3 Chics hopes you’re enjoying this week’s featured artist Oleta Adams.
New York State of Mind
SAY WHAT?
Honoring Mittens, for his CEO leadership in 2001:
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Potus Takes Oath of Office
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My Brothers Keeper
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AFRO PUFFS
Most Adorable Shoe Stealer
Six Little Babies
Fatherhood
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Romney and Sensata
Mitt Romney Avoided Major Tax Hit By Shifting Stock Of Offshoring Firm
Posted: 07/19/2012 6:26 pm Updated: 07/19/2012 6:41 pm
WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney saved himself hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes in 2010 by transferring stock in two companies from his personal account to a nonprofit entity he set up. The stock maneuver included $172,397 in shares of Sensata Technologies, a company now under fire for a high-profile effort to offshore central Illinois jobs to China.
Sensata produces sensors, switches and various mechanical controls. The Attleboro, Mass.-based company is owned by Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney founded, and it already does most of its work in overseas plants. A remaining factory in Freeport, Ill., garnered national attention when remaining workers began pleading with Romney to exercise his influence over Bain Capital to save their jobs.
Romney had received the Sensata stock as part of a Bain payout; he listed no cost for it on his tax return. By transferring that stock to his nonprofit Tyler Charitable Foundation, he avoided roughly $25,000 in capital gains taxes he would have owed. He also shaved an additional $50,000 off his tax bill by deducting the charitable contribution from his income.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/19/mitt-romney-stocks-sensata_n_1687777.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
Mitt Romney Adviser: ‘Real Americans’ Don’t Care About Candidate’s Afghanistan Policy
senior adviser to Mitt Romney declined to provide more specific details on the presumptive GOP nominee’s plan for Afghanistan on Thursday, saying it was a distraction from what “real Americans want to talk about.”
The Romney campaign has said the former Massachusetts governor “supports the 2014 timetable as a realistic timetable and a residual force post-2014” in Afghanistan, but he would not have announced the withdrawal timeline publicly, as President Barack Obama did. But as Josh Rogin at The Cable notes, “details remain sketchy” on what Romney would do beyond the timeline.
Top senators are equally flummoxed. None of them who talked to Rogin were able to explain what Romney’s policy was.
On MSNBC on Thursday, Romney Senior Communications Adviser Tara Wall was asked about Rogin’s article and whether Romney should have a more specific policy on Afghanistan before his upcoming trips to Israel and London. Wall replied that these “attacks” were a distraction from the more important issues of jobs and the economy:
READ THE REST HERE:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/19/mitt-romney-afghanistan_n_1687081.html
Mitt Romney has no plans for Afghanistan and therefore, he and his campaign say Americans like you and I don’t care. What a LOSER!
found this in the comments at Balloon Juice:
Frankensteinbeck Says:
I think what’s in the tax returns is a sideshow. Sure, if there’s absolutely nothing else Obama’s team can mine them for arguments about how the rich aren’t paying their fair share. None of that is the point. Romney himself has completely missed the point.
For the Obama team, the point is that Romney is stuck whining defensively about an issue Americans have absolutely no sympathy for. He looks weak and arrogant fighting this, and that’s defining his campaign at a time he cannot afford to waste. Right now, he needs to be presenting a good image to the American people in the hopes of holding onto whatever bump he gets from the convention. If the polls don’t change (and they’re not) he will lose in a landslide. He only looks competitive to anyone because deep red states hate Obama so much they make national polls look 50-50. Examine the numbers state by state, and Romney is screwed.
There is nothing more important to the Romney campaign than fixing this problem right now. Instead, they’re going ‘But I don’ wanna!’ on a national scale.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_Z-PWfDKTQ
WORD IS A FEW OF TEH NETWORKS ARE TRYING TO SCRUB THE “YOU PEOPLE” comment.
Jul
19
The Romneys Are Different from You and Me
By Charles P. Pierce at 11:20AM
So this morning Ann Romney went on the magic electric picture box that so entertains the lesser orders, and informed The Help that there are some things that simply are not done…
Mitt Romney’s wife is reinforcing her husband’s refusal to make public several years of tax returns, saying “we’ve given all you people need to know” about the family’s finances. “You know, you should really look at where Mitt has led his life, and where he’s been financially,” she said. “He’s a very generous person. We give 10 percent of our income to our church every year. Do you think that is the kind of person who is trying to hide things, or do things? No. He is so good about it. Then, when he was governor of Massachusetts, didn’t take a salary for four years.”
Excuse me?
“You people”?
Tell me again that this whole political mess isn’t about the fact that Willard doesn’t think conventional rules apply to him, that he never has thought conventional rules applied to him, and that he doesn’t go to bed every night cursing the Founders for not making the presidency a legacy position.
Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/ann-romney-good-morning-america-10818804#ixzz2161YI6CI
That’s exactly how Ann & Mitt view other Americans, unlike themselves as THE HELP.”
Sean Hannity’s Interview With George Zimmerman
By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Jul 19 2012, 9:40 AM ET
I actually think this clip is weirdly revealing. I can’t figure out what George Zimmerman is actually apologizing for. If I got out of my car, and a person approached me, punched me in my face, and proceeded to repeatedly ram my head into the concrete, I think it’d be fair to conclude that this person was either trying to kill me, or was showing extreme disregard for my life.
If I then shot that person, I would not apologize for it. I would feel completely in the right. I might even go so far as to feel that the person’s parents owed me an apology for allowing someone so prone to unprovoked lethal violence to roam my neighborhood. What would have happened had that person ran into someone else, who was unarmed? If you are so brazen as to brutally assault someone for no reason, you are not merely a threat to me, you are a threat to society.
In my experience, even in neighborhoods with high levels of violence, it is extremely rare to run across such individuals. I’ve known boys who get together and jump innocent people for kicks–something that’s uncommon, but not rare. That is the mentality of the idle pack. Doing something like this solo requires a different kind of constitution. I can think of only one person who I’ve ever met who would do what Zimmerman is alleging Trayvon Martin did. The last I heard, he was in jail for killing his Dad.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/07/sean-hannitys-interview-with-george-zimmerman/260054/
Ametia, check your email
DONE. Check yours
Source: ABC
Marco Rubio, R-Fla., expressed worry this morning about broadcasting outlets that use taxpayer money to stay on the air.
But Rubio made his comments on NPR, a broadcasting outlet that uses taxpayer money to stay on the air.
“I do have concerns about spending money on public broadcasting,” Rubio told Diane Rehm during an hourlong Q&A on NPR. SHORT= I have concerns about public anything, that will serve the greater good.
NPR has been a source of criticism from congressional Republicans who view it as a liberal refuge that espouses its views courtesy of public funding. Although only 2 percent of NPR’s funding comes from government grants, the loss of federal funding would undermine the ability of NPR stations to pay for NPR programming, NPR says.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/while-npr-sen-rubio-questions-usefulness-npr-154934066–abc-news-politics.html
July 18, 2012
If you’re losing, there’s something wrong with the winning guy, right?
From a Romney adviser we get an astonishing peek into persevering denial:
[Mitt Romney] believes it’s time to vet the president. He really hasn’t been vetted; McCain didn’t do it.
Such bloated nonsense–let’s see, Obama has been a state senator, a U.S. senator, a presidential candidate for two years and for nearly four years president of the United States–is more pathological than nonsensical. In fact, though the charge is inherently, conspicuously nonsensical, it makes perfect sense to the emotionally stunted mind.
Obama doesn’t rattle. And there’s nothing so rattling to the bullying personality–hello, Mitt & Co.–than a targeted victim who refuses to be victimized and instead returns fire, times ten. Romney dispatched his primary opponents with small effort and enormous sums of cash, which helped to construct, day by day, a nominee fully convinced of his own might; then he collided with a heavyweight, who promptly began mopping the ring with him.
Romney’s response? There must be something wrong with Obama–he’s not the man he claims to be, he cannot be the man he claims to be, there’s a something mysteriously elusive in him, deep, deep inside, that is intrinsically vulnerable to Romney’s self-righteous power. If only Romney can uncover it.
Because bullies don’t lose. Bullies can’t lose–unless they’re somehow tricked
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2012/07/if-youre-losing-theres-something-wrong-with-the-winning-guy-right.html
July 18, 2012
What’s he hiding?
I’ve noticed that it is now officially, conventionally wise to speculate on cable news or in cyberspace that Mitt Romney’s refusal to release more tax returns is likely because he paid little to no taxes in some year, or several.
Unwisely or not, I dissent. My guess? His returns, the release of which should properly extend to 1999, will show that he was intimately associated with Bain well after the date he has bellowed in his public protestations. And that, as they say, will be that. The End.
Anyone with active, still-firing synapses already strongly suspects that Mitt Romney is a ruthless liar. But his tax returns–again, the release of which must rightly extend to 1999–would prove it. Zero taxes he could explain; hell, that’s a shiny badge of honor among the superrich, who enjoy plenty of poor dupes’ admiration. But he could never reconcile personal Bain profits during those years in which he has repeatedly and vehemently denied any and all involvement.
