Source: obamafamily
Her dress and pearls, his suit, and that background even looks like it’s from the 1960s…
Daily Archives: August 24, 2012
When a sheltered, wealthy white man laughs at people who aren’t: Romney’s birther joke
“That’s the problem with Romney’s “joke,” too. It falls into a long list of remarks that suggest an emotional myopia based on an extremely sheltered life experience. It comes across as gloating about the fact that, as a rich white man born into a wealthy and powerful family, Romney has rarely been subject to the kind of racist or sexist assumptions that clog the daily lives of millions of Americans. Romney might as well joke that he’s never been mistaken for a waiter in a restaurant or a clerk in a retail store, or that he’s never been selected for extra screening at an airport or randomly told to empty his pockets by the NYPD. The reason Romney doesn’t have to show the country his papers isn’t because everyone knows he was born in Michigan. It’s because whiteness remains unquestionably “American” for some people in a way blackness does not. That should not be a point of pride for Romney; it should be a matter of anger and disappointment.”
Afternoon break: a fox playing with dogs
rurone: This is a fox playing with a dog. Your argument is invalid. | Source: urania-reva
Please notice adorable mom-like scruff grab, with resulting submissive paws:
Lunchtime: fun fact
Romneybot 2.012 in Michigan
via: romnoid
The Obama Campaign responds to Romney’s birther “joke”
“Throughout this campaign, Governor Romney has embraced the most strident voices in his party instead of standing up to them. It’s one thing to give the stage in Tampa to Donald Trump, Sheriff Arpaio, and Kris Kobach. But Governor Romney’s decision to directly enlist himself in the birther movement should give pause to any rational voter across America.” — Obama campaign
Related:
Today's remarks follow 5 straight Romney ads about Obama being the president of lazy welfare recipients taking your $. Not subtle.—
Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) August 24, 2012
…
The Republican Party makes my tubes spastic
via: christopherstreet
“As long as I’m President… I will never allow Medicare to be turned into a voucher”
“As long as I’m President of the United States, I will never allow Medicare to be turned into a voucher that would end the program as we know it. We will not go back to the days when our citizens spent their golden years at the mercy of private insurance companies. We will reform Medicare — not by shifting the cost of care to seniors, but by reducing the spending that isn’t making people healthier. That’s what’s at stake in this election…
On issue after issue, we can’t afford to spend the next four years going backward. America doesn’t need to refight the battles we just had over Wall Street reform and health care reform. On health care reform, here is what I know: Allowing 2.5 million young people to stay on their parents’ health insurance plan — that was the right thing to do. Cutting prescription drug costs for seniors — that was the right thing to do. I will not go back to the days when insurance companies had unchecked power to cancel your policy, or deny you coverage, or charge women differently from men. We’re not going back there. We’re going forward.
We don’t need another political fight about ending a woman’s right to choose, or getting rid of Planned Parenthood — or taking away access to affordable birth control. I want women to control their own health choices, just like I want my daughters to have the same opportunities as your sons. We are not turning back the clock. We are moving forward.”
10 things Mitt Romney will not talk about: the “Just Trust Me” campaign
“Unlike President Obama, you don’t have to wait until after the election to find out what I believe in — or what my plans are.” — Mitt Romney’s biggest lie so far
Mitt Romney says he wants to talk about issues but he refuses to talk about the following:
- his tax returns (and accounts in Bermuda, the Caymans, and Switzerland)
- his religion (which is now another excuse for not releasing tax returns)
- Bain Capital
- 2002 Olympics
- his Governorship of Massachusetts (and the wiped computers)
- his energy policy
- which tax deductions he’d eliminate
- Medicare benefits and how repealing ACA would impact them
- his big campaign donors
- and… the newest off-limits topics: abortion and Todd Akin
Romney is constantly attempting to change the conversation from Bain or his tax returns (or anything else he doesn’t want to talk about) with “issues,” as in, “we need to talk about the real issues!” But paraphrasing Romney’s own campaign advisers, who revealed their strategy recently: details and specifics are for losers. So how exactly can you debate issues without specifics or details?
You don’t. You can’t. It’s obvious the Romney campaign isn’t trying to sway voters with Mitt’s ideas or plans — or even with Mitt himself as a “person.” They’re running a ‘just trust me’ campaign, as Greg Sargent explains:
Romney advisers are explicitly confirming that all of this is part of a grand strategy to only signal general direction to the American people. It’s a guiding idea that specifics are a political peril to be avoided. The campaign thinks sharing details about what he’d actually do as president would be politically suicidal. As Steve Benen asks: “what does it say about the merit of Romney’s policy agenda if voters are likely to recoil if they heard the whole truth?” And this is coming after the campaign touted the selection of Paul Ryan as proof that the GOP ticket is deeply serious about policy and committed to making the tough decisions Democrats won’t.
Just trust Mitt Romney — you’ll find out why after he wins the election. Really.
Happening now: Mitt Romney goes birther in Michigan
Jed Lewison catches Romney going birther
…
Mitt Romney in Commerce, Michigan just a few minutes ago:
Now, I love being home in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us were born. Ann was born in Henry Ford Hospital, I was born in Harper Hospital. No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.
The crowd, predictably, went nuts.
If this doesn’t reek of desperation and flop sweat, I don’t know what does. Either Gawker’s The Bain Files are that upsetting — or is this a promise of things to come at the RNC rollout of Mitt Romney 2.012: Warmer and Fuzzier.
