President Barack Obama spoke to a crowd of over 6,600 students and community members in the MAC Center at Kent State University at 5:00pm on Wednesday, September 26th.

The president gave a stirring stump speech through breaks for raucous cheers and applause from Kent students.

Students were lining up starting at 10:00pm the night before and waited through pouring rain, cold, and lightning to get a good spot to see the president speak.

Tim Ryan gave a powerful speech, as well, with topics ranging from education to the economy and the 2011 effort by We Are Ohio to stop John Kasich's attack on union rights. Tim Ryan was extremely well received by the crowd in attendance.

“This is not just a choice between two candidates and two political parties,” Obama said. “This is a choice between two fundamentally different visions.”

President Obama focused much of his speech on policy and his accomplishment and also made an effort to compare his record with that of Governor Mitt Romney's- including industrial job outsourcing and the comments Mitt Romney made at a fundraiser about "the 47%".

The most recent polls show that the Barack Obama is leading in Ohio by a 10-point spread (53,43), according to The New York Times.

Erik J. Clarke
Reporting from Kent State University

No wonder politics has become so cynical and corrupt. Thanks to people like Ohio's most unqualified candidate ever, Josh "The Empty Suit" Mandel, and his deep pockets friends, spending big money to engage in a campaign of baseless personal destruction of Sherrod Brown, good people are getting turned off campaigns while those driven by hatred, fear and bigotry get worked into a lather.

Josh Mandel has nothing to offer. Sherrod Brown has done good for so many people.

Watch this ad to learn about just one small thing among many:

Congresswoman Marcia Fudge gathered a whole bunch of civil rights and voting-rights minded leader outside the Cuyahoga County board of elections today. They came not just from the black community but from the Asian and Latino communities as well to speak about the importance of voting on National Voter Registration Day.

Here the Rev. Otis Moss Jr., one of the deans of Cleveland's religious community, invokes the names of civil rights leaders and martyrs including Medgar Evers, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Viola Liuzzo, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner — all icons in the black community for their work in fighting to make the ballot accessible to all

"Anyone who tries to stop people from voting doesn't believe in democracy," he said. Congresswoman Fudge added that as far as she's concerned such people aren't Christians, and issued a threat: "Those who don't want people to vote, we will see you in November."

They drew a sizable crowd who demonstrated a deep, passionate commitment to voting rights for all, even, as the congresswoman said, if they don't vote the same way you do.

"Seriously, Republicans — you thought we were going to sit out the election because President Obama didn't give us all ponies? The laugh is on you!"

Monday on the 24th of September thousands of Kent State University students lined up to receive tickets to the upcoming President Barack Obama rally on Wednesday, the 26th.

According to Organizing For America, there were more tickets given out at the City of Kent Obama office and the office in Akron.

This is the first time a president has visited the university since President Taft did in 1912.

The event is set for the MACC at Kent State University with doors opening at 3:30pm and the president expected to speak around 5:30pm.

You have until October 9 to register in Ohio, but voter registration groups across the country are issuing a reminder tomorrow. Get your butt in gear and make sure you are on the rolls!

Register online!

https://register.rockthevote.com/registrants/new?partner=20377

Or you can go down to your board of elections. If you go between October 2 and October 9, you can vote there at the same time. I'm not quite sure why the Republicans in Columbus didn't ban that so-called "Golden Period" because they sure did complain about it enough.

And if you think you're registered but have any reason at all to not be sure, double check with your board of elections.

Tomorrow outside the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections at East 30th and Euclid Avenue, 11th District Congresswoman Marcia Fudge will be hosting a voter protection event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. with labor and civic leaders, elected officials and clergy.

Here are the scheduled speakers, who will speak in two groups:

11:40 a.m. speaking program: Congresswoman Fudge, State Senator Nina Turner, Reverend Larry Harris Sr., Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church; Reverend Timothy Eppinger, God's Tabernacle of Faith Church; Reverend Rodney S. Thomas, Imani Temple Ministries; Khalid Samad, co-founder Peace In the Hood; City Councilwoman Ruby Nelson, Warrensville Heights; Judith Vankleef, senior voter; Erika Forde Anthony, Oriana House; Deborah Wang, Asia Services in Action.

