This is why we need to get out of Afghanistan now, and let them have at each other.

Candidate Romney stated, “I have paid at least 13% in taxes every year….”. BUT he carefully does not qualify what kind of taxes constitutes that 13%. As Candidate Romney owns properties in several states, he has obligations to pay to such taxes as school, property, sales, and state taxes. Could local and state taxes be his 13%? Because we have been programmed to think of Federal Income Tax, our assumption is that he has paid 13% in Federal Income Tax. Would someone raise this question please!

This wasn't passive aggression, it was evasion or diversion. WHEN SOMEONE RESPONDS TO A QUESTION WITH IRRELEVANT VERBIAGE, IT MEANS (1)THEY DON'T WANT TO ANSWER THE QUESTION; (2) THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO REALIZE THEY'RE NOT ANSWERING. This accounts for his mom at the villages (Such a nice boy, he brings his mom, we'll be nice to him).

The President's ad should have included OMB's favorable assessment and criticism of the Romney/Ryan or Ryan/Romney or Ryan or Romney (who can keep track?) plan. OMB is non-partisan, and AARP, if anything,is partial to seniors.

If we keep repeating these debates, the average person will become a little more familiar with the intricacies on each rehearing, and be able to see through the crap. Ryan's claim that he wants these debates is just puffery.

"One Term More!

Parody of One Day More from "Les Miserables"

http://youtu.be/0WHw32bv9BQ

Candidate Romney stated, “I have paid at least 13% in taxes every year….”. BUT he carefully does not qualify what kind of taxes constitutes that 13%.

As Candidate Romney owns properties in several states, he has obligations to pay to such taxes as school, property, sales, and state taxes. Could local and state taxes be his 13%?

Because we have been programmed to think of Federal Income Tax, our assumption is that he has paid 13% in Federal Income Tax.

Would someone raise this question please!

The question is 13% of what? According to the Federal Tax Tables, an adjusted gross income of between 17,000 and 69,000 is taxed at 1,700 plus 15% of the amount over 17,000. So does this mean that the Romney tax return's adjusted gross income was somewhere between 17K and 69K? As a retired teacher who pays 16% of my adjusted gross income, this is infuriating.

Here's how Romney calculated 13%: he made up a number that was close to what's already been reported and spouted it off without thinking, in a totally unrehearsed and unpolished manner, and every single person who cares about the issue was totally unsatisfied.

Because Romney is a liar, a fake, and an empty suit.

Obama has already fixed the health care problem by passing the ACA. We don't need a pair of corporate raiders to come along and mess it up to pay for even more tax breaks for millionaires. Mitt Romney is running for President so he can get a better tax rate. Neither he nor Ryan give a damn about the country or the people in it. Their policies, described as George Bush on steroids, would be disastrous. We know this because the 'trickle down' never happened. Melt down, yes. Trickle down, no.

Rachel, the media seems to be ignoring a looming disaster in the swamps of Louisiana. PLEASE, bring some attention to it!
http://www.examiner.com/article/sinkhole-h-bomb-explosion-equivalent-bayou-corne-possible?cid=PROD-redesign-right-next

Rachel has been doing wonderful work looking at voter suppression initiatives. She should interview this lady: http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2011/10/05/96-year-old-woman-who-voted-during-jim-crow-is-denied-photo-id

I've been saying this for some time now. A candidate for US Citizenship via Naturalization has to show (in general) the past 5 years worth of tax returns. Surely a candidate for the POTUS should be held to at least the same standard?

Local government at work ... just not in a good way ...

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/woman-could-fined-600-giving-children-free-lunches-192644564.html?_esi=1

HP is reporting that Bain Capital was started in part with funding derived from Salvadoran families with ties to the nation's notorious death squads. Will MSNBC report this? Also, it appears that Doctor Maddow will not report on the big lie of a 700+billion dollar desubsidization of Medicare to fund the Affordable Care Act. She put out the spin that Ryan's plan also envisions cutting 700+ billion from Medicare. The Affordable Care Act however, as has been reported extensively, does not cut 700+ billion from Medicare. I ask again, why is Doctor Maddow disregarding reporting this GOP big lie to her audience? Why does she insist on spinning it to say that both Obamacare and the Ryan plan will strip 700+ billion from Medicare when Obamacare does not strip 700+ billion from Medicare? Why?

OK, so I have this theory about the Romney campaign. I will say that it is not completely formed but it goes something like this...

The old guard republicans really are not happy with Romney as the presidential candidate (he wasn't extremely popular with the public in the primaries either) AND they think Ryan is a far right conservative rabblerouser so the best way to kill two birds with one stone is to have them run on the ticket together. This does a couple of things:

1. It could potentially guarantee that Obama gets his second term because these two guys are just a train wreck when it comes to consistency and meaningful details in message or policy. They are bound to keep some moderates home or have them voting with the democrats at election time.