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2012/07/whats-he-hiding.html
July 18, 2012
The GOP’s apostle from Hell
Frank Luntz, in an interview with the Daily Beast’s Daniel Stone:
[I]n the end, Mr. President, you can try to change the subject, but you can’t change reality.
I admit I’m biased; I can’t really comment on Frank Luntz with the cold, steely objectivity required of any thoughtful analysis, but that’s only because Frank Luntz is an unspeakably repugnant, ethically satanic homunculus who in a just world would be forced to suffer the consequences of his verbal perversions and political depravity.
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2012/07/the-gops-apostle-from-hell.html
Posted at 12:57 PM ET, 07/19/2012
Poll: American people want to know what’s in Romney’s tax returns
By Greg Sargent
The Obama campaign is pouncing on this new poll finding that a majority of Americans wants Mitt Romney to release his tax returns:
A majority of Americans, including almost a third of Republicans, say GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney should release more tax returns than the two years he has promised to disclose, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.
Americans want Romney to release his returns by a 17 point margin, 54-37. And 53 percent of independents say he should release them.What’s particularly interesting is that the same poll also finds that a plurality doesn’t think that the tax returns of candidates are relevant in general, which in theory should help Romney’s argument:
Forty-seven percent call it “largely irrelevant” to helping voters decide who should be president while 44% say it provides “legitimate information that helps voters make better decisions.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line
It’s only the longest war in American history
By Steve Benen – Thu Jul 19, 2012 1:50 PM EDT
.Josh Rogin recently tried to find out what Mitt Romney’s position is on U.S. policy in Afghanistan. It didn’t go well.
Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s policy on the future of U.S.-led war in Afghanistan war is unclear and confusing, complicating attempts to either support or criticize it during the campaign, according to leading senators from both parties. […]
[W]hen it comes to what a President Romney would do differently from Obama on Afghanistan if and when he became president, the details remain sketchy.
Rogin asked around on Capitol Hill, and couldn’t get any good answers there, either, even from Romney’s allies. Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said, “You would have to tell me what exactly you mean by ‘his policy.’
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/19/12835634-its-only-the-longest-war-in-american-history?lite
Just a Private Family Matter
By Ed Kilgore
We have no way of knowing just yet whether Ann Romney’s explanation in an interview of her husband’s refusal to release tax returns was just her own effort to get past a difficult question, or represents the Final Word from the campaign. If it’s the latter, you gotta admit it’s pretty damn bold, suggesting that Mitt’s finances—not just his tax returns, but his wealth generally—are a private family matter on which the news media and the American people are strictly on a need-to-know basis. And all they need to know is that the Romneys tithe (and no tither has ever, ever been dishonest about money, right?) and that Mitt turned down a governor’s salary in Massachusetts that probably represented a rounding error in his investment income.
This talking-point would barely pass the smell-test even if Mitt had always resolutely treated his “success” (as measured by his fabulous wealth) as irrelevant to the presidential campaign, instead of being the primary reason Americans should entrust him with the presidency, even if he won’t much talk about what he would do in that office beyond killing ObamaCare and inspiring confidence in every direction.
You have to wonder if in future Mitt is going to “outsource” all questions about his finances to his wife, and then object that anyone who complains about it is engaging in personal attacks on his family. That tactic would certainly be consistent with his general habit of expressing outrage when critics look at his biography or his tax-and-budget plans and suggest things just don’t add up.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_07/just_a_private_family_matter038685.php
ALL.OF.THIS. Can you repost on the MISS ANN thread, please?
Thanks!
Poll: Most say Romney should release additional tax returns
WASHINGTON – A majority of Americans, including almost a third of Republicans, say GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney should release more tax returns than the two years he has promised to disclose, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds
The issue is one Democrats have been hammering, including an open letter to Romney signed by almost two dozen mayors released Thursday that noted controversial disclosures in the 2010 return he already has released and demanded: “What else are you trying to hide?”
Those surveyed are divided on whether the likely Republican nominee is trying to hide anything. While 42% predict the release of additional returns would not reveal anything politically harmful, 44% believe it would include damaging information — including 15% who say they believe the revelations would be so serious that they would “show he is unfit to be president.”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-07-19/romney-gallup-poll-tax-returns/56333412/1?csp=34news
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA WE HAVE YOUR BACK! Jacksonville, FL showing PBO some LOVE!
PBO speaks in Florida.
Watch it live here:
http://www.c-span.org/Campaign2012/Events/President-Obama-Campaigns-in-Florida/10737432469/
Watch PBO in Jacksonville, FL here too! http://www.cbsnews.com/liveFeed/widget.shtml
Thu Jul 19, 2012 at 07:07 AM PDT.
