Friday Funday: A Great Ending

There's no end to the problems the GOP is having right now. A presidential campaign that's growing more desperate every day, a faction of the party that's actively campaigning against Mr. Romney, and a former behind the scenes Republican power family that seems to be switching to the Democrats - all right before the big GOP convention. Don't forget the Tea Party is still tearing the Republican party new hindquarters, while the Ron Paulites continue their battle against the Republican Party elite. No, we don't think there's any reason today to add further insult to the GOP's own self-injury.

So since it's Friday, and as it's the final weekend of the 2012 Summer Olympics games, we're going to put politics aside for the rest of the day in favor of national unity.

To be honest, we've seen some great action in London the last two weeks. Yes, we'll admit - the seven-hour delay tactic by NBC still annoys us and many other Americans. Thanks to the wonder of the internet though, the BBC - and sometimes, NBC - have been providing millions of Americans with a different chance to see most of the events at the Olympics live.

In fact, thanks to the internet, the delay has turned the nightly NBC prime-time showing into more of a highlights reel of the Olympics, where viewers often know exactly who's going to win.

There have been some amazing firsts, like the participation and performance of double amputee Oscar Pistorius in the able-bodied games. There was also the first women's gold medal in Boxing, won by seventeen-year-old Claressa Shields, a poor kid from the "wrong side" of Flint, Michigan. There have also been some incredible repeat performances at these games, like the now- three-time gold medal winners Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings, the three-time gold medal U.S. women's soccer team and the worlds fastest man, Jamaica's Usain Bolt.

As usual, watching the Olympic Games has been a pleasant surprise in so many ways. Athletes and fans from all over the world - 204 nations this time - have been able to put aside their disagreements, and move forward as one, toward a single goal of fair play, and opportunities for all.

It hasn't always been easy. The Saudi Arabian delegation had to fight with the International Olympic Committee to allow their female judo athlete to compete. America's own Mitt Romney also made some international gaffes before the games began. Maybe he was right, though, that London wasn't 100% ready, as the scoreboard operators mixed up the the North and South Korean flags on the first day of competition.

Still, after a shaky start, the London Olympic Committee worked out all the kinks - and even found a middle ground solution that allowed the female Saudi athlete to compete, for the first time ever.

It's heartening to see that even if only for a couple weeks, the world can indeed agree to disagree, find solutions, and work together - successfully.

Maybe there's hope for America yet.

The Big Catch

As we warned several years ago before the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling - and many more times since - the 2012 election is proving to be everything ugly we thought it would be.

Both money and lies are flooding the airwaves, with an astoundingly small number of wealthy donors having far more control than they should. At both the national level in the Presidential race, and at state levels around the country, those with the most money have been displaying their prizes when they win, like anglers display their prized catches on the pier.

As we've also said for a long time, just because some idiot somewhere has a ton of money, doesn't make them an expert on anything. Sadly, on both sides of the left-right political divide, that lack of expertise with a major surplus of money has reared it's head like a sea monster lately.

We focused on the Romney welfare lie on Wednesday, and the ad that displays the truly gutless and craven nature of the Romney campaign. Meanwhile, a major outside big money group aligned with the Obama campaign made its own ugly gaffe this week.

Priorities USA, the SuperPAC that supports President Obama's campaign, released an ad that features a victim of Mitt Romney's vulture corporatist days with Bain Capital. The ad is sad and disheartening; While it does not outright say that Romney’s Bain Capital layoffs led to the death of a former employee’s wife after the worker lost his health care, the ad definitely makes it clear that those who run the SuperPAC believe Romney is responsible.

The Priorities USA SuperPAC, however, is not the Obama campaign - and the President's campaign has definitely distanced themselves from that ad.

On the Romney side, his campaign's money trouble isn't bringing in the dollars - it's accounting for where they came from.

Stories in both the Wall Street Journal and L.A. Times pointed out Romney's money problem this week. Sheldon Adelson, one of Mitt Romney's largest donors, through the Sands Corporation that he owns, is now under investigation from the U.S. Department of Justice, for the possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Long and short, it appears possible that Mr. Adelson may have been funneling and laundering money from China into political campaigns across the U.S. That money has gone almost exclusively to Republican candidates.

Ever wonder why a multi-billionaire like Sheldon Adelson has been pouring millions and millions of dollars of his own money into these political campaigns? Adelson's reason for doing so may now be coming very clear.

First of all, much of Mr. Adelson's money that he's giving to Republican candidates may not have come from his own pockets. Secondly, we'd be willing to bet that Mr. Adelson would very much like to stay out of prison. That task that would likely be much easier in an administration led by Mitt Romney - a candidate that Mr. Adelson has heavily financed - than one led by Barack Obama.

We'd like to say there's a great ending to this story, a whopper of an ending, a hook that leaves you more hopeful in our American electoral system.

Right now though, the only thing that seems to be hooked is our politicians, on all sides, on the unlimited funds of the super rich, and highly unethical.

Oooh, That Smell

Not surprisingly, when looking for honesty in both the media and politics, some of the most trustworthy sources for truth today are in high-quality entertainment. There's a reason shows like 'The Daily Show' and 'The Colbert Report', as well as certain fictional movies, TV programs, and Broadway-style shows are doing so well these days - because the best among them have a heaping helping of truth.

Sadly, that's exactly the opposite of what TV viewers in so-called swing state media markets - like those in Florida, Virginia, and the Iowa-influenced Omaha/Lincoln market - will be getting hit with. Those states will be experiencing another helping of fibs, lies, and untruths, thanks to the latest load of baloney from Mitt Romney about the welfare system.

In case you missed it, earlier this summer several governors, especially the conservative Republican governors of Utah and Nevada asked the Obama Administration for some flexibility on certain parts of the federally backed welfare-to-work program. 'Workfare', as it was called when President Clinton put the program into effect in 1996, requires that individuals getting certain types of public assistance also should be working or prove they are actively looking for work. Yet, it's also a fact that even though President Obama's policies (like the stimulus plan) have grown or recovered half of the jobs lost due to the Bush recession, there are still millions of Americans out of work.

Knowing this fact, and hearing the pleas from governors, President Obama allowed some governors to begin to experiment with the flexibility they asked for in achieving the goals of 'Workfare' - though the White House insisted the existing work requirements would stay in place.

So Obama gave these Republican governors the proverbial inch. Now Mitt Romney has decided to turn the President's willingness to work together with Republicans for the best interests of the American people, into a blatantly false new ad. The ad, filled with pants-on-fire lies, is probably the most craven attempt at reviving the politics of race and class resentment that any of us has seen since the days of outright race-baiting in political campaigns.

Romney's ad leaves out the fact that as governor of Massachusetts, Romney himself supported the very flexibility he's now painting as 'gutting welfare'.

Thankfully, multiple legitimate media organizations are blasting Romney's ad as 'blatantly dishonest', a risky gambit, 'the politics of resentment', and even outright calling it what it is: a lie.

We've mentioned before the many lists of Romney lies that have been complied by some in the media - but this latest ad is probably the biggest load of garbage we've seen dumped on anyone, in either the news or entertainment fields.

There's usually a very telling scent when a campaign like Romney's begins throwing out buckets of smelly trash like their latest effort.

It's called 'desperation'.