Mock, Paper, Scissors

…need a little more air:

Jeffrey Skilling, the convicted former Enron Corp. chief executive officer, may get out of prison in as little as four years if a judge approves a deal with prosecutors over objections by victims of one of the biggest corporate frauds in U.S. history.

Yes, former CEO of Enron and current Federal Prisoner Jeffrey Skilling decided to buy his freedom by giving “up all claims to $40 million in forfeited assets.” Which when you consider Enron’s initial bill for fraud was $40 BILLION makes it, oh… 1/10 of 1% of his ill-gotten gains.

That’ll learn him.

(Business Week)

Ezra Klein at the WaPo has the definitive statement: Treasury: We won’t mint a platinum coin to sidestep the debt ceiling

And then James Fallows at The Atlantic gives us two sentences:

1) Raising the debt ceiling does not authorize one single penny in additional public spending.

2) For Congress to “decide whether” to raise the debt ceiling, for programs and tax rates it has already voted into law, makes exactly as much sense as it would for a family to “decide whether” to pay a credit-card bill for goods it has already bought.

So, I guess we are back to being held hostage by terrorists/GOP threatening to destroy the world economy unless we all agree to feed granny catfood.

Of course, this is another example of negotiating against yourself before the negotiations begin (having also ruled out the 14th Amendment option), so one can assume that anything that the Administration does end up giving away is something that they wanted to give away.

David Gregory dancin’ to the Karl Rove Rap

The DA for DC decided to not press charges against David Gregory for possessing a 30-round clip in DC (which is illegal) , thus again proving that there is a Club, and you are not part of it.

The DA is also alleged to be a friend of the Gregory family, so it shows that who you know is still the rule of the land.

I’m not agitating for Dancin’ Dave to be thrown in the pokey for a decade for this (though having him off the air is tempting), but I do think this is another example that there are two sets of laws in the US. The next person arrested in DC for possession of a high-capacity clip should scream bloody hell.

(WaPo here and here)

Attributed to Nicholas Kristoff and reported by Uncle Charlie Pierce at Esquire:

“Some young people here don’t join the military (a traditional escape route for poor, rural Americans) because it’s easier to rely on food stamps and disability payments.”

Of which the shorter version is: “The nerve of the peasants to not get in line to be cannon fodder in our imperial wars for US corporations!”

(Hat tip: Scissorhead Lambchop)

Binders are people my friend. Why yes, there is a tumblr for Binder Full of Women. A question asking if a person supports equal pay regardless of gender seems like a simple “yes” or “no” question. So never mind the binders, how about that pay scale? It’s not about finding women to sit on your cabinet. Talking about binders is funny. Getting short changed for your work is not. (NY Times)

Queen Ann finally gets her first job ever.

See? Anyone can find a job in the strengthening economy, even an entitlement Queen!

(Politico)

…it’s really only 30% that are takers and who have given up on the American Dream:

The good news, is that Zombie-eyed Granny-Starver Paul Ryan said it so elegantly.

Zombie-eyed Granny-starver Paul Ryan tells Fox News that he doesn’t have the time to show them the math of how cutting tax rates by 20% remains revenue neutral.

He’s like the dim-witted assistant to the snake oil salesman.

So now the Stench scoop of the day from David Corn at Mother Jones magazine is this little gem:

Willard explains the Bain Capital business plan: not creating jobs but “harvesting” companies they take over.

Which of course can only remind me of this movie:

Seriously, who (other than a farmer) ever says harvest and not mean something ghoulish?

(Mother Jones)

OK, I lied:

Comment Cat is not amused.

Ho! Ho! Ho! What a card! It seems that the roll-down-the-windows-on-the-jet was just a joke, you know, because nothing is funnier than kidding about your wife dying in a fiery plane crash while she is standing within slapping distance.

(NYMag)

“I’m convinced that the path [Obama's] put us on is the path to Europe. Or, I jokingly say….to California.”

–The Willard Mechanism, who recently bought a $16M tear-down mansion in California.

And in case it bears repeating: California still has the 8th-largest economy in the world.

2012 Goat Rodeo

Magical panties enthusiast and noted 1%-er The Willard Mechanism has managed, somehow miraculously, to remind the populace about his incredible lack of transparency on taxes… by finally dropping his 2011 taxes in a Friday night document dump. I can promise you for the next week that is all we will be hearing about are his taxes and calls for the details on the rest of them (He dropped off “summary information” of what percentages he paid in some previous years, notarized by his blind trustee, who also happens to be his personal friend and legal council. Ahem.)

Last week, as we all know, the Press was focused on Willard’s amazing tone-deaf declaration that half of the country are lazy, shiftless losers who do not deserve food or shelter because they pay no income taxes… as Mitt reveals his fast-approaching zero effective tax rate of 14% that actually should be 9% (and probably will be within the time allowed to amend taxes).