Romney video crops Obama’s words to fabricate the quote they wish he’d said
As a reminder, President Obama said:
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/19/1111629/-Romney-video-crops-Obama-s-words-to-fabricate-the-quote-they-wish-he-d-said
An Unexpected, Enduring Lesson From ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’
by Jarvis |
Monday, July 16 2012, 10:00 AM EST
When we are introduced to Topsy in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” the little black girl is described by another character as “dreadfully dirty and half-naked.” Topsy’s hair is a mess, described by Stowe as knotted in little tails “stuck out in every direction.” Rescued by a supposedly benevolent slave owner from the evil clutches of slave speculators in New Orleans, Topsy is the quintessential pickaninny, an unkempt wild thing. If humanity is a garden, Topsy is a weed.
“Do you know who made you?” asks Ophelia St. Clare, the bleeding heart who has been persuaded to see Topsy as a mission project.
“Nobody, as I knows on,” Topsy says. Then: “I spect I grow’d. Don’t think nobody never made me.”
When we are introduced to Hushpuppy in Benh Zeitlin’s film “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” the little black girl is dreadfully dirty and half-naked, clad in a sleeveless t-shirt, panties and a pair of shrimp boots. Hushpuppy is at home among the animals as we see when she picks them up to listen to their hearts beat. She lives in a down-the-bayou swamp, “The Bathtub,” which is ironic because it would appear that she’s never made use of one. We don’t know at the film’s start what this little girl would say about her provenance, but her hair—sticking out in every direction—has clearly just growed. We don’t have to be told that Hushpuppy is missing a mother. A mother would have taken a comb to that child’s head.
Why, then, do we feel distressed, outraged even, when we later see Hushpuppy scrubbed clean, clothed in a dress with her mane tamed and tucked into place? It’s because we’ve been made to love her. We’ve been persuaded by Hushpuppy’s narration that she’s not a thing separate from nature but a part of nature itself. “I’m a little part of a big, big universe,” she says.
http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/07/beasts_of_the_southern_wild.html
Yep; he’s a LYING LIAR
Reposting this here
those were two good segments
MEDIA OUTLEST CALLING OUT ROMNEY’S AD DISTORTIONS/OMISSIONS
LA TIMES: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-romney-attacks-obama-for-crony-capitalism-20120717,0,4591881.story
ABC: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/did-obama-say-if-youve-got-a-business-you-didnt-build-that/
WASHINGTON POST: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/the-morning-plum-romney-video-deceptively-edits-obama-speech-to-make-it-sound-anti-business/2012/07/19/gJQAoRpavW_blog.html
TPM: Misleading Romney Ad Makes A Frankenstein Monster Of Obama Quote
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/romney-these-hands-ad-you-didnt-build-that.php
HUFFINGTON POST: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/17/business-build-that_n_1680590.html
Mitt Romney’s latest AD being called out by MEDIA OUTLETS
Buzzfeed
New Romney Video Omits Passage Apparently Agreeing With Obama
The Romney campaign came out with a new video today highlighting Mitt Romney’s attack yesterday in Irwin, PA on President Obama for saying “if you’ve got a business you didn’t build that, someone else made that happen.” But the Romney video edits a a portion of Romney’s speech in which he seems to agree with the broader context of the Obama’s remarks, saying people didn’t
make it on their own.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/politics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KZe3hBcpYRI
Edited out line here
When wrenching quotes from context is the game plan
By Steve Benen – Thu Jul 19, 2012 11:07 AM EDT.
Last fall, Mitt Romney’s very first television ad took a line Barack Obama uttered four years ago, wrenched it from context, and tried to mislead the public. After getting caught, the Republican candidate said he didn’t care — the deception didn’t matter because it’s “sauce for the gander.”
Incidentally, I still don’t know what that means.
What we didn’t know at the time was the extent to which this tactic would be important to the Republican’s campaign. Indeed, at this point, hyperventilating after taking Obama quotes out of context isn’t just part of the Romney campaign strategy, it is the Romney campaign strategy.
When President Obama told business leaders that U.S. policymakers have been “a little bit lazy” when it comes to attracting businesses to American soil, Romney went berserk and said Obama believes Americans are “lazy.” When the president said private-sector job growth is “fine” relative to the public sector, Romney took that out of context, too.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/19/12833771-when-wrenching-quotes-from-context-is-the-game-plan?lite
North Dakota’s Black Gold Rush
by BooMan
Thu Jul 19th, 2012 at 10:38:25 AM EST
If you have enough money and a decent credit score, there appears to be almost limitless ways that you can become a millionaire in North Dakota. Their oil boom is so big and so sudden that they don’t have enough of anything. In the midst of the mortgage crisis and financial meltdown, housing prices near the oil fields have doubled. They can’t find housing for all their workers. They can’t find workers for all their jobs. They need more rail lines. They desperately need new natural gas pipelines. They need new schools and oodles of new teachers and daycare providers. They need hotel rooms. They need roads that can handle all the heavy equipment and plenty of road maintenance crews. They need environmental inspectors and clean-up crews. They need more police officers. And all these new workers need services and diversions.
