Watering Hole: August 3, 2012 – Just for chuckles…

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Someone sent me this link to an article where anonymous claims to have “hacked the IRS database” and retrieved Romney’s tax records. It is really funny.

Here’s a few excepts that caught my eye:

Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul stated last week that “there has been no year in which Romney paid zero taxes”. In 2008, this was true. He earned $23,425,316 and paid $412.18 in federal income taxes. This calculates to a federal tax rate of 0.0018%. How did Romney get his tax burden so low? According to his return, he had approximately $23,407,000 in itemized deductions. These deductions ranged from $78,923 for “Toupee Creators Unlimited” and $41,826 for “Spray-on tan services” to a $3.8 million dollar write-off for a trip to Las Vegas with potential campaign donors. The Romney family also paid salaries to their numerous employees including, two yacht captains, three pilots for their private jets, two professional dog walkers, one toupee stylist and a “live-in contortionist”. What someone does with a live-in contortionist, one can only speculate. However, the $891,064 Romney spent on an “EWS Donor Party at the Pennsylvania Mansion” might give us a clue. While the return does not indicate what “EWS” stands for, given that the deducted supplies for the party included “Venetian masks, alcohol, lubricant and various Egyptian leather accessories” it was most likely an “Eyes Wide Shut” party.

And then there is this part:

In addition to his wild nights, Romney also deducted health related expenses.  These included $127,000 for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for a condition termed “Pseudologia fantastica” also known as Compulsive Liar Syndrome. This may explain why the Republican nominee’s views seem to change dramatically depending on his audience. In fact, his recent string of political gaffes may be the direct result of his inability to keep up with the many competing “truths” he has spoken over the past year. According to noted Psychiatrist Bryan King, “Pathological liars seem utterly sincere about their lies, but if confronted with facts to the contrary, will often just as sincerely reverse their story.” According to Politifact, a news organization that researches the veracity of politician’s statements, only 16% of Romney’s examined statements were found to be completely true.

Enjoy the laughs.

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126 thoughts on “Watering Hole: August 3, 2012 – Just for chuckles…”

  2. QOTD:

    A Romney endorsement…

    “When you’re rich, you want a Republican in office,” – porn star Jenna Jameson.

    Romney finally gets a supporter who changes positions as often as he does.

  3. Will the Dems step up and take the opportunity? A new report finds that more public sector jobs have been lost during the last three years than ever before. The Dems need to hammer the point that GOoPers at all levels have been getting rid of jobs while blaming President Obama for small growth. They need to hammer at it and hammer at it and not let the “librul media” shut them up or get away with giving Reichwhiners the last word.

    The handy chart shows that the cut-happy GOoPers are hurting our children and making all of us less safe by getting rid of teachers and emergency services.

    http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/08/03/635501/america-teachers-job-losses/

    • Pfft. only little people need teachers and public security flunkies.
      The One PercentPouponiers home school their kids and hire Xe for security concerns.

  7. I’m trying to figure out which part of that stuff on Romney’s taxes might not have been factual, but nothing so far sounds even a little bit far-fetched.

    • Rmoney’s qualifications for the Olympics, Govenor of Mass and of Bain have all come into questiion, but I think without a doubt his signature qualification is that he is far more qualified than President Obama to reform the tax code. He is after all intimiately familiar with every single loophole in the code.

    • Comedy Friday would not be complete without some standup from Batshit Bachmann

    • As far as I can tell, Bachmann hasn’t “worked tirelessly” on anything since entering the House, other than self-aggrandizement and Talabaptist hysteria. If she has been working tirelessly for job growth, she’s spectacularly bad at it.

      • Indeed. She is among the leaders for spending the least amount of time either in her office or in her district. She misses a great many votes too; especially during campaign season which, for her, seems to begin the second she wins an election.

    • Heh, I just noticed that the ads placed in the middle and end of the articles are quite appropriate:

      On Schwartz’s column, there’s one entitled “Why Men Fall In Love,” and one called “Are You Writing A Book?”

      On Batshit’s column, there’s one entitled “Apply For Disability,” and another called “Do You Need Your GED?”
      :lol:

  13. “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

  14. What Some of the Greatest Science Fiction Writers Thought 2012 Would Be Like

    25 years ago, a group of writers and scientists offered their visions of today’s world. What did they get right? And what did they miss?

    Back in 1987, L. Ron Hubbard created a time capsule of sorts. He challenged his fellow science fiction writers, along with a smattering of famous scientists, to write letters to the people of 2012 offering their visions of what the world might look like in another 25 years. (Yes, that Hubbard — the Scientology guy. But he was a well-known SF writer before he started the church, and it was in that guise that he threw down this challenge.)