2. Their loss would allow the republican party to reset in 2016 and go up against a democratic candidate that would not be an Obama.

I think that Romney is taking campaign advice from people who have a larger agenda. They want to make sure that the white house is open to a republican president by not have one that pisses the general population off and they want to reset the republican party to one that is less tea party conservative and more moderate. In addition to that, the losing team of Romney and Ryan will pretty much guarantee that the high level political careers of both are, for the most part, over.

I know this really is a conspiracy theory but it works for me in explaining why Romney is doing what he is doing and why on earth he would pick Ryan as a running mate.

I keep hearing it said on MSNBC that Paul Ryan is from a blue collar background. Since when did coming from a family of lawyers and even a US attorney make you blue collar. When he was a salesman for Oscar Meyer he drove the weinermobile once- that must make you blue collar. What constitutes a white collar background?

Lawyers are paid liars, Ryan's from a family of them. Lawyers try to make the best arguement and often times they weave half-truths into it. Some, way more than others, depending on their lust for money and moral compass. Scanning Law used to be regarded as an honorable profession, like medical doctors, until a large majority of them became corporate tools. Not too many good criminal lawyers, they follow the corporate buck now. Law students want to work at the "Firm,"not at some courthouse helping the oppressed. Some of the brightest mouthpieces prostitute themselves on or about graduation. Pray God, we could get the creme de la creme of Lawyers back fighting for the people.

Just a reminder for the TV watchers:

Season 2 of Boss returns tonight to Starz!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFmRFya7Twc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_(TV_series)

(hm... copy & paste; the site can't create the entire link, apparently, because of the underscore)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1833285/

Hm... since I'm thinking of fictional entertainment... George R. R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice And Fire (aka Game Of Thrones on HBO) on recent political machinations:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/13/game-of-thrones-author-republicans_n_1773283.html

Martin, an avowed Democrat from Bayonne, N.J. who has described President Obama as "the most intelligent president we've had since Jimmy Carter", doesn't often write about politics on his blog, but when he does, it is usually to speak about something he feels strongly about, be it TSA screenings or the Affordable Care Act.

From his blog, http://grrm.livejournal.com/287215.html?thread=16347631#t16347631

It is one thing to attempt to win elections. But trying to do so by denying the most basic and important right of any American citizen to hundreds and thousands of people, on entirely spurious grounds... that goes beyond reprehensible. That is despicable.

It would really be nice if there were still some Republicans of conscience out there who would stand up and loudly denounce these efforts, a few men of honor and integrity for whom "win the election" does not "win the election at any cost." There were once many Republicans I admired, even I disagreed with them: men like Everett Dirksen, Clifford Case, Henry Cabot Lodge, William Scranton... yes, even Barry Goldwater, conservative as he is. I do not believe for a moment that Goldwater would have approved of this, any more than Robert A. Heinlein would have. They were conservatives, but they were not bigots, nor racists, nor corrupt. The Vote Suppressors have far more in common with Lester Maddox, George Wallace, John Stennis, and their ilk than they do with their distinguished GOP forebears.

The people behind these efforts at disenfranchising large groups of voters (the young, the old, the black, the brown) are not Republicans, since clearly they have scant regard for our republic or its values. They are oligarchs and racists clad in the skins of dead elephants.

And don't tell me they are libertarians either. No true libertarians would ever support a culture where citizens must "show their papers" to vote or travel. That's a hallmark of a police state, not a free country.

GERALDO. <---stink-eye

For the GOP:

Pseudologia fantastica, mythomania, or pathological lying are three of several terms applied by psychiatrists to the behavior of habitual or compulsive lying.^[1][2] It was first described in the medical literature in 1891 by Anton Delbrueck.^[2] Although it is a controversial topic,^[2] pathological lying has been defined as "falsification entirely disproportionate to any discernible end in view, may be extensive and very complicated, and may manifest over a period of years or even a lifetime.

The defining characteristics of pseudologia fantastica are:

1. The stories told are not entirely improbable and often have some element of truth. They are not a manifestation of delusion or some broader type of psychosis: upon confrontation, the teller can admit them to be untrue, even if unwillingly.
2. The fabricative tendency is long lasting; it is not provoked by the immediate situation or social pressure as much as it is an innate trait of the personality.
3. A definitely internal, not an external, motive for the behavior can be discerned clinically: e.g., long-lasting extortion or habitual spousal battery might cause a person to lie repeatedly, without the lying being a pathological symptom.^[2]
4. The stories told tend toward presenting the liar favorably. For example, the person might be presented as being fantastically brave, knowing or being related to many famous people.

Pseudologia fantastica may also present as false memory syndrome, where the sufferer genuinely believes that fictitious events have taken place, regardless that these events are fantasies. The sufferer may believe that he or she has committed superhuman acts of altruism and love or has committed equally grandiose acts of diabolical evil, for which the sufferer must atone, or has already atoned for in her/his fantasies.