Harry Reid: Mitt's secrecy 'has nothing to do
with me'

post from Daily Kos on 06 August 2012 07:15:03 PM. © Daily Kos

Chart showing Mitt Romney has only released one tax return in last two decades. It's not Harry Reid's fault that claims about Mitt Romney's taxes can't be substantiatedHoney badger still don't care.

?The issue that I raised has nothing to do with me,? Reid told reporters. ?It has everything to do with the first presidential candidate in more than 30 years who refuses to show the American people his income tax returns.?
"Listen, Romney can solve this problem very quickly: Produce the tax returns."

Pelosi's backing Reid, Reid's chief of staff is calling the Romney people "cowards," the Romney people are saying it's all Obama's fault, the guy whose candidate has spent an entire year claiming Obama went on something called an "apology tour" is calling Reid a "dirty liar" and, in the middle of it all ...

... is Mitt Romney, who still thinks all of this is better than what would happen if he showed America how much money he made and how much tax he paid on it.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/b1aVBgmJcIE/-Harry-Reid-Mitt-s-sec
recy-has-nothing-to-do-with-me

Digg this

Mitt Romney Distorting Obama Military Complaint
in Ohio

post from TaylorMarsh.com on 06 August 2012 07:00:34 PM. © TaylorMarsh.com

?President Obama?s lawsuit claiming it is for Ohio to allow servicemen and women extended early voting privileges during the state?s early voting period is an outrage.? – Mitt Romney

WHILE SEN. REID continues to confound Republicans on what they can do about his unabashedly brazen charges that Mr. Romney hasn’t paid his taxes for 10 years. He picks up an ally in Minority Leader Pelosi who’s now moved the conversation to “the fact” that Reid was told what he was told. But the Romney campaign itself is busy rewriting the intent of the Obama efforts in Ohio, making mush out of a very important voting issue.

Team Obama hopes to give all voters what the military enjoys, which is laid out in the complaint filed. They want to reverse an Ohio law that doesn’t allow American citizens the same voting rights as the military.

“Ohio election law, as currently enacted by the State of Ohio and administered by Defendant Ohio Secretary of State, arbitrarily eliminates early voting during the three days prior to Election Day for most Ohio voters, a right previously available to all Ohio voters,” the lawsuit states. The Republican-sponsored law ends early in-person voting for non-members of the military three days prior to Election Day this November, eliminating early voting on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday leading up to Nov. 6. – [ABC News]

The sausage making of winning a presidential election.

Mr. Romney is simply not telling the truth on this one. By this one I mean the Ohio charges against Team Obama with voting and veterans, not the other story that has the GOP claiming Reid is lying about Romney.

Read The Full Article:
http://taylormarsh.com/blog/2012/08/mitt-romney-distorting-obama-military-complai
nt-in-ohio/

Digg this

The long history of scapegoating the Sikhs

post from US Politics | AMERICAblog News on 06 August 2012 07:00:22 PM. © US Politics | AMERICAblog News

From my friend Sunny Hundal, one of the top British lefty bloggers, writing in the Guardian:A little-known fact: the first victim of retaliatory violence following the 9/11 attacks was a Sikh man. On 15 September 2001, 52-year-old Balbir Singh Sodhi, a gas-station owner in Arizona, was shot five times by Frank Roque. While Sodhi died instantly, Roque went on to shoot at other ethnic minorities...

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Americablog/~3/KepoGWoAERc/the-long-history-of-sca
pegoating-sikhs.html

Digg this

New Jersey GOP Senate Candidate Won’t Sign
Anti-Tax Pledge: ‘I Don’t Sign Pledges’

post from ThinkProgress on 06 August 2012 07:00:10 PM. © ThinkProgress

Another Republican candidate has refused to sign the radical anti-tax pledge authored by activist Grover Norquist and pushed by his group, Americans for Tax Reform. The pledge has played a major role in the GOP’s tax intransigence over the last several years.

