I’m not sure, and neither are the rich pigs who donated to Crossroads GPS.
Year: 2012
Petraeus Resigns
He resigned as head of the CIA after admitting to having an affair, and it is rumored that she may have had access to his emails.
Great Googly Moogly.
Over ½ Million Uncounted Ballots?
In Arizona there are over 600,000 uncounted ballots state wide, both early votes and provisional ballots.
It appears that the problems with people voting in person were worst in the precincts with the highest level of minority voters.
Arizona is one of the states required by the Voting Rights Act to pre-clear, what a surprise.
F%$# That
Yes, I am quoting Repo Men
John Boehner is say that
tax cuts for the rich should be extended for a year as a start of negociations:
Obama’s proposal is at odds with the position of House Speaker John Boehner, who earlier Friday said all the tax cuts — including those for the rich — should be extended until next year to provide more time to work out a bigger deal on taxes and spending cuts.
“I’m proposing that we avert the fiscal cliff together in a manner that ensures that 2013 is finally the year that our government comes to grips with the major problems that are facing us,’’ Boehner said.
I will make a point here: John Boehner cannot be trusted, so tax increases on the rich pigs™ need to be passed at the start.
I should be clear here: I do not mean that the Orange Avenger of Congress® is tremendously dishonest by the standards of the Republican party,* but rather that he is incapable of keeping his promises, because is arguably the most incompetent and most ineffectual House Speaker in at least the past 100 years.
If he promises something, get it in your hand before moving on to the next item.
*Which is kind of like saying that he is the world’s tallest midget.
John Roberts Looks to Keep Pigment Rich Folks From Voting
It’s no surprise that mere days after non white voters gave Democrats their margin of victory in the Presidential and Senate elections, the Roberts court has decided to review the voting rights act:
The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to review a legal challenge to the Voting Rights Act, a landmark law adopted in 1965 to protect African-American voters who had faced decades of discrimination at the polls.
The court’s decision comes just days after a presidential election in which Latino and African-American voters played a big role in re-electing Democratic President Barack Obama, reflecting a basic shift in national demographics.
The high court accepted an appeal brought by Shelby County, Alabama, challenging a core provision of the act that requires nine states and several local governments with a history of bias to get federal permission to change their election procedures.
Arguments in the case will likely be heard by the Supreme Court in early 2013, with a decision expected by the end of June.
Some justices on the nine-member court, including Chief Justice John Roberts, have signaled in earlier cases discomfort with policies that draw distinctions based on race.
In a 2009 Voting Rights Act case, the Supreme Court avoided ruling on the law’s constitutionality. The court suggested that the federal “preclearance” requirement may no longer be needed or constitutional. Roberts, dissenting from a 2006 voting-rights decision, criticized what he called “a sordid business, this divvying us up by race.”
………
Make no mistake here, this is the conservative wing of the supreme court looking to get Jim Crow voting regulations going again, because it favors conservatives in elections.
“The America that elected and reelected Barack Obama as its first African-American president is far different than when the Voting Rights Act was first enacted in 1965. Congress unwisely reauthorized a bill that is stuck in a Jim Crow-era time warp,” he [Edward Blum, professional bigot and American Enterprise Institute Scholar*] said in a statement.
Yes, Mr. Blum, no racism in the good old USA.
You might want to check out the Jezebel post, “Twitter Racists React to ‘That Nigger’ Getting Reelected.”
*But I am repeating myself.
Why Do Conservatives Keep Defending Child Rapists
First, it was the Catholic Church, and now it’s the Conservative Party in the UK which is trying blame the victims and those reporting the abuse:
Downing Street has denounced “trial by Twitter” and a “silly stunt” by the ITV presenter Phillip Schofield who ambushed David Cameron live on air by handing him an internet-sourced list of suspected paedophiles – causing a shocked Prime Minister to complain of a “witch hunt” against gay people.
Schofield was forced to apologise after it emerged he had “misjudged the camera angle” and the names of several former senior Conservative politicians were visible on a card which he thrust into the hands of the Prime Minister before an audience of around 1.2 million. “You know the names on that piece of paper,” the This Morning presenter told the Prime Minister. “Will you be speaking to those people?”
The presenter claimed to have found the names of the Conservative Party figures in “three minutes” during a “cursory glance at the internet” for details of a scandal relating to abuse at children’s homes in north Wales during the 1970s and 1980s.
It’s been about 30 years since this all happened, so I’m not sure why they are going into full stonewall mode over this, unless a major Tory icon of that period, was somehow involved in the original abuse or the original cover up.
H/t Atrios.
