In other news, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the creation of an investigative unit, originally proposed in the State of the Union, which will probe misconduct in the bundling of high-risk, sub-prime mortgage loans into triple-A-rated, mortgage-backed securities. More details here.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker responds to Governor Chris Christie’s earlier comments calling for a referendum on same-sex marriage.
I really hope this man runs for president some day.
If the Civil Rights Act had been put up for public referendum, it never would have happened contrary to what Chris Christie, and Ron Paul, may tell you.
Furthermore, we have a recent example of what happens when public prejudice is voted on with California’s proposition 8.
The least shocking news of the day is that Ron Paul was both fully aware of the contents of the Ron Paul Survival Report, his racist newsletter, and that he personally reviewed each issue.
But people close to Paul’s operations said he was deeply involved in the company that produced the newsletters, Ron Paul & Associates, and closely monitored its operations, signing off on articles and speaking to staff members virtually every day.
“It was his newsletter, and it was under his name, so he always got to see the final product. . . . He would proof it,” said Renae Hathway, a former secretary in Paul’s company and a supporter of the Texas congressman. [...]
“A person involved in Paul’s businesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid criticizing a former employer, said Paul and his associates decided in the late 1980s to try to increase sales by making the newsletters more provocative,” the paper reports. “They discussed adding controversial material, including racial statements, to help the business, the person said.”
Oh, but, he’s against drones!
These latest revelations do not conclusively demonstrate that Paul is a racist scumbag, who just happens to apologize for the South while speaking in front of Confederate flags, but they do show he knew full-well what was contained in the newsletters.
It’s unfortunate some fellow liberals wasted their time pretending Ron Paul was a secret-progressive hero.
Earlier this week polls showed that Mitt Romney’s favorability had dropped 35 percent among independents since the beginning of the month and his overall disapproval rating had nearly doubled among self-identified Republicans.
A new Quinnipiac poll released today show Mitt Romney’s favorability has dropped by another 9 percent since then.
But Romney is still struggling among the state’s more conservative voters. He trails Gingrich, 41 percent to 20 percent, among those likely primary voters who support the tea party. Among those who do not support the tea party, Romney romps, 47 percent to 24 percent.
Romney also holds a massive lead over Gingrich among those voters who say they are not evangelical or born-again Christians, 49 percent to 27 percent. But Gingrich leads among evangelicals, 39 percent to 29 percent.
In the waning days of the campaign in Florida, both candidates’ negatives are rising, the poll shows. The percentage of likely voters who have an unfavorable opinion of Romney has risen 9 points since earlier this week, and the percentage who view Gingrich unfavorably is up 12 points. Now, just half of likely voters have a favorable impression of Gingrich, compared to 61 percent who view Romney favorably — an double-digit decrease for both candidates over the previous poll.
Different polling organizations have different numbers, but they all reflect a trend of Mitt Romney become a weaker and weaker candidate as the Republican primary drags on.
Romney is still failing to attract the Tea Party and Evangelical vote, which represents the core-base — or Lunatic Base as I like to call it — of the Republican party, and his efforts to stop the hemorrhaging is costing him dearly among independents and moderates.
President Obama is going to have an infinitely easier time appealing to independent and moderate voters while retaining the support of his base than Mitt Romney because, unlike the Republican party, the Democratic party’s base is not comprised of crazy people.
The State of the Union; Ron Paul’s Homophobia; Debates Aren’t Supposed to be Exciting; All of the Above Energy Policy; Assaulting Public Figures; Newt Gingrich Screws Up the First Amendment; Gingrich’s Moon Base; Video Games; Bob is an Angry Old Man; and much more! Brought to you by Bubble Genius!
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This week’s show: Drinking and Math Don’t Mix; The Science of Hangovers; Disgusting Bloody Blog Photos; Paula Deen Shocked by Backlash, Eats Gigantic Burger; Tattoos; David Lee Roth Won’t Shut Up; The Steven Weber Tweets of the Week with the Actual Steven Weber; Misleading Headlines; There Is No G-Spot; and more!
