More Women than ever on Capitol HIll

2012 will go down in history as groundbreaking for women:

184 women ran for Congress this year, half were elected
29 women of color will now serve, a record number
20 female Senators, up from 17
81 women elected to the House
4 states - HI, MA, ND, WI elected first female senators EVER
New Hampshire has nation's first all-female delegation
First Asian-American woman in the Senate, Mazie Hirono D-HI
First openly gay Senator - Tammy Baldwin D-WI
First Hindu in Congress, Tulsi Gabbard D-HI
First Disabled Female Veteran in Congress, Tammy Duckworth, D-IL

This election was really something else, and the Republicans underestimated women, just as they underestimated the votes of Latinos, African-Americans, and college students.


From The Daily Beast:

. . . the results came in. It quickly became clear that women hadn’t just reelected the president–they’d dealt a historic blow to the religious right, helped put a record number of women in the Senate, and become the heart of a new governing coalition.
According to CNN exit polls, women made up 53 percent of the electorate, and they went for Obama by 11 points. (Romney, meanwhile, won men by 7.) According to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers, it was the second-largest gender gap in American history, exceeded only by the 1996 electorate. Because of women’s votes, Republicans lost two Senate seats they once seemed certain to win–Missouri and Indiana–after their candidates made shocking comments about rape, pregnancy, and abortion.
Among some conservatives, a realization has begun to set in that they need to start winning over women or get used to being a permanent minority party. Writing in National Review Online, the Independent Women’s Forum’s Carrie Lukas admitted that she’d been wrong in assuming that the “war on women” frame wouldn’t work: “This should be a wakeup call for everyone on the right.”

From Discovery.com

All six female incumbent Democrats won their re-election, including Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who had been in tight race until her opponent, Rep. Todd Akin, made his comments about "legitimate rape." Democrats joining the Senate next year will be Democrats Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.). (Rick Berg of North Dakota conceded the race late yesterday to Heitkamp.) Six other female Democrat senators were not up for re-election this year.

Thus the full list of female senators for 2013 includes 16 Democrats:

1. Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin, incoming)
2. Mazie Hirono (Hawaii, incoming)
3. Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts, incoming)
4. Heidi Heitkamp (North Dakota, incoming)
5. Claire McCaskill (Missouri, re-elected)
6. Debbie Stabenow (Michigan, re-elected)
7. Dianne Feinstein (California, re-elected)
8. Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota, re-elected)
9. Kirsten Gillibrand (New York, re-elected)
10. Maria Cantwell (Washington re-elected)
11. Patty Murray (Washington)
12. Barbara Boxer (California)
13. Barbara Mikulski (Maryland)
14. Mary Landrieu (Louisiana)
15. Kay Hagan (North Carolina)
16. Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire)

And four Republicans:

17. Deb Fisher (Nebraska incoming)
18. Kelly Ayotte (New Hampshire)
19. Susan Collins (Maine)
20. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)

SNL Takes on Eastwood and the Chair

SNL shows Clint Eastwood taking his empty chair on the road. I think this is again symbolic of the Romney/Ryan roadshow. LOL

Snark in Pictures

Why Liberals Shouldn't Give Up

Couple of great videos:

First this one on the rise of conservatism, and the fact that liberals should get busy at a grassroots level instead of just blaming Obama. Great history lesson - Obama actually has something in common with Reagan, who was blamed by the Right for making too many compromises. Sounds familiar, eh?



Here's a clip with Richard Wolfe on MSNBC discussing the losing proposition of rape as an election issue for Republicans with author Michelle Goldberg (who made the video above) and pundit Joy Reid.

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My paraphrase of what they said: The main point is that the Tea Party thinks it is a majority in this country, so they honestly believe the people want all these anti-government draconian measures. They live in an echo chamber of their own media, such as Fox and Breitbart, telling them day and night that the Democrats are always wrong and the "foreign socialist Obama" wants to destroy America. And they believe in traditional values such as Biblical gender roles, with men taking the role as leader and making all the decisions, which is why so much of agenda circles around controlling women.

