While Dow hits a record high, this

Follow-up to "We Won't Be Sold Out" Rally

We blogged about the "We Won't Be Sold Out" rally yesterday. Here's a snippet of video (courtesy of Joy Sabl) from the event which occurred in the pouring rain:

  You can see the text of a follow-up email which was sent to Sen. Bob Casey's Pittsburgh staffer by Democracy for Pittsburgh after the jump.

"We Won't Be Sold Out" Rally and more today

Fuck the Fiscal Cliff
Via One Pittsburgh press release:

Frustrated community leaders, activists and organizations like One Pittsburgh are joining thousands across the country in a collective “What gives?!?!?!” to elected officials like Senator Bob Casey who didn’t seem to get the memo back in November. On December 10, hundreds will gather to say it bigger and louder: We want jobs, not cuts, from our elected leaders.

There will be several actions happening today including:

On December 10 we’ll make hundreds of phone calls while hundreds more participate in a Facebook flash mob, demanding that Casey stick to his word and fight for the middle class, One Pittsburgh will be flying a very large message over the city, a message that neither Sen Casey nor Sen. Toomey can miss, or misunderstand.

Rally info via Facebook:

"We Won't Be Sold Out" Rally
When: Monday, December 10, 2012, 2:30 PM
Where: 11 Stanwix Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Three things to remember during the debate about the Fiscal Cliff Fiscal Curb

1) Ronald Reagan: "Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit."



2) A nonpartisan tax report which found no correlation between top tax rates and economic growth was withdrawn after G.O.P. protest.

3) Nobody actually cares about the deficit like they say they do:




(h/t to Digby for items 1 and 3)

A Tale of Two Elections

As with everything in our Two Americas, your voting experience varied radically depending on how much money you have.

In an African American neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio, the scene was long lines and long waits as extended hours early voting only really extended to the white, Republican suburbs:


Meanwhile, voters in Bel Air, California were met with free valet parking, lattes and finger food in the luxe version of democracy:

USA! USA! USA!

The Romneys: In Their Own Words

Sources (after the fold):

Mitt Romney: I don't always say what I really think, but when I do...

Uh-oh! Looks like that 47% who pay no taxes is really Mitt Romney's base!

Via The Atlantic:

(Click to enlarge)

Video of Mitt Romney stating his utter contempt for half the country

And, here I thought that Paul Ryan was the big Ayn Rand fan, but here's video of Romney making it clear that he thinks that 47% of all American citizens are moochers and parasites.

Via Mother Jones:

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.  

[snip]  

[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

Wow! Just wow.

It's pretty much every negative right wing cliche about Obama voters and we common folk that you hear on FOX. And, pretty much everything you thought Mitt Romney really thought about the 99% -- the stuff that would sometimes slip out in his gaffes.

Like me, you may have already seen some of the video from this event making its way round the internet, but it hadn't been verified. Apparently, David Corn was able to vet it. There's much, much more at Mother Jones (and they promise more still).

Here's the Obama Campaign's reaction (via email):

STATEMENT ON ROMNEY’S BEHIND CLOSED DOORS REMARKS  

CHICAGO – “It's shocking that a candidate for President of the United States would go behind closed doors and declare to a group of wealthy donors that half the American people view themselves as ‘victims,’ entitled to handouts, and are unwilling to take ‘personal responsibility’ for their lives. It’s hard to serve as president for all Americans when you’ve disdainfully written off half the nation.”– Jim Messina, Obama for America Campaign Manager

Vanity Fair Investigates Mitt Romney's Offshore Accounts

Vanity Fair shows us the (foreign) money:

Bermuda: “To give but one example, there is a Bermuda-based entity called Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd., which has been described in securities filings as ‘a Bermuda corporation wholly owned by W. Mitt Romney.’… Romney failed to list this entity on several financial disclosures, even though such a closely held entity would not qualify as an “excepted investment fund” that would not need to be on his disclosure forms. He finally included it on his 2010 tax return. Even after examining that return, we have no idea what is in this company, but it could be valuable, meaning that it is possible Romney’s wealth is even greater than previous estimates. While the Romneys’ spokespeople insist that the couple has paid all the taxes required by law, investments in tax havens such as Bermuda raise many questions, because they are in ‘jurisdictions where there is virtually no tax and virtually no compliance,’ as one Miami-based offshore lawyer put it.”  

Cayman Islands: “Because of his retirement deal with Bain Capital, his finances are still deeply entangled with the private-equity firm that he founded and spun off from Bain and Co. in 1984. Though he left the firm in 1999, Romney has continued to receive large payments from it—in early June he revealed more than $2 million in new Bain income. The firm today has at least 138 funds organized in the Cayman Islands, and Romney himself has personal interests in at least 12, worth as much as $30 million, hidden behind controversial confidentiality disclaimers. Again, the Romney campaign insists he saves no tax by using them, but there is no way to check this.”  

Switzerland: “These, plus the mandatory financial disclosures filed with the Office of Government Ethics and released last August, raise many questions. A full 55 pages in his 2010 return are devoted to reporting his transactions with foreign entities… The media soon noticed Romney’s familiarity with foreign tax havens. A $3 million Swiss bank account appeared in the 2010 returns, then winked out of existence in 2011 after the trustee closed it.”

The Aristocrats

Digby has a truly obscene version of that old joke here.

Mitt Romney's Foot-in-Mouth & Tin Ear Disease

The boy just can't help it. He's done it again:

"I'm in this race because I care about Americans. I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I'll fix it," the Republican front-runner said Wednesday on CNN, following his victory in the Florida primary.

And, it isn't just the left that finds his statement problematic. The right is doing a facepalm too.

Maybe the Komen folks can do a spin-off for Mitt's disease.

Song of the Day