    So here we are, in the high summer of 2012, and it’s time to go back and see just how much they got right — and wrong.

    • Out of that batch of writers, it’s no surprise to me that Budrys would be the most prescient; it’s an interesting selection, especially given the direction that some of the best sf had taken by then. No women?

      I’d also quibble with their assessment of L Ron Hubbard as a “well-known SF writer”. He was a pretty good pulp writer back in the 30s and 40s, but after John Campbell’s brief support of Dianetics, mainstream sf washed their hands of him completely. By 1987, Hubbard had produced one of the most god-awful sf novels of all time, Battlefield Earth, and was recognized as a complete and ridiculous hack.

      I’d be more interested in reading the predictions written by some of the more human-oriented writers of the time, which would have had a completely different focus. As far as I know, that project never happened but it is what powers the incredible sf of the late 70s and early 80s.

    • L Ron Hubbard’s prediction: A member of a religious cult which thinks we are all desended from spacemen will be taken seriously as a presidential candidate *and* one of the most famous high-level priests of a religious cult will also be a big name ‘viddytainment’ person and get cleaned out by his wife who meticulously plans her escape/divorce. Oh and Arnold Schwarzenegger will not only be a famous movie star, he’ll marry a Kennedy and become governor of California!

      “Elrond” for the Win!!!

  15. Cooper had CNN Capitol Hill reporter, Dana Bash on to discuss the story, according to Bash, her source can confirm Sen. Reid’s allegation. Bash went even further, she said this source also personally knows the Bain source who would have access to Romney’s tax record. If this Bain source story is true, then, Mitt Romney is in serious trouble.

  16. Democrats on the Budget, Ways and Means, and Education and Workforce Committees want to know how people of Romney’s wealth can end up with 100,000 times that much money in a single IRA, and how much the tax and investment strategies they employ cost the Treasury in revenue every year.
    In a letter Thursday to senior officials at the Treasury and Labor departments, Reps. George Miller (D-CA), Sander Levin (D-MI), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) want to know: Is this legal? How easy is this strategy to get away with? How much does it cost the government every year? And what can be done to end the practice?
    IRAs are limited to $5K per year — so how did he amass a fortune in his IRA?

      • Those of us with IRAs have been asking those questions for months now — not that I could have afforded to take $5K every year from my income to salt away in a tax-deferred IRA — most years, I did much less or even nothing, but the facts are the IRA maximum deposit rules and through what manipulation can a billionaire get so much cash in his IRA?
        The idea is to accept mandatory withdrawals at 70.5 years of age when it isassumed one would be in a lower income tax bracket — Rmoney is already in the lowest tax bracket because all his money is unearned income dividends, etc so what the end result is that he avoided paying taxes on income, he “shorted” the government of operating funds by doing so.

  17. Today’s Unexpected Moment of Clarity:

    “This country has a long history of discrimination against certain groups. Eventually we wind up getting it right. Right? Against women, against blacks, the civil rights movement and so on. And in justifying that discrimination when it was in place, some folks turn to the Bible and turn to their religious beliefs and said we have to have slavery because it’s in the Bible. Women have to be second-class citizens because that’s in the Bible. Blacks and whites can’t get married because that’s in the Bible. That wound up in a case. A judge wrote that in an opinion, which the Supreme Court ultimately struck that down, saying that’s not right, judge—the Equal Protection clause says you can’t do that. Why is gay marriage any different?” – Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly.

  20. ACK!!!! I forgot to do my Friday post! :shock:

    Thank you for picking up my slack, Cats. I was on the road at 6 a.m. this morning, and was halfway there before I realized I hadn’t put up a post.

    Some days, it doesn’t matter if my head is screwed on or not…

        • Hope it was just routine, Zooey — I don’t post often, but I do check in regularly to see what’s going on at the zoo.

    • Glad to see you here. I was beginning to worry about you. If I hadn’t seen you posting here, I would have called you this evening. Happy that you arrived safely at your destination.

      • Everything is fine, just needed a med check. :)

        I can’t believe how totally I spaced out! And I’ve just realized I never posted Paul’s toons from last week, and there are more to be posted. I need to do that now, while I’m thinking about it!

  23. Comedian John Fugelsang Developing a Primetime Show With Current TV

    Current TV is developing a primetime show with comic John Fugelsang, which he described Wednesday as “an attack ad on apathy, taking the flag back from phony patriots, taking the Bible back from the hypocrites and taking Bath Salts back from Glenn Beck.”

    Fugelsang, who likes to remind TV critics he’s the guy who got Mitt Romney’s advisor to call Romney an “Etch-a-Sketch,” made the announcement during a live broadcast of Current’s ‘Talking Liberally: The Stephanie Miller Show” which was broadcast live from the breakfast room at Summer TV Press Tour 2012.