12:30 p.m. speaking program: Congresswoman Fudge, Ohio House Minority Leader Armond Budish, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Warrensville Heights Mayor Brad Sellers, South Euclid Mayor Georgine Welo, Harriet Applegate, Executive Secretary North Shore AFL-CIO.

Ohio Senator Rob Portman is prepping Mitt Romney for the upcoming debates, playing the role or President Obama (ha - now there's an incongruent thought!). And while faint-hearted Democrats are wringing their hands and imagining that Romney can turn the debates into a major rally for him by appearing coherent, likable, warm and consistent agains a president who, they claim, hasn't debated in a while, Portman doesn't think so.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/09/portman-obama-will-...

He told Politico,

Barack Obama is a very effective debater. He’s articulate, he’s smart. He did a great job in 2008, during that campaign as a debater. ... So this notion that somehow Barack Obama as president hasn’t had time to really get up to speed – he’s up to speed everyday, because he deals with all these issues, federal issues everyday.

Portman dismisses the idea that Romney will be more seasoned because of the endless stream of GOP primary debates, saying,

I am really not worried. Why are you?

This is what it means to be a swing state! My sisters in California and Illinois never get to see presidential candidates. But we do!

This Wednesday, President Obama will be hitting two of Ohio's biggest university campuses: Bowling Green and Kent State. He'll be talking about growing the economy and creating jobs, something Republicans made it clear they don't care about with their votes last week to kill a bill that would have put returning veterans back to work. He'll be reminding voters of the October 9 deadline to register and that early voting begins October 2. Vote! Vote! Vote!

He'll be speaking at Bowling Green State University's Stroh Center, 1535 E. Wooster Street, a little after 1. Doors open at 10:30 a.m.

Then he'll head across the state to KSU's MAC Center at 1025 Risman Drive, where he'll speak 5:30ish. They'll be letting the crowd in about 3:30 p.m.

Of course, it's free. What do you think this is, a $50,000 a ticket Mitt Romney fundraiser where he calls 47% of Americans "moochers"? Nah.

"I don't see any moochers here."
(President Obama in Akron in August)

Back in either 2000 or 2004, I can't remember, I heard the Sisters in the Spirit gospel tour at PlayhouseSquare. One of the performers was singer Yolanda Adams. At one point in her set, she paused between songs to remind the crowd how important it was that they vote. Then she said, "I don't want you to go playing in the bushes, if you know what I mean. I'm from Texas, so I know!"

This afternoon, Adams visited the Obama office at 124th and Euclid Avenue to rev up volunteers to defeat yet another Republican presidential candidate, this one not named Bush.

Addressing a roomful of Obama supporters and volunteers, she remarked on the refreshments, which were copious ("You got popcorn popping — how cool is that?) and talked about her personal friendship with the Obamas, saying, "I would rather have a president who loves everyone than a president who just likes some people," referring to Mitt Romney's remark about the 47% who he says don't care about their lives and just sponge off government.

Tall Texan talks truth!

And here's the reason we'll win. See these two women?

So who do you think the paper that called Josh Mandel a "cartoon candidate" and a "Saturday Night Live skit" endorsed?

http://www.ohio.com/editorial/editorials/cartoon-candidate-1.330161

Right — Sherrod Brown.

http://www.ohio.com/editorial/editorials/for-the-u-s-senate-sherrod-brow...

It says,

Hard to miss about his first term as a senator has been his hard work and leadership, his attention to what matters for Ohioans, from manufacturing and jobs to health care and farming (the first Ohioan on the Senate Agriculture Committee in four decades).

It says he sees himself as a "champion of the middle class" and says "The portrayal has substance.

It also, correctly, dismisses the charge that he is "too liberal" as "more about slogans than anything." At a time when conservatism seems increasingly to mean utter disregard for anyone not fabulously wealthy, it's a compliment. And polls have repeatedly showed that when people are asked about typical "liberal" positions, they overwhelmingly favor them

Of course, the paper has to find a few quibbles so as not to appear "unbalanced." They complain he can sound too "protectionist" on trade questions. But that's appropriate in a climate where the pendulum has swung so far the other way. Go ask a worker whose job has gone overseas if Brown is too protectionist. And the BJ digs up some trivial campaign rhetoric from 2006. But mostly, it's an accurate description of how well Sherrod Brown has served his state — and the country.

