Associated Press
Romney at an Ohio photo-op yesterday.
It was an awkward question: how does a campaign promise to cancel a political rally then hold it anyway? For Mitt Romney, it was simply a matter of rebranding.
In Ohio, yesterday, the Republican wanted credit for being sensitive to the victims of Hurricane Sandy and canceling a scheduled rally. He also wanted to hold the rally. So the same event was held at the same time, in the same venue, with the same celebrities and same campaign movie, but the rally was called a "storm relief event."
But there was another problem: what if supporters showed up without materials to drop off? Team Romney prepared for that, too -- the night before the partisan rally "relief event," campaign aides went to a local Wal Mart and spent $5,000 on "granola bars, canned food, and diapers," which could then be displayed for cameras.
What's more, local voters who wanted to shake Romney's hand were at risk of messing up the photo-op, so they were stage managed, too.
As supporters lined up to greet the candidate, a young volunteer in a Romney/Ryan t-shirt stood near the tables, his hands cupped around his mouth, shouting, "You need a donation to get in line!"
Empty-handed supporters pled for entrance, with one woman asking, "What if we dropped off our donations up front?"
The volunteer gestured toward a pile of groceries conveniently stacked near the candidate. "Just grab something," he said.
Two teenage boys retrieved a jar of peanut butter each, and got in line. When it was their turn, they handed their "donations" to Romney. He took them, smiled, and offered an earnest "Thank you."
It's reminiscent of Paul Ryan's recent stop to an Ohio soup kitchen. The Republican ticket is principally concerned with giving the appearance of assistance.
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File this under They Must Think We Are Stupid. Sure, alot of us are, but everyone has a line. My local news actually referred to this as a Disaster Relief event, so stupid lives.
Wasn't it P.T.Barnum that said "a sucker was born every minute" - the sheeple prove this with every vote for a GOTP'er!!
Why was this Romney campaign mendacity not caught on camera and televised yesterday? I saw these shots, but not what was going on in line.
The other story is that it is that the GOP couldn't get the thousand points of light to shine for Katrina, and they can't get them to shine for Hurricane Sandy. They can't even get their followers to participate in feel good form over substance symbolic gestures of donating canned goods that the Red Cross says they can't use and don't want. The Romney campaign either couldn't manage to get word to their attendees to show up with some donations, or the attendees got word but didn't care to. Maybe the right wingers didn't have much interest in sending donations to blue states like New York or New Jersey.
The rationale for sending canned goods rather than what the Red Cross is asking for: money? Recall the Welfare Mom right wing rant about Katrina victims:
The conservative meme is that when the Federal government and not church groups take on the role of the compassion in society, the people look to the state for handouts and not the church for compassion. To their way of thinking, the secular organizations like the state and Red Cross focus on money but that is bad because it can be misdirected to drugs and sex and diversions. To this way of thinking, God has punished these losers for a reason, and like panhandlers, you shouldn't give them money they will use to just go buy more booze. You need to use tough love and give them a can of food instead.
Good thinking there. New York City is turning into Amsterdam due to climate change, and the GOP blocks any attempt to attack the cause. But the churches are there to hand the transit authority worker attempting to pump out the tunnels a can of beans.
Brilliant.
It's as if they are more concerned that they will be labeled partisan for pointing out lies, deceit, and distortion, but they won't get labeled anything if they just ignore it.
Or more likely, that they will labeled in either case but don't mind being labeled so long as it's not by the voice that yells the loudest.
In some areas of the social media, the suggestion is that campaigns take the money they would normally spend on advertising for the next three or four days and donate it to the Red Cross or Salvation Army to help with disaster relief.
Sounds like a wonderful idea... not that it will happen, of course.
I don't know what's worse, Mitt Romney's complete lack of leadership in directing people where they should assist those in need or the media misdirecting peoples assistance by not pointing out Mitt Romney's obvious failure in leadership because they're afraid it hurts Mitt Romney. The facts hurt sometimes, but it's the people who need our help on the East Coast who hurt the most from both of these failures.