In 2010, they had a great victory because so many Tea Party conservatives were elected, and now they feel power-happy. Some of these newly elected officials really believe that they are patriots and should oppose Obama and the Democrats even if it means shutting down the government, which they did last summer. Eventually, those same Republicans are going to start losing elections, but right now the Party is in transition, so they will say almost anything to get elected, even if it contradicts their deeply held beliefs. Hence, the Party wants to get rid of Todd Akin even though he is one of them just because he said too much and gave away their real agenda. Also, that's why Paul Ryan now suddenly agrees with Romney about abortion, even though just last year he was writing anti-abortion legislation with no exceptions, just like Todd Akin.

Makes sense to me.

The Republican Gender Gap of Doom

Fantastic segment tonight from Rachel Maddow on MSNBC discussing the history and major players in the anti-abortion movement which led to the strange view held by Todd Akins that there is never any pregnancy from rape. It's shocking that most of the guys are white men, shocking that they have molded public policy and law based on this anti-scientific idea, and shocking that nearly every Republican candidate in the primaries seemed to share this belief (or said they did to placate the Tea Party).

Most shocking of all: Paul Ryan is one of them and has always been proud of it, until now, when he has to move towards the center with Mitt Romney. Of course, now that Akins has turned the light of day onto this subject, chances have gone way up that Ryan will be asked some difficult questions about his past beliefs. Does he think there are different types of rape? Does he think women can't conceive from rape? What about incest? He thought this was never going to come up in the debates or anywhere, but now he will have to face the music.

Why would the Republican women ever put up with this Cro-Magnon attitude towards rape? I've known plenty of conservative women who are nurses and teachers and smart ladies. They know how the human body works, and certainly how a woman's body works. I guess for them, the "sacred life of the fetus" is more important that the soul of a woman who is put through the mill after a rape with no one to believe her or help her. They muster empathy for the cells in the womb, but no empathy for the people already born. Note: I don't consider myself to be "pro-abortion," but the lack of empathy for women in difficult situations or in fear for their lives is sickening to me.

It reminds me of Sarah Palin when she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, refusing to let the town pay for rape kits for victims.

It's true: USA Today: In 2000, Palin's Town Billed Rape Victims

In 2000, Alaska lawmakers learned that rural police agencies had been billing rape victims or their insurance companies $500 to $1,200 for the costs of the forensic medical examinations used to gather evidence. They quickly passed a law prohibiting the practice.
According to the sponsor, Democrat Eric Croft, the law was aimed in part at Wasilla, where now-Gov. Sarah Palin was mayor
. . . It is not known how many rape victims in Wasilla were required to pay for some or all of the medical exams, but a legislative staffer who worked on the bill for Croft said it happened. "It was more than a couple of cases, and it was standard practice in Wasilla," Peggy Wilcox said, who now works for the Alaska Public Employees Association. "If you were raped in Wasilla, this was going to happen to you."
. . . In 2000, there were 497 rapes reported in Alaska, FBI statistics show. That's a rate of 79.3 per 100,000 residents, the highest in the nation.

. . . Congress in 2005 passed a law requiring states to provide rape exams free of charge or reimburse victims for the costs, says Knecht, whose group supported the provision.
"The reason we passed the legislation was that we saw it was prevalent enough to be a pretty considerable problem," Knecht says. "There are no other victims of crime that end up being billed for evidence collection."

No. Words.

Here's the main idea these Teapublicans believe : if you get pregnant, you must have wanted to have sex after all, and cooperated so the "juices would flow" and insemination occured, and therefore - no rape! How they justify this in terms of incest, I have no idea, except that it is cruel and unusual. Why we are having to discuss this on a national level in the 21st century is almost too scary to contemplate.

From Rachel Maddow:
"This is a moment of instability in Republican politics. They're going to have to figure out which way to go on this. The Republican Party let this strand of strange politics grow within its midst. They let it become mainstream Republicanism. And now the Republican Party is witnessing the country recoiling from what the Party has become."

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Ohio's Racist Voting Agenda on Display

(Unless you are African American and Want to Vote)
What is going on with Republicans this weekend? Are they finally losing all their marbles over the fact that they are going to lose in November? We have Paul Ryan yesterday saying his foreign policy cred is all about voting for war, Todd Akin from Missouri discussing "legitimate" rape, and now this guy from Ohio admitting that the powers that be don't want black people to vote, period, and are doing everything they can to stop it.

