Sunday, September 30, 2012

Another new poll shows Obama ahead in Ohio by nine points

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September 30, 2012
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As reported here, Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney has to win all nine of the battleground states to take the Presidency. And now, there’s more bad news for Romney via another poll.  A new Dispatch Poll shows Romney trailing President Obama in Ohio by 9 points, 51 percent to 42 percent.


A surge of Democratic support for Obama has transformed the race since the first Dispatch Poll had the two dead-even at 45 percent just before the Republican National Convention in late August.

The survey is the fifth major poll — from The Washington Post to Fox News — of Ohio voters in a week to show the president ahead by 5 to 10 points. He also leads in surveys of most of the remaining swing states.

Romney would need at this point to gain support in: Florida, Colorado, Nevada, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Virginia, which would put him at 267 votes, and upend Obama in either Ohio or Iowa, in order to win.

The Republican candidate will have to give one hell of a debate, while displaying his human side, which has been lacking. Aides, colleagues and pundits have conveyed that thought to Romney. The awkward candidate would need to channel an inner-middle class American to portray a candidate that is not robotic during the upcoming debate.

And even then, that may be too late. Ohio begins early voting in two days time.

The Dispatch reports, “Experts say as many as 40 percent of Ohio voters will cast an absentee ballot before Nov. 6.”

Image: Los Angeles Times.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Romney’s campaign must have known Sproul’s infamous past with Voter Fraud. The RNC knew.

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September 29, 2012
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The North Carolina Republican Party just fired the voter registration firm owned by Mitt Romney’s paid political consultant and longtime GOP operative, Nathan Sproul. Sproul has been working with the RNC for years and now, 10 counties in Florida alone are reporting fraudulent registration forms. The hypocrisy in this Republican scandal is through the roof.

Republicans are distancing themselves from Sproul but fail to mention that they have repeatedly hired them, even requesting the company change their name in order to avoid scandal (aka: being caught). At the same time Republicans spent an  extraordinary amount of time taking down ACORN, the RNC was hiring the infamous Nathan Sproul. As reported here, “Sproul was hired by the Romney campaign for a period of five months that began last November and ended in March. But now there’s evidence that the payments continued, only to a different name.”

Watch Cenk Uygur and note the 7:13 mark:



The RNC has spent more than $3.1 million this year alone to Strategic Allied Consulting, a company formed in June by Nathan Sproul. Sproul has been previously accused in past elections of improprieties designed to help Republican candidates, including dumping registration forms filled out by Democrats, but none of those allegations led to any criminal charges. Note that there was no outrage from Republicans, in fact, they kept hiring Sproul while the witch hunt against ACORN took priority.

We broke the story of the young woman registering only Romney voters. Since then, it’s been made public that she in fact worked for Sproul’s company — we’re not faulting the young lady, but we have to wonder who trained her for her job.

Where is the Romney campaign in all of this?

Vote wisely. Register to Vote. 

Romney campaign co-chair complains Obama was timid, didn’t kill Bin Laden fast enough

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September 29, 2012
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Saturday in an interview with the New York Times, Mitt Romney campaign co-chair opened up on a few issues — but like Mitt’s wife, Ann, it’s perhaps better if he doesn’t. Friday, Ann Romney stated that if President, her biggest concern for her husband would be Mitt’s “mental well-being.” And now, I find myself concerned with John Sununu’s as well.


After being asked about President Obama’s actions against Osama bin Laden, Sununu replied:

The president is trying to take credit for following the strategy and the tactics put into place by George W. Bush. At some point the president is going to have to explain why he was timid on the first two or three opportunities that we had. Thank goodness Hillary Clinton was there was to convince him to do the right thing.

(my bold)

So the complaint is that the president didn’t kill Bin Laden fast enough? 

His trying to take credit for having been decisive belies the fact that he wasn’t decisive until pressed by others.

Lest we forget Mitt Romney’s words in 2007, “It’s not worth moving heaven and earth and spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.”

Eight years after Bush’s Mission Accomplished speech, to the day, Osama bin Laden was killed by SEAL Team six, on President Obama’s orders.

The rest of the interview is equally amusing.

I’ll leave you with this snippet:

You recently described the vaguely Southern accent the president uses in speeches as “phony as his jaunt when he runs up and down Marine One.” What exactly is a phony jaunt?

