Week In The News: Romney Abroad, Tea Party Win, Olympic Gold

Wm. James from Missouri

Mitt Romney has promised to make the US energy independent within 8 years. Does he mean to free the US of imported oil ? Is he suggesting a massive push for MPG ratings of 300 miles per gallon of gasoline or maybe something similar for natural gas ? Maybe he has invented a cheap method to produce anti-matter ! On a prior Friday show I posted a link to MIT’s newsletter

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/graphene-water-desalination-0702.html

about the nano-filter made of graphene that could filter seawater and conceivably filter ocean water for gold and precious metals, also. Well, he might pull it off, if he can get some government subsidies for that research group and MIT or maybe some of that pentagon money to fund this other MIT group

(http://www.technologyreview.com/news/419299/record-efficiency-for-lithium-air-batteries/ )

that is claiming that by using gold, platinum and lithium air batteries we will finally be able to get more bang for our electric battery buck. Of course we will have to be ever mindful of our energy grid that feeds those batteries. We surely don’t won’t to go the way of India, do we ? But if we do go down battery lane I am sure we can hire some of those Indian double EE majors. They’re just kind of hanging around anyway.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for energy independence, I would have done it a long time ago but in this galaxy ! However I do wonder how he will handle the net effect , that is, ever cheaper global oil prices. He will have to deal with those pesky Chinese Communist getting their hands on all that cheap energy all over the world. Feeding their factories with cheaper energy will certainly lead to the purchase of more of that Federal Debt, eey ? Then of course he will have to tell the Israelis that the US doesn’t have any real reason to stay in that neighborhood anymore. But not to worry, their culture will pull them through. Of course, would could ask the Chinese to step up to the plate and do some of that police work for us. The way I see it is as follows. If we can tap into those would-be Chinese capitalist yearnings and franchise those Shaolin Monks Kung Fu fighting techniques throughout all of the middle east, we can get everybody to … Kung Fu fighting, it (will be) so exciting. Boy, I sure hope those Monks get the Any Rooney “thing”, if not I may have to dust off my old Bruce Lee movies : )

PS. Hey Mitt, you might want to check out this link,

http://www.technobuffalo.com/news/research/researchers-at-ucla-develop-see-through-solar-cells-for-windows/

See through solar cells ! Quite doable within 8 years.

Ed

A judge agreed that the Hercules Company’s rights to free exercise of religion was being infringed, and placed an injunction on the requirement that they purchase health care insurance that includes contraception and abortifacients. (Two earlier cases judged that the plaintiff hadn’t suffered harm since it hadn’t yet gone into effect.)

We looked for a health care bill that would decrease health care costs and extend care. We got a bill the might or might not decrease cost, but will put the industry under the federal government, and will extend abortion by requiring all policies to cover contraception and abortifacients.

And we wonder if the purpose of the administration was the first goal, or really the second.

TFRX

Hilarious.

I just hope my employer doesn’t wake up and decide they’re Christian Scientists one day. I really like having a real doctor give me penicillin when it’s what I need.
Mike Card

“A judge?” One who decided there wasn’t any problem with priests raping children? Come on, “Ed:” you aren’t a real person, are you? You’re just a bot being manipulated in the English language from a basement in the Vatican. Right?

The only interesting thing about you is that you seem to deduce that real, live people would be interested in, let alone be swayed by, the infantile crap you waste bytes on.

Have just a really special day while you lurk in cyberspace; the rest of the world will be out among human beings, trying to heal the vile worthlessness your Catholic cult has inflicted on humanity.

Ed

“Pursuing the argument against the HHS contraceptive mandate from a different direction, Edward Morrissey explains in the Fiscal Times that the policy will harm the US economy, by imposing new costs on firms, new costs to workers whose employers drop health-care coverage, and enormous new costs to society in general if Catholic institutions drop out of the businesses of education and health-care service.” Catholc World News Agency.

Yar

A church is a democracy, people vote with their contributions each week. The Church is not some old guys in silly hats. The Church is the good people who contribute their energy to make the world a better place. Just as in the days of Martin Luther and John Calvin, when the people lead, leaders will follow, eventually. I would like to extend an invitation to “Nuns on a Bus” and “Sisters of Charity” to join in communion with Presbyterians. We believe we sit at God’s table, don’t judge others, we participate in open communion. Ed, your old men will be remembered for their action. The Church will simply move on. When Catholics drop charity from their mission, your members will move to a church that has a mission they believe in.
- Che’ Riviera
  
  I love it Yar. Thanks.

LinP

Cruz from Texas and all the other Tea Baggers –

Get rid of government…elect ME! (And give me a government salary, and health insurance, dental insurance, and paid vacations and holidays, retirement plans……I’ll take mine, but will make damn sure we cut yours.)

AC

i like shooting myself in the foot!!
- you’ve got my vote!
Don_B1

Cruz apparently believes George Soros is leading a mission to ELIMINATE GOLF COURSES!

Stopping that will certainly improve the economy; those financiers can spend more of their money on golf, which is in hard times these days.
- TFRX
  
  Even with modern aquiculture and not watering everything like they were trying to sustain a rainforest, I think if Cruz is worried about Texas golf courses, he should worry about the drought.

AC

i would believe a candidate more if they said ‘slow the disappearance of jobs’ more than this stupid ‘grow the economy, creating jobs’ nonsense…
not sure why people are being so obtuse about this…..we need to educate our population to be able to DO the jobs of the future, not pretend it is still the 20th century….get moving, or be left behind
http://singularityhub.com/2009/12/15/martin-ford-asks-will-automation-lead-to-economic-collapse/
o and monitor population, we seriously have to watch population growth…….

Don_B1

There are plenty of unemployed construction workers who could be repairing and improving the country’s infrastructure right now. And putting them to work would give them money to spend, which would generate jobs for others making goods and providing services that those workers want and need.

The same argument was made during the Great Depression and when FDR convinced Congress to start the military buildup to defend ourselves if we were drawn into WWII, the workers somehow appeared and the G.D. was finally mostly “over” by mid 1941.

What we need most right now is the conviction (will) to spend enough to put people to work.

And this action by DeMarco of the Federal Housing Finance Authority to not give homeowners the ability to refinance, is not only costing the government money but making people suffer more than they deserve. Read:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/03/opinion/krugman-debt-depression-demarco.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

On the matter of health care Romney again showed his cluelessness as he praised the results of Israel’s single-payer mandatory coverage for all system which delivers healthier people at less than HALF the cost of our ideologically driven half free-market system, where the “free market” is where the inefficiency and overspending originates.
Wm. James from Missouri

AC,

Sorry that I could not reply earlier. Work, work, work, ya know. So glad to see you mention the singularity and Mr. Fords book. ( I like the link.) Some quick thoughts to ease SOME of your fears.
_Six hour work day. Eventually we could move to a 4 hour, 2 hour, ….
_Save and invest more now ! Get those dividend paying funds !
_Develop many small sources of income !
_Support a law that forces companies to pay dividends.
_Start inventing and discovering. When the time comes for us to own or merge with a higher intelligence we will be that much more able to compete with the next, even higher intelligence.
_Check out the SOAR architecture. I have been too busy to do this myself in any depth, but will in the near future.
_Math, math, math.
_Some people THINK they understand the consequences of Alan Turing’s and Gödel’s work but they fall short. Learn about these two people and people like them.
_Learn how to, and about programming and algorithms. It is hard to believe that you can write a program with your brain that will do things that that same brain can’t!
_Know what Set, a subset, and a “State” are and why these concepts are central to understanding AI.
- AC
  
  o by! you’re preaching to the chior here!! i’ve said as much over the past year on a variety of show topics. i’m also an engineer by profession but volunteer time to outreach to get kids into math and science.
  unfortunately, those are not my fears – my fear is how everyone is strangely pretending to be blind to the singularity – it seems they would much rather turn reps vs. dems into a competitive sport and not deal with reality at all….
  i don’t understand why politicians are not suggesting ‘transition training’, or focusing on the US adapting to the coming changes in order to remain strong. Instead they (& media in general) are focused on this ‘job creation’ like it is good enough.
  As DonB1 said in the post above, there are some short term ways to increase the numbers, such as construction, but that is also not a long term solution, esp. with newer materials and sustainability in play in design now. what’s more are these are not jobs for everyone, they are physical, require skills not all seem to be able to learn and often require a nomadic lifestyle – not easy for a ‘family’.
  but what about the long term? we should focus on these unemployed who will never be employable again, unless their skill sets are re-newed. What, for instance, will you do with the soon to be unemployed 40 year old postal worker? presumably they will live for quite a while longer…& the show they did a while ago talking about the inhumaneness of these large online warehouse packer jobs – i don’t think they realize they too are slow being replaced with the new automatic pickers; i suggested training these workers to learn to be the one to program and maintain these robots, but it’s like beating your head against a brick wall, no one sees the upcoming issues.
  instead of realizing we need to push awareness for this transition period we’re going through & uniting and encouraging us to change with it, people will only feel joyful or despairing when those unemployed workers become faceless #’s in their montlhy figures releases & pretend it’s gov or politics controlling it (i concede that course they do, but only to a small extent during the transisition).
  I get that we’re floundering, these changes are monumental, but to ignore it completely? why?
  so my fears lie in our unwillingness to adapt. i know there are cultural systems which will never accept the changes possible, let them wallow in backwardsness, full of disease and war, but we can not be held back by them either. the population will continue to increase and this is a finite planet. to remain civilized and survive, you would think the majority would work towards the possible future we can have – not ignore or fight it….
  - Wm. James from Missouri
    
    AC, you just became my most favorite NPR internet friend. We will be talking. If not, I will see you in singularity heaven.
    P.S. What kind of engineering ?

Newton Whale

Ann Romney gallops away from Mitt‏

“It’s a big, exciting experience for my husband. I have to tell you, this is Mitt”s race ,” Mrs. Romney said.�
“I’m not even sure which day the election is. He will get the chance to campaign, I will not be voting. I hope his ticket does well.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/romney-puts-horse-sized-distance-between-himself-and-dressage/

Worried for the country(MA)

On point leads with “Romney gaffes abound”. Really? This is the top news story of the week?

Were Romney’s supposed gaffes really gaffes? Did they deserve the media attention they received? One of the media watch dog groups reported that 87% of the main stream media stories about Romney’s foreign trip were about supposed gaffes. There was little coverage about his excellent speech in Poland or Romney’s endorsement by anti communist oppression hero, Lech Walesa.

If anyone has any doubt of the media bias all they have to do is listen the tape of the “journalists” at the Polish sacred shrine screaming at the top of their lungs “Mr. Romney talk about your gaffes” trying to embarrass the candidate. Instead they embarrassed themselves.

What were the ‘huge gaffes’? Romney repeating concerns reported in the press about the Olympics? Highlighting the obvious fact that the Israelis have a culture for free market success? A press secretary telling the pathetic press core to shove it? Contrast this with the coverage Obama received in 2008. No bias or double standard here. Move on.

It is unfortunate that On point decides to participate in this media bias. I expected more from them.

Brandstad

The funniest part of Romney’s gaffes, was when Romney told the truth and didn’t give a political answer when he raised questions about England’s preparedness for the games. The fact is they were missing 3K security guards and had to call in the military to fill the empty spots. This is enough to justify Romney’s remarks.
- Worried for the country(MA)
  
  Romney’s remarks were quite tepid compared to the headlines in the British press. Oh no, he used the word ‘disconcerting’; he must be mitt the twit.
  
  However, on point makes this the TOP headline.
  
  Imagine on point making Obama stating that he’s been to 57 states with 3 to go the top headline.
- TFRX
  
  Yes, three thousand missing private security guards. Contracted, paid for, just didn’t show up.
  
  Exactly what Romney wants to point out when telling Americans how privatization works.
Mike Card

The top of the page says “Romney Abroad.”
NRG

I very much like NPR as a whole for their lack of bias. But onpoint today did get involved in the pettiness of mainstream media that tries to nitpick opposing political views and is characteristic of mainstream media. NPR had come a long way in terms of avoiding media bias, but in the past few months, onpoint seems to have gone the way of mainstream. Bad show.

This is not the only show that has shown such bias, I have heard it quite a bit lately. Too bad for those of us who actually appreciate unbiased reportage. Has NPR decided to change it’s policy?
Hidan

what? Israel is a welfare state. at least 10-15% of it’s population is on government supported welfare to study the Torah . Add more for settlers living in the West Bank and government’s aid. Than add the U.S. backing on it’s loans and military equipment along with the U.S. veto.

Kind of like when someone says they did everything on there own. Than you find out their parents paid for their car,phone, housing,school and help them get a nice paying job.

It’s unfortunate that someone like you would be so uninformed to believe Israel is anything but a U.S. supported Welfare state.

nj_v2

Clearly, Corporate America needs more tax breaks, tax breaks being the raison d’être for the current crop of criminals and extremists occupying the Republican party.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/01/614771/big-oil-profits-3/?mobile=nc

“Every hour so far in 2012, the five largest oil corporations have recorded a$14,400,000 profit. And every hour, they received more than $270,000 in federal tax breaks. That adds up to $2.4 billion in subsidies every year for the five largest oil corporations — Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and ConocoPhillips — all ranked as the top 9 companies in the world.

