– It may be the best thing for Seattle to get sued over excessive force by the police.
– McKenna’s aide’s anti-Asian and anti-elderly tweets.
– I keep forgetting to link to this set of basic political documents.
– Darryl and I have had some fun with #BainBookTitles.
– I love any podcast with Ken Tremendous.
Well, this:
Largest public pension fund earns dismal 1 percent
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The nation’s largest public pension fund collected a dismal 1 percent annual return on its investments, a figure far short of projections that will likely bring pressure on California’s state and local governments to contribute more money, officials said Monday.
The return reported by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System was well below its projected return of 7.5 percent for the fiscal year that ended June 30 and is prompting administrators to consider changes to investment strategies.
The investment returns are critical because taxpayers are on the hook for the difference if the pension funds fail to meet their performance targets.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/art.....710740.php
isn’t really a problem. We’ll just raise taxes on the higher-income earners again. Right, California?
In all seriousness, THIS:
He said the fund’s long-term 7.5 percent target remains realistic…
is the problem.
@1–
You’ve hit on the #1 issue re: these Pension Plans…the underlying assumption on projected Investment Return. The difference between using 7.5 and say 5 is monstrous. Washington State was using 8% I believe for awhile.
To look solvent, merely increase the targeted return! There is lots of that going on in the economy and government. That’s why I say we are way worse off than it appears..but time will tell.
“[Romney’s] going to keep his tax returns secret and hidden from public view because … Obama might find stuff?”
The speculation is:
Details on the IRA account would be very interesting reading indeed.
@3
I want to know how to grow my IRA to $100M.
Tacoma Mayor, Mayor Marilyn Strickland commits treason!
Dear righties, please keep on making up crazy shit like this and getting it published in newspapers, it’s helps us on the left tremendously.
@ 4
Start with $1,000 invested in cattle futures. Take the $100,000 you’ll have after a month if you are as good as Hillary, and go from there.
Seriously, YLB alluded to a very large IRA Romney has. I’m curious as well.
Well, first you start with $80M.
(Okay, this is a variation on an old joke, I heard first back in the early 1980’s – “How does a Texan become a millionaire? First, you start with a Texan Billioniaire”.
I think the begging for money will only worsen as the Dems head into the Fall:
http://www.rollcall.com/issues.....os=htmbtxt
Romney won’t be hurting for cash. If he DOES announce his VP pick early, that’s two people out raising funds, not one.
Add on Rove’s entities, etc.
Meanwhile, Obama spent $100M since May in battleground state advertising. Whatever cash advantage he had probably has been neutralized and it’s only mid-July.
All that, to stay even with Romney.
Oh, and Q3 will be worse than Q2, economically (see yesterday’s open thread).
I’m OK with Romney’s standing right about now.
I heard yesterday that Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones was actually worth in excess of $300 Million, potentially making him more wealthy than Mitt Romney. That education from the London School of Economics apparantely helped keep him, and his band, from becoming another example of bad financial management by rock bands and musicians.
But hey, at least Mick Jagger produced something from the mid-1960’s through the present day. Mitt Romney just bought and sold businesses and jobs, making himself richer at every turn.
There’s now a 50th anniversary logo for the Stones.
50.
# 1: Well, that’s what happens when the Fed has to step in after Republican mis-management of banks and Wall Street led to the biggest economic crash since the Great Depression. Add to that Republican obstructionism for the Republican admitted purpose of sabotaging the economic recovery in the hopes that would aid their campaign against the President in 2012, and you have a sluggish recovery and near-zero interest rates charged by the Fed.
So cry all you want about how bad things are – we know the Democrats provide the solution, and Republicans ARE the problem.
Just goes to show you that the powerful and the elite, regardless of political stripe, have more in common with each other than they do with the rest of us.
It’s getting pretty funny watching how much trouble the Romney camp is having in trying to make his failure to release tax returns “go away”.
First, he said he had complied with the “standard” of releasing two years of returns. Of course, this isn’t the standard – his own father released twenty years worth of tax returns. Romney, on the other hand, released one year of tax returns, and an “estimate” for last year, which he says isn’t completed yet.
Then he claimed that he HAD released his tax returns – apparantly referring to the 1+ he had release earlier, an obvious attempt to avoid the question.
Then, when it was apparant the issue wasn’t going away and the mainstream media was finally picking up the issue and running with it, Romney tried to deflect the issue by saying the campaign isn’t about tax returns, it’s about the President’s failure to improve the economy more. That’s just a variation of “Look – a squirrel” defense. It didn’t work.
Then Romney claims that he shouldn’t have to release ANY tax returns because Kerry’s wife didn’t release tax returns. Of course, Kerry’s wife wasn’t running for President (although you wouldn’t know it from Fox News coverate at the time).
Now Romney is admitting he doesn’t want the tax returns to be picked over for political fodder. Which begs the question, of course.
Romney’s trying now to argue that he shouldn’t have to suffer from the nit-picking requests for more information which would come from such a release of tax returns. In other words, it was okay for the Birthers to engage in an incessent and sustained attempt to distract the President over his birth certificate, but it’s not okay for Romney to have to answer questions about how much money he made, and how.
Romney seems offended that “the help” just won’t quit bothering him about things he doesn’t want to talk about.
Memo to Romney campaign: This issue isn’t going to go away. No matter how bad, you might as well release the returns, the questions are just going to get worse until you do. By refusing to release the returns, you are either putting off the inevitable or losing any chance you might have to win the election. Either way, you lose.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo......fpnewsfeed
So (President-in-his-own-mind) “Staight-Shootin'” Johnny McCain picked the Wasilla Sno-Billy over the Vulture “Casino-Capitalist”.