This "event" demonstrates why we need to discuss Romney's plan to defund FEMA and have aid provided by the private sector. Right now--while we have an ongoing disaster as a context for that debate.
The fact that Romney WILL privatize disaster relief if he's elected is a valid election issue. It speaks to clear differences between the two candidates about how they see those who suffer misfortune, their vision for the country, and the way they view the role of government. Clearly, this clumsy attempt at costuming a campaign rally as a charity event shows why the government is the one entity capable of coordinating such assistance on a scale necessary to address the problem.
Either Romney is lying (wow, what a surprise, since he's been doing that for this entire campaign) or he believes that less is more when it comes to disaster aid--an approach that will imperil countless U. S. citizens when natural disasters occur. His statement that people in trouble should pay to be rescued is troubling. Either way, this says enough about his character (or lack of it) to give even his most ardent supporters pause.
jupiterthunder4, agree. When did courage become a four-letter word to journalists?
Romney doing something unwanted and unasked for for publicity purposes. Color me so surprised.
I'm guessing that there were no Plastic Turkeys available...
(Yes I am still really hacked off about that)
Stalin's "Potemkin Village" lives!
(for those of you who are "history challenged," a "Potemkin village" was a village built in the 1930s as part of Stalin's collectivization "land reforms" that appeared to show a nice, modern community with all the conveniences; it was a sham, a facade, behind which the people lived in their normal hovels)
I have been saying that the Republicans have been becoming more "Stalinist": contorting themselves to follow the "party line" lest they be thought less than True Believers and scheduled for a trip to the Gulag, creating "cults of personality," vying with each other to be more dedicated (i.e., stone crazy) in devotion to the cause, etc.
They really are now a totalitarian movement. They use The Big Lie, and they do it relentlessly (like Goebbels said they must), they wish to dominate women, they are opposed to minorities, they believe ideology trumps facts (climate denial is their "Lysenkoism"), they all dutifully take orders from the apparatchiks above them.
To paraphrase Comrade Stalin: A single death is a tragedy fifty nine deaths and fifty billion in damage is a campaign rally
"Potemkin village" well predates Stalin.
Potemkins were initially villages constructed in the 17~18th century for Royalty to view from a distance while riding through the countryside in their carriages.
I pretty much gave up on people, in both mass and personally, when I realized they believed appearance more important than substance.
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The phenomenon of a "Potemkin village" supposedly dates back to the reign of Catherine the Great in Russia (reigned 1762-1796). There is dispute about whether or not those events actually occurred. It's a complicated matter, and I won't go into it here.
The first use of the term dates to 1937:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/potemkin%20village
Entropy- Webster's is wrong. The term dates back to 1797- a translation of a political lie perpetrated by a German diplomat enemy of Potemkin. It is a translation of Helbig's coined term "Potemkinsche Dorfer" (More details see postcript below).
Rob, crack a book on recent neuroscience. It really is very interesting how breakthroughs in medical imaging like fMRI scans are providing hard evidence about how our minds work. There is a convergence of evidence towards the model that the mind actually depends on sketchy summations of overwhelming amounts of data.
This has survival value, because the animal with the brain that deliberates too long gets eaten by the predator owning the yellow eyes that caught the sun for just a moment and indicated that there might be something in the bushes looking for a noontime snack.
That's why the GOP loves crisis, and the riveting spectacle of the immediate.
It's not people that are at fault. We can deliberate, we can be thoughtful, and methods of logical analysis and empirical determinations of fact have been known since the time of the Greeks. The question is whether our passions are brought into balance in a spirit of equanimity with the other faculties of our minds. We don't get there by studying Fox news, or the with educational theories that indoctrinate rather than promote independent rigorous free thinking.
Don't get cynical about darkness in our Nature that sometimes take hold. Get pro active about Nurture.
