Once again, conservatives fail with irony.

Yes.  Harry Reid (who has not shown his own taxes) is an idiot for saying he has a good source who told him Mitt Romney has not paid taxes in over ten years.  If you don’t have proof, then don’t pick that fight.  It’s not fair.  And that’s something Republicans can take a cue from.

Republicans are screaming about this.  Hell, even Democrats are screaming about this.  Well, most of them.  Nobody wants to ride this train with Harry except for maybe Nancy Pelosi and the ultra-left libs at MSNBC.  But Republicans, listen to yourself.  To say Obama is behind this is another accusation you can’t prove.  You’re simply doing the same thing you’re complaining about others doing.  That makes me slap my forehead.  Not so much that you do it, but that you don’t get the irony.

And seriously?  After all the birther, Muslim, commie nonsense, you guys are going to complain about unfounded accusations?  Donald Trump and others go after Obama’s birth certificate and none of you attacked The Donald for that craziness (Hell, Mitt takes photo-ops with the loony).  You let conservative voters believe all the nonsense without distancing yourself away from it.  And now you’re upset over Harry Reid talking about Romney’s taxes.

Harry Reid is an idiot….or a mad genius.  Yeah, he’s coming off looking like an idiot.  But he’s totally taking one for the team.  He has six years until his reelection.  Hardly anyone outside politics knows who he is.  And right now, everyone’s still talking about Romney’s taxes.  Harry is keeping the fire going, even if he’s going to be burned with it.

The thing is, it would be extremly amazing if Romney didn’t pay taxes for ten years.  In fact, it’s probably impossible.  I don’t believe Harry Reid.  But I do know Romney has to show his taxes to be elected president.  He has to show his taxes to prove Harry Reid wrong.  But he’s not going to do that.

Romney is running for arguably the highest position in the world.  He’s running on a tax platform.  Yet he won’t show us how he manages his own taxes.  He doesn’t want us to get to know him too well.  This is the same guy who demanded Ted Kennedy show his taxes when Romney challened him for his Senate seat.

Here’s what you can accuse Romney of:  He’s hiding something.  That I do believe.

Last week I heard a lot of Christians say Chick-Fil-A was being persecuted.  I don’t buy it.  Refusing to eat someone’s chicken sandwich and saying I don’t want them around is not persecuting.  There’s plenty of people I don’t want to hang out with and refuse to see but that doesn’t mean I’m persecuting them.  Sheesh.

When you say you disagree with someone, that’s not persecuting them.

When you have hate groups targetting specific groups, races, religions, etc. to inflict violence upon them, then that’s more of a definition of persecution.

Heck, gays and lesbians can say Dan Cathy is persecuting them by giving money to groups that want to deny them basic rights.

Hello?

One other ironic thing:  This weekend I got one of those chain emails that’s full of crap from a conservative conspiracy theorist.  It laid down all the violent acts committed upon white people by Muslims.  It was encouraging profiling.  I found it ironic that he sent out the email the day before the shooting by a white guy at a Sikh temple.

Here’s Sunday’s cartoon.  I didn’t get around to blogging it this weekend.  Oops!

It’s true there have been one or two occasions in my life when I’ve been accused of having a disturbed mind.  I just like to think I’m misunderstood.

I drew a rough of this cartoon today and thought about how it wasn’t really hard hitting and wouldn’t make all the crazy conservatives mad who comment on my blog.  That made me sad.  Then I overheard everyone in the newsroom talking about how horrible of a job NBC has done covering the Olympics.  When something is widely discussed, I wanna draw a cartoon on it.

I didn’t mind the delayed opening ceremony because that was fun to watch.  But I do mind watching the swimming relays around midnight all the while knowing the results.  I made a joke with a coworker that by the time NBC covers it it’ll be in the newspaper.  Ugh.

And on top of all that Bob Costas is annoying.

A lot of cartoonists beat up on each other on drawing cartoons with people watching TV.  Yeah, they’re right.  It’s a tired image.  I’m trying to avoid it.  However, how else are most people watching the olympics?