Previously, all the media could talk about was his incredibly stupid comments on the killing of US Embassy personnel off the front pages.

In the end, Willard’s campaign is careening all over the place, a pinball machine of doom and failure. Poll after poll has shown that no one likes Mitt. The more we get to know him the less we like him, and even though all of this is well understood (and to the degree that polls can be looked at as evidence), his campaign keeps putting Willard the person (not any of his policies) front and center. And we keep hating him more and more.

It’s really remarkable the number of times this guy who keeps telling us that he is a turn-around artist can keep shooting himself in the foot.

Keep it up, Willard. I’m loving this.

…Paul Ryan gets boo’ed by grannies and people who love them at AARP for his zombie-eyed granny starving:

Image: Axel Grease and Tengrain

Here’s the audio of Queen Ann telling us how lucky we are for giving Willard the opportunity to rule us:

Maybe when the campaign said that they wanted to use Queen Ann sparingly so people don’t get tired of her, what they really meant is that she is insufferable, snotty and sounds like a complete *rag.

(Radio Iowa)

“Stop it. This is hard. You want to try it? Get in the ring. This is hard and, you know, it’s an important thing that we’re doing right now and it’s an important election and it is time for all Americans to realize how significant this election is and how lucky we are to have someone with Mitt’s qualifications and experience and know-how to be able to have the opportunity to run this country.”

–Queen Ann

That is called The Tell in gambling/grifting, where they accidentally reveal their hand. God, she’s a gift to Freud.

“[Rafalca] has more style and more class in its hoof than [the Democratic Party] do in their whole deal.”

–Queen Ann, as attributed by Lyn Mosbacher in the WaPo.

Oh, please, Please, PLEASE keep bringing out Queen Ann as the likable Romney. It just gets better everytime they release The Cracken.

(Hat tip: WaterTiger)

“First of all, this is a campaign about the 100 percent.”

–The Willard Mechanism tries his hand at damage control. Bring back Queen Ann you people!

(First Read)

Besides the bronzer, Willard needed a few props to go on Univision.

“I want to know what motivates the person that I would be voting for, and I would say what motivates Mitt is that he cares. This is a guy that obviously doesn’t need to do this for a job.“

–Queen Ann

Oh, please, Please, PLEASE send out Queen Ann to mop up Willard’s messes. Please?

“It never occurred to me once that I was stuck in some station in life, fixed in some class.”

–Paul Ryan, grandson (and heir) of one of the largest industrial fortunes in the midwest who married an Oklahoma oil barron’s only daughter

The Death of the Media

The lazy media, is of course focusing on the foot-in-mouth syndrome, but so far has not responded to the the meat of the matter and disputed Willard’s comments. I just watched an NBC segment that went through the chronology of the tape and how it got released, but no one is disputing his bold-faced lie that half the country pays no taxes.

This is a place where the blogs excel. Think Progress (as almost always) goes on a deep dive and gives us charts and information that shows us what a naked lie Willard told.

If you want to see it broken-down, I suggest you go there. The long and short of it is that there are a lot of people who do not pay income taxes because their incomes are too low but they do have withholdings from paychecks even on low minimum wage earners.

Of course there are seniors living on Social Security; there are Military Personnel. But the big lie here is that people do not pay taxes: There are all sorts of other taxes: sales taxes, state and local taxes, library taxes. Everyone pays a tax in some form, including the GOP’s favorite punching bag, “illegal” immigrants.

So… in your travels today, if a Wingnuttian engages you on the 47% here is your information. Use it, but use it in a narrative sense. Ask if they paid sales tax on the coffee that they are enjoying. It might make them think.

I think that this is another dog whistle that the 1% blow for everyone that they consider beneath them.

(Think Progress)

A misguided Chris Wallace tries to humanize The Willard Mechanism and looks for amusing anecdotes about family life at chez Romney:

A little bit of craziness. Dad always goes in line first because he doesn’t want to wait for all the grand children because it takes forever. Parents are cutting their meat and he’s usually finished by the time the rest of us sit down.

–Tagg Romney on what dinners with daddy are like.

A) What a dick Willard is, and 2) Tagg is the one who, you know, borrowed $10 Million from his parents to start his own hedge-fund, just like the rest of us.

Only a professional can lie as smoothly as this, YOU PEOPLE!

Tax-dodging magical panties enthusiast Willard Romney tried again to put his tax issue to bed, but I think he just gave it new life, especially following Queen Ann’s comment last night/this morning.

Willard’s tax issue is not dead, and the word taxes is a very vague term. Income taxes? Capital gains taxes, sales taxes, is he saying that all of these things together never made it over 13%? Because, wow, I’d love that.

