Mitt Romney-What We Have Here is Failure to Apologize

"I am an unapologetic believer in the greatness of this country. I am not ashamed of American power. I take pride that throughout history our power has brought justice where there was tyranny, peace where there was conflict and hope where there was affliction and despair."-Mitt Romney

Does Mitt Romney understand that he lives in the era of camera phones, videotape and photoshop? You can't just say stuff and expect it to magically go away anymore.

Somebody is always in record mode on your ass.

The way Romney continually makes statements and takes stances and then revises them once he pulls his foot out of his mouth, makes me believe Dude is not the brightest bulb in the box and clearly does not understand 21^st century technology.

I thought that honor went Sarah Palin, but maybe McCain was right to choose her over Mittens back in '08.

Mitt Romney says he believes in America, he told that to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, yesterday, but he's not willing to put his butt on the line to make it so. Nor is he willing to let his sons fight for their freedoms to be rich and well, useless.

He should have apologized to VFW convention for getting five deferments dating back to the Vietnam War. By the time he got the last deferment, Mitt said he was too busy doing other things to fight for his country, just like his silent but not so invisible mentor Dick “I have a new heart” Cheney.

Romney also said his sons, all five of em, had better things to do than to waste their time joining the military. Seems all they've ever done is watch Dad run for president, although one of them does speak Spanish and has cut a commercial or two, to convince Hispanics that Mitt gives a shit.

A real man of conviction would have stood his ground and defended his actions, like Muhammad Ali, aka Cassius Clay did in refusing to be drafted. Ali was willing to give up his way of life and freedom, a thought that has never, ever entered Romney's mind, let alone understand that he needed to apologize to the VFW.

Instead, like everything else, Romney just refuses to talk about his past actions or statements or stances. His reality is what is in front of him at the moment. It seems he believes that if he ignores it and doesn't talk about it, “it” will go away.

Do anything, say anything, just get elected.

Maybe Dude is a closeted Buddhist...permanently living in the present moment, yesterday is done and subject to revision, tomorrow is another day, still to be written.

Hope he's read the passages on Karma...

Obama's Rope-a-Dope

A closer look at the Stupak Amendment

What the first part of the legal mandate that the Stupak Amendment would impose is not new. It echoes the law laid down back in 1976 by the Hyde Amendment, which already forbids the use of federal funds to pay for most abortions. The exceptions are for rape and incest or when the woman's life is threatened if the pregnancy proceeds.

It's the second part of the amendment that really ticks me off. The second graf of this travesty severely limits the availability of private insurance that does cover the procedure. In other words, the Stupak Amendment doesn't just apply to the public option, which is the low cost government plan. It affects the proposed health care exchange plans as well, by forcing insurers to drop abortion coverage that they already offer, right now, to any new customers who may want to sign up with them through the proposed exchanges.

This means that if you have a health plan and want to switch to another plan under the proposed health exchange... that may provide better coverage at a lower price, and your old policy has abortion coverage and you're okay with that...then you will lose that option under the law...when you switch.

The reach of the Stupak Amendment goes well beyond the law in violating the rights of choice for women.

A little known fact is that nearly 90% of all insurance plans offered in America, cover abortion. The problem is that employers and corporations opt out of that part of the policy for their female employees. In case you didn't know, your employer chooses what coverage you get on plans as they are written now.

The way it is structured, thanks to Stupak is that even if a woman wants to take her own money and purchase a plan with an option for abortion, in the private sector, she will not be able to do so.

If the goal is to put everyone in a lower priced exchange of more affordable coverage..this is a back assward way to do it. It won't happen...The insurance companies win again..

According to Stupak, women will always be free to buy an optional rider out of their own pocket if they want the coverage. But once again there is that catch 22..

Most people don't think about medical procedures until they need to undergo them...Who plans for an unplanned pregnancy?

But I guess if you're used to thinking of all pregnancies as pre-existing conditions...then the Stupak Amendment makes perfect sense.

Those who favored the Stupak Amendment like my ex Congressman Driehaus say they are merely upholding the noxious Hyde Amendment...when actually they are expanding exponentially to the detriment of women.

Let's be real about the situation. Laws of this type hurt poor women...those living in poverty...

The women who live, love and screw Congressman...will never have to worry about the Hyde Amendment or Stupak Amendment.... since their powerful men are paid their salaries with taxpayer money...to protect them and to give them the best coverage that taxpayer money can buy..

Well, that sounds like a government subsidized abortion to me...using government money to end a pregnancy....But blocked for those who can't fight back..

Rich white women have never had to worry about ending a pregnancy or anything else....racist? maybe....but did I lie?

64 Democrats voted in support of the Stupak Amendment....23 of them voted against the health care bill.

The good news is that this bill now goes to the Senate for more work and compromise amid my hopes that the Stupak Amendment will not make it into the bill that lands on Obama's desk..