Mitt Romney wants the media to stop focusing on dumb things he says and to focus on what Americans are talking about.  Judging from the only thing I heard around my desk the other day, that would be about that chick from Twilight cheating on that dude from Twilight with that dude that directed that fairy tale movie, or something like that.  I think this is a very important issue because I hear there is a dog between them who must now be raised in a broken family.

I did enjoy Mitt’s Europe tour.  His gaffes in London were one thing, but what he said in Israel was even more of a “what the Hell?” moments for him.

The man said he wouldn’t criticize Obama overseas, but he did just that.  Before he left U.S. soil Romney said “Since I wouldn’t venture into another country to question American foreign policy, I will tell you right here — before I leave — what I think of this administration’s shabby treatment of one of our finest friends.”  Mitt said the capital of Israel is Jerusalem.  Israel says it is but it’s official U.S. foreign policy that we don’t recognize that.  In fact, the administrations of Clinton and George W. Bush did not recognize that.  Our embassy is in Tel Aviv, which we recognize as the capital of Israel.  In fact, only two countries, Guatamala and El Salvador, recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.  If you want the peace process to have a chance at working, you can’t take Jerusalem entirely away from Palestine.  Romney went overseas and threw a wrench into our relationship with Israel and the Palestinians and rebuked our own foreign policy.  But hey, at least he didn’t criticize the president.

A few funny things about this Jerusalem issue:  Right wingers are kind of up in arms over it.  They forget Bush had the same policy.  I watched Foxnews the other day and within one minute of my viewing, a commenator stated that our embassy is in Jerusalem.  Nobody corrected him.  No wonder Foxnews viewers are so angry.  They’re being told everything in the world to get upset over, even if it’s not true.

Conservatives are also upset that Obama hasn’t visited Israel during his presidency.  They take that as a sign he doesn’t support Israel unequivocally.  I guess Bush didn’t support Israel either during his first term as he didn’t visit until the last of his eight years.  Reagan never visited Israel as president or during his life but he did visit Mexico, Canada, Jamaica, Barbados, France, Italy, The Vatican, The United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Japan, South Korea, China, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium, Grenada, Indonesia, Iceland, Finland, and the USSR.  Oh my god!  Reagan supported the Soviet Union more than he supported Israel!

The other thing Mitt did in Israel was compare that nation’s economy with the Palestinians’, then say Israel’s was better because of their culture.  Later, he said he didn’t mention anything about the Palenstinian’s culture.  OK, Mitt.  Not only are you taking Obama’s words out of context, now you’re taking your own words out of context.

Later in Poland, he was at the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier.  Reporters were trying to ask him a question and one of Romney’s aides got really upset.  He yelled at the press that this was a holy site for the Polish people and to have some respect.  Then he said “shove it” and to “kiss his ass.”  Apparently, asking questions at a Polish holy site is disrespectful but yelling “shove it” and “kiss my ass” is within the bounds of respect.  The aide later apologized.

Extra toon in case you haven’t had your fill of laughing at Mitt Romney.  Have a great weekend!

The mayors of Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. have all expressed they don’t want Chick-Fil-A to expand in their cities.  There’s not many of those restaurants in those cities as the chicken place is more of a Southern thing.

Though the mayors said their cities are progressive and Chick-Fil-A’s discriminatory outlook doesn’t represent their cities, none of the mayors have threatened to keep Chick-Fil-A out.  Not at all.  They can’t.  One Alderman in Chicago said he would use the government to deny them a business license, but that guy must be stupid.

Here’s the rub:  I don’t care if the owner of Chick-Fil-A is against gay marriage.  I have friends who are against gay marriage.  I’ll sit down and eat with them and even buy them a drink.  I don’t care about different opinions.  I do care that the guy gives money to an organization that equates homosexuality with pedophilia and they work to deny equal rights to a segment of our population.  I will not be eating at Chick-Fil-A because of actions, not his opinion.

That said, he has every right to run a business.  You have to tolerate other viewpoints.  You can’t run someone out of town because he’s a Republican, Democrat, pro-choice, NRA member, pro gay marriage and listens to too much Steely Dan.  If there’s no record of the company discriminating in hiring, promoting or serving, then there’s nothing to prevent them from operating a business.

