DOWNLOADS: (14)

PLAYS: (151)

Embed

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney insists that he didn't shut down his tax shelters in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Switzerland because it would "avoid the truth" and he wasn't going to "manipulate my life" just to become president.

Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Romney in an interview that aired on Sunday why he didn't close the Swiss bank accounts and get out of the investments in the Cayman Islands before he spent the last eight years running for president.

"First of all, there was no reduction -- not one dollar reduction -- in taxes by virtue of having an account in Switzerland or a Cayman Islands investment," Romney explained. "The dollars of taxes remained exactly the same. There was no tax savings at all. And the conduct of the trustee and making investments was entirely consistent with U.S. law and all the taxes paid were those legally owed and there was no tax saving by virtue of those entities."

"But why not just go to him a long time ago and just say, get out of these things?" Wallace pressed.

"Don't invest in anything outside the United States?" Romney replied. "I mean, I could have said, 'Don't make any investments in any foreign companies, in any foreign bonds, in any foreign currency -- only U.S. entities. And by the way, don't buy any foreign products, don't have any Japanese TVs or foreign cars.' I mean, yeah, I could have done that."

"But, I mean, I did live my life," he continued. "And I expect by virtue of disclosing all these things, people can take a look at it and see whether that's something they're comfortable with or not. I'm not going to try and hide who I am and try and manipulate my life to try and avoid the truth."

DOWNLOADS: (18)

PLAYS: (194)

Embed

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Sunday said he supported presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's joke about President Barack Obama's birth certificate because the race needs "levity."

Speaking to a large crowd of supporters in Michigan on Friday, Romney had come the closest yet to personally embracing the so-called birther movement’s theory that President Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen.

"I love being home in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us were born,” the former Massachusetts governor said. “Ann was born at Henry Ford Hospital, I was born at Harper Hospital.”

“No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate,” he added. “They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.”

During a Sunday interview on CNN, host Candy Crowley asked Priebus if it was helpful for Romney to suggest that Obama was not a citizen.

"You know what? I think it's a nothing," the RNC chairman replied, pointing out that Romney had repeated acknowledged that the president was born in Hawaii.

"But why even bring it up?" Crowley wondered. "When you bring it up, you put it out there and you're a high-profile guy, you're about to be the Republican nominee, and people think this is just playing to that group."

"That wasn't what he was doing," Priebus insisted. "He's making the point, 'I'm from Michigan, I was born here.'"

"And you know what? Have we really gotten to the point we can't have any levity at all in politics? I mean, we've gotten to a place in politics that is just ridiculous. No one can say anything that's remotely humorous. You know, the president makes jokes about this all the time."

(h/t: Talking Points Memo)

Courtesy of The Onion, but not far from the truth, is it?

Albert Einstein once famously said that the definition of insanity was "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Well, how else can you characterize this statement by President Obama?

In an interview with the Associated Press published Saturday, Obama says Republicans hell-bent on shutting down his agenda will be more willing to play ball if he’s re-elected.

He said two changes — the facts that “the American people will have voted,” and that Republicans will no longer need to be focused on beating him — could lead to better conditions for deal-making.

If Republicans are willing, Obama said, “I’m prepared to make a whole range of compromises” that could even rankle his own party. But he did not get specific.

Oh help me, Rhonda. This fetish for bipartisanship is killing this country, especially when the Republicans are clearly so unwilling to play along. Please do not let this mean that Obama's "Grand Bargain" dismantling critical social safety nets are what we're in store for.

DOWNLOADS: (111)

PLAYS: (2033)

Embed

First we've had these clowns doing their best to try to downplay Todd Akin's remarks on abortion and rape by comparing it to a gaff by Joe Biden as we saw from hate monger Tony Perkins the other day. Now we've got some GOP operative from South Carolina named Wesley Donehue – the likes of which or his bow tie I've been fortunate enough not to have watched before this Saturday – apparently doing some consulting work for Todd Akin, and trying to compare Akin's remarks to the now infamous "Dean Scream."