Republicans who disavow the pledge, however, are growing in number, and New Jersey state Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R), who is running against Sen. Bob Menendez (D) this year, has joined the list. Asked on Fox News this afternoon if he would sign Norquist’s pledge, Kyrillos said bluntly, “I don’t sign pledges”:

HOST: Would you sign the pledge? No new taxes?
KYRILLOS: I don’t sign pledges.
HOST: So you wouldn’t sign it?
KYRILLOS: I don’t sign pledges. But I’ve been in the state senate a long time, and I don’t vote for broad-based income or sales taxes or broad-based taxes of any kind, and I’m not going to do it now. But you know what? I want to go into this thing open and honestly and deal with it in a forthright way.

Watch it:

Though it’s a positive sign that Kyrillos is rejecting Norquist’s pledge, his insistence on opposing broad-based tax increases still runs counter to a “wide consensus” among economists that the U.S. will need to increase tax rates to reduce its debt in the future.

And though there are an increasing number of Republicans taking on Norquist, the GOP’s refusal to even consider tax increases continues to cause problems for the American economy. A year ago this week, Standard and Poor’s downgraded the country’s credit rating for the first time in history, blaming the decision specifically on the Republican Party’s refusal to consider new revenue.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/08/06/648051/new-jersey-gop-senate-candidat
e-wont-sign-anti-tax-pledge-i-dont-sign-pledges/

Digg this

New House Bill Tries To Save Medical Marijuana
Dispensaries From Justice Department Crackdown

post from ThinkProgress on 06 August 2012 07:00:10 PM. © ThinkProgress

In 2009, the Justice Department formally announced that it would not direct its limited resources towards medical marijuana dispensaries acting in full compliance with state law. According to a memo from then-Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, federal prosecutors “should not focus federal resources . . . on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.” Recently, however, U.S. Attorneys in states such as California and Colorado, where medical marijuana use is legal, have began threatening to seize the buildings that house medical marijuana dispensaries unless the dispensaries’ landlords evict their cannabis-providing tenants.

Recently, DOJ set its sights on California’s Harborside Health Center, the largest medical marijuana dispensary in the world, suing to shut down Harborside’s two branches in Oakland and San Jose. Yet it is not at all clear how these suits can be squared with the Department’s 2009 memorandum. Harborside worked closely with Oakland officials to craft a strict regulatory regime to monitor their industry, and city officials agree that Harborside is in full compliance with state and local laws.

On Thursday, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced the States’ Medical Marijuana Property Rights Protection Act, which would stop the DOJ from going after dispensaries’ landlords through asset forfeiture laws. According to Americans for Safe Access, the mere threat of these kinds of lawsuits have been enough to shutter roughly 400 medical marijuana dispensaries in California.

Lee’s bill comes on the heels of the bipartisan Truth In Trials Act, sponsored by Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA), Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), among others. More extensive than Lee’s measure, the bill would allow state-licensed medical marijuana users to defend against federal prosecutions or lawsuits, by showing that they were in fact in compliance with state law. It also would prevent the government from seizing cannabis plants that are legal under state law.

As recently as June 7 of this year, Holder reiterated in a House Judiciary Committee that DOJ would only take action against dispensaries operating “out of conformity with state law.” Yet there does not appear to be any evidence that Harborside, which tests all its products in a lab for safety and pays $3 million in federal, state and local taxes, is in violation of California law. U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag, who is responsible for the actions against Harborside, could only point to the fact that Harborside is a large operation, and “[t]he larger the operation, the greater the likelihood that there will be abuse of the state’s medical marijuana laws.”

While they gear up for a legal battle, Harborside is also calling for an immediate freeze on the patchwork enforcement actions against dispensaries operating under different state laws until a top-level federal review can determine whether U.S. Attorneys are acting appropriately in targeting these dispensaries. The need for one coherent federal policy will only grow, as 17 states and the District of Columbia currently have medical marijuana laws on the books, and more medical marijuana ballot initiatives are likely to pass this year. An unprecedented majority of Americans favor marijuana legalization, while 3 in 4 believe the federal government should leave marijuana users alone as long as they comply with state law.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/06/644121/new-house-bill-tries-to-save-m
edical-marijuana-dispensaries-from-justice-department-lawsuits/

Digg this

Rendell Hits Back at GOP Rep for Pretending
President Obama Hasn't Talked About the Economy

post from Crooks and Liars on 06 August 2012 07:00:03 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Rendell Hits Back at GOP Rep for Pretending President Hasn't Talked About the Economy

Click here to view this media

I'm not necessarily some fan of former Gov. Ed Rendell and I've watched him step all over some of the Democrats' messaging of late when it came to the attack ads we've seen from the Obama campaign for Mitt Romney's time at Bain Capital. I was glad to see him jump on Florida Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart with his attempt to deflect from Romney not releasing his tax returns with the standard Republican talking point, which is the fantasy that President Obama refuses to talk about his record on the economy and job creation.