Even though BP posted an unexpected second-quarter loss, these five companies are on track to meet last year’s record profits. Put these numbers into context, and they are not so “disappointing“: Big Oil profits more in one minute than what 96 percent of American households earn in one year. Even so, Mitt Romney and House Republicans want to double what the five companies receive in federal tax breaks to $12.8 million per day, even though the three publicly owned U.S. companies paid an average tax rate of under 17 percent.”

[excerpt]

Steve_T

You may not hear this here, but here’s a real eye opener
on what they get away with,

http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2012/7/30/matt_taibbi_explains_wall_streets_license_to_steal_offshore_tax_havens_and_private_equity_firms

Stillin

Olympic outfits. The baby pink baby blue German attire, who OK’d that? The big rubber boots and shorts? Seriously, I am not a fashion person but you couldn’t have paid me to parade around in those outfits. nah.

Worried for the country(MA)

Another bad jobs report today and unemployment (u-3) ticks up to 8.3%.

My prediction is the media will spin this as a positive (eg, better than expected or some other nonsense).

Notice how the media NEVER reports the U-6 number. U-6 is the true unemployment and underemployment. The government releases the U-6 number.

The true unemployment rate is currently sitting at 14.9%.

Che’ Riviera

And you believe Romney will return us to full employment? Sorry if I’m wrong, I’m just trying to read between the lines.
Worried for the country(MA)

The U-6 is now at 15%. This includes those who have given up looking because they don’t think they can’t find anything.
Newton Whale

I guess Business Insider doesn’t see it that way, and neither do the markets:

Futures Rally After HUGE Jobs Report

The July jobs report is out. And it’s a big upside surprise.Futures, which were already up, are up even more.Dow futures are up 131S&P futures are up 15Nasdaq futures are 32

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/futures-update-2012-8#ixzz22UOqrUKp
- Worried for the country(MA)
  
  Exactly. Spin – spin – spin.
  
  Brandstad post above says it all. This is the largest EVER seasonally adjusted July. They just fudged the numbers. What is their justification?
  
  Will they be called on it?
  - Mike Card
    
    The BLS is independent when the GOP owns the White House, but the Democrats own it when they have the White House. Cool! Does Bonehead know about this?
nj_v2

Notice how the forum’s right-wing hack patrol never mentions the contribution to the U-6 unemployment— never mind the rest of the lingering disaster—left behind from their previous, glorious standard bearer:

http://econographia.com/post/18029534350/the-u-6-unemployment-misery-index

[[ Since January 2001, the U-6 has risen dramatically from 7.3% to its current level of 14.9% in June 2012. As the data shows, almost all of the growth .. 91% .. from January 2001 – June 2012 was accumulated over the Bush tenure. By tenure, the U-6 grew 95% over the Bush years. Over Obama’s tenure to date (April 2012), the U-6 grew a total of 5%. At 14.9% in June 2012, the U-6 rate is lower than in February 2009, Obama’s first full month in office … having decreased over 30 months from a peak of 17.2% in October 2009. ]]

There are even some nice, colorful graphics in the llink to make it easier for our slow-learning friends on the right.

Brandstad

How does the government make bad Econ numbers look good? I will show you today’s example.
�
Headlines today say that the US “added” 163,000 jobs, but is that really the case?

Consider this: the number was based on a non seasonally adjusted July number of 132,868. This was a 1.248 million drop from the June print. So how did the smoothing work out to make a real plunge into an “adjusted” rise? Simple: the BLS “added” 377K jobs for seasonal purposes. This was the largest seasonal addition in the past decade for a July NFP print in the past decade, possibly ever, as the first chart below shows. But wait, there’s more: the Birth Death adjustment, which adds to the NSA Print to get to the final number, was +52k. How does this compare to July 2011? It is about 1000% higher: the last B/D adjustment was a tiny +5K! In other words, of the 163,000 jobs “added”, 429,000 was based on purely statistical fudging.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/seasonal-and-birth-death-adjustments-add-429000-statistical-jobs

Che’ Riviera

Mark Twain said something about there being “lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

EVERYONE manipulates the numbers to their advantage.
- notafeminista
  
  Your guy wasn’t supposed to be like the rest.
Worried for the country(MA)

Don’t worry, the jobs number will be revised downward next month (after the media stop paying attention). The number has been revised downward every month of this administration. A statistical anomaly? Not possible.

There should be an equal number of revisions in each direction but I guess the Obama labor department is allowed to commit fraud.
- Che’ Riviera
  
  But Mitt will solve these problems utterly.
  - Charles A. Bowsher
    
    “udderly”
AC

where do you propose to lay the blame for the post offices and workers about to increase these numbers further?
on government or on yourself for using a computer?
AC

no response? i’ll take speculation…
- Mike Card
  
  He’s just a bot; he never responds to anything with a question mark at the end.

Brandstad

POLL: Obama Job Approval Slips to 44%; Matches 2012 Low… Developing…

Brandstad

Missile Defense Staff Warned to Stop Surfing Porn Sites

The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency warned its employees and contractors last week to stop using their government computers to surf the Internet for pornographic sites, according to the agency’s executive director.

Che’ Riviera

Q: What would happen if America demilitarized and sold its valuable military assetts (Nimitz class aircraft carriers) to India, Brazil, and other up and comers? What if we handed the 10 gallon hat to others?

notafeminista

There would be a power vacuum. At this point, even at this point in our existence, the US is still the best game in town.

Do you really want someone like Robert Mugabe (or similar)? That is what will happen. Read your history.
- Che’ Riviera
  
  I don’t think Uganda can afford a Nimitz class carrier.

nj_v2

Predection:

Bastion of liberal extremism On Point will spend about 67% of the program prattling on about ultimately trivial campaign machinations of the Republicats while ignoring the principled civil disobedience arrest of Jill Stein.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/169204/presidential-candidate-willing-get-arrested-fight-foreclosure-abuse#

[[ But Stein got a good deal of attention Wednesday for a good reason. She was busted with fellow Greens and activists from the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign outside the Philadelphia office of Fannie Mae, the government-backed mortgage lender that is foreclosing on precisely the people it is supposed to help.Most politicians avoid saying—let alone doing—anything of consequence regarding the foreclosure crisis. But Stein, her vice presidential running-mate (Cheri Honkala, who last year mounted a campaign for sheriff in Philadelphia as part of an anti-foreclosure fight), labor lawyer James Moran and Sister Margaret McKenna of the Medical Mission Sisters were arrested after attempting to gain access to the Fannie Mae officethrough an adjacent financial institution on Philadelphia’s “Bankers Row.”The charge was one that any activist would be proud of: “defiant trespassing.” ]]

(excerpt)

nj_v2

: : : *sigh* : : :

Brandstad

The CBS and NBC morning shows on Thursday both highlighted a massive show of support for Chick-fil-A, but failed to explain one of the underlying reasons for the protest: An expression of solidarity by many Americans for free speech against government bullying.

While ABC’s Good Morning America completely ignored the sizable effort that saw long lines at Chick-fil-As around the country, CBS This Morning anchor Charlie Rose simplified, “For many religious conservatives, Chick-fil-A was the place to be Wednesday. Thousands went there to eat and to make a statement – a statement against same sex marriage.” Many Americans did go as a show of support for traditional marriage, but some went to protest mayors in Chicago, Boston and San Francisco who threatened or bullied the conservative chain.Read more: http://newsbusters.org/#ixzz22UQ7aEA9

Guest

From a friend watching the Olympics: “How about that Michael Phelps? But let’s remember he didn’t win all those medals, someone else did. After all, he and I swam in public pools, built by state employees using tax dollars. He got training from the USOC, and ate food grown by the Department of Agriculture. He should play fair and share his medals with people like me, who can barely keep my head above water, let alone swim.”
–Peggy Noonan, WSJ

Worried for the country(MA)

He is required to share 15 of his 20 medals with the losers. You know — share the wealth.

However, he is still responsible for $150K in taxes for his windfall.
- Charles A. Bowsher
  
  Apparently the Republicans in congress are trying to stop that taxation in an attempt to gain a few voters. Just heard this last night.
  - notafeminista
    
    Yup from Marco Rubio.
Che’ Riviera

No man is an island.

BTW how come the most conservative wieners choose not to identify themselves with something more distinctive than “guest”?
- JGC
  
  Or as Romney was quoted as saying at one of the Koch fundraisers, “No man is a Cayman Island.”
TFRX

You’re a friend of Nooners’? That explains a lot.

Do we need to link to Romney’s speech at Salt Lake telling a cheering crowd how none of the athletes got there alone?
- ARR100
  
  …and the offical pin was his face ~

Brandstad

The controversial federal abortifacient/contraception mandate went into effect this week with little media attention or fanfare.

America has lost their freedom of religion and seperation of church and state.

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ….”

This mandate clearly violates this because it prohibits the free exercise of the Catholic Religion. Read more: http://newsbusters.org/#ixzz22UQNHIAy

TFRX

Keep linking to Newsbusters if you want us to take your idea of media crit seriously.
- notafeminista
  
  Out of curiosity what might you find as a suitable news source meeting your approval?
Newton Whale

Be careful what you wish for:

Women ride in back on sex-segregated Brooklyn bus line

On the morning of October 12, Melissa Franchy boarded the B110 bus in Brooklyn and sat down near the front. For a few minutes she was left in silence, although the other passengers gave her a noticeably wide berth. But as the bus began to fill up, the men told her that she had to get up. Move to the back, they insisted.They were Orthodox Jews with full beards, sidecurls and long black coats, who told her that she was riding a “private bus” and a “Jewish bus.” When she asked why she had to move, a man scolded her.“If God makes a rule, you don’t ask ‘Why make the rule?’” he told Franchy, who rode the bus at the invitation of a New York World reporter. She then moved to the back where the other women were sitting. The driver did not intervene in the incident.
The B110 bus travels between Williamsburg and Borough Park in Brooklyn. It is open to the public, and has a route number and tall blue bus stop signs like any other city bus. But the B110 operates according to its own distinct rules. The bus line is run by a private company and serves the Hasidic communities of the two neighborhoods. To avoid physical contact between members of opposite sexes that is prohibited by Hasidic tradition, men sit in the front of the bus and women sit in the back.City, state and federal law all proscribe discrimination based on gender in public accommodations. “Discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations in New York City is against the law,” said Betsy Herzog, a spokeswoman for the New York City Commission on Human Rights, which investigates and prosecutes alleged violations of anti-discrimination law.The Department of Transportation, which issues the franchise, confirms that it understands the B110 to be subject to anti-discrimination laws. “This is a private company, but it is a public service,” said Seth Solomonow, a spokesman for the DOT. “The company has to comply with all applicable laws.”http://www.thenewyorkworld.com/2011/10/18/women-ride-in-back-on-sex-segregated-brooklyn-bus-line/
Charles A. Bowsher

The purpose of religion is for people to get closer to their god. It is not to open an oil change facility, or a hospital or a bus line. A business is a business. A church is a church. I personally have issues with local churches that are now opening exercise facilities, or gyms, or schools and are using the shield of the church to avoid paying taxes. They are still using the roads, signals etc. our taxes pay for.

Che’ Riviera

Crazy Idea: Grant Texas independence and urge Tea Baggers to emigrate there. Imagine a Nation State with almost no government, unlimited personal armament, and no social safety net whatsoever. When Mexico invades them, will we intervene?

Ping1

Don’t mess with Texas.
TFRX

Free enterprise Texas can’t pull itself away from my blue-state tax dollars. They’ll never leave; unlike the spending under Rick Perry, Texas would have to create jobs on their own with their own resources and tax rates. And that oil ain’t gonna last forever.
- notafeminista
  
  You can always hope.
TomK in Boston

As I always say, we should have let em go in 1860. They could have their medieval theocracy-oligarchy and we could move on with rational democracy, selling them technology and using them as a source of cheap labor and raw materials.
- notafeminista
  
  Well not true. Every time some half or fully baked comment about secession comes out of Texas the Lefties get their knickers in a knot.
- Che’ Riviera
  
  I love it!
Charles A. Bowsher

But do we wind up with a longer border to guard? I’d certainly be willing to be minuteman there, even though my dear departed mother was born in Ol’ San Antone!

Worried for the country(MA)

Obama’s job creation problem in one picture. A must see (if you can find Obama’s contribution ). It is really stunning. Bill Clinton does very well. Also Ronald Reagan.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/president-obamas-job-creation-problem–in-one-chart/2012/08/02/gJQA58tsRX_blog.html

AC

Borrowed from a friend:
To steal from Gore Vidal (RIP): “There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.”

BHA_in_Vermont

I find it curious that high level foreign politicians meet with a US Presidential candidate. Heck, though it is all but a given, Romney isn’t even the official Republican nominee.