My, my, my.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local.....z20u6kL2dZ
Joel nails it.
Hah!
So (President-in-his-own-mind) “Staight-Shootin’” Johnny McCain picked the Wasilla Sno-Billy over the Vulture “Casino-Capitalist”.
This, apparently, is news to Rujax.
Of course, there’s lots of speculation about what’s in the returns that Romney is willing to expend so much political capital and good will to keep secret. The most serious discussions revolve around him just wanting to conceal how much money he made, how little taxes he paid, his real net worth, and offshore banking activities.
But there are other possibilities. One group is looking for information which would verify his residence in 2010, and whether he was qualified to vote in the Massachusetts election which filled Ted Kennedy’s seat with Brown. They are raising the prospect of election fraud. Others are looking for evidence that he was involved in the details of Baine Capital at precisely the time when most of the off-shoring and layoffs occured, whcih he claims occured after he left the company.
But another prospect occured to me – that it’s entirely unrelated to the campaign or other speculation.
In my long experience as a counselor in my church on debt matters, I would occassionaly run into what I would call the “controlling spouse” syndrome. This was a spouse who would insist on handling all the finances, that bills not be opened except by him or her, and they would complete all the tax returns and only give the 1040 basic sheet for the spouses to sign, without any backup detail. They would often appear at church for counseling when the non-controlling spouse would complain to the pastor that they seemed to make lots of money but it seemed to dissapear, and creditors were calling. In such cases, the “controlling spouse” was often very unhappy about letting anyone else have a glimpse into their finances.
At least half of the time in such a scenario, we would learn that the “controlling spouse” had secrets to hide. Secret credit card or PayPal accounts, etc. to hide their “other activities” – gambling, porn, strip clubs, porn, extra-marital affairs, and in one case a bigamist marriage to an unsuspecting second wife.
I suspect that Ann Romney doesn’t know anything about the detaisl of how their taxes are prepared, she just shows up for a meeting with the accountants where both Mitt and Ann sign on the line where the accountant marked it with a Post-It sticker.
So, if Romney wants to avoid further speculation of this sort, he had better release his returns quickly. If he IS hiding something of the sort, he’ll pay a hefty political price for his refusal to release, although preserving his marriage may be worth it.
Remember that Nixon tried to cover up the Watergate burglary not because he didn’t want anyone to know about the White House involvement in that burglary attempt. He did it because he didn’t want an investigation of the Watergate burglary to lead to an expose of the entire Plumber’s operations. It didn’t work, of course – except there might be more there than we will ever know.
@1 Wow! Calpers made 1% on their investments! Lots of retirees would like to know where. Those guys are geniuses.
Which brings me to this: Moral hazard. The Federal Reserve is keeping interest rates ultra-low, ostensibly to stimulate the economy, although after 4 or 5 years you’d think they’d realize it isn’t stimulating the economy.
To figure out why they’re doing it, ask yourself who it helps. Borrowers. Who gets screwed? Savers. See what I mean about moral hazard? Profligate people who live high on borrowed money are rewarded. Prudent people who pay off their debts, save, and invest find their money is being used by others for free so that others can enjoy profligate lifestyles.
But probably the real reason is so the federal government can maintain the profligate lifestyle of the Republican era — low taxes and high military spending — without paying for it. Despite all the sturm und drang about deficits and public debt, government borrowing simply doesn’t matter when money is free.
Of course, nothing is ever really free. The main effect of Bernanke’s quantitative easings has been to prop up asset values, which only helps the owners of assets. This means the rich stay rich and you get higher prices for oil, corn, beef, soybeans, and everything else. The banksters created the mess, and you pay for cleaning it up so they don’t go poor. This, of course, encourages them to do more of what made them rich — and made you poor — in the first place. Like I said, moral hazard.
No one is paying a higher price for this dishonesty than retirees. Their pensions and savings are devalued, and they have to spend their investments on living expenses because their investments can’t earn any income. And ultimately, pension systems like Calpers may struggle to make pension payments — or even go under — because they can’t earn anything either.
Screeds like the drivel posted @1 illustrate how totally ignorant brainless trolls like Cereal really are. He actually believes Calpers’ lousy returns are Calpers’ fault. What’s really amazing about this is he’s missing a golden opportunity to attack Bernanke, because this really is Bernanke’s fault. Quantitative easing isn’t helping anyone except banksters, and Bernanke should have gotten off that horse two years ago.
But then, Bernanke is Bush’s man, so what do you fucking expect?
Actually, McCain was probably right – he was destined to lose unless he brought in a “game changer” as V.P. With Romney as V.P., it would have been just another white male rich guy, and a McCain/Romney wouldn’t have had a chance in 2008. And the time was against Republicans in general – the economy was going south, the Bush administration had made far too many mistakes, and people wanted a change.
Of course, with the collapse of Wall Street in September & October of that year, Romney would have been a conspicuous target, and lots of Republicans would have claimed that McCain lost the election by choosing Romney.
McCain’s mistake wasn’t that he chose a woman. McCain’s mistake was that he chose the WRONG woman. (At the time, however, the Republican back-bench was pretty lean with respect to acceptable women VP candidates).
But there was NO WAY the Republicans were going to win in 2008, no matter who was the candidate and who was the running mate. Pres. Bush had given the entire Republican Party a bad reputation.
Clearly, irony is not a concept recognized or understood by the very suave and exceptionally erudite cereal clownservative.
@ 19
You made very good points. Given all of that, it’s unlikely that McCain did not select Romney because his finances were a specific problem, rather than Romney being a rich guy in general was a downside.
