(Mike Luckovich vis GoComics.com)
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I joked this morning about a Friday Document Dump, but I didn’t expect the Rmoney handlers to use Willard as his own dump.
Not sure how significant it might be, but the 6:30pm newscasts on the three dinosaur networks seemed somewhat more interested in the “Why did Ralph Lauren outsource America’s Olympic uniforms to China?” kerfuffle than in giving Mitt more face-time to embarrass himself.
Apart from androids going off-program, what’s on the agenda for the start of the weekend?
MattR
Been loving the top 40 One Hit Wonders of the 90’s on VHI-HD. Currently enjoying Rump Shaker at #14
Thoroughly Pizzled
All political cartoons are awful the only good ones are Kelly, Bennett, Bors and this guy.
trollhattan
In honor of “Breaking Bad” season the five on Sunday.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/the-best-memes-from-the-first-four-seasons-of-bre
The Hector owl and Twittertwats killed me.
SmallAxe
Friday 13th kick off with lay-offs at work many brews to follow
PeakVT
This article on stuff probably won’t surprise most Juicers (including me), but I still find it interesting. Some level of hoarding behavior was probably a positive adaptation for most of human existence, but in the past 50 years or so it has often become maladaptive. I’ve slowly been reducing my hoard over the past two years, and I can’t say I miss a single thing.
dmsilev
Quoth the Rombot:
Huh. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought it would take a while longer to reach the “I don’t recall” stage.
freelancer
@trollhattan:
I’m laughing so hard I’m crying right now. Obama to Stephen Hawking made me get up and walk away from the computer I’m laughing so hard.
Roger Moore
Yes, Willard, but you didn’t list yourself as just a shareholder. Is there a difference between being President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board and running an entity? If so, please explain how. Inquiring minds want to know.
Violet
@Roger Moore: “Mitt’s Not Working.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@dmsilev: My favorite is “These attacks are beneath the dignity of the president of the United States”. Was Whiny Willard sitting next to Donald Trump or Ted Nugent when he said that?
MattR
@PeakVT: When I unsuccessfully tried to sell my condo a couple years ago, I decluttered the place and threw all sorts of books, CDs, DVDs, random electronics and other crap into storage. I’ve gone to retrieve one item over the past two years but I can’t get myself over the mental hump to actually throw it all out (and save me the monthly storage fee)
Roger Moore
@dmsilev:
Yeah, and it’s going to be harder, what with the sworn testimony back in 2002 about how he was back in Boston for board meetings and all. The most charitable explanation is that he has protective amnesia and is incapable of remembering facts that might be inconvenient for his Presidential campaign. Still not a strong recommendation for why we should vote for him.
PeakVT
There’s a difference between being a shareholder…
Not so much when you are the sole shareholder.
jl
@Violet:
“Mitt’s Not Working.”
thanks.
That HAS to be made a rotating headline on this blog.
beltane
@dmsilev: Is it possible to pre-impeach a president?
cathyx
@MattR: They say that with clothing, if you hadn’t worn it in a year get rid of it. I think with stuff, if you haven’t needed it in 2 years, have a garage sale. (storage unit sale)
beltane
@PeakVT: Sole shareholder and CEO. He is trying to wiggle in a one-dimensional space where there is no wiggle room.
God knows what’s in those tax returns that he’s hiding.
Violet
@jl: It’s so great because he’s trying sell the “Obama’s Not Working” slogan. Mitt’s campaign is nothing but projection.
PeakVT
@MattR: Donating makes it easier. And where I live it’s acceptable to just put stuff out by the street. I put three partial boxes of nails out last week and they were gone in 10 minutes (on a busy street, but still).
joes527
Yes, yes, yes … sole shareholder can be an absentee landlord. We get that Mitt.
But what part of: CEO, President, Chairman of the board and drawing a 6 figure salary is ambiguous?
Two simple questions end this:
Who were the CEO, President, and Chairman of the Board of Bain from 1999-2001?
What was the 6 figure salary that Mitt drew from Bain after 1999 for?
Everything else is just misdirection.
dmsilev
@beltane: A dkos commenter had a great line in the same general topic: “Mitt started this campaign with no real convictions. The way things are going, he may definitely have one before it’s over.”
Roger Moore
@Violet:
Yeah, but he’s getting paid six figures anyway.
cathyx
@joes527: I like this question, although I think it would be easy to fudge an answer:
Who were the CEO, President, and Chairman of the Board of Bain from 1999-2001?
NotMax
Gotta remember to go check the mail.
As I’ve never worked for Bain (which is much, much longer than Romney can claim he hasn’t worked there), there should be a big check from them coming in any time now.
lahru
So Mitt? Since you weren’t running the company, who was?
Did this person work for you?
Why not? You were, or are, the owner based upon SEC filings aren’t you?
Oh? I see? Well explain to me how when someone is listed on SEC filings as CEO, Board Chairman and CFO and not the owner just what am I to believe you or my lying eyes reading these SEC filings?
I know it’s inconvenient Mitt but, please excuse my candor, I believe your are lying. AGAIN!
MattR
@PeakVT: In a condo complex so can’t just leave stuff out at the curb. But if I do toss it I will defintely end up domating most of the stuff.
And I haven’t even mentioned the broken 50″ DLP TV that has been sitting in my garage for the past two years.
@Maude: That is my problem with clothes, especially since I work from home so I currently only use a small subset of my wardrobe. I can’t remember the last time I wore a shirt with a collar, but it was nice to have options on hand when my high school reunion rolled around last month.
Maude
@MattR:
When you are ready, you’ll decide what to do with your stuff.
I had some things for years and they did come in handy at a later time.
If you just threw the stuff out, you would regret it.
joes527
@MattR: Saw the lock off the unit, parade us all by so that we can look, but not touch … and let the bidding begin!
BGinCHI
I know I deserve it for thinking All Things Considered would have some good reporting on the Romney stuff, but alas, fuck the hell no.
At 5:00, the first thing was EJ Dionne and the not-Bobo (some woman named Mona). First subject, Romney and Bain. The woman dismissed it as though Mitt had gotten a ticket for turning right on red against the sign. EJ said it’s raising a lot of questions or something but that he didn’t know if it was as serious as the Obama camp were making out.
2 minutes of that, tops, then a bunch of worthless shit.
Then a much longer report on 2 judges leaving American Fucking Idol.
Hey NPR! You suck! Do some fucking reporting.
Ruckus
@PeakVT:
It’s a lot easier not to horde when you only have money for food and a very small shelter.
pseudonymous in nc
“pro forma” is Latin for “fuck you, peasants.”
quannlace
The little bit of the interview that I saw, he said it was the board members.
But, yet again, why was he listed on the SEC fillings as both CEO and Chairman? I suppose he’s going to say t hose were honorable titles?
cathyx
@BGinCHI: What, no report on the American olympian’s uniforms made in China? They really are worthless.
NotMax
David Horsey does run from hot to lukewarm, but a couple of his recent cartoons are spot on.
http://www.trbimg.com/img-4fd830b1/turbine/la-na-tt-net-worth-sinks-20120612-001/600
http://www.trbimg.com/img-4fbf1766/turbine/la-na-tt-karl-rove–20120524-001/600
Short Bus Bully
@joes527: THIS
Just keep repeating this mantra until either the misdirection is pierced or we all have heart attacks.
