Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio goes to the circus

August 21, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: When I read this headline today, Sheriff Arpaio to join the real elephants at Republican National Convention, I thought finally, a job Joe Arpaio is actually qualified to do: carrying a shovel and a broom to clean up behind the circus elephants! Sadly, no.  

‘Missed it by that much’: Top Two Primary initiative does not have enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot

August 21, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: It's looking like the Maxwell Smart behind the Open Elections/Open Government Act initiative "missed it by that much." Like the Checks and Balances in Government initiative, the measure is coming up short of enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports, Arizona Top 2 primary initiative … Read more

The Moral Imperative of Tax Policy

August 20, 2012

Posted by Bob Lord

If we don't arrest and ultimately reverse the concentration of wealth (and, with wealth, power) in America, nothing else will matter in the end. The America we know, the America we think of when we refer to it as the greatest country on earth, doesn't exist if fewer than 1% of the population controls more than 90% of the wealth. That's already a possibility. And if Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan win in November, they'll make absolutely sure of it. 

The only brake on the undue buildup of wealth at the top in a capitalist society is tax policy. Thus, tax policy has a purpose beyond the obvious one of raising revenue to run the government. In this critical respect, Romney and Ryan aim to turn tax policy entirely on its head. In doing so, they intend to destroy American society as we know it. 

Romney lied about his taxes previously – why should anyone ‘just trust him’ now?

August 20, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I have previously posted about Willard "Mittens" Romney's trial testimony in Massachusetts in 2002 in which he claimed to have had seven years of continuous residency in Massachusetts, a requirement to run for office in that state.

Under pressure from attorneys, Romney admitted that he paid income taxes in Utah while he was living there, but he "retroactively" filed amended income tax returns for the state of Massachusetts. (I have got to get me one of those hot tub time machines!)

Remarkably, this legal fiction was good enough for the trial court to allow him tu run for governor, to which he was elected.

In other words, Romney lied about his taxes previously, and he manipulated the system to gain ballot access for his personal gain. There is one set of rules for the wealthy elite ruling class, and one set of rules for everyone else. Romney is banking on it.

The Rachel Maddow Show aired two segments last week on Romney's Utah-Massachusetts tax lie in 2002. Here is a report from Raw Story. Maddow: Romney’s history shows he’s willing to lie about his taxes:

Friday night on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” host Rachel Maddow said that presumptive Republican nominee Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) has, if precedent is any guide, given us no reason to take his word on the subject of his refusal to disclose his tax returns. In fact, he has given voters rather the opposite.

Romney triples down on his racist dog whistle welfare lie

August 20, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I have previously posted about the phenomenon of Post Truth Politics: Lies Are Now The Truth.

Jamelle Bouie at the Plum Line blog explains today, Why Romney keeps lying about Obama and welfare:

It’s been three weeks since Mitt Romney first took fire for asserting that the Obama administration “gutted” work requirements in welfare. When the first ad was released, PolitiFact took the lead in debunking its claim that under Obama’s plan, “they just send you your welfare check,” giving it the highest rating of “Pants on Fire.” FactCheck.org followed suit, and the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler offered a similar denunciation, giving the ad “four Pinnochios.”

But this didn’t deter the Romney campaign. The following week, they released another ad using a similar message. Independent observers again hit Romney’s dishonesty, and a key Republican architect of welfare reform [Ron Haskins] said that “there’s no plausible scenario under which [the change] really constitutes a serious attack on welfare reform.”

[President Bill Clinton, whose signature welfare reform bill bears his name, also said Romney is lying].

It’s almost certain that Team Romney has heard these complaints, and just doesn’t care about them. Not only has Romney made this a key part of his stump speech — promising to “return work to welfare”— but this morning, he released yet another ad making the same claims.

Unlike the other spots, this one cites an independent source — the editorial page of the Richmond-Times Dispatch. In an editorial released last week, the Dispatch agreed with Romney’s assessment of the welfare changes, saying: “if you want to get more people to work, you don’t loosen the requirements — you tighten them.”

Yeah, about that Richmond-Times Dispatch editorial. Ed Kilgore at the Political Animal blog has the scoop on this editorial. Tripling Down on the Welfare Lie:

But no: there’s a new ad, which dares defend its accuracy via (a) a completely empty editorial from the ever-partisan Richmond Times-Dispatch that in turn appears to rest its trust in the accuracy of the ads on (b) the opinion of Daily Caller columnist Mickey Kaus. Yes, it’s Mickey Kaus’ ultimate fantasy: being the indirect author of a multi-million dollar assault on his old enemies among social policy liberals.

If you actually go read the Kaus column that appears to have become via the Richmond papers Mitt Romney’s ex post facto justification for his ads, even Mickey admits that its central charges are “overstated and oversimplified.”

Now back to Jamelle Bouie:

The problem with this editorial, and Romney’s citation of it, is that Politifact Virginia — a joint venture of Politifact and the Times-Dispatch itself — debunked this claim as false at the beginning of the month, when it was made by Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell:

McDonnell said the Obama administration is “unwinding” welfare-to-work requirements.

But a new Obama program does not end welfare-to-work mandates. To the contrary, it strengthens the requirements by granting waivers to states seeking to make the work requirements more successful. The waivers would be granted to pilot programs that are individually evaluated; HHS is not proposing a blanket national change to welfare law.

We rate McDonnell’s statement False.

The verdict from fact-checkers, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch, is unanimous: Romney is outright lying about the Obama administration’s change to welfare. Why would Romney continue use the claim if it’s been proven false?

Paul Krugman on the ‘Galt – Gekko 2012’ Con Game

August 20, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Nobel Prize winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has frequently dismissed Rep. Paul Ryan as The Flimflam Man over the years. Ryan is an "unserious" person whom the D.C. media villager "centrist" concern trolls, who consider themselves "very serious people," have bestowed "very serious person" status on him.

As Krugman stated in a recent blog post, Romney/Ryan: The Real Target:

[A] a large part of the commentariat decided early on that they were going to cast Ryan in the role of Serious Honest Conservative, and have been very unwilling to reconsider that casting call in the light of evidence.

So that’s the constituency Romney is targeting: not a large segment of the electorate, but a few hundred at most editors, reporters, programmers, and pundits. His hope is that Ryan’s unjustified reputation for honest wonkery will transfer to the ticket as a whole.

So, a memo to the news media: you have now become players in this campaign, not just reporters. Mitt Romney isn’t seeking a debate on the issues; on the contrary, he’s betting that your gullibility and vanity will let him avoid a debate on the issues, including the issue of his own fitness for the presidency.

May the saints preserve us from the self-important D.C. media villager "centrist" concern trolls who consider themselves "very serious people."

In today's column, Paul Krugman takes to correcting this D.C. media villager bias and defining Rep. Paul Ryan as An Unserious Man:

Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan as his running mate led to a wave of pundit accolades. Now, declared writer after writer, we’re going to have a real debate about the nation’s fiscal future. This was predictable: never mind the Tea Party, Mr. Ryan’s true constituency is the commentariat, which years ago decided that he was the Honest, Serious Conservative, whose proposals deserve respect even if you don’t like him.

But he isn’t and they don’t. Ryanomics is and always has been a con game, although to be fair, it has become even more of a con since Mr. Ryan joined the ticket.

Jonathan Paton’s dad endorses Jonathan Paton

August 20, 2012

by David Safier I think we've spotted a trend. Jesse Kelly's gramps begged the lad to keep his Medicare safe. Paul Ryan walked hand in hand with his mom at a Florida retirement home. How could this nice boy of mine hurt anyone's Medicare? Now Paton is out with an email from John Paton, Sr., … Read more