BTW, here are Romney’s financials, 2001-2005:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrew.....inancial-d
Not much there. Note that with the transfer of assets into a blind trust, Romney is unable to input into management. So if something was purchased that is a problem for him politically, that’s his out.
If you want to believe that, I suppose. Wink. Wink.
John Sununu, the Republican who gave us David Souter.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/
I really think it’s time for Sununu to be Fiorina’d. Not helpful.
Mass Shootings Of The Day (TM)
Mass Shooting #1: “Police arrested a suspect Tuesday in the Tuscaloosa, Ala., bar shooting spree that left 17 people injured … the shooting happened around 12:30 a.m. …. A gunman with a military-style assault rifle fired at least 11 shots into the bar …. The shooter then fired at fleeing patrons.”
http://tinyurl.com/88pg4nd
Mass Shooting #2: “Two people have died and at least 19 others were wounded in a shooting at a block party in the eastern Toronto suburb of Scarborough Monday night. … An infant was also wounded in the shooting ….”
http://tinyurl.com/6m2ru46
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Republicans claim we must let everyone have easy access to guns in order to protect our freedoms from the government. But it doesn’t appear to me our government is the problem. The problem is individuals — specifically, individuals who use their freedom to possess guns to give you the freedom of being dead. But what if I don’t want that particular freedom, and would rather keep our government and get rid of the guns? What happens when their right to have guns collides with my right to be safe from lunatics with guns? What if I don’t want to live in the violent and dangerous society that Republicans’ crazy gun policies have created? Do I have any rights at all in this situation, or must be forever cater to a small minority of gun fetishers? If we can’t get the activist rightwing Supreme Court to read the Constitution as it was written, maybe it’s time to amend it.
http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Eco.....nt-Economy
I’m listening to this guy on the Diane Rehm Show.
This is why vulture casino-capitalism is ruining our country.
Over the history of the American Republic, a 4% return on invested money is pretty much the norm. Anything above that was traditionally considered excessive, anything significantly below that was considered a poor return on investment. That’s why, for many years, savings “passbook” accounts earned between 3-1/2% and 4%, and home morgtages were between 3-1/2% and 5-1/2%.
This was true even back in the Revolutionary War, when farmers complained that government notes promised to bring in returns greater than 4%. The farmers didn’t think anyone should earn that much without adding to it the sweat of their own brow.
But around 1980, we see the big turn-around. Two Texan brothers tried to make a killing by corning the silver markets. Interst rates shot into the high teens or low twenties, and when banks threatened to cut off lending to people in the states, usury laws were abolshed.
In subsequent years, the people with money have been searching for similar returns, with little risk to themselves. They shifted from one market to another – housing, wall street, tech stocks, credit card financing, student credit card and loan financing, etc.
Whenever the bubble seemed about to collapse they switched to another investment, if they did not move fast enough, or couldn’t do so, they sought government help in removing their risks.
36 people shot by 2 gun nuts in one day. Is that a new daily record? What will the body count be when the NRA arms gun nuts with bazookas, machineguns, and army surplus tanks?
36 people shot by 2 gun nuts in one day. Is that a new daily record?
No, just your average weekend in Chicago.
Banksters are not only thieves, they’re terrorists.
“A ‘pervasively polluted’ culture at HSBC allowed the bank to act as financier to clients moving shadowy funds from the world’s most dangerous and secretive corners, including Mexico, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria, according to a scathing U.S. Senate report issued on Monday. …
“HSBC’s U.S. division provided money and banking services to some banks in Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh believed to have helped fund al-Qaida and other terrorist groups ….”
http://tinyurl.com/7l7rqmj
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Republicans believe we should regulate banks less, not more. Do you agree?
Team Obama thinks the switch, or partial switch — the president is not giving up the teleprompter entirely — will help him better connect with voters.
I agree. He should have done this awhile ago.
http://thehill.com/homenews/ca.....leprompter
@ 20
Clearly, irony is not a concept recognized or understood
I’m guessing that he gets his understanding of irony from listening to Alanis Morissette.
Though, I have to day, even in the absence of irony, to misspeak under these circumstances is quite forgivable. Both saying that they thought Gov. Palin was a better candidate than Gov. Romney and the idea that saying so now would actually help Gov. Romney in the current election are rather astounding.
# 21: Well, Romney in 1992 was quoted as saying that a “Blind Trust” was a “flim-flam game”. Now, in 2012, he’s claiming that a blind trust keeps him from even knowing what investments he has.
And, of course, there’s the example of Dick Cheney, former head of Haiburton, who purportedly put his investments in a blind trust when he became Bush’s V.P. nominee. But Haliburton profited handsomely while Bush was president, from enourmous contracts in Afganistan and Iraq to it’s subsidiary becoming the primary contractor through whom all must go to accesst money for the post-Katrinia re-building efforts in Lousianna. In all cases, it’s pretty much of an example of maximum profits being generated by paying small amounts to sub-contractors to do the absolute minimum required to get the next payments from the government.
So does anybody really believe that Cheney’s blind trust didn’t retain his Haliburton stock, and that Cheney didn’t know that when decisions were made?
What’s Willard (R-Money) trying to hide by not releasing his tax returns??
Oh shit! It has to be how he uses every trick in the book to shelter his dubiously gotten gains from taxes.
Not content to bleed us for billions to pay for their sports palaces, the sports tycoons have figured out a new way to gouge us for the right to sit in our own stadiums.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48194739
Roger Rabbit Commentary: The greedy sports industry has lost this fan for good. I quit attending sports events years ago and I won’t be back. I won’t even watch the Olympics on teevee — because I don’t have a teevee. who really cares which professional athlete wins what is billed as an amateur competition (but is, in fact, a multibillion-dollar business that exploits young athletes and fans alike)?
