Vice President Joe Biden Fundraiser in Phoenix this Thursday

April 15, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Seating is limited to about 120 at this event. RSVP’s for photoline guests are DUE by April 16th, 9:00 p.m. (Guests must arrive no later than 11:00 a.m.) RSVP online at: https://my.barackobama.com/april19phoenixluncheon

The coming week…

April 15, 2012

By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings   As usual, all agendas and calendars subject to change without notice… The legislature has reached the point in the session where the only real work left is the budget. Most of that work is going on behind closed doors in negotiations between the governor and the leadership … Read more

Dr. Word asks, Are “shiny objects” the new “distractions”?

April 15, 2012

by David Safier Dr. Word read on TPM that twice on CNN’s State of the Union, RNC Chair Reince Priebus called Dem issues "shiny objects." RNC Chair Reince Priebus on Sunday argued that it’s no big deal that presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney has sought an extension for filing his 2011 tax return, calling the … Read more

Update: What is Romney hiding from us?

April 15, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I previously posted in What is Romney hiding from us?:

Jed Lewison at Daily Kos asks the right question: Why was Mitt Romney willing to hand over 23 years of tax returns to John McCain's vice presidential vetting team but he will not do the same with the public. What's in his tax records that he was willing to let McCain's people see but that he doesn't want to share with the rest of us?

Jed Lewison posts, Obama campaign renews call for transparency after report shows Mitt Romney hiding assets from public:

In the wake of yesterday's Washington Post report that Mitt Romney is exploiting a loophole in federal ethics laws to hide the details of his holdings through Bain Capital, the Obama campaign is renewing its call for transparency from Romney in a statement from campaign manager Jim Messina:

“Mitt Romney has asked Americans to elect him President based on his experience as a corporate buyout specialist.  Each week, new questions are raised about whether he took unusual steps to avoid paying his fair share in taxes.  Today’s report suggests that Governor Romney is exploiting a loophole in order to shield his assets and investments from public review.

“Mitt Romney has put his personal financial assets in a black box and hid the key, attempting to play by a different set of rules than any candidate in recent history. In fact, Mitt Romney’s own father released 12 years of tax returns when he ran for president.  President Bush released his tax returns dating back to 1991.  And President Obama released his returns dating back to 2000 when he ran for president.

“Governor Romney provided 23 years worth of tax returns to the McCain campaign so they could determine if he would make a suitable Vice President.  He must meet that same standard now so that the American people may judge whether he would be a suitable President, and whether there are any conflicts of interest that could cloud his judgment.”

The Buffett/Romney/Reagan Rule in Time for Tax Day

April 15, 2012

Posted by AzblueMeanie:

Democrats will bring a bill up for a vote this week on the "Buffett Rule," so-named after the "Oracle of Omaha" for his August 2011 opinion in the New York Times, Stop Coddling the Super-Rich – NYTimes.com in which Buffett wrote:

Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.

* * *

But for those making more than $1 million — there were 236,883 such households in 2009 — I would raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million, including, of course, dividends and capital gains. And for those who make $10 million or more — there were 8,274 in 2009 — I would suggest an additional increase in rate.

My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.

Others have suggested calling it the "Romney Rule," The 'Romney Rule' makes it debut, after the multi-millionaire Vulture Capitalist investor who financially benefits from this "millionaire loophole" on his investment income, in order to highlight the unfairness of our tax system on the presumptive Tea-Publican nominee whose own tax proposals would shower a tax windfall on his super-wealthy investor class but raise the tax burden on middle-class Americans. Romney Tax Plan: Robin Hood in Reverse.

A third alternative was suggested by President Obama in a speech this past week, the "Reagan Rule," after President Reagan who also supported closing the "millionaire loophole" after being contacted by a wealthy investor much the same as Warren Buffett who told Reagan it was unfair.

Meet The Unconscious Press

April 15, 2012

Posted by Bob Lord It really sucks that so many people rely almost exclusively on TV for information. I’m doing something I almost never do — watch Sunday morning television. I’m currently watching Sunday Square Off, and Braham Resnick actually did a pretty good job of helping Andy Thomas make an ass of himself. I … Read more

The hypocrisy of ‘Mittens’ and his ‘mommy wars’ faux controversy

April 15, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Up With Chris Hayes this morning demonstrated the hypocrisy of "Mittens" and his "mommy wars" faux controversy. Romney: Welfare parents 'need to go to work':

The presidential campaign was consumed this week by controversy over Ann Romney and stay-at-home moms. Republicans seized on a stray comment by CNN contributor Hilary Rosen, who said Ann Romney had “never worked a day in her life.” Romney responded to the Rosen comments in a speech to the National Rifle Association on Friday, saying, "I happen to believe that all moms are working moms.”