------ A Historical Postcript ----
Speaking of appearances: You seem to have been taken in by a historical myth that was long ago debunked, and yet often repeated. "Potemkin Village" is was a story concocted by a German diplomat named Georg von Helbig to satirize Catherine the Great. He was an enemy of Potemkin and concocted the fabrication in a pamphlet 10 years after the Empress's state visit to the Crimea. Though he was not present to witness the supposed deception of the gullible Empress, biographers have repeated his nonsense. The Germans were none too pleased that Catherine's husband Peter who loved the Prussians was assassinated by her supporters. They portrayed Catherine's vision for public education for all, including girls, liberalization of the serf system and the stranglehold of the church and aristocracy on the country as that of a naive idealist swayed by French liberalism to betray her own kind. What disgusted the German aristocrats most was that their German "girl" on the Russian throne was actually an intelligent and ruthless political observer and would not be their puppet. It was galling to the male dominated aristocracy that this husband-less woman was constantly increasing the size and influence of a empire they regarded as peopled by barbarians.
Catherine the Great was not a dumb aristocrat easily fooled by appearances. She understood what organ dominated the thinking of the male advisors around her. And it wasn't their Enlightenment minds.
Source: This is not some feminist inspired historical revisionism about Catherine. The Helbig's fraud was stated in the 1911 copy of Encyclopedia Britanica article on Potemkin:
Romney is the ultimate buttwipe. "Disaster Relief" rally? The only "disaster relief" the entire country will receive is when the disaster that is Mitt Romney is retired back to his mansion in California, never to be seen or heard from again!
It's not really a "mansion" and the neighbors aren't going to allow him to build it out, not on a winding narrow hillside street. So please, send him to the Caymans, so he can sleep with his money (and at least be close to the fishes).
Anything over 3000 Sq.ft is a mansion to me. I was one of the "poor" growing up. Pell grants, scholarships and student loans have allowed me to move up into the middle class. Romney gets elected, the people who will follow that route will be few and far between.
Hey, we don't want him California either!
Pell grants, scholarships and student loans have allowed me to move up into the middle class.
Hell, those are getting to be the only way to even get a job.
Credential inflation aside, employers actually need new hires with a tech background to just walk on a factory floor.
Even something as basic as a welder. They don't need to know metallurgy but they DO need to know joining these two metals requires a particular third metal.
CNC? An operator needs to be able to recognize bad feed and cut rates.
Heres the killer to the whole thing, knowing the wrong filler is speced or the machine programmed wrong isn't enough. Unless the technician has the credential to back up what they know isn't right they'll be dismissed.
Even to do the most fundamental job requires some form of degree and credential.
Isn't like it use to be.
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Yes the Obama Administration provided more Pell Grants and student loans than previous administrations but they neglected to create an environment that would allow the private sector to creates jobs for these young Americans. These recent graduates are now faced with no jobs and no money to begin paying back these loans which increases the likelihood that they will default, reducing their credit rating, making it more difficult to qualify for loans when and if they get a job in the future. It is all about jobs and the economy!
The Red Cross doesn't want canned goods. It makes their job more difficult. What they need is money.
Idiot. Hypocritical idiot. I'm so ashamed for him and of him.
Money don't fotograph quite as well.
I dunno, there's a swell pic of Romney and his buds with pocketsful of it at Bain...
The Red Cross does not have an exclusive on providing aid to victims of natural disasters. There are many other private and religious organizations that will gladly take the donations and deliver them to people in need in an efficient and effective manner.
Scooter
please provide a list with contact information.
So the actual food and supplies they donated was fake? Sure they had the photo ops but they did actually donate food and supplies. I do understand that this is a very pro-Obama and pro-Democratic site, but give them a little credit. Romney is not the President and is only a private citizen so all the he or other private citizens can do at this point is donate money, food or supplies...which is what they did.
That food *might* end up on a shelf at a local free grocery, or be donated to a local soup kitchen. However, it might also end up in a landfill.
What it won't do is make its way into the hands of people suffering from Sandy. Those relief organizations aren't waiting for people to clean out food from Walmart and get shipped to affected areas.
That's just stupid. Think, man. Think.
It's hard for me to judge on this incident. I don't think Romney is so cold that he does not care about the disaster and probably does want to help, but he would get a lot more traction from this if the photo op was of him cutting a fat check to the relief efforts from his own pocket. The effort he did make smacks loudly of dumbness basically.
