It's About The Future

Political Cartoon is by Steve Greenberg at steve@greenberg-art.com.

Equal Pay Is Economically Smart

Equal pay for equal work is not only constitutionally correct and morally right, it is also the economically smart thing to do. This additional $200 billion would circulate throughout the economy -- increasing demand, improving business sales, and creating jobs. Paying women (and minorities) equally would help everyone!

What This Election Is Really About

Willard's Tax Evasion And Tax Fraud

( The image above is from mariopiperni.com.)

There is little doubt anymore that Willard Mitt Romney is a tax evader, and probably even has committed tax fraud. He has refused to release even one year of a full tax return, and it is likely that he has done that to hide the multitude of ways he has managed to evade paying American taxes. We know he has multiple overseas accounts in several countries (including the Cayman Islands, long known as a tax haven for the rich).

But we don't know how many millions of dollars he is hiding in those accounts. We don't know because the one partial tax return he has released is missing the required page for foreign investments and accounts. It's quite possible that he's hiding hundreds of millions of dollars to avoid paying U.S. taxes on that money. This is not illegal, but it is certainly unethical -- especially for someone who wants to be president.

And then there's all that money he receives each year from Bain Capital (even though he is supposedly retired from that company). The federal government is investigating Bain because the company has been declaring their income as a capital gain (so it will be taxed at the lower capital gains rate) rather than earned income, which it really is. Right-wingers will claim that this is not Willard's doing, but he is certainly benefitting from it. And this is not just old-fashioned tax evasion -- it is illegal tax fraud.

But that's not the only illegal tax fraud that Willard has been involved in. He has also committed tax fraud in the trust accounts he set up for his children and in the retirement account he set up for he and his wife. How did he do this? By vastly under-valuing the stock he put into those accounts. The children's trust is currently valued at over $100 million, but supposedly Willard put less than $1 million into it. That's an incredible return on that stock. Obviously it was worth much more than the $1 million he claimed it was worth -- and if that is true, he should have paid taxes on the value above $1 million. He committed illegal tax fraud.

The retirement account is much the same. There was a cap of only $30,000 a year that Willard could put into the account without paying taxes on the money. But somehow that $30,000 a year of stock he put in while working at Bain Capital has now grown to over $87 million. The stock was under-valued when he put it in -- and that is illegal tax fraud.

I honestly have trouble believing that millions of people in this country actually want this man to be our president. He is a compulsive liar, a tax evader, and a lawbreaker for committing tax fraud. He has no moral or ethical center, which is probably why he finds it easy to be on both sides of almost every issue. He would be a disaster if elected president.

The Only Good Thing

Political Cartoon is by Jeff Darcy in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Most Americans Think Obama Will Win

(Caricature of President Obama is by DonkeyHotey.)

The mainstream media has for several weeks now been crowing about what a close election this is, and how it could go either way. And the polls seem to bear that out. Some have the president slightly ahead, and others show Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie) with a small lead, but all show that the lead is within the margin of error (meaning they could be wrong about who is leading).

But Americans aren't buying that. The polls may not think the winner can be predicted, but most Americans have no trouble picking who they think will win -- and a significant majority think that winner will be President Barack Obama (including about one-fifth of all Republicans). That's what a new Gallup Poll is showing (taken October 27th and 28th of a random national sample of 1,063 voters). And the numbers are very similar to when Gallup asked this same question in May and August of this year. Here are the numbers:

WHO DO YOU THINK WILL WIN THE ELECTION?

October 27-28
Obama...............54%
Romney...............34%
No opinion...............11%

August 20-23
Obama...............58%
Romney...............36%
No opinion...............6%

May 10-13
Obama...............56%
Romney...............36%
No opinion...............8%

Does it matter what the people think in a poll like this? It might. This poll has predicted the winner of the popular vote in the last four presidential elections (1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008) -- although the Supreme Court upset the apple cart in 2000 when they tipped the electoral college vote toward Bush with their decision on Florida.

Here is how this poll breaks down politically:

Republicans
Obama...............19%
Romney...............71%

Democrats
Obama...............86%
Romney...............8%

Independents
Obama...............52%
Romney...............32%

Propaganda Exposed

Political Cartoon is by Pat Bagley in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Anonymous Warns GOP Not To Cheat

A few days ago I posted about a study that showed it is possible, even likely that the Republicans have been stealing votes for several years (through the use of electronic voting machines). It looks like the hacker group known as Anonymous has heard about that also, because they have issued a warning to Karl Rove and his Republican cohorts that they will not sit still for anyone stealing the upcoming election.

