Author: Trish

Olympics Illustrate the Failure of Romney-esque Ideas

Trish

OlympicUniformsThe Olympics, known for being above politics yet always in the shadow of them, haven’t even started but the games are a showcase for the themes that are driving election year debate.

Privatization, a tenet of American conservatism and tea baggery, isn’t providing a very good answer to the question, “How’s that working for you?” The private security firm the British government hired at an equivalent of $444 million is unable to provide enough trained staff members in time for the games.

Guess who’s bailing them out? That’s right, Mr. and Ms. British taxpayer will provide army troops and police officers to make up the for the failure of the private sector to prepare security guards.

And then there’s outsourcing. American politicians and members of the public expressed outrage that the Ralph Lauren designed Team USA uniforms were — like almost everything else sold in this country — made in China. The company was caught short by the criticism, China was offended, and let’s face it, the entire country can be embarrassed that the lack of confidence corporations have placed in the American worker, coupled with our desire for more and ever cheaper goods, was exposed on the world stage. It did, however, lead to one of the lamest assurances ever released on company letterhead.

Ralph Lauren promises to lead the conversation within our industry and our government addressing the issue of increasing manufacturing in the United States and has committed to producing the opening and closing ceremony Team USA uniforms in the United States that will be worn for the 2014 Olympic Games.

Should we expect the role of tax cuts for the rich, issues around unionized labor, and restriction of women’s reproductive rights to make appearances before the games end?

Well, At Least They Weren’t Made in Burma

Trish

The torch relay clothes were NOT made in Burma. They were manufactured in Myanmar.

The response of the Salt Lake City Olympics organizing committee (aka, the Mitt Romney Olympics), after protests over the origin of uniforms in 2002. The committee apparently did not understand that Burma and Myanmar are one and the same, and that thousands of refugees were fleeing the military regime which had placed its rightful leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest for years.

Press is Deforming Characters, One Lt. Gov. at a Time

Trish

Unfortunately, as an elected official character deformation that is totally fabricated can occur like this and there is not much I can do.

Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll (R-Fla.), emailing a supporter and blaming the media for recent allegations that she was having a lesbian affair with her travel aide. We think Carroll meant, “character defamation,” but then, we thought she was straight.

Time Travel

Trish

Zimmerman stayed in the car. #Retroactively.

One of many tweets using the hashtag #Retroactively, following a statement by Mitt Romney spokesperson Ed Gillespie that his boss had retired from Bain Capital “retroactively.” Also: “Michael Jordan retiring #retroactively, denies responsibility for those two seasons on the Wizards.” Is making something disappear retroactively better than Etch-A-Sketching it away?

Mitt, Show Us the Money!

Trish

If you have things to hide, then maybe you’re doing things wrong. I think you ought to be willing to release everything to the American people.

Gov. Robert Bentley (R-Ala.), one of a growing number of Republicans who are calling on Mitt Romney to release his tax returns already and end the speculation about what they might contain. Blackmail payments to Seamus, perhaps?

Republican Priorities are Different From Yours

Trish

33

Number of opportunities, as of this week, that House Republicans have given themselves to be able to say that they voted against all or part of the Affordable Care Act. None of the votes made it through the Senate, but they did serve their intended purpose: to make House Republicans look like they are doing something when in fact, they are just hanging out in expensive suits and air conditioned offices, listening to one another talk as health care for them and their families is paid for by taxpayers.

Point of Order: Obama Wants to Give Everyone a Tax Break

Trish

PointofOrder

Whether ignorance or deliberate spin is to blame, we keep hearing that Pres. Obama wants to end the Bush tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000 annually. This is true. And false, false, false.

The president is proposing, as he has since he took office and knew Bush’s tax cuts would expire during his first term, to end the tax breaks on family incomes above $250,000.

That means everyone pays at the lower rate on the first $250,000 they earn. So if your family earns $220,000, you continue to pay at the Bush rate on your entire income. If you earn $280,000, then you continue to pay at the Bush rate on $250,000 and pay at the higher, Clinton-era rate on $30,000.

As Daily Finance’s Bruce Watson explains:

When discussing the tax code, most analysts and pundits — not to mention average citizens — focus on the highest rate that an individual pays. One rarely hears about the fact that everybody pays only 10% tax on their first $8,700, 15% on everything between $8,701 and $35,350, and so forth. In other words, a millionaire pays the exact same amount in taxes on that piece of their income as someone who makes $35,350 per year…or $85,000, or $150,000. (Before deductions, of course.)

It’s not hard to see why tax issues are drawn along wealth lines — after all, creating barriers between the rich and the middle class makes for good headlines and hot political battles. In truth, though, the line isn’t between cutting taxes for the rich and cutting them for the middle class; it’s between cutting taxes for the rich, and cutting taxes for the rich more.

Emphasis added

Update: The misstatement bothers Robert Reich too.

Florida Wants to Know: Is Our Lt. Gov. Gay?

Trish
Carroll
Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll

After a term with Gov. Charlie Crist, you’d think Floridians would be used to rumors of gay goings-on in the governor’s suite. But even normally unflappable Floridians are reeling at the news that Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll (R) might be…How did that one really rude web site put it? Oh yeah, a “carpet muncher.”

Carroll, 52, a former Navy veteran born in Trinidad and married mother of three, including Miami Dolphins player Nolan Carroll, is known as an ultra social conservative, pushing abstinence-only education, among other favorite rightwing initiatives. She’s also had to explain shifting income reporting (her net worth has varied depending on whether she was filling out tax returns or applying for low-income minority business set-asides), how she made speeding tickets in her former legislative district disappear without paying any fines, and how she rented an office whose location would have shown eligibility to bid for additional female-owned business set-asides, except it was already occupied by a private detective.

Report: ‘When she entered the office, she found the Lieutenant Governor and her Travel Aide, Beatriz Ramos, in what can only be described as a compromising position’

Carroll, like her boss, Gov. Rick Scott, also has a reputation for dealing harshly with perceived enemies. Scott, for example, recently tried unsuccessfully to have three judges that he considered liberal prosecuted for improper election filings because they had their paperwork notarized by a state worker, a practice so common no one realized it was verboten.

Carroll took it even further with a former aide, having her arrested for disclosing to the press a conversation recorded in the lieutenant governor’s office. The practice of taping visitors and colleagues was said to be routine under Carroll, but the aide, Carletha Cole, shared the recording with a newspaper. The tape confirmed the chaos and dysfunction alleged in Carroll’s office.

But the arrest and resulting investigation might have consequences Carroll never envisioned, like allegations of an affair with her female travel aide, Beatriz Ramos.

[…]

Does Wishing the South Had Won the Civil War Make Ted Nugent a Racist?

Trish

I’m beginning to wonder if it would have been best had the South won the Civil War.

One-hit wonder Ted Nugent, somehow relating the Supreme Court decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act to the Civil War, which nearly ended the United States and split the nation in two. Perhaps Nugent is trying to say that two Americas, one liberal and one conservative, would be more harmonious. Or perhaps he’s trying to say that he’s a big ol’ fat stupid racist.

There’s No Such Thing As Not Paying for the Uninsured’s Healthcare

Trish

We don’t have a “deficit” problem. We have a “we already pay for each other’s health care in the dumbest way” problem.

LOLGOP’s post on Facebook as rightwing outrage over the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act goes on and on. Since 1986, when Pres. Ronald Reagan signed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, uninsured people were required treatment if they went or were taken via ambulance to a hospital emergency room.