As an addenda to the editorial, the Beacon Journal briefly takes apart Josh Mandel saying "He isn't ready for the job, referring to his "shallow positions" and his "sparse record" and suggesting he "would have done well to focus on completing a term as treasurer and then see what the political future holds. He might have started by attending Board of Deposit meetings."

You know that annoying song "What Makes You Beautiful" by British boy band One Direction? The one in which a girl is declared to be beautiful because she is floor-gazingly, hair-flippingly insecure?

Here are five hot young men in swim trunks (yes, I found this thanks to a gay friend) calling themselves Wrong Direction, performing their version which they call "Disclosure."

I loved it; chances are you will love it too!

Josh “The Empty Suit” Mandel, in his never-ending quest to exploit his military service for political gain, has moved from parroting “I was a Marine” over and over as a substitute for policy ideas and his record in office to accusing the Sherrod Brown campaign of attacking his military service, presenting himself as the noble, wronged victim.

The Plain Dealer’s PolitiFact feature took on the charge, parsing something a retired major general, Dennis Laich, working on behalf of Sherrod Brown, said. Laich was explaining the difference between serving in the military at a “tactical” level and serving in the U.S. Senate on a “strategic” level. He wasn't attacking Mandel's service.

In a mailer, Mandel’s campaign screeched that "It is outrageous for Sherrod Brown’s campaign to say that enlisted military service with infantry battalions in Iraq doesn’t prepare you for leadership.” It referred to the general’s factual and measured response to a reporter’s question as “scummy smear tactics.”

PolitiFact found Mandel’s accusation “mostly false.” But if you read their technical micro-dissection of this comment, you rapidly came to the conclusion it should have been another “Pants on Fire,” and PolitiFact just didn’t want to run up Mandel’s flaming pants total still higher.

http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2012/sep/17/josh-mandel/josh-m...

(Warning: this particular PolitiFact is so twisty-turny and contained so many irrelevant detours it will make your head hurt.)

But it’s true. Mandel’s military service IS being attacked — by Josh Mandel.

Or I should say more like dozens of pieces of spam, because I've probably gotten this email 100 times in the last year. But I still laugh every time I see it pop up.

It's titled "Requesting that the Voters from Ohio vote for Mr.Mitt Romney and Mr.Josh Mandel"

God only knows what the goal of this is.

To,

The Voters,
The Ohio State,
The United States Of America.

Dear the Voters,

We request that the Voters from the Republican Party,the Independent
Voters,and the Voters from the Democratic Party vote for Mr.Mitt
Romney from the Republican Party in the US Presidential Election in
Ohio on 6th March,2012 and we also request that the Voters from the
Ohio State,the Independent Voters,the Voters from the Republican Party
and the Voters from the Democratic Party,vote for Mr.Josh Mandel in
the US Senate Election in Ohio on 6th November,2012.