I hope this is a trend . . . It can only be good for Obama & the Dems. :)

A member of the Ohio Board of Elections, Doug Preisse, who just voted to ban weekend voting for everyone, now says he did it to stop the "African-American-Voter-Turnout-Machine." Hmm, I didn't know Ohio had one of those, thanks for demanding that they quote you, LOL.

You cannot make this stuff up!

From the Columbus Dispatch

I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine,” said Doug Preisse, chairman of the county Republican Party and elections board member who voted against weekend hours, in an email to The Dispatch. “Let’s be fair and reasonable.”

He called claims of unfairness by Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern and others “bullshit. Quote me!”

Well, he may wish he hadn't been quoted because the internet exploded with people calling for the ACLU and the Defense Department to stop holding back and do something about Ohio voter suppression.

By tonight, Preisse was backtracking somewhat and probably wishing he hadn't sent that email to the newspaper. But these guys just aren't too smart, so he told BuzzFeed several times that the African-American voters are a "political operation." He makes it sound as if Ohio has declared war on black voters, and we all have a right to be ticked off and fighting mad about such talk. :(


Interview with BuzzFeed

In an interview with BuzzFeed, Franklin County GOP Chairman Doug Preisse, a close ally of Governor John Kasich, said his comment — which provoked Democratic outrage — was simply straight talk.

Democrats "are trying to say that I had somehow consciously constrained hours for that purpose," Preisse said. "No, I am saying the opposite, that I am asking the question, and I am indeed questioning how far this process of democratic, small ‘d’, democratic voting process should be contorted to favor a political operation. I don’t think we should go overboard in doing that."

. . . Preisse scoffed at the criticism, telling BuzzFeed of a disputed voting plan put forth by Republican Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, "I believe it should be easy to vote, and I believe that under this plan it is.

"I believe that Republicans and Democrats of good will can have a difference of opinion, an honest difference of opinion here, but I also believe that there is no question that the forces of Obama and the other side of the aisle would love to just throw the barn doors open and have 24-hour voting and just go too far in the other direction," Preisse said. "It seems to me we can have a reasonable discussion about this."

Of Democrats' early voting efforts, he said, "How far should the taxpayers be asked to go to accommodate that political operation? That’s where we’re having a difference of opinion."

Devo Sings about Romney's Dog

No one is ever going to forget that Romney put Seamus the dog on the roof of that station wagon. You're stuck with it, Mitt!

Dogs Against Romney Facebook Page

Dogs Against Romney Blog


The Song "Don't Roof Rack Me, Bro" by Devo will be relased on National Dog Day. August 26, the day before the National Republican Convention starts in Tampa.

Letterman Top Ten Facts About Paul Ryan

Number One is the funniest, LOL.

Voters Not as "Undecided" These Days

According to Politico, there are fewer "undecided" voters than there used to be, which is fine with me. I always hated those focus groups of undecideds on CNN, people who apparently knew nothing about the candidates, had never read the news, never listened to any speeches or debates, and yet were touted as the "deciders" of every election. To me, an "undecided voter" is a classic oxymoron, and I always thought it was a great insult to the United States that choosing a leader of the free world would come down to the least likely people to know anything much about the candidates.

While I understand the possible idealism behind their indecision, or even the sense of power they might feel for being the focus of the media, elections are real, not hypothetical, and we have years to get ready and pick a candidate before November. In this information age with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and 24-hour news online, there's just no excuse for waiting till the last minute.

From Politico.com

Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a centrist Democrat in office who has morphed into a happy warrior for the president as co-chairman of his campaign, said there aren’t many undecided voters for Obama or Romney to persuade.
“Whether or not some of those who have made up their minds are willing to be persuaded otherwise, I don’t know,” said Strickland said. “There are relatively few people, percentage wise, that are undecided at this point.”
Gallup’s daily tracking poll shows the number of undecided voters hovering between 6 percent and 8 percent — compared with 11 percent at this point in 2008. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll put the percentage of undecided voters at 3 percent, down from 12 percent in late July 2008. A Pew survey found 5 percent didn’t know who they’d vote for, half of the number at this point in 2008.