Romney’s comments in Israel and Poland are just plain scary. Already telling other countries and peoples that they should consider themselves unimportant to the USA if he gets elected.

notafeminista

I can see why a Lefty would find anyone being endorsed by Lech Walesa pretty alarming, freedom not being at the top of their priority list…

Fareed Zakaria also said culture is important and the only thing Romney got wrong in Israel were the actual numbers. The gap is much more significant than he stated. But as Mr. Zakaria said, culture is important.
- Hidan
  
  Curious what Someone like romney would be saying about jews in the 1800/1700/1600/1500/1400/1300/1200/1100/1000/900/800/700/600/500/400/300/200/100 on such accomplishment and culture vs others.
  - notafeminista
    
    He only got the numbers wrong. He estimated far higher than what the gap actually is.
    
    Culture is important.
- Che’ Riviera
  
  Endorsed by Walesa, NOT Solidarity. An important distiction.
- JGC
  
  Zakaria wrote (Washington Post, 2 Aug 2012) “Culture is important…but culture changes.” The gist of his column is that it is the economic policies set by a government, and not so much the culture, that bring success to a state’s economy. One example he gave is that Turkey,with its Muslim culture, is a successful country because of sound economic policies.

TFRX

So, going to Israel is the way for a Mormon to assuage fundie Christians that…what, again?

When do normal mainstream Protestant religious folk get Romney’s interest?

PS, Wade: Don’t get suckered into a confidence con. There’s only one thing more predictable than the quadrennial headlines about “Republicans making inroads with Jewish vote”.

Lynn Martin

Every evangelical I know is NOT voting for Romney.
- TFRX
  
  I don’t talk politics with evangelicals in realworld. So I’d like to ask you how “safe” it is for evangelicals to say that about Romney. Is it something openly talked about or would it result in scorn?
- notafeminista
  
  What is a grand total of what? One?

TomK in Boston

We’re doomed to more posturing over the monthly jobs report. This one was above expectations so the TeaOP is scrambling to put it in a bad frame, while the President will be celebrating. I’m sick of it.

The most important number is another 9,000 public sector jobs lost. This is the symptom of why we are not recovering: government is doing nothing at a time when we need massive gvt programs and spending. Of course the TeaOP will try to block anything that will help the economy, but President Obama is not doing everything within his power. He could get serious about foreclosure relief, for one thing.

At least it’s good that he’s finally going after Etchasketch’s class warfare economic plan. I’ve never seen a more naked grab for even more $ by the oligarchs, with nothing but the weakest camo in the form of claims that all his income redistribution will “trickle down”. Geez, anyone dumb enough to still believe that? Incapable of learning in 32 years?

JGC

From a biography on Robert Dunsmuir, a Canadian 19th century coal baron, quoting Dunsmuir at a gathering of budding millionaires in Victoria, B.C.:

“Workingmen should not regard capitalists as their enemies. Workingmen should take the view that it is the miser, he who hoards his gold in an old stocking, those who do not display energy, pluck and enterprise to invest their capital – those are the men who should be despised by the workingmen.”

Companies are currently sitting on huge hoards of cash, not making the investments and not hiring the people that can help move the economy forward.
- TFRX
  
  But there’s not the demand.
  
  However, “not the demand” is the predictable result of the class war fought over the last ~1/3 of a century. Rich people can’t hardly buy any more stuff with their money.
  
  At some point we’ll have to determine whether every single worker is lazy and can be replaced (which is the motivational speech du jour), or whether worker productivity has gone up and we don’t for some crazy reason have any evidence of it in our paychecks. These both can’t be true at the same time.

Denis

The anti President Obama crowd seems to be going after President Obama with a vengeance over the jobs number while ignoring several issues: 1] the huge decline in employment numbers during Bush II. 2] Romney and Bain made their money by closing businesses and reducing jobs in existing businesses. Additionally Romney has not put forward a comprehensive plan to improve the situation. [Yes, I know he claims his tax reduction for the rich will create huge job numbers – haven’t we tried that route already?] 3] The right wing congressional delegation has done everything in their power to prevent job growth so the Dems and specifically President Obama will look bad. [I wish they would grow up and understand they were elected to resolve problems through compromise and statesmanship as opposed to whining and telling avoiding the truth.]

notafeminista

Are you suggesting the current administration should not be held accountable for their actions whilst in office?

Oh right…..they didn’t build it.
- MrNutso
  
  They should. The question is, is the President solely responsible for the jobs situation or is Congress responsible as well? The President has proposals that are being stone walled by Congress.
  - notafeminista
    
    See? So no. You don’t hold the President accountable.
Worried for the country(MA)

I’ll flip your analysis. What has Obama offered?

He claims that stiffing those making more than $250K will somehow save the day when in fact it will only cover 5 days of deficit spending and will do nothing to grow the economy.

Romney has offered a plan. In fact he was criticized in the primary that it was too detailed. This plan was highlighted again in yesterday’s WSJ by the economist Glenn Hubbard.
- BHA_in_Vermont
  
  • Stop runaway federal spending and debt
  What will he cut?• Reform the nation’s tax code to increase growth and job creation
  What a load of hooey. Mitt (Boehner, et al) claim raising taxes on the rich will cause them to not create jobs. They aren’t creating jobs NOW. Why would LOWER rates cause them to create jobs? It WON’T. No successful business owner hires more people to create goods and services for which there is no demand.
  
  Yes, we need tax reform. Get rid of ALL deductions and loopholes, drop the tax rates. 1/2 page tax return you prepare yourself.
  • Reform entitlement programs to ensure their viability.
  All government programs should be scrutinized EVERY year, not just when there is a presidential election. Reform doesn’t necessarily mean just whacking benefits by “x%”.
  • Make growth and cost-benefit analysis important features of regulation.The Bain Capital model. As long as you are making money, nothing else matters. Rip the environment, fire a bunch of people so the short term gain looks good. There is no way this will create jobs other than for those doing the analysis.
  - Worried for the country(MA)
    
    We need a competitive tax rate to US companies don’t move jobs over seas. Canada has a 15% corporate rate. The US has the highest in the world.
    - http://www.facebook.com/stewsburntmonkey David Stewart
      
      The effective corporate tax rate in the US in 2011 was 12.1%, so it’s already lower than Canada’s. It hasn’t really helped create any jobs.

Lynn Martin

Romney’s trip was a joke. It was not about his disdain of the media. International media found him to be ridiculous as well. He is more secretive than Nixon. And he cares only for his fat cat supporters. Too bad there aren’t enough to vote for him.

Justin

Look at front page of today’s Globe -”Romney’s worldview” Clearly his “culture” comment comes from a philosophy that he’s held for some time.

Sawyer

Please Wade Goodwyn needs to keep his bias out of his moderating.

Potter

Wade Goodwyn has been excellent this week. The truth is not bias.
- DrewInGeorgia
  
  You’re right, the truth is not bias. Wade, however, obviously is.
  - Potter
    
    I can detect a sensibility. Tell me who does not have a sense of things and a point of view? Do you know any totally unbiased person. BUT Wade Goodwyn has been very fair in moderating and allowing for the validity of opposing views as far as the scale goes. Tom Ashbrook would not tolerate a falsehood masquerading as simple bias. And Goodwyn has done well in his place,
    - DrewInGeorgia
      
      You have your opinion and I have mine. I was greatly impressed with Mr. Goodwyn’s work the first week he was filling in until last week’s Free For All Friday rolled around. What Wade has demonstrated since then has been insulting to the listening audience in my opinion. That’s just my view and like I said you have yours and I have mine.

Jilly

I don’t agree that it’s an overstatement to say that Gov. Romney’s trip was disastrous for all the reasons the guests are stating.

If candidate Obama had made such gaffes in 2008, I think he would have been widely criticized as being too inexperienced, “not ready for prime time”, etc..

Revmrf

Seems to me that 90 percent of comments and commentary about Milt Romney bashes him while ignoring Obama’s two faced stances and actions. Must be George Soros’ money doing its thing.

Lynn Martin

What’s Romney hiding?

DrewInGeorgia

Everything he can.
Brandstad

What is Obama hiding by not releasing his college records and papers? Why have we had to wait 4+ years and counting?
- Mike Card
  
  Hiding? You didn’t get the memo? All of us in the secrect club did. Oh, that’s right. You’re on the list of people he just wants to piss off, so you didn’t receive the transcripts. Na-na-nee-na-na!

nj_v2

Mr Goodwyn: “…not expecting the IRA to audit Romney…”??

IRA, IRS, Osama, Obama, whatever…

DrewInGeorgia

At least an IRA (Irish Republican Army) audit of Mr. Romney would be interesting. There’s also likely a better chance of the IRA approaching him than there is of the IRS taking any steps in Romney’s direction.

Worried for the country(MA)

Trudy Rubin sounds like a Democrat hack.

Romney is releasing exactly the same number of years of taxes as McCain.

This is clearly a distraction by the Democrats and their media pawns.

Newton Whale

McCain lost.
- Worried for the country(MA)
  
  And taxes is why he lost? Try again.
  - Mike Card
    
    Oh, no! I’m sure you’ve heard that those mean old Democrats committed voter fraud and stole the election. Even though his ever-so-shrewd selection of a media whore as vice president should have CLEARLY swayed all independent voters.
    
    Better?
Brandstad

Another distraction from the horrible economic numbers that came out today, and NPR wasn’t smart enough to see this and discuss the actual financials of our economy and instead they decided to discuss pure drivel

BHA_in_Vermont

So who is this secret source of Reid’s?

I can’t imagine ANYONE in ANY position suggesting, no outright saying, that Romney paid no taxes for 10 years without rock solid IRS records in hand. And frankly, I don’t think the IRS gives that stuff out.

The IRA thing is a good question. He sure as heck gets a LOT better return on his IRA than the 99%. Heck, mine is well diversified and it struggled to not lose everything both my company and I put in it the last 3 years.

Worried for the country(MA)

I agree the IRA is a good question but it has nothing to do with Romney.

Our tax code is 74,000+ pages and growing daily.

We are in serious need of tax reform and simplification.
Mike Card

The source was described as an investment partner. Romney’s tax-preparer would have access to the returns, and Bain Capital would–presumable–as well.
- Worried for the country(MA)
  
  Do you give your return to your former employer?
  - Mike Card
    
    If it’s stipulated in my separation/liquidation agreement, you can bet your sweet ass I do. Don’t you?
Charles A. Bowsher

If Romney invests his IRA money into a Bain Capital investment or two it is not hard to see how he could end up with $100 million plus in the balance. It’s just unconscionable is all.
- JGC
  
  It is very hard for me to see how he and Ann have IRAs in the range of $20-million to $100-million. When they were investing in their Bain years the top annual contribution for most people was $2000 (employee) and $250 (non-employed spouse). Even with the VIB (Very Important Bankster) loophole of a $30,000 contribution, it is beyond imagination how they turned that sum into an 8 or 9 figure return, even while going through three stock market crashes in the intervening years. I would love to see their financial returns to see the wizardry involved.
- TomK in Boston
  
  No, what they do is massively lowball the value of the complex stuff they put in the IRA. Then they get a massive “appreciation” when the real value is revealed. It’s a con, but that’s romney’s business, so no surprise there.
Brandstad

What is his return on his IRA? Since you don’t know I will help you out. We don’t know. For all we know he could have made 3% on it.

Auntie Yaa

Romney needs to learn some geography if he wants to be respected in foreign policy. When speaking of next-door cultural contrasts he included Chile and Ecuador. They are not next-door countries since they are separated by Peru – a distance of about 1,000 miles. That would be like saying New York and Florida are neighboring states.

Potter

Trudy Rubin is absolutely correct. It’s about Romney not Reid. This issue about his income tax returns as well as what happened abroad show us who Romney is, what his character is and it is essential for voters to know who he is.

Reid was just being clever, but before Reid was prompted to do this, Romney was stonewalling.

This may be the October Surprise cum global warming.

TomK in Boston

Romney is a LOL. He refuses to reveal his years of scamming the IRS and now he demands that Reid “put up or shut up”. He apparently doesn’t even know he’s a comic.

Lynn Martin

The American people have a right to know about Romney’s taxes.Reid is an American hero.

Worried for the country(MA)

He has released them. Just like McCain.
- Charles A. Bowsher
  
  Not true, McCain previously had released his every year as a member of congress (left uncapitalized on purpose). Romney must have something to hide, or something to be ashamed of.
- JGC
  
  The Romneys have only released the tax documents for one recent year. Mitt’s own father, George, when running for the Presidency himself, said it was incumbent for candidates to release multi-year tax returns because it was too easy to hide tax maneuvers in any single year (George Romney released 12 years worth of income tax returns).
  
  I bet $10,000 there are some deliciously clever (though legal) tax avoidance schemes in the Romneys’ earlier tax returns, not seen after 2010 when they started their mop-up procedures.
  - DrewInGeorgia
    
    Romney has had Presidential Aspirations for at least the past ten years yet he still hasn’t managed to keep his Skeletons in Order and the Closet Door locked. This should give everyone serious concerns when looking to him to be a competent leader. He can’t even keep his own house in order but many are ready to give him the keys to theirs.
    - notafeminista
      
      Apparently locked enough or folks wouldn’t be carrying on about his tax returns.