@32 Maybe he’s not paying any taxes at all on vast swaths of his income?
Oh my this sucks!
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/.....-american/
By 40 freaking k???
How could this be? According to our trolls it can only be one reason: the USA is farther to the freaking left than soshuliss CANADA!
Oh Canada indeed! Vote Republican!
I’ll bet I know what it is! It’s the Mormon Church! He doesn’t want them to know he’s been holding out on them. The Elders think he’s 10% like everyone else. But that’s only the income everyone knows about. He’s probably not giving them a blessed farthing of the rest.
Damn the filter keeps gobbling my posts..
Wow this news sure sucks for the asshat troll “little maxie”:
http://ti.me/Nuvrgs
That “masculine vibe” little name-calling twirpie is so proud of off-gassing in these threads can only mean he “jerks real hard” at being really freaking stupid.
@33
I tried hating on the Le’ Tour, but it didn’t work. All the rest of it and them can go to hell, but I’ll always love the Tour de France.
Wow this news sure sucks for the asshat troll “little maxie”:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/7luls8e
It appears the ladies are surpassing the boyz in the brainz department!
Heh. That “masculine vibe” little name-calling twirpie off-gasses in these threads can then only mean he “jerks real hard” at being really f’ing stupid.
@26 and @27 – that’s a lot of shooting, but as I have pointed out in the past, chicago isn’t the only place people are killing people. Families are killing family members like it is going out of style. I don’t think the guns are the problem, the people are the problem, bunch of barbarians. I no longer wonder if sexual orientation is part of the equation. Funny that we don’t see gay people killing off each other like other sexual beings are killig each other.
This is a funny thought:
If your argument is that Obama has had enough time (3 years) to fix the economy, why is your argument that the Bush tax cuts still need more time?
I believe the latest bloviation from Limbaugh is that the “Bane” character from the newest Batman movie is politically motivated..
Did bob or the klown drag that in lately?
Sheeesh.. Do we need any more evidence that the right wingers need to be put to pasture for like forever?
@26
My next car:
http://www.atlanticfirearms.co.....ct732.aspx
Not really.
I’m reading out there that the reason is pretty simple: bad real estate exposure owned by the big banks.
Higher rates would just collapse the financial system as it stands at the moment.
Things will change when the system is sufficiently deleveraged.
Obama scorns those who are successful job creators.
Obama has just made it real clear where he is coming from…if there was ever any doubt.
Entrepreneurs didn’t do anything to build America. It was the government!
What an idiot.
This gaffe will be repeated ad infinitum.
Obama’s own Karl Marxian words.
I love it.
There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land. — Deuteronomy 15:11
Just sayin’
Hey ev,
For the rest of us, can you identify the job creators Obama scorned? And give a count on how many jobs each “job creator” created and how much those jobs pay?
@18 Ah….”Quantitative easing” AKA the latest creative euphemism for “printing money”.
If you didn’t catch it, here is a great example of Serial “Ridicule the looks of African American girls” Conservative’s mantra of anything is acceptable if it helps republicans win.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2.....men/187146
What Fox reported Obama said:
But what he really said was
Fox lies and conservatives do not care.
Rush was repeating this lie over and over on his radio show during my commute. For as long as I could stomach him anyway.
America is great because of infrastructure, security, education, subsidies, regulations, and courts AND individual initiative. But people like Serial “Ridicule the looks of African American girls” Conservative don’t want to talk about that. Much of that takes taxes. And given his posts, he would gladly let everything go to hell, if it meant his taxes and his master’s taxes go down. I just wished he would move to Somalia or Colombia or Haiti where the culture more closely matches his world view.
@31…or that Cheney being de facto Commander in Chief didn’t have a thing at all to do with Halliburton getting all those no-bid contracts to supply our troops with plywood shacks, unpotable water, inedible food and electrified showers.
@36 “I’ll bet I know what it is! It’s the Mormon Church!”
Interesting. He likely wouldn’t be excommunicated, but if he was treated like everyone else, he’d lose his temple priviledges. No more baptizing the dead for Mitt.
@41 “I believe the latest bloviation from Limbaugh is that the “Bane” character from the newest Batman movie is politically motivated.”
Is that where that originated, Limbaugh? Well, he does know the mental capacity of his followers. Dumbfuck Bob was going there yesterday. Alas, he forgot to mention that the Bane character was added to the comics in 1993 and that Christopher Nolan was finished with the film storyline in 2009. It’s just another example of a wingnut not being able to make up his mind whether Obama is an utter incompetent or if he’s deviously cunning and resourceful. So they go with both, whatever serves their purpose of the moment. So tiresome.
While increasing fees and taxes for middle-class families, Governor Romney cut taxes for 278 of the state’s wealthiest individuals, costing taxpayers more than $75 million.
Boston Globe, 11/10/05
Just say’n.
All flannel, no calluses.
@48 “Rush was repeating this lie over and over on his radio show”
That must be what the Dumbfuck Klown with half a brain @44 was babbling about.
@50
Rush needs to learn about this thing called Wikipedia.
@36 “I’ll bet I know what it is! It’s the Mormon Church!”
Mitt probably has the same attitude towards 10% church tithing that the wingnut rich do towards taxes – it’s not about equal percentages, “I gave a million, enough is enough”. Heh. “It’s my money and I should be able to keep it.”
I doubt that’s the sole reason Mitt is holding out to the point that his campaign is self-destructing, Roger, but it could very well be a piece of it.
@53 Bob could have found this out for himself but he’s of the mindset to repeat the lies he’s told, even when he knows that they’re lies.