Rachel Maddow did a good show on this topic in which she pointed out that because there are fewer undecided voters, we are further along in the campaigns than in years past. Candidates are more interested in shoring up the base than trying to snag new voters.

Labor day is supposed to be where people start to make up their minds and pay attention to the campaign. And maybe that used to be true. That is no longer true.

In the latest polling on the presidential race, whether or not you like how your favorite candidate is looking in the polling, probably the most telling, the most noble being picture thing about the polls right now is that almost nobody is undecided. There`s only a teeny, teeny, teeny portion of the electorate that has yet to make up its mind between President Obama and Mitt Romney.

And yes, that teeny, teeny, teeny tiny slice of the population will be fought over like the last piece of kibble at community puppy feeding time, but there`s just not much there. There`s just not that many people who are likely to vote in November who do not yet know who they are going to vote for.

So that turns old ideas about campaigning on their head. By and large, here to the election is no longer about persuading people who don`t know how they`re going to vote. The campaigns are still trying to persuade people to their side, but mostly they`re trying to get people who they already know or already on their side to actually prove it, to register to vote, to get out and vote, and to do both of those things in a way that makes sure their vote is counted.

We`re already at that part of the campaign. And it`s not -- it`s true, not just for the candidates themselves, but also for the activist groups and the interest groups and funders who are increasingly now doing what the political parties used to do.

Nobody is waiting until Labor Day. Everybody has hit their stride already. We are in primetime right now.

Snark in Pictures

Romney Pays Less, You Pay More

Brilliant new Obama ad . . .

The Fierce and "Decent" Harry Reid

Who would have thought that the Democrat who would finally throw down the gauntlet and not back down an inch on Romney's taxes would be the usually reticent Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid? And this story is getting bigger and bigger almost by the hour.

Harry Reid to Huffington Post

"His poor father must be so embarrassed about his son," Reid said, in reference to George Romney's standard-setting decision to turn over 12 years of tax returns when he ran for president in the late 1960s.

Saying he had "no problem with somebody being really, really wealthy," Reid sat up in his chair a bit before stirring the pot further. A month or so ago, he said, a person who had invested with Bain Capital called his office.

"Harry, he didn't pay any taxes for 10 years," Reid recounted the person as saying.

"He didn't pay taxes for 10 years! Now, do I know that that's true? Well, I'm not certain," said Reid. "But obviously he can't release those tax returns. How would it look?

"You guys have said his wealth is $250 million," Reid went on. "Not a chance in the world. It's a lot more than that. I mean, you do pretty well if you don't pay taxes for 10 years when you're making millions and millions of dollars."

On Wednesday, Reid spoke out again on the Senate Floor, repeating his accusation that Romney hasn't paid any taxes in ten years.

So, the word’s out that he hasn’t paid any taxes for 10 years. Let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn’t. We already know from one partial tax return that he gave us, he has money hidden in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and a Swiss banking account. Mitt Romney makes more money in a single day than the average middle-class family makes in two years or more.

Then he told reporters that he has more than once source to back up his claim.

LA Times Story

In a conference call with Nevada reporters on Wednesday, he broadened what he said were his sources for the contention that Romney was able to avoid federal taxes.

"I have had a number of people tell me that," said Reid, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, while refusing to elaborate. "I don't think the burden should be on me," Reid told the home-state reporters. "The burden should be on him. He's the one I've alleged has not paid any taxes. Why didn't he release his tax returns?”
On Thursday morning, Reid said that a nominee for a Cabinet position couldn't get confirmed by the Senate if he made as limited a release of tax information as Romney has thus far.
"Let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn't," Reid declared, then adding that “Mitt Romney makes more money in a single day than the average middle-class family makes in two years or more

This is throwing the Romney camp for a loop - and as we know, it doesn't take much to get them into a tizzy of alleged victimization by the mean old Democrats. Romney said on Sean Hannity via Mediaite:

Well, it’s time for Harry to put up or shut up. Harry’s going to have to describe who it is he spoke with, because, of course, that’s completely and totally wrong. It’s untrue, dishonest, and inaccurate. It’s wrong. So I’m looking forward to have Harry reveal his sources, and we’ll probably find out it’s the White House.

