Republican strategists have grown weary of attacking sluts while defending mandated vaginal probes:
Fiscal issues and union rights were front and center in many Republican-controlled legislatures last year. But this year, with the nation heading into the heart of a presidential race and voters consumed by the country’s economic woes, much of the debate in statehouses has centered on social issues. The recent flurry of socially conservative legislation, on issues ranging from expanding gun rights to placing new restrictions on abortion, comes as Republicans at the national level are eager to refocus attention on economic issues. Some Republican strategists and officials, reluctant to be identified because they do not want to antagonize the party’s base, fear that the attention these divisive social issues are receiving at the state level could harm the party’s chances in November, when its hopes of winning back the White House will most likely rest with independent voters in a handful of swing states.
Pivoting back to economic issues when campaigning in individual states, where Mitt Romney will be expected to answer specific questions (unlike at the national level, where he answers no questions) may not be the winner Mitt Romney thinks it is. Republicans at the state level are batshit crazy on economic issues, too. Mitt Romney has shown absolutely no interest in distinguishing himself on state-specific or regional economic issues. He can’t. He keeps running from Grover Norquist’s lash. I’ve written about this before, but we’ll revisit, because it gets more and more bizarre with each passing week.
If you’ve been following politics in Michigan, you probably know that one of the governor’s top priorities is a new bridge over the Detroit River, the New International Trade Crossing. Nearly the entire corporate and business community want this bridge. But the governor hasn’t even been able to get a vote on it in the legislature, where many of the members have taken campaign donations from Matty Moroun, owner of the rival Ambassador Bridge. Moroun doesn’t want any competition, and so far, has managed to frustrate the governor and get his way.
This is not purely a local issue; this is America’s most economically important border crossing. Billions in heavy freight cross the Ambassador Bridge every month. Getting a new bridge is a top economic priority for Canada, our nation’s biggest trading partner. So, how does Mitt Romney stand on the question of whether we should build a new international bridge? The answer seems to be that he doesn’t. He is apparently refusing to take a position on it.
I left messages with a number of aides for both Governor Snyder and the Romney campaign. They didn’t return my calls. Yesterday, Tom Troy, the politics writer for The Blade, asked Romney about the bridge during a photo opportunity. “He wouldn’t answer,“ the reporter said. “He just kept posing and smiling.” Clearly, he knew the issue was controversial. That could mean more than two billion dollars in road money for our state. Mitt Romney wants a job which is all about making bold and controversial decisions. Playing “Detroit River duck” isn’t the way to show that he is up to the job.
When the dancing Austrian warmblood touches down in Detroit or Toledo again he’s likely to be confronted with yet another “tough question” on this bridge, because the issue isn’t going away:
The owners of the Ambassador Bridge say they are backing a statewide ballot proposal that would prohibit Michigan from developing a new U.S.-to-Canada bridge or tunnel unless voters approve. The Detroit International Bridge Co. said Friday it is undertaking a drive for a statewide referendum in November that would require Michigan voters to approve any new bridge or tunnel to Canada.
500 million in trade is being held up by three rich people, one unelected libertarian lobbyist, and a completely corrupt and captured state legislature. Mitt Romney’s position on an international border crossing that Canada supports, the US supports, and the Governor of Michigan supports is “PANIC! Actual leadership-type question! Substantive answer required!”. Maybe it’s a blessing the social conservative lunatics are providing cover for the fiscal conservative lunatics.
Delia
Karma’s a bitch.
gaz
You know the kicker of all this?
It doesn’t matter. It DOES NOT matter at all what one Willard Mitt Romney says about anything.
He’ll just lie.
And next week, by the time his lie gets distributed, and finally eviscerated by god and everybody, he’ll already be well on to the next series of lies.
For my part, I don’t even care to hear about what Romney supposedly “thinks” about anything. It’s not even news. I’d get more substance from a fluff column about Kim Kardashian. (sp?)
I mean, I’m not ragging on you Kay. It’s just that the repeated and constant lies that come out of that camp just overwhelm any attempts at providing analysis. Or shorter: It hardly seems worth bothering.