PatriciaPA

Less than 100 days to election day!�
Let’s forget about Romney bloopers & talk about third party candidate Jill Stein.
She was interviewed on NPR last week & is on the ballot in PA.

Stinky

The middle class will be bullied by the 1 percent, held to the ground as they cut our hair.

notafeminista

You can always hope.
- Brandstad
  
  We have already had enough hope, we are now looking for some change!

Barry Snyder1

The current New Yorker notes that Romney’s London appearance included a $50,000 a plate campaign fundraiser originally scheduled to be hosted by Barclay’s Bob Diamond (before he had to resign in the most recent banking scandal). The shameful playing to anti-Obama sentiment in Israel was straight out of the playbook of right wing anti-Palestine radical Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate who has donated $10,000 to the Romney Super PAC Restore Our Future. Of course, if you relied on the mainstream coverage, you would know nothing of such thing. It is obvious that Romney has no ability whatsoever to think for himself, and no original, principled thinking about international relations and our role in the world. This is what passes for leadership in our country today.

Barry

Lynn Martin

Why don’t we call this show: Apologists for Romney.

nj_v2

The forum right-wing hack patrol aren’t the only ones desperate to find a way to make Romney look like a serious candidate…

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/08/02/republican_senators_struggle_to_list_romney_s_qualifications_to_be_commander_in_chi

GOP senators struggle to list Romney’s qualifications to be commander-in-chief

[[ "Listen, he's certainly traveled the world in business, which is good," Johnson said, before another long pause. He then pivoted to the economy. "Mitt Romney understands that if you are going to have strong national security you have to have good economic security and it starts there," Johnson said.

But what about Romney's experiences or credentials to lead the nation's military and foreign policy?

"Listen, you know what his experience is, and there are very few people who run for president who have all kinds of foreign-policy experience," Johnson said. "You rely on a strong foreign-policy team and that's what he'd do as well." ]]

(excerpt)

Worried for the country(MA)

Well he wasn’t a community organizer so I guess he isn’t qualified — but he is likeable, enough.
- nj_v2
  
  The right-wing Hack Patrol is a jolly group. I can always count on them for a few laughs.
  
  Like Gramps McCain, The Worried One simultaneously want to slam Obama’s community organizing experience as inadequate preparation for the presidency, then rationalize Romney’s lack of experience by saying he’s no less qualified than Obama was.
  
  Blind, rabid, dogmatic partisanship can do a number on logic and rationalism.
  - Worried for the country(MA)
    
    Romney has one of the most impressive resumes of any President in my lifetime for preparation of President.
    
    His resume and accomplishment almost ideally prepare him to solve our problems with debt, deficit and federal government bloat. His biggest weakness is he isn’t a natural politician, especially in this age of 24/7 leftist media.
    
    But this is just my humble opinion.
    
    Any objective analysis would also state that Obama has the thinnest resume of any elected President in our lifetime. This lack of any executive or leadership experience shows in his first term results.
    - TFRX
      
      Your comment has been placed on anonymous hold and will not be released until 60 is no longer the new 51.
    - jimino
      
      Romney is an attractive, coldly calculating individual whose primary accomplishment has been enriching himself without any regard to its consequences for anyone else. At that he is very good. He has no identifiable principle to which he would remain true to, which is obvious by his telling everyone he wants on his side what they want to hear. And, for what it’s worth, his interaction with other human beings would indicate he has some type of autistic disorder.
    - nj_v2
      
      Thanks for confirming you’re about 14 years old. (“Romney has one of the most impressive resumes of any President in my lifetime for preparation of President.”)
      
      Signpost that poster is not serious, or, perhaps, seriously deluded: invoking of “leftist media.”
      
      As i said elsewhere, you guys are always good for a laugh.

Worried for the country(MA)

Where is Obama’s plan?

Jack complains about the candidate Romney for lack of details.

Obama has BEEN President for almost 4 years and he still has NO plan for tax reform. Yet, there is NO criticism from this panel on Obama.

Obama rejected Simpson-Bowles. I believe if he had led on this issue he would have secured his re-election.

The irony is the Romney plan is similar to Simpson-Bowles.

TFRX

The proposed tax cut for under $250k earners would give everyone with income over that amount more of a cut than riffraff like me (and perhaps you). Don’t know if we’d call that strata rich, upper middle class, or what, but for me to get whatever, someone with a lot less to worry about will be getting more of a cut.

It’s a bit of amazing that a caller (34min) has to remind all and assorted of this fact. Isn’t that background information.

(And that’s on top of the “loaves for the rich, crumbs for the rest” Bush tax cuts which will never pay for themselves.)

BHA_in_Vermont

Depends on the individual. Someone who makes $251K, will get a HUGE benefit of not paying more tax this year than last if the Bush cuts expire for some but not all as opposed to expiring for all. And they wouldn’t likely notice the extra $20 or $30 tax on the last $1K if it expires only for the $250K+.

I don’t know the number but somewhere between $250K and $?? is a breakeven point with “less on income $250K” if the Bush tax cuts expire only for the $250K crowd. Those are the people you are talking about.

And, well, sorry, I can’t exactly hurt for people who would pay an extra 2 or 3% on the amount over $250K when the “poorest” of them make more in a year than the average person will make in 5. Plus, the average person likely spends their net after taxes just to stay alive. The more “well off” of the $250K+ make more in one year than the average person in a decade, if not a lifetime, of work.

And yes I will harp on this: Romney made $20M doing ZERO WORK. Once you are rich in the Romney model, the money builds on itself while you produce ZERO goods and services. And you get to pay a very low tax rate for selling “electronic paper” at a profit.

I guess we can say that Romney’s CAMPAIGN is creating jobs. Takes a lot of people to make a run for President. But, of course, it is not HIS money that pays for it.
- TFRX
  
  Good geeking out on some details.
  
  “I don’t know the number but somewhere between $250K and $?? is a
  breakeven point with “less on income $250K” if the Bush tax cuts expire only for the $250K crowd. Those
  are the people you are talking about.”
  
  That’s a worry I’d like to have, too!

DrewInGeorgia

How does spending half an hour attempting to run damage control for Romney equate to discussion of The Week In News Wade?

Neal

The plight of the Palestinians lies with causes other than the Israeli occupation.

1. The economic plight of Palestinians predates the settlement. It went on for 100s of years leading up to the settlement. In contrast, the Jewish settlors create a vibrant and successful economy from the beginning. The Palestinian population grew about 4 fold due to the immigration from nearby Arab lands, Syria, Egypt and so on. This was directly caused by the attraction of jobs provided by the new Jewish settlors and their vibrant economy.
�
2. Palestinian leaders failed to deal with violence. In fact, beginning with the powerful Husseini family, Palestinian leadership promoted hatred, intollerance and violence. This is the primary cause of the occupation. This is substantially a problem of culture-in which religious hatred and intollerance caused an array of effects including a bad economy.

3. The Palestinian hatred for Jews was the direct cause of the violence and thus the occupation. Jewish settlors around the world have not showed any propensity towards violence. In many countries, while Jews were in fact despised, they did not react with violence. The Palestinian violence against Jews in the early part of the 20th century was immense, and the Jewish response was minimal and defensive. While not guilt free, the Jewish settlors and then the Israelis have shown remarkable restraint in their use of force and violence. If you study the history of the violence, the Palestinians were preaching hatred and violence from the beginning of the 20th century, which went largely unmatched by Jewish counter measures.

Blaming Israel, while a quite popular sentiment, is largely inaccurate. Romney’s statement about culture might very well be apt. To blame the occupation, is questionable.

Charles A. Bowsher

I don’t know, but it seems to me that if someone comes in and bulldozes your home, that seems a little violent and it just might affect you economically and psychologically.
- Worried for the country(MA)
  
  When the Israelis turned over settlements in a prior peace agreement the Palestinians were the ones that bulldozed the Israeli built buildings. Stupid.
  - Charles A. Bowsher
    
    Guess I’ll have to quit believing what I see on TV.
  - Hidan
    
    Stuipid is what stupid does. Thanks for proving such
- Hidan
  
  Settler violence and racism in Israel esp by Settlers have vastly increased. And before the Second aliyah when Newly minted Jewish immigranted forced Jews in Palestian to only higher fellow Jews both arabs and Jews had a far better relationship than Neal claims.
  
  For Settler violence and racism see any Human Rights Group report of such.
  
  For history see Mrs Peters Palestine by
  Yehoshua Porath Israeli Historian and former Likud Member debunking much of what Neil said.

Rex

Supporting Chick-Fil-A for free speech? Come on.

Rex

oh, and no press is bad press. maybe this is just another moneymaking scheme.

IsaacWalton

EVERYONE is entitled to free speech and how to spend their dollars. It’s odd that people showed up to support Cathy’s right to free speech in response to people expressing their right to free speech to his expression of free speech. So much tit for tat…it’s kind of infantile.

MrNutso

I support Cathy for his free speech rights. I have been boycotting CFA for about 30 years, because I think the food stinks.
notafeminista

It isn’t the individual they’re with whom they’re unhappy. If you don’t get that, you need to go back and read the Declaration of Independence again and then look up the definition of “usurp”.
- Mike Card
  
  The Declaration is an eloquent statement, but it has no legal standing, unlike the Constitution.
- jefe68
  
  Maybe you need to go back and read it as well.
  The Declaration of Independence has nothing to do with law now does it.
Brandstad

The supporters were not protesting anything, and they were supporting Cathy’s right to free speech because several Government officials said they would block his company from expanding by refusing to give him building permits and another group of people are trying to get his resturants thrown out of public universities now too.

Guest

This is the worst, most one sided program I’ve heard on NPR in a awhile. I didn’t realize they changed the name of the program to “bash and criticize republicans program.” Where is the supposed non partisian reporting?

Wackerdr

I’m really concerned about our country sliding into a facist mentality, where only one line of thought is acceptable. Maybe the CEO of Chick-fil-A is “wrong” but doesn’t he have the right to say it? Whatever happened to the idea that we ALL are entitled to our opinions? Since when is your opinion more valued than mine? “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” Evelyn Beatrice Hall

Mike Card

He said it. What’s your problem? There are consequences, for cryin’ out loud.
Steve_T

What some don’t know is that Chick-fil-A has to purchase most of their Items from gay supporters.

So….yes when you rush to support Chick-fil-A you are making gay supporters richer to support their goals, freedom for everybody.
- TFRX
  
  Homer: …And the entire steel mill was gay.Moe: Pfft, where you been, Homer? Entire steel industry’s gay. Yeah, aerospace too. And the railroads!
  
  —
  
  But poultry farms? I did not know that.
- JGC
  
  It’s Pride Day here in Vancouver. Happy Pride, everyone!
TomK in Boston

Sure he has the right to say it, and anyone who wants has the right to try to organize a boycott of his chain. What’s the problem?
- notafeminista
  
  Well, everyone except the state.

TFRX

Is Byron York an apologist for everything right-wing? Is that his schtick?

jimino

The fact that Adelson was the primary supporter of BOTH Romney now, and Gingrich during his “Romney is a job killer” primary campaign, shows that his support has nothing to do with issues or philosophy but is solely about having his puppet in the White House.

Lynn Martin

Someone coined the term: Tea/ jadist.

http://neilblanchard.blogspot.com/ Neil Blanchard

The CEO of the chicken sandwich company can say anything he wants — and so can everybody else. The First Amendment allows you to say what ever you want; but it doesn’t protect you from how others react to what you have to say. If what you say is bigoted or offensive then it may affect your fellow citizens’ opinion of you; and they may or may not boycott your business.

Neil

Worried for the country(MA)

There is nothing to disagree with in you statement.

The problem was with government officials, who are in charge of licensing, threatening this business. Even nanny Bloomberg saw this as government overreach.
nj_v2

Mr Blanchard proffers: “The First Amendment allows you to say what ever you want…”

No, that’s not what it says.

PatriciaPA

Trudy Rubin is right; citizens do not support more spending in foreign wars/nation-building.
Especially with our cities, counties, and states going bankrupt!

Worried for the country(MA)

Exactly. Her error (because she is an Obama supporter) was stating that Romney is for more wars when he has been very clearly stating the opposite.
- jimino
  
  You apparently didn’t hear his comments about Israel and Iran. Or do you believe Mr. Adelson was there at Mitt’s side to make it clear that if Israel takes military action against Iran, a Romney-led USA will not be a military partner?

jeffsalzberg

Dan Cathy and Chick-fil_A
donate to groups like the Family Research Council, which heavily lobbied
Congress not to condemn Uganda’s anti-homosexuality law. …And by
“anti-homosexuality”, I don’t mean things like denying marriage
equality; it mandated the death penalty for certain offenses.
Its not about free speech. No one is preventing him from voicing opinion. We’re just choosing not to fund it.

http://neilblanchard.blogspot.com/ Neil Blanchard

What about the drought?! What about the power failure in India?