Also on Thursday, Romney spokesperson Eric "Etch-A-Sketch" Fehrnstrom accused Reid of "McCarthyism," which is rich coming from a campaign that has ignored the witch hunts of Michelle Bachmann and her pals.

Harry Reid's statements are baseless and untrue, and I would ask him one simple question - 'Have you no sense of decency, Sir?' Is there nothing that you won't do to debase yourself and the office you hold, in the name of dirty politics? . . . This reminds me of the McCarthy hearings back in the 1950s.

From Huffington Post

"I don't think there is anything behind it. He hasn't produced any evidence," Fehrnstrom said Thursday in an interview with Fox News. "I'm telling you speaking on behalf of the governor that those charges are untrue, they are baseless and there is nothing to back them up."
"This reminds me of the McCarthy hearings back in the 1950s," he added.
Fehrnstrom's line, "Have you no decency, sir?" is a paraphrase of what Army lawyer Joseph N. Welch asked Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy in 1954, when he famously stood up to the powerful, witch-hunting senator who was falsely accusing people of being Communists.

On this issue, not only is Reid standing fast, but he is practically begging the media to keep talking about Romney's taxes, and especially to investigate people at Bain who would know the truth.

The elegant flourish of the whole thing is that Romney can't complain that people are picking on him because he is a Mormon, since Reid is also a Mormon. Ann Romney tried to play that card in the "You People" interview in which she mentioned tithing to the church, and how that meant they could be trusted on the tax issue. But it doesn't really work when another Mormon is saying it, plus where are all the other Mormons out there who should be speaking out on Romney's behalf? *crickets*

Tonight both CNN and MSNBC covered the tax return issue for hours. Lawrence O'Donnell offered a Romney-tax montage and discussion, while CNN's Dana Bash told Anderson Cooper that Reid's sources are good or he wouldn't be standing firm.

Mitt Romney could "shut up" Harry Reid. Mitt Romney could "shut up" all of us by doing what every presidential candidate does and show his tax returns. Every day that Mitt Romney refuses to show his tax returns costs him politically and therefore logically casts more and more suspicion on why he is not releasing his tax returns.
~ Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC


Tax Montage & Discussion from Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell

 

Transcript: Dana Bash on CNN's Anderson Cooper, August 2, 2012

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We now have a couple of responses, Anderson. Let me read you the first one, that is, "Senator Reid stands by his comments. Governor Romney's continued refusal to release his tax returns raises legitimate questions about what he is hiding and whether he paid any taxes at all. Governor Romney can easily end this debate by following the precedent set by his father and releasing his tax returns."

And as you were coming on the air, Anderson, I got a follow-up like the statement, which also stands by what they call his credible source that Romney has not paid taxes for 10 years, and he's calling Romney playing tricks, many tricks at his disposal for avoiding taxes. So not backing down at all.

I got to tell you, covering Harry Reid for a lot of years, there are times when he says things off the cuff that make his aides wince, like talking smelly tourists in the capitol. I'm not making this up. This is not one of those times.

This is one of those times where he knows exactly what he's doing. He's doing it on purpose. He's doing it for political reasons because he wants this issue, Romney's taxes, to be talked about on programs like yours, and wants it to be headlines in newspapers, and wants Mitt Romney to respond on this issue, which they think is a negative for Romney as opposed to issues that Romney wants to talk about.

. . . But this is -- when Harry Reid doesn't like somebody, he goes for the jugular. And that is what he is doing now. He is an old boxer and he still likes to be a political street fighter. He knew full well that he was going to be questioned over and over again on who his source was. And he said -- he's told people close to him who I have spoken today that he didn't care. He's not telling going to tell who his source is.

But I did speak, I just have to tell you, that I did speak to one source who's very close to Senator Reid who claims to also know who this Bain investor is that Reid spoke with, and insists that this is a credible person and this person if we knew the name we would understand that they would have the authority and the ability to know about Romney's tax returns. Whether we'll find it out ever, who knows. But they're doing this on purpose so that this is the discussion.

John Stewart Critiques Romney in London

LOL ~ Romney will wake up someday and wonder why he didn't have someone who would tell him the truth on this trip. Maybe then he wouldn't have trashed the London Olympics and offended our closest ally.

The Daily Show
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Romney Camp plays "Curse the Press" in "Ass-Gate"

Romney rode on the plane with a Press entourage all week, but his handlers didn't treat them well.