My friend and fellow blogger, Shaun at A Sane Break From The Insanity, has written an excellent post about this. Here is what he had to say:

I saw this today and knew that I just had to write about it.  On October 22nd, the legendary internet group "Anonymous" has put out a video claiming that the Republicans, specifically Karl Rove and his cronies, are going to try to rig the 2012 election. Here's the transcript:

"Karl Rove.  American Crossroads.  We are Anonymous.  We are watching you.  We know that you will attempt to rig the election of Mitt Romney to your favor.  We will watch as your merry band of conspirators try to achieve this overthrow of the United States government.  

"We see that you have taken steps to ensure that this election race is a close race, so you can step in and rig the numbers to elect your candidate, and then claim because it was a tight race, that your candidate was able to narrowly squeak ahead and win.  

"We want you to know that we are watching you, waiting for you to make the mistake of thinking you can rig this election to your favor.  We want you to know that if we catch you, we will turn over all of this data to the appropriate officials in the hopes that you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.  We are watching and monitoring all of your servers.  We are watching traffic on each of them for anything suspicious.  You will not get away with any fraud without consequences.  

"We are Anonymous.  We are Legion.  We do not forgive.  We do not forget.  Expect us."

Here's a little bit of information about Anonymous for those of you that aren't familiar, courtesy of Nathaniel Downes, a fellow writer at Addicting Info:

Anonymous members, well-known for their dismantling of pedophile rings, botnets and other illegal activities, operate as electronic vigilantes. They can and do break into systems and whisk away key evidence which has put criminals behind bars. And now, the antics of the GOP party bosses, such as Karl Rove and his American Crossroads organization, are in their sights.

Something people do not grasp about Anonymous is that it is not an organization in the traditional sense. In fact, it is not organized at all. Instead it is a case of applied anarchy, a conglomerate of similarly focused ideologies which cooperate when they have conforming interest. By the time a video like this appears, there is already a large pool of people with a common interest with their focus aligned.

There is no head, there are no leaders, there is no organization to dismantle. You cannot reason with them, bribe them, manipulate them, or threaten them. They are legion, their numbers incalculable. 

Many people are even part of Anonymous without ever realizing it, helping out a friend at the office with a tricky piece of code or an online friend who wants to know how to plug a hole in their firewall. This non-existence makes it impossible to address in a traditional manner.

They are, quite literally, anonymous.

Let me shoot some of your thoughts down right now.  If you're thinking that Anonymous can't possibly know that Karl Rove plans to rig the election, you're wrong.  It is possible that they are lying, yes. But it's also very likely that they have this information.

If you're thinking that there is no way to rig the elections then, again, you are wrong.  Very wrong.  Read this article about how retired NSA analyst Michael Duniho discovered actual proof of GOP election rigging thanks to what can be called an "electronic fingerprint."

And if you are thinking that GOP is going to get away with this, well, you're wrong there too.  Here's what you can do.  Spread awareness of this rigging, either by sharing this article (or finding others like it) on Facebook and Twitter (again, I make no money from this site so there's nothing in it for me).

You can also share the Anonymous video.

Aside from raising awareness, you can beat the GOP rigging machine by getting out to vote six days from now, on November 6th.  This is extremely important.  Do not let the Republican Party take our right to vote - our right to be heard! - away.  We have a voice, and we cannot let it be silenced.

Campaigning

Political Cartoon is by Clay Bennett in the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Willard Tells Another Outrageous Lie

If there is an American vehicle that is so iconic that it is known all over the world as an American product -- it would have to be the Jeep. Invented as a military vehicle for our troops in World War II, the Jeep has undergone many changes to keep it safe and legal -- but it is still instantly recognizable as a close relative of the original military vehicle. And it is a popular vehicle with consumers (heck, I'd love to own one myself).

That may be why Willard Mitt Romney chose the Jeep as the latest victim of his lies. He knew that outsourcing this American icon would anger many in this country, so basically that is what he accused the president of causing. He wanted Americans to think the president had so mismanaged the economy that Jeep was going to have to ship American jobs to China to survive and keep making the vehicle. It is just not true.

Willard took a small grain of truth and built an enormous lie around it. The grain of truth is that the company that makes Jeep is considering opening a plant in China to increase their sales in that country. But NO American jobs would be lost if it happened, and NONE of those vehicles built in China would be shipped back to the U.S. for sale. The Jeeps sold in this country would still be built in this country. In fact, instead of outsourcing American jobs, Jeep is planning to increase its American workforce.

Jeep officials were so incensed by Willard's outrageous lie that they felt it necessary to put out a statement rebutting the lie. That statement said:

I feel obliged to unambiguously restate our position: Jeep production will not be moved from the United States to China. 

North American production is critical to achieving our goal of selling 800,000 Jeep vehicles by 2014. In fact, U.S. production of our Jeep models has nearly tripled (it is expected to be up 185%) since 2009 in order to keep up with global demand. 