I was recording the podcasts while the debate was on, so TPM’s “Debate in 100 Seconds” was helpful.
I’ll take on Ron Paul in bike race.
Chris Christie doesn’t support same-sex marriage legislation in New Jersey. His solution? A referendum. And some history…
“The fact of the matter is, I think people would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South,” he said. [...]
The comment outraged many African-American leaders in the state, who pointed out that such a referendum never would have passed in the south during the 60s — and that many black people were also disenfranchised at the time.
“People were fighting and dying in the streets of the South for a reason,” Oliver said. “They were fighting and dying in the streets of the South because the majority refused to grant minorities equal rights by any method. It look legislative action to bring justice to all Americans, just as legislative action is the right way to bring marriage equality to all New Jerseyans.”
I wonder what kind of sassy, snotty, man-of-the-people horseshit he’s going to roll out in defense of this.
“It’s pretty simple: marriage is between a man and a woman. This is a historic doctrine driven deep into the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, and it’s a perfect example of what I mean by the rise of paganism. The effort to create alternatives to marriage between a man and a woman are perfectly natural pagan behaviors, but they are a fundamental violation of our civilization.” Newt Gingrich, who once asked his second wife for an open marriage to include his affair with Calista
His degree of shameless hypocrisy is startling.
Martin Sexton – “Young and Beautiful”
In other news, 2 more aides to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker were charged today for illegally fundraising while working on the taxpayer’s dime. This brings the total to 5 the number of former Walker henchmen facing charges.
Another GOP clown car debate will take place tonight at 8 pm EST on CNN featuring the Worst Political Team on Television.
iPhone release? Twilight movie? No.
It’s people sleeping on the floor lined up for tickets to view President Obama speak in Ann Arbor, Michigan on Friday morning.
Do you see people lining up like this, particularly young people, for the GOP candidates? Will you ever? I don’t think so.
You can view more photos and video here.
Via the LA Times, a close examination and cross-checking of Mitt Romney’s 2010 tax return has revealed discrepancies between his tax return and his financial disclosure forms which are a requirement of running for office.
Some investments listed in Mitt and Ann Romney’s 2010 tax returns – including a now-closed Swiss bank account and other funds located overseas – were not explicitly disclosed in the personal financial statement the GOP presidential hopeful filed in August as part of his White House bid.
The Romney campaign described the discrepancies as “trivial” but acknowledged Thursday afternoon that they are undergoing an internal review of how the investments were reported and will make “some minor technical amendments” to Romney’s financial disclosure that will not alter the overall picture of his finances.
A review by the Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington Bureau found that at least 23 funds and partnerships listed in the couple’s 2010 tax returns did not show up or were not listed in the same fashion on Romney’s most recent financial disclosure, including 11 based in low-tax foreign countries such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg.
I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that the financial disclosure form filed last year did not contain a comprehensive list of funds housed in off-shore tax havens. If it had, his candidacy might have died before primary voting even began. And I don’t believe writing off this kind of discrepancy as “trivial” would work for any other candidate including, and especially, the president. Now the Republicans are stuck with jolly ole Mitt and his financial baggage.
The only question is — does this mean he will fire the men who did the shine job on this disclosure forms?
Moveon.org has presented another reason for me to find Justin Long to be hilarious. And Mitt Romney.
This is such a better use of time than picketing the president. I look forward to the next episode.
According to Mitt Romney, “the banks” aren’t bad people. In fact, they’re just as scared as you are of the Obama Administration and their job-killing regulations and “uncertainty.” Or something.
Romney was standing outside a Fannie Mae-foreclosed home in a struggling neighborhood telling a small crowd why they’re having so much trouble. “In this case, it’s because of the banks,” he explained. “Well, the banks aren’t bad people. They’re just overwhelmed right now.”