Ruckus
Just went grocery shopping in one of the ritzy areas(it’s fun to go in work clothes and see the reactions) and saw my first mitt sticker. I’ve seen lots of Obama stickers. Was tempted to stand there and laugh at the driver but figured they just wouldn’t get it.
burnspbesq
Baseball! Resumption of play after the All-Star break.
Hill Dweller
In addition to their usual request for Mitt’s tax returns, the Obama campaign is now demanding Bain release the minutes from their meetings.
This new demand raises some interesting possibilities. Do they already have their hands on the minutes from Bain meetings? Do they know of a meeting Willard attended?
I have a hard time believing the Obama campaign would be going this hard on the Bain stuff if they didn’t have even more stuff in the pipeline. David Corn seemed to suggest there was much more.
JCT
@PeakVT: We just sold our home, if was our “starter” home 20 years ago and we never left. We moved across the country and took virtually *nothing*. My admin was looking at our moving costs (covered by my employer) and was shocked at how low it was.
Of course my husband made some crack about my filling it up all over again…. I’m the hoarder, but when I offered to let him use my antique camera collection to decorate his den he didn’t turn me down.
Vindication!
MattR
@joes527: Heh. I’ll take video of the contents and post it to youtube. The “Storage Wars” folks would be very disappointed. I don’t think there is anything too unique or valuable. I also have another storage unit in my condo complex but that was already pretty full with comics, Sports Illustrateds and Star Trek novels. (And the one I rent is temperature controlled which I wanted since I had a stereo, a couple VCRs, a couple DVD players and other stuff I wanted to keep out of humidity.)
And the #1 One Hit Wonder of the 90’s is Baby Got Back. (#3 was Rico Sauve by Gerardo who now does Christian music). Two songs I would’ve put on the list were Possum Kingdom by the Toadies and Mighty K.C. by For Squirrels.
PeakVT
@MattR: Another thing you can do is post in the “free stuff” section of Craigslist. The letters f-r-e-e do funny things to people’s brains. A guy drove 50 miles to get some used carpet and padding from me, even though it was cut up into 4-ft wide strips. I bet someone would take that DLP. (I’m guilty of something like that. I pulled a Pignose amp out of the electronics dumpster at the local drop-off facility last week. I haven’t done more than disassemble it so far.)
Davis X Machina
@BGinCHI: They can report. Or they can have underwriters and members. But they can’t have both.
Litlebritdifrnt
DH and I are celebrating our 21st Anniversary this weekend, actually our 22nd anniversary of meeting (July 14th) and our 21st anniversary of marriage (July 14th one year to the day later). It is quite a feat considering that he proposed two weeks after meeting me, and we spent a grand total of 4 weeks together after that (he was in the US I was in the UK and a tiny thing like the first Gulf War intervened). After our marriage we had another 6 months apart before I left the WRNS and moved to the US. This is the first year in decades that we are actually together for the anniversary as usually he is up in the mountains for a band directors workshop.
danielx
@dmsilev:
Makes you ponder that age-old question: how does it feel to be a lying sonofabitch? We can see well enough how it looks.
MattR
@PeakVT: So basically pass it off to another poor schmuck to hoard for a few years ;)
I really need to deal with all my crap, but that’s definitely not gonna happen til summer is over.
@Litlebritdifrnt: Congrats. And thanks for reminding me to call my former roommate tonight. His birthday is tmrw, but I want to beat the rush of calls so I can actually get more than 10 minutes of phone time.
danielx
What’s on the agenda? Chicken nachos for dinner, with guacamole, natch. Sloppy, high cholesterol, but oh so good. Leftover blueberry cobbler from last night for dessert, which I suspect someone added something to – it seems to have the same density as lead, but again oh so good. Then music turned up LOUD on the IPod connected to the big speakers…I’m thinking the Summer mix. Light it off with Fresh Air by Quicksilver Messenger Service, since I’m feeling reminiscent…was before my time, but since so much seems to be past my time these days, it’s good to go against the flow every so often.
Steeplejack
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Congratulations! I hope you have many more happy anniversaries.
joes527
@PeakVT: Freecycle is another way to get rid of crap.
I’ve had takers for:
1) A bunch of old half empty cans of paint in assorted colors.
2) the bushes in my backyard when I was getting ready to re-landscape (we specified that the person taking the plants would have to dig them out themselves)
I’m of the opinion that you could post “A bunch of broken crap that wasn’t worth anything to begin with” and you would have at least 1 interested person.
quannlace
Since this is an open thread,,,,,
I’m in the market for a new vacuum cleaner. Anybody have recommendations for a good basic model?
SatanicPanic
Band practice! At my age that means drinking beer, talking and sort of playing music. Followed by going out to… drink beer. Beer!
Patricia Kayden
In the interview I’m seeing now on Ed Schultz’ show, Romney says that it’s okay for him to take credit for any jobs that Bain created after his departure because he played a role in saving those job-creating companies. So Schultz wisely asked shouldn’t Romney also take the blame for the jobs that were outsourced after his departure from Bain? Good question.
magurakurin
@Hill Dweller: well, they are pretty much all lawyers and what is it they always say on the court dramas on tv, “don’t ask any question you don’t already know the answer to.”
I’m guessing that maybe, yeah, they already know.
Mitt meet Hammer. Hammer…smash.
Steeplejack
@danielx:
Good song. Bookend it with “What About Me.”
Here’s another summer song I’ve been listening to: Pieces of a Dream, “Warm Weather.”
FlipYrWhig
@quannlace: We got a Bissell something or other based on a Consumer Reports recommendation. It was like $80 or so a couple years back. We bought from Lowe’s, but they also had them at Target. Poke around Consumer Reports to see what would suit people with a stingy old-person mentality of all ages (I’m 40 and enjoy the penny-pinching ethos of CR).
jl
I’m probably going to listen to CEO Speedwagon’s Take It on the Run. As soon as the video clips of Romney’s ENI are posted.
MikeJ
JPL
@quannlace: Five or six years ago on this very site someone mentioned the bissell. I bought it initially because of stairs and their power brush but now it’s just for a smaller house with tile floors and dog and cat hair. The down side is that it has three filters that have to be cleaned or replaced, the upside, is it is inexpensive and even if it needs to replaced next year, worth the money.
edit..thanks to who ever recommended it..
Tonal Crow
@MikeJ: Roh-roh Rastro!
FlipYrWhig
@MikeJ: I think Romney’s testimony about his residency may have been just fuzzy enough that he would be referring to meetings for other companies (Staples, maybe?) on whose boards he sat, as opposed to actual Bain meetings.
beltane
@MikeJ: I’m sure Mitt will soon discover the benefits of early onset dementia.
WaterGirl
@Ruckus: I haven’t been here much lately, so I am not up on the latest. Does this mean you got a job? Catching up on threads from earlier this week, too, and it seemed like maybe you are not staying with your friend anymore? You have your own place? What about your cocker spaniel? (Or have I completely confused you with someone else?)
