July 17, 2012

Romney Campaign Attacked Opponent For Refusing To Release Tax Returns In 2002

Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney has seen pressure mount from both Democrats and Republican pundits to release his tax returns. Romney has maintained that he is “simply not enthusiastic” about giving Democrats “hundreds or thousands of more pages to pick through, distort, and lie about.”

But in 2002, during his first run for Governor Romney attacked his opponent Shannon O’Brien for not releasing her husband’s tax returns.

Romney said he declined to release his tax returns on a “principled position” saying it one debate “I value my privacy.” The Romney campaign accused O’Brien, who released her tax returns every year since 1998, of being disingenuous by releasing her but not her husband's returns, a former lobbyist who had worked with Enron.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/romney-campaign-attacked-opponent-for-refusing-to#HTWF2

July 17, 2012

Republican circular firing squad

July 17, 2012

John McCain's latest politico statement ....

Political Hotsheet ?@CBSNewsHotSheet

John McCain tells @politico reporter he wasn't deterred by Romney's tax returns re VP pick, chose Sarah Palin because was "better candidate"

July 17, 2012

Paul Begala's latest tweet ....

Paul Begala ?@PaulBegala

Romney personally reviewing veep candidates' tax returns. Locking them in the same vault where he's locked his own integrity...err returns.

July 17, 2012

Bain off-shoring victims ask Romney for help

Bain Capital is still outsourcing jobs -- and some of its victims are asking Mitt Romney for a hand

While Mitt Romney struggles to explain his retroactive retirement from Bain Capital, the company he created keeps off-shoring U.S. jobs. Among them: the jobs of 170 workers in Freeport, Illinois, now training the workers who will replace them when Sensata moves their jobs to China. SEC filings reveal that the U.S. share of Sensata’s workforce has been dropping ever since Bain acquired it in 2006. And the Sensata workers aren’t Bain’s only recent casualties.
Some Sensata employees blame Romney for their impending layoffs. “He designed the business model for that company…” says production associate Tom Gaulrapp, “venture capitalism, where they’re out for every last dollar, no matter what … that’s the attitude they still have.” (The Romney Campaign and Bain Capital did not answer inquiries from Salon.)

Romney left Bain & Company, the consulting firm, to form Bain Capital, an investment firm, in 1984. As the world learned last week, Romney apparently remained “sole shareholder, sole director, chief executive officer and president” for years after his supposed 1999 departure. As the New York Times reported in December, Romney is still profiting from Bain business: his severance package provides him with a share of profits on some Bain deals negotiated up until 2009.

Journalists and opposition researchers have focused on controversial investments and off-shoring during Bain’s Romney years, and they’ve found plenty, including companies that, according to the Washington Post “were pioneers in the practice of shipping work from the United States…” But when Romney’s tenure at Bain ended, the off-shoring didn’t.

http://www.salon.com/2012/07/17/bain_off_shoring_victims_ask_romney_for_help/

July 17, 2012

Ron Paul to Mitt Romney: Release tax returns

Texas Rep. Ron Paul said Tuesday that Mitt Romney should release more of his tax returns, adding to the pressure on the GOP nominee to share personal financial information with the public.
“Politically, I think that would help him,” the Republican congressman and former presidential candidate said in an interview with POLITICO. “In the scheme of things politically, you know, it looks like releasing tax returns is what the people want.”

The Obama camp has been pummeling the former Massachusetts governor over his refusal to release more years of tax returns as a part of its larger effort to paint Romney as a wealthy businessman out of touch with the middle class. Romney’s campaign has said that the issue of his taxes is a distraction from the debate over Obama’s economic record.

“Tax havens, offshore accounts, carried interest: Mitt Romney has used every trick in the book. Romney admits that over the last two years, he’s paid less than 15 percent in taxes on $43 million in income. Makes you wonder if some years he paid any taxes at all,” the latest Obama ad says.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78599.html

July 17, 2012

Sununu's latest pronouncement .... LMAO

July 17, 2012

Republicon laughing point (s) of the day ....

Sarah Palin still waiting for her Republican National Convention invite

'I’m sure I’m not the only one accepting consequences for calling out both sides of the aisle for spending too much money, putting us on the road to bankruptcy, and engaging in crony capitalism,' the conservative firebrand says.

Will Mitt Romney invite Mama Grizzly to the dance?

Sarah Palin has not yet received an invitation to speak at or attend the Republican National Convention this August in Tampa, Newsweek reported.

“What can I say?” Palin told Newsweek in an email. “I’m sure I’m not the only one accepting consequences for calling out both sides of the aisle for spending too much money, putting us on the road to bankruptcy, and engaging in crony capitalism.”