Kay
@efgoldman:
Read this. I haven’t told you the half of it. Also. Libertarians and the Tea Party SUPPORT this rent-seeking monopoly. That’s where all the money’s coming from to protect this private bridge. Koch and Americans for Prosperity.
dww44
Kay, as ever, thanks again for what you bring to our discussion table. But today, particularly, thanks for calling them “batshit crazy” Republicans. I do that all the time. Honestly, I think if enough of us said this out loud and in mixed company, we just might get somewhere.
Cain
Won’t voeters overwhelmingly approve of this? It seems to me that they are pretty pissed off about the bridge as well. I would think if the public starts pressuring their representatives that they would in the end be able to get that second bridge.
Having gone over that bridge myself a time or two, it’s a pain in the ass. I would rather see another bridge to help commerce out.
You can fucking bit Obama will have no problem supporting that bridge. He’ll look like a fucking angel. Michigan is as good as lost to Mittster.
hildebrand
The pisser of this is that Romney won’t pay a national price for his local fecklessness because the national media won’t do the work of asking actual questions about real issues.
This fight, and I think Obama’s team knows this, will be won at the local level, block by stubborn block.
Kay
@gaz:
Well, thank you!
I’m just kidding. I get extremely discouraged too, but I’m ALSO shallow, so I get distracted and then forget about it :)
ant
Won’t MI go blue this fall anyway?
And IIRC the northern bits of OH that would care about this are all blue, and places Mitt will just ignore anyway.
I spose we could get somebody to ask (not)Joe The(not)Plumber about it. Sure we’d get a pearl of ‘white working class independent’ wisdom that way.
Rock on.
Keith G
In recent years, one of my great frustrations is that my political party will not/cannot pounce on issues such as this and use it as a stake to drive through the hearts of the perpetrators. There is fertile ground for a message of aggressive, head bumping populism, but there is a drought of leadership willing to energize the prols using these issues.
c u n d gulag
The way Conservatives think, maybe they’ll build a three-lane toll bridge, so we can ship shit to Canada on two, and money back on one, and the Canadians pay for it all.
And Canadians who want to come here can be treated like Mexicans – No entry.
We need a Canadian border fence!!!
But NOT built with government money. OH NO!!!
Let the free-markets handle it.
This way, companies can hire and ship illegal aliens from Mexico to build our border wall with Canada – and vica versa!
Amir Khalid
Brave Sir Mitt … The man gets that little bit smaller every time he’s tested, doesn’t he? If he blue-screens on every substantive question, people might start to notice. He certainly can’t afford to do this when he’s head to head against the Big O.
gaz
@Kay:
hehe LOL. Me too. I could use a bit of amnesia today.
Amir Khalid
@c u n d gulag:
Someone said yesterday that your dad just passed away. How are you holding up, man?
rikyrah
thanks for keeping us informed, Kay.
I did know about this issue, and was wondering how it was going.
Kay
@efgoldman:
“Are there no laws?”
It’s an incredible story.
Loneoak
A real country would have nationalized the Ambassador and sent Maroun off to a gulag years ago. Dude is a mega-tool.
General Stuck
A recent Bloomberg poll for consumer confidence has been steadily rising, and is now 23 points better than when Obama took office in Jan. 2010.
And near all the polls have the public feeling better about the econ, and that it is recovering. Probably the best guide, coming from those living in all parts of the country.
Part of having a winning campaign, is projecting a sense to the public that a candidate is in control of their own campaign. I think the wingnuts are drunk with the possibilities they see with unlimited cash for outside groups via Citizens United, and are developing a mentality like Grover Norquist.
I ain’t no expert, and I doubt there are any of those in the new world of Citizens United. But how well will a campaign work, when it is all about getting rid of a sitting president, and not about the person actually on the GOP ticket, at least to a large extent?. With most of the strategy, especially teevee ads, being made by a shadow campaign run by Karl Rove and others. That is not supposed to coordinate with their candidates campaign.
Presidents, and voting for them, is personal for most Americans. It is like choosing a doctor or priest, and there is some emo involved picking someone you will be seeing on your teevee the next four years, on an about daily basis.
Giving the wingnuts unlimited cash will be like slinging fish entrails into the sea for a shark feeding frenzy. They won’t be able to control themselves, and the delusion you can elect a president by a committee of fools.
PeakVT
Yesterday, Tom Troy, the politics writer for The Blade, asked Romney about the bridge during a photo opportunity. “He wouldn’t answer,“ the reporter said. “He just kept posing and smiling.” Clearly, he knew the issue was controversial.
