Paul Ryan Calls Mitt Romney ‘The Stench’

by 10:58 pm. It has 137 Comments.

Oh snap.

20120925-195210.jpgPoor Paul Ryan of the Serious Budget Ryans knows that he hitched his wagon to a burnt out star. (“Burnt out” is too kind, actually, since Mitt Romney was never a star in the first place.)

Paul Ryan knows he is screwed — so much so that he is calling Mitt Romney “The Stench”, in front of God and errrrybody:

Paul Ryan has gone rogue. He is unleashed, unchained, off the hook.
“I hate to say this, but if Ryan wants to run for national office again, he’ll probably have to wash the stench of Romney off of him,” Craig Robinson, a former political director of the Republican Party of Iowa, told The New York Times on Sunday.

Coming from a resident of Iowa, a state where people are polite even to soybeans, this was a powerful condemnation of the Republican nominee.

Though Ryan had already decided to distance himself from the floundering Romney campaign, he now feels totally uninhibited. Reportedly, he has been marching around his campaign bus, saying things like, “If Stench calls, take a message” and “Tell Stench I’m having finger sandwiches with Peggy Noonan and will text him later.”

Hilarious though it may be, Paul Ryan is living in a glass house and throwing stones. Just this weekend, Paul Ryan got booed by a bunch of old folks when he promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Stones and broken glass notwithstanding, the wheels have come off the Romney campaign — so much so that Paul Ryan is throwing forests full of shade on Mitt3PO.

It’s a goddamn Mittastrophe.

[via Politico]

[cross-posted at ABLC]


Ain’t Got Time to Take a Fast Train

by 3:36 pm. It has 127 Comments.

David Kurtz at TPM:

The highlight of a summary of Mitt and Ann Romney’s tax rates for each year from 1990 to 2009, provided by the Romney campaign (the actual summary will be released at 3 p.m. ET), is that the Romneys paid federal income taxes each year. There is no year in which they paid zero taxes or had an effective rate of zero, according to the campaign. “Over the entire 20-year period, the lowest annual effective federal personal tax rate was 13.66%,” the campaign says.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) famously – and repeatedly – said he had a reliable source who claimed Romney had paid zero taxes for 10 years.

I have no idea if Reid’s source is right, but a notarized letter from Price Waterhouse saying what Mitt’s tax rate was for the last 10 years should only be seen as a weak, weasely fucking joke that tells us nothing.

First, I’m not a lawyer, but I was a notary when I worked to register voters out West where voter suppression isn’t a new fad, and I could have notarized a signature on a shitstain and all that means is that the person who signed it did the signing in front of me.

Second, I can only imagine the complexity of Mitt Romney’s taxes and the different structures he uses in his many tax avoidance schemes. I’m sure that one of Mitt’s accountants could gin up a “tax rate” and consider his calculation correct. Until some independent tax experts look at Mitt’s taxes and calculate the effective tax rate in an agreed-upon way, we don’t have any idea what Mitt paid in taxes those years.

This turd is so laughably weak that Mitt might as well have issued a notarized shitstain. It would provide about the same amount of verifiable information.


More on the 47% Video

by 9:23 pm. It has 79 Comments.

First, I wanted to cross-post my thoughts on what a dick Mitt Romney is:

I’m going to vote for Obama and aside from feeling entitled to be able to purchase healthcare coverage at a rate commensurate to men, and to not get royally screwed in the rear just because I had the audacity to get diagnosed with a pituitary tumor, I don’t feel entitled to any of the shit Romney mentioned.

Sure, if I were to fall on hard times, I would like to think the government would lend me a hand. That’s what we should do for people who fall upon hard times. We help them. But if you think for one second that people who are on public assistance are happy about it, then you have never talked to or met a person on public assistance. If you think for one second that just because The Poors™ may have a cell phone, or an Xbox, or a refrigerator (A FUCKING REFRIGERATOR!), or are unfortunate enough to get gout (because apparently only rich people get gout, doncha know!), that they are living high off the hog (as they try to raise a family of four on $20K per year), then you lack empathy for Americans; you lack respect for Americans; and ultimately, you lack what it takes to be president of the United States.

Basically? You’re an asshole. And this country isn’t going to elect another asshole. Eight years was enough.

Second, I’m watching The Rachel Maddow Show, and she just said that the previously unsourced video in which Romney talks about scouting Chinese factories for places to make whatever bullshit he was making back in his Bain days came from the same source as today’s videos. Remember that video? I posted it, then took it down, then posted it, then took it down again.***

Just now, David Corn told Rachel Maddow that the source of the videos (there are rumors circulating that the source was a waiter at the fundraiser — just goes to show, you probably shouldn’t shit on an entire class of people when members of that class of people are serving your dumbass (pun intended)) apologizes for impersonating her on YouTube.