Every time you see him climbing up or down stairs, he elevates his arms and does this pumping, trying to look like a well-trained and trim dynamic individual. It’s something he does all the time, particularly when he’s climbing up to a podium to speak or address a crowd. This president understands that he got elected on the basis of style and not substance, and I think he’s trying to preserve style.

John Sununu, there are hundreds of ways we are ‘better off’, which display substance from the President.

Hypocrisy Alert: Texas AG praises court for upholding Voter ID law, “court rejected the ACORN affiliates”

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September 28, 2012
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The North Carolina Republican Party just fired the voter registration firm owned by Mitt Romney’s paid political consultant and longtime GOP operative, Nathan Sproul. Sproul has been working with the RNC for years and now, 10 counties in Florida alone are reporting fraudulent registration forms.


Adalia Woodbury from PoliitucsUSA reports:

Yesterday, the RNC, along with State Republicans in Florida, North Carolina and Colorado, fired Nathan Sproul’s firm following reports that 106 questionable voter registration forms were submitted to Palm Beach County’s Supervisor of Elections, Susan Bucher by a Strategic Allied Consulting employee. That investigation is now mushrooming with ten counties reporting possibly suspect forms.

Sproul was hired by the Bush Campaign to register Republican voters and misplace or destroy Democratic voters in 2004.  For his services, Sproul was paid eight million dollars.

The firm was hired at the request of the Republican National Committee – Sproul is infamous for having committed fraud by tampering with Democratic voter registration forms and suppressing votes.

Wral reports, “Sproul was hired by the Romney campaign for a period of five months that began last November and ended in March. But now there’s evidence that the payments continued, only to a different name.”

Voter ID Laws have been sweeping America, conveniently just before the Presidential election. ACORN, the organization, which became notorious after highly edited tapes were created by James O’Keefe and the now deceased Andrew Breitbart, never destroyed registration forms.

But, since they have already besmirched ACORN’s name already, Texas Attorney General, is going to roll with that. 

On Project Vote’s site:

Earlier this month, Project Vote filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to intervene and prevent the state from enforcing laws that place undue burdens on voter registration drive. Yesterday, the court denied the emergency appeal.

“The most important issue is that several million Texans are still not registered to vote. Texas law should make it easier, not harder, for community members to help one another to register.

“Americans have been fighting for fair access to the ballot box since the birth of our democracy. Project Vote will continue to fight these burdensome Texas laws in court and we look forward to having a full hearing at the Fifth Circuit later this year. We are optimistic that, ultimately, these restrictions will be stuck down as they have been in other courts around the nation.”

Texas AG’s response:

Last night the U.S. Supreme Court denied Project Vote’s emergency request to block Texas from enforcing election integrity laws that were enacted to prevent voter-registration fraud. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott released the following statement regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s denial of Project Vote’s appeal:

“The Supreme Court’s rejection of Project Vote’s appeal is a victory for voter integrity and helps Texas prevent fraud in the voter-registration process. The partisan groups that challenged these laws were founded by and affiliated with ACORN – an organization that was notorious for voter-registration fraud. With this ruling, the court rejected these ACORN affiliates’ attempts to circumvent election integrity laws and helped ensure that Texans can have confidence in the integrity of their elections.”

(My bold)

The hypocrisy in this man’s statement is through the roof. Note that pundits and journalists have shied away from asking Mitt Romney what exact affiliation he has had with Sproul — and why. ACORN was attacked because Republicans believed the organization to lean heavily toward Obama. Where in the fuck is James O’Keefe? I’m sure he’ll be all up in this. Any moment now.

Meanwhile, Tea Party groups are working overtime, intimidating voters at the polls, in a feigned attempt to seek out illegal voters. And all of this trouble for a fairy tale. Republicans have been touting Voter ID laws while purging actual voters, all in the name of voter fraud — which is almost nonexistent.

Still yet, Republicans are purging voters in Colorado and Florida, which target largely Democrat and independent registered voters — mainly the elderly and minorities.

What they’ve unearthed: 

“Officials uncovered that less than one-tenth of 1 percent of voters are potentially unqualified to vote. These findings drastically downgrade Republican fears of voter fraud from the tens of thousands of noncitizens officials originally estimated.”