During a Monday roundtable with business owners struggling in Florida’s hobbled housing market, the former Massachusetts governor told the group that their troubles with banks came because the lenders were worried about staying in business.
“The banks are scared to death, of course,” he said. “They’re feeling the same thing that you’re feeling. And so they just want to pretend that all this is just going to get paid some day.”
Yes. The banks are terrified of going out of business and they’re feeling the same pain the average American is right now!
Meanwhile, in the real world, Wall Street and “the banks” are doing better than ever.
Wall Street firms — independent companies and the securities-trading arms of banks — are doing even better. They earned more in the first 2 1/2 years of the Obama administration than they did during the eight years of the George W. Bush administration, industry data show. [...]
The largest banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, earned $34 billion in profit in the first half of the year, nearly matching what they earned in the same period in 2007 and more than in the same period of any other year.
Securities firms — the trading arms of big banks and hundreds of other independent firms — have fared even better. They’ve generated at least $83 billion in profit during the past 2 1/2 years, compared with $77 billion during the entire Bush administration, according to data from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.
Corporate profits rose 17 percent in 2010 and 22 percent in 2011. Wall Street specificly has raked in more cash during under the first half of the first term of the Obama Administration than during the entire Bush Administration.
If they really are scared, they need pull up their big-boy pants.
By the way, did Romney mention to the crowd he was speaking to outside of the Fannie-foreclosed home that he has investments in Fannie? Investments that benefited from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
(via Nicole)
“I will recover and will return.” Rep. Gabby Giffords
She absolutely will. But next time as a senator.
Nancy Pelosi is holding an anvil over Gingrich’s bulbous head:
A little while ago, Pelosi said in an interview that she was familiar with “a thousand pages” of documents related to the ethics probe of Gingrich that got him bounced from Congress. That triggered the first round of right-wing consipracy-mongering; her office quickly cleared up that all those documents are already public. They’re online right here.
Undaunted, Romney picked up this line the other day, calling on Gingrich to “release” the probe. Many news outlets pointed it out again: The probe is already public.
Yesterday, Pelosi told CNN in an offhand comment that Gingrich will never be president, because “there’s something that I know.” Drudge madly flacked this “revelation“ with a massive headline claiming: “PELOSI THREAT: NEWT WON’T BE PRESIDENT.”
Who knows how something like this could work. The Marianne revelations actually helped Gingrich in South Carolina where “hike the Appalachian Trail” is commonplace by now.
Unless there are photos of Gingrich performing abortions, I can’t imagine what could possibly harm Gingrich beyond the litany of other scandals and skeletons. This is guy who survived “right wing social engineering”, the Pelosi global warming video, Marianne, Tiffany’s, etc, etc.
Romney thinks you’re an idiot:
“One of the reasons why we have a lower tax rate on capital gains is because capital gains are also being taxed at the corporate level. So as businesses earn profits, that’s taxed at 35 percent, then as they distribute those profits as dividends, that’s taxed at 15 percent more. So, all total, the tax rate is really closer to 45 or 50 percent.”
No it’s not. If he pays an effective tax rate of 15 percent, and that includes flow-through from his corporation (I think Bain is an S-corp), then he’s only paying 15 percent.
There’s not some hidden tax of 35 percent he’s paying somewhere in there. It doesn’t exist.
You know, it’s this kind of corporate numbers trickery that caused the recession.
MGMT – “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything”
Directed by Ned Wenlock
In other news, the Indiana House passed “Right-to-Work” legislation today by a margin of 54 – 44.
1/26/12 Show: The State of the Union; Ron Paul's Homophobia; Debates Aren't Supposed to be Exciting; All of the Above Energy Policy; and much more!
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1/20/12 Show: Marijuana Legalization; Newt Surges in the Polls; South Carolina and The Southern Strategy; Mitt Romney's 1% Problem; and much more!
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1/13/12 Show: The Weakness of Romney; We Continue to Tweak Ron Paul Supporters; The Politics of Envy; Wall Street in the White House; and much more!
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