When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem.
She gave me a link to a NY Magazine article that quoted folks who were actually there when Romney made the comment. Thanks, Laura.
So I wanted to correct the record. Believe it or not, I do try to be accurate. Unless I’m making stuff up that is. This time it was supposed to be a news scoop. My bad.
But now I have a different take on this. I think the real story is that within one week, Mitt Romney actually told TWO jokes — he made another funny at the UN just yesterday.
Mitt told two jokes within a week. Wow. That’s news.
Remember the 1970 movie Airport? I saw it with my friend Vickie. It was so good that even “break no rules” Vickie hid out with me in the theater so we could see the next showing.
Of course it was good. The cast was amazing. Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Helen Hayes (who got an Oscar for her performance), Jacquelin Bisset, Maureen Stapleton, George Kennedy and Van Heflin as the desperate man with the bomb and a life insurance policy.
Spoiler alert! The bomb goes off, Van Heflin is sucked out of the airplane through the hole he made. Stuff from all over the airplane flies out the opening too, because as you know that’s what happens when an airplane’s hull is breached. Luckily, Jacquelin Bisset (pregnant with Dean Martin’s baby, natch), just barely manages to hold on and not join the bomber outside the aircraft at 30,000 feet.
Seriously cool movie.
I was 13 when it came out. I still watch the re-runs. It’s still on TV a lot.
Now why do I mention this?
Because no one on the news has as far as I can tell. And I do feel obligated to keep you guys informed of important current events. I’ve been waiting to see this on the news, only nobody’s talking about it. I have a scoop! (Well, unless you read Dailykos, that is.)
Huh?
“What are you talking about, Elyse?” you might ask. Or you might just click that little “X” in the upper right corner.
You see, yesterday I read that Mitt was worried about Ann. Now don’t worry. Ann is alright. I know how you all adore her.
But Ann’s plane was forced to make an unexpected landing on Friday, when there was an electrical fire. Scary! Now remember, Ann is just fine. She will continue to annoy us with her tuna talk all through the election, and then hopefully we will have some peace.
But Mitt was especially worried. Here’s what he said:
When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver. But she’s safe and sound. [Emphasis added. I think. It might just be the way Mitt talks.]
Remember Van Heflin who got sucked out of the window. Remember all the stuff that also went flying out that window. Remember Jacquelin Bisset’s near miss.
And remember that this whole incident has given Mitt a whole new group of supporters:
Suckers for Mitt
* * *
Now in spite of 12,021 posts on Mitt doing and saying stupid things, I actually don’t think Mitt is stupid. I read somewhere that one of his Harvard Business School professors famously said of his two most famous students around 2008 or 2009: “I had two students; one of them was brilliant, the other became President.” Yup, Mitt and Dubya were classmates. And you saw how our last CEO president did.
But no, I don’t think Mitt is stupid. He just does and says stupid things. A lot. In public. On tape.
And you know, I’d really like to be able to write about things other than politics. But there is waaaaay too much fodder.
Rachel Maddow told me just last night that a group of folks had sent the NC Elections Board a list of 30,000 voters in NC (of 6 million voters) who the group claims are dead.
Yes, a group called “The Voter Integrity Project,” a group that is following in the footsteps of the folks in Texas who started this epidemic, “True the Vote” found its way to North Carolina.You will, of course, find it shocking that these groups are affiliated with the Tea Party.
And according to Rachel Maddow, this is also happening in Ohio. where the group claims that over 700,000 should be stripped off the voting lists because those folks are dead. The group is also playing this game in California, Illinois and Arizona.
Now back to North Carolina. This list forced the Election Board, using due diligence, to use up manpower to check into this claim. Before the election. They have revealed 0 dead people on the list of 30,000 provided by The Voter Integrity Project.
They are doing it in part to strike it lucky, and in part to use up valuable Election Board resources that might be better used.
But I have a theory. And this combines two of my faux talents — lawyer and medical person.
You see, in 2004 I volunteered to help with voter fraud allegations at the polls here in Virginia. To help folks who call up and say they were prevented from voting, or they were intimidated or told that the election is next Tuesday for Democrats not today. Things like that. And boy oh boy did I get an earful.
But by far, the most impressive maneuver of the Virginia GOP was to outlaw the color yellow. Yes, it’s true. I actually saw the legislative language. No fliers printed on yellow paper may be given out at polling stations in the state of Virginia.
Now you say, “Elyse, Why does this matter?” And I’ll tell you.
In Spanish-speaking communities, it has been traditional for the Democrats to print illustrations of the straight Democratic Ticket on yellow paper. Spanish speakers came to depend on them. They also came to vote overwhelmingly for those Democratic tickets. So the Republicans outlawed yellow fliers at polling stations. [Fortunately, the Dems were smarter. They got a law passed specifically permitting fliers printed on Goldenrod-colored paper.
And in 2006 when I was at my polling station handing out fliers, well, we’d all forgotten. But about 15 minutes after the polls opened, all of our fliers were taken away because they were printed on plain old yellow.
My theory? These folks on these Tea Party lists all suffer from Yellow Fever.
* * *
The GOP can’t win because of its ideas or its candidates. But they can — AND WILL — cheat.
I don’t think my brother Fred ever hurt my feelings as much as he did when he laughed at me that day. When, as a 4- or 5-year old I shouted at him:
“You’ll be sorry when I wake up DEAD.”
Instead of being cowed, well, Fred laughed at me. I was devastated. Confused. I didn’t understand what was so funny. Later he explained it to me:
“Lease,” he said patiently, “You can’t ‘wake up dead’!”
“Why not?”
“Because if you’re dead, Lease, you don’t wake up. You can’t. Cause you’re DEAD.”
“Oh.”
It was the first time I understood that I had done something incredibly stupid. I learned my lesson, though. Never again did I threaten anyone with the possibility that I’d wake up dead.
So imagine my surprise when I read about high school nurse Terry Collins in this article. I learned that I wasn’t so dumb back then after all.
You see, Ms. Collins woke up dead one day. Yeah, it’s true! She got a letter saying that she was taken off the voter registration list because she is dead. She was quite surprised because, well, she felt just fine! Coincidentally, her 80-year old father was equally surprised when he got a similar letter. He had woken up dead, too! Even more coincidentally, they are both African-Americans registered to vote in Texas! Or they were until they woke up dead in a state where the Governor is a Republican and the legislature is run by the GOP.
Apparently, there is an epidemic in Texas. An epidemic of waking up dead! And the number of folks who are caught up in this, umm, problem? According to NPR, there are about 80,000 Texas voters who woke up one day and found out via the US mail that they were dead. Most are African American or Hispanic. Imagine that, they were members of minorities who tend to favor Democrats, and they woke up dead.
I’m calling Fred. He’ll be so sorry he made fun of me.
* * *
The creativity of the folks who try to keep others from voting is quite impressive. If only they used it to govern, the U.S. might be in much better shape today.
FiftyFourandAHalf 