Broadway Spectacular

 

Gleaning Facebook: Tax Returns?

There has been some controversy about Mrs. Romney's exact words. I've adjusted the graphic to give her the benefit of the doubt.

For the richest major party candidate in 200 years to campaign on his business prowess and yet refuse to release the basic tax information that we have had on all major candidates for the last several elections, is offensive to me. If he wants to apply for President the voters have a right to see his credentials. He admits that their release would be politically damaging to him. Did he avoid taxes altogether in some years? We don't know. Did he pay even less in taxes than in 2010? We don't know.

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Former Gov. Mitt Romney, the richest man to run for President in 200 years, who has based his campaign on his business prowess:

I won't release my tax returns because people will criticize me for some of the information they find in them.

Hmmmmmmm....

So Mr. Romney, I paid taxes in 2009, did you?

Comments (Some comments were deleted before I could preserve them.)

Carol Payne
Here's the choice: Successful businessman who made a lot of money or a successful politician who spent a lot of MY money hhhhmmmmmm

Terrell Shaw
That doesn't work, Carol. Lowest spending increases under President Obama of any President since the Korean War ended. Here's an article from the Wall Street Journal about that:
http://articles.marketwatch.com/.../31802270_1_spending...
And unlike the Romney/Ryan plan, President Obama's plan would actually reduce the deficit acc. to the Congressional Budget office.

I just don't see how a man can apply to be our President on the basis of his business expertise and have the gall to refuse to show his tax returns. The only answer is exactly what he says: he's afraid they will hurt him politically more than stonewalling -- even all the Republicans calling for -- their release.

ARTICLES.MARKETWATCH.COM
Obama spending binge never happened

Obama spending binge never happened

Terrell Shaw
And over 70% of Romney's economic advisors are recycled Bush guys, being rewarded for their economic wisdom and prescience in the last decade. 

Terrell Shaw
Seriously, I absolutely supported both the Bush stimulus and the Obama stimulus as necessary evils in the context of an impending economic disaster... much worse than almost anyone realized even during the 2008 campaign. We are hurting still so badly that it is difficult to see the remarkable recovery, but it has happened. Events in Europe and elsewhere and gridlock here have slowed things and may yet stall it. But the President's policies, with -to be fair - Bush's last minute realization of what had to be done - began the jobs turn around within a month of the inauguration in 2009, and we were on the positive side with job growth, slowly, during 2010, and have had over two years of job growth since. Gridlock has meant the states & cities have been left with a horrible public sector job situation.

We are likely to continue to have split government, but I hope my Republican friends will pressure their GOP Senators and Congressmen to begin to work with the Democratic members to find workable compromises. We have a disfunctional Congress right now and that has demonstrably damaged the economy further.

Terrell Shaw
Yes the crux of the disagreemnet b/t us: I think the time to work at the deficit was 2001. The time for tax cuts and profligate spending (grin) was (an is) 2008-till now. We need short-term stimulus and long range deficit reduction. The President's proposals give us a start, tho only a start I admit. The Romney/Ryan plan (Is this yours too? Or are you Libertarian? Other?) will make the deficit worse and slow or stop the recovery. IMO, of course.
Curious, will you vote in Nov.? How?

Terrell Shaw
Tough love? Medicine may kill the patient.

Marlin Teat
I've released my college transcripts for all my jobs...has the President? And why not?

Terrell Shaw
Hey Marlin! Great to hear from you.

His college transcript? This is equivalent to Romney hiding his financial dirty laundrey from just three years ago?

Let's pretend the President, like me, made some gosh awful grades in college more than two decades ago. I hope he was more serious about his college career than I was as a freshman. What in creation does that have to do with anything? Maybe he, like me, collected some write-ups for [in the sixties they were called "demerits"]? What else? Nothing in those transcripts could possible relate to his reelection in 2012. His patriotism, intelligence, scholarship, knowledge, temperament, nativity, etc., etc., etc., has been settled by his election in 2008 and his outstanding performance as President.

You may disagree with his policies. You may dislike his political or social views. But his competence and qualifications are settled. He is President and, if you agree with his [and my] policy positions, is at least as competent as any other President. So, I say, stick to the issues.