Thankfully Howard Dean was right there to shoot down the false equivalency on this Saturday's Weekends with Alex Witt where they were discussing the Republicans Akin problem, woman problem and their upcoming convention:

DEAN: The problem with the Akin remark is Akin is not an outlier in the Republican Party. Paul Ryan, Romney's running mate voted for the same stuff that Akin voted for, which is outlawing abortion with no exceptions for rape and incest. This is not exactly a pro-woman party and it shows by the ticket, so I think this is a problem for the Republican Party everywhere, not just Missouri.

After being asked how things were going for Romney as we head into the convention with his racist “joke” and Akin's remarks and whether he should have seen “the backlash coming,” Akin consultant Wesley Donehue responded.

DONEHUE: Listen, first off, Mitt Romney... he likes to joke around. I was watching a special on MSNBC where his sons say, listen my dad likes to joke around and sometimes those jokes don't come across the way they need to. I think it was a very human moment for him, just like it was a very human moment for Todd Akin.

I want to go back to what Gov. Dean said. You know, I think trying to label our party as anti-woman because of one comment is insane. I mean look, Gov. Dean's entire presidential campaign was ruined because of one moment. That's like saying the “Dean scream” crazy moment was indicative of the entire Democratic Party. He lost the presidency because he looked insane. That didn't mean the entire Democratic Party was insane because of one moment. That was absolutely a ridiculous comment!

Host Alex Witt stood back and allowed Dean to reply.

DEAN: I think that's silly. I lost the Democratic nomination because I came in third in Iowa and I was supposed to come in first. That was the problem. And I also think it's not very nice to George Bush to say I would have kicked his butt as well. We don't know that. But leaving all that aside, the fact of the matter is Todd Akin is not an outlier.

Boehner's bill which Ryan voted for and all the Republicans in the House or virtually all the Republicans in the House voted for is exactly what Akin said. (crosstalk) No exception for rape. No exceptions for incest. This is a party that doesn't value women and that's just a fact.

DONEHUE: And you're a party that doesn't value life. (crosstalk)

DEAN: They voted that way again and again and again (crosstalk). It's in the Republican Party platform. So I think this just makes this a party a very hard sell for women.

Donehue has the the feigned indignation game down pat and tried to defend the Republicans with a version of I have one black friend, or in this case, we elected a woman who is a minority to be a governor and some black Congressmen, therefore we can't be sexist or prejudiced, or racist.

Dean did a nice job of pointing to their policies and the fact that they seem like they'd be a whole lot comfortable living in the '50's... as in the 1850's. He also made note of the fact that when you look at their ranks like those delegates filling their convention floors, it's almost all white whether they've got some diversity at the top as figure heads or not.

I don't know what Akin is paying this guy, but whatever it is, it's too much. I was waiting for him to stick out his tongue and wave his fingers next to his ears and say "I know you are, but what am I" before this was over. He was no match for Dean when it came to trying to make his party's case on women's issues or to defend Akin. Trying to pick a fight with Dean with a ridiculous, childish false equivalency is no argument.

A community is demanding answers surrounding the shooting of a Saginaw homeless man.

Milton Hall was well-known in Saginaw, Michigan, according to his family, the same city where his mother and other family members live. He was also mentally ill, according to his mother. A cousin says that Hall had an arrest record for minor offenses, like vagrancy.

Police officials say Hall was "known to be an assaultive person" with "a long history" of contacts with law enforcement, "not only with police from our department but with the county."

The July 1 shooting happened in a parking lot on West Genessee Avenue, a busy commercial strip on the north side of Saginaw. In the video shot by a motorist from across the street, 49-year-old Hall is seen arguing with a half-dozen officers. For more than three minutes, he walks back and forth, and at one time appears to crouch in a "karate stance," according to the man who captured the scene.