As Rendel pointed out, President Obama has talked a lot about what he's done to try to get Americans back to work and sadly what wasn't hit on here enough is the amount of Republican obstruction he's had to deal with in the process. The fact that Schieffer had on so many guests at once on this week's Face the Nation, on top of him insisting that the topic be changed probably had a lot to do with no follow up in that regard being part of the conversation.

Our horrid "mainstream media" and the beltway Villagers love the he said, she said back and forth, but rarely want any real analysis of who's telling the truth and who's lying, as we just got right here from Schieffer. He barely admits that the GOP Rep is probably full of it and then is ready to move on, because we all know more arguing between the rest of his guests is so much more important than whether one of them just lied to the audience.

Progressives may not like that we got a watered down health care law instead of Medicare for all or that President Obama hasn't done enough to brow beat Republicans in public for the fact that they really don't care about governing this country and would rather obstruct than make sure our government functions. That said, despite what a lot of his base thinks about how he's governed, President Obama has spoken often about what he managed to get accomplished regardless of the record amount of obstruction he's had to deal with.

This GOP Rep has his talking points down pat, but he refuses to accept any responsibility for his own party and how they've failed to govern and failed to cooperate in making sure our country functions and that jobs are created. Someone just coming home to take a month and a half off after they refused to pass a farm bill when there are massive droughts across the country should be disqualified for having anything to say about anything when it comes to how someone else in government is going their job.

I'd also really love to see that talking point about Romney debunked for once and for all and that talking about the economy just has to be "good for" his campaign. Why? What evidence is there that anything he wants to do would help our economy? But we hear that repeated over and over by the beltway media. "If we're talking about the economy, it's good for Romney." I say tell me why, because I see no evidence of that being remotely true.

Transcript below the fold.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Let me go down to Florida, now Congressman Diaz-Balart. First give us the situation down there and-- and also, what about this whole deal about the tax returns? Is this an issue down there? Should Governor Romney release his returns?
REPRESENTATIVE MARIO DIAZ-BALART (R-Florida): Bob, he's released his return. He's more than complied with the law. He's done more than Harry Reid by what he has done to this day. Let's talk about what the real situation is here in Florida, a couple of numbers that do matter. Gas is about twice as expensive as it was before President Obama swore in. President Obama's health care law raided Medicare in the tune of five hundred million dollars to create a new program. Medicare, by the way, according to the Medicare actuaries, is about to go bankrupt within a decade. The deficit has been, you know, trillionary (sic) deficit, even though he said he was going to cut it in half in his first term, he hasn't done so. We already talked about-- about the situation of the debt, but unemployment. The unemployment numbers are again forty-two months of over eight-percent unemployment. I believe it's a longest record of eight percent or above since those numbers have been kept.
And here's the irony: the President of the United States has been there now for three and a half years and he refuses to talk about anything that he's done. Why? Because unfortunately what he's done has been disastrous for-- for the employees, for people trying to get jobs, for middle America-- for middle-income America. So every time that the President speaks or some of his surrogates, they try to talk about anything except the real situation, and right now, people can't get jobs. Millions of Americans are either underemployed or unemployed. That's the real issue, Bob. And it's really sad that the President of United States, the most important elected official, in this country, refuses to talk about issues that are important because he is scared to talk about his real record, which has been dismal for the economy.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Do you think of--
FORMER GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: Bob, that's not-- simply that's not true.
BOB SCHIEFFER: What?
FORMER GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: The President has talked about the fact that we've created four and a half million private sector jobs in the last twenty-nine months, twenty-nine straight months of gains. He talks about the auto bailout which Governor Romney opposed, which has been usually successful. He talks about the fact that we've created half a million new manufacturing jobs, twenty-five thousand new manufacturing jobs just in July alone. The President could do much more. He's cut small business taxes eighteen times. He could do much more if the Republican Congress agreed to pass things in the Jobs Act that the President proposed last October, like tax incentives for small businesses that create jobs--
BOB SCHIEFFER: Yeah.
FORMER GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: --infrastructure development--
REPRESENTATIVE MARIO DIANZ-BALART: Bob, if I may--
ED RENDELL: --but the Republicans won't do that.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Let the Congressman back in.
REPRESENTATIVE MARIO DIANZ-BALART: If I may, Bob. Look, again, where are those jobs? Unemployment above eight percent so-- so, no, it is true. It is true that unemployment has been above eight percent for forty-one months-- forty-two months. It is true that it's been a hundred and twenty days since he's even met with his own economic council. Here's a President who, again, the economy is in shambles where people cannot find jobs and yet he keeps saying, as the Governor who has just said, hey, things are great. The economy is wonderful--
FORMER GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: He didn't say things are great.
REPRESENTATIVE MARIO DIANZ-BALART: --we're doing, really, really well.
FORMER GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: But we're telling people the truth.
REPRESENTATIVE MARIO DIANZ-BALART: I did not interrupt you. I did not interrupt you. I did not interrupt the Governor. I did not interrupt the Governor.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Yeah, he's not. I don't think he is saying that Congressman. He-- he's saying we got to do a lot better. But let me-- let me move on here.