Romney putting on yet another facade , why would anyone find that surprising?
Romneys "photo op" and "donations", if the donations are actually donated, are only going to get in the way and cause more problems than the donations are worth.
Actually the only thing of value Romney can do is donate money.
Yeah, thats not going to happen, is it?
Donating food and supplies makes people feel better,and makes for a photo op, but in reality those donations only get in the way and chew up human assets that could be better used someplace else.
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You seem to be missing the bigger picture, which is exactly what Romney was hoping for in going through with this event. He was planning a rally, which he claimed he cancelled. In its place he held a a thinly disguised so called "Disaster Relief" event, which in actuality was just his "cancelled" campaign rally, with the added bonus of a photo opportunity showing how generous and caring Romney is in this time of crisis. It was a phony relief event as people who did not bring anything were handed goods to "donate." Yes, the most a private citizen can do is donate and the best way he could have was to write a check to the Red Cross or similar organization - but that wouldn't have generated any pictures of him receiving donations for disaster relief. Plus he would have seemed callous holding a campaign rally at that time (which is why it was cancelled).
If you want to commend him for donating, fine. But you should also condemn him for doing so in such a phony manner. Please respond to this question - why doesn't it bother you that he is so duplicitous? Why are you seemingly okay with a potential future president that has repeatedly been proven to be dishonest?
If you can't come up with a legitimate answer than it can only be assumed that you just hate Democrats for no justifiable reason or are a racist.
"I don't think Romney is so cold that he does not care about the disaster..."
Really, this is the same man that wants to defund FEMA - you know the people that CAN actually help during disasters like this. But I would be more impressed if he wrote that "personal check" to help out.
Yet another straw-man opportunity blown, like Lyin' Ryan's dish-washing at a "Soup Kitchen" - it was all for show and as empty as the candidates!
The Red Cross clearly states that they want money and blood donations, not goods like food or clothing. And Rochester 12 is right, a lot of it will end up in landfills, or hopefully, in food pantries run by charities for the poor.
You ever worked a "food drive"? I have! People are really strange - they haul all the old food out of their cupboards that they don't want to eat - thinking there is someone "in worse circumstances" than they are who would love to have it. Unfortunately, most of it has to be thrown away because it is over its expiration date. Do you REALLY want to give food to people who have just been through a disaster that may make them sick too?
So then we had to hire a truck to cart all that no good food to the dump and we had to pay for it. So much for helping the poor!! Is it no wonder that food drives are much more organized now and that food banks really want you to donate items you just picked up from the grocery store?
This is just ONE MORE example where Romney shows he is totally "out of touch" with anyone who isn't from his "set"! He has NO CLUE how other people live or what happens to people in a disaster or what it is that they even need!!
Rob, WE can only hope that this story really hits the airwaves. To make a mockery of the situation that People are going through is just mindboggling. Compassion for People?? Not with a display like that.
Ok all. First we do not know that Romney did not also write a check. Second (oncearepublican) the post mentions that they went out and spent $5000 on food bought from Walmart - which I imagine is not past the expiration date. And a lot of organizations - like the Salvation Army and Red Cross - do serve meals to displaced people, so I do not think the food will go to waste, even if it only goes to local food pantries.
Look, yes the campaign did milk a little publicity, but they still did something. Yeah they could have cancelled the entire event, but even the President's entire campaign did not come to a grinding halt. I do believe Clinton and Biden still made campaign stops in that same time frame.
Very, very unlikely. The media will see it as too offensive and political a story to air in connection with an actual tragedy.
However, I'm quite sure FOX will describe how lovely and selfless the event was. You can take that to the bank. (No pun)
I feel your pain, Skip. It hurts to have your belief system rattled by reality.
Whatever, Rochester. I am not voting for Romney by the way (leaning Libertarian this time). This post (and site most of the time) is purely one sided which is fine, but I think in this case many are just trying too hard to find fault. Maybe they should just trash the food and supplies (which are not expired) because it was not a "real" effort.
And again the Democrats were still campaigning during that time too - just not the President so I don't think you can still slam them on that point.