Request By,

Ms.Chit Thu Wai,
Ms.Chit Suu Wai,
Ms.Pa Pa Win Khin,
Ms.Pwint Nadi Mg,
Ms.Ya Min Ko Ko,
Ms.Zar Zar Min Htet,
Ms.Khin Moe Zar,
Ms.Chit Suu,
Ms.Thazin,
Ms.Nan Su Yati Soe,
Ms.Wine Su Khine Thein,
Ms.Moe Hay Ko,
Ms.Soe Myat Nandar,
Ms.Soe Myat Kalayar,
Ms.Soe Myat Thuzar,
Ms.Tun Eaindra Bo,
Ms.Nandar Hlaing,
Ms.May Kabyar,
Ms.Khin Lay Nwe,
Ms.Suu Kabyar,
Ms.May Htut Khaung,
Ms.Nway Htet San,
Ms.Aye Myat Thu,
Ms.Yadanar Khin,
Ms.Yadanarmy,
Ms.Tin Moe Lwin,
Ms.Suu Pan Htwa,
Mr.Ye Wai Yan,
Mr.Tun Tun,
Mr.Nay Toe,
Mr.Yelay,
Mr.Sai Sai Kham Hlaing,
Mr.Hein Wai Yan,
Mr.Ya Wai Aung,
Mr.Pyay Ti Oo,
Mr.Moe Di,
Mr.Moss,
Mr.Zarganar,
Mr.Kai Zar,
Mr.Myit Tar,
Mr.Nyunt Win,
Mr.Nay Aung,
Mr.Kyaw Hein,
Mr.Dway,
Mr.Thar Nyi,
Mr.Zaw Oo,
Mr.Shar Nyo,
Mr.Min Hein,
Mr.Nay Htet Linn,
Mr.Ye Mon,
Mr.Wai Luu Kyaw,
Mr.Min Maw Kun,
Mr.Zin Wine,
Mr.Lu Min,
Mr.Lwin Moe,
Mr.Kyaw Thu,
Mr.Soe Thu,
Mr.Kyaw Ye Aung,
Mr.Ye Aung,
Mr.Tun Tun Win,
Mr.Sai Htee Sai,
Mr.Htoo Eain Thin,
Ms.Myo Thunder Tun,
Ms.Eaindra Kyaw Zin,
And
Ms.Thin Zar Wint Kyaw.

Clevelanders in Oh-11 never have to worry that they have to fend off a challenge from a teabagger — or from any Republican, for that matter. If you're in Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights etc., you're always going to be sending a Democrat to Congress. Why? Because you are smart, educated, not fact-challenged, and thrive on diversity, not hatred and fear of anyone who isn't like you. I know, because I live here.

Unfortunately, that's not so true of other parts of Ohio. The new 10th district, which consists of Montgomery County (Dayton, Green County and northern Fayette County, has a Republican incumbent named Mike "Who?" Turner who has had, shall we say, a rather undistinguished congressional career. He's being challenged by Dayton attorney Sharen Neuhardt, who ran once before, in 2008, against Steve Austria in a more Republican district.

She didn't win but she gained a lot of campaign savvy. Her fundraising is good, and she's on the air with an ad. Can she beat Turner? It's hard to say but there are certainly some favorable factors. Things would be even more favorable if she could get word out more. That's why a group of Cleveland-area Democrats are holding a fundraiser for her in Shaker Heights next week.

It takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday September 27 at the home of Leslie & John Dunn in Shaker Heights. Suggested contributions are $100 and up, made out to Neuhardt for Congress.

You can RSVP to Uriah Anderson at uriah.anderson@neuhardtforcongress.com or call his cell at (805) 701-4328. Come out and meet this dynamic lady, and help out someone who will actually do something for Ohioans instead of Mike Turner sitting on his ass and doing what John Boehner tells him to do.

Here are a couple of things to launch Cleveland-area activists into the GOTV season and keep up the momentum to retain two of the best progressives in Congress, Senator Sherrod Brown and Congresswoman Betty Sutton.

Tomorrow night, Friday September 21, from 5 to 7 p.m., Sherrod Brown will be opening up his new east side campaign office at 12402 Buckeye Road near Shaker Square. Please, Clevelanders, come to this if you can and learn what to tell your friends and neighbors about why they absolutely must vote for Sherrod. Yes, the candidate will be there.

Next Friday, September 28, from 6 to 11 p.m., at the UAW Hall, 17250 Hummel Road, Brook Park, join Ohio's 16th District Democrats in a Get Out the Vote rally.

http://www.facebook.com/events/359224480799041/

One of the stars will be Congresswoman Betty Sutton, who is facing fellow incumbent Teabaggin' Jim Renacci in this district. Her polls say they're tied; he has said nothing, which means they're probably tied. So keeping Betty in Congress and tossing a teabagger out on his ass will come down to turning out a LOT of friendly voters in this part of the district, southwestern Cuyahoga County.

They're promising beer, hot dogs, and an appearance by Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, who will be representing some parts of this side of town come January (She's not the least bit threatened by challenger Not Joe the Not Plumber). I can guarantee there will be judicial candidates as well! You'd have to bar the door to keep them away. This should be a good time so bring the family.