Police said Hall had just had a run-in with a convenience store clerk. On the video, he tells police, "My name is Milton Hall, I just called 911. My name is Milton, and I'm p---ed off." When an officer tells him to put the knife down, he responds, "I ain't putting s--t down." He appears unimpressed by a police dog, telling officers, "Let him go. Let the motherf---ing dog go."

Finally, he turns to the left of the frame, where another officer had moved out of view a short time earlier. It's then that the police open fire with a reported 46 shots in a five-second hail of bullets.

The case is under investigation, and neither the state police, nor the prosecutor's office would comment on the case.

[Via, Via]

Up until now, Rep. Ron Paul has been one of the most vocal proponents to return the US to the gold standard. It's an idea that's been panned for decades, but Paul indulges in more than one John Birch conspiracy theory. In 1933, FDR took a page from Great Britain's book and removed the US off the gold standard after Americans began hording it during the Depression, crippling our banking system.

On June 5, 1933, the United States went off the gold standard, a monetary system in which currency is backed by gold, when Congress enacted a joint resolution nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold. The United States had been on a gold standard since 1879, except for an embargo on gold exports during World War I, but bank failures during the Great Depression of the 1930s frightened the public into hoarding gold, making the policy untenable.Soon after taking office in March 1933, Roosevelt declared a nationwide bank moratorium in order to prevent a run on the banks by consumers lacking confidence in the economy. He also forbade banks to pay out gold or to export it. According to Keynesian economic theory, one of the best ways to fight off an economic downturn is to inflate the money supply. And increasing the amount of gold held by the Federal Reserve would in turn increase its power to inflate the money supply. Facing similar pressures, Britain had dropped the gold standard in 1931, and Roosevelt had taken note.

Republicans Eye Return to Gold Standard

The gold standard has returned to mainstream U.S. politics for the first time in 30 years, with a “gold commission” set to become part of official Republican party policy.

Drafts of the party platform, which it will adopt at a convention in Tampa Bay, Florida, next week, call for an audit of Federal Reserve monetary policy and a commission to look at restoring the link between the dollar and gold.The move shows how five years of easy monetary policy — and the efforts of congressman Ron Paul — have made the once-fringe idea of returning to gold-as-money a legitimate part of Republican debate.

Marsha Blackburn, a Republican congresswoman from Tennessee and co-chair of the platform committee, said the issues were not adopted merely to placate Paul and the delegates that he picked up during his campaign for the party’s nomination.“These were adopted because they are things that Republicans agree on,” Blackburn told the Financial Times. “The House recently passed a bill on this, and this is something that we think needs to be done.” The proposal is reminiscent of the Gold Commission created by former president Ronald Reagan in 1981, 10 years after Richard Nixon broke the link between gold and the dollar during the 1971 oil crisis. That commission ultimately supported the status quo.

I know you're probably laughing out loud from reading about the GOP's latest move to turn America into a laughing stock around the world, but this has been in the works for eighty years.

As it happens, conservative anti-government crusaders have often taken up the question of what to do about government.The utopian dream is to wreck it, an impossible goal that is nevertheless the frequent object of conservative reverie. “The mystery of government is not how Washington works,” writes the humorist P. J. O’Rourke, “but how to make it stop.” There are silver-bullet theories for destroying the state: repeal the amendment that allowed for the income tax; bring back the gold standard and thus break the state’s power over money; or— most ingeniously— interpret the eminent domain clause of the Constitution so as to invalidate almost the entire body of government regulation enacted in the twentieth century.

Every now and then conservatives give it a try. “By the time we finish this poker game, there may not be a federal government left, which would suit me just fine,” boasted Tom DeLay, the spiritual leader of the Republican Congress elected in 1994. Before long DeLay and his colleagues had parlayed a budget disagreement with President Clinton into a full-blown government shutdown, which some of them celebrated as a sweet taste of things to come, an overwhelming demonstration of their supreme ideological point. 14 Unfortunately, the shutdown turned out to be a monumental political blunder that led ultimately to Bill Clinton’s reelection.