And one of the central issues, magnified by Mitt Romney's campaign for eight years now, is Romney's business expertise and history. His tax returns are critical to our understanding of that. He is hiding something and he admits that by saying the reason for stonewalling is to keep opponents from using the tax returns against him.

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July 29, 2012 

Comments

Eddie Stokes
I think Mr Romney should show them. I also Think Mr Obama should open his High school and college records. I'm having a hard time with deciding between these two.

Terrell Shaw
Eddie it is so good to hear from you. 

The President probably is like me (and many others)... I'd hate for my children to see all my high school and college records. He is pretty forthright in his book about what his high school and college years were like. He did some experimentation that was unwise. If he was at all like me, he was not as serious about his academics as he should have been all the time. But we know about his eventual scholarship, his determination and perseverance, his leadership, his law school excellence. and of course he eloquence and successes as husband, father, State Senator, US Senator, and President/Commander in Chief. 

There is much for us to learn about Romney, especially in light of the emphasis his campaign has given to his business prowess. Do his tax records back that up? How much wealth has he shielded from taxes by sending it to Switzerland and/or the Caymans. Did he maintain a residence in Massachusetts after he left the statehouse, or was his voting there fraudulent? He's the richest major party Presidential nominee in 200 years. Did he pay even less in taxes than in 2010 --- or perhaps no taxes at all -- during some of those years?

You Olympians didn't get here on your own!

We have lots of instances of Mitt Romney making the argument for the President on healthcare, abortion, human rights, the economy, balancing of common welfare and free enterprise... and lots of examples of him excoriating the President for espousing the very ideas Romney himself has propounded in the past, even sometimes his last speech. Here is an especially delicious one:

"You Olympians, however, know you didn't get here solely on your own power. For most of you, loving parents, sisters or brothers, encouraged your hopes, coaches guided, communities built venues in order to organize competitions. All Olympians stand on the shoulders of those who lifted them. We’ve already cheered the Olympians, let’s also cheer the parents, coaches, and communities. All right! [pumps fist].” - Mitt Romney 2002

Exactly the message the President was giving business-folk last week when the Gov. decided to take him completely out-of-context.

Motivation, enterprise, innovation, invention, entrepreneurship, hard work, are so important, and this President has taken every opportunity to promote those qualities in the young people who look up so to him. But he also recognizes, as everyone should, that NO ONE achieves great success in any area solely on his own. We all owe our success also to ... well you know much of the list, and that a good deal of that list includes many many things we as a people have decided that we want to covenant together to provide for each other like [clears his throat] roads and bridges ... and even "communities built venues".

Our Congress is Disfunctional

Our Congress is disfunctional.

Virtually every bill in the Senate is blocked by filibuster. A majority of the Senate and a majority of Americans want to end tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas. But Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a bipartisan "insourcing" bill that would have have done just that.

The Bring Jobs Home Act also would have given tax incentives to companies that bring jobs back to the United States. The measure failed to advance despite a 56-42 favorable vote, because 60 votes are needed to end the Republican filibuster of the bill.

Earlier in the week, Republicans also used their ever-ready filibuster to stomp out the Disclose Act, which would have required (oh, no!) their fat-cat employers - errrrrr, contributors, to disclose campaign contributions of more than $10,000.

Our Georgia, errrr Corporate, Senators, Chambliss & Isakson, are part of the 42, of course.

Four Republican senators bucked their lock-step colleagues and voted with the people - Snowe & Collins of Maine, Heeler of Nevada, and Brown of Massachusetts (the last in a neck-and-neck battle for re-election - the opinion of the people is perhaps a little more important to him right now.)

Gleaning Facebook: Broadway Spectacular 4

As I wait in the wings as Tevye with my milkcan, I get to (improbably) travel to the Mississippi to hear Bill Supon's wonderful bass voice as he performs "Old Man River" from Showboat...

...and then to Missitucky for a lovely duet of "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" from Finian's Rainbow sung by Ginger McClure and Bob Moulard.

Then I walk into a barnyard in Russia, a century or so ago, set down that heavy milkcan, wipe my sweaty forehead, and begin a little talk with God, reprising "If I Were a Rich Man" that I had the honor of performing on this stage in 2000 in a full production of the moving musical Fiddler on the Roof . What fun to perform this scene again -- especially with an excellent accompanying instrumental ensemble led by James Willis.