Also/too: contribution to charity is not a tax, it is a deduction. And besides, isn’t it a bit disingenuous to give big bucks to LDS of which you are a Bishop and to no one else and expect applause for your self-serving generosity? And especially because that money was funneled to groups like NOM and was used to support Prop 8 in California.

Willard and Queen Ann are like caracatures of what over-entitled assholes are like, but instead of being farce they’ve made it a documentary. As I said this morning, if they have so much contempt and disdain for the everyman, why do they want to be public servants?

Willard’s expression change during this is absolutely priceless.

There’s an interesting little nugget in the NYTimes today about the $7M fortune of Paul Ryan and how he earned it, which is to say that he didn’t:

Mr. Ryan reported two tax-deferred college savings plans, with a combined value of between $150,000 and $300,000. He also reported two investment partnerships worth, in total, between $350,000 and $750,000, mostly containing shares of stock in well-known companies, including Apple, Goodrich, Kraft Foods, Visa and Whole Foods. Both partnerships were formed by Mr. Ryan and other family members to manage assets left by his grandparents and an aunt. Mrs. Ryan has reported receiving a trust after her mother died in 2010 that is valued between $1 million and $5 million, according to a letter Mr. Ryan filed with his latest financial disclosure. Mrs. Ryan also has longstanding interests in several mining and oil exploration investments in Oklahoma and Texas managed by her father, Dan Little, a lawyer in Oklahoma whose clients include oil and gas companies. Those investments generated as much as $150,000 in income last year.

Oh. So who were these grandparents that were so generous with little Paul, who as we all know required Social Security survivor benefits to become launched to be the man he is today? Wiki tells us:

His great-grandfather, Patrick William Ryan (1858–1917), founded the Ryan Incorporated Central construction business in 1884.[11][12][13] Ryan’s grandfather was appointed U.S. Attorney for Western Wisconsin by President Calvin Coolidge.[14]

A quick click on lucky 13 brings us to The History Page of Ryan Inc. in WI where we quickly learn that:

Ryan Incorporated Central has been shaping the earth since 1884. The Company started in Janesville, Wisconsin with a team of mules building railroad embankment in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. As it grew, it added road work and mining in the early 1900′s. By the 1940′s the Company had become a full-service grading contractor serving both private industrial and public transportation customers, including some of the original work at what would become O’Hare Airport. During the 1970′s and 1980′s, Ryan expanded its services to include landfill construction and waste remediation, and in the 1990′s added golf course construction. Today, Ryan Incorporated Central is one of the nation’s premier mass excavation and site-work contractors with expertise in residential, commercial, transportation, entertainment, energy and environmental work. This including extensive experience in power and industrial site-work, state-of-the-art municipal and industrial landfill construction and capping and full service golf course construction. The Company’s project size ranges in dollar value from $10,000 to $50,000,000.

So in otherwords, when Obama says that “you didn’t build that” in the midwest it’s true: Ryan’s family probably did, and with your tax dollars, which of course means that when Ryan wasn’t earning a living from his tax-payer funded salary, his family fortune was accruing from taxpayer dollars.

But what else can we learn about the fortune from his tax attorney wife, Janna Ryan, née, Little:

The Oklahoman’s political blog reported Saturday that her grandfather, Reuel W. Little, was a lawyer and rancher in the state who helped form a third political party in Oklahoma in the 1960s. His 1993 obituary stated that he was the American Party’s gubernatorial candidate in 1970. Three years earlier, Little started the push for a third party in order to get former Alabama governor George Wallace on the ballot as a presidential candidate.

Janna’s first cousin is Oklahoma Democratic Rep. Dan Boren.

Nice. Segregationist roots, but that’s not fair to her. It should be noted that Reuel Little was also a very successful attorney, but you don’t say things like that in Oklahoma appearantly:

The Little Law Firm, PLLC has been serving Oklahoma since 1927. The Firm began when Reuel W. Little (1942-1993) opened the office in Madill, Oklahoma. From its inception, the firm embraced the valued tradition of community service and the protection of individuals and businesses.

Jana Ryan’s father, Dan Little runs the joint now and he personally (not the firm) specializes in Business Law & Commercial Litigation, Oil & Gas, Real Estate. It doesn’t take many clicks to learn that his firm and Dan in particular are involved in defending and promoting the practice of Fraking, you know, where you poison the ground water and cause earthquakes to retrieve a tablespoon of really dirty oil

So you see, they are self-made millionaires (who did it the old-fashioned way by being well-connected from birth), and if they can do it, so can you.

Because lord knows, Willard 2.0 doesn’t have a vision, just a profit and loss column.

(TPM)