JPL
@efgoldman: Actually I think they will make great ads especially when he doesn’t say the buck stops here to Crawford.
THE
Anytime you don’t have scissors, just grab the nearest Piranha.
Roger Moore
@FlipYrWhig:
Doesn’t help. He swore he wasn’t involved with Bain or any Bain entity. If he was sitting on those boards because Bain was invested in those companies, he was doing so as a representative of Bain and that shows material involvement with Bain.
trollhattan
@cathyx:
Call:
Response: “Shaft!”
He’s a bad motha/shut your mouth!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Remember when Mark Halperin told us the Bain criticism was just like the Swift Boat Lies, ’cause truth is irrelevant? Now his twin brother from another mother, Joe Klein, tells us that they’re really like the Willie Horton ads from ’88, because… something. Did you know Joe Klein once worked for Rolling Stone? And he’s been a political reporter for a very long time.
MikeJ
@Roger Moore: Agreed. If this were a criminal case, he might wiggle out of it, but it’s not. It’s a “can you trust him” case, and the more slippery he acts to weasel out of it the more it hurts him.
Omnes Omnibus
@PeakVT: Wait, where you live it is acceptable to throw nails in the street? Do you then roll the people with flat tires?
cathyx
@trollhattan: No, the answer would be; My CFO, and there’s no written record of him taking over control because we shook hands over it but there is nothing in writing.
slag
Have we gotten to the press release that described Rmoney as halftime yet?: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/13/1109623/-Bain-Capital-press-release-described-Romney-as-part-time-in-July-1999
Though I’m still currently on the side of titular head all throughout his “career” at Bain, I still enjoy watching Rmoney squirm.
FlipYrWhig
@Roger Moore: He’d say that he was on boards of companies he had gotten to know through working at Bain, but by then his involvement was with those companies themselves and had nothing to do with Bain. Hence it’s not a Bain “entity.” He had business obligations he continued to attend to, but they were not with Bain at that point. That has to be what he’d say if he wants to remain consistent with the idea that his role at Bain was purely ceremonial but his status with other companies was sufficient to lead him to have to come back from Utah periodically.
MikeJ
@slag:
I’d love to hear Romney come out and tell everyone he’s not really a business genius, he just sat by and watched while other people made all the decisions.
It would certainly tell us a lot about what kind of president he would be.
Maude
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
What is he talking about? And why does he get paid to write that drivel?
jwb
@MikeJ: “I’d love to hear Romney come out and tell everyone he’s not really a business genius, he just sat by and watched while other people made all the decisions.”
Sounds like Reagan and W.
FlipYrWhig
And I still want to know what evidence there is that Romney was ever hands-on or actively involved before 1999, such that it would be apparent that there was a switch in his role with the firm. What’s the proof that W. Mitt Romney personally guided successfull investments by Bain, ever, as opposed to being the guy sitting in the big chair getting credit for other people’s work?
FlipYrWhig
@MikeJ: Same wavelength here…
SmallAxe
just gave that Rombot 4.0 CNN interview the Lie to Me treatment without the sound. It could be a case study. Shifting in his seat glistening, flashing the joker smile every time a question is asked. Take a look at that one.
slag
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Wow. You weren’t kidding about that part.
burnspbesq
Kyrie Irving challenges Kobe Bryant to a $50K game of one-on-one, proceeds to the winner’s favorite charity. Much hilarity ensues.
http://www.nesn.com/2012/07/kyrie-irving-challenges-usa-teammate-kobe-bryant-to-1-on-1-game-video.html
joel hanes
@efgoldman:
Dwarf
Hot dog! Groat cakes again!
Heavy on the 30-weight, Mom.
Anne Laurie
Since we’ve finally ripped out the last of the crappy wall-to-wall that came with the house, I find myself using our second-hand Oreck “housekeeper” mini-vac almost exclusively. We have at least 2 working shopvacs, a stick-vac, and a couple upright models, but the Oreck is easiest for me to grab & maneuver around all the furniture & piles of stuff two packrats accumulate. Also, stairs. It handles pet hair, cat litter, kibble, leaves tracked in from the back yard, etc a lot more efficiently than the uprights, but its bag capacity is small enough that I can rescue errant earrings or vital plastic parts without too much trouble.
We inherited our ‘housekeeper’ when my father-in-law got a freebie with his full-size upgrade. It’s at least 15 years old (possibly 25), and the local dealer did a complete ‘recondition’ on it maybe 18 months ago for $100. He had several other ‘reconditioned’ models on hand which he was selling for $150-$200, most of them trade-ins.
If you don’t have wall-to-wall carpeting, or a big house, checking your local Oreck dealer for retreads might be worth your time.
Bruce S
I’m liking the Condi Rice VP bubble. Yes, please pick one of the worst Secretaries of State and most ineffectual National Security Advisors in American history. And remind us all of what kind of crazy shit happens when the country elects Republicans. She’s, contra the old Phyllis Schlafly line, both VP “choice AND an echo.” (And, of course, her mild pro-choice noises will alienate the critical LoonyToons “base” that Romney is so desperate to keep in his Krazy Korral.) That the idiot Juan Williams thinks her ascendance to the Palin-position would be a “game-changer” only makes the prospect that much more tantalizing to sane people.
Omnes Omnibus
I am starting to get the feeling that this Romney chap might not be strictly on the up and up. I know I am going out on a limb here, but something about him seems a bit, well, like he might be the kind of person who could hide behind a corkscrew.
Gypsy howell
No way he makes it through the convention with the nomination. My money’s on JEB! being drafted for the nom. Hope the Obama campaign is ready for that.
I wish I was joking about this.
FlipYrWhig
@Omnes Omnibus: You are what you eat, they say, and Utah leads the nation in Jello consumption.
slag
@MikeJ: I could definitely see him blaming the problems at Bain on “just a few bad apples”.
Omnes Omnibus
@FlipYrWhig: But he is from MA, no, MI, no CA, no, NH…. Aw, fuck it – Utah works.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Maude: He had a really hard time stuffing 10 pounds of crap into the Broderist Both Sides Cookie Cutter?
@Bruce S: I was listening to the non-Tweety Show (Smerconish filling in) about this, and in addition to the half term quitter from Wassilla saying something about Condi Rice having more “experience” than our current president, the discussion between an NRO goon and a WaPo reporter was all about abortion, which the WaPo reporter referred to as “the issue of life”. Not a word about 9/11, intelligence briefings, WMD, nuclear programs, the invasion of Iraq, not even shoe shopping while New Orleans drowned. None of that ever happened on their planet. I never thought I could miss Tweety.
barath
@joes527:
Unfortunately I think it’s fairly easy to wiggle out of this as long as the MSM doesn’t do follow up questions (and they don’t). Here’s how it could go:
Who were the CEO, President, and Chairman of the Board of Bain from 1999-2001? “In name only I remained as CEO, to maintain continuity for Bain’s business deals, but was officially on a leave of absence for that entire time. I was busy saving the Olympics and was not involved in Bain during that time.”