People I know are always complaining that they never get called by pollsters. I haven’t gotten called since I got a push-poll call in 2006 asking me if I thought Ohio would benefit from a “strong black governor.” (Sure, but not Ken Blackwell).

I got a call last week. But I don’t think it was a polling firm looking for hard numbers because the woman on the line didn’t ask for any demographic information.

But when she asked if I would answer a few questions about Ohio’s U.S. Senate race, I said, “HELL yeah.” In fact, I think I startled her with the depth of my knowledge about this race, giving her much more complete answers than I suspect she was looking for.

Her first question was whether I knew which of the following if any Josh Mandel said he favored cutting: Social Security, Medicare, or Pell funding for college students.

My response was that while he evaded saying exactly where he stood so he hadn’t been direct about any cuts he might favor, he supported and was supported by officeholders like Paul Ryan who favored cutting them all.

She also asked,

“Which of these things do you remember Josh Mandel being accused of:
A. using tax dollars to campaign
B. hiring college friends in his office
C. losing public records.

My answer: “Although he’s technically guilty of A since he campaigns on taxpayer time, he hasn’t been widely accused of it in the media. It was former Secretary of State Ken Blackwell who did C. Mandel hasn’t done that — that we KNOW of. The answer is B, and I can name some of those more than half dozen unqualified cronies he’s hired for top positions in his office, if you like.”

She asked if I was aware of any online ads about Mandel as a politician. I told her I’d probably seen some but since I had about as much chance of flying to the moon as voting for Mandel, I really wasn’t paying attention. But that tipped me off to who might be behind the call and what it was about.

... here's something to make you laugh.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/20/limbaugh-penises-now-10-percent-sm...

An Italian study found that penises are smaller than they were 50 years ago, speculating that increasing body weights, smoking, and pollution are among the factors.

Sorry, scientists – Rush Limbaugh says it's the damned lib'ruls.

"it has to be the feminazis, the chickification and everything else,” says he, not wanting to take personal responsibility for that fact that his two-inch penis is related to his chronic obesity and, who knows? maybe OxyContin use!

Back in 2009, he cited another frightening threat to penises:

“If we need to save our penises from anybody, it’s Obama."

Yup. He said that. Seriously.

There is a catalog of reasons why Josh "The Empty Suit" Mandel (you know this was going to be about him, didn't you?) should never come CLOSE to being Ohio's U.S. Senator. We've gone over them — and over and over. But just when you think you're done, he surprises you with his ability to be dishonest, unethical, and nasty in the most brazen way.

We noted recently that Mandel has been running ads hilariously attacking Sherrod Brown for his attendance record in the Senate — which is nearly flawless. Everything in the ad is just completely fabricated. Yes, you can do that. It's only the latest in a money barrage of lies against Sherrod that is racing toward $20 million.

Then on the heels of these ads, Mandel actually has the chutzpah — probably too mild a word — to blow of word at the treasurer's office again.

http://ohiodems.org/news/today-mandel-blows-off-work-again-to-raise-cash...

Here is what Mandel is doing today while being paid with your tax dollars and mine:

8:30 a.m. Breakfast fundraiser
12:00 p.m. Fundraising lunch w/ GOP party boss Senator Roy Blunt
4:30 p.m. Fundraising reception

Yes, what a dedicated public servant he is. He might as well be sticking his finger directly in our eye. This is a man with such contempt for honesty and for the public that it's shocking he's even managed to be running.

The list is endless, isn't it? As we know from the recently released tapes of Mitt Romney's of-the-cuff speech to a private gathering of Moneybags in Florida, it starts with the 47% of the country who don't pay INCOME taxes – but plenty of other taxes — including the elderly, the working poor, the disabled, and of course the veterans – boy, do they hate veterans.

Romney made his contemptuous, belittling speech to a roomful of "friendlies" — or did he? The attendees paid $50,000 to bask in the presence of this ultra-wealthy man. But who else was in the room?

Correct. The servers.

Connie Schultz has some thoughts about that:

http://www.creators.com/liberal/connie-schultz/mitt-romney-s-betrayal.ht...

I have a thought myself: I wonder if any drinks got spit in.