Read The Full Article:
http://crooksandliars.com/heather/rendell-hits-back-gop-rep-pretending-presi

Digg this

Thanks Ken

post from Everyday Citizen on 06 August 2012 06:47:45 PM. © Everyday Citizen

Thanks Ken. Good insights. When I wrote my blog on the Nuns on the Bus, I googled Christian Women[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.everydaycitizen.com/2012/08/thanks_ken_1.html

Digg this

Today on The Stars Hollow Gazette

Our regular featured content-On This Day In History August 6 by TheMomCatPunting the Pundits by TheMomCatThese featured articles-Curiosity by ek hornbeckPique the Geek 20120805: Yet More Carbon by TranslatorFiat Lux: Banishing Alienation Through Lights[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.docudharma.com/diary/30540/today-on-the-stars-hollow-gazette

Digg this

The Sikh Temple Shooting and How We Regard
Violence by Lone Gunmen

A white supremacist named Wade Michael Page opened fire at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, on Sunday and killed six worshippers, so how did media handle it? The tension over whether this was "domestic terrorism" or a hate crime or neither appeared[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/TCNEaG1S_Vk/

Digg this

Heckuva nominee you've got there, G.O.P.

Mitt Romney So with a normal nominee, you might expect Republicans to be going to town on this report:

David Plouffe, a senior White House adviser who was President Obama?s 2008 campaign manager, accepted a $100,000 speaking fee in 2010 from an affiliate of a company doing business with Iran?s government.
A subsidiary of MTN Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications company, paid Plouffe for two speeches he made in Nigeria in December 2010, about a month before he joined the White House staff.

Yeah, I know there's more sizzle than steak with this. Plouffe wasn't in the White House when he made the speech, he violated no laws or ethics codes, his speech never touched on anything to do with the subsidiary's Iran deal, and nobody has even hinted that he's done anything to benefit the company since taking his job at the White House. But despite all that, this is the kind of thing you'd expect Republicans in a frenzy over.

Except they have a problem. A Mitt Romney problem. Because, as the very same article notes, until last year, Mitt Romney sat on the board of directors of a company that does business in Iran: Marriott. Not only that, but:

Some of the largest stock trades made by the Romney trust involved companies that have operated in Iran.

Among those companies? Turkcell, a Turkish telecom firm that had the Iranian wireless contract before MTN's subsidiary won the business. And not only did Turkcell once have the very same contract held by MTN, but they are now suing?in United States court?to win the contract back. So Mitt Romney not only owned shares in a company that conducted they very same business as MTN's subsidiary, he owned shares in a company suing to get that business back. And who knows, maybe if they're successful they'll pay Eric Fehrnstrom a hundred grand to give a speech or two.