Neil

Worried for the country(MA)

No time for that. They had to spend all their time bashing Romney for nothing.
- DrewInGeorgia
  
  Bashing Romney for nothing or attempting to Save Romney From Himself? All I heard for the most part from Wade and Byron was a pathetic attempt at damage control.
DrewInGeorgia

I found myself wondering how well Americans would react if 100+ million people lost power. Not well I’m guessing.
- http://neilblanchard.blogspot.com/ Neil Blanchard
  
  Right — there were actually almost 700 Million people out of power! That is about 2X number living here in the whole USA.
  
  Can you imagine the uproar?
  
  Neil
  - Alloren
    
    It would be hard to hear the uproar if the power was out. Might be a good idea to investigate a more individual type of power generation say chinese windmills or photovoltaics, maybe a small gasoline fueled generator. Thanks for the thought food.

IsaacWalton

Possible that Huckabee called everyone to support CFA under the guise of supporting free speech? When in fact he wanted people to come out in a show of force in support of traditional marriage vs same sex marriage?

notafeminista

Oh heavens no. His motives were completely impure. It is only the Left who is capable of recognizing free speech.

jimino

Having realized he will not be held to account for anything he says, Romney’s statements and claims are becoming literally delusional (“I will create 12 million jobs!”) and, I predict, will become even more outlandish as the campaign progresses. And folks (as contrasted with journalists) like Mr. York will be right there to ‘splain it.

Mike Card

But he will do it over 8 years; I can just see it, when the spreadsheet is released around Feb 2013: 11 million of the jobs will be produced in July of 2020. He is, of course, conditioning his pledge on getting a second term.

This guy is truly a piece of work. He refuses to talk about his past–to the point of having destroyed all computer records of his term as governor–and insists that he has been a “successful” business person who understands the economy. Yet he won’t produce any evidence of that, either; he only disputes the statements of others, and insists that President Obama is inexperienced, after 3 1/2 years in the crucible.

His campaign is: “Obama bad–Me good. Trust me.”

I’d like to believe that voters, other than Teabaggers, recognize a rat when they smell one. The right wing nutjobs are a lost cause.

Grumpet

How about we declare the recovery over. Nytimes reports: “the economy now produces as many goods and services — more, in fact — as
it did before the downturn officially began in December 2007. But it
does so with almost five million fewer jobs.”

Thus American workers have become more efficient, thus eliminating 5 million workers who were employed in our pre-bubble-bursting economy. 8.3% unemployment is the new normal until we figure out a way to reconfigure our economy to productively employee a couple more million people. But the recovery, methinks, is over.

Charles A. Bowsher

I love that the Daily Show was mentioned as “main-stream media”. I agree. The best part of the show’s coverage last week was when Jon revealed that Romney had deducted $67,000.00 for his wife’s horse off their taxes. Now either the horse is therapy for his wife (which is a strange deduction), or it is an elitist money grab to deduct it. Either way Romney just looks worse and worse, and more and more like a self-absorbed money grubbing dweeb. He may not have paid zero taxes as Reid mongered, but I guarantee he paid such an embarrassingly low percentage of taxes to income that he feels compelled to conceal it. It will be his undoing.

Newton Whale

Rafalca is an “investment” that Ann Romney shares with 2 other women.

She doesn’t ride that horse any more than Mitt stocks the shelves at Staples.
- Mike Card
  
  I wonder if she has a second horse available exclusively for personal use?
  - notafeminista
    
    Implication being what exactly?
    - Mike Card
      
      Never filed a 1040?
- Charles A. Bowsher
  
  But he’s an idiot for deducting it on his taxes. He is so out of touch that he doesn’t realize how offensive it is for the majority of people to see how the tax code has been manipulated for the wealthy by the wealthy.
  
  Speaking of Staples, how many mom and pop businesses were closed because of the cut-throat competition form Staples?
  - TFRX
    
    Eh, someone in that income class is going to leave a deduction like that on the table?
    
    Methinks not. It’s part of being rich, and easier when one has apologists. Soon the Fox Five will equivocate that into “What’s the difference between that and Joe Sixpack deducting the $20 he gave to the Sally Army?”
    - notafeminista
      
      Oh stop it. You aren’t in Governor Romney’s tax status and you don’t leave any deductions on the table either.
      
      Your narrative is false. Stop lying.
    - TFRX
      
      You’ve got reading comprehension problems that this site cannot fix.
      
      I’ve gone from laughing at you to being bored by you.
    - notafeminista
      
      Your narrative is false. Stop lying.
    - TFRX
      
      Keep making an ass out of you and…you, by telling me about my taxes.
  - Brandstad
    
    This is not offensive, the Millions of dollars in back taxes owed by government employees is Offensive, not to mention Tax Cheat Tim Geithner having a government job is most offensive!
    �
    Are you offended by Warren Buffet spending millions of dollars to find every tax loophole possible while complaining he doesn’t pay enough taxes so Obama can use his words in his campaign? Are you offended that Warren Buffet also owes Millions in back taxes that he is fighting to not pay!
    - JGC
      
      Does Buffett owe millions of dollars in back taxes? Is he really spending millions of dollars to find tax loopholes? That doesn’t sound like my old buddy Warren at all.
    - William
      
      The Huffington Post had an article stating that Buffet owes back taxes going back to 2002.
    - Charles A. Bowsher
      
      No, I’m offended if he is successful. I’m even more offended that no one has figured out that he is running a massive Ponzi scheme. For a large part of his companies early history he booked “intrinsic value” to his accounts to reflect what he considered to be the hidden value of certain intangible assets of a company whose stock he had bought. As far as I know he has never backed that value back out. So forewarned is forearmed.
  - NOTTA LUDDITE
    
    I suppose we should still have telephone operators sitting at switchboards? Really.
    Meanwhile, Staples made office supplies more affordable to millions and facilitated the growth of home businesses.

DrewInGeorgia

Wrong place discuss. Should have been reply to Neil Blanchard below regarding the India power failure.

I found myself wondering how well Americans would react if 100+ million people lost power. Not well I’m guessing.

Mike Card

I might be slipping some news reports here, but I thought I heard–at one point, anyway–that 600 million Indians had lost power. Isn’t that 2/3 of the country? You’re absolutely correct; I cannot fathom of a power shortage to 2/3 of the US that didn’t erupt in armed uprising and a whole lot of other really awful stuff.

DrewInGeorgia

Discuss Flub Part II.

Lewis Gordon

Let’s not collapse into the stereotype of absent black fathers: Gabby Douglas’s father was present and showing his pride in his daughter’s extraordinary achievement. His recent absence was due to his serving in Afghanistan. His name is Timothy Douglas, and he is a Staff Sgt. in the U.S. Air Force.

Worried for the country(MA)

Cool!!

Congrats to Gabby!
jefe68

A government worker no doubt.

ARR100

So – Reid has taken a page from the Rove Rules of Engagement! Huzzzah! Isn’t this reminiscent of the Birth Certificate tempest in a teapot [pun intended] ie. I make any old allegation I feel like and that leaves it up to you to prove the opposite! That old snare
of proving a negative. Good on you Senator Reid!

To get a thorough analysis of recent economic events read Robert Reich’s latest book. He explains everything in laymen’s language and makes it abundantly clear how Bain and so many other Wall Street banks and huge companies in oil, weapons, pharma, and big agribusiness engineered their way to the collapse.

TFRX

Yep. I await NPR teaching the controversy about the genuine suggestion that Mitt Romney hasn’t paid any taxes in ten years.

It was such when we had to deal with “Obama is a Socialist” and “The National Review is kerning the President’s birth certificate”.
- notafeminista
  
  What’s your criteria for a “genuine suggestion”…just out of curiosity.
TribalGuitars

Reid would be better to say that he’s playing “train to crazy town” like the “Truthers”, whose truth is they’ve gone way past the stop at Crazytown.
Charles A. Bowsher

It’s “BANE” not “BAIN”. Bane as in a bane to Companies that were taken over or given the “Bain” treatment. “Bane” as in the Bane that will help keep Romney out of the Whitehouse.
- ARR100
  
  Mea Culpa…my bad – wish I or an expert
  could edit for accuracy! Where are those sites that do actually fact check all the nonsense roaming the media?

TribalGuitars

Even as someone that most would consider fairly liberal, I agree with making English the official language. Our federal immigration law requires that to become a citizen a person has to have a working use of English. So how -or better, why - are the two ideas diametrically opposed? There’s a curious contradiction that need to be addressed.

Some years ago I remember reading an article from some very learned man (an ambassador for the US, or State Dept muckity-muck) that made a list of the things that will lead to a fragmented nation, and lack of a single language was one. Look at the problem with Canada, where Quebec uses French almost exclusively, and every now and then tries to become it’s own nation. Other European nations have had the same issue, such as Luxembourg and Belgium.

It cost’s business and governments more having to make services and products understandable in multiple languages.

But perhaps the best argument is that English is as close to an international language as there is, or has been. English is the language of business and science, and if you want to fly
– you HAVE to know and speak English. Watch foreign TV reports and you’ll see
the native language written on highway signage and even on the back of
firemen’s turnout gear and right underneath it is the English version.�
Look at the Olympics right now – Those country names aren’t written (or only written) in
their native language, or French which is the other official Olympic
language – It’s spelled out in English.

English has more words, not just available for use, but actually in current and common use, and new ones are always being added, including foreign words. Watch some documentary made in some remote village at the end of the earth, and there always seems to be at least one person that knows English.

Mary and John Deyst

We believe that Wade Goodwyn has done an excellent job these past weeks and we urge NPR to give him a greater presence in its programming.

Mary and John Deyst

Hennorama

The fact that Willard Romney won’t release his tax returns is going to haunt him until he finally puts them out. If his tax returns were pristine and innocent and showed him in a positive light, Romney would have already released them.

The man has been running for President for a decade or so, and he hasn’t gotten this out yet? Something stinks.

While this is all supposition and innuendo, it’s similar to the axiom “The cover-up is worse than the crime.”

Not that I’m accusing Romney of a crime, but it’s obvious that there’s something embarrassing or otherwise negative that he doesn’t want to disclose.

However, I don’t condone Harry Reid’s unattributed tale that Romney paid no taxes. It’s the same technique the Birther nuts used against Pres. Obama. Two wrongs don’t make a right, Harry.

notafeminista

It doesn’t matter what his returns look like. His income as it is is already enough to make the Lefties all hormonal. What do you need his tax returns for? You’re already convinced he’s the devil incarnate.
- Mike Card
  
  To quote a well-known, Kenyan-born, Muslim socialist, “Trust, but verify.”
- jefe68
  
  So all that hormonal right wing angst over President Obama’s birth certificate was is OK, but asking a Presidential candidate to disclose his tax returns is not.
  
  By the way sparky, President Obama’s mother was an American citizen so all that BS about his birth certificate was all for naught. All you right wingers got all hormonal for nothing.
  
  As long as she registered his birth at a US embassy or consulate the child is a US citizen.

DrewInGeorgia

Week In The News: Romney Abroad, Tea Party Win, Olympic Gold

Week In The News: Romney Abroad, Penn State Sanctioned, Olympics Gear Up

Week In The News: Campaign Barbs, Killer Drought, Syria Blast

Week In The News: Taxes, Romney And The NAACP, Minimum Wage In Scranton

Week In The News: God Particle, Barclays, Health Care Fallout

Week In The News: Health Care, Immigration, Wildfires

Week In The News: Egypt, Clemens, Holder

Week In The News: Syria, Colorado, Sandusky

Week In The News: Wisconsin, Syrian Massacre, Transit of Venus

Week In The News: Syria, Romney, Bad Jobs Report

Week In The News: Elections In Egypt, Europe Limps, Facebook Stock Chaos

What’s wrong with this picture?

Worried for the country(MA)

Thanks for pointing out the consistent anti-Romney bias in ‘On Point’.
- jefe68
  
  Why not go to Fox and leave it be already.
- DrewInGeorgia
  
  But there’s never any anti- in the discussion that follows the Marquee Billing, is there? And show me anything in the WITN headlines that says anything negative about Romney, they just say Romney. That’s not anti-Romney bias that’s a Romney marketing campaign.
  
  The anti- always manages to put on a happy face, done a Top Hat, then Tap Dance Stage Right.
- Xyin888
  
  Funny name ‘Worried for the Country’. It seems to be a strategy to be used by many on the right….
  
  People who call themselves ‘Patriotic’ actually sent someone else’s kids to war …

http://www.facebook.com/jack.noir.378 Jack Noir

Secret Records,

Secret Oaths,

Secret Accounts,

Secret Donors,

What’s Mitt hiding?