Frank, Thomas (2010-04-01). The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule (p. 39).

The gold standard has been a fetish for conservatives, conspiracy nuts and right wing Republicans since FDR took action against it. They hated everything the New Deal ushered in and have been trying ever since to repeal the ingenious work that saved our country from ruin. That's why an anti-government movement began in the first place. The scary thing is that they just might succeed. The New Deal was so successful that it put the Republican Party in the minority for decades. Now in 2012, they have finally added returning to the gold standard to their party platform. It's another calculated move by conservative activists to further push America off the cliff. To the Villagers, Republicans can never go 'right' far enough as we all know and which is why they've gotten away with it for so long.

DOWNLOADS: (45)

PLAYS: (466)

Embed

This is the response Neil Cavuto got when he asked resident flame thrower Rep. Allen West what Mitt Romney should do about his likeability ratings being so much lower than President Obama's: Allen West: Obama Is ‘Serving Up A Crap Sandwich With A Smile’:

During an appearance on Fox News on Saturday morning, Rep. Allen West (R-FL) accused Obama of serving up a “crap sandwich.” “Let’s be very honest and let’s put this in military vernacular, if you’re feeding a person a crap sandwich with a smile, it’s still a crap sandwich,” West said. “That’s what you see coming from President Obama. He’s fed America just a load of you know what and it’s not done anything for this country other than increasing our unemployment, increasing Americans in poverty, increasing the food stamp rolls, and we’re heading in the wrong direction.”

If anyone ought to know anything about a "crap sandwich" it's West and that Republican controlled House he's serving in. If the Republicans are really worried about likeability and image problems, they'd be telling West to keep his ass off the air. If these Republicans know how to do one thing well, it's how to divide the working class against each other and West was no exception to that rule here. Punch down, suck up, project your worst faults on your opponent, play against people's fears and envies, call names and then hope the voters aren't actually paying attention to how you legislate.

Oh dear. It looks like the baby Jesus really wants to give the GOP haters a "come to Jesus" moment! Something tells me they won't take the hint:

Tropical Storm Isaac was hugging the northern coastline of eastern Cuba on Saturday after claiming at least four lives in Haiti. Isaac should become a Category 1 hurricane on Sunday just as it nears the Florida Keys, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said, and then grow into an even stronger Category 2 storm with 100 mph winds.

Isaac "could be significantly stronger than currently forecast" once it enters the Gulf of Mexico, the center said in an advisory.It will first sweep past southwest Florida and the Florida Keys, where "hurricane conditions are expected ... Sunday," it said in a separate update.

Isaac is a massive storm, with tropical storm-force winds extending 230 miles from the center. Key West International Airport was halting all flights at 7 p.m. Saturday until the storm had passed.

So now, instead of moving the nomination vote from Wednesday to Monday, the Republicans are moving it to Tuesday instead. Just right!

TAMPA, Fla. -- Republicans announced Saturday that they had effectively canceled the first day of its convention for safety concerns associated with an impending hurricane.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement that "the Republican National Convention will convene on Monday August 27th and immediately recess until Tuesday afternoon, August 28th."

That move essentially postpones the activities of the first of four scheduled days of the convention. But Priebus said in a conference call with reporters that the details of the revised schedule were not yet settled, and could be announced as soon as Sunday.

"The Republican National Convention is going to take place. We know that we will officially nominate Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan," he said.

Romney will now be formally nominated as the Republican Party's presidential candidate on Tuesday instead of Monday, said Russ Schriefer, a senior strategist for the Romney campaign.

"Right now, we expect that the roll call will just take place on Tuesday," he said.

Continue reading »

BoingBoing - Neil Armstrong (1930-2012);

Democratic Underground - seven birthers including crazy Janine Turner speaking at GOP convention;

Instaputz - Medicare, then rape, now birtherism? It's bad GOP pivots week!