I like freedom of speech as much as I like equal rights.  I support them evenwhen they don’t benefit my viewpoint.

Mitt Romney goes on an overseas tour to build up his foreign policy credentials and immediately angers our strongest ally.  Nice going, Mitt.  Can’t wait to see how you handle foreign relations as president.

Romney gives an interview in Londay and says it’s disconcerting all the problems London has had heading into the Olympics and then says ““You know, it’s hard to know just how well it will turn out.”  That didn’t sit well with Prime Minister David Cameron who said “Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere.”  That was a reference to Utah where Romney was in charge of the winter Olympics.  Ouch.

Romney also questioned London’s enthusiasm for the games with “Do they come together and celebrate the Olympic moment?  That’s something which we only find out once the games actually begin.”

At a concert for 60,000 Olympics supporters in Hyde Park on Thursday, commemorating the end of the Olympic torch relay, London Mayor Boris Johnson used Romney to rally the crowd.  “There are some people coming from around the world who don’t yet know if we are ready,” the London mayor said. “There’s a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know whether we are ready. Are we ready? Yes we are!”

Romney immediately started backpedaling and said the Olympics were going to be fabulous.  That’s no better confirmation of a gaffe than from the candidate himself.  The most fun part of this will be that the Obama campaign won’t have to take his quotes out of context.

In other flubs, Mitt Announced at 10 Downing Street that he had met the chief of MI-6. It’s custom for visiting dignitaries not to announce such things, as MI-6 is highly clandestine.  It seems he would have been briefed about that or at least had seen one James Bond movie in his life.  And finally, to top off his day, Mitt apparently forgot the name of the head of the Labour Party, referring to Ed Miliband as “Mr. Leader.”  I guess we’re lucky Mitt didn’t call him “Mr. Bean.”

The London press had a field day with Romney’s visit.  A commentary in The London Telegraph said “Mitt Romney is perhaps the only politician who could start a trip that was supposed to be a charm offensive by being utterly devoid of charm and mildly offensive.”

To make matters even worse, a Romney aide said Romney better understands the Anglo-Saxon relationship between England and the U.S. better than Obama does.  Mitt quickly rebuked those comments as they’re slightly racist.

All this on day one of his trip.  He still has to go to Poland and Israel where things can get dicier.

Ann Romney’s horse is competing in the Olympics (dancing) and maybe she’ll win gold which should make Mitt’s trip better, and add to the number of medals  the United States is going to win.

//
//

The other media outlet in this town, an online service operated by one man, reported that the mayor, Mary Katherine Greenlaw, accepted an $1,800 campaign donation from a towing company.  Recently, there’s been an effort to raise towing fees in the city and there were a lot of howls about the vote and the donation the mayor received.

Despite the article making a lot of noise, the mayor didn’t do anything wrong.  The only blip on the radar is that the donation was recorded under an employee’s name of the company instead of the company, which was corrected.  The donation wasn’t hid and it’s not illegal.  It’s not even illegal for the mayor to vote on the issue, which will pass unanimously.  The mayor is recusing herself from the vote, despite the city attorney saying she’s not required to.

It’s kind of a story about a non story.  Politicians accept campaign donations.  Politicians often vote on bills and measures that benefit their supporters.  That is not a conflict of interest.  If it was there’d be a purge of unemployed lobbyists in Washington.  There would be a conflict if the mayor worked for the towing company, or had done business with them (which also wouldn’t be much of a conflict in a small town, because it’s almost impossible not to have done business with everyone here at some point).

The mayor is also a realtor.  There will be votes on property taxes and zoning laws which will affect her business.  The former mayor was a doctor and the mayor before him owns an antique store downtown.  There were votes on health issues and efforts to bring more business downtown.  Neither Mayors Tom Tomzak or Bill Beck recused themselves from a vote.  Ever.

This is a small town.  If you’re on city council, every vote is going to affect you or someone you know.  That’s just the way it is.  You can see it being improper and snub your nose at it, and that’s fine…but there’s nothing fishy about it.

Now if we catch a city politician accepting a briefcase full of cash in the city’s parking garage, then we’ll have a real story.