What was the 6 figure salary that Mitt drew from Bain after 1999 for? “To continue to use my name and likeness to make the best deals possible for Bain in my absence, which was a company I had built from the ground up.”
He needs to be nailed on the inconsistency between what he’s claimed on forms and in person at different times. I’m not sure these questions will ensure that happens given the incompetence of the media.
beltane
@Bruce S: Here is a sample of some of the wingnut reaction to the rumored Condi pick http://wonkette.com/478198/let-us-memorialize-this-fake-one-day-condi-boomlet-thing-with-a-wingnut-chain-letter
trollhattan
@joel hanes:
“Don’t eat with your hands, son, use your entrenching tool.”
Villago Delenda Est
@MikeJ:
Not only is he a liar, he’s a very bad liar. He can’t even begin to keep his lies straight.
Amir Khalid
Anyway Mitt tells it, his story about being/not being at Bain Capital from 1999 to 2002 just doesn’t add up. He looks like either a liar or an absentee boss. He can demand all day long an apology from the Obama campaign for bringing it up; he’s gotten as far as he deserved to get with that, same as when he demanded two newspapers retract unfavorable but quite accurate stories about him.
But this one doesn’t go away until he, Willard Mitt Romney, clears it up. Nor does the doubt it raises, rightly, about his fitness for the presidency. Yet he isn’t doing that. I’m beginning to wonder how this guy got elected Governor of Massachusetts. He can’t candidate to save his hide.
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: He is an even worse bullshitter.
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid:
This is his problem.
He cannot clear it up without conceding that Obama’s attacks are truthful and valid.
He’s painted himself into a corner. He cannot escape. Not even the Angel Moroni can save his lying sack of shit ass.
He is fucked. Seriously fucked.
I’m enjoying every minute of it, too.
Maude
@Omnes Omnibus:
Or twist his words like a corkscrew.
Roger Moore
@Omnes Omnibus:
Your ideas are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Omnes Omnibus
@Maude: The way he is going at it half the cork will be floating in pieces in the bottle while the rest along with the screw itself will be stuck in his left eye.
Maude
@Amir Khalid:
I think the people on the major tv stations have no idea of what is going on. They don’t understand the issue with Mitt’s was he or wasn’t he problem.
Yahoo headline news has become childish and gossipy.
joel hanes
@slag:
a few bad apples
Omnes Omnibus
@joel hanes: Don’t start with the fucking llamas.
joel hanes
@trollhattan:
No Irishman can keep you from being elected DogKiller this time, Dad! You’re a natural!
[ beep beep ]
Cacti
Shouldn’t we be talking about important stuff?
Like how the POTUS is another George Zimmerman because of teh ebil drones?
Omnes Omnibus
@Cacti:
There’s a thread for that.
JCT
@Omnes Omnibus: Moose bites can be very dangerous.
Meanwhile can someone at LEAST ask Mitt why he was OK showing McCain *years* of tax reports but we get barely one? How hard would this be?
Cacti
@Omnes Omnibus:
I know.
Just mocking Anne Laurie.
“Hmmm…we’ve spent an awful lot of time on Bain today. I need to be fair and balanced and get in some gratuitous Obama bashing.”
Fucking firebaggers.
NonyNony
@barath:
Drawing a six figure salary as a pay off to defraud investors isn’t actually a better situation to be in than being the CEO of the company as far as the “optics” of the whole thing goes. If Mitt decides to go down that route just hand him a shovel and he can dig his own grave.
What’s hilarious about this is the more he refuses to take responsibility for the company that he built, the more he looks like every bad CEO anyone has ever had the displeasure of working for. Hell he’s even actually starting to remind me of a few middle managers I’ve worked for over the years – shoving responsibility off onto underlings, never accepting that he’s made a mistake or owning the negative consequences of his directives – the worst possible attributes of corporate America rolled up into one man.
If he hasn’t turned himself into the single most punchable face in America by the time this is over I’ll be surprised.
Cacti
@JCT:
And after vetting 23 years of Romney tax returns, McCain decided that Sarah Stupid was a better choice for VPOTUS.
PeakVT
@Omnes Omnibus: I only do that if I’m wearing a hoodie.
Omnes Omnibus
@JCT:
A fraternity brother of mine hit a moose with his car while driving back to school after Thanksgiving.
ETA: Not canonical, but it is true.
Jewish Steel
@Omnes Omnibus: I do agree with what you said on an earlier thread that there could be even more to this story that might come to light. Of all the things Mitt lies about, and Steve Benen knows they are legion, the Obama campaign seizes on this one. Not just because it cuts to the heart of the argument between the two campaigns, I think, but because it’s a story that leads in many uncomfortable directions for the GOP’s neo-Nixonianly secretive candidate.
Omnes Omnibus
@PeakVT: Well, duh. Thug life!
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus:
Indeed. At this rate, Mitt’s candidacy seems headed for some kind of train wreck. But if the party comes to see him as an untenable candidate before the convention next month, aren’t they still stuck with him? He won’t give up the nomination without a fight, not now when he’s all but got it. And whom could the party turn to? Surely not Jeb Bush, who didn’t fancy a run this year. And please God, not anyone from the Klown Kar (shudder).
Roger Moore
@JCT:
Because those years of tax returns got him turned down as VP pick. Obviously that means he can’t show them to us or it might hurt his election chances. “I can’t show you my tax returns. I’m running for President, for Pete’s sake!”
Elizabelle
Who thinks we’re going to see Romney tax returns?
How many years? And when will they be released?
I do not see how you can run seriously for President and not release multiple years of tax returns. Romney Sr. did the right thing with 12 years.
The voters deserve the information.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jewish Steel: It might not just be this story. I think the Obama campaign has a shitload of related stuff on Romney’s business career and they are going to keep releasing better and better stories. If they do it right, the press will have to cover it – especially since Romney has shown that his method of putting out fires involves gasoline. It’s been so long…
ETA: Someone linked a story this morning that said O’s campaign had 4-500 page oppo research books on potential VP campaigns. Imagine what they have on Mitt.
Jewish Steel
@Omnes Omnibus: Even better! (more stories of Mittfidy, that is)
I like this from Harry Reid:
Until he releases his returns we’re all free to speculate.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jewish Steel: Dude, it would irresponsible not to speculate.
CW in LA
@Jewish Steel: Okay, if Harry “Soggy White Bread” Reid is scoring off you, you’re in danger of getting pulled.
slag
@NonyNony:
There’s that. I find the contrast between Mitt’s “career” and that of so many others I’ve known to be fairly illuminating. In fact, I don’t know anyone (personally) who has not had to be replaced by at least one person after leaving a job. On the contrary, I’ve known several people who have been replaced by more than one person after leaving a job. Of course, there is something to be said for hands off management and leaving a place better than you found it, but really…if you can disappear completely and not be replaced by anyone…that’s sad.
On the other hand, maybe Rmoney was, like so many American workers, automated out of his CEO job.
beltane
Romney’s extreme defensiveness over his tax returns is going to make people start wondering if he has actual dead bodies stashed away in them. You’d think that someone who has been planning to run for president for most of his adult life would recognize the importance of keeping his finances squeaky clean. Mitt might be ambitious but it appears that his greed overpowers his ambitions. Instead of keeping his eye on the prize, he couldn’t resist chasing after anything and everything that wasn’t bolted to the ground.