TBogg - Nooners helps Mitt join the Short-Fingered Vulgarian Club;

The Democratic Daily - GOP leader's Custer rant dumb on so many levels.

blogenfreude blogs at stinque.com and, particularly today, suggests you take a look at these gorgeous archived Hubble images.

Lena Horne -- Stormy Weather, 1943

It's the eve of the Republican National Convention. Well, sort of. For a party who claims that they are the best suited to run the country, they've been remarkably dunder-headed about simply running their own damn nominating convention. Now I'm not willing to go as far as to say that Hurricane Isaac is God's little way of expressing his disapproval with the GOP (although I have no doubt that Pat Robertson or Ralph Reed would absolutely claim that had this been the Democratic convention). But I do find it highly symbolic that a crowd so eager to dismiss global climate change is facing the very effects of which they've tried to deny.

All talk with be on the RNC's messed up convention. Will anyone point out that Todd Akin's "extremist" views on abortion have just been ratified into the party's official platform? And that Mitt Romney, as the titular head of this party, must now own those extreme views? Will anyone point out that Republicans can't even run a convention without screwing it up, how can they run this country? Or will anyone point out the ever-growing number of shootings taking place in this country and ask the Republican Party if they won't even discuss sensible gun control, could they just moderate their eliminationist rhetoric?

Of course they won't.

ABC's "This Week" – Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, chairman of the Republican Platform Committee; Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, chairman of the Democratic National Convention. Round table: ABC News' George Will; Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md.; former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, host of Current TV's "The War Room"; Republican strategist Mary Matalin; and FOX News anchor Greta Van Susteren.

NBC's "Meet the Press" – Republican former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Round table: DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz; The Republican Governor from Arizona, Jan Brewer; Republican Strategist Mike Murphy and NBC News Political Director and Chief White House Correspondent, Chuck Todd.

CBS' "Face the Nation" – Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus; Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; Republican former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. Round table: The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan, TIME's Rich Lowry, The Washington Post's Dan Balz, CBS This Morning co-host Norah O'Donnell and CBS News political director John Dickerson.

MSNBC's "Up with Chris Hayes" -- Joan Walsh, MSNBC Political Analyst, Author of “What’s the Matter with White People: Why We Long for a Golden Age That Never Was” and Salon’s Editor-at-Large; Avik Roy, member of Mitt Romney's Health Care Policy Advisory Group, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and author of The Apothecary, the Forbes blog on health care and entitlement reform; Elise Jordan, Former speechwriter to Condoleezza Rice and Former national Security Council; Michael Bell, Professor of Architecture at Columbia University and Principal at Visible Weather Architecture; Sophia Nelson, Contributor to TheGrio.com and Author of “Black Woman Redefined;” Michael Steele, Fmr. RNC Chairman, MSNBC Political Analyst; Corey Robin, Author of “The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin” and Political Science Professor at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" -- Karen Finney, fmr. DNC Communications Director and MSNBC Contributor; Buddy Roemer, Chairman of TheReformProject.org and former Louisiana Governor; Zephyr Teachout, Associate Professor of Law at Fordham University; Joe Watkins, Republican strategist and former White House aide; Cornell Belcher, Democratic pollster; Robert Traynham, MSNBC Contributor and fmr. Communications Director for Sen. Rick Santorum; Amy Holmes, The Blaze and fmr. speechwriter for Sen. Bill Frist.

CNN's "State of the Union" – Priebus; Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wis.; Gov. Rick Scott, R-Fla. Round table: CNN Senior Political Analyst Ron Brownstein and The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" -- Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author Robert Caro.

CNN's "Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz" -- Keli Goff, TheRoot.com; Hugh Hewitt, radio host; Nia-Malika Henderson, Washington Post; Roger Simon, Politico; Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun-Times; Lauren Ashburn, Daily-Download.com; Eric Deggans, Tampa Bay Times; Rachel Sklar, media critic; Wolf Blitzer, CNN.

"Fox News Sunday" – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann.

So what's catching your eye this morning?