Posted by AzBlueMeanie: In a simple three-paragraph ruling drafted jointly by the U.S. Department of Justice and lawyers for the state of Arizona, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton ordered that the injunction be dissolved against the "show me your papers clause" of SB 1070. That provision, Section 2B, requires officers to make a reasonable … Read more
by David Safier The strongly conservative Tennessee legislature wanted a charter school in Nashville run by Great Hearts, a conservative-led charter school chain in Phoenix. The Nashville school board said no. Until recently, Tennessee charter schools could only be for low income students, and the proposed Great Hearts charter would be set up in a … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: As the Bard would say, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark Pennsylvania." The Pennsylvania Supreme Court today, rather than ruling on that state's voter ID law as the state's highest court, instead remanded the case back to the Republican trial court judge who ignored the evidence at trial and ordered … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: This one is an oldie but goodie that lives on forever in the fact-free world of conservative media. The Washington Post's fact checker Glenn Kessler takes on Willard "Mittens" Romney's lie again today. Mitt Romney, caught on video: First, let’s start with the notion that nearly half of Americans do not pay … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
This is pretty rich for a guy who was born on third base and thinks he hit a home run because he made a lot of money in vulture capitalism using his daddy's rolodex.
First, some background.
In October of 2011, red-meat conservative blogger Erick Erickson published a post at Red State declaring, "I am the 53 percent." The point of his post was to divide Americans between those who have enough taxable income after deductions and credits to owe federal income taxes, and the "47%" who do not. (They actually pay the tax, the government has the use of their money until they get a tax refund).
This quickly devolved into "makers" (the so-called "job creators") and "takers" (those receiving "government entitlements"). Conservatives called it the "politics of envy," and the "entitlement society." But in reality it is their old playbook of the "politics of resentment" towards the poor. A "We are the 53% Movement" sprung up as a response to the Occupy Movement's "We are the 99%."
It is the purest form of class warfare by the haves against the have-nots. As Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett famously described, “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
When conservatives malign the "47%," this of course does not include the two-thirds of corporations that pay no federal income taxes, Most Companies Pay No Federal Income Tax – CBS News, nor the millionaires and billionaires of the investor class (aka The Predator Class) who pay no federal income taxes, IRS: Nearly 1,500 millionaires paid no federal income tax in 2009 – latimes.com, which very well may include Willard "Mittens" Romney who steadfastly refuses to release his tax returns to the American public. Some of these tax avoiders may even have been present at this Romney fundraiser.
With this background, let's turn to David Corn's explosive reporting at Mother Jones that has the Romney campaign reeling. SECRET VIDEO: Romney Tells Millionaire Donors What He REALLY Thinks of Obama Voters | Mother Jones:
During a private fundraiser earlier this year, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a small group of wealthy contributors what he truly thinks of all the voters who support President Barack Obama. He dismissed these Americans as freeloaders who pay no taxes, who don't assume responsibility for their lives, and who think government should take care of them. Fielding a question from a donor about how he could triumph in November, Romney replied:
There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.
Romney went on: "[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."