DrewInGeorgia

Everything he can. It’s like watching a kid with a couple packs of chewing gum trying to plug up cracks in The Hoover Dam.
notafeminista

Not a blessed thing. He’s rich and you know it. No secret there.
- Mike Card
  
  Just like the Donald, right?
Brandstad

Should we ask the same thing from Debbie Wasserman Shults, and Harry Reid because neither of them are willing to do the same!
- http://www.facebook.com/jack.noir.378 Jack Noir
  
  That would be up to the voters in their states. They are not running for president.
Guest

ZERO: number of people killed by Romney’s tax returns
�
HUNDREDS: number of people killed by Fast & Furious gun running

Guess which documents liberals are demanding to see.

AC

some of you may know i’m all about technology, but when reading some of the posts on here, i think it must have been nicer in the olden days, when people had to write in their ‘view of the world’ to the editor, and only a few at a time could be published after being checked.
�
the downside to these real-time, all-are-welcome discussion boards has got to be the obstinate, loud-mouth (loud-fingered?), name-calling, and down right self-righteous disillusioned view of the world some are desperate to sell to one another….repeatedly posting links to “news” sites, whose credibility i don’t even know that i can trust…..
i grumpy today but sheesh! so exhausting…..

Hennorama

While it is not a legal requirement, it has become common practice for candidates for President to release multiple prior tax returns.
�
Why is this important to voters? Since one’s tax returns are private info, they reflect the saying “Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.”

Additionally, taxes are a huge issue in the current campaign, so voters would like to see how candidates behave, and how their individual finances reflect their philosophy.

notafeminista

It doesn’t matter what his returns look like. His income as it is is already enough to make the Lefties all hormonal. What do you need his tax returns for? You’re already convinced he’s the devil incarnate.
- Guest
  
  Romney’s tax returns are far too complicated for the average person (and most people posting here) to understand, and it leads the uninformed to engage in wild conspiracy theories and speculation. I don’t blame him for not releasing them. I know how Romney made his money; I’m more interested in how Harry Reid managed to become a millionaire worth between $3 million and $10 million (per his financial disclosures) while working as a senator. Oh, and Harry Reid refuses to release his tax returns. What is HE hiding?
  - Hennorama
    
    This is an odd and uniquely interesting argument – Americans are too stupid to understand these ultra-complex returns? Wow. Not tooooo condescending. Right. Don’t let the poor idiots look at these documents, as they will be so embarrassed by their ignorance in these matters. Let us not inflict this emotion damage on them by releasing these pages.
    
    Right.
    - Guest
      
      My comment was not speculation; it’s based on comments I’ve read about the returns that have already been released. Uninformed does not mean stupid. Do you think that most people have a fairly comprehensive understanding of the US Tax Code?
    - Hennorama
      
      “Most people” are indeed ignorant about the details of the Federal Tax Code. However, I am supremely confident that anyone can read Line 22 on the 2011 Form 1040 (total income) and then read line 61 of the 1040 (total tax) and make a simple calculation. Yes there are MANY details of how one gets to the bottom line that are interesting, but these are the 2 lines that really matter to “most people.”
      
      Income vs. tax. Simple, no?
      
      This is obviously a huge problem for Willard, or he would have already released the forms.
      
      Please counter THAT argument.
    - Guest
      
      The Congress and the President pass the tax laws in this country; Mitt Romney does not. I pay as a little income tax as I’m legally allowed, and I would disppointed if Mr. Romney didn’t do the same. Liberals talk a good game on taxes, but when it comes time to write the check to the tax authorities, they do the same. Elizabeth Warren opted out of paying the optional higher tax rate in Massachusetts, even though she shrieks that the rich don’t pay enough. Charles Rangel didn’t even pay the legal amount, as was true for Timoty Geitner until he got caught. Did YOU pay more tax than you were legally obligated to pay? Or did you use your liberal sensibilities and evaluate that certain deductions, exclusions, and rates weren’t really fair, and opt to pay a higher amount?
    - notafeminista
      
      How about it’s none of our business?
      
      Hey…isn’t that what the Lefties said about then President Clinton?
      
      Either it is or it ain’t. Which do you want?
- Mike Card
  
  Because his entire campaign has been based on what a good business person he is. OK, if that’s his argument, show us. If I can’t understand your tax return (I’m a CPA), I’ll get back to you with questions. Gotta problem with that?
  - notafeminista
    
    As a matter of fact I do. There is no legal requirement mandating any politician to release his tax records. Gotta problem with that?
    - Mike Card
      
      Yup. Trust, but verify. People are persons too, my friend.
- http://www.facebook.com/jack.noir.378 Jack Noir
  
  It’s called transparency. A concept his father understood, but not the son. Releasing back tax returns would trace how much money he has hidden in over seas accounts to avoid paying US taxes.
  - notafeminista
    
    See? Just as I said. You don’t need his returns. You already know what’s in them.

William

Public sector jobs are a drain on the economy. There needs to be much more rightsizing of the public sector workers in order to prevent more bankruptcies of cities like we are seeing in California.

Hennorama

Wow. So you’re saying that all “public sector jobs” are not productive?

So you mean that jobs like members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines, as well as law enforcement, educators, firefighters, engineers, planners, food service workers, architects, biologists, forest service workers, investigators, scientists, researchers, attorneys, accountants, road workers, mechanics, machinists, metal workers, plumbers, aircraft maintenance workers, TSA agents, air traffic contollers, agricultural researchers, transportation workers, IT specialists, etc. are ALL a drain on the economy.

Wow.
- Mike Card
  
  He/she is one of a handfull of regular trolls here. One of those who just say sh!t for a response, but never engage in an actual discussion. Same as Brandstad, Ed, Worried for the Country–all they do is regurgitate crap from right-wing sites for the thrill of it. Same mentality as pyromaniacs; they just love the sound of sirens and the activity. It their moms knew what they were up to, they’d get kicked out of their parents’ basements.
TomK in Boston

Who told you that?

It really is possible to think about things and come up with your own ideas. You don’t have to just parrot Official Class Warfare Talking Points.

William

Gov. sector jobs are a real drain on the economy and too many cities are going bankrupt due to excessive pay to the public sector workers.

Xyin888

Let’s get this straight:

Many cities are going bankrupt due to criminal conduct in the Wall Street, to outsourcing of jobs by those who pledge allegiance to profit, and to bottomless tax loopholes …�
Hardworking public sector workers, middle/working class for that matter, did not cause this meltdown, and deserve every penny they earned with their honest work.
Steve_T

Well what a out right BS statement, I’m sure you haven’t seen this or probably think it’s a lie. http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2012/7/30/matt_taibbi_explains_wall_streets_license_to_steal_offshore_tax_havens_and_private_equity_firms
If you read this you may change your attitude. This is the reason why, Bankers have stolen all the money.

Worried for the country(MA)

86% of the main stream media coverage of Romney’s foreign trip is negative coverage of his supposed gaffes according to media watchdog groups.

However, the media claims there no bias.

On point decides to pile on the anti-Romney nonsense today.

Sad.

jefe68

Oh please, Romney toured Europe with his foot in his mouth and treats the press with contempt.
The man is going to go down in history as the great gaffer.
- Gregg
  
  Evidently you swallowed the fed meme whole.
  - jefe68
    
    I’m not sure if you’re a complete wanker or just pretending to be one for effect.
TFRX

“Media watchdog groups”.

I’d ask, which ones. But that’s wasted breath.

Worried for the country(MA)

164,000 new jobs added in July.
150,000 people left the work force.

Net 14,000 jobs created in July. This sucks!

The government reports the real unemployment rate (U-6) is now 15%. Will there be any report of this number? Brian Williams? Scott Pelley?

All I hear are crickets.

Mike Card

You must have your fingers in your ears; the crickets live in that empty space behind your eyes.
- Worried for the country(MA)
  
  Thanks for the substantive response. It shows your level a maturity.

Jbot Aldrich

Only in America would protesting equate to stuffing your face with greasy fast food.

Brandstad

What are you talking about?
Gregg

Only in the liberal mind would support be framed as a protest.

http://www.thefabfemme.com/?p=30707

Brandstad

Harry Reid hasn’t passed a US budget in several years! What is he hiding? We must demand to know!

TomK in Boston

The point of the discussion of Etchasketch’s finances is that he is a con man, a grifter, a scammer. He’s a jumped-up version of a 3-card monte hustler from NYC. I agree that he has a good resume as a con man: however, I’m not looking for that in a President.

His IRA is part and parcel of his dishonest practices. Sure, there are limits on the $ value of yearly contributions. However, he contributes a share of a Bane scam where nobody knows the value. “Here’s $6,000 worth of Death Star Limited Partners….ooops, sorry, it was really worth $600,000″.

The USA does NOT need a “private equity” (sanitized from “leveraged buyout”) con man in the WH. That would be going nuclear with the class war.

Zenplatypus

Well isn’t that special. Ad hominem attacks, baseless accusations, AND class hatred. Please post some more. Pretty please?
- Guest
  
  Mr ..platypus, I find your posting a baseless rant..
  
  why don’t you address TomK’s question people have about how Romney was able to generate a $100M IRA? I worked for a company; always contributed the max., but never got close to $100M. The real issue is that Mr. Romney used financial engineering to get there (legally) using loop holes that are not available to most of us.
  
  It is not class warfare, we just want to know whether we will have a president who cares about the country as a whole.
  - Zenplatypus
    
    He did not pose a question. Rather, his post was a rambling series of unsubstantiated attacks. (And you accuse me of a baseless rant?) Clearly, your view on the matter can be summed up by the following, crude syllogism: Romney is wealthy and conservative wealth is invariably ill-gotten, therefore Romney came by his wealth dishonestly — unless his submits completely and humbly to the liberal auditors desperate for anything to distract from the abject failings of their own standard-bearer. What a sham! The unemployment rate is 8.3 percent and the labor-force participation rate is the lowest it’s been in three decades. The salient issue is the economy. Were you clamoring for an inside peak at Kerry’s finances in 2004? Of course not.
    - Xyin888
      
      A common linguistic technique used by masters of deception on the Right is, let’s call it ‘half half’:
      
      The first half of their statement is true (unemployment rate, poor economy …), the latter half is a complete distortion of fact. Economy sucks, yes, but what has and continued to contribute to that? Who are responsible for this mess? It’s people that Romney and his policy will sure support and protect who led the country into this mess…
      
      Not the hard working middle class, not the union workers, not the working Americans who are known to be of the highest productivity in the world !
  - Guest
    
    There’s no doubt that Mr. Romney had a fantastic return on his retirement funds. But guess what? If you had the intelligence and insight he has, you could have done the same thing. As I’ve explained to the financial conspiracy nuts on here numerous times, I personally know blue collar workers with a high school education who have IRAs that are each worth $1 million plus. How did they do it? Upon retirement, they rolled over their company pension plans, which had been invested in company stock, into an IRA. Do you really find it inconceivable that if someone who never made more than $50,000 a year can have a million dollar IRA, then it’s likely that someone with a strong financial background making a hundred times that annual amount can have an IRA that is a hundred times larger?
    - JGC
      
      As one financial conspiracy nut to another, the answer is: Yes. The Wall Street Journal articles (January 2012) that originally broached this topic found the holdings in the Romney retirement account to be extraordinary, even for someone as financially literate and connected as he. If collective eyebrows were raised at Murdoch’s WSJ (admittedly their’s were raised in appreciation), what is a dull normal like myself supposed to think?
    - Michael Clifford
      
      I would just like to know how a career politician who has never had a legitimate job can become a senator or member of congress and retire with millions? Do those jobs really pay that well? I’m asking that question across the board, both parties seem to have their lifelong politicians. They call it a life in public service. I call it a life at the trough as a parasite.
Guest

You should really write fantasies for a living instead of posting them on here. Do you have anything at all to back up your allegations? I’m pretty sure you don’t. I’ve worked with companies that partnered with private equity for a variety of reasons, and it borders on silly to say that nobody knows the value of the investment. Or maybe it’s not silly; you may be just that ignorant.

Worried for the country(MA)

Dirty Harry (and we aren’t talking Harry Reid) just endorsed Mitt Romney.

I’m not a big one for endorsements but this one ‘made my day’.

Mike Card

There goes Willard again with his breathless discovery that people don’t have jobs! He acts like he just discovered oxygen. Where the f*** has he been for the past ten years, while he was assembling his army to take over the White House?

He is a colossal clump of dim-wit, as are those who comprise his following. A totally out-to-chow trust-fund baby with no connection to reality. Maybe he’ll discover x-rays next week and show us his neat-o glowing watch.

Gregg

10 years? The Unemployment Rate was at 4.6% 5 years ago.
- Mike Card
  
  And, of course, the Willard was responsible for scraping together enough burger-flippin’ jobs to peg the unemployment rate at 4.6%, 5 years ago. WTF does that have to do with anything?
  - Gregg
    
    Huh?