The bridge is not controversial, but Romney’s cowardice and the Legislature’s corruption should be.
@efgoldman: At least in the recent past, the Federal government hasn’t owned roads outside of national parks and the like. The Interstate Highways and other federally-signed roads are actually owned and built by the states to federal standards using federal funds. Forcing a major construction project on a state would be a significant change.
Kay
@Loneoak:
When do we lose “serious country” status with this stuff?
“Seven rich people won’t allow the United States to build a bridge, so the deal is off”.
It’s ludicrous. We can send in the National Guard to take protestors off a bridge, but we can’t build one without Grover Norquist’s permission.
Chris
The Canadians must think we’re fucking nuts/medieval. The biggest trade issue of the moment, thousands of people affected, and it all hinges on whether everyone can shower the local baron with enough gifts and compliments for him to finally consent to lend his fiefdom to the enterprise.
Okay, the Canadians probably already thought we were fucking nuts. But now they’ve got another reason.
gaz
@Kay: And Norquist has never held public office. It’s inexplicable that he has so much sway over our politics.
Chris
@gaz:
It’s pretty much been the norm in American history that the people who have the most sway over politics are those who don’t hold public office. The magnates own the place, the politicians are just the butlers and housekeepers keeping it tidy for them.
(I remember reading that in FDR’s day, many in his social class considered it socially beneath them to hold public office).
c u n d gulag
Thanks, everyone.
We’re holding-up as best we can.
I’m an emotional and mental mess. My Pop was also my bestestest friend.
We’ll handle it, because like everyone else, we have to.
He was 86, and had a rich, full, life. He was with all of us, including his two grandchildren, on Sunday, and was still able to talk to them and all of us.
He died at home, with his dignity intact, and as peacefully and pain-free as possible.
We’ll miss him mightily, but passing-away at 86 is not a tragedy.
It’s tragic for me and my family – but in the overall scheme of things, it’s not tragic.
I’m sure there are people here who lost parents at 3/4’s, 2/3’s, 1/2, and 1/4, that age.
The last two, are tragic.
60+, not as much – they’ve lived a pretty full life.
I’m 54, and I have no desire to make it past a few weeks of my first SS check – IF there is one. I won’t be able to afford to live, like so many of us.
I’ll use that first SS check for cheap hookers and cut-down blow. :-)
Not really.
I’ll probably need it to eat enough to have the energy to buy something to swallow to kill myself with.
Just kidding!
Thanks again!
J
I’m looking forward to the era of privately owned sidewalks!
Shari
Want to bet that Romney and Maroun are friends? I’m sure many of Mitt’s friends own bridges.
samara morgan
really kay?
yet another attack on the BJ equestrian community?
dressage is a french word that means training. it has nothing to do with your content.
the reference to “Austrian warmbloods” is just another example of Mitt and Ann’s social climbing snobbery.
All their horses i have identified are Oldenbergs. The Oldenberg registry is the most open of all the warmblood books– the Hanoverians and the Sele Francais being the most exclusive.
It probably frosts bishop willards chaps that the Oldenberg Verband registers horse riffraff like jockey club mares and american warmblood stallions.
not very exclusive.
so he calls them austrian warmbloods because it sounds more tony.
actually, dressage, like foxhunting, is far more accessible in the US.
its a middle class sport.
the “sport of kings” isn’t riding….its Owning and Breeding.
Cacti
Mittens can’t take a position on trade/infrastructure issues with friendly nations.
But, by Moroni, he’s the man with the plan to deal with Iran!
lulz
Maude
@c u n d gulag:
I am so sorry about your Dad. It hurts so much to lose someone. I’ve been thinking of you since I found out.
I am not having fun either. Sometimes, things do get better. You deserve the best.
gaz
@Chris: But Ben Franklin was sorta cool.
Hmmm, Maybe norquist should go fly a kite.
kay
@samara morgan:
It’s a joke, Samara. Are you really going to take it as an insult?
Mitt Romny had an Irish setter. Can I talk about that w/ out offending the Irish Setter Community?
I know the Romneys don’t ride the horses in competitions.
Horse people themselves describe dressage as dancing or ballet. I saw it used when I looked it up to check the spelling.