If you could afford to build a decent trailer park, you could retire. There are so many opportunities to start businesses or make investments there that it’s hard to know where to start.
And, yet, it’s a giant environmental disaster.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/7/19/103825/365
A flood of Walker nonsense
By Steve Benen – Thu Jul 19, 2012 10:28 AM EDT.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) took to Twitter last night to share a curious perspective.We should, at the outlet, probably put aside the theology behind this. Perhaps Walker believes there was a literal Noah who, along with his wife and kids, built a 300-cubit boat that housed two of every land animal on the planet (including, according to young-earth creationists, dinosaurs). Or perhaps he doesn’t really believe this. I don’t care.
What I do care about is the underlying governmental vision. To hear the Republican governor put it, Noah’s ark “might have never been built” if the antediluvian patriarch had relied on “help from the government.” And why is that? I suspect some Forest Service officials would have come in pretty handy. The CDC probably could have helped Noah and his family with some worthwhile vaccinations. Maybe FEMA could have helped give Noah some additional time to get the job done. I imagine the Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would have been (ahem) a Godsend.
What rankles, of course, is this notion “the government” is simply incapable of “helping” anyone do anything. I’d encourage Walker to consider the businesses that got off the ground because of loans from the Small Business Administration. Or the American enterprises that thrived after receiving tax incentives or relied on government creations like the Internet
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/19/12833221-a-flood-of-walker-nonsense?lite
‘Mad Men,’ ‘American Horror Story’ lead Emmy nods
Mad Men,” a piercingly bleak portrait of a 1960s American anti-hero, earned a leading 17 Emmy nominations Thursday and the chance to set a new record as the most-honored drama in television history.
“Mad Men,” which has won four best drama series trophies and is tied with “Hill Street Blues,” “L.A. Law” and “The West Wing,” received a fifth bid in the category.
The miniseries “American Horror story,” a nightmarish saga about a haunted house, received a matching 17 awards, including an acting nod for star Connie Britton.
Other leading nominees include the elegant British-born soap opera “Downton Abbey,” which earned 16 bids, and two miniseries, “Hatfields & McCoys,” with 16, and “Hemingway & Gellhorn” with 15.
“Modern Family,” honored as best comedy series for two years, was the sitcom leader with 14 bids, but the category also saw an infusion of girl power.
http://tv.msn.com/emmys/nominees-2012/story/
Marissa Mayer Becomes First Ever Pregnant CEO Of Fortune 500 Company
By Annie-Rose Strasser on Jul 17, 2012 at 10:50 am
Yesterday afternoon, Yahoo named Marissa Mayer as their new chief executive officer. And shortly after the news broke, Mayer announced she was expecting a baby boy in October. This makes Mayer the first-ever pregnant CEO of a Fortune 500 company. That’s on top of being one of only 19 female CEOs in the Fortune 500.
Board members at Yahoo were aware that Mayer was expecting during the hiring process, and treated her pregnancy with a respect and deference very few women get to enjoy in the workplace. According to Mashable, an anonymous source said, “It was not part of the consideration. …Like every other professional woman, she has to weigh all the factors in doing her job and having a family”:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/07/17/529141/mayer-pregnant-ceo/
http://twitter.com/Column55/status/225934394341335040/photo/1
http://twitter.com/Column55/status/225942504636289024/photo/1
LOL YEP, that’s the Romneys!
http://twitter.com/Column55/status/225950705943449600/photo/1
Minn. to pay Va. firm $41 million to build new health exchange Website
Article by: JENNIFER BJORHUS , Star Tribune
Minnesota has awarded Maximus Inc. a two-year, $41 million contract to create the state’s new health insurance exchange website.
Reston, Va.-based Maximus is a government outsourcing company focused on health and human services agencies around the world and has more than $900 million in annual revenue.
The exchange — one local lawmaker likened it to a Travelocity for health insurance — will be a one-stop shop on the Web for individuals and businesses to buy health insurance and enroll in Medicaid coverage. It’s expected to launch in the fall of 2013.
Such online exchanges are a key part of the federal health care law, and states are required to come up with their own state-based health exchanges or go with a federa exchange.
http://www.startribune.com/business/162624156.html
Minnesota, Representin!