This is a relevant time to repeat a story I have told before about a somewhat high-dollar (for me — actually a fraction of the Romney fundraiser entry price) fundraiser I went to for Senator Sherrod Brown a few years ago.

Toward the end of the event the Senator was standing by the door shaking hands with people as they left. I was at the other side of the room talking to one of the servers. She looked over at him and said, "I'd love to meet him." I went over and asked if he could come say hello to her when he had a minute. He promptly excused himself, went over to the other side of the room, introduced himself, and chatted with this server for a couple of minutes.

No, every politician is not the same. Some see the people they represent as fellow human beings and some don't. Some, as President Obama said on the David Letterman Show last night, understand they represent everyone, and others think they just represent the wealthy special interests that fund their campaigns. Keep in mind that Mitt Romney thinks 75% of your are in the 47%.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress/republican-objections-to...

OK, maybe you don't like the word "hate." But there is no denying they ooze contempt for veterans and consider them insignificant collateral damage in their war against President Obama's second term — even though the war is pretty much lost.

Today, 40 Senate Republicans voted against a jobs bill that would have put veterans back to work doing things like bolstering police and fire departments, and working in national parks. As usual, the Republicans are running around screeching "Spending! Spending!," something they did not do when these men and women were being sent to war.

One of Oklahoma's two Senate idiots (once voted worst Senate tandem by a progressive web site), Tom Coburn, is falsely claiming that reducing the debt is the best way to help veterans. In fact, reducing the debt as a priority move will simply destroy the economy for everyone because it will siphon money and resources out of the economy. Putting veterans back to work would help because then they would be paying taxes again, and not "mooching" off the government as Mitt Romney claims they are doing now (and yes, veterans make up a significant part of Romney's 47% of people so lazy and dependent on government they deserve only scorn).

Interestingly, several Republicans voted with the Democrats, including Scott Brown of Massachusetts who, recent polls are showing, is falling behind Democrat Elizabeth Warren. (The others were Dean Heller of Nevada, the Main twins, Susan Collins and Olympia Snow, and Republican independent Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who owes little to her part after she was primaried in 2010 and won as an independent).

Even if he doesn't, he's close to being the undisputed holder of the title in Ohio — and has certainly surpassed Ken Blackwell as the most despicable secretary of state Ohio has seen in over half a century.

The Ohio Democratic Party has posted audio of Husted speaking to a Tea Party group, telling them that Ohio's voter ID laws aren't "onerous" enough and that the legislature will likely "tighten" the rules after the election, eliminating some forms of ID people have gotten used to presenting in the six years since voter ID was enacted in Ohio.

These will make you want to hurl — or to hurl something at Husted. What a disgrace to the state and to American democracy this man is.

http://b.3cdn.net/ohio/eba6ef3988d7dc09f9_nzm6ivtnz.mp3

http://b.3cdn.net/ohio/07399ca2cfe856980f_5rm6b8urf.mp3

Humor! Which is something we desperately need now as we watch the appalling spectacle of an actual presidential candidate revealing his contempt for anyone who isn't wealthy.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/09/in-new-campaign-strategy-romney-to-have-mouth-wired-shut-until-november.html?mbid=nl_Borowitz%20(22)

"Romney to Have Mouth Wired Shut"

In what his campaign described today as a bold strategy to insure victory in the Presidential contest, Republican nominee Mitt Romney will undergo a procedure to have his mouth wired shut until Tuesday, November 6th.

If you don't subscribe to Andy Borowitz, you should. He's writing some of the best political humor around , and his columns — appearing at The New Yorker's site — are short, sweet, and to the point.

And yeah, it's starting to look like Romney's only shot is to say nothing between now and the election. That would make some interesting debates!

After two really sweet "Hi, I'm a nice person who built a business and employed people so I know how to create jobs" ads that introduced her to constituents in Oh-07, Joyce Healy Abrams has gone on the attack against incumbent Teabaggin' Bob Gibbs with a new ad and new web page.