We’ve Always Been at War with Eastasia
The Pentagon is claiming that Iranian aircraft fired on a US drone while in international airspace:
Iranian warplanes shot at an American military surveillance drone flying over the Persian Gulf near Iran last week, Pentagon officials disclosed Thursday. They said that the aircraft, a Predator drone, was flying in international airspace and was not hit and that the episode had prompted a strong protest to the Iranian government.
The shooting, which involved two Russian-made Su-25 jets known as Frogfoots, occurred on Nov. 1 and was the first known instance of Iranian warplanes firing on an American surveillance drone. George Little, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said the Defense Department’s weeklong silence about the episode was a result of restrictions on the discussion of classified surveillance missions. He answered questions about it during a Pentagon news conference on Thursday only after it had been reported by news organizations earlier in the day.
Even so, the failure to disclose a hostile encounter with Iran’s military at a time of increased international tensions over the disputed Iranian nuclear program — and five days before the American presidential election — raises questions for the Obama administration. Had the Iranian attack been disclosed before Election Day, it is likely to have been viewed in a political context — interpreted either as sign of the administration’s weakness or, conversely, as an opportunity for President Obama to demonstrate leadership.
………
“Our aircraft was never in Iranian airspace,” Mr. Little said. “It was always flying in international airspace.”
Yeah, right.
We Finally Find Some Vote Fraud
And it’s a Republican:
Authorities in New Mexico are investigating an Albuquerque father who allegedly showed up at a polling place to vote on behalf of his 18-year-old son, news station KOB reported on Tuesday night.
According to Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver, elections workers got suspicious when the silver-haired father showed up to vote and told them he was born in 1994. He was still allowed to cast a ballot, but the workers took down his license plate number when he left. Later, he showed up at a different location and voted under his own name, according to KOB.
………
The elder Pino later called Schwartz to tell him he had made a mistake by voting on behalf of his son, but said his son had given him permission. Both were registered as Republicans at the same Albuquerque address, according to KOB.
Seriously, how many times have I said that the ‘Phants are like the Soviets, in that you know what they are doing, because they accuse us of doing it?
Un-dirtyword-believable.
Oh to Be a Fly on the Wall
I would love to dial into this conference call:
Karl Rove’s Crossroads outfit is holding a phone call for its big donors Thursday to sum up the race, said Stan Hubbard, a Minnesota media mogul and mega-donor. “Obviously, somebody made a mistake and didn’t do things right. There’s no question about that,” he said.
One would assume that at least a couple of these billionaires are not complete drooling morons, and they might be aware that any number of people have started to notice that Karl Rove, and the rest of the Republican “consultants” have more in common with bunko artists than they do with actual political operators. (see here, here, and here)
I have the feeling that they will not be pleased with their return on investment.
It’s Jobless Thursday
Decent numbers, 355K initial claims, but Hurricane/Frankenstorm is screwing with the numbers.
Reid Just Threw a Brush Back Pitch at Barack Obama
To which I say good for him:
Nevertheless, getting to a deal won’t be easy — especially if Democrats refuse to entertain cuts on entitlements. Speaking to reporters after the news conference, Reid wouldn’t say whether Democrats would be open to cutting Medicare benefits, but he said that Social Security wouldn’t be touched.
I’m not surprised that he said this.
He picked up seats while defending twice as many seats as Republicans, and the incoming Senators are more liberal than their predecessors, and the only “Democrat” who might have been eager to take point on this, Bob Kerrey, lost his race for Senate.
More Election Updates
Allen West, crazy man and war criminal (literally), gone.
Democrat Jon Tester, reelected from Montana, (!) in a victory for retro hair styles.
More interesting were the initiative elections.
Let’s start with Maryland, where gambling expansion and gay marriage passed.
On the gay marriage front, Maine and Washington also passed gay marriage, and in Minnesota, voters defeated an anti gay marriage constitutional amendment.
In California, things actually turned out better than I expected, with Democrats getting a super-majority in both houses of the legislature, meaning that they can raise taxes, and on initiatives, Jerry Brown’s tax increase passed, as did a moderation of their three strikes law, closing corporate tax loopholes, enhanced penalties for human trafficking, and non-partisan redistricting.
It’s kind of remarkable for California, nothing really stupid passed, though I am bumming a bit over the fact that death penalty repeal failed (by only 5%), and the ratf%$#s at Monsanto managed to kill the genetically modified foods labeling law.
Most importantly, California decisively defeated the labor union muzzling initiative(aka “paycheck prediction”).
Not a bad evening.
Deep Thought
H/t Neo at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.
Stephen Colbert Calls it For Obama
So it’s over.
Dems hold onto the Senate, and Tammy Baldwin beat Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin.