Minnesota Finalizes $41 Million Health Exchange Contract | On Monday, Minnesota announced it has signed a $41 million contract to implement the state health exchange required by the Affordable Care Act, joining at least 15 other states that are also moving forward to enact the ACA’s provisions. In contrast, Republican governors in conservative states, including Florida, South Carolina, and Wisconsin, are threatening to delay setting up health exchanges until after the presidential election, in case Mitt Romney wins and repeals Obamacare. Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman called the announcement a “significant milestone” to developing Minnesota’s insurance exchange.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/07/17/531561/minnesota-finalizes-health-exchange/
Is Fareed Zakaria ready to jump sip with the rest of his CNN cohorts or what?
What voters are really choosing in November
By Fareed Zakaria, Published: July 18
The presidential campaign has gotten so heated over the attacks and counterattacks from the Obama and Romney campaigns that it’s easy to forget that larger issues are at stake in November. That’s unfortunate because, beneath the froth, there is an important ideological debate to be had about America’s future.
The attacks are, I suppose, inevitable. But let’s be honest: They’re largely untrue or irrelevant. Whatever the paperwork shows, Mitt Romney was not running Bain Capital after February 1999. Even if he had been, outsourcing jobs to lower a company’s costs — and ensure its survival — is not sleazy; it’s how you run a business efficiently. (Is President Obama suggesting that we put up tariff barriers to prevent outsourcing in the future?) On the other side, Romney’s recent claim accusing the president of shoveling government grants to his political supporters was so twisted it earned the Fact Checker’s highest score for distortion — “Four Pinocchios.”
Below all the mudslinging lies a real divide. Obama has been making the case that the U.S. economy needs investment — in infrastructure, education, training, basic sciences and technologies of the future. Those investments, in the president’s telling, have been the key drivers of American growth and have enabled people to build businesses, create jobs and invent the future.
Romney argues that America needs tax and regulatory relief. The country is overburdened by government mandates, taxes and rules that make it difficult for businesses to function, grow and prosper, he says. He wants to cut taxes for all, reduce regulations and streamline government. All this, in his telling, will unleash America’s entrepreneurial energy.
Both views have merit. It would make for a great campaign if our nation had a sustained discussion around these ideas. Then the election would produce a mandate to move in one of these directions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fareed-zakaria-romney-and-obamas-relevant-debate-over-americas-future/2012/07/18/gJQAjVhSuW_print.html
Why businessmen don’t get elected president
By Michael Kazin
The New Republic) If Mitt Romney’s association with Bain Capital ends up sinking his presidential campaign, he’s unlikely to appreciate the irony. But, if he needs consolation, he might consider seeking solace in American history. The fact is that no successful businessman has ever been a successful president, and only a few have even been serious contenders for the job.
This might seem odd, given Americans’ long romance with wealthy entrepreneurs and the enterprises they build. But a talent for developing private companies and making big profits seldom translates into wooing a majority of voters or governing a contentious republic. It may, in fact, blind one from recognizing critical differences between those equally difficult endeavors.
The most famous example of this disconnect was Herbert Hoover — a multi-millionaire who, like Romney, believed that America needed a shrewd capitalist at the helm of state. By the age of forty, the dour Quaker from rural Iowa had made a sizeable fortune as a metal engineer and developer of mines in several foreign countries. During World War I, Hoover employed his skills for a large, humanitarian purpose, arranging for food to be funneled to the millions of Europeans impoverished by the war. Then, in the 1920s, he became a high-profile Commerce Secretary, bringing industries together in trade associations where they could regulate themselves. Thus, Hoover had gained fame as an unelected public servant as well as one of the richest businessmen of his day — in contrast with William Randolph Hearst and Henry Ford, self-serving contemporaries who had earlier flirted with presidential runs.
http://www.cbsnews.com/2102-215_162-57475125.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody
<b.July 19, 2012 7:54 AM
Trayvon Martin's parents: This wasn't "God's plan."
VIDEO
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505266_162-57475469/trayvon-martins-parents-this-wasnt-gods-plan/?tag=nl.e875
‘It’s not God’s plan to murder an innocent child’: Trayvon Martin’s parents react to Zimmerman’s first ‘ridiculous’ interview and say they are absolutely not willing to meet him
The parents of Trayvon Martin have criticized claims of their son’s killer that the teen’s death was all ‘part of God’s plan’ and slammed it as ‘ridiculous’.
In reaction to George Zimmerman’s interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday night, Trayvon’s father Tracy Martin said: ‘We must worship a different God. There is no way that my God wanted George Zimmerman to murder my teenage son.’
Shockingly, the neighborhood watchman initially said during his first interview that he doesn’t regret his actions of the night and would like to talk with the Martin family about what happened.