Vote wisely. Register to Vote. 

Friday, September 28, 2012

Scott Brown who denied attacking Elizabeth Warren over her heritage, released an ad about…her heritage

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September 28, 2012
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During the first Massachusetts Senate debate between Sen. Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren, Brown said several times, “Professor Warren claimed that she was a Native American, a person of color, and clearly as you can see, she’s not.”
But, those words were not uttered according to Brown – even though America heard them. Huffpo reports,“Yet when asked about his Native American-detection abilities at a press conference Tuesday, Brown denied ever having made the statement about Warren.”

And now, Scott Brown’s campaign released an ad, revolving specifically around Ms. Warren’s heritage.




This week, Brown staffers were busted on video, acting out in a highly offensive manner. 

So, it appears that Scott Brown feels this is the direction his campaign should take, instead of debating Elizabeth Warren. I don’t blame him. She would kick my ass in a debate too.

The Washington Post Fact-Checker. 

Donate to Elizabeth Warren for Senate. 

Thursday, September 27, 2012

New ad hits Mitt Romney using his own words. It’s going to sting.

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September 27, 2012
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The Obama campaign released a new ad using Mitt Romney’s disparaging remarks during a speech toward 47 percent of the electorate. The visuals hits home; displaying the faces of everyday middle class Americans, while the audio of Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s speech plays in the background.

Romney’s own colleagues have advised the candidate to just be himself, but he certainly has had issues showing his humanity, so that makes this ad even more remarkable — these are faces of real people, not corporations, my friend.



There are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what …”

“… who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that 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 …”

“… And they will vote for this president no matter what …”

“… And so my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

That ad will be out in New Hampshire, Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Nevada and Colorado.

Brave, fearless, patriotic new GOP Suppression Law just prevented a group of elderly nuns from voting

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September 27, 2012
By 

Well the GOP voter purge is coming along swimmingly. A group of elderly nuns are now unable to vote. Sister Gallagher and 23 other nuns from the Our Lady of Peace residence, the retirement home for the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary congregation, lack the identification needed to vote in November. Another 11 nuns recently received state-issued identification cards. One 95-year-old sister had to wait four hours at the Driver Licensing Center. These elderly nuns, represent thousands in their state. Voter ID laws are upheld and sweeping the country, with scant evidence of voter fraud.

The Times-Tribune reports:


The congregation’s peace and justice committee has sent a letter to Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson and the state’s Supreme Court justices, asking them to overturn the law.
The sisters represent “thousands and thousands of elder Pennsylvanians facing a similar exclusion from their lifelong participation in the democratic process. If the Voting Act of 2012 is maintained in the courts, the seniors will have a serious violation of their rights visited upon them. It must not be allowed to stand,” the sisters wrote.
One of the acceptable forms of identification is a card issued by a care facility, but because the OLP is not licensed by the state, the cards are not valid, said Sister Eleanor Mary Marconi, I.H.M., assistant administrator at OLP.

These fearless patriots just put a group of elderly nuns, through hours of tireless waiting; still not obtaining their identification, only to be told that they cannot vote. Someone had to stand up to these seasoned criminals, trying to use their right to vote.

In fact, Voter fraud cases amount to, less than 1/10th of one percent.

Still yet, the disenfranchisement of thousands of legally registered voters continues.  Most are overwhelmingly black and Hispanic Democrats. This has all happened before. In 2000, the Presidential race was won by thousands of voters. Oddly (not really), that’s close to the same number that they purged.

This is scary: Republicans now supporting Todd Akin to win back the Senate & stop Obama’s ‘Liberal agenda’

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September 26, 2012
By 

Missouri Senate candidate Todd’Legitimate rape’ Akin decided to remain in the race against Sen. Claire McCaskill, even after the urging of many of his Conservative colleagues. Newt Gingrich is raising money for Akin’s campaign in St. Louis.

Former Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum and Sen. Jim DeMint, a tea party favorite, announced support for Akin, calling him a “principled Conservative.” It that terminology equates with a dire need to take Biology 101, then yes, he is. It’s not so much about what comes out of one politician’s mouth, but that it’s the same thing most of his colleagues say daily and this should scare the living hell out of you:

“If Republicans are to win back the Senate and stop President Obama’s liberal agenda, we must defeat Sen. Claire McCaskill in Missouri,” Santorum and DeMint said in a joint statement. They added: “We support Todd Akin and hope freedom-loving Americans in Missouri and around the country will join us so we can save our country from fiscal collapse.”