Do you have any idea the shit Obama or any Democrat would take if they had a hobby that costs as much as the Romney’s spend on this?
We would never hear the end of it.
It’d be wall to wall limousine liberal, 24/7, which is exactly what they did to John Kerry.
So, tough shit.
Baud
@efgoldman: @kay:
Samara’s just horsing around…
Sheesh
I think it would be cool if M_C used a different nym when she was exercising her trustfund girl persona and a different one for her muslima trolling and a third for her blogger stalking. It might be good therapy for whatever her disorder is, too.
Sheesh
I saw Kerry on a sailboard once, how much do those things cost?! A lot I bet! Amirite?
gene108
@samara morgan:
Wow!
I learned something today. I did not know those things about horse breeding before.
Thanks M_C
gene108
@c u n d gulag:
I agree.
(a) Canadians are the greatest threat to our national security. They look like us, talk close enough to us you can’t tell them from an American very easily. They could sneak into this country and exist in sleeper cells unnoticed for many years.*
(b) It’s about damn time we avenged our loss in the War of 1812. First we invade and conquer Canada. Then we build a border fence.
*They would have to live in towns with strong hockey followings, since I don’t think a native Canadian can exist without following ice hockey for very long; they would die off within a generation and undercut the point of their sleeper cell.
Cheryl from Maryland
@c u n d gulag: Thinking of you and your family — At 54 years old, I was in the same position with my 85 year old Dad when he passed last October. I am grateful his passing allowed him home and dignity, and we know others have losses to their families which are much worse, but it still hurts. Take care of yourself.
Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937
@samara morgan: Aren’t there some right wing blogs where your your poutrage would be more appreciated?
Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937
@gene108: I have noticed that ever time we get some gorund rumblings here in th the north east that the epicenter is located in Canada. Its practically a declaration of war. They should be strip searched at the border.
PeakVT
@efgoldman: The American end would still be built in a state. If this was a bridge between Ontario and Guam, the feds could do what they want. One could argue that the new bridge would be a “post road” and the Federal government has the power to establish it, but AFAIK it’s been a long time since the Federal government has done such a thing.
There’s no reason for a federal-state showdown over the project, anyway. Not building the bridge hurts Michiganers more than anyone else. Trade with points farther away is probably more dependent on the Michigan Central Railway Tunnel or the St. Clair Tunnel.
samara morgan
@kay:
no they fucking don’t.
Dressage originated as warhorse training.
its not fucking dancing.
its an olympic sport, one of the oldest.
samara morgan
@Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937: I’m banned everywhere at right wing blogs.
they don’t like truthsay either.
;)
c u n d gulag
Again, thanks to everyone for the kind thoughts and words.
What makes me laugh, is that when I used to read rightie websites, and something like this happened to one of theirs, they also showed empathy – maybe for the first time.
Why can’t they learn from that – that we all suffer the same way. We all bleed, we all…
Did they NEVER read Shylock’s great monologue in “The Merchant of Venice?”
Maybe, it all IS tribal – if it’s one of their own, they can feel.
If not – who the fuck cares?
The more the Liberals hurt, the happier they are.
kay
@samara morgan:
It’s silly.
It’s as if I said “Mitt Romney has a huge, excessive mansion in California” and you said “Kay! Stop attacking the homeowning community on BJ!”
Anyway, I think it’s that you just want to talk about horses, which is a subject you know, but you can DO that without all this subterfuge and belligerence.
Just talk about horses. I’m not going to ban you or whatever.
Mnemosyne
@kay:
kay, did you just troll the troll? :-)
ETA: I think you’re picking up bad habits from the rest of us snarling vicious jackals.
kay
@samara morgan:
When we said John McCain had 5 houses, did people who have a house get offended?
“Why, I have this house right here! Clearly Barack Obama hates my house!”
Mickey
270 to win or why Republican are going crazy. Another excellent post over at the orange satan. What the hell is going on over there? Just when I am ready to give up on them they throw me a bone!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/21/1085252/-What-is-Driving-Repubs-Crazy-
Gravenstone
@Baud:
Fixxored
Chet
@Chris: Ever read Robert Caro’s The Power Broker? That book tells you almost everything you need to know about this kind of shit.