Mother Sybrina Fulton appeared on NBC this morning and said she was ‘absolutely not’ willing to meet with her son’s killer.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2175941/Its-Gods-plan-murder-innocent-child-Trayvon-Martins-parents-react-Zimmermans-ridiculous-interview-say-absolutely-willing-meet-him.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
osted at 08:39 AM ET, 07/19/2012
The Morning Plum: Romney video deceptively edits Obama speech to make it sound anti-business
By Greg Sargent
So here’s where this is going. The Romney campaign is out with a new Web video hitting Obama over the “don’t build that” quote. It features a business owners who is angry at Obama for supposedly insulting his hard work. “My hands didn’t build this company?” the man asks. “Through hard work and a little bit of luck, we built this business. Why are you demonizing us for it?”
But the video deceptively edits Obama’s remarks to seamlessly link up two different parts of the speech, removing a chunk in order to make Obama’s remarks seem far worse than they are. Here is how Obama’s speech — which you hear in the background while pictures of the man driving flash on the screen — is represented in the video:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line
What I remember about that was that MCCAIN HAD ALL THE QUESTIONS BEFOREHAND, or did I remember this farce wrong?
……………………………….
July 18, 2012 4:49 PM
Avoiding Another Saddleback Ambush
By Ed Kilgore
Celebrity conservative evangelical megachurch pastor Rick Warren, whose book sales must be slumping or something, has announced he wants to hold another presidential candidate forum in August. As you may recall, Warren’s 2008 forum at his Saddleback Church was generally regarded as one of the high points of John McCain’s campaign.
At TNR, veteran politics-and-religion writer Amy Sullivan offers some skillful advice for how Barack Obama, should he choose to enter this particular lion’s den, might avoid another rout. Last time around, she notes, the Obama campaign carelessly set expectations too high, didn’t get control of half the seats (which mostly went to Saddleback’s predictably conservative members), and then got ambushed by Warren’s choice of questions, which, in violation of the two campaigns’ understanding, wound up skewing heavily towards social-conservative red meat topics.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_07/avoiding_another_saddleback_am038671.php
PBO’s has Warren’s number. The issues of gay marriage, DADT, immigration, let’s see did i leave out anything here? Well AMERICANS already knows where the president stands on these social issues.
:18 AM EDT, Thursday July 19, 2012
∞ T witter
Morgan Freeman Donates $1 Million To Pro-Obama Super PAC
Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman donated $1 million last month to the pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action, the LA Times reports. In statement, Freeman said:
“President Obama has done a remarkable job in terrible circumstances. He has ended combat operations in Iraq, put in place sensible reforms of Wall Street, saved the auto industry and protected the healthcare of every American with a preexisting condition. He has recognized the full equality of all our brothers and sisters and placed impressive, accomplished women on the Supreme Court. In return for this he is being targeted by hundreds of millions of dollars in special-interest money. I for one am proud to lend my voice – and support – to those who defend him.”
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/
How Mitt “saved” the Olympics…
By Dennis G. July 18th, 2012
I lived in Athens, GA during the 1996 Games. There were some scandals, before, during and after the event, but nothing like the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002. It was a scandalpalooza.
When you think about scandal and the Salt Lake games, most folks think about how Salt Lake “won” the Games. It turns out that bribes were involved. When the news broke in 1998 there was “outrage”. Investigations were launched. Careers were ruined and jobs were lost. The FBI spent more resources investigating the 2002 Olympics scandal than they spent investigating the Oklahoma City bombings and yet very little came of it—sure, there were a handful of convictions, but the two Leaders of the SLC Olympic Bid Team were acquitted of all charges in 2003.
Still, a scandal is a great opportunity to reshuffle the power cards when a grifter train like the Olympics is coming to town. Folks who were on the outside looking in could suddenly be in control—all they needed was a front man. Enter Mitt Romney.
The Games would go on with or with out Mitt. This was never in doubt. What was in doubt was who would profit and who would have the inside track. What was in doubt was how to rake in profits without having to make investments. What the grifters needed was a leverage artist. What they needed was Mitt. And Mitt delivered.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/07/18/how-mitt-saved-the-olympics/
Rev. Al reporting on a BOston Phoenix story of Willard’s curious investment in an insurance company …
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755884/#48233234
WE’VE GIVEN ENOUGH
By KEVIN ROBILLARD | 7/19/12 7:49 AM EDT Updated: 7/19/12 8:34 AM EDT
Ann Romney dismissed concerns about her husband’s tax returns Thursday, contending that the two of them have “given all you people need to know.”