In the following video are highlights of Akin’s controversial statements, from what he perceives as ‘legitimate rape’ to abortion to Hate Crimes. The worst is equating our President with the Devil.

Watch:



Can you honestly say that you haven’t heard this brand of crazy before?

Our President is one man, so in order for him to accomplish anything of substance, we have to get the obstructionists and uninformed politicians out of the House. When religiosity envelopes our lawmakers’ decisions, then our freedom is at risk.

When did Obama become a liberal?

Vote Wisely. Register to Vote. 

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Rachel Maddow obliterates the new Republican ‘fantasy electorate’ of the ‘skewed polls’ myth

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September 26, 2012
By 

The Romney campaign, other Republicans and of course, Fox News claim that polls showing President Obama with an advantage over their candidate are inaccurate. It’s another conspiracy theory being propagated by the right, or perhaps a strong sense of denial — but in either case, Republicans realize that Mitt Romney’s campaign is sinking fast.

Rachel Maddow from MSNBC took on the task of obliterating that myth — while including a small poll taken by Romney donors all displaying no anticipation for a Romney win.

Be sure to watch the second half of Maddow’s clip too, which wreaks of Republican desperation.


Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The ironically named Unskewed polls – after a little mathematical gymnastics — concluded that the difference is the sample and/or the weighting, and their results show Mitt Romney is ahead by a decent margin in every single poll.

I’d prefer to have the public believe that Obama is behind to get voters registered and at the polls. Perhaps Republicans that embrace this myth of skewed polls, have not read notable Conservative Peggy Noonan’s scathing columns on Mitt Romney

“The pendulum has swung toward Obama.” Mitt Romney has “a damaged political persona.” He is running behind in key states like Ohio and Virginia and, to a lesser extent, Florida. The president is reversing the decline that began with his “You didn’t build that” comment. For three weeks he’s been on a roll. The wind’s at his back.

Do Conservatives seriously believe that the female vote is actually in Romney’s favor? African Americans? Hispanics? If that had any semblance of truth to it, why did Romney allegedly wear bronzer before speaking to an Hispanic audience?

Republicans use of God distracts from their demoralizing agenda

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September 25, 2012
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Proverbs 22:16 “He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty.
Think about that.

Growing up, I never heard of Jesus ridiculing and chastising the poor as the rich praised his efforts.

Current Republican politics uses God to control the electorate. Rather than stand with the true message of Christianity, right-wingers push policies to thwart it.

And it has become all the more obvious to those who see the stark contrast.

Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” comments reflect the Republicans’ demoralizing agenda. In order to please the rich donors, the truth must be said otherwise the wallets – bank accounts – close. The corporate media claims it was a “gaffe” when speaking on the issue, however, for politicos who know the inside dealings, this wasn’t a gaffe and it was intended to convince the donors of the true message to get more money.

The people mentioned by Romney benefit from government assistance – and can hardly afford a $50,000 dinner plate. And in the south, where states trend heavy GOP, statistics prove there’s plenty of people who vote Republican and receive at least one item of government assistance.

But those same people in the south do cling to God and their guns. Why?

They’re told to.

Republicans use God to their benefit. Their political messaging is quite tuned. When you have decades of focus-group research and polling, you can craft a shiny message that not only relates but controls.

For example, when Republicans spend millions in advertising money to tell people God is being removed, destroyed, terrorized and drowned by those nasty liberals you’ll see eyes widen and ears perk up.

That type of messaging pulls at the heart. But like in the Wizard of Oz, there’s a person behind that curtain.

Republicans are not truly concerned about whether there’s truth in the message. If it causes people to react in favor of the Republicans, it’s paid off. Mitt Romney is a prime example of this. In South Carolina, Nikki Haley fits the bill.

However, the benefits reaped by such reactions favor elected Republicans, not the people supporting or voting for them.

As Republicans obstruct and defy progress for the American people, the country suffers. The people who vote for them suffer. They become dependent on government assistance, some at no fault of their own. They depend on government to help them. And when the Republicans continue to pound socially skewed messaging, those same people remain blind to the fact the Republicans are the ones screwing the American people.

