AZ BlueMeanie Posted by AzBlueMeanie: In breaking news this morning, Governor Goodhair Rick Perry will "suspend" (end) his campaign. "Another one bites the dust, hey hey!" Rick Perry Is Ending His Campaign – ABC News: Rick Perry is telling his supporters that he's going to end his campaign for the Republican nomination, ABC News has confirmed. Perry entered … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Aha! Just as I posted at the time, A typo may have led to 'Mittens' Romney's win in Iowa. It turns out that Tea-Publicans don't know how to count after they run out of fingers and toes, and can't do math.
The "official" results are in and Rick "man on dog" Santorum is the official winner of the Iowa Caucus. Final Iowa Results: Santorum Tops Romney, but We’ll Never Know Who Won:
Rick Santorum collected more caucus votes in Iowa, by the state party’s final count, but we’ll never know who really won.
The Republican Party of Iowa told the Des Moines Register Thursday morning that the final count shows Santorum winning by 34 votes after precincts certified their results. But eight precincts’ results will never be recovered and certified, party officials told the paper.
The current, incomplete count: 29,839 votes for Santorum and 29,805 votes for Mitt Romney.
* * *
Since the Iowa Republican Party announced on caucus night that Romney had edged Santorum by a mere eight votes, it has been collecting certified results forms from Iowa’s counties and precincts.
Thursday’s results are final. Santorum will forever hold a lead with incomplete returns.
By now, though, it may not matter whether Santorum officially won. Before Thursday morning’s announcement, the candidate and major media outlets had already declared Iowa an effective tie, and Iowa does not award delegates to any candidate. Unlike for most states, Iowa’s delegates to the Republican National Convention are free to support whichever candidate they choose, and the state will not select those delegates until June.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Aha! Just as I suspected. The über-rich salt their money away in tax havens around the world like the Cayman Islands to hide the extent of their wealth and to avoid paying taxes on their income in the countries in which they live. How patriotic (sarcasm) in these difficult economic times. And sure 'nuf, Willard "Mittens" Romney is among the unpatriotic über-rich.
Bain Capital has 138 offshore tax haven accounts in the Cayman Islands that is nothing more than a post office box (P.O. Box 908) in the Cayman Islands. A dozen accounts belong to "Mittens" Romney.
ABC News Nightline reports Romney Parks Millions in Cayman Islands – ABC News:
Although it is not apparent on his financial disclosure form, Mitt Romney has millions of dollars of his personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven.
As the race for the Republican nomination heats up, Mitt Romney is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain a shroud of secrecy around the details about his vast personal wealth, including, as ABC News has discovered, his investment in funds located offshore and his ability to pay a lower tax rate.
"His personal finances are a poster child of what's wrong with the American tax system," said Jack Blum, a Washington lawyer who is an authority on tax enforcement and offshore banking.
* * *
tax experts tell ABC News there are other reasons Romney may not want the public viewing his returns. As one of the wealthiest candidates to run for president in recent times, Romney has used a variety of techniques to help minimize the taxes on his estimated $250 million fortune. In addition to paying the lower tax rate on his investment income, Romney has as much as $8 million invested in at least 12 funds listed on a Cayman Islands registry. Another investment, which Romney reports as being worth between $5 million and $25 million, shows up on securities records as having been domiciled in the Caymans.
Official documents reviewed by ABC News show that Bain Capital, the private equity partnership Romney once ran, has set up some 138 secretive offshore funds in the Caymans.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Willard "Mittens" Romney worked as a vulture capitalist for Bain Capital until 1999. He still receives income from Bain Capital on investments, which for hedge fund managers and guys like "Mittens" Romney is taxed as capital gains at a rate of 15%. The über-rich have a lower tax rate than you and I do, especially when you add in FICA payroll tax deductions on top of income tax liability.
"MIttens" claims to have earned around $374,000 in speaking fees, which he described as "not much money" (followed by evil laughter). This is more than six times the average middle-class household income of $50,000. Not much? Out of touch Richie Rich.
"Mittens" Romney says he may produce his income tax records in April, which most political commentators rightly observe will only be his 2011 taxes, and will be politically manipulated in an attempt to defuse this issue. Not so fast, "Mittens."
His father George Romney released 12 years worth of tax records when he ran for president in 1968. I want to see his tax records for the past 12 years, i.e., since he left Bain Capital — and he can release those records today, there is no justifiable excuse for delay.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Via the Arizona Republic's AZ/DC Blog – Obama to visit Phoenix area on Jan. 25: WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will travel to the Phoenix area on Wednesday, Jan. 25, a White House official confirmed Wednesday. The president’s trip to Arizona will be part of a five-state, three-day swing across the country … Read more