I am not at ease with this, because while I know that Obama says he supports a woman's right to choose..... he elected to fund the Hyde Amendment in the budget...when he could have effectively killed it like Clinton did, and maybe circumvented this Stupak Amendment stupidity.

Obama's handling of the health care debate puts me in mind of Muhammed Ali's famous rope a dope technique.

Everyone including me, thought Ali was crazy to lay on the ropes and let big George Foreman rain punches on him for round after round after round...Ali just duckin' and weavin'...resting on the ropes...

Along comes the 9^th round, I think..and George's arms are tired...His muscles are at fail...he can't throw a punch...and Ali comes off the ropes and whups his ass....Knock Out!

Ali wins again...

I hated the rope a dope because I wanted Ali to just go in there blastin and kickin ass...I wanted him to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee and go home til the next fight..

I would like for my President to do the same thing...float in...get it done and float on to the next crisis...

However...he seems to like the rope a dope...I had to learn to trust Ali's instincts...

I am still learning to trust Obama's...

Hope he's resting readying the knockout punch when it's time...

Until it comes...I am not resting easy...

Kicking the Habit

I'm not sure when I lost my taste for all things sports. I grew up living and dying with the Cincinnati Reds and Royals....I remember being on my dad's shoulders at Fountain Square in 1961, I think..when the the Reds beat the Pirates for the Pennant..

You're talking to someone who couldn't eat for three days after Carlton Fisk hit the homerun to win game six of the '75 World Series. I was in the sports booth when he did it. I was there working as a sports reporter.

I mean what people tend to forget is that the playoffs with the Pirates went down to bottom of the ninth, two outs in two games, before the Reds pulled it out to even get to the World Series.

During the celebration on Fountain Square, in 1976, I was standing, interviewing the police chief when somebody threw a 40 ounce beer bottle at him. It shattered on the wall between us...The Reds went on to beat the Yankees that year...

I used to watch the games from the announce booth with the voice of the Reds, Paul Summercamp. Gordie Coleman and Paul Rathgaber were there, too, sometimes.

Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson, Oscar Robertson's brother Baily were neighbors. Baily was one of my softball coaches. My other coach was Tom Turner of the Negro Baseball Leagues..

My parents were jocks. I thought everyone got up before the crack of dawn to go run six miles on the track at Walnut Hills High School and then go to the Melrose Y to spar, shadowbox in the ring and work the speed bag in the gym. My Dad did that and took me with him. I was two or three...walking..but not much else.

My mom played ball and bowled..She was a highly ranked amateur in Ohio, matching my father's prowess in the boxing ring..

My parents and I used to go to every Mohammed Ali fight...I stood between them as my mom rooted for Joe Frazier and me and Dad rooted for Ali....It was a long ride home the night Frazier beat Ali..Mom has never let us forget it...to this day..

I mean, when I was a kid my Sundays didn't start with church...they started with the Cleveland Browns...Jim Brown...Lou Groza...Paul Warfield..the holy trinity..

Loving sports was in my blood. And it lasted a long time. I mean I lived in Chicago the entire time that Michael Jordan played with the Bulls..retired...came back...played again...Michael had this habit of working out at various gyms around the city. One day, for three days, he chose mine on Broadway...He got a good workout...we just watched surreptitiously while playing with the weights and attempting to be cool as he stood among us...

I can remember getting dressed to join my friends at one of the play off games when OJ decided to do his slo-mo run from police. Chicago TV split screened the chase with the game.

I never made it to the game to be with my friends that night, but I do remember sitting there half dressed...watching that split screen...with tears streaming down my face....watching my old hero and my new hero...simultaneously...

It was a joyous time in Chicago...I lived a few blocks from Wrigley Field...open my windows and I could hear Harry Carey sing during the seventh inning....

I braved below zero temperatures along with 3 million other people to welcome home the Bears after the Superbowl...It was magic...

One night after reporting from the Virginia Slims tennis tournament...I was on a city bus that turned over after the driver fell asleep at the wheel and hit an abutment....My knee got stepped on in the ensuing stampede off the bus...I was the only one carried off the bus...If you see me limping today, as I sometimes do...it's because of this particular sports injury...

I played sports....I watched sports....I breathed sports....I worked sports.....

Yet...It no longer dominates...like it used to...

I don't care if Michael Vick finds a new team.....or if there is a coverup surrounding Ben Rothlisberger...

Nor do I care if Pete Rose is reinstated....Hell, unless ESPN takes over ABC network for some sporting event...I never see it these days...

And while I still turn him on to watch or to keep track....I realize that I don't really like Tiger Woods...

He is amazing at his sport...but he seems.....not human....more humanoid...no spark...nothing going on inside....

Same for Roger Federer....mechanical efficiency...yet incites no passion...

Rafa incites passion...but I can take it or leave it..

There is nothing that keeps me coming back anymore... except maybe the Williams sisters.....I guess my passion is gone...

These amazingly talented individuals work their sports like it is a business...and it is....but business is not exciting or passionate..

It's not sport..

and no longer worth my attention..