All to promote their agenda, not the American people’s.

Oppressing the poor. Who is really doing such? When you look at the policies Republicans promote, you’ll find the answer…

But the average person has to look beyond their deceitful messaging. And that, for them, is really hard to do these days.

Those job creators: Romney’s success story Staples to close 60 stores worldwide

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September 25, 2012
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Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney is having a dreadful week. Romney claims that his business experience would solve our countries employment issues — while giving a nod to cutting regulations. Staples, Romney’s success story, pays their employees at a minimal pay rate and now many of Staples’ workers will now be unemployed.



Huffington Post reports:
Staples says it is speeding up the closure of about 15 of its U.S. stores and plans to close 45 stores and some delivery businesses in Europe.
The office products company also says it will invest more in its online and mobile efforts and will expand the product assortment that it offers to its business customers.

The Framingham, Mass., company anticipates annual savings of about $250 million by fiscal 2015′s end, so they’ll be faring well, however, touting the company as job creators is a distortion of facts. The facts are, that Staples pushed smaller businesses out, while bringing their large company in.When will politicians tout Mom and Pop stores, small local businesses and community, instead of privatization, enormous stores that go out of style leaving no means for the people left behind?

Image: MentalFloss

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

New ad shows 2010 Romney not agreeing with 2012 Romney on Emergency Room alternative

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September 24, 2012
By 

Mitt Romney is ObamaCare’s Daddy — after all, the Health Care Law was modeled on Romneycare, but the Republican Presidential nominee has promised repeatedly that he will strike it down if he gets elected. Romney’s solution is a more expensive alternative.  Mitt claims that America’s uninsured population do get treatment…in the Emergency Room. But, Romney’s duplicity knows no bounds. In 2010, Romney said, “Look it doesn’t make sense for us to have millions and millions of people who have no health insurance, and yet, who can go to the Emergency Room and get entirely free care for which they have no responsibility — particularly if there are people who have sufficient means to pay their own way.”

Welcome to the Internet Mr. Romney. Watch:




Higher health care costs, and consistent attempts to repeal Obamacare is not an alternative. Replaced with emergency rooms? That drives up hospital costs; state’s will end up paying for this. Romney’s solution is, going back in time.

Vote wisely. Register to Vote. 

Monday, September 24, 2012

Making $50,000 a year? Mitt Romney thinks you ought pay higher tax rate than him

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September 23, 2012
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60 Min: Is “fair to a guy who makes $50k” to pay “a higher rate than you?” Romney: “yeah.. It’s the right way to encourage economic growth”

So, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney continues to double down on comments showing a direct disregard for people making less than him.

On CBS’s 60 Minutes, Romney defended his low tax rate – and further denounced half of American people.


“Now you made, on your investments, personally, about $20 million last year,” Pelley said. “And you paid 14 percent in federal taxes. That’s the capital gains rate. Is that fair to the guy who makes $50,000 and paid a higher rate than you did?”

“It is a low rate,” Romney said. “And one of the reasons why the capital gains tax rate is lower is because capital has already been taxed once at the corporate level, as high as 35 percent.”

When pressed on whether or not he believes that rate is fair, Romney said he thought it was the “right way to encourage economic growth — to get people to invest, to start businesses, to put people to work.”

Mitt Romney believes – as does the newly reformed and hard-edged Republican party – catering to the rich while asking for the middle class and poor to make even more sacrifices, including losing what you’ve paid for while working – Medicare and Social Security.

Romney also works tirelessly to convince those hard-working $50,000 a year wage earners to forgo their pocketbooks and wallets and  protect the rich in the hopes of a “trickle-down” solution. Oh, those pesky social issues are mixed in for flavor.

And the GOP push the message of redistribution never having a place in America. But leave it to those annoying fact checkers to prove Romney – and the GOP – wrong.

Romney said that “redistribution” has “never been a characteristic of America.”

Reasonable people can disagree about the wisdom of it, but redistribution has been a basic principle of the U.S. tax system and many federal programs, including some such as veterans benefits that have long attracted support from Republicans. Pants on Fire!