Bob did the this with that young, black “thug”, Trayvon Martin. Bob is a racist and needed only the smallest sliver of false evidence posted on a wingnut blog to start repeating that lie. Of course he was repeating “Trayvon was a “thug”” in these threads and continued even when it was shown that his so-called evidence was total bullshit. No surprise. That’s what wingnut racists like Bob do.
More news on the abandonment of the military camo platform first introduced in 2004:
How Army is Testing New Camo to Replace Flawed Design
A camoflauge expert, a retired military guy, warned that decisions on camoflauge CANNOT be influenced by two things: (a) personal preference for appearance, which the Marines shorten to CDI (“chicks dig it”); and (b) cost. He also warned that there is no “universal” camoflauge, that attempts to do so end up not working well anywhere.
Since the mid-1980’s, the military had settled on two camo uniforms: “forest green”, the green, brown, and black hues best used in forests environments (Europe and N. America), and the “chocolate chip” designed for desert warfare. During the gulf war, one general of a tank corps transferred from Europe complained that mere days before Desert Storm his men were still wearing their forest green camo uniforms, the “chcolate chip” uniforms still hadn’t arrived. He finally said the hell with it – they would go to battle in their forest greens, and send out propoganda broadcasts announcing that when Iraqis saw them in their green uniforms, they would know that they were facing the best American units designed to take on the best of the Soviet tank units.
In the intervening years, the Pentagon was experimenting with digital camo designs. They showed a lot of promise in lab and field tests. But the army still had lots of camo uniforms in the two accepted patterns, and with budget issues a change of uniforms was pretty far down on the priority list.
But the Iraq war changed that. There was lots of money avaialable due to the “off-budget” war policies of the Bush administration. And troops were complaining that the chocolate chip uniforms worked fine in the desert, but stood out like sore thumbs in the urban environments of Bagdad. So the army pushed through the quick approval of a change to the digitalized camo uniform. Except in the one bow to spending considerations, it decided on a single uniform that it claimed would be effective in desert, urban, and forest environments.
The trouble was, it wasn’t universally effective. Like all designs that try to be all things, it ended up not being really good at any one thing. Troop complaints went unheeded for years.
Aside: It reminds me of one of the battles which Navy sub commanders in WWII had with the U.S. Naval Bureau of Ordinance: they insisted that torpedoes weren’t exploding when they hit their targets, the BOO dismissed the complaints saying that sub captains were searching for excuses for their poor aim. It turns out the torpedoes had three faults – magnetic detectors calibrated in New England didn’t work in the tropics, depth controllers tested with wooden warheads weren’t the same weight and boyancy as loaded torpedoes, and contact detonators were crushed by contact rather than triggering the explosive torpedoes.
Anyway, new uniforms are finally in the works. They should be ready for distribution about the time most U.S. forces are out of Afganistan.
# 36, 50, et al.
The “tithing” concept is subject to different interpretations by varying denominations. I’ve met quite a few Catholics who consider it synonymous with “contributions”, meaning that the 10% isn’t a fixed requirement, only a suggestion. Others stick with a strict 10%.
My wife’s aunt, an Evangelist, used to say that it’s easier for the poor to give 10% because they can’t live on 100% any more than they could live on 90%. She said they might as well give the 10% to the church, because they really needed a miracle from God to survive.
The biggest problem for Mitt might be that the Mormon church is embarrased by the revelation that Mitt doesn’t strictly conform to it’s teachings, when it comes to finance. Like it or not, they have a lot invested in Mitt’s performance in this campaign. Win or lose, they want Romney to come across as a great example of Morman responsibility. His failure to pay his full tithes runs against that.
Moreover, there might be quite a few well-to-do Mormans who are similarly situated, in church leadership positions. Romney’s failure to pay his full tithe might be an expose which embarrases them all. The revelation that the wealthy Mormons pay less than 10% and the rank-and-file is expected to pay the full 10% (plus more) might result in a lot of questioning of church authority and a decline in contributions overall. This could lead to requirements that church leaders make their tax returns available for inspection by the church, a direction which I suspect quite a few in leadership would rather the church not take.
Funny – when asked by journalists whether he attended any Bain Capital board meetings between 1999 and 2002, Romney claimed he couldn’t remember.
Romney’s already practicing his testimony before the Grand Jury, and he hasn’t even nailed down the nomination yet.
By the way, does anyone believe that Romney’s campaign hasn’t already received minutes of the Baine board meetings? Of course they have, and they have scrutinized them with a fine-toothed comb. But nobody is offering up the minutes of the board meetings as evidence supporting Romney’s claims. Which, of course, means that their is something in those board meeting minutes which they don’t want the public to see. As a private corporation they aren’t required to release the minutes (to my knowledge they don’t offer shares to the public), but it won’t take to long before someone gets hold of them.
@2 “Washington State was using 8% I believe for awhile”
… and some of its investments were earning 20% at that time, which is why the legislature didn’t pay in the state’s contributions. The workers paid all of their contributions; they didn’t get any relief from pension deductions from their paychecks. So if there’s a future shortfall, it should be made up by collecting the state’s deferred payments, not by reducing retirees’ pension checks.
Romney Campaign: “Belive in America”. But stash your cash overseas.
Believe in America
“If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own,” President Obama told a Virginia crowd last Friday. “Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. ”
Obama is an idiot. He know says he only wants to tax the top 3% of the small businesses…which create about 1/3 of all the private sector jobs and account for nearly 3/4 TRILLION of the economy.
What an idiot.
Folks will flee this fuck in droves.
Romney is biding his time until the Convention where he will pick his VP and unload. Romney needs about a 5 point Convention bounce. Obama will get nothing because the Democrat Convention is a non-event.
Laugh now assholes.
You are about to get rope-a-doped.