Dr. Marcia Chatelain

Dear Ms. Rubin, I really enjoyed hearing your comments about Mitt Romney on today’s episode of “On Point,” with Tom Ashbrook. Yet, I was dismayed by your description of U.S. Gold medal gymnast Gabby Douglas. You said that her father ‘doesn’t seem in the picture,’ and referred to her Iowa family as her foster family. As Douglas makes history with her medal win, it’s important for members of the press to not construct her as something she is not. Her father, Air Force Staff Sargent Timothy Douglas, is serving in Afghanistan, and he recently ‘made news’ by surprising Ms. Douglas at an Olympic trial before she traveled to London. He also watches his daughter via YouTube while serving overseas. Gabby, like most elite athletes in her field, lives with her ‘Iowa’ family to allow her to train with Liang Chow at one of the nation’s top facility. She is not a foster child, as she is not a ward of the state nor has her mother, Natalie Hawkins, relinquished her parental rights. She moved to Iowa at 14 years old, and was not raised solely by this family. As Ms. Douglas prepares to return home a national hero, please take the time to understand the fullness of her true story, rather than relying on stereotypes to make compelling an already remarkable story.Best, Marcia Chatelain, Ph.D.

JonS

If the left wing posters on this site had any decency you would express outrage over Harry Reid’s McCarthy-like charges against Romney. Harry Reid is the biggest slime ball in the US Senate. I will never forgive him for having declared defeat in Iraq while US servicemen were turning the tide and allowing the US to vacate Iraq with pride. Absolutely shameful. Obama-Pelosi and Reid —never in my lifetime has the United States been worse served by national Democrat leadership. If Obama had any decency, he would express outrage over Reid’s outright lies and dishonest comments. But he has no decency –in fact I believe as Romney said, that Obama’s campaign is the likely source for the “rumor”. Obama’s silence speaks volumes about his base ethic which is that the end (his election) justifies the means, no matter how disgusting.

Arydberg

Maybe we all need to sit back and try to come to terms with the event that our candidate, whoever he is, will loose. We all need to look inward and judge ourselves as members of this society.
TFRX

As a listener forced to swallow the “Obama is a socialist: On the pro side, Guest A, on the anti side, Guest B” crap, I await the balanced discussion on whether Mitt Romney has paid any income taxes over the last ten years.

And I want to hear from both sides! The “He didn’t pay any” and the “He paid a lower percentage than my barista (cashier, barber…)” views should have a seat at the table.
jimino

You’re pissed off because the Dems are using the same tactics used by the Reps and right for decades? Now try to imagine that Reid has his own broadcast channel and you’ll get close to feeling like many of us do.
- Gregg
  
  Reid has EVERY broadcast channel. He’s the Senate Majority leader of the United States of America. He’s a vile little man.
  - jefe68
    
    Takes one to know one.
- Hidan
  
  Yep,
  
  Boy does the right cry foul when the left does the same things the right does on a daily basis
- JonS
  
  No. The truth is I’m pissed off because a scum bag like Reid is able to stand up an lie to this country on the floor of the US senate and decent people don’t express outrage.
  
  Lastly I’m always amazed when the left takes issue with Fox News , a commercial station that people are free to watch or not. Last I looked it’s one of 500 cable stations . It’s resented by the left because they can’t control the agenda anymore.
  - TFRX
    
    Fox News (sic) is the tire fire whose acrid stench is smelled by every American who consumes media who worries about being “too liberal”. That’s about everything.
    
    And the right can dish it out; when the left raises one hand in retribution, the right goes running to the teacher on the playground.
  - jefe68
    
    Maybe you should adjust the aluminum foil hat…
Bethcox1979

I don’t see a difference between this issue and the birth certificate debacle. The claims by countless conservatives that the President is not an American is equally offensive. Tell me how it differs.
- Gregg
  
  Which Republican Senate leader (or any other Republican leader) is a birther? The whole thing was just the liberals trying to paint the right with the broad brush of the kook fringe. That’s what they do.
  
  But… for the sake of this discussion let’s stipulate that ALL Republicans are flat out nuts. They’re ALL racist, homophobic, religious zealot birthers. What’s that got to do with Harry Reid? Don’t excuse it.
  - jefe68
    
    You’re kidding. There were quite a few of the extremist out there doing just that. Bachmann was one. So get your sorry tit for tat together if your going to play this game.
    - Gregg
      
      Next you’ll be saying the birthers are racist.
    - jefe68
      
      They are pretty stupid is what they are, some might be racist, but this is besides the point, as the entire birth certificate thing is a joke.
  - TFRX
    
    Gregg handwaves away the crazy which is driving the GOP’s bus. Again.
    - Gregg
      
      The Tea Party is driving the bus. Call them crazy if you want, we just keep on keepin’ on with the takeover of the Republican Party. It’s not that Republicans have a majority in the House, it’s the majority they have. The will of the people spoke loudly in 2010 and the fresh blood is shaking things up. The Senate is headed the same way. Sarah Palin’s endorsement is golden, that’s cool. How ’bout that Ted Cruz? Whodathunk? People are fed up with this crap (“crap” defined as liberalism) but our nature is less strident than the foamy-mouthers. We just win elections, and eat at Chick-fil-a.
    - TFRX
      
      Astroturf. I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it to you.
      
      “Less strident”? Hahahahaha.
      
      “Shaking things up”? For a bunch who said JobsJobsJobs are Job 1, they’ve delivered DestroyContraception, Hate Gays, and Racist Dogwhistles.
    - jefe68
      
      Sorry, but your are not a majority. Belligerent, arrogant, misinformed and blinded by ideology.
      
      You are correct about one thing, the Tea Party is driving the bus all right. Right off the cliff.
- JonS
  
  If you can’t distinguish between comments made by the Democrat majority Senate leader on the floor of the Senate and comments by wacko fringe right wing nuts , then it’s hopeless even talking to you.
  - jimino
    
    To address the issue more directly, the IRS reports that more than 35,000 people with incomes greater than $200,000 paid no federal income tax in 2009. So claiming Romney paid no tax in a number of years is really not a far-fetched assertion. I hear what “some people” claim being reported as news on a daily basis, so this isn’t anything out of the ordinary when it comes to what currently passes for public discourse.
    - Worried for the country(MA)
      
      Do you have a link to this report?
      
      I find it hard to believe with the AMT rules.
    - jimino
      
      Here’s the article which contains the number and the IRS report it cites:
      
      http://lifeinc.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/30/11958591-thousands-of-wealthy-earners-manage-to-zero-out-tax-bills?lite
    - JonS
      
      I read your link and your comments totally distort the true situation and need proper context. In 2009 there were 141 million returns filed . Of that number nearly 4.0million returns had “expanded income” ( as defined in the report) in excess of $200k. However, only 35K of those 4.0m returns, or (0.882%) reported no US income tax. This is slightly more than 2008′s results when 142 million returns were filed ; 4.4m had income over $200k , but only 31K of the 4.4m reported no US income tax liability (or 0.714%). How did this happen? These taxpayers either had a lot of tax exempt bond interest income or had significant itemized deductions for state taxes paid , charitable contributions , or interest expense. In other words , they used the very deductions that anyone can use if you itemize and not take the standard deduction.
      
      The left is resentful of the wealth of others. In order to “legitimize” their envy, they try to paint the false narrative that the wealthy don’t pay their fair share. This is nothing but total crock. Our tax system is very progressive. The rich pay a very significant percentage of their income in taxes , ( about 28% per IRS ) which is far higher than every other income level. This is especially significant when half of all taxpayers pay no federal income tax. Nothing at all. Yet you cite how 35k of 140m returns may have had high income but no tax liability due to deductions for such “unworthy things ” as charitable contributions , state income taxes paid , etc.
      
      The biggest thing the left has going for itself is the ignorance of so many people. Most people just don’t have a clue as to what’s going in this country–which obviously suits Democrats. No wonder they oppose all public education reforms.
    - Guest
      
      On an unrelated subject, isn’t it interesting that the IRS can dice and parse this tax return data backwards and forwards and produce a 56 page report, yet it can’t figure out that it shouldn’t be sending 3,000 tax refunds to the same address.
- Hidan
  
  Bachmann on obama BC
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66sfEFbeNMs
  
  “When it comes to President Obama’s policies, House Speaker John A.
  Boehner (R-Ohio) is happy to tell the American people what to think. But
  he draws the line at asking
  his constituents and others to abandon the belief that the president is a
  foreign-born Muslim. Boehner’s selective tongue-tiedness insults the
  president and encourages the denial industry.”
  
  http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/72-72/4962-boehners-obama-birth-certificate-problem
  
  New Poll Shows Conservative Republicans Increasingly Believe Obama Is Muslim
  
  http://www.pewforum.org/Politics-and-Elections/Little-Voter-Discomfort-with-Romney%E2%80%99s-Mormon-Religion-1.aspx
  
  found that the number of conservative Republicans who believe President Barack Obama religious faith is Muslim has doubled since just before the 2008 election.
  Four years ago, 16 percent of self-described “conservative
  Republicans” identified Barack Obama as a Muslim; and today that figure
  has risen to 34 percent.
  
  2/3 Of Republicans Believe Obama Born Outside Of United States
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4RvI83Ys1k
jefe68

So the fact that Mitt Romney lies all time means nothing to you. Personally I think Reid has a lot of nerve considering he’s most likely done some unethical things.
Nancy Pelosi, well she’s not saint either.

I think a pox on all their houses is in order. From Mitt Romney to President Obama.
- JonS
  
  Harry Reid became a millionaire on a Senator’s salary by engaging in corrupt land deals in Nevada. He acquired land near an interstate that became more valuable due to legislation passed by Reid. He is probably one of the most corrupt politicians in Washington. The man has no moral character.
  Nancy Pelosi is the most stupid politician I’ve ever listened to. I still can’t understand why any Democrat would want her as their House leader/speaker. Whatever little integrity she may have had was lost when she falsely claimed to have not been briefed by the CIA on water boarding of terrorists. She was revealed as an outright liar.
  
  Please identify the constant “lies “of Romney. Your unsubstantiated charge lacks any credibility with me.
  - jefe68
    
    I don’t care. Romney lies all the time.
    Lets, see everything he’s said about President Obama, his tax returns, when he was working or not working at Bain Capital.
    About the health care mandate which was designed from the very health care bill Mitt Romney was a major player in bringing into law. So much so it’s referenced in his official portrait hanging in the State House in Massachusetts.
    
    Some of Romney’ chestnuts:
    President Obama was saying success “is the result of government,”
    not “hard-working people,” when he said, “If you’ve got a business, you
    didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
    A gross distortion
    
    Says stimulus money went to buy electric cars from Finland as a payback to Obama supporters. False, outright lie.
    Not the stimulus, not to buy foreign cars
    
    ” ‘Obamacare’ puts the federal government between you and your doctor.”
    No evidence to support this, so it’s a lie.
    
    Says Dow Chemical decided to build a plant in Saudi Arabia rather
    than Oklahoma due to the impact of environmental regulations on the
    supply of natural gas
    
    No fuel for this claim
    
    “Obamacare … means that for up to 20 million Americans, they will lose
    the insurance they currently have, the insurance that they like and they
    want to keep.”My, my, another lie.
    - Gregg
      
      That’s funny!
    - JonS
      
      Pretty weak if this is the best you got. You’ve taken statements that are open to dispute , like “you didn’t build that” which I think most people ( other than Obama zombies) who have listened to his total comments would believe that he was referring to businesses not infrastructure.
      
      And Fisker abandoned its plan to build a luxury electric car in Finland that was designed with stimulus money after bordering on bankruptcy.
      
      As far as people losing their medical insurance coverage, wait until the mandate takes effect. Many employers will drop insurance coverage for cheaper alternative of paying the mandate’s penalty. It makes economic sense and many studies suspect it will happen.
      
      Net net –Romney makes statements that you disagree with that are open to interpretation and you call him a liar. I guess anyone who you disagree with is a liar. Pathetic….
    - jefe68
      
      Oh boy:
      The claim about American stimulus dollars paying for jobs in Finland is flawed in several important respects.
      
      First, the money did not come from the stimulus. This nuance seems to
      slip through the cracks again and again, so the correct information
      bears repeating.
      
      That money came as a loan — not a grant or a tax credit — through the
      Energy Department’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program.
      That program predates the Obama administration. It was not part of the
      American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the stimulus. In
      fact, it’s a program signed into existence by President George W. Bush in 2007 and first funded by legislation Bush signed in 2008.
- Hidan
  
  of course it doesn’t
jefe68

You talk of decency? That takes the cake.

JonS

Yesterday’s economic report card gives Obama a D- for economic stewardship. Although non-farm payrolls rose 163,000 , the unemployment rate increased to 8.3%. And May and June payrolls were revised downward by 6,000 jobs.

This is the longest stretch of 8% or higher unemployment since the Great Depression, 42 straight months. Recall Obama predicted his trillion $ stimulus would have reduced employment by now to 5.6%. (he also said it would have been 6.0% if nothing had been done). If the labor force participation rate was the same as when Obama took office in January 2009, the unemployment rate would be 11.%.

