly person in the nursing home, as we do with no kill shelters for animals? Will each good "Christian" family take in a battered woman and her children? Will they generously donate weekly to the food banks or just start soup kitchens in every town in America? Will they counsel the mentally ill and prevent suicides? Will there be one of them who will hold the hand of a young rape victim when she go to the ER? I have so many questions what will happen!

As good Christians they are obligated by the teachings of Christ to take care of their neighbors. Do you think they will?

I am afraid. I am very afraid.
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10:03 PM on 09/16/2012
Perfectly concise round-up article.
However there is an aspect of American politics that deserves mention. The last 50 years has seen America slip into a groove that is worrisome. The trend started earlier however with the Soviets in Germany causing a phobia against communism and anything remotely akin to it. The so-called Social-Studies, in schools, incriminated Communism and Socialism to the point of the dumbing down of other political systems and putting the American capitalism on a pedestal it never really deserved.

The result was a dangerous cold-war that almost escalated into nuclear war, the War in Vietnam and a status of ignorance of the American public as to what other countries have to govern themselves with. Not to mention insane distrust and dislike of anything remotely connected with “socialism”. Ask any average American what he/she knows of socialism and you will see what I mean.

A perfect example of this ignorance is exhibited by those Americans who openly say “stop socialism” and who would protect their Medicare retirement pensions with their guns and their lives (without knowing it is socialist), but who would go to war against socialism.

America needs to rethink its Democracy. Ancient Rome had a form of democracy at one point, so did ancient Greece.
Several, well to do countries in Europe, have democracies with a socialistic twist to them, but the root is democracy. Capitalism, Free unbridled markets, Socialism, Communism, are but temporary and evolving forms of living in society.
09:55 PM on 09/16/2012
Thank God Romney came out and criticized the apology from the Embassy. Without that, Obama would have continued supporting the idea that we should stop those that say anything that hurts the feelings of Muslims. Without Romney's input, our free speech would have been history. The UN has been pushing to make it internationally illegal to talk against Islam. The US is trying to find a way to agree to that law so that they can punish those that hurt someone's feelings on an international basis even if that law is against our constitutional rights. Without strong leaders speaking up, we will become just another dictatorship with the UN leaders deciding what we can and can not say.
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zyvin
Ineptocracy--look it up
09:47 PM on 09/16/2012
Everyone in America needs to look in the mirror and blame no one but themselves for where they are in life.
09:37 PM on 09/16/2012
It is not only the candidates and the media that ignore poverty. Most people walking down the street ignores a beggar or the homeless person wrapped in rags sleeping on a street corner on a cold Winter day. They pretend the beggar and the homeless person don't exist. They are "invisible" even to everyday Americans. We send billions of dollars in aid overseas, yet we cannot help our own people.
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08:06 PM on 09/16/2012
More people in poverty, average income down, higher unemployment, more on foodstamps. all this happened on the Dem watch. Can not continue to blame it on past administrations. The Dems can through all the money they want at the problem and without JOBS the situation will not get better. Time to get a leader that knows how to lead, knows how to turn around broken companies and economies, and knows how to create jobs.
Stop voting for people that do not know how to help poverty - only know how to create and enlarge poverty.
Vote Rep. Our future depends on new leadership
09:27 PM on 09/16/2012
The stock market was down 50% when Obama took office. Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns were out. Countrywide was kaput, Wachovia remember Wachovia?
09:48 PM on 09/16/2012
Stock market is up now because of extra printed money in the system.
Remember 5% unemployment? Remember higher average wages? Remember before food stamp usage and disability payments were out of control? Remember gas prices below 4$? Remember the Ambassador and three other Americans before they were killed because we have a weak or nonexistant foreign policy?
09:36 PM on 09/16/2012
Your first sentence is correct right up to the part where you say on the Dem watch. Poverty, income and unemployment actually climbed under the last pres. But I'm not blaming.

I'm guessing you think Mr. Romney is the answer as he knows how to cut, slice,dice and outsource companies to make a profit and then deposit the money offshore to avoid taxes. Like the ad says he's not a solution to the problem, he is the problem.

If you see the problem in terms of red and blue your color blind..
09:51 PM on 09/16/2012
The poverty rates, unemployment, disability food stamp usage has gone through the roof the last three years. You can try to blame it on Bush but it is about time Obama take credit for something besides using the Bush intelligence and the Seals to kill Osama.
Obama is clearly not the answer so our only choice is someone who has taken failing companies and turned them around, taken an Olympics that was doomed and made it successful and run a state. Only thing Obama knew how to do before getting elected was community organize - ie: take from companies and make them give to those that he thought needed someone else to take care of them. He is still doing the same thing - taking tax payer money and giving it to his buds so they can misspend it - Solyndra, green energy, shovel ready jobs that were not so shovel ready, etc.
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Alicia MalkemusWise
Superduper1
07:33 PM on 09/16/2012
As long as corporate America runs our government the people will suffer. Being poor is not a crime, ignoring it is. I wonder if the 1% sleep well at night knowing that over 46 million people in the U.S. go to bed hungry and homeless.

It is time that our government and greedy corporations wake up from their greed induced comas and work for the people that voted them into office, We the People of America.
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sjford
The opposite of CONgress is PROgress
07:49 PM on 09/16/2012
Please, the only thought they give to the poor are that they are an annoying debit on a balance sheet!
09:07 PM on 09/16/2012
Greedy corps. don't make us poor. We have had these so-called greedy corps. for a century or two and the country has grown into a world power. We lose jobs overseas mostly due to the fact that foreign workers will work for less than Americans while making essentially the same quality of goods. This is called "spreading the wealth" Where we heard that before? We need the Feds and all Americans to understand and tackle the issue of the debt and why we lose jobs.
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Alicia MalkemusWise
Superduper1
01:10 AM on 09/17/2012
Thanks to Clinton creating NAFTA, WTO and the G-7 and Bush and his tax cuts to corporations, the 1%, and lowering tariffs on imports, corporations took advantage of his their kindness and moved jobs and even companies to other countries. Now, the wealth in the U.S. is concentrated to the 1% owning 51% of all privately held wealth ,34% at the next level of the wealth (managerial, professional, and small business stratum) leaving only 15% of privately owned wealth (80% of the people in the U.S.). As you can see over the last 22 years the wealth and power belong to the 1%. The inequities of wealth distribution due to the poor decisions of our government and corporate controlled Wall St. have created the depression and poverty in our country..
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stevena999
Eyes Wide Open
07:25 PM on 09/16/2012
It makes it difficult to talk about poverty when there are those on the right who think that if someone has a refrigerator, they aren't poor.
07:16 PM on 09/16/2012
What a shame that the billionaires financing the presidential campaigns are not obliged to put equal amounts to help poor Americans
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06:40 PM on 09/16/2012
The American Dream is neither dead nor dying; it has been altered by and for the sake of the Wealthy and the Industries that support them. Thank you GOP, Big Oil and The Military Industrial Complex. "Complex" is right, it is a perfect description of the mess the USA is in today.
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sjford
The opposite of CONgress is PROgress
07:51 PM on 09/16/2012
Don't forget about the prison industry. We have 5% of the world's population and 25% of the prisoners...
09:08 PM on 09/16/2012
That's because we are a bunch of criminals who need to be remove from society.
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06:14 AM on 09/17/2012
If we give the GOP full control of the Government this time that will be doubled or worse with the Democrat Political Prisoners they take.  "Are there no Prisons, Are there no Workhouses?  And the Poor Farms are they not still in full operation?"
06:29 PM on 09/16/2012
"the love of money is the root of many evils" how true it is