America is one of the world’s least socially mobile countries; if you’re born poor, you have a better chance of advancing into the middle class in Denmark or Britain. Why? Because the pigs at the top are taking it all for themselves:
“America’s wealthy prosper while the average citizen struggles; the richest 1% of Americans gained 93% of the additional income created in 2010.”
Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel prize-winner in economics and a regular critic of liberal capitalism, addresses this issue …. To Mr Stiglitz, this inequality is the result of public policy being captured by an elite who have feathered their own nests at the expense of the rest.
“They have used their power to distort political debate, pushing through tax cuts to favour the rich and adjusting monetary policy to favour the banks. Many of the new rich are not entrepreneurs but ‘rent-seekers’, he says, who use monopoly power to boost profits.”
http://www.economist.com/node/21557300
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Republicans claim the rich (i.e., themselves) deserve their oversized share of our nation’s economic output because they “work hard.” Work hard, my ass. These people work hard:
http://www.mediafreedominterna.....p-produce/
This is how the rich spend their time:
http://www.zimbio.com/Rich+Peo.....ther+Yacht
As Stiglitz said, the rich get that way by manipulating the system. That’s not working, that’s stealing. It’s been going on since the dawn of recorded history — and there’s never been an age when the exploited classes put up with it forever. They won’t this time, either. So enjoy it while you can, richies.
Oh, btw, I made $1200 in the stock market today by doing nothing except sitting on my fat rabbit ass doing nothing. Why should Republicans have all the fun? I live like a Republican now, too.
@61 WHERE ARE THE JOBS?
We’ve given the top 3% special tax privileges not seen since the 1920s for over 30 years. Now …
WHERE ARE THE FUCKING JOBS?
That dog ain’t gonna hunt anymore, ace.
For years, the rich pushed down workers’ wages. Then, their customers disappeared. When a few people get selfish, no one ends up with anything. That’s how things work in the real world.
I’ve been on vacation for a few days – to a cabin with no phone, no TV and no wifi – heaven.
I see that nothing has changed around here:
Cereal, above:
Trying to deflect Mitt’s ongoing 9-figure sleaze with 35-year-old rumors of a non-President’s 6-figure investment windfall.
He’s nothing if not consistently formulaic. Wingnut Mothership likes ’em that way, I guess. Pathetic.
Last time I looked at a map, Toronto was in Canada you limp dicked moron.
Canada have an illegal immigrant problem?
Just curious.
LMFAO…here we go again….
Heh. There’s a large chorus of right wing voices demanding that Willard (R-Money) release his tax returns.
http://www.politico.com/news/s.....78616.html
I bet they don’t care much for the guy.
Next time you hear a Republican squawking about “waste, fraud, and abuse” ask him if that’s his campaign promise:
http://tinyurl.com/85h4qu7
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Show me a Republican and I’ll show you a pocket filled with taxpayer dollars.
@66 “Last time I looked at a map, Toronto was in Canada”
Yeah, right on the border with the United States of Smith & Wesson, and handguns are banned in Canada, so guess where the shooter got the gun? Canada thanks you for our idiotic gun laws …
@67
Canada didn’t have a housing and banking melt down.
Another GOP racist gets caught being a GOP racist.
http://tinyurl.com/6me53d2
1. Your linked story does not describe the type of gun used
2. You have no knowledge of what kind of gun was used
3. you, again, are making shit up.
4. and once again, you sounds like a limp dicked angry old man who will make up “facts” in order to support your story – just like that piece of shit Paul Watson does.
5. you just got owned.
6. how does it feel to look the fool and get caught making up shit?
7. asshole.
8. This not the first time I have busted Goebbles Rabbit for making up “facts”..you would think a former judge would know better – goes to prove that roger rabbit was a crooked lawyer and judge.
should HA have a policy about crooked ex-judges posting here?
just wondering….
This Is What’s Lurking In Rmoney’s 2009 Tax Return
A Bloomberg Business Week columnist speculates that Rmoney paid zero taxes in 2009. That’s legal if he had carry-forward capital losses from 2008, as many rich investors did, but politically “deadly.”
Ergo, Rmoney has to hide his 2009 tax return. Here’s the reasoning:
” … [I]t’s the only year for which nobody knows anything about Romney’s taxes. He’s revealed what’s in his 2010 and 2011 returns, and … submitted 20-some years’ worth of returns to the McCain campaign … in 2008. Steve Schmidt, McCain’s chief strategist in that campaign, said on MSNBC last night that … nothing … in them disqualified Romney from consideration. That would indicate that 2009 is singularly important ….”
http://www.businessweek.com/ar.....ax-returns
Roger Rabbit Commentary: I think BBW nailed it. McCain’s team didn’t see Rmoney’s 2009 return because it didn’t exist in 2008. Rmoney released his 2010 and 2011 returns. So whatever he’s hiding is in the 2009 return, the only one nobody has seen. And what was going on in 2009? It’s the year after many rich people ate big market losses in 2008, the year of the Big Meltdown. That’s gotta be it — Rich Guy Mitt Rmoney paid no taxes in 2009. That would make it mighty hard for President Rmoney to ask for more Tax Cuts For The Rich (TM).
Rmoney has gamed this very nicely. He probably gave the McCain people his tax returns from 1984, when he started Bain Capital, through 2008. He gave the media his 2010 and 2011 returns.
Most likely he doesn’t really want voters to be reminded that he paid only a 10% to 15% effective tax rate while amassing a personal fortune in the hundreds of millions, but that’s not the real issue.
If, as seems likely, he lost enough paper wealth in the 2008 market crash, it zeroed out his 2009 tax liability. That’s legal, but it’s horrible politics.