Corn also just said that the fundraiser took place on May 17, 2012 at the home of private equity muckity muck Marc Leder, who made headlines when he threw a sex party in 2011. (That ought to go over well with the values voter crowd.) Leder is a bit of a playboy and also >throws wild parties in St. Bart.

Gawl, I love today.

This Mittastrophe is epic.

***Karoli over at Crooks and Liars posted the video, and you can view it there.

[cross-posted-ish at ABLC]


He meant go to your other home

by 2:15 pm. It has 204 Comments.

So your New Orleans House is flooded. Big deal! Just go to your lake house or your house on the shore and call 211 from there. Who has only one?


Obama Campaign Mocks the Imminent Unveiling of the Next Version of Mitt Romney in ‘The Do-Over’

by 11:28 pm. It has 61 Comments.

Romney: 0; Obama: [I’ve lost count] — Advantage, Obama.

Romney is having a rough go of it lately. He can’t seem to get any love from anyone (certainly not from black people, as last week’s NBC poll demonstrated — Zero Percent? Ouch!)

As Romney continues to avoid questions about his tax returns (because the amount he paid in taxes is between him and Jesus, or whatever) and otherwise troll the shit out of America, as Ann gets increasingly snide with every interview she does, and as Romney’s race-baiting reaches critical levels (Romney’s white! And Obama’s black! Didja hear?), the Romney campaign is fired up about the Republican National Convention that begins this week. His people think the convention is going to be Romney’s moment to shine and they have been diligently preparing.

Mitt-3PO’s humor software was installed last week; although considering his “jokes” about Obama being “a dusky Kenyan”** are racist as all get-out and entirely not funny to black people (and, indeed, all other people that aren’t racist assholes), one can only hope that his handlers will work out the software bugs in advance of the convention. The last thing the Romney campaign needs is for Romney to wrap up his nomination acceptance speech with “Negroes and wetbacks, amirite?!” — and considering that Romney and the GOP seem all too happy to take the giant leap towards the Ni-CLANG! Event Horizon, his handlers shouldn’t trust him to make any jokes at all. (In fact, disable his humor chip entirely — it’s too risky.)

Also, Romney’s emotion receptor chip is rumored to finally be working, and his “I’m one of you” matrix is operational. (Hell, Romney even tested out his new ability to “relate” to ordinary Americans by making buttermilk pancakes with his wife and Fox News Sunday‘s Chris Wallace this morning, which he quite obviously had never done before because people with dancing horses and car elevators don’t make their own goddamn pancakes.)

Click to read the full post. For those who can’t bear it, here’s the Obama campaign video:

[read full post at ABLC]


AP’s @BenFellerDC Dutifully Reports Romney Lie About Stance on Abortion Ban

by 2:13 pm. It has 31 Comments.

Women need the media to be better at its job.

Look. If you’re going to be a journalist, you are required to provide facts. When dealing with a liar of a candidate like Mitt Romney, if you report his stated position on an issue without examining all of the other stances he has taken on that very same issue, then you are not doing your job.

To wit, Ben Feller, White House correspondent for AP is not doing his job:

Obama alluded to the provocative issue of abortion, suddenly thrust to the fore this week when Republican Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin said the female body has a way to “shut that whole thing down” when a woman is the victim of “legitimate rape.”
The Republican platform in Tampa calls for a ban on abortion with no specific exceptions for rape or other circumstances. Obama predicted that a President Romney would not “stand in the way” if Congress gave him a bill that stripped away women’s control over their reproductive health.

Romney is on record, however, as not opposing abortion in cases of rape and incest or if it will save the mother’s life.

Polling shows social issues such as abortion represent perhaps Obama’s best opportunity to draw support from Romney. Obama already holds a broad lead as the candidate more trusted to handle those social issues among Democrats and independents. The issue is one of Romney’s biggest vulnerabilities among moderate and liberal Republicans.

Romney is on record as not opposing abortion in cases of rape and incest — as of this week. But for the past five years, Romney is on record as supporting an Eggs Are People Too (“Personhood”) Amendment. Read more →


At Bain, Romney Shopped For a Factory in China Where Young Women Worked Behind Barbed Wire for a Pittance (video)

by 8:28 pm. It has 115 Comments.

UPDATE: I am trying to track down more information about the source and legitimacy of this video. Until I figure it out, I am deleting it.

UPDATE 2: I cannot verify the source, but I’ll post it anyway with a less inflammatory title. It certainly sounds like him. It was uploaded to a fake YouTube account. The uploader claims to be Rachel Maddow. Rachel Maddow tweeted that she didn’t upload it.

UPDATE 3: Ok, you all are right. Deleted with apologies to Maddow.