In Maryland, the Dems picked up a seat in Congress, and the octogenarian neanderthal Roscoe Bartlett was defeated.
In the initiatives, the MD Dream Act passed, and gay marriage and gambling are still too close to call.
Election Results that Make Me Smile………
Alan Grayson, who brought the pain to the Congressional Republicans, is headed back to the House, and on the Senate side, Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown, who arguably is the primary representative of the democratic wing of the Democratic Party in the Senate.
Since This May Be Irrelevant in a Few Hours
This is PressTV, the Iranian goverment’s English language TV channel, and the author is Gordon Duff, who his controversial to say the least, but his allegation that the recent relieving of a significant number of military officers was because of a coup plot:
The Obama administration has had American military, both on domestic and foreign bases on high alert since October 1. However, there has been no known terrorist enemy threatening the US. The enemy is called “domestic” but its origins are far from American.
Today, Rear Admiral Charles M. Gaouette was “fired” from his command of one of the three carrier battle groups back to Bremerton, Washington to face an investigation.
It is impossible to adequately state how unusual this is and how serious.
The Navy was clear that the charges had nothing to do with his personal conduct, no rape or sexual misconduct, no stolen money, no drug use, the things that usually bring down careers in the Navy, that and crashing ships into each other.
Gaouette was sent back because the Secretary of Defense found him unfit for command, sent him across the world in the middle of one of the largest combat exercises in history, one both timed prior to an election and one at a critical location, near the Straits of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.
Gaouette commanded nearly one third of the Naval and air combat forces in the region.
The decision was made based on a conversation with the Secretary of Defense who, at the end of the talk, believed Gaouette was part of a group of military officers who have been under suspicion for planning a “Seven Days in May” type overthrow of the US government if President Obama is re-elected.
Official sources list this as allegations of inappropriate judgement.
I don’t know what sort of “inappropriate judgement” would have the admiral in charge of the 2 carrier task force relieved and flown off his ship while at sea in the Persian Gulf.
I would note that the right wing “black helicopter” theory, that he was fired because he was forbidden to conduct an air strike in Libya. But at the time his ship, the Stennis, was not in the Gulf, it was in the Western Pacific, well outside of any carrier based aircraft’s range.
Additionally, we have, “Cmdr. Joseph E. Darlak and top officers of the San Diego-based Navy frigate USS Vandegrift” been relieved for “alcohol issues” during a port call in Vladivostok.
You mean that sailors on leave in Vladivostok would drink on liberty in Russia?
This is weird.
God Bless The Onion
The Election Night Drinking Game
I’m not doing Alcohol tonight, so instead I’m going to take an additional shot of Siracha (Rooster) Sauce in my salsa each time I hear “Razor thin margin”.
I fear that my butt will look like the Japanese war flag by tomorrow morning.
My Musical Theme for Tonight’s Election
Roll the Ramones, I wanna be sedated:
I just want this to end!!!
Harry Reid was Right
Bloomberg is reporting that Mitt Romney rented the Mormon Church’s nonprofit status to avoid taxes, meaning that he probably paid next to no taxes for the decade ending in 2009:
In 1997, Congress cracked down on a popular tax shelter that allowed rich people to take advantage of the exempt status of charities without actually giving away much money.
Individuals who had already set up these vehicles were allowed to keep them. That included Mitt Romney, then the chief executive officer of Bain Capital, who had just established such an arrangement in June 1996.
The charitable remainder unitrust, as it is known, is one of several strategies Romney has adopted over his career to reduce his tax bill. While Romney’s tax avoidance is legal and common among high-net-worth individuals, it has become an issue in the campaign. President Barack Obama attacked him in their second debate for paying “lower tax rates than somebody who makes a lot less.”
In this instance, Romney used the tax-exempt status of a charity — the Mormon Church, according to a 2007 filing — to defer taxes for more than 15 years. At the same time he is benefiting, the trust will probably leave the church with less than what current law requires, according to tax returns obtained by Bloomberg this month through a Freedom of Information Act request.
In general, charities don’t owe capital gains taxes when they sell assets for a profit. Trusts like Romney’s permit funders to benefit from that tax-free treatment, said Jonathan Blattmachr, a trusts and estates lawyer who set up hundreds of such vehicles in the 1990s.
Near Zero
“The main benefit from a charitable remainder trust is the renting from your favorite charity of its exemption from taxation,” Blattmachr said. Despite the name, giving a gift or getting a charitable deduction “is just a throwaway,” he said. “I used to structure them so the value dedicated to charity was as close to zero as possible without being zero.”
It would have been nice if the press had gotten this earlier, but it sure looks like Rmoney’s tax returns have been kept under wraps because he lied when he claimed that he was paying a reasonable amount of taxes.