It’s obvious why he won’t give the media the tax returns he gave to the McCain campaign: Because if he does, he has to give them his 2009 return, too. And that’s where the smoking gun is:
Mitt Rmoney paid no taxes in 2009.
And that could sink his campaign.
@74 Hoo boy, I’ve really got this troll’s panties in a bunch! But that’s my job here.
“1. Your linked story does not describe the type of gun used”
Use your imagination. That’s what I had to do.
“2. You have no knowledge of what kind of gun was used”
I never claimed I did.
“3. you, again, are making shit up.”
Not; I didn’t say what kind of gun was used. I said the shooter got the “gun.”
“4. and once again, you sounds like a limp dicked angry old man who will make up ‘facts’ in order to support your story – just like that piece of shit Paul Watson does.”
What facts did I make up? The story reported a “shooting” and I said the shooter had a “gun.” If it turns out all those people were shot with arrows or beanbags, I made an honest mistake, and I’ll apologize for calling it a “gun.”
5. you just got owned.
As I recall, Billy the Kid said something like that after Pat Garrett shot him. My memory isn’t what it used to be, though, so maybe it was someone else.
6. how does it feel to look the fool and get caught making up shit?
I have no idea. You tell me.
7. asshole.
I used to be a Republican. Old habits die hard.
“8. This not the first time I have busted Goebbles Rabbit for making up ‘facts’.. you would think a former judge would know better – goes to prove that roger rabbit was a crooked lawyer and judge.”
There is no first time. Yet. Better luck next time. Probably not, though.
@75 I think they should be banned. But why stop with crooked judges? Let’s throw developmentally deadender burger flippers off this site, too. The quality of discourse might go up.
I can’t stand crooked judges. I always turn them in. We have to uphold the integrity of the judicial system at all costs. If we throw all the crooked judges off SCOTUS, liberals will have a 4-0 majority on the court.
@76
Two people firing handguns did the shooting. Beyond that we don’t know anything.
@80
There is no first time. Yet. Better luck next time. Probably not, though.
It’s pretty sad when these asshats have to make shit up in order to pretend that they’ve caught you making shit up.
@ 78
That’s gotta be it — Rich Guy Mitt Rmoney paid no taxes in 2009. That would make it mighty hard for President Rmoney to ask for more Tax Cuts For The Rich (TM).
Matt Yglesias has some fuel for the 2009 tax year idea. He points to an Oct. 2009 article in the LA Times that reads:
Anyone want to make a bet that Mittens’ 2009 tax return shows an application for amnesty regarding a secret bank account?
Fascist one:
And here is the libtard comments from their gravitas crew on Romney…
And here is the real quote
Nuff Said sucka!
Nuff Said sucka!
@83 Looks like the Dumb Baron gets his ass handed to him — again.
@87 If the GOP pays our trolls minimum wage, that’s the best argument yet against the minimum wage.
what was made up?
bottom line: goebbels rabbit goes into talking points mode about US gun policy, and his shining example is of a shooting….IN CANADA!
self…..ownage…..
by who? some limp dicked crooked ex-judge?
nah, dont think so.
go ahead, give us more facts and assumptions on that Toronto shooting….
fool.
@88
Well, one buttock anyway. We don’t know if the guns were legal or where they came from.
yo rabbit shit, is the vehicle accident rate higher near automobile factories too?
@ 90
what was made up?
Roger made no claim about the brand of gun owned in the shooting.
bottom line
Yup. Walk back from your claim the Roger made shit up. Great way to regain your credibility there, sport.
@90 “his shining example is of a shooting….IN CANADA!”
Nah, my shining example is of a shooting in ALABAMA … the Canadian one is merely dessert. Is there some reason why you failed to mention the 17 people shot in ALABAMA?
@93 “is the vehicle accident rate higher near automobile factories too”
Why don’t you ask me if the vehicle accident rate is higher where there are cars?
@92 No problem, he just got the other one handed to him, so now he’s got ’em both.
Here’s a link to the Slate magazine article theorizing that Romney accepted an IRS amnesty in 2009. This is, of course, just a theory; but the article explains the background facts and why it’s plausible better than I can.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/mon....._see_.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: If this is, in fact, what Romney is hiding then he’s got a hell of a problem. In that case, he has two options: Keep hiding it and hope it doesn’t leak, or come clean. And if he comes clean, there’s a question of timing: Before the convention, when the party could still dump him, or after he’s nominated, in which case he still could be pressured to step aside as the nominee (remember Thomas Eagleton?) and would certainly lose the election.
If I were him, and I’m not because I’ve never had a Swiss bank account, I’d get on my knees and pray to the Great Mother Rabbit Spirit for guidance. Of course, I know what the GMRS will tell him, because I converse with Her all the time in my dreams. She’ll say, “Come clean, do it now, and ask for forgiveness.”
It’ll probably work. After all, Clinton got away with Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky, and this is only tax dodging, which every American taxpayer secretly dreams of getting away with himself. The average voter, or at least the average Republican voter, will think, “Hell, he hasn’t done anything I wouldn’t do myself if I could get away with it.”
Roger @97, did you see my comment @85?
…
@99
Good to see that you’re at least trying to think before you post a comment. Next step is to actually have a cogent thought worth posting.
In other news, David Frum, discussing the crazy talk coming out of the Romney campaign, notes:
Frum further notes that there is a significant enthusiasm gap between Democrats and Republicans regarding the campaigns of their respective candidates. For Republicans, the only tool they have is to gin up hatred for President Obama.
So, yes, both campaigns are going negative. The difference is, Democrats can go negative by simply telling the truth. Republicans can only go negative by going even further off into the never-never land in which they live.