There is a reason the old theologians considered greed and avarice to be mortal sins.
Omnes Omnibus
On a completely unrelated note, Operation-For-Fucks-Sake-You-Have-Been-Living-in-this-Place-for-Almost-a-Year-Get-Your-Shit-Out-of-the-Boxes is about to enter its final phase. It began on last Monday. Next week art goes on the walls and I will be moved in.
Omnes Omnibus
@beltane: I think his presidency ambitions only surfaced after he was deep into his career serving Mammon. He is hoist on his own petard. His only real accomplishments are things that will make him seem appalling to most voters. Oh well.
mainmati
@Thoroughly Pizzled: Wow, that’s a good cartoon, alright. Maybe it can finally wake Obama up.
freelancer
@Omnes Omnibus:
Hey in Wall Street/Wingnut terms now, that’s about to be considered a speedy transition!
ETA: Sooooo NOT completely unrelated.
Cacti
Romney should just his tax returns are “sacred, not secret”.
That’s the canned Mormon phrase for why they can’t discuss the temple ceremony.
Omnes Omnibus
@freelancer: Sure, but in terms of living like an adult, not so much. I would put the art up now but going at the walls with a hammer and gimlet is a bad idea.
dlnelson
I think Mike in DC mentioned his wife lost a mother a dog and a grandfather. I had the same happen to me, she might be going through early menopause. I was there, that happened to me in the early forties. That being said, it is an open thread, I will be going to La Jolla for couple of weeks, any ideas. I know it is a small community, but I am happy. dn
dlnelson
I think Mike in DC mentioned his wife lost a mother a dog and a grandfather. I had the same happen to me, she might be going through early menopause. I was there, that happened to me in the early forties. That being said, it is an open thread, I will be going to La Jolla for couple of weeks, any ideas. I know it is a small community, but I am happy. dn
Narcissus
@Jewish Steel: Aww man, I might have to revise my “Harry Reid is an Abject Pussy” position.
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
@trollhattan: Ossum — thanks!
beltane
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s too bad for all of us that Mitt’s midlife crisis prompted him to run for office instead of having an affair or taking up a new hobby like any other men in his position.
By the way, after giving it some thought I realized that I did indeed slander Madame de Pompador’s good name by comparing her to David Gergen. The courtier Gergen most resembles is this fellow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Villiers,_1st_Duke_of_Buckingham
freelancer
@Omnes Omnibus:
A laser level will even the odds.
Jay in Oregon
@Roger Moore:
If the CEO wasn’t Mitt, you must acquit!
Joseph Nobles
Obama : Romney :: Hulk : Loki
Omnes Omnibus
@beltane: Buckingham is a better comparison, yes.
@freelancer: Since I don’t have a laser level, it really won’t be much help now, will it?
JCT
@Cacti: Of course, and that’s the “tell” isn’t it.
They must have all sorts of good stuff in them to get McCain so spooked that he went for the Twit of the Tundra. Not to mention the fact that all he has to do is release them to get the hounds off his tail — assuming they were, “clean”. Hah.
Fun to watch the mendacious fucker twist himself up on the TeeVee today — trapped like a rat. Hey wingnuts– nice candidate you got there.
The prophet Nostradumbass
Saw this on twitter, about some nutball and the “Republic of the United States of America“.
beltane
@JCT: Weird timing for this Business Week article, don’t you think? http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-10/how-the-mormons-make-money
jwb
Does anyone know if Bill Kristol declared Romney’s TV interviews a success? Then I’ll know they really sucked.
Omnes Omnibus
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Huh? I mean, I read and interpreted legal filings from prisoners on a daily basis for 2 1/2 years so I know from crazy legal theorizizationings, but, damn.
JCT
@beltane: Hah, that is “interesting” timing. Who knows, maybe the Marquis du Mittens made a bunch of enemies on his climb to the “top” and they are all coming out of the woodwork.
Or else maybe the wingnuts were right and screwing with a Chicago guy is a bad idea.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
The Young Conor’s up to mischief.
amk
@Thoroughly Pizzled: so joshlesnick is a firebagger maroon ?
magurakurin
@barath:
wouldn’t that be fraud?
There are no good ways out of this for Rmoney.
BigD
I like the coffee cup with the smiley face. But I don’t like outsourcing!
JGabriel
__
__
beltane:
Mitt’s way too old for a mid-life crisis. If elected, Mitt would be tied, down to the day at 24,056 days, for third oldest president at inauguration with James Buchanan, right behind William Henry Harrison and the Holy Infant Reagan.
Actually, it’s possible Mitt would be a day older than Buchanan. I’m not entirely certain that the date calculator I used remembered to include the extra leap day for 2000 — century boundaries don’t get leap days, unless the century is divisible by 400, which happened in RMoney’s lifetime, but not Buchanan’s.
.
chuck butcher
@Omnes Omnibus:
That’s pretty damn odd stuff – considering it comes from a candidate from an actual political party…
Omnes Omnibus
@chuck butcher: Like I was saying, the reasoning and even the syntax is on the level of filings I saw from mentally ill prisoners.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Omnes Omnibus: I have no idea what that’s about, at all. It reads like something that was broadcast to her through the fillings in her teeth or something like that.
chuck butcher
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
I recognize the reasoning – Constitutionalists tend to use it – mentally ill isn’t disqualified…
CW in LA
@Omnes Omnibus: Mentally ill prisoner, Ron Paul acolyte: Six of one, half-dozen of the other…
Omnes Omnibus
@chuck butcher: What was the 1871 event that created the United States Corporation? Yeah, I know; I just promoted you to expert on these guys. Sorry.
joel hanes
@Amir Khalid:
Mitt’s candidacy seems headed for some kind of train wreck.
Yes.
To a truly phenomenal extent, Obama has been lucky in his opponents.* This race is no exception. In a Vulcan world, Mr. Romney would be permanently discredited, but in the world we live in, I think it unlikely that this is a fatal blow.
I remember laughing at tne New Nixon in 1968, and then talking Watergate in 1972, certain that it was an election-killer
I remember laughing at “Ray-Gunz” and “the actor?”, and yet Reagan happened.
An electorate that will twice support the Shrub is capable of anything.
cckids
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Goodness, she really Likes! Capital! Letters! What is it about the borderline sanity-challenged among us that draws them to that “literary” styling, I wonder?
chuck butcher
@Omnes Omnibus:
please don’t
The Hub – I won’t link it, Google it
Some of these nut cases live in my County… well, we’re short on serial killers so…
Omnes Omnibus
@chuck butcher: Lovely.
Turgidson
@Amir Khalid:
Not quite. He looks like a liar no matter what. Because he is. His SEC forms and FEC forms indisputably contradict each other. He lied at some point. It’s a fucking matter of record now. He can whine and accuse Obama of being mean all he wants, but he can no longer credibly claim that he’s NOT a fucking lying sack of shit. (the fact that it took this long for him to nail himself to the wall is amazing, but here we are)
But he seems to have made the choice that being a liar AND an absentee boss is the way to go. Good luck with that, shithead.