On her new web page, Who Is Bob Gibbs, she goes after him for his support for ending the current system of Medicare, for weakening Social Security, and for forcing average working families to bear the cost of lavish tax breakers for the wealthy, as well as his support for protecting companies that outsource U.S. jobs.

http://www.healyabramsforcongress.com/whoisbobgibbs

It all sounds incredibly heinous. But here's the thing of it: it's all completely TRUE. It's all chapter and verse of anti-American teabagger ideology. Joyce is even careful to say "Congressman Gibbs voted to end Medicare as we know it" to get around PolitiFact's obsession with semantics which has found several Democrats to have "lied" by saying Republicans wanted to end Medicare, claiming that because it would still be CALLED Medicare, even if it was entirely different, Republicans did NOT support ending Medicare. That's hooey. They do.

On the page linked above, Joyce provided link to Gibbs' votes, as well as to articles in mainstream newspapers. So she's not just spouting a bunch of lies like a Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, or Josh "The Empty Suit" Mandel, and like Mandel, daring a newspaper to figure out if she's telling the truth. She's got facts; she's got ammo. This is why I love Democrats!

Joyce's new ad, her third, focused on the impact of Gibbs' votes on seniors:

Daily Kos diarist Weatherdude usually posts detailed scientific diaries about storm fronts. You can count on him to monitor tornado outbreaks and track hurricanes.

Today he posted about another kind of storm front: Mitt Romney's revealingly contemptuous remarks about regular Americans who are struggling — most through no fault of their own. They didn't choose not to be born into a fabulously wealthy family like Romey's.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/17/1132996/-How-F-king-Dare-You

In this diary, titled "How D***king Dare You," he makes it clear what a puny excuse for a human being Romney is, saying things like,

Mitt Romney, you are an arrogant snob. The hardest thing you've worked for in your life is deciding which factory to shut down and which city in China gets a gift of jobs wrapped in the sweat, blood, and tears of the Americans you fucked over.

and

You will never have to worry about anything in your remaining decades of life. Neither will your children, nor your children's children, nor will their children and so on. They will always have the privilege of money, of fake prestige, and the family name you're tarnishing on a daily basis.

And he speaks for so many of us, when he says,

Especially when I was cruising through Williams County in the far northwestern tip of Ohio this weekend and saw this in front of a farmhouse about six miles from the Indiana border:

Of course I came to a screeching halt and ran back to take a picture.

Even more amazing, I spotted another Obama yard sign in front of another farmhouse about three miles up the road closer to the Indiana border.

I spotted one Romney sign on my trip, about six miles on the other side of the border in northwestern Indiana. That's not significant because that's Republican country. But so is Williams County. It voted 6,600 to 4,900 for John Kasich in 2010. It voted for John McCain in 2008 by 1,700 votes. And in 2006, it came within 700 votes of joining the infamous "Blackwell Counties," the 16 counties that gave majorities to Ken Blackwell in the gubernatorial race. So seeing these signs in front of farmhouses could be significant. There could be a small outbreak of sanity happening in Williams County.

Meanwhile, back in northeastern Ohio, in eastern Lorain County, there's this massive tool:

Not exactly a mansion there, is it? And in his driveway, on an older kind of beat-up blazer, there was a Romney sticker. Seriously, does this guy think Mandel and Romney are in this to benefit people like him?

And yesterday, and the day before that, and last week, and the week before that. But today may be the one that nailed his electoral coffin shut.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-17/today-mitt-romney-lost-the-elec...

It had been rumored for a week or so that there was a tape floating around of Romney at a fundraiser, broadly expressing his contempt for all the little people who weren't born to a rich, privileged family. It seemed a tad iffy. After all, Romney, while awkward and prone to ill-advised outbursts, wouldn't be this nakedly arrogant, would he?

Turns out he would.

In a room full of Mr. Moneybags Romney sneered,

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.

Teabaggers, Romney thinks you are DIRT. Wake up!!!

Almost HALF of Americans are "dependent on government"? Those people wearing themselves out working poorly paid jobs because companies like Romney's Bain Capital shipped so many overseas actually thinking a day's work should buy the health care, food, housing and "you name it," which probably does not include dressage horses? How dare they!

And this is a man whose our company was kept afloat by government handouts, who covered himself with unearned glory running an Olympics fueled by a taxpayer bailout. A man whose career is dependent on government help and unearned birth position.