I hope you'll catch a performance if you are in town. This week and next:

Here's the program of musical numbers:

Opening tonight:

Broadway Spectacular 4

Rome Little Theater at the Desoto

Jul. 20, 21, 22; 27, 28, 29, 2012

Fri./Sat.:8 PM; Sun.: 2:30 PM

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Comments

Mary Nisbet Asbury I will see you tonight!!!

Melissa McLaughlin Going to be there Sunday afternoon with daughter and mother.

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July 29, 2012

Final performance today of Broadway Spectacular IV...y'all come see us: at 2:30pm at the DeSoto Theatre!!!

Comments

Brandi Johnson Camp You are one of my FAVORITES to watch!!!!
Terrell Shaw Thanks!
Mona Dewey-Leiter Really enjoyed your performance Terrell. You bring so much subtlety and nuances to your performance.
Terrell Shaw Thank you, Mona!

Mitt's Bain

 

Gov. Romney made Bain the #1 reference on his job application to the American people.

Gov. Romney's the one who decided his lack-luster term as Governor wouldn't serve the purpose. Bain is his whole campaign.

“The costs of not releasing the returns are clear, therefore he must have calculated that there are higher costs in releasing them.” 

- George Will, pretty much the dean of conservative commentators

Now he shows us one year of info - a year during which he was already running for President and surely had at least one sensible advisor to help him keep his finances un-embarrassing.

Pitiful.

He has admitted that his records contain info that would be used by his opposition, and it must be worse than the info in the one he has already released. If the older records were virtually the same, he'd gladly release them and likely say "Na-na-na-na-na", at least mentally.

“He should release the tax returns tomorrow. This is crazy… you’ve got to release 6, 8, 10 years of back tax returns.”

- Bill Kristol, conservative commentator, Fox News

National Review, Will, Kristol, Perry, Paul, Bentley, Steele, Grassley, Barbour, Lugar, Frum, and lots more of the Republican leadership have called on him to, as Sarah! might say, "man up".

"The Romney campaign says he has released as many returns as candidate John Kerry did in 2004, and cites Teresa Heinz Kerry’s refusal to release any of her tax returns. Neither is an apt comparison [...]
Romney may feel impatience with requirements that the political culture imposes on a presidential candidate that he feels are pointless (and inconvenient). But he’s a politician running for the highest office in the land, and his current posture is probably unsustainable. In all likelihood, he won’t be able to maintain a position that looks secretive and is a departure from campaign conventions. The only question is whether he releases more returns now, or later [...]” 

- The National Review, leading conservative magazine

I disagree. I think he won't release them because he knows that he --
1) paid NO taxes one or more years,
2) will be documented to have seriously misled the public about his involvement with Bain after '99,
3) missed his financial commitment to the Mormon religion on one or more occasions, or
4) some other mortifying or even game-changing embarrassment.

“If you have things to hide, then maybe you’re doing things wrong. I think you ought to be willing to release everything to the American people.”

- Gov. Robert Bentley, (R-AL)

Gov. Romney really is in a Catch-22 bind. His emphasis on his business prowess demands he release them, but he has adamantly refused and will look weak if he backs down. And since by stonewalling he has succeeded in magnifying the issue, the embarrassment, whatever it is, will also be magnified.

“There is no whining in politics. …Stop demanding an apology, release your tax returns.”

- John Weaver, GOP strategist

Romney has been running for office for a lonnnnng time. He has won one race and served one unimpressive term as governor, renouncing his largest achievement. He is a smart, family-oriented, patriotic man but he is not, in my opinion, presidential material.

“…whenever you are asking for the vote of the American people you need to fully disclose what your holdings are, if you have any.”

- U.S. Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC)

Materially Governor Romney has some. And some.

I've said it before.

“Mitt Romney is not ready for prime time.”

- Terrell Shaw, Democratic blogger, Alone On a Limb

Gleaning Facebook: If Obama is re-elected...

This is the sort of conspiratorial nonsense some of my otherwise sensible Facebook friends are passing along:

"I honestly believe that if Obama gets re-elected, that he will finalize the economic collapse of America and in so doing, will declare martial law and take control of all communications.  He will arrest and detain anyone who opposes him.  In all likelihood, he will disband Congress, the Supreme Court and stop all elections."

We need to be vigilant in protecting our freedoms, and I have not always agreed with President Bush