Obama’s record of job growth during his “recovery” has averaged 75,000 month for a total of 2.7million jobs ( he always cites this figure). However, during the first three years of the Reagan recovery, job growth averaged 273,000 a month for a total of 9.8 million people. If you adjust for today’s US population, the Reagan recovery averaged 360,000 jobs a month for a three year total of 13million jobs. And Reagan’s recession experienced 10.5% unemployment , 12% inflation and interest rates as high as 16.4%. [my home mortgage rate in 1982 was 16.25%]. Unlike Obama, Reagan never complained about the hand he was dealt by Carter, global competition with the Soviet Union, Arab terrorism or OPEC’s high oil prices as excuses for the state of events. Rather he went about confronting our nation’s problems and the results speak for themselves. Historians define this as presidential leadership.

Rather than engage in ad hominem attacks on Romney , please state the case for Obama’s re-election. And please don’t tell me about Republican opposition. For the first two years of Obama’s presidency, there WAS NO opposition. And since then Obama has done absolutely nothing to reach across the aisle.

Hidan

No one believe the stuff you spew, it’s quite amazing that you even believe it yourself.
http://jon-hammond.myopenid.com/ Jon Hammond

As a factual matter, in the Carter lead-up to Reagan’s presidency.. quarterly period-over-period real GDP was growing at an annual rate of +7.6% Q3-Q4 1980 and +8.6% Q4-Q1 1981 .. Reagan’s first quarter (see BEA NIPA table 1.1.1). In the Bush lead-up to Obama’s tenure it was contracting by -8.9% and -6.7% respectively. Of course, the economy fell off a cliff after Reagan’s tax cut. And, there’s the small matter of the tripling of the federal debt where our nation went from being the largest creditor nation in the world to the
largest debtor nation in just 8 years .. under Reagan. The truth is, Reagan confronted nothing like the plague that the GOP .. after 8 years dominated by Voodoo .. bestowed on President Obama.

In the run-up to the Bush Great Recession, real GDP peaked at 13,326.0 (billions 2005 dollars) in Q4 2007. From there it plummeted due to the Bush recession #2 to 12,701.0 (billions 2005 dollars) in Q2, 2009. Pursuant to ARRA under Obama, it is now 13,558.0 (billions 2005 dollars) in Q2 2012 ( See BEA NIPA Table 1.1.6.).The economy has been growing now for 12 straight quarters and has even made up all the ground lost from the recession having restored almost
$860 billion in real GDP through Q2 2012 .. surpassing its 2007 peak in the run-up to the Bush Great Recession. The United States now churns out more goods and services than it did before the downturn
began in 2007 .. and has generated almost 4.5 million private sector jobs over 29 straight months of net private sector employment growth through July 2012. All this in spite of the GOP’s rapacious, arsonistic and ongoing perseverative zeal to burn down the economy
… yet again.

Post recession-wise, the Bushies (and the nation for that matter) would have loved Obama’s level of private sector growth after 37 months of recovery following Bush Recession #1. A net LOSS of 646,000 private sector jobs after 8 years is what America’s taxpayers got for the Bush tax cuts at an 8 year budgetary cost of $1.8 trillion .. a cost of $2,786,378 per LOST private sector job .. the worst record over an 8 year period of any President in the post-war era.

Hidan

Congress inches closer to war with Iran by changing the Red line to “capability “ from actually developing a bomb. Brought to you by AIPAC(always willing to sacrifice American lives for a foriegn countries interest)

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/08/new-round-of-iran-sanctions-pressures-obama-to-move-closer-to-israels-red-line.html

Commenting on an earlier Iran-related bill,
Kucinich said that the term was “a nebulous and undefined term that
could include a civilian nuclear program.” In other words, by some
readings Iran already has the “capability” to produce a nuclear weapon
if it decided to (which it hasn’t). Robert Wright similarly notes in The Atlantic
that “the term ‘capability’ is so mushy that Israel could bomb Iran
tomorrow and say that it did so because, by its definition of
‘capability,’ Iran was exactly a day away from possessing it!”

http://kucinich.house.gov/news/documentprint.aspx?DocumentID=295856

Dee

Shame on Zionist hawks in the US Congress and�
those in the Pentagon and in Washington’s Right�
Wing Think Tanks for upping the ante on Iran with changing the red line to “capability”

Any country with nuclear capability could have this�
label attach to its nuclear arsenal–especially Israel which has not opened its doors to inspections…

Yet, no country has a right to attack another country�
based on the perception of having weapons or indeed
the claim or intent to use them…

We have been though this before with Iraq and�
it seems the Zionist hawks in Washington and�
Israel–still have’n't gotten the message…..

Well, I predict– Israel will become history and�
the acceptance of Jews in the US and around�
the world will come to an end…..

Thus, the war mongers in Washington and Israel�
are unleashing a nightmare upon themselves today.

There will be no holding back public anger…..
- JonS
  
  Vile anti-semitic garbage.
  - Hidan
    
    your comments are the definition of vile.
    
    Vile right-wing xenophobic MEK supporting garbage.
- Hidan
  
  Blind support for Israel will come to a end as demographics in the U.S. shift and before of the World Wide Web it’s getting extremely hard for many to support the Openly racist state. Even American jews are finding it hard to blindly support Israel’s actions.

Tmajor7

The 538 selected member electoral college elects our president, not the American people. Because the US govt is the monopoly of our currency and they regulate our free markets, they alone control our economy, not wall street, or select financial institutions and corporations. Now that we’ve got those life saving, overlooked facts out of the way let’s move on.

Obama has done very little by way of ending the depression that approximately 20 million people are still enduring who were forced into unemployment, underemployment, underpaid employment, have lost everything to the banks that the U.S. govt conspired with to cause crisis, and onto the largest welfare roll in history. The majority of jobs created while in office have been low paying and worthless. While increasing the monthly fee for medicare plan he allowed an unnecessary, illegal, and cruel denial of the annual cost of living adjustment for SS recipients (80+% are senior citizens) thus allowing corporate gouging to continue raising the cost for necessary goods, services, and health services. He recently ended the govt provided low interest college tuition loans giving selected banks the right to charge high interest loans forcing students into a mountain of debt with no guarantee of employment upon graduation. Like the majority of sitting presidents before him, he has signed several international treaties that continue to erase the US sovereignty.

Although we don’t elect our president we are afforded the right to evaluate the candidates as well as the president while in office. With that in mind we should recognize obama’s criminal performance. Why in the world would anyone desire a person like romney, who has a record for purchasing large businesses, leveraging them by taking loans out to improve them, bancrupting them while keeping the borrowed money, and forcing the employees into a depression?

SNAP OUT OF THE TRANCE

The only solution is to terminate the congress, supreme court, and administration, and gain 100% control of our U.S. govt!!!!

david

Chick-Fil-A
A lesson in free speech……
Conservatives have no right to voice their first amendment rights or have an opinion on anything.�
The liberal left has the right to say and do anything they please!

Guest

One of my favorite quotes from William F. Buckley proves true at least once a week: “Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.”
- JGC
  
  I guess that could also apply to the Mo Brooks hour…
  - Gregg
    
    Wasn’t he great? I hope he comes back.
    - JGC
      
      Well, I’m not so sure he was great, but he sure is familiar! Sounds just like getting together with some of my Georgia family. I have a cousin who is absolutely convinced Obama is a Kenyan born alien, which I found and find incredible and idiotic reasoning; but I find now that, reasonable or not, I have the same bee in my bonnet about the Romneys tax returns and the feeling that they are hiding something that would not sit well with most Americans.
      
      Maybe Mo Brooks will come back and patiently explain the error of my ways.
notafeminista

Conservatives can say whatever they like, as long as they agree with the Left.
TFRX

At some point I’d have enjoyed seeing some ChickFilA customers break out their “G-d hates F-gs” t-shirts. I’d admire them for the honesty of not pretending it’s about free speech.
jefe68

Ahhh yes, the favorite pass time of the right. Playing the victim. You poor, poor babies, the big bad liberals are stepping all over your right to eat fried chicken and hate gay people and to complain about their First Amendment rights with their mouths full of junk food.
Still Here

I’ve never been to one, but it’ll be my fast food of choice for now on!

JGC

The “Week in the News” segment generated 300 comments whereas the David Wessel hour with Mo Brooks as one of the guests brought in over 500 comments. I wonder if WBUR will see the Brooks segment as a success for the interest and commentary it generated, or as a failure because of the disgust and annoyance it caused much of its audience.

It truly is a fine line between clever and stupid.

Dee

Romney Abroad: Reading from the Book of Zionism in Israel

It is too bad Mitt Romney decided to read from the Book of Zionism in Israel and their Zionist apologists in AIPAC, US members of Congress & the Right Wing Zionist Think Tanks
in Washington as he might have avoided getting caught up of the Zionist propaganda network in the US and The Crimes of Zionism against the Palestian people and their home land of Palestine since the creation of Israel…

Of course, Zionist crimes of deception and land atrocities against the Palestinian people & their homeland in Palestine pre-dates Theodore Herzl’s diary entry at the turn of the�
20th century “to spirit” the indigenous population across the border and deny them work and housing accommodation in their homeland.

This piece (URL) and othersbelow begin to discuss those atrocities of the early Zionnists against the People of Pale-
stine with Israeli officials continuing to evict Palestinians�
from their homes and villages both in Israel & the Palestinian territories n violation of international law and their sovereign�
& human right http://chaimsimons.net/transfer03.html

Tell ME Again, Who made the Desert Bloom
http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2010/03/palestinians-made-the-desert-bloom.html

Now, the Palestinian people speak for themselves in their�
accounts http://archive.org/details/Salman_Abu_Sitta

Tax Exempt Funds Aids the Settlements in the West Bank
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/world/middleeast/06settle.html?pagewanted=all

America is complicit in the illegal Wall, Jeff Helper
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/02/21/america_is_complicit_in_illegal_wall/

Jimmy Carter on the unwavering US position since Dwight Eisenhower…..”The unwavering U.S. position since Dwight Eisenhower�s administration has been that Israel�s borders coincide with those established in 1949, and, since 1967, the universally adopted U.N. Resolution 242 has mandated Israel�s withdrawal from the occupied territories. This policy was reconfirmed even by Israel in 1978 and 1993, and emphasized by all American presidents, including George W. Bush. As part of the Quartet, including Russia, the U.N. and the European Union, he has endorsed a �Road Map� for peace. But Israel has officially rejected its basic premises with patently unacceptable caveats and prerequisites.” http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0309-32.htm

Dee

This corruption and hijacking of US officials in the US House�
and Senate today by AIPAC (below) & Right Wing Think Tanks is secondary only to the public outrage people on the left have�
for the CIA, the FBI, Wall St. & polluters today. They will not succeed.Especially, with the US electorate listing themselves as independents and Libertarians…The push back has already�
begun…and is well underway. Dee

Sen. Fulbright, “Israel Controls the US Senate”�
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/08/295131.shtml

huevetas

I’m so tired of arguments for political gains only. First gun control and their taking hostage of the constitution to defend it. And now Romney’s taxes. Unless someone can prove that Romney lied (which the IRS should be able to ascertain and confirm or deny) this is a moot point.

There are laws for everyone to take advantage of… if you’re able to use more of them, then more power to you (please teach us). I am not sure why the average person should expect Romney (or the 1%) to try to protect his/her money when 99% of us do.

This argument is as dumb as Trump & friends request of Obama to generate his birth certificate.

jefe68

The IRS is not allowed to divulge information about tax returns. If the records become public that’s a different thing.

You are aware that Mitt Romney had to present 20+ years of tax returns to the McCain campaign when they vetted him for the VP slot on the ticket in 08.

I doubt Mitt Romney has done anything illegal. He’s to smart for that and can afford smart accountants even if he was dumb enough to evade paying taxes. My guess is that his returns would piss a lot of people off and show that he’s in the 1%. Personally I have no issues with that.
I have issues with him trying to hide it or make up fictions about who he is and what he is.
- huevetas
  
  I think all your arguments are great! I do like Romney, I just don’t like the people he hangs out with and that influence him (Cheney and the likes). I was unaware of the hardrive story… that’s a much stronger argument to bring up than “show me your taxes”… I would much rather have Obama and friends to bring up things like that that truly sound like foul play and question his credibility.
  
  My argument again is that the whole tax has not an ounce of substance. It’s just political as Obama’s questioning of place of birth or Clinton’s Monica’s affairs. None of these have any kind of real (material) value… at least to me.

JGC

I support your right to freedom of speech expression, and I also support your right to clog your arteries with tasty bits of Chick-fil-A (but only if you are covered by ObamaCare).

Happy Pride, y’all!

Yours truly, tonight from Vancouver

JGC

I am just watching the Olympic equestrian coverage in individual jumping, and I was delighted to see the fine performance turned in by an American rider, Rich Fellers and his horse “Flexible”.

Do you think the Romneys know Rich Fellers? � I am definitely certain Mitt is well acquainted with “Flexible”. �

Bin

Romoney comments on the Palestinians should be forgiven. After all, he inherited his money and got his Dad to put him in Harvard Business School. You cannot expect him to know what is really the reason why one group of people is doing much better than another…

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