Omnes Omnibus
@Turgidson: It is hard to nail jello to a wall.
chuck butcher
fuck it
mdblanche
Science fiction author Alfred Bester’s most famous short story, “Fondly Fahrenheit”, is about an android that begins horrifically malfunctioning whenever the temperature exceeds 90 degrees out, much to its handler’s despair.
Just sayin’.
scav
@The prophet Nostradumbass: And people mock ComicCon. Actually, might be rather fun to see what kind of ComicConstitutionalConvention document they’d come up with, no?
Omnes Omnibus
@chuck butcher: Holy FUCK! I mean, oh dear.
pattonbt
Whether this Bain business is a big or little bump to Romney remains to be seen, but it’s now there for good.
Romney has two choices:
1) I was CEO / sole shareholder so the bucks stops with me. If he does that, no matter how nasty some of the Bain stuff might be he could at least be seen as taking a firm stand and owning his past. It might still hurt, but it gives him some backbone.
2) I was CEO / sole shareholder but I didnt manage anything. I was absentee. So I am not responsible for anything.
It looks like he’s going with 2. Which to me is the absolute worst option. He looks like a absentee manager. Is that what a president does? So the buck doesnt stop with you? You’ll just walk away when things get tough?
In addition, it now keeps the questions alive. If he just owned it and got on the front foot, it might have short term hurt, but it would be done. But by trying the weasel route and get the nest of both worlds people will want more. And that means his tax returns. Whats so damaging? There must be something there right? I mean, if there wasnt, why wont he release them?
And then on to Bain. Why so defensive about being in change for three years later? Who cares? We get it CEO / business owners can be foot loose and fancy free, no big whoop, but why so scared to have your name associated with it for those three years? Was something wrong? Was it something unsavory? I mean you seem to be running away from it really, really fast and furiously?
And lastly with option 2. But what about the evidence that suggests otherwise? Theres a lot of stuff that says you at least had some role in managing the company, why the contradiction? So you are denying straight up facts? You were CEO / sole shareholder / BOD member and President in fact, or is the SEC lying? But you also said you were still part time? Which is it cause Im confused.
On and on and on. And since its the core of his campaign “look at me, Im a big businessman who can right the economy” it cant be ignored forever. By choosing route 2 he just keeps all the questions there. Not that they wouldnt be with 1 but they might be less and he would at least be seen as firm and responsible.
Obama is smart to keep this line of attack open. Because Romney, by being so shrill and defensive, has played his cards. Obviously he is scared and so there must be some there there. Or at least that is what it looks like.
Why so scared Mitt?
chuck butcher
@Omnes Omnibus:
I just got back to OR from a ride to N MI and back on the Harley (5K mi) to deal with some family issues. In various places there were fresh Ron Paul for President signs and other bits of silliness. The less than connected live among us.
Rommie
Well, we know what Mitt will do if he gets the 3AM phone call now.
Or at least Condescending Wonka does. That’s one more than yesterday.
Omnes Omnibus
@chuck butcher: I even see them here in the People’s Republic of Madison.
chuck butcher
Baker City OR to Lewiston ID to Missoula MT to Havre MT to Mackinac Bridge to Charlevoix MI. A lot of rural country. REAL RURAL. A hell of a ride, also.
catclub
@beltane: “There is a reason the old theologians considered greed and avarice to be mortal sins.”
Actually those are two names for the same thing. The important sin to remember, is pride. It is first.
amk
Next big CERN labs project – Find mittbot’s tax-returns.
CERN lab guys – Are you fucking kidding us ?
Raven
Trying to get a little rest before the boat leaves at 10:30 pm!
karen marie
@MattR: You can sell the DVDs and CDs (about $3/each) or you can do your fellow citizens a favor and donate them to the library. The books, interestingly enough, the library probably won’t be interested in.
Omnes Omnibus
@chuck butcher: Damn. Some long, straight roads.
catclub
@pattonbt: I want a journalist to ask him the name of the person who took over in 1999. You would think he would know it well, but Mitt seems to not be able to remember the names of the help.
I also suspect the income tax forms show much more than $100k/yr from Bain. A lot of others do too.
freelancer
@catclub:
Mitt blanks when he sees a “doughnut” in front of him. Either that or he knows what it is and thinks calling it a “doughnut” will cost him votes. Either way, that is hoisting by your own retard.
scav
Little OT Business-related event: Visa, MasterCard in $6B settlement over card fees with some interesting other stuff in the settlement, mostly to do with the fact that as part of the settlement, stores will be allowed to charge customers more if they pay using a credit card.
karen marie
@FlipYrWhig: Makes no sense though. If he was so busy with the Olympics that he had zero time for his own company, of which he was sole shareholder, how did he manage to attend board meetings of at least three different corporations and other “business” meetings? And the question of the $100,000 salary is still not answered.
Hypatia's Momma
@mdblanche:
That’s a great story. “Oh it’s no feat to beat the heat.
All reet! All reet!”
But I liked The Stars My Destination better. “I kill you filthy!” I say this to the cats on a regular basis.
PeakVT
@scav: stores will be allowed to charge customers more if they pay using a credit card.
Um, wow. Not sure if the world economy can survive Americans being incentivized to pay with cash.
mdblanche
@Amir Khalid:
All I know about those things is that Alan Keyes has spent every day this week sitting by his phone, periodically checking up on his Google news alert for “Ann Romney + sex clubs.”
Joseph Nobles
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh, yeah, these are the guys that think yellow fringe on American flags means we’re under Admiralty Law and thus not the United States anymore. Or something like that. They’re really exercised over the yellow fringe.
pseudonymous in nc
@chuck butcher:
Standard “sovereign citizen” stuff: extreme Paultards, gooooldbugs, tax protestors, etc. There are a whole bunch of people claiming to be part of the government of the RePubLiC of U-S-A or somesuch. Example.
MattR
@karen marie: If/when I ever get rid of my stuff, I plan on donating it. (Or I would donate any $$ I get from selling it) Though I may give my friends first crack at everything.
Omnes Omnibus
@Joseph Nobles: I really worry about some of my fellow citizens sometimes.
FlipYrWhig
@karen marie: Agreed. But it’d be a way to achieve consistency. Just at the cost of logic.
BTW, CNN was ho-RENDOUS on this whole story. Soledad o’Brien sitting in for Anderson Cooper focused exclusively on negative campaigning. Then Tom Foreman did a whole thing on how it was swift-boating, because like the Swift Boat attacks the charges were based on little or no evidence. As Ari Fleischer and Paul Begala were being introduced, I had to turn to channel to watch the other entitled douchebag brigade, House Hunters on HGTV.
I mean, fucking hell. Not a word on how odd it is for the guy whose whole angle for why he should be president is his business experience trying to weasel out of an unflattering part of his company’s track record by saying he may have been the boss but he had nothing to do with it? For real? We’re not going to talk about whether it’s true, just whether it’s mean? A round of salted dicks on the house for the staff of CNN.