But video from earlier this year [below the fold], aired today on Up With Chris Hayes, shows Romney campaigning on the proposition that meaningful welfare reform should require parents with children to get out of the home and into the workforce. Responding to a question at a town hall event in Manchester, New Hampshire on January 4th, Romney described his position on work requirements for welfare recipients as governor of Massachusetts.

“I wanted to increase the work requirement,” Romney said. “I said, for instance, that even if you have a child two years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, ‘Well that's heartless,' and I said ‘No, no, I'm willing to spend more giving daycare to allow those parents to go back to work. It'll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.’”

That position has been conservative orthodoxy for years. Republicans have railed against the “culture of dependency” created by welfare programs, campaigning aggressively for policies that would force welfare recipients off the roles and “back into the workforce.”

As Romney himself put it in a speech to the Burlington Business Council during his campaign for Senate in 1994, the purpose of welfare “is to get people back into the workforce, that work is ennobling, and that we will do everything in our power to make sure that people who are on welfare have an opportunity and an obligation to go to work, not after two years but from day one if we could.”

The media abandons its role as ‘gatekeeper,’ now just a provocateur of manufactured controversy

April 14, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

If we learned anything this week, it is that the corporate media is completely useless. It no longer serves its traditional role as "gatekeeper" of what is deemed newsworthy.

Case in point, TeaNN (formerly known as CNN) contributor and Democratic strategist Hillary Rosen appeared on TeaNN's Anderson Cooper 360 and said that "Ann Romney had not worked a day in her life" (she meant to say Ann Romney had never been employed a day in her her life). A faux pas that the Romney campaign and RNC jumped on in an attempt to revive the culture warriors' "mommy wars" from a couple of decades ago. I expect the Romney campaign and the RNC to manufacture controversy, it is what they do.

But what was entirely unacceptable is how the supposedly professional corporate media villagers pounced on this manufactured controversy like a hungry lion on a fresh kill. Media villagers were visibly salivating over this manufactured controversy. It exposed the media villagers for what they are: provocateurs of manufactured controversy with which to fill hours of air time with endless talk.

All of the corporate media engaged in this fake controversy, but the worst offender by far was TeaNN. This was their paid contributor who made a mistake and was criticized immediately for it. TeaNN gas bag Wolf Blitzer got all high and mighty on his Situation Room with Ms. Rosen and she apologized to Ann Romney. Rosen apologizes for Ann Romney comments.

Then TeaNN gas bag John King had the Obama campaign's David Axelrod on for an interview during his segment, and tried to infer that this CNN contributor works for the Obama campaign. David Axelrod To CNN’s John King: Hilary Rosen Is Your Employee, Not Ours – Mediaite:

Chief Obama strategist David Axelrod spoke with CNN’s John King Thursday and distanced the campaign from Hilary Rosen‘s controversial comments that Ann Romney had not worked a day in her life. “She actually is your employee, not ours,” Axelrod told King. “She works for CNN. I think CNN would not allow her to be an operative for our campaign.”

King asked Axelrod why Rosen’s comments were such a big deal that Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and multiple other campaign operatives had to condemn it.

* * *

“I think we have an obligation in politics and public life, when someone, even friends, say things that are inappropriate to say so. In certain ways, when your friends say it, there is more of an obligation to do so. I think that’s true on both sides. I’ve been disappointed on the other side of the aisle just recently when Governor Romney and others were not willing to stand up and denounce speech they felt that most people would call inappropriate. I thought we had an obligation to speak and speak very, very quickly to make clear that this didn’t reflect our point of view and that we thought Hilary should apologize. She did do that. The other thing that we should clear up is that she actually is your employee, not ours. She works for CNN. I think CNN would not allow her to be an operative for our campaign. She is not. She never has been. She is a supporter of the President. The Romney campaign has throughout the day portrayed her as an advisor to the president. That’s simply not true.”