As usual, it’s the messenger that’s the problem

Republicans have decided that the biggest, wettest kiss they can give their corporate owners is to make all money they earn overseas exempt from taxes, even if they bring that money back to the USA. It’s called a Territorial Tax System and it’s used by only a handful of countries — France, Hong Kong, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

When the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) took a look at the impact of the USA using a territorial tax system, not surprisingly they found that it would increase the shipment of jobs and manufacturing to other countries besides the USA. Who could have guessed? If you only tax money earned in the United States, companies will beat a path to nearest border to make sure they earn as much money as possible outside of the United States. It’s the weirdest thing.

When the Republicans heard that the CBO predicted this behavior and the subsequent negative impact on our nation’s economy and job situation, their response wasn’t, “Oh, shit, we better rethink this.” No, their response was to shout, “LIAR!”

Proof after the jump.

That’s quite a working class neighborhood you have there, Senator

During his rebuttal to the State of the Union address the other night, in addition to responding to a different SOTU address than the rest of us watched and having the Most Awkward Drink of Water Ever Ever, Marco Rubio talked about living “in the same working class neighborhood” he grew up in.

Our friends at Estately.com who are, apparently, Eclectablog & LOLGOP fans, sent along a link to Senator Rubio’s real estate posting on their site for the house he lives in. His house is for sale and the sales price is a whopping $675,000. It’s a nice house with a swimming pool and everything. But, at a sales price of over two-thirds of a million dollars, it’s clear that Rubio’s neighborhood is hardly “working class”, at least not any longer.

Details and photos after the jump.

Why should we believe this guy?

[I apologize for the light blogging these past couple of days. We’ve had a death in my family and that, as you can probably imagine, has taken up much of my attention.]

Last night in his State of the State address, Governor Rick Snyder implored Republicans and Democrats alike to set aside their differences and work together. “I appreciate that people had different perspectives on issues,” he said. “And what I’m saying is, I’m hoping we can find common ground where we can work together and I hope all of you join me in doing the same thing.”

Multi-millionaire Dick DeVos said much the same thing in an op-ed after Republicans made Michigan a Right to Work state. “We can’t finish rebuilding this state unless we pull together,” said DeVos.

These are easy things to say when you have the ability to win all of your political battles. When the deck is stacked completely in your favor, you can say nice things about “working together” and “pulling together”. Because, at the end of the day, if your political opponents disagree with you, you can simply run them over just like Governor Snyder, the Michigan Republicans, and their financial backer Dick DeVos have done for the past two years.

The rich are getting richer BECAUSE the poor are getting poorer

As we munch popcorn and watch the Republicans in their death match with President Obama over the fiscal speed bump and whether or not our economy will tumble to the ground if we raise taxes on the super-rich by 3.9%, a big part of the rhetoric we hear from the GOP is that this is a tax on business owners. Besides the fact that this is largely untrue and that in the small percentage of businesses affected, it only raises taxes on their income OVER $250,000 year, the fact is that our country’s economy is largely driven by large corporations and the contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by small businesses is shrinking.

Big businesses, as it turns out, are doing just fine. Workers’ wages, on the other hand? Not so much.

Aw geez, Karl. Just shut the hell up, wouldjya?

Karl Rove (aka “Turdblossom” and “Bush’s Brain”) has figured out how President Barack Obama managed to win re-election this year: Voter suppression.

No, seriously.

Details and Karl Rove-induced hilarity after the jump.

At least he’s consistent…

You have to hand it to Mitt Romney. While he may not be consistent on his political positions — okay, he’s NOT consistent on his political positions — at least he’s consistent in the fact that he’s willing to brazenly lie to the American people in order to win the Presidency.

His most recent lie — that Jeep is shipping jobs to China — is almost poetic in its hubris. It started with a statement on the campaign trail when it was added to his stump speech. He then doubled down and made a television ad out of it. He then tripled down and made a radio spot and with that one, he included GM as a domestic vehicle manufacturer shipping jobs to China. None of this is true.

And then the stuff hit the fan for Romney. More after the jump.

Recently I said I was finally done with these things, but with yet ANOTHER idiotic, offensive statement by a Republican about rape victims the other day, I’ve been turned into Al Pacino in Godfather III* I therefore present the Republican Rape Advisory Chart…Volume IV. I’ve also included links to the complete 4-volume set; feel free to use/repost as appropriate, but please […]

The desperation is palpable

An out-of-state group known as the “Judicial Crisis Network” is spending $1 million in Michigan to attack Supreme Court front-runner Bridget McCormack. After you read my interview with her HERE, you’ll quickly realize that she’s a candidate perfectly suited for the Supreme Court. The now-viral West Wing ad released by her campaign gave her name recognition not usually seen with candidates for the bench. As I said in my interview, she’s the real deal, running a real campaign and she’s going to win.

However, that’s only true if we get out the vote for her, along with Connie Marie Kelley (interview HERE) and Shelia Johnson (interview HERE.) The most recent Detroit Free Press poll shows that an astonishing 75% or more of Michigan voters are undecided in the Supreme Court races (one partial term where Johnson is the candidate and two full-term seats where Kelley and McCormack are on the ballot.)

We simply must spread the word on these three incredible women. We must tell our friends, our coworkers, our family — anyone who will listen — that these three women represent the best choice for Michigan’s future.

More after the jump.

“[Nate] Silver’s facts are being fired like bullets into the heart of the Romney campaign.”

Dan Hodges has a great piece in The Telegraph today titled “Nate Silver, the geeky statistician who is single-handedly dismantling the myth of Mitt-mentum”. It goes into great detail about the fantasy world that the Romney campaign is trying to hypnotize American voters with, creating a completely false narrative that Obama is on the ropes and they are in the lead with all the momentum.

As Hodges so perfectly shows, it’s a complete sham. Details (with GRAPHS!) after the jump.

Not that this comes as any surprise or anything…

Here’s an interesting thing to ponder. When you have a look at the Politifact rulings on statements made by President Obama & Vice President Biden vs. the statements made by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, it becomes immediately obvious who lies the most.

For statements that were ruled to be “True” and “Mostly True”, it’s Obama and Biden at 45.0%, Romney and Ryan at 29.1%. When it comes to “False”, “Mostly False” and “Pants on Fire”, it’s Romney and Ryan at 43.9% and Obama and Biden at 28.8%. In fact, Romney and Ryan have over 4 times as many “Pants of Fire” lies as the President and Vice President. Mitt Romney himself has well over half of the total amount of “Pants of Fire” lies (58.6%) of all the candidates combined!

Charts and data after the jump.

Zoinks!

You knew (or at least HOPED) that, eventually, someone in the mainstream media would look into Mitt Romney’s claim that his “plan” would create 12 million new jobs. Well, someone, i.e. the Washington Post, finally did.

It ain’t pretty.

Details after the jump.