RAVEN
How is Odie Manitee
?
hilts
Lots of butthurt over Boston Globe article on Romney and Bain
Brooks Jackson, director of FactCheck.org
“We see little new in the Globe piece. So far nobody has shown that Romney was actually managing Bain (even part-time) during his time at the Olympics, or that he was anything but a passive, absentee owner during that time, as both Romney and Bain have long said.
We would reassess our judgment should somebody come up with evidence that Romney took part in any specific management decision or had any active role (not just a title) at Bain after he left to head the Olympics. But in our considered judgment, nothing in the Globe story directly contradicts Romney’s statements—which he has certified as true under pain of federal prosecution—that he “has not had any active role” with Bain or “been involved in the operations” of Bain since then.”
Brendan Nyhan: “Rather than clarify the misleading nature of the Obama campaign’s claims, many reporters have played stenographer and simply summarized the debate for readers. These “he said,” “she said” reports—which have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and the Associated Press and on CBS News—serve the basic function of notifying the public of the existence of a dispute but fail to help voters arbitrate among the conflicting claims… Journalists should not mince words in describing the Obama campaign’s misleading claims.”
Greg Marx: “No doubt to some observers, the question of Romney’s responsibility in this larger sense is the only issue that matters, and the factcheckers’ objections seem pedantic. But it’s the job of factcheckers to be pedantic about what politicians are saying, while leaving political debates to the political sphere. In this case, the factcheckers have done that job. And while future reporting may prompt a reassessment, their conclusions—about the specific claims under scrutiny—look sound so far.”
h/t CJR
RAY SUAREZ: Eugene Kiely is deputy director of the nonpartisan organization FactCheck.org, which monitors the accuracy of political ads and statements. He says the examples cited by the Obama campaign occurred after Romney left Bain to run the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.
But according to reports in The Boston Globe and Mother
Jones, Romney signed business agreements and Securities and Exchange Commission filings on Bain’s behalf for years after 1999, including the purchase of a Chinese consumer products company, declaring himself to be the company’s CEO.
EUGENE KIELY, Deputy Director, FactCheck.org: It comes down to how active he was and whether there is any evidence that he was involved in the decisions that were made at those companies. And that’s what we are lacking. That’s what we don’t see. And that’s why, to this point, what we are saying is that you can’t say he shipped jobs.
h/t PBS Newshour
Narcissus
@Raven: Are you going on a cruise
Or have you joined the cast of Whale Wars
pseudonymous in nc
@FlipYrWhig:
It’s Friday night: not even Anderson Cooper watches CNN on Friday night.
RAVEN
@Narcissus: Deep sea fishing on Maui with the only Native captain on the island.Word is he is a wild man on the Die Hard!
Turgidson
A few of the picture captions accompanying TPM’s coverage of the Bain story are fucking awesome right now. Obama with an amused smirk and Romney with a deer-in-headlights look of confusion.
Also, apparently the Obama campaign is “not satisfied” with Romney’s “answers” and is demanding more tax returns as well as board meeting minutes from Bain.
I love this guy and his team. Keep pummeling him, O. The soulless lying amoral sack of shit deserves nothing less.
amk
josh marshall on bitch slap politics from Obama campaign.
PM Reader JL could barely contain himself …
Bitch slap politics at it’s finest.
Step 1. Obama tells Romney to man up and take responsibility.
Coming soon …
Step 2. Romney whines that it’s beneath the office.
Step 3. BO Surrogates tell Mitt, you’re running for President for God’s sake. Don’t be such a girly man!!
I love it!! Are we sure Obama’s a Dem?
mdblanche
@Hypatia’s Momma: You seem to be suggesting that if you were ever trapped in a life-threatening situation, your cats would wander by, watch you struggle for a minute, and then wander off agian.
Hill Dweller
@Turgidson: As I was saying earlier in one of these threads, the Bain meeting minutes demand is new. That is such a weird request. It makes me think they know something.
Anne Laurie
@karen marie:
Around here, the public libraries will gladly take books off your hands, and then sell them back to the public at their annual or semi-annual book sales.
Back in Michigan, we’d walk in with two bags of ‘donations’ and walk out with three bags of purchases, but the internetz have gravely damaged my long-form reading skills, so now I try to avoid the sales & just donate ad hoc.
FlipYrWhig
@hilts: You can’t say “he” shipped jobs, but you can sure as shit say that the company for which he was officially designated CEO, president, chairman, and sole stockholder did, while he held those titles. I don’t get where all this painstaking wordsmithing is coming from. If Obama complained that it was unfair to say that unemployment was over 8% because he’s really just the president and has nothing to do with hiring in the private sector, would all the fact checkers rush to validate him? I think they’d laugh and laugh and laugh about what a baby he was being.
Omnes Omnibus
@mdblanche: They are cats. that’s what they do. A dog would at least go get a tennis ball so you could play fetch because dogs care.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
I see Chuck has given you some links. Here is a definitive piece from Free Republic that captures the spirit of the thing. Make sure your tinfoil hat is on tight.
Turgidson
@hilts:
Jesus Christ, I give up. They’re determined not to cover this story. Fucking determined. If they could manage to not cover lies that got us into a war, this is nothing. This story will be over by Monday at this rate.
Fuck this, I’m going to Mars.
Violet
@Hill Dweller: Yeah, they wouldn’t be asking for minutes if they didn’t know there was something in them.
@Turgidson: I love those photos. Hilarious.
Hypatia's Momma
@mdblanche:
No, no. First they’d harangue me to get them some food and when I failed to comply with their demands, then they’d wander off. So, a little different.
Also, I tend to say, “Quant. suff! Quant. suff!” just to amuse myself.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: OMFG!
Violet
@Turgidson: Oh, ye of little faith. Don’t give up yet. The Obama campaign wouldn’t have made the rather odd suggestion that Romney release minutes of Bain meetings if they didn’t know they were damning. The story’s just beginning.
satanicpanic
@efgoldman: I’m on the west coast. My band is known to about 40 people tops.
Hypatia's Momma
Agenda for the weekend is to re-read Schlock Mercenary and Narbonic. I also just checked out Science Ink from the library.
Omnes Omnibus
@Violet: The Obama campaign has the minutes. They know what is in them. It is like cross-examining a witness. You don’t ask a question to which you don’t know the answer. They know there is a there there.
Hypatia's Momma
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m pretty sure the dog would just lick you to death in an honest effort to help. Then it would mourn for a day or so, followed by eating your corpse.
Omnes Omnibus
@Hypatia’s Momma: That is possible, but the dogs would at least wait until you are dead and then mourn a bit. The cats, on the other hand….
chuck butcher
@Steeplejack:
Watching them harrass a US Senator at a town hall meeting was almost entertaining… almost. Teabaggers paled in comparison.
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, exactly. I wonder what’s so damning. Can’t wait to find out. Romney’s got to be miserable at this point. His carefully crafted house of cards is beginning to tumble.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Is that your considered legal opinion, counselor?
The detail I love, because I am a copyeditor and a pedant:
Uh, if they omitted an amendment, theirs should be numbered 12, 13 and 14. LOL.