Again, there is a war being waged. It is not surprising people remain blind to the facts, those being 1)used for their voting power and 2) using social issues to keep them from thinking about how poor and mistreated they really are.

Sure there is more than that, folks. But know this: A person who lives in a doublewide in the south making less than $50,000 will defend Mitt Romney and his twisted immoral philosophy.

And that’s a damn shame.

Because those exact people need the help the GOP are wanting to throw in the dumpster.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Woman registering voters, works for the County Clerk’s office but only registering Romney voters (Updated)

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September 23, 2012
By 

Registration efforts are underway in most states, mainly becoming more significant since Voter ID laws took center stage, in order to disenfranchise minorities, who largely vote for Democrats. In this video, you’ll see a young woman outside of a Safeway grocery store in El Paso County, Colorado, registering voters — unfortunately, a savvy shopper videotaped the meeting. The young lady is only registering Romney voters and she claims she’s paid by the County Clerk’s Office.





“Would you vote for Romney or Obama?,” the young lady asked. After being questioned over who pays her she adds, “We’re working for the county clerk’s office.”

What not to do:  Register one party while discounting other voters.

Update:

According the Gazette:

Neither the volunteer on the recording nor the patron could be tracked down Sunday. But some who saw the video were outraged, demanding an investigation of County Clerk and Recorder Wayne Williams, a Republican.Williams said the woman, though, doesn’t work for his office, which oversees local elections and voter registration. Instead, he said, she’s probably one of the scores of volunteers who are hitting the streets for both political parties to push voter registration ahead of the Nov. 6 election. The last day to register to vote for the presidential election is Oct. 9. 
“She’s not our employee and we’re not hiring her,” Williams said. “We will gladly take the registrations from both of the parties, though, and ensure they are entered accurately.”

Vote wisely. Register to Vote. 

H/T: @Majorly1 with thanks. You can follow him on Twitter.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Harry Reid on Mitt: When will the American people see the returns he filed before he was running for president?

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September 21, 2012
By 

Friday Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney released one year’s worth of tax releases. What was he hiding? A lot. Mitt overpaid the IRS intentionally, purely for show, in order to increase his tax rate. The uber-wealthy candidate would have paid approximately 9 percent, instead of 14.1 percent. While protecting tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, he’s attempting to manipulate the voter base — most assuredly Romney released them today to get the heat off of his butt, after recent videos were made public which display his disdain for 47% of America. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been the most vocal politician thus far over Mitt’s elusive tax returns and he’s not backing down now.

Romney is fully aware that to remain the Protectorate of the Rich, he would have to prove that his tax rate at least resembles what the middle class pays, or certainly more — at least to voters.


 ”The information released today reveals that Mitt Romney manipulated one of the only two years of tax returns he’s seen fit to show the American people – and then only to ‘conform’ with his public statements. That raises the question: what else in those returns has Romney manipulated? We already know Romney has money in tax havens in Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. What we don’t know is why he refuses to be straight with the American people about the choices he’s made in his financial life. When will the American people see the returns he filed before he was running for president? Governor Romney is showing us what he does when the public is looking. The true test of his character would be to show what he did when everyone was not looking at his taxes.

“It’s also galling to see the creative accounting Mitt Romney applied to his own tax returns only days after learning of his insulting comments that seniors, soldiers and hard-working parents don’t pay enough taxes. Once again, we see Mitt Romney is out of touch with middle class families, who don’t have the luxury of accounting wizards and foreign tax shelters. It’s obvious he believes in two sets of rules: one for him, and one for the middle class. He says he wants to be president for only half the people but he acts like he only cares for the top two percent. Despite the fiscal cliff looming in just over three months, Mitt Romney refuses to explain the details of his tax policy. Will the policies he proposes benefit all Americans, or only multi-millionaires like him?”

(my bold)

John McCain responds to the release of a whole year’s worth of tax returns:

“Mitt Romney has now released more than 1,200 pages of tax returns, giving voters an incredibly detailed look at his finances,” [McCain] said. “Now that the most recent tax return has been released, it’s time to get back to discussing the issues that voters care about.”

Since Romney is running for office, he cleaned up his tax rate. The Romney plan would shift the tax burden from high earners onto the middle class. How much lower does he want his rate to go?

As for John McCain’s statement, the tax rate does concern voters. Good try though.