• On Friday outside 10 Downing Street Romney only took questions from the British Press.
• On Saturday, he told both the U.S. and Israeli press that they were shut out of a fundraiser.
• On Sunday after an uproar, he allowed the press into the fundraiser after all.
• On Monday, Greta Van Susteren of Fox said they were being held on the bus in Poland like "animals in a petting zoo" and not allowed to ask questions.
• On Tuesday in Warsaw as Romney was leaving a soldier's tomb to go make his speech in Warsaw, frustrated reporters shouted questions and were told off by a Romney operative named Gorka.

This "Curse the Press" thing can only go so far, although I'm sure it's resonating with the far-right who loved Sarah Palin's characterization of the "Lamestream Media." The problem is, some of the people in the press are far to the right of mainstream.

And if Romney is going to talk about Israel and Poland as beacons of democracy, he's going to have to accept that a free press is crucial to a free society.

They also should have realized that when people like Rupert Murdoch, Charles Krauthammer, and Greta from Fox are complaining about the candidate, they should try to be nice once in a while and answer questions, even if Romney has to say "no comment." In fact, that's what he should say sometimes, but he doesn't know how.

Today more newsprint hit the fan, so to speak. :)

Talking Points Mem ~ Romney Aide Curses at Press in Poland

Transcript

CNN: “Governor Romney are you concerned about some of the mishaps of your trip?

NYT: “Governor Romney do you have a statement for the Palestinians?

Washington Post: “What about your gaffes?

NYT: “Governor Romney do you feel that your gaffes have overshadowed your foreign trip?”

CNN: “Governor Romney just a few questions sir, you haven’t taken but three questions on this trip from the press!

Gorka: “Show some respect”

NYT: “We haven’t had another chance to ask a question…”

Gorka: “Kiss my ass. This is a Holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect.”

Hey, Gorka ~ respect works both ways!!! And you should have more faith in your candidate and let him practice answering questions before you tick off more journalists. Things are not going to get easier after this trip - Romney has seen to that will his gaffes.

Of course now the Romney camp says they are sorry it happened, and they've rolled it back. As David Corn of Mother Jones said on Hardball - "They should call this the 'moonwalking tour' because every time Mitt Romney speaks he has to walk backwards while seeming to go forward. How many remarks can you walk back?"

And yet here's another one . . .

From Politico

Gorka subsequently called a pair of reporters to apologize, saying he lost his cool. “It was inappropriate,” Gorka said. Romney was at the square to visit the Polish Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. After he did that, laying a wreath and greeting Polish military veterans, the GOP hopeful decided to walk down to a monument on the other side of the square. Romney has not held a media availability for his traveling press corps since taking three questions outside 10 Downing Street in London last Thursday.

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Romney Runs from Tax Transparency

Yesterday Mitt Romney was interviewed by ABC News and said this about his taxes:

"From time to time I’ve been audited — as it happens, I think, to other citizens as well — and the accounting firm which prepares my taxes has done a very thorough and complete job, pay[ing] taxes as legally due."
. . . "I don't pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don't think I'd be qualified to become president. I'd think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires."
. . . "I haven't looked at the tax rate paid year by year. I know that I pay a very substantial amount of taxes and [have] every year since the beginning of my career, so far as I can recall."

Yep, there you have it . . . "so far as he can recall."

It never ceases to amaze me that a man running on his sterling background in business and high finance can be so blatantly obtuse and vague about his own personal finances.

That interview must have raised new questions and we know how much Mitt hates those, so he must have put his little foot down. Ann Romney will get the last word when she said "We've given all you people need to know" about their income taxes. As of today, they just aren't going to answer any more of these persnickety tax questions, so there!

Now all you journalists and snoopy people, please slink out the back servant's door and leave us alone in our counting house!

CNN Reporting:

Mitt Romney's campaign said Monday they would not release any more of the candidate's personal income tax information, despite an acknowledgement from Romney that he had been audited in the past.

"Mitt Romney has paid his taxes in full compliance with U.S. Law, and he has paid 100 percent of what he has owed," Romney spokesman Ryan Williams wrote.