It's too bad that won't be able to find out whether or not that $5000 Wal-Mart purchase was written off as a campaign expense.
OK MindBend.
It's pretty apparent that skip is Libertarian/Repub-ish, as he is quick to say the Dems are doing it too, but not very much about the lousy b.s. the Repubs pull. So their b.s. is not so bad because the occasional Dem does it too. At least he isn't voting for the lead Pinocchio of the upper crust.
I personally have gone through the third party stuff, but I have concluded that realistically, one of the two parties will be President, so I choose Dems.
Boo! Happy Halloween to all, this was a huge trick on the East Coast, sorry folks. Wishing you all well from the West Coast.
That would be the side of facts, history and math.
Yes, I would agree with that.
What you expect Romney to follow the Red Cross Guidelines? Romney does not think the rules apply to him, he makes his own rules.
Lorr,
See JimN's comments on page 2 (#33). This thread is just a Bash Romney exercise at this point. JimN said it perfectly (page 2). If he did nothing, you would all say he is selfish and if he did do something, it was not real or idiotic. Oh well, expected here.
When a President acts we can’t count on a sign behind him to make up for any mistakes in actual leadership. It's nearly impossible for anyone not to do some right in a situation like this, but when you add up the total once again Mitt Romney proves he has no core understanding or interest in understanding the best way to render assistance and not to. The only assistance he knows how to render, is for the 1%.
Skip - wrong he could have said any money you would donate to my campaign today please donate it to the Red Cross. How about having someone from the Red Cross there at your "Relief Rally" to accept donations. How about a donation of $5.00 for the Red Cross and that would be admission to his "Relief Rally". How about not playing your "campaign video" and just have your entertainment and just meet and greet and thank people for their monetary donation to the Red Cross.
And there, in one event, is the entire Romney campaign in a nutshell.
From "The Graduate".... Mr. McGuire: "There's a great future in plastics."
Mitt Romney's understanding of charity is to personally hand his used underwear to a homeless guy dying on the street.
Mitt had his staff steal all the tuna sandwiches from the vending machines and offered them to the hungry for half price.
Remember when "As Seen on TV" was the ultimate endorsement for a product?
Apparently, Mitt still lives in the 1950's.
With a Campaign from Ronco...
Cheep, plastic, and made in China
Wonder if he wins if we all get a bamboo steamer?
Day-3905329
Mitt's entire campaign is based in the 50's! As is his attitude towards women - be it their bodies or the fact that some of us actually work outside the home and have degrees.
Over the last couple of day's I have been going onto various newspapers around the Country, Trying to see what the view is in what are considered Key swing States, I live in WI. This phony relief drive has alot of People really honked off, Wow, STEVE #6, Right on the Money. If this story does not open up the eyes of his supporters, and with his view of FEMA, then nothing will.
I Agree....
oops
Why can't they just ask what people need, whether they want a photo op or not? Am I supposed to be concerned because Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney have such poor judgement they surround themselves with crazy incompetent fools that prove they have no judgement? Or should I worry about them being fake liars willing to do anything to be in power except actually concern themselves over the welfare of the very people they want to "represent?"
And why do I have to ask these questions? Why can't the Republicans just find a decent person to have as their candidate?????
"Why can't the Republicans just find a decent person to have as their candidate?"
Because there are no longer any middle-of-the-road intelligent, empathetic republicans on that side of the aisle willing to be stupid and dumb themselves down to the level of the sheeple. Understand now....
What Zora said with the addition that "any middle-of-the-road intelligent, empathetic republicans" would be un-electable to the current GOTP base. In fact, they've actually culled the "moderate" republicans from the ranks when they elected the teabaggers.
WMR continues to astound. Just when you thought they couldn't get more blatant you're confronted with another amazing feat of distortion and .... fraud. This entire campaign is a complete and utter fraud. But the worst part of it is that he continues to get away with it. Now we know what CU big money buys you - an alternate universe that people actually believe. I really can't believe I'm watching this unfold in real time!
