Symmetry required it: 2012 american general election thread #2

if palin's being booted from fox news i'm hoping she winds up breaking the glass ceiling for women in buy-gold ads

Haha!

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/paul-ryan-booed-at-aarp-for-attacking-obamacare

"The first step to a stronger Medicare is to repeal Obamacare," he said to a shower of jeers. "I had a feeling there would be mixed reaction, so let me get into it."

Yeah how about not.

Meanwhile David Frum thinks Ms. Malkin is not a good person.

I mainly read her crazy twitter, and she comes off as such an angry, bitter person. I don't see her smiley pundit television appearances mentioned upthread.

Every picture of Malkin I've ever seen, she looks as if she's about to let loose a torrent of f-bombs.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nYmWjp9KBI0/S_Gx1uC2cyI/AAAAAAAACn0/zQrnHm0jHE0/s400/DennisHopperFrank_Booth.jpg

That Mitt magic is rubbing off on Ryan. He looks bad for denigrating his own ideas for the sake of a unified front, but then he also looks bad covering for Mitt's mess-ups.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 21 September 2012 17:19 (54 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nah, both of these = team player, not another Newt.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mam51e6R7X1rroj07o1_500.jpg

<3 that liza clip <3 <3 <3

Frum and Malkin now going into it on Twitter.

all we need is Thomas Sowell to get involved.

How charming!

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/21/mormons-want-to-excommunicate-romney-critic.html

omg Alfred your display name maybe I'm late passing on this but omg

aero, I saw her do "Bells" live about 5 years ago and she could still knock it outta the park.

"...an apostate, which means a person who renounces a religious or political belief or principle."

Classic Friday afternoon move!

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/romney-releasing-2011-taxes-at-3-pm-summary

omg Alfred your display name maybe I'm late passing on this but omg

lol thnkx aero

Romney, Under Pressure, Will Release More of His Tax Data
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR 10 minutes ago
Mitt Romney paid $1.95 million on his investment income of $13.7 million in 2011, his campaign said, adding that it will make good Friday on Mr. Romney’s promise to release his 2011 returns.

fn a what a stupid fucking headline, romney had already promised to release this info way back before the whole shitstorm started

"it will make good Friday"

yeah this is not exactly what people were asking for

but it gives them a "see, we released our taxes" headline so that's good for them. altho it reminds people of how little he pays in taxes, which is bad for them

Romney, Under Pressure, Will Do What He Promised

He's also releasing his tax rate though for the previous whatever years. Did he promise that too? I thought "you people" had gotten all you would out of them.

summaries of his rates is not what people asked for

people want to know where his money is/what it's from/how much taxes he paid on what, not some "I swear I paid a 14% tax rate in 2005"

how much money do you have to have to make it worthwhile to stick it in the Cayman Islands

like, could I throw $500 out there just to say "oh let me check my account in the Caymans" or would it have to be a huge sum of money

if he's actually just releasing tax rates with no confirmation from an outside source he continues to be a fucking idiot

well, you could give it to me and I'll make sure it gets there

actually, he's an idiot just for releasing ANYTHING re: taxes. New stories come up and HE keeps going back to this one.

"Hey guys, remember when you just hated me for my taxes? Let's go back to that."

Unless this is all build-up for his eventual book How To Not Pay Anything In Taxes The Mitt Romney Way

http://redstaterevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/dvdevery.jpg

so i trolled NRO a little. i wrote a brief description of myself (editing out certain details):

I'm a father, husband, and son employed in a small family business. I am religious, and deeply concerned about the economy and foreign affairs (particularly the threat that nuclear Iran represents to Israel). I live in a swing state (kinda - PA). I, and almost every other employee in my company, plan to vote for Obama.

i got a big response! here are some choice responses.

Gees, for a minute there, I thought you were a reasonable, responsible guy...then I read your last sentence and my bubble was burst. Dare I ask why? Or do I really already know the answer?

I'm a father, husband, and son employed by a Fortune 100 company. I am religious and deeply concerned about the economy and foreign affairs (particulare the threat that nuclear Iran represents to Israel). I live in a swing state (NC). I and almost everyone I know won't be voting for Obama.

Get worried yourself, hypocrite.

So you like having your money stolen and you want to force more people to give up what they have worked for.

I would tell you that you are an idiot, but I suspect that you already know.

I'm a OWS organizer, a welfare layabout, and an illegal immigrant. I am an atheist, and want to smash the capitalist system. I am deeply concerned about whether it's OK to use the term "illegal immigrant". I live in a swing state. I, and almost every other member of my anarcho-syndicalist commune plan of voting for Romney.

Get worried.

(Hey, if he can invent a backstory for the purposes of drama, so can I.)

I particularly like this last one bc it assumes that no one fitting my description could possibly vote for Obama in reality. This is true epistemic closure - the inability to imagine another POV that might meet one's approval regarding lifestyle but not regarding politics. Anyway, I thought it was interesting. Obv there are things I could've mentioned that would make my position more understandable (like if I mentioned I was Jewish - 80% of whom are expected to vote for Obama despite otherwise having many social-economic conditions shared by Republicans - or if I mentioned I had a graduate degree, also a high correlation to left wing voting patterns).

I'm seriously excited for how Harry Reid will respond to Mitt's 2011 tax release.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/romney-artificially-inflated-2011-taxes-after-decrying-idea

Mitt Romney's trustee said in a campaign press release that Romney artificially inflated his own effective tax rate so it would remain above 13 percent by deferring $1.75 million in charitable deductions. Romney had previously said that none of his last decade of tax returns dipped below that 13 percent threshold.

In an interview with ABC News in July, however, Romney dismissed the idea that he would ever pay more taxes than legally owed, saying if he did so he wouldn't be "qualified" to be president.

"I don't pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don't think I'd be qualified to become president," Romney said. "I'd think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires."

Did they honestly think revealing this would be better than not

maybe he'd prefer talking about his taxes to talking about the 47% video

there's been theories ranging from voter fraud to assets in iran to yr standard money in caymans/switzerland to boring old tax fraud but even if these don't bear fruit the headline at best is 'romney releases tax returns' which looks like capitulation and further panic and more likely the headline is 'romney rich as fuck, paid lower rate than avg american' which makes him further look like part of the problem, not the solution. if somehow the media acknowledges that he paid a lower rate than eitc earning leaches and maggots still pay in payroll taxes than it hurts him more.

then again maybe internal polling is showing alot of ppl bought reid's 'romney doesn't pay taxes period' trolling, in which case something is better than nothing

pwc is notarizing the summary - figured they'd HAVE to get some kind of credible source. still such a stupid move.

at the same time why release it on a friday? fridays are for news dumps. but why try to discreetly bury something you've made a point of not releasing and don't have to release at all? or if yr polling is telling you you need to release but discreetly maybe wait for a friday when yr tax rate isn't going to play into the recent narrative against you? ie last friday when you rattling yr swords at half of north africa and the middle east?

the idea of distracting people from a current albatross around their neck by waving a previous one is just stunning

what is the average tax rate for Americans anyway

are they just trying to distract the sunday shows w/ some shiny keys? do they think the sunday shows matter that much at this point?

it's just his '11 returns; reid was trying to bully him into, what, 10 years worth? maybe this is an attempt to call the tax return thing over and hope nobody gets the difference.

sorry if somebody said that already

To repeat a point made earlier, he said he'd release his 2011 taxes 'when they became available', ever since he released his 2010 taxes. This is just... oh look! A puppy!

the summary thing won't even shut up reid - there are still so many x-factors and curiosities. if you have a secret vault, and someone says "i hear there are dead bodies in there!" having an accounting firm announce they found no dead bodies WHILE STILL REFUSING TO LET ANYONE SEE YOUR VAULT only calls attention to your secret vault.

I'm just glad Obama hasn't been hiding thing anything important from 2009-12

heavens! tell us what you know, and when you knew it