. . . He continued, "As has previously been reported, in 2011, the Romneys will pay more than $3.2 million in taxes on $20.9 million in mostly investment income and will have donated more than $4 million to charity. In 2010, The Romneys paid more than $3 million in taxes on $21.6 million in mostly investment income and donated nearly $3 million to charity."

Romney has disclosed his income tax returns from 2010, and released an estimate of his 2011 tax information in April. He has vowed to release 2011's full return one it's completed by his accountant.

Romney Warmongering in Israel

In a speech that will delight Jewish extremists and Evangelicals alike, Mitt Romney stated that he believes Jerusalem is the "capital of Israel," trying to sound like the guy who is going to rebuild the Temple of Solomon single-handedly while also fulfilling the Mormon White Horse Prophecy, which will save the Constitution of the U.S. but also bring about the Rapture and Armegeddon.

Isn't that special? The problem is, he hasn't been elected to anything yet.

So mainly Romney wants to get that sweet money from Sheldon Adelson, and everything else is secondary. By the way, the Romney camp has reversed their policy of yesterday and will now allow journalists inside the fund raiser in Jerusalem. Apparently that includes both the American Press Corps, as well as the Jewish Press. But stay tuned in case another etch-a-sketch happens.

Romney's Complete Speech Here

From the Boston Globe

JERUSALEM—On Israeli soil, U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Sunday declared Jerusalem to be the capital of the Jewish state and said the United States has "a solemn duty and a moral imperative" to block Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability.

"Make no mistake, the ayatollahs in Iran are testing our moral defenses. They want to know who will object and who will look the other way," he said. "We will not look away nor will our country ever look away from our passion and commitment to Israel."

The presidential election hovered over the speech, with the Old City forming a made-for-television backdrop behind Romney, while some of his campaign donors listened in the audience.

Romney Shambles Day One: Disconcerting London Gaffes
Romney Shambles Day Two: British Press Pounces
Romney Shambles Day Three: On to Israel
Romney Shambles Day Four: Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran

Romney's Returns - the Ugly Truth

The Romney camp is holding firm that he has "already released" all the tax returns he is going to release, meaning the single return from 2010. Considering the fact that everyone from George Will to Bill Kristol to Rahm Emanuel are calling Romney out on his taxes, it's almost unbelievable that they continue to stonewall.

Romney appeared on Fox and Friends this morning, sounding as if he is being nibbled to death by geese, LOL.

Via Think Progress

ROMNEY: The Obama people keep on wanting more and more and more. More things to pick through, more things for their opposition research to try make a mountain out of and to distort and to be dishonest about. We’re going to put out two years of tax returns.

Esquire has a great spin on why Romney is holding back:

Contempt for "the Help"

It is helpful always to remind yourself that, in the mind of Willard Romney, there are only two kinds of people — himself and his family, and The Help. Throughout his career, and especially throughout his brief political career, Romney has treated The Help with a kind of lordly disdain. . . .
. . . The Help has no right to go pawing through the family books, giggling at the obvious loopholes and tax dodges, running amok through all the tax shelters, and probably getting their chocolate-y fingerprints all over the pages of the Romney family ledger. And, certainly, those members of The Help in the employ of the president of the United States, who is also part of The Help, have no right to use the nearly comically ostentatious wealth of the Romney as some sort of scrimey political weapon. He does not have to answer to The Help. I mean, jeepers, he's running for office.
This isn't stubbornness. That's often an acquired trait. What this is, fundamentally, is contempt. Contempt for the process, and contempt for the people who make their living in that process, and contempt for the people whose lives depend on that process.

Good job by MSNBC's Luke Russert pushing Romney's surrogate, Gail Gitchco, to clear up the tax mess this morning. Epic fail on her part as "communications director." They just don't get it. Someone is eventually going to leak these tax returns, so it would be better if they just got it over with now. But when has the Romney camp ever been that bright? Never.

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Governor Bobby Jindal Puts the "NO" in NOLA

I don't like to brag, and I'm not always correct, but I got one prediction right this past week when I told my husband and daughter that I was absolutely sure of one thing: Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana would be the very first politician to say that he didn't want any stinkin' Obamacare for his state.