Chris Christi knocking that Mayor was a little ridiculous and political considering there was and is people with incomes and transportation that could not even get to higher or safer ground. That Mayor was right to open shelters for the protection of people. Do we have to be reminded of Hurricane Katrina where thousands of people couldn’t get out of harms way even if they wanted to. Chris Christi needs to stop thinking about a 2016 Presidential bid for election and start understanding all the circumstances that occurred and do his job. Chris Christi should keep his thirst for political power in check, before he starts to open his mouth such a typical Republican. Especially, when you know Chris Christi is the same Governor that screwed over the worker with his line item veto. Plus where Chris Christi could really fast knock President Obama than turn 180 degrees around praising President Obama, when he certainly knows too well he will be up for re-election next year and is playing political football. Chris Christi is the typical weasel just like the rest of the Republicans.
Look at the picture, Tiny cans of food.
Where are these cans of food going ? An evacuation center? A place with hundreds of people needing fed?
So they send 2 serving cans for hundreds of people to eat from?
Is that stupidity? Cluelessness? What?
To actually use what Mittens is sending will require a brigade of can openers, not to mention there isn't enough of any one thing to make it even worth having.
The people actually doing the work will save time and energy by throwing this stuff away.
They should have just sent the money to the people doing the work so they could buy what they actually need and can use.
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I Agree...
Come on Rob. So are you saying that unless you send truckloads why bother? Most likely those supplies would be given to the local Red Cross or other agency that would probably combine it with other donations and ship it in on a big truck. And does anyone know if money was also donated by the campaign and/or the people attending? Like I said above, some here a really trying too hard to demonize the Republicans....at least in this case.
skip - it's hard to know what is best to do in these situations. That's why you contact the relief organizations and ask them what they need.
If Romney's campaign had contacted the Red Cross, they would have told him what they need, and it would not have been food. Then maybe Romney could have organized a blood drive at his
campaign rallyrelief event, or written a large personal check and encouraged his supporters to do the same.Others may call this a campaign stunt, but, to me, it's just another disturbing indication of how completely out of touch Romney is and how unconcerned he is with what the common man needs.
It's not demonizing, Skip. It's Mitt's exploitation of yet another situation, the food is a prop, the concern is a front, and the disaster rally is a political ploy. How do we know? By Mitt's past actions.
If Mitt was concerned about disaster aide, would he be threatening FEMA and tossing disaster aide responsibility back on the shoulders of the states?
If Mitt cared about people needing help, would he be threatening our social safety nets?
Has Mitt has exploited dire situations before this for political gain, like Benghazi?
Be glad you didn't lose everything you owned in a flood/fire/storm, only to have Mitt Romney photographed with granola bars in your honor.
Hey Rachel -- Did anyone follow the truck to see where those "Romney" cans went? Just wondering if some enterprising reporter may have checked this out to see where that warehouse in New Jersey actually was, what is happening to the cans, etc.
No...it was never meant to go there. They are pure evil, those Republicans. They probably put it in a dumpster immediately afterwards. This will end up being a vast right wing canned good conspiracy. Seriously Monty?
If it was born out of a lie, why would you expect it to end any differently? Do you really expect Romney cares what happens after the cameras stop taking his picture stuffing plastic bags with peanut butter?
Seriously Skip? Reality hurts when it's not what you want.
OK Monty. Romney does not care and the food will go nowhere...not even to the local food pantry. Got it. And no something that is just made up in your head does not hurt - it is not reality in this case. Bash on Monty.
Skippywippy just stepped on his lower lip.
Can Romney get anymore disgusting? Best line I have heard while canvassing for Obama here in North Carolina-"Never get in a pissing contest with a skunk." Guess who's the skunk?! He sure is putting out a lot of foul-smelling #*&#!!
Hey Rachel I have a problem with Romney:
Romney Son has something to do with owning the Voting Machine's... Why is he in Ohio so long with the President saving the Auto Company; will they be checking the Machines to see if they have been fixed or not...
Where is Paul Ryan in all this? You would think he'd be front & center whenever there was an opportunity for phony compassion.
For that matter, where is Shooter and his ilk? Haven't his hate-blogs come up with a way to explain how collecting canned goods at a bogus event is the right and humane way to respond to a tragedy?