    Fugelsang likes to say he’s in a unique position to take on religious right being the son of an ex nun and a former Franciscan brother. Get him to tell you about it sometime — it’s a great story.

    “I view Jesus much the way I view Elvis,” he said. “I love the guy, but some of the fan clubs terrify me.”

    • I would LOVE to see John Fugelsang with his own show — Current TV is hriing some really smart people!
      I wish it were available everywhere, but the only TVchannels that are ubiquitous belong to Fox! MSNBC, Current, require premium subscriptions on Cable-TV.

      • Fugelsang is on The Young Turks tonight, early in the show. The replay can be seen at 10pm eastern, online, here or here. Those links are live broadcast, so you can watch Spitzer and Granholm on them too.

        • I am fortunate enough that my cable provider provides Current and MSNBC and many other channels — I know that’s not true in all parts of the country.

    • After reading the description and some of the transcript just couldn’t bring myself to actually watch the video.

        • is a black man, i can’t understand how the GOP can seriously think they can win a presidential election. they don’t realize how they embarrass themselves.

          the dog whistle, and outright attacks against blacks, the blatant hatred of hispanics, the assault against women, the callous trampling of the elderly, students, the poor and especially young children is despicable and unforgiving….

          and what the fuck is this english only bullshit from R-Steve King???

          • As a white woman from this country I am mortified. People from around the world have wanted to emigrate here in the past. These racists are so despicable and there are so many ignorant people I don’t know why anybody would want to come here any more.

          • Our only hope is for all rational Americans to get registered and get into the voting booth on or before November 6 (if still allowed).

            This insanity absolutely must stop!

            • We must keep in mind that the repugs will anything and everything to win this election — they cannot win on their policies or programs or presiderntial candidate, so they will disenfranchise suspected Democrats from voting, they will mess with electio machines and ballots, they will pay millions for lying ads in the weeks before November — they are desperate political animals.

    • Damn it, then I believe him. Just as soon as we see the tax returns!
      Willard is the most immature (even outdoing she-who-must-not-be named from the 49th state) candidate!

    • He’s got it wrong — Reid doesn’t have to “put up or shut up” — Rmoney does!

  31. I sent a brief letter to the editor on this to the Chicago Tribune, but they have again chosen not to print.

    When an Obamacare regulations went into effect 8/1, 47 million women benefit from the guaranteed coverage of preventive services — including contraception coverage — without co-pays. The new rules will require most insurance plans to begin including the services at no additional cost at the next renewal date that falls on or after August 1, according to a news release from the Department of Health and Human Services.

    But even as millions of women will benefit from even more provisions of the Affordable Care Act, nine states are attacking the contraception coverage requirement because of the claim that the provision violates religious liberty. Even though President Obama announced an “accommodation” for religious institutions so that the employer does not have to pay for the birth control coverage, states have considered legislation or ballot measures to either reject the federal regulation or undermine contraceptive coverage in state law. And ongoing challenges against the contraception regulation continue in federal courts.
    The following is a list of benefits available now without any co-pays or deductibles on the part of the patient, and women should be made aware of them.

    Screening and counseling for victims of domestic violence.
    Breastfeeding support and counseling.
    Contraceptive counseling.
    HIV screening.
    Testing for gestational diabetes.
    Counseling for STDs and testing for HPV.
    Annual well-woman examinations (preventive care)

    Women are frequently charged more than men for their medical care, and women often put off examinations and preventive screenings due to the cost. These services are part of the new ACA will not only benefit women, but it will benefit their families as well, as more wives and mothers receive proper care.

    • Excellent!
      They wouldn’t print anything that positive about a Presidential program.
      Do hope I live long enough to start hearing nothing but how great the ACA has improved a great majority of the nation!

  33. My dad is acting all nervous about leaving me to house-sit while he and his wife are gone for two weeks. I’m doing my best to ignore how insulting that is, and counting the minutes until they’re gone. :roll:

  36. The Fiat 500 ads on Current where they are driving the cars into the water are lacking one thing. If you’re going to utilize their primary function as a boat anchor, you should attach the chain first!

  37. Get a look at the line of storms moving across my beloved Minnesota! It covers the entire state, north to south, And the serious stuff is several miles wide! Don’t worry. I live in a nice sturdy cement building and I know when to seek a lower level. I can cope with any interruption of services. I’ll try to give you guys a head’s up after the storm but I can’t make any guarantees. I’m trying to make sure the beer is gone before the power goes out.

    • Protect the beer at all cost!

      Nasty weather…when able, please, let us know you’re ok.

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