And sure enough . . .he's been saying "NO" all over the place. Anyone who has ever taken child psychology or had a toddler in the house remembers "The No Stage in which a child who wants independence suddenly reacts to every question with that word. Governor Jindal wants his state to be so independent that he says to "NO" without even thinking of the consequences, much like a half-awake toddler with no responsibilities. Frankly, if I had a Governor like that I would be planning a move to another state.  

(Oh wait . . . sometimes he says yes - remember the Gulf Oil Spill? And if there's a hurricane, he'll be right there criticizing Obama for not helping them enough. Oy. But the rest of the time it's "NO!")

If Jindal is just saying "NO!" to win friends and influence people in the Republican Party, that isn't really working either. On Friday, the day after the Surpreme Court gave the green light to the President's healthcare plan, Bobby Jindal flubbed up on a Republican Party Conference Call by calling the program "Obamneycare," a slur left over from the primary that fuses together Obama's plan with Romney's in Massachusetts (on which Obamacare is based).

Really I think Mr. Jindal needs to say "NO" next time a microphone is shoved into his face.

From Nola.com

"It really raises the question of what's next, what's allowable," Jindal said. "Taxes on people who refuse to eat tofu or refuse to drive a Chevy Volt ... this whole ruling I think is ridiculous. It's a huge expansion of federal power."

and

 "We're not moving forward with the exchanges," Jindal said. "Instead, we're going to do everything we can to defeat President Obama, get rid of ObamaCare."

From Huffington Post

 Here in Louisiana, we've not applied for the grants, we've not accepted many of these dollars," Jindal said. "We're not implementing the exchanges. We don't think it makes any sense to implement Obamacare in Lousiana. The next opportunity we have to get rid of this law is to get Governor Romney elected, and I absolutely believe that he will be elected in November, and one of his first actions will be to repeal and replace this law."

Washington Post gives Jindal a reality-check:

The Affordable Care Act requires states to have exchanges. A state has several options: It can build the exchange itself, or it can collaborate with the federal government to build it, or it can let the federal government run it. The state has to tell the feds what path it has decided to take by mid-November. If the state does not want to run its own exchange, or collaborate with the feds to run it, the feds will begin setting up the exchange themselves in January.
If Jindal is serious about not implementing an exchange, the latter course is what will happen under the law, says Kathleen Stoll, the deputy executive director at the pro-Obamacare Families USA.
“If the state hasn’t moved forward, at that point, the feds have to come in to run the exchange to protect the citizens of Lousiana,” Stoll says. “The irony is that Jindal has made a choice to waste time and available federal dollars he could have used to build a state exchange uniquely tailored to his vision and the needs of the people of Louisiana.”
Of course, Jindal is probably banking on Obama losing the election, and Romney fulfilling his promise to repeal Obamacare on day one of his presidency. But that’s a pretty big gamble.

Greeks Go Conservative, May Stay in Eurozone

The Greek Elections are over now and the right-leaning New Democracy government won led by Antonis Samaras, who spoke of "a new national unity in a European direction." They still have to form a government and prove stability to the rest of Europe, but this is an encouraging outcome if Greece wants to remain in the Eurozone.




From MSNBC:

Sunday's vote was seen as crucial for Europe and the world, since it could determine whether Greece was forced to leave the joint euro currency, a move that could have potentially catastrophic consequences for other ailing European nations and the global economy. As central banks stood ready to intervene in case of financial turmoil, Greece held its second national election in six weeks after an inconclusive ballot on May 6.

The Eurozone's finance ministers said the outcome should allow for the formation of a government that will carry the support of the electorate to bring Greece back on a path of sustainable growth.

"The Eurogroup acknowledges the considerable efforts already made by the Greek citizens and is convinced that continued fiscal and structural reforms are Greece's best guarantee to overcome the current economic and social challenges and for a more prosperous future of Greece in the euro area," the group said in a statement.

"We congratulate the Greek people on conducting their election in this difficult time," the White House said in a statement. "We hope this election will lead quickly to the formation of a new government that can make timely progress on the economic challenges facing the Greek people."

Andrew Rindfleisch Sings the Conservative Anthem

OMG - the song on the following video is hilarious and oh so true, LOL. I found it via Political Carnival. Enjoy!
(warning - a little bad language here and there, yet in context)