It is impossible to deny that President Obama is now favored to win reelection in the most audacious and improbably electoral comeback in recent American political history. Elections are won in the battleground states, not national tracking polls, and the president has a steady lead in every key state. Clearly Romney's bizarre campaign decisions of the past week are based on fear and desperation, not the "momentum" that many in the press seem hell-bent on bestowing upon Mitt. Rolling last-minuted hate ads against Obama in Minnesota and New Mexico are just throwing a pile of money against the wall in hopes that a fraction sticks, not a sign of strength. Mitt has gobs of cash, and he still wants to buy this race. - progressive
Rmoney might have scored higher political points of they had bought the staged goods at a Mom & Pop store, rather than Walmart.
Also, the Red Cross needs cash.
This storm crossed many state lines.
The State of New Jersey seems to be eager to get help from the federal government right now. Most of us are OK with that, but Rmoney said he would rather put it back in State or private hands.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2012/1030/Did-Mitt-Romney-suggest-eliminating-FEMA-video
Did they at least have the good sense to recycle the items through the lines when they ran out of things to hand to Romney for the PhotoOp?
They stage a rally thinly disguised as a "relief event",use money donated to the campaign to go out and buy $5000.00 worth of goods at Wal Mart that the Red Cross does NOT want (and repeatedly has said so) then have the same suckers line up and "donate" the stuff their $ donations to his campaign bought in the first place? Say what you will but his staff are brilliant. They actually figured a way to con their own supporters even more. I need them raising money for my son's Little League.I'm sure they'll be looking for work next Wednesday.
And Mitt just goes along with all of it with that benign- vaguely- Cromagnon eyebrow- ridge -bemused- condescending- grin. Like he can't believe people actually eat things from a can.Such a Godly man is he. Joe Smith and Brigham Young are weeping.
"like he can't believe people actually eat things from a can" made me LOL.
The Red Cross and other relief agencies keep asking people NOT to donate things like canned goods and clothes (they don't have time to handle them).
What they need now is CASH.
Trust Romney to give everyone exactly the wrong message.
But cash doesn't make a photo op like soup cans and granola boxes.
Real people attended that
politicaldisasterrallyrelief event. Did they not find it odd to be told to "grab something" before meeting "Him".Cash? Try eating a dollar bill or a hand full of change. I bet it wont go down very well.
Knotthaid, disaster relief agencies in these kind of situations have a much easier time buying relief supplies in bulk and shipping them into the area in prearranged packages because space and fuel are extremely precious. It costs more than double the time, effort, and value of the goods and supplies being given to examine, sort, and package for transport than just buying more kits. It's some of that private sector efficiency that people say not for profits and government don't have.
It would be interesting to know where this food went. Also, does he not have "people" who could have done a 5 minute research on what is needed or helpful? He may be unaware of all this because the Mormons have huge stocks of food and that's what they collect. It is only for about the last 15 years that they have shared with the larger community. The Red Cross has amazing resources for getting what they need, when they need it.
He (and his people) are not actually interested in what is "helpful". It is more about what would look good in a snapshot.
Hey Rachel,
I wonder how Donald Trump feels about FEMA and President Obama in regards to Hurricane Sandy.
I saw the Trump sign looked messed up, so he will probably apply for FEMA aid, as his ties are made in China, while he states how he supports Rmoney's tough stance on China, which mirrors his own. Talk about China being the problem, but outsource the manufacturing immediately to the lowest cost.
Trump has a few million extortion dollars laying around to fix his sign. He's good.
But how many times have "his businesses" filed for bankruptcy?
http://phoenixbankruptcynews.com/2011/04/the-history-of-donald-trumps-bankruptcy-filings.html
Four, it's a strategy… just like Bain… buy a company, borrow money, sell stock, make money, take pension, go under or float, makes no never mind. They got their ka-ching after many lost… again, makes no never mind. They got their ka-ching… no wonder Trump (the obnoxious egomaniacal man that loves to demean others) like Rmoney. Birds of a feather.
Does either man have a product? Well, the Trump ties are made in China…
http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/73080714.html