I talk to nurses and programmers, salespeople and firefighters—people who bust their tails every day. Not one of them—not one—stashes their money in the Cayman Islands to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

(Full text.)

In Tampa, the Republican argument against the president’s re-election was actually pretty simple—pretty snappy. It went something like this: We left him a total mess. He hasn’t cleaned it up fast enough. So fire him and put us back in.

Now, there were two other attacks on the president in Tampa I think deserve an answer. First, both Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan attacked the president for allegedly robbing Medicare of $716 billion. That’s the same attack they leveled against the Congress in 2010, and they got a lot of votes on it. But it’s not true.

Here’s what really happened. There were no cuts to benefits at all. None. What the president did was to save money by taking the recommendations of a commission of professionals to cut unwarranted subsidies to providers and insurance companies that were not making people healthier and were not necessary to get the providers to provide the service.

And instead of raiding Medicare, he used the savings to close the doughnut hole in the Medicare drug program and—you all got to listen carefully to this; this is really important—and to add eight years to the life of the Medicare trust fund so it is solvent till 2024.

So President Obama and the Democrats didn’t weaken Medicare; they strengthened Medicare. Now, when Congressman Ryan looked into that TV camera and attacked President Obama’s Medicare savings as, quote, the biggest, coldest power play, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry because that $716 billion is exactly, to the dollar, the same amount of Medicare savings that he has in his own budget. You got to get one thing—it takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did.

(Full text).

“With a Republican Congress sitting shotgun, Mitt Romney will put the middle class on the roof and take us for a long, painful ride”

(Full text.)

Please join us tonight for an evening of politics and conversation over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally. Believe it our not, this will be the first week of the 2012 presidential General Election. That’s worth discussing. Oh…and the Democratic Convention is now underway.

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle’s DL tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter meets. And the Spokane chapter and Drinking Liberally Tacoma meet this Thursday.

With 236 chapters of Living Liberally, including thirteen in Washington state four in Oregon and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

Why Unions matter more than ever.

Roy ZImmerman: The Problem With Democrats:

“In 1968, France was a dangerous place to be for a 21-year-old American, but Mitt Romney was right in the middle of it.”

Bill Maher’s New Rule: GOP must admit George W. Bush exists .

The making of Labor Day.

The redevelopment of Yesler Terrace.

Chair Talk:

• The Million Dollar Chair.
• Jon celebrates Clint Eastwood’s ‘Fistful Of Awesome’ speech
• The old man from Gran Torino crashes the RNC.
• Bill Maher defends Clint Eastwood.
• Clint Eastwood’s Comedy Central Chair Roast.

Bashir: Is Paul Ryan the fastest ‘Kenyan’ candidate ever???

Roy Zimmerman: Vote Republican, Aloha, Hawaii!:

The Obama-Romney rap battle.

The debate between Inslee and McKenna.

Who is Paul Ryan?

Roy Zimmerman: Vote Republican, South Carolina edition:

Pap: GOP bound to fail.

Thom and Pap: Obama endorses Constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.

Liberal Viewer: The most negative campaign ever?

Thom with some Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

White House: West Wing Week.

The G.O.P. Multimedia Extravaganza!

• Young Turks: Mitt on Abortion.
• The Worst jokes from the convention (via Political Wire).
• Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: RNC 2012—Romney for President?
• Mitt: “Say”.
• Young Turks: Tim Pawlenty’s jokes at the Republican Convention.

Clint on Obama:

• Clint Eastwood offers a rambling and surreal bit of “performance art” at the convention.
• Raw Story interviews Clint Eastwood’s chair
• Jonathan Mann: Clint Eastwood Talking To A Chair:
• SlateTV: Eastwooding
• Young Turks: Clint Eastwood and the invisible Obama.
• Ann Telnaes: Romney talks to his chair.
• Maddow: Eastwood’s terribly timed RNC meltdown
• Sam Seder: Clint Eastwood, Mitt Romney & the RNC in a nutshell
• Comedian John Fugelsang reacts to Clint Eastwood
• Sam Seder and friends on Fact checking Paul Ryan’s RNC Speech (hint: full of lies!).
• Thom: It’s all another Republican con job.
• Young Turks: Mitt’s acceptance speech.
• Young Turks: The Ryan acceptance speech.
• Sam Seder: Ann Romney’s RNC Speech (or Tell Us How You REALLY Feel!).
• Thom: How the MSM helps the GOP Big Lie.
• Mark Fiore: The Love Me Mitt doll!
• Thom: GOP’s nightmarish response to MLK’s “I Have a Dream”.
• Mitt’s convention: Not going as planned.
• Jon would settle for ANY truth in Ryan’s speech
• Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: RNC 2012, elephants and a Newt!
• Jonathan Mann: Your Monster’s Come To Life
• Sharpton: The history of Mitt Romney’s flips and flops
• Young Turks: Buying Mitt Romney…The real Convention Is at Cracker Bay.
• Sam Seder: RNC attendees throw peanuts at African American CNN camera operator. “This is how we feed the animals”.
• Mitt accidentally calls the United States a “company”
• Thom: Can Romney flip-flop from being wealthy and out of touch?
• Young Turks: Paul Ryan blames Obama for S&P downgrade?!?
• Sam Seder: Jan Brewer endorses Obama at RNC?
• Mitt Romney: You didn’t build it…you DESTROYED it!

Roy Zimmerman: Mitt’s America the Beatiful:

Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.

Maddow: Court strikes down Ohio early voter restrictions.

The Democratic plan for gun control.

Veterans who support Obama.

Liberal Viewer: Colbert in the tank for Obama?

Ann Telnaes: Republican VP candidates, past and present.

Roy Zimmerman: Vote Republican, The Idaho verse.

Romney’s plan to “strengthen” the middle class.

Young Turks: The Michelle Obama slave mag cover.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Please join us tonight for an evening of politics and conversation over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally. Material for tonight’s discussions: The hurricane that is the G.O.P. convention, Rob McKenna’s refusal to release his tax returns, and, perhaps, today’s Arizona, Vermont, Alaska and Oklahoma elections ….

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle’s DL tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week. The Tri-Cities chapter also meets tonight. And on Monday, the Yakima, South Bellevue and Olympia chapters meet.

With 235 chapters of Living Liberally, including thirteen in Washington state four in Oregon and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter near you.

Rob McKenna is refusing to release his tax returns:

Washington gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna said Tuesday he will not release any of his tax returns, dismissing the matter as a distraction from important policy discussions.

McKenna, the state’s attorney general, said he has disclosed enough information in the personal financial forms that candidates file with the state. He called the tax-return debate – both here and nationally – a “phony issue.”

McKenna, a Republican, said his political rivals are attempting “to change the subject away from the real issues of the state.”

Democratic rival Jay Inslee, a former congressman, released five years of tax returns last week, and his campaign had called on McKenna to do the same.

I’m sure McKenna wants you to believe that he is taking a principled stand in refusing to release his tax returns, but his recalcitrance is problematic for the gubernatorial wannabe.

First, even if the “principled stand” hypothesis is true, standing tall with Mitt Romney isn’t going to endear him to Washingtonians. The state is just not that into Mittens. In other words, if McKenna wants to peddle himself as a “different kind of Republican,” one that is palatable to the voters of our state, he shouldn’t emulate, pretend to be, or come off as, in any way, an entitled one-percenter.

Romney has good reason to hide his tax returns. He’s done the political calculation. Releasing his tax returns would be much more damaging than disclosure. And it really is understandable—the fabulously wealthy have more opportunity to dodge taxes in ways that, if disclosed to the rest of us, would induce a bout of severe vertigo followed by repulsion-induced wrenching.

But McKenna…not so many tax dodging options. So if McKenna is “standing on principle,” he takes all the damage of non-discosure without any of the benefits.

(And he will take damage from this. Washingtonians are big on transparency. Don’t think for a moment that McKenna’s non-disclosure is going to be swept under the rug.)

So, really, if McKenna is merely standing on “principle”, he’s foolishly hurting himself.

On the other hand, maybe Rob isn’t a fool. Maybe he has done the calculation of relative political damage from disclosure versus non-disclosure. And he came down on the side of hiding his tax returns. If so, what is Rob McKenna hiding?

Is McKenna being foolish here? Or does he really have something to hide in his tax returns?

Intelligent voters want to know.