Southern Beale
Oh for God’s sakes. THEN STOP VOTING FOR THESE ASSHOLES. Jesus. I’m sick of this shit. Try voting for a politician who isn’t in Moroun’s pocket then. Like, some kind of community organizer type. Oh wait, that would be wrong. I forgot.
Jesus Christ on a cracker, but our politics is fucked up.
samara morgan
@kay: no dummie. you are associating the Romneys with dressage, so you are mocking dressage as being as pretentious and superficial as the Romneys.
its not.
its how horses were trained for war as far back as the Ancients.
its an Olympic sport and a discipline requiring rigorous training.
you cheapen it by sticking it onto Bishop Willard.
The Romneys aren’t dressage riders…..they are OWNERS. Breeding dressage horses is a TAX DEDUCTION for 1%-ers like them.
Linnaeus
@efgoldman:
There had been a desire for a bridge crossing over the Detroit River since at least the 1870s, but the shipping interests that controlled cross-river traffic managed to stifle it until the 1920s. The reason that there’s a privately owned bridge is simply that the guys who arranged for the financing and construction of the bridge got the local, state/provincial, and federal governments in both countries to go along with it. They said, “we’ve got a plan, here it is” and the responsible public authorities of the time said, “hey, that’s the best plan we’ve seen, go build it.” The mayor of Detroit in 1927 did sue to stop the plan and put it to a public vote, but voters ended up approving the plan. The mayor lost in the mayoral primary later that year.
Federalism. Works that way on the other side, too; the difference is that the provincial legislature of Ontario is on the same page with the Canadian federal government.
samara morgan
@kay: no its not the same.
I have ridden dressage tests. I have been to inspections and brandings and stallion tests.
you don’t know what you are talking about and neither does bishop willard.
you talking about dressage is like freddie dissing Occupy.
he has never been to an Occupy protest and you have no clue about what dressage is.
Linnaeus
@Southern Beale:
I haven’t checked the list of Michigan state senators who are opposing this project, but I wouldn’t be surprised if what we’re seeing is the good old-fashioned rural/urban divide – there’s a lot of dislike for metro Detroit in rural Michigan, and state legislators from rural districts probably see opposing the bridge as a political winner. Yeah, it’s short-sighted, but what else is new under the sun?
Gex
Good thing we privatized the bridges instead of publicly investing in them. Now someone has a profit incentive to fuck up the ability for trade.
If only fiscal conservatives understood the difference between competitive markets and utterly free markets (the latter of which implode under the magic of self-intersest).
Ken
libertarian lobbyist
That’s some incredible cognitive dissonance there. Does he have a potion he takes to change from one to the other?
Matoko Borgia-Steeler
@samara morgan:
Dressage has only been around since 1912 in the Olympics. I rather think you’ll find that chariot racing, wrestling and the pankration are significantly older. Of course, sprinting is the oldest event of them all.
Splitting Image
@Chris:
Canada has a gentry of its own. A few years ago Conrad Black wanted the country’s laws regarding titles of nobility changed because he wanted to enter the British House of Lords and retain his Canadian citizenship. Can’t remember an ass like him trying to bugger something this big, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it has happened.
To me the main thing is that anyone with a brain knows how much trouble Michigan has had over the past few years. We could probably re-route the trade through another border point, but losing this is a blow the state doesn’t need.
dave
Holy hell Samara, you really are a Manichean thinker aren’t you. Everything is either completely wrong or totally right, right being exactly what you believe of course, no ability to allow something small to go. I know jack shit about dressage but it’s not worth the emotion you are putting into it because Kay made a somewhat snarky comment in a blog post. Tact is a thing if she is wrong it can be discussed without an attack you might be amazed by how well people respond. I would suggest you think long and hard about the smug, privileged outrage that drips from your posts. And the sad thing is that you have a fair number of insightful opinions you just ruin them by boiling the world down to those and only those opinions and refusing to recognize complexities. It’s frustrating. That or you know this and take some pleasure in it and that is sad.
pseudonymous in nc
@Chris:
They do. Moroun wants the money spent on expanding the existing bridge. The Canadians say that’s fucking stupid because it enters Windsor on Huron Bridge Road, which can’t be upgraded to an expressway, and the new bridge would join directly to the existing freeways. They have offered to foot the bill for the American side because they want the new bridge so badly.
Moroun’s company can’t even be bothered upgrading the on-ramps on the Detroit side.