Now this is Too Damn Funny!
Supporters of President Obama have learned a valuable lesson from a laid-off steelworker in a popular anti-Bain ad who has gone off the reservation: just because someone doesn’t like Mitt Romney doesn’t make them Obama supporters.
The ad by Priorities USA, a pro-Obama Super PAC, focuses on Bain Capital’s GS Technologies steel plant in 2001, and stars Donnie Box. “This was a booming place and Mitt Romney and Bain Capital turned it into a junkyard just making money and leaving,” he says.
But In These Times, a progressive magazine, interviewed Box, and this is not the Obama campaign’s preferred message:
“I think Obama is a jerk, a pantywaist, a lightweight, a blowhard. He hasn’t done a goddamn thing that he said he would do. When he had a Democratic Senate and Democratic Congress, he didn’t do a damn thing. He doesn’t have the guts to say what’s on his mind.”
This old fuck still has a few brain cells left.
The Bush administration became notorious for pinching pennies where our soldiers are concerned while giving massive tax breaks to billionaires. Here’s another example of a Bushevik Epic Fail: The “universal camouflage pattern” foisted on our troops in 2004:
http://tinyurl.com/8x9eb8f
@98 I strongly suspect that’s it. Rmoney is stupid to stonewall. The longer he holds out, the more feverish the speculation will become, and he’ll eventually be forced to disclose it. The coverup is always worse than the deed. If he had any brains he’d spill the beans now, take the heat, and get it over with.
@101 Is it news to you that many progressives, and even center-right Democrats, are upset with Obama for letting himself be pushed around instead of kicking GOP butts? We’ve been complaining about that for years. Shit, back in 2008 I wrote in these threads that we needed “the bitch in combat boots” because Obama wasn’t tough enough to deal with Republicans. The fact he’ll glide to re-election is a testament to just how far off the deep end the GOP has gone, and just how bad their standard bearer is.
Meanwhile, in La-La-Land …
“Members of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s posse said in March that there was probable cause that Obama’s long-form birth certificate released by the White House in April 2011 was a computer-generated forgery.
“Now, Arpaio says investigators are positive it’s fraudulent. Mike Zullo, the posse’s chief investigator, said numeric codes on certain parts of the birth certificate indicate that those parts weren’t filled out …. Zullo said investigators previously didn’t know the meaning of codes but they were explained by a 95-year-old former state worker who signed the president’s birth certificate.”
http://latino.foxnews.com/lati.....e-is-fake/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: It’s a challenge to glean anything coherent out of this babble, but my gut tells me they might’ve been onto something if it turned out the state worker who signed Obama’s birth certificate is 35 years old instead of 95 years old, but it kinda looks like this BC was signed in 1961 not 2008. As for Arpaio, you gotta wonder whether someone with his aptitude for evaluating evidence ought to be a sheriff. Even Arizona’s birther SOS conceded the Hawaii BC is genuine. This also illustrates the kind of crap Fox will try to pass off as a news story. Did anyone ever imagine Shuriff Joe’s posse would come up with any other conclusion?
# 105: I still think the President had the best rejoinder to this birther nonsense, when at the National Press Club dinner he pointed out the nonsense of arranging, at his birth, a forged birth certificate, testimoney of the attending doctor, etc., all with an eye towards the child eventually running for the Presidency, then naming the child “Barrack Obama”.
103. Roger Rabbit spews:
Romney is betting that none of this Bain stuff will matter to the swing voters.
I think he is wise waiting until the Convention to launch his attack. Hopefully he will choose Rubio as his VP candidate.
Remember 2004? Rossi waited 2 days too late in launching a massive attack that really moved the polls. 2 days earlier and Rossi would have won. Now that is cutting it close.
Romney has plenty of time, plenty of issues to attack Obama with and plenty of money. Timing is critical. The convention is soon enough. Watch.
McCain Bitch Slaps Bachmann
John McCain, the closest thing the GOP has to a class act, has had enough of Michelle Bachmann’s bigotry:
“Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) [defended] State Department aide Huma Abedin [against] conservative allegations that she is … ‘unduly influencing’ foreign policy in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood. ‘Rarely do I come to the floor of this institution to discuss particular individuals. But I understand how painful and injurious it is when a person’s character, reputation, and patriotism are attacked without concern for fact or fairness,’ McCain [said].”
http://tinyurl.com/6rxqbfc
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Bachmann has asked the State Department to investigate Abedin for un-American activities, alleging, among other things, that her father is connected to “Muslim Brotherhood operatives and/or organizations.” According to Wikipedia, Abedin’s father died in 1993.
Republicans don’t want a federal consumer protection agency. They did everything they could to block it. Now we know who they were protecting:
“Capital One Financial agreed to pay $210 million [in fines] to resolve charges … that its call-center representatives misled consumers …. The regulators alleged that employees at call centers used by Capital One pressured and misled consumers …. In a briefing with reporters, Cordray said he anticipated actions against other banks over similar tactics ….”
http://tinyurl.com/7q2fr7d
Roger Rabbit Commentary: I understandy why crooked banksters would vote Republican, but why would anyone else?
@107 I wasn’t talking about “Bain stuff,” stupid. This is about speculation that Romney may have accepted an IRS amnesty to avoid criminal prosecution.
110-Oh, more “speculation”. That seems to be a very important Democrat word these days. Speculation.
I guess it’s like a free license to make up anything you want without a lick of proof.
I would lump all of this together and say it is non-essential for undecideds come November. It will be about Obama’s broken promises and how forgiving the undecideds are about those broken promises like cutting the debt in half, much lower unemployment etc.
Not sure folks without jobs or friends/family without jobs will be that forgiving.