“You know, you should really look at where Mitt has led his life, and where he’s been financially,” the potential first lady said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “He’s a very generous person. We give 10 percent of our income to our church every year. Do you think that is the kind of person who is trying to hide things, or do things? No. He is so good about it. Then, when he was governor of Massachusetts, didn’t take a salary for four years.”
“We’ve given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and how we live our life,” she added later.
“ALL YOU PEOPLE” = YOU NEGROES
WE’RE SUPPOSED TO TAKE MISS ANN’S WORD, BECAUSE SHE SAYS SO?
HELL NO! RELEASE YOUR TAX RETURNS MITT ROMNEY!
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78711.html#ixzz214dO8mV0
Romney echoes Obama line on public institutions
By Steve Benen
Thu Jul 19, 2012 8:00 AM EDT.
Last week, President Obama delivered a routine speech in Virginia, stressing, among other things, the greatness of the American system, shaped by public and private institutions.
“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help,” he said. “There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that; somebody else made that happen.”
The fact that businesses didn’t build American roads and bridges was so unremarkable that the comment was entirely ignored — that is, until Fox and far-right blogs eliminated the context. Five days after the speech — so much for “rapid” response — the Romney campaign seized on this as evidence of the president’s hatred of free enterprise. Or something.
But six days after the speech, wouldn’t you know it, Romney decided Obama was right after all
Jed Lewison flagged this clip from a Romney event in Ohio yesterday, where the Republican candidate continued to take Obama’s words out of context, but proceeded to share an interesting perspective. For those who can’t watch clips online, Romney said:
There are a lot of people in government who help us and allow us to have an economy that works and allow entrepreneurs and business leaders of various kinds to start businesses and create jobs. We all recognize that. That’s an important thing…. I know that you recognize that a lot of people help you in a business. Perhaps the banks, the investors. There’s no question your mom and dad. Your school teachers. The people that provide roads, the fire, and the police. A lot of people help.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1cgSXUQDTM0
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/19/12830947-romney-echoes-obama-line-on-public-institutions?lite
folks, MISS ANN is back….
and, she even used ‘ YOU PEOPLE’.
found this tweet at TOD:
meta@metaquest
Ann Romney dismissed concerns about tax returns Thursday, contending that the two of them have “given all you people need to know.” WOW.
Just posted on this. That white priviledged heiffer. Why should she and Mitt release their tax returns to “THE HELP?”
She knows Mitt’s in DEEP SHIT. That’s why the coward sends her out to whine, moan, and grown about the big, bad, mean negro PRESIDENT pciking on her man.
FUCK’EM both RELEASE YOUR TAX RETURNS, MITT ROMNEY!
This MOTHERFUCKER RIGHT HERE:
burn in hell.
burn in hell.
A TRILLION, GAZILLION TIME & ETERNITY
Commenter from video
<b.THIS: Maybe its " god's plan " for him to get convicted of 2nd degree murder and ass raped in prison.
When somebody clips him in his prime, God’s plan will be fulfilled too.
Study links resentment of African Americans to support for voter ID laws
Democrats and Independents who resent special considerations for African Americans are more likely to support voter ID laws, according to a study by the University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication.
The study of 906 Americans found Republicans overwhelmingly supported voter ID laws regardless of their racial attitudes. Ninety-four percent of Republicans supported the laws.
“Who votes in America has always been controversial; so much so that the U.S. constitution has been amended a number of times to protect voting eligibility and rights,” assistant professor David C. Wilson said. “It comes as no surprise that Republicans support these laws more than Democrats; but, what is surprising is the level at which Democrats and liberals also support the laws.”
Sixty-two percent of Democrats and 81 percent of Independents said they supported requiring individuals to show a form of government-issued identification before they attempt to vote.
Republicans across the country have pushed for stricter voting regulations, such as voter ID laws, to protect against alleged voter fraud. More than 30 states have changed voter laws since 2008, including requiring voter identification cards, eliminating same-day registration on voting day, prohibiting ex-felons from ballot access, restricting early voting and requiring proof of citizenship.
At the 103rd convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) last week, Holder compared voter ID laws to “poll taxes” that were outlawed by the 24th Amendment. Poll taxes were a part of Jim Crow-era laws that were used largely in southern states to disenfranchise minority voters. The Justice Department has said that a disproportionate number of those who do not have the proper ID are black or Hispanic.
“Under the proposed law, concealed handgun licenses would be acceptable forms of photo ID, but student IDs would not,” the attorney general pointed out. “Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them. And some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them.”
“We call those poll taxes,” Holder added.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/18/study-links-resentment-of-african-americans-to-support-for-voter-id-laws/?onswipe_redirect=no#comments
Good Morning, Everyone! :-)
Good Morning, Ametia and Everyone :)