Ken J.
Maroun & co. have been running ads against the proposed new bridge nationwide. My Fox-news-loving Mother told me, out of the blue, how terrible it was that government money was going to be wasted on this new bridge in Michigan.
One problem with the Michigan legislature is term limits. By the time a legislator learns the ropes, they’re outta there. We have actually had at least one legislator talk openly about how much they rely on the lobbyists to explain things to the legislators.
IIRC, the Maroun corruption is not limited to the Republicans. The one bright side for me is that this isn’t a partisan issue: it’s the bridge owner and his piles of money, and the legislators who want to suck on that money, vs. Everybody Else: The GOP governor, the business community, labor, the National Security fans (because a redundant bridge at some distance down the river would be a good idea for insurance against accidents and attacks), all in favor of a second bridge.
CardinalRed
@Chris: Glad you said it….we Canadians are a polite bunch.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@samara morgan:
Horses? Or people?
Because where I’m sitting, I can’t much tell the difference.
Matoko Borgia-Steeler
@samara morgan:
Or, you know, POLO.
ornery_curmudgeon
Ok, people have been asked not to berate and demean the equestrian community … it’s obviously become something the frontpage writers have decided to do, to attack people who come here thinking maybe this group has some better ideas than the Republicans.
You lost me here, Kay. My respect, I mean. If you can’t are so willing to remain ignorant and ACT out of that ignorance … well I can’t respect that. Maybe you know what you’re talking about in other matters, nice links I guess … but essentially no, you’ve lost me.
I had the same feeling about dkos around 2004, I wanted a community, I hoped for positive action … but I eventually realized that group wasn’t smart enough to actually succeed.
Now I see this ‘dressage’ attack, and again people try to explain, and again the blind drama. This just isn’t good enough.
samara morgan
@Matoko Borgia-Steeler: yeah, polo. you need at least 5 ponies to make it through a match.
but America really leveled the class exclusivity of equestrian sport.
anyone can ride here. anyone with 40 bucks can take a dressage lesson. you can even ride with the Hunt by capping for 50 bucks…unheard of in England or Scotland.
@Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor: sure.
@ornery_curmudgeon: kay and dougj have both snarked about dressage, a sport they know nothing about. freddie snarks about OWS, a protest movement he knows nothing about.
its infuriating and repulsive.
the quality of front pagers here sukkz.
Matoko Borgia-Steeler
@samara morgan:
So, in essence, you got nothing but verbiage?
samara morgan
@Matoko Borgia-Steeler: ask and ye shall receive.
freddie on OWS
WTF does that even MEAN? freddie has never been to an Occupy protest, never eaten a bowl of donated venison and chili and pinto beans at a protest, never slept in the snow for something he believed in.
kay on dressage, from this very post…
“the dancing Austrian warmblood” kay has never owned a horse….i bet she has never even ridden. sad, really.
/spit.
its the same exact thing. freddie knows nothing about OWS, kay knows nothing about dressage….EDK knew nothing about education….a slate of frontpage poseurs pontificating about shit they have no understanding of.
samara morgan
@Matoko Borgia-Steeler: and i know you its you MasterTroll.
how the mighty have fallen.
reduced to trolling your own commenters with a sockpuppet.
gaz
@samara morgan: Not that I really wanted to get involved in this, but,
gaz
@Matoko Borgia-Steeler:
Umm, it’s a BLOG. what exactly are you expecting other than a lot of words?
Ponies? (oh wait – glances at the topic) meh
gaz
so, now that I’ve maybe pissed both of you off, I’m running to a different thread =) kthxbai
samara morgan
coward.
gaz
@samara morgan: lol. apparently the smiley wasn’t enough to counteract poe’s law
Matoko Borgia-Steeler
@gaz:
Well, I was hoping for words that occasionally made sense and included facts. Optimistic, I know. But what can you do with people who think that breeding is the sport of kings, rather than the poor man’s pleasure?
samara morgan
@Matoko Borgia-Steeler: i gave you freddies and kays own words. those are facts.
Breeding and owning bloodstock is the sport of kings. Horse racing, dressage competition, HJ, competition cutting horses and reiners, even eventing now.
being a backyard breeder and owning a pleasure horse is a different thing entirely.
sockpuppet troll.
for shame.