August 17, 2012

Hollywood Reporter: Wire' Creator David Simon Slams Mitt Romney's Tax Admission

In an effort to quell critics and satisfy skeptics, Mitt Romney on Thursday told reporters that he has not paid less than 13 percent in taxes in any of the past 10 years.
Color David Simon less than impressed.

The politically inclined creator of HBO shows The Wire and Treme blasted the multimillionaire former investment banker on his blog, calling the admission "stunning." It's a tax rate a third less than what is normally paid by "a gentleman of his economic benefit," Simon said, which led him to a few angry rhetorical questions.

"Am I supposed to congratulate this man?" Simon asked. "Thank him for his good citizenship? Compliment him for being clever enough to arm himself with enough tax lawyers so that he could legally minimize his obligations?"

Simon says he hasn't paid taxes that low since he was a rookie newspaper reporter and that he had no qualms paying the higher rates that have come with his success and income.

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/wire-creator-david-simon-slams-mitt-romneys-tax-005620286.html

August 17, 2012

Mitt Romney Tells Elmo to Get a Job and Pledges to Kill PBS

Source: Politicsusa

In an interview with Fortune, Mitt Romney admitted that one of the ways he will reduce government spending is to cut all funding for PBS.

Romney was asked by Fortune where he would cut government spending, and he answered, “There are three major areas I have focused on for reduction in spending. These are in many cases reductions which become larger and larger over time. So first there are programs I would eliminate. Obamacare being one of them but also various subsidy programs — the Amtrak subsidy, the PBS subsidy, the subsidy for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities. Some of these things, like those endowment efforts and PBS I very much appreciate and like what they do in many cases, but I just think they have to strand (sic) on their own rather than receiving money borrowed from other countries, as our government does on their behalf.”

Mitt Romney was essentially telling Elmo and the rest of Sesame Street to stop being a bunch of bums and get a job. Mitt Romney’s vision for America includes the death of Amtrak, slashed funding for the arts and humanities, and a privatized PBS.

If you want to know what PBS would like without government funding turn on A&E, History Channel, or the ever oxymoronic Learning Channel. These networks have been long held up by Republicans as the private sector alternative to PBS, but look at the programming that these channels actually contain. Would Sesame Street be replaced with Pawn Stars? Instead of Antiques Roadshow, how about Storage Wars? Replace Downton Abbey with Toddlers and Tiaras.


Read more: http://www.politicususa.com/mitt-romney-tells-elmo-job-pledges-kill-pbs.html

August 16, 2012

Evidence that "Special Ops OPSEC" is a Swiftboat-like organ of the right

1. Incorporated on June 21, 2012 in Delaware - that's eight weeks ago - just in time for the election. Not like this self-described "social welfare organization" has been around very long.

2. President Obama is the only politician attacked by name.

3. "Contributions" go to P.O. Box 320008 | Alexandria, VA 22314. There are apparently no "offices."

4. Website mentions no employees, officers or founders, though some suspects have been identified.

5. Many of the "disclosures" cited were revealed first by other nation's intelligence officials and/or others, or were "disclosures" that most people who passed high school social studies could figure out. The most hilarious - "disclosure" of Israeli and American involvement in Stuxnet, which damaged Iranian computer networks. Who could've thunk it?

August 13, 2012

Regarding Romney's tax returns . . . BigTree gave me an idea

I am sure someone has thought of this but . . .

BigTree posted Iglesias' article in Slate discussing Ryan's money dump from the "bad banks" into Goldman as the s--t hit the fan in 2008. Of course, that may be legal because Congress is exempt from insider trading laws.

But what about Romney? He is not exempt, as far as I know. Did he get the same info somehow? Is that what he is hiding? Wouldn't it be interesting to see his 1099-Bs and related filings from 2008?

August 13, 2012

Family of deranged man fatally shot by cops in Times Square upset over use deadly force

Source: NY Daily News

Relatives of the deranged knife-wielding man gunned down by cops in Times Square say they are upset about the NYPD’s use of deadly force in the confrontation.

“It doesn't take 12 bullets to kill one person,” the dead man’s aunt, Margaret Johnson, told The News.

“I think it could have been done another way.”

. . .

Kennedy grew belligerent, and when police attempted to cuff him, he struggled free, pulling an Ikea kitchen knife with a six-inch blade out of his pocket and waving it over his head.
He backed down 7th Ave for seven blocks as more cops amassed.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/family-deranged-man-fatally-shot-cops-times-square-upset-deadly-force-article-1.1134880#ixzz23O2DYrZp

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/family-deranged-man-fatally-shot-cops-times-square-upset-deadly-force-article-1.1134880

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Watch the Daily News video. Draw your own conclusions.

Smoking weed one minute, dead a few minutes later.

August 12, 2012

Israel testing missile attack cellphone warning system

Source: Xinhua


Israel testing missile attack cellphone warning system
English.news.cn   2012-08-12 19:38:02            
JERUSALEM, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Israel Defense Force (IDF) Home Front Command on Sunday initiated a week-long test of an alert system that texts a message to cellphones located in areas likely to be hit in a missile strike.

The "Personal Message" system was developed in recent years and is expected to become operational within a month.

The system delivers area-specific warnings, based on projections of the incoming trajectory of an unguided rocket or ballistic missile.

The early-alert system is meant to offer more specific guidance to residents than existing air raid sirens.

Recent reports on a possible Israeli attack on Iran to halt its nuclear program have stirred up public concern over how to best prepare the home front.

However, sources at the Home Front Command told Xinhua that the experiment was already in planning stages, and that the test's timing does not imply an escalated chance of war.

Read more: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-08/12/c_131779903.htm