THIS is all he’s got to excite his ‘base.’
The RNC’s theme / venue is proving what President Obama actually said is entirely correct
socialismartnature: (Photo) GOP announces convention theme: “We Built This” … in stadium built with 62% government funds.
The Bain Files: an illustration of why America is going broke?
“So, what’s the worst aspect of Romney’s character? What does he know he has to run away from, even though he continually fails to do so? Simple: the perception that he’s a rich asshat who thinks he’s too good for the little people he deigns to rule. That he thinks so little of us that he demands the right to be our leader without giving anything in return.” — Pandagon’s Amanda Marcotte, on why a Gawker document dump, showing Mitt Romney as a serial tax dodger, matters. | via: quickhits
Maybe some people will finally see that the result of all these perfectly legal financial shenanigans, in all Romney’s / Bain Capital’s various schemes and loopholes and shelters and business practices, that THIS is why the United States is going broke, not because it would be nice to extend Social Security and Medicare for the next generation or provide health care for people.
The GOP has been rigging the system for the wealthy for decades. Mitt Romney is the chicken that’s come home to roost for the non-wealthy, evangelical voting base. These conservative social-issue rubes support the Republican candidate automatically, like zombies or Manchurian candidates, trusting these establishment politicians when they claim to actually care about stopping marriage equality (they can’t stop it!) or overturning Roe v. Wade (they won’t ever overturn it — have they EVER been close?). The Republicans don’t care about those things! They’re patronizing you. They just want more money, more deregulation, more income redistribution from the bottom to the top.
You want a thriving middle class in American again? STOP VOTING REPUBLICAN. Also: Stop watching Fox News. Stop listening to Rush Limbaugh.
Related: The Bain Files: will 954 pages of Bain’s financial documents reveal anything?
The Bain Files: will 954 pages of Bain’s financial documents reveal anything?
Joe. My. God. explains what this is about:
Gawker has posted 954 pages of previously unseen and labyrinthine Bain financial documents which they say may reveal proof of Mitt Romney’s attempt to cloak his massive holdings in tax-proof domestic and offshore accounts.
Bain isn’t a company so much as an intricate suite of steadily proliferating inter-related holding companies and limited partnerships, some based in Delaware and others in the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, and elsewhere, designed to collectively house roughly $66 billion in wealth in its many crevices and chambers. When Romney left in 1999, he and his wife retained significant investments in many of those Bain vehicles—he claims they are “passive investments” and that they are managed in a blind trust (though the trustee isn’t blind enough to meet federal standards of independence). But aside from disparate snippets of information contained in his federal and Massachusetts financial disclosure forms, his 2010 tax returns, and SEC filings, the nature of those investments has been obfuscated by design.
Gawker says that the documents are so deliberately vague and complex that they cannot begin to decipher what they actually say. They are asking forensic accountants and their readers to dig in.
Bain Documents: Romney Offshore Investments Used ‘Blockers’ To Avoid Taxes – ABC News (via: sarahlee310)
The private equity firm founded by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made use of arcane techniques in several of its Cayman Islands-based funds to avoid U.S. taxes, according to a trove of Bain Capital’s private audit and finance records made public on the website Gawker today.
The audited financial statements of one of the Cayman Islands funds make note of the use of “blocker” entities, which are used to help retirement accounts and nonprofit entities avoid some taxes. Financial statements for another fund note that it “intends to conduct its operations so it will … not be subject to United States federal income or withholding tax …”
Those details emerge on the statements of two funds in which Romney still holds a sizeable investment, according to the financial disclosure statements he filed when he announced his bid for president.
The publication of the Bain Documents on the Gawker website could rekindle debate about Romney’s role at the company, and specifically about Bain’s decision to domicile many of its funds in offshore locations known as tax havens.
Fortune‘s Dan Primack calls the documents “worthless” and says he had them months ago…
Alex Seitz-Wald homes in on one discovery:
[O]ne immediate revelation is that Sankaty fund, based in Delaware for tax purposes, lent over $3 million to Las Vegas Sands, the casino company owned by Adelson. The fund made two loans of $2.4 million and $600,000 in 2009 to the Sands. Romney’s IRA held between $250,000 and $500,000 in the partnership, and made $50,000 and $100,000 from it in 2011. Adelson has become the largest donor to the Republican Party and conservative outside groups, dropping at least $70 million.
Some background to prepare for Ann Romney’s upcoming RNC speech
Apparently “you people” would rather watch paint dry than watch Lady Romney’s speech
I know I would. Because, really, who wants to hear Marie ANNtoinette talk about things like how she doesn’t feel rich, or how being a stay at home mom, married to a multi-millionaire, was hard work, or how ‘you people’ aren’t getting anymore tax returns out of her and Mitt. In other words, who wants to watch this woman struggle to not call us peasants or The Help? They tell us that Lady Romney is the “softer” side of Mitt but I’m not convinced. In any case, I’d choose the Hawaii Five-O reruns.
NY Times: At 10:30 on Monday night, Ann Romney is scheduled to take the stage at the Republican National Convention, in Act 1 of her husband’s four-day introduction to the nation. But tens of millions of people will not be able to watch. CBS plans instead to show a rerun of “Hawaii Five-O,” its hit police series. Viewers of NBC will see a new episode of “Grimm,” about a homicide detective with the supernatural ability to sense evil. And ABC plans to show “Castle,” a series about a best-selling mystery novelist who helps solve crimes.