Sam Seder and Ari Berman: Fighting back against Republican led voter suppression efforts.

Willard!

• Roy Zimmerman: Vote Republican—Vermont edition
• Ed: The Latino Etch-A-Sketch, or Romney tries for the Latino vote.
• Mitt Romney on Bain job creation.:
• Zina Saunders: Paul Ryan’s Scouts Honor
• Sam Seder: Why won’t Mitt release his taxes?
• America doesn’t need a Birfer-in-chief.
• Jenn: Mitt Romney has taken the Birfer plunge
• Maddow: Blacks, Hispanics apparently not part of Romney victory plan
• CNN factchecks Romney “welfare” ad: FALSE!
• Young Turks: Mitt Romney’s “energy plan”.
• Maher and Huffington on Paul Ryan.
• Pap: Bain Capital’s Central American blood money.
• The Romney Bunch
• Jonathan Mann: Ultimate Any Rand Porn.
• Young Turks: Mitt goes Birfer.
• Sam Seder: Gawker releases Bain documents before RNC, Romney prays for hurricane.
• Music Video: Full of Mitt:
• Martin Bashir: Why Mitt has 0% Black support.
• Maddow: Romney, Ryan haunted by extremist record.
• Young Turks: Did David Koch buy Ryan a VP slot?

Kimmel: This week in unnecessary censorship.

Obama: They drove the economy into a ditch.

Thom with even more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

White House: West Wing Week.

The G.O.P. Convention:

• Grindr for the G.O.P. convention.
• Thom: Why belong to a party that doesn’t want you?
• Ann Telnaes: The abortion issue heading for the G.O.P. convention.
• Young Turks: Limbaugh suggests Obama “hopeful” hurricane will hit convention.
• Susie Sampson asks Stephen Colbert: Can I be your date to the G.O.P. Convention?
• Stephanie: David Schuster jokes about God smiting the G.O.P.
• Thom and Pap: It’s hurricane Akin that is hitting the G.O.P. convention.

Roy Zimmerman: Vote Republican, Tennessee version.

Thom with The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.

Completely honest political debate.

Ed: Republicans are stealing the election in Ohio.

Young Turks: We have found the terrorists and it is us.

The Republican War on Lady Parts:

• Mark Fiore: Legitimate rape and other legitimate science from the house science and lady parts committee
• SlateTV: Todd Akin’s abortion comments could damage his standing.
• Pap: The Republican rape defenders.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Why Republicans now fear talking about abortion
• Sam Seder with Amanda Marcotte: Todd Akin, rape & GOP “magical” thinking
• Bill Press: Mitt and G.O.P. are a bunch of hypocrites !
• Roy Zimmerman: Vote Republican, Alabama edition:
• Maddow: Did Romney get bad advice in Aikn scandal?
• Letterman: Hurricane approaching G.O.P. Convention proof God is a woman
• Young Turks: GOP candidate Frank Szabo would “stop abortion with deadly force”.
• Ann Telnaes: Romney unveils his energy plan.
• Bill Press: Akin ‘let the cat out of the bag’ for the GOP.
• The Romney-Ryan-Akin platform for women
• Republican women for Obama.

Roy Zimmerman: Vote Republican, Massachusetts edition

Gov. Jan Brewer introduces the Self Deportation Station:

Thom with more The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.

Roy Zimmerman: Vote Republican, Nevada edition.

Obama’s Secret UN Takeover and the Texas Insurgency!

• Sam Seder: TX Judge reveals Obama’s secret U.N. takeover plan!!!
• SlateTV: TX Judge suggests second Obama term might lead to uprising.
• Young Turks: Judge for civil war if Obama wins.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

On Tuesday I mentioned that progressive comedian Dean Obeidallah is coming to Seattle. Dean is not only a comedian, but he is a frequent commentator on those talking head shows.

Well, today he has a CNN Opinion piece that looks at political gaffes, rape and other fun topics:

Politicians make gaffes almost daily. Some they can overcome. Some are fodder for late-night comedians. Some are deadly to their campaigns. Republican congressman Todd Akin’s recent gaffe was so toxic, he may not only have killed his campaign, he may be the political equivalent of a zombie who also infects the Romney/Ryan ticket with his deadly virus.

Read the whole thing here.