“In accepting those consequences,” she added, “one must remember this isn’t Sadie Hawkins and you don’t invite yourself and a date to the Big Dance.”

The magazine said the Romney campaign did not respond to a question about Palin’s role at the convention, but one adviser associated with Team Romney indicated that she may be prohibited from speaking under her contract with FOX News.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/election-2012/sarah-palin-waiting-republican-national-convention-invite-article-1.1115228?print

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and its not even afternoon yet ....

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found another one .... almost as funny .....

Romney Campaign: Obama Can’t Create Jobs ‘Because He Spent His Early Years In Hawaii Smoking Something’

During an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday morning, Mitt Romney surrogate and former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu (R) argued that President Obama did not have the requisite business experience to create jobs because he was “smoking something” in Hawaii:

SUNUNU: This guy doesn’t understand how to create jobs. So there is no surprise — there should be because of that statement no surprise on why he failed so miserably over the last four years, in terms of job creation. He has no idea how the American system functions, and we shouldn’t be surprised about that, because he spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something, spent the next set of years in Indonesia, another set of years in Indonesia, and, frankly, when he came to the U.S. he worked as a community organizer, which is a socialized structure, and then got into politics in Chicago.

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with no evidence, in other words, made up bullshit, the latest conservative conspiracy theory is a bit more serious because it could be potentially destructive if it is believed ..... but still hilarious

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The Global Reach of Conservative Conspiracy Theories

Much has been written about the role of the internet and social media in the Arab Spring last year, particularly in Egypt, where protestors organized and communicated on Facebook and Twitter. But while global connectivity can help protestors overthrow dictators and tell the world their story, it also gives everyone access to the less-inspiring corners of the web. That was on display this past week during Hillary Clinton’s visit to meet with leaders in Egypt.

You may have read about the protests that greeted the Secretary of State in Alexandria. Egyptian Christians and secularists are concerned about the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and they oppose the newly-elected president Mohamed Morsi. Protestors outside the U.S. consulate threw tomatoes and shoes at Clinton’s motorcade, jeered her with shouts of “Monica, Monica!” and waved signs with messages like: “Stop U.S. funding of the Muslim Brotherhood” and “Clinton is the supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Why were these Egyptians so riled up about Clinton? Because they’ve been getting their news from American conservatives, including one Michele Bachmann.

TIME’s Abigail Hauslohner and the Lede blog at the New York Times have excellent run-downs of the situation. According to both, Egyptian opponents of the new president are convinced that the U.S. government is sending billions of dollars directly to the Muslim Brotherhood and that the Obama administration has a secret pro-Islamist agenda.

http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/105087/the-global-reach-conservative-conspiracy-theories

July 16, 2012

Maybe they should greet him with arrest warrants ....

Washington (CNN) - Former Vice President Dick Cheney is coming back to his old stomping grounds in the House of Representatives on Tuesday to highlight the impact that the automatic spending cuts to defense programs will have next year, according to two senior GOP leadership aides.

Cheney is scheduled to attend the weekly leadership meeting with House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and other top elected leaders and then will meet with the full House GOP whip team led by Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-California, to discuss strategy for how to deal with the automatic cuts to defense programs that were included as part of the debt deal last summer.

Cheney served in the House and was elected the House Republican Whip in 1989 briefly, before he was tapped to serve as Secretary of Defense under President George H.W. Bush.

"The former Vice President and Secretary of Defense obviously has valuable perspective on the devastating impact of President Obama's defense sequester," one senior GOP leadership aide told CNN.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/16/cheney-to-visit-capitol-hill-to-discuss-defense-cuts/

July 16, 2012

DISCLOSE Act Fails in Senate

Source: Congress.org

Senate Democrats will speak all night about a failed campaign finance disclosure bill.

After the Senate rejected, 51-44, an attempt to move ahead on the DISCLOSE Act, Democrats sought to publicize the filibuster with a series of speeches, Roll Call’s Niels Lesniewski reports.

Bill sponsor Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) explained the late-night session as necessary to highlight the need for the bill. “Putting an end to secret election spending by special interests is an essential step in protecting middle class priorities. For that reason, we are committed to continuing the debate on the DISCLOSE Act late into the night and asking for a second vote tomorrow if need be,” Whitehouse said in a statement before the vote. “We can’t let the special interests off the hook after just one round.”

The legislation would require covered entities to report donations of $10,000 or more to their political activities, in a bid to provide new sunlight to the funding of third-party expenditure groups known as super PACs.

Read more: http://www.congress.org/news/disclose-act-fails-in-senate/