We also are investing to improve and expand our entire U.S. operations, including our Jeep facilities. The numbers tell the story: 

• We will invest more than $1.7 billion to develop and produce the next generation Jeep SUV, the successor of the Jeep Liberty -- including $500 million directly to tool and expand our Toledo Assembly Complex and will be adding about 1,100 jobs on a second shift by 2013. 
• At our Jefferson North Assembly Plant, where we build the Jeep Grand Cherokee, we have created 2,000 jobs since June 2009 and have invested more than $1.8 billion. 
• In Belvidere, where we build two Jeep models, we have added two shifts since 2009 resulting in an additional 2,600 jobs. 

With the increase in demand for our vehicles, especially Jeep branded vehicles, we have added more than 11,200 U.S. jobs since 2009. Plants producing Jeep branded vehicles alone have seen the number of people invested in the success of the Jeep brand grow to more than 9,300 hourly jobs from 4,700. This will increase by an additional 1,100 as the Liberty successor, which will be produced in Toledo, is introduced for global distribution in the second quarter of 2013. 

Together, we are working to establish a global enterprise and previously announced our intent to return Jeep production to China, the world’s largest auto market, in order to satisfy local market demand, which would not otherwise be accessible. Chrysler Group is interested in expanding the customer base for our award-winning Jeep vehicles, which can only be done by establishing local production. This will ultimately help bolster the Jeep brand, and solidify the resilience of U.S. jobs. Jeep is one of our truly global brands with uniquely American roots. This will never change. So much so that we committed that the iconic Wrangler nameplate, currently produced in our Toledo, Ohio plant, will never see full production outside the United States. 

 Jeep assembly lines will remain in operation in the United States and will constitute the backbone of the brand. 

It is inaccurate to suggest anything different. 

Sergio Marchionne

In the end this was just one more of the hundreds of lies Willard has told in his quest to become president. But this one could have cost this company a lot of money (if people had gotten so mad they stopped buying the vehicle). He is utterly shameless in his lying.

Willard's Version Of FEMA

Political Cartoon is by Mike Luckovich in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Swing State Polls

Well, Hurricane Sandy didn't blow any of the swing states away and they are still being inundated by pollsters. Here are the latest swing state polls:

COLORADO

Project New America Poll
Obama...............48%
Romney...............45%

We Ask America Poll
Obama...............50%
Romney...............47%

Reuters/Ipsos Poll
Obama...............45%
Romney...............46%

FLORIDA

Quinnipiac Poll
Obama...............48%
Romney...............47%

Gravis Poll
Obama...............47%
Romney...............50%

We Ask America Poll
Obama...............49%
Romney...............50%

Reuters/Ipsos Poll
Obama...............47%
Romney...............47%

IOWA

Public Policy Polling
Obama...............50%
Romney...............45%

University of Iowa Poll
Obama...............44%
Romney...............45%

We Ask America Poll
Obama...............49%
Romney...............47%

MICHIGAN

Detroit News Poll
Obama...............48%
Romney...............45%

EPIC-MRA Poll
Obama...............48%
Romney...............42%

NORTH CAROLINA

SurveyUSA Poll
Obama...............45%
Romney...............50%

Public Policy Polling
Obama...............49%
Romney...............49%

OHIO

SurveyUSA Poll
Obama...............49%
Romney...............46%

Project New America Poll
Obama...............48%
Romney...............45%

Quinnipiac Poll
Obama...............50%
Romney...............45%

University of Cincinnati Poll
Obama...............48%
Romney...............46%

Public Policy Polling
Obama...............50%
Romney...............45%

Reuters/Ipsos Poll
Obama...............48%
Romney...............45%

PENNSYLVANIA

Franklin and Marshall Poll
Obama...............48%
Romney...............44%

VIRGINIA

Quinnipiac Poll
Obama...............49%
Romney...............47%

Roanoke Poll
Obama...............44%
Romney...............49%

Reuters/Ipsos Poll
Obama...............48%
Romney...............46%

WISCONSIN

Public Policy Polling
Obama...............51%
Romney...............46%

Marquette Law School Poll
Obama...............51%
Romney...............43%

"Big Gov" To The Rescue

Political Cartoon is by Nick Anderson in the Houston Chronicle.

A Liar Can't Be Trusted

In our personal lives, we have a problem believing people who we know have lied to us. Why should it be any different with politicians? Throughout his campaign, Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie) has lied repeatedly about nearly every issue. The only issue he had remained true to was his desire to give the rich (including himself) a massive tax cut. But in the first presidential debate he even lied about that. How can anyone ever trust this liar again?