Turgidson
@Violet:
I’ll try. But this is beginning to seem like “if a Mitt is caught lying in the woods and the press refuses to hear it, does it make a sound?”
Fucking depressing. The Obama campaign is good, and the press can’t simply ignore them. So this could go on. But it’s gonna be a much heavier lift than it has any business being. The lying sack of shit is, at long last, nailed to the wall with an irrefutable paper trail. This should be easy.
If Obama was stuck in the mess Romney’s now in, the House would have already voted to impeach (with a handful of Blue Dog votes, making it BIPARTISAN) and even the liberal New York Times would have penned an editorial board op-ed regretfully concluding that Obama has lost the moral authority to be president.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Actually, my considered legal opinion is, and I quote, “Jesus, fuck!”
Steeplejack
@chuck butcher:
God, I can’t imagine. [Shudder].
Does anyone ever call them on this bullshit and suggest that maybe they have become deranged by their anti-government mania?
The thing that kills me is that these “revelatory” documents are always so slipshod and amateurish that it’s amazing that you would think even the wingnuts would pause for a second to say, “Hey, wait a minute . . .”
ETA: Kudos to Barney Frank for when he shut down that woman in the “death panels” town-hall meeting.
FlipYrWhig
@Steeplejack: Maybe when you’re adopting your own Constitution, it’s like building a skyscraper, and you have to skip Number 13 out of triskaidekaphobia.
Hypatia's Momma
@Omnes Omnibus:
This is true.
Turgidson
@Steeplejack:
He will be so missed. That was classic. “Discussing this with you would be like arguing with my dining room table, I have no interest in doing it.”
and after being told that Republicans refused to vote for TARP the first time because Pelosi hurt their fee fees: “Oh, well then tell the Republicans I’ll say uncharacteristically nice things to them.”
The Dems need to groom someone to pick up the slack when he’s gone in this regard.
FlipYrWhig
@Turgidson: The broadcast media I can understand. They’re a bunch of stupid people who don’t know what to think until someone else tells them. But what the fuck are the would-be fact-checkers doing? Seriously, it’s not appropriate to call Romney responsible for the actions a company took because, after all, he was only the CEO, chair, president, and sole stockholder? Who could possibly buy that bullshit? And yet there it is, and they’re ALL saying it. And that’s why the media is going with the “is it a fair attack?” and “is it an effective attack?” lines, because they’d always rather discuss what people must be thinking than what is actually true.
chuck butcher
@Steeplejack:
Not unless you’re up for foaming at the mouth craziness repeating and repeating the same thing. You are not talking about a persuadable group here. Not engaging simply shortens the duration.
Omnes Omnibus
@FlipYrWhig: Or you want to avoid any confusion about getting rid of involuntary servitude or slavery.
FlipYrWhig
@Turgidson: Hey, remember Anthony Weiner?
danielx
@Steeplejack:
Now that is some top shelf wingnuttery. Why do I suspect there are some graduates of the Regent University School of Law on that law team? (Motto: the law is what we say it is.)
Steeplejack
@chuck butcher:
“Thanks for your input. We’re going to have to leave it there.” The talk-show coda.
Steeplejack
@FlipYrWhig:
Ha! That’s just crazy enough to be true.
FlipYrWhig
@Steeplejack: Works best while shaking your head about how the guests got all animated and started talking over each other. Silly people caring about politics on your show. Ho ho ho, how droll.
Steeplejack
@danielx:
Fix’d.
amk
More mittbot bashing
Harry Reid on Senate floor: Romney ‘basically paid no taxes in the prior 12 years’
Is this why mittbot tax-returns are so toxic ?
This is not going away despite the msm covering for mehmney.
Steeplejack
@FlipYrWhig:
“And I gave them 30 seconds–each!–to develop their positions. Jeez.”
burnspbesq
@Omnes Omnibus:
From the department of “how can anybody actually believe this shit:”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_protester_arguments
Anne Laurie
@satanicpanic:
You’ve probably overlooked some creditors, and at least a few pissed-off ex-romantic-partners-of-band-members. Just a guess.
FlipYrWhig
@Steeplejack: I really don’t like the dismissive, patronizing smiles from the hosts. OK, I realize that the guests are there for the specific purpose of belching forth talking points for their side, and that the whole thing is contrived and stupid, but, you know, you’re the host, change it up, throw ’em a curve, make some goddamn news. I don’t appreciate the smirk that signals to the audience that we’re all quite aware it’s a stupid game. Politics is actually important. Stop treating it like a game and maybe the guests will stop acting like goons.
Turgidson
@FlipYrWhig:
He had a sharp tongue and was quick on his feet, but his wit wasn’t the same kind as Barney’s – not nearly as funny while still making a real point. And he turned out to be kind of a creep. too bad.
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: I once had a potential client for some tax litigation (not really my area) who was a Ohio/16th Amendmenter. I declined work with him.
Lancelot Link
@chuck butcher: Those Sovereign Citizen people are a lot of laughs until they shoot a Congresswoman in the head or something.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: You call them nutjobs. I call it a fun day at work!
chuck butcher
@Lancelot Link:
Now you’re getting as odd as them
slightly_peeved
@Violet:
Well, IANACEO, but the minutes would probably be the most authoritative source on what Mitt Romney was actually doing within the company. So if he was still running the show, it’d be pretty clearly stated within the minutes.
This whole thing started with a discussion about offshoring jobs. What if the minutes not only showed Romney was actively running Bain, but was actively involved in offshoring? Just talking out of my arse here.
Kane
Senate Democrats should immediately construct legislation that would require all presidential candidates to release at least 10 years of tax returns. Of course the legislation wouldn’t pass, but it would put Republicans in a position of either going against their nominee or clearly show the public that they are opposed to transparency.
chuck butcher
I’m not a corporate lawyer but I do seem to remember that being incorporated requires meetings where the CEO/President has to at least state that the actions of the corporation are approved in actual minutes. That is what I know from my solely held S Corp which may or not have anything to do with Mitt.
CW in LA
@slightly_peeved: As so many have observed, it would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Rafer Janders
I’m sorry, but Mr. Romney has to realize that while, yes, Barack Obama’s title is technically “president of the United States”, he has absolutely no responsibility whatsoever, any effort, any involvement whatsoever in the management of the Obama re-election campaign….
Omnes Omnibus
@Rafer Janders: Ha!
chuck butcher
When Mittens started running for Prez the economy had not tanked and Wall Street and the rest of the greed factory were not yet closely looked at. That would be pre-MA run by a bit but probably post the haircut thing. Point being that while running Bain I doubt Mittens foresaw the shit storm headed his way now.
Looking for Mitt to get into legal difficulties is wishful thinking but I don’t think this Bain stuff is going away anytime soon. The Obama pros are not about to start playing this rough this soon if there is a risk of topping out early. This is quite a bit more than defining Mitt before he can do it himself though the bad job numbers may have pushed a bit.
Kane
The next time you go to a job interview, try to tell the employer what questions are relevant for him to ask and tell him that you’ll decide what paperwork and background information you will share.
amk
Jebediah
@CW in LA:
From the letter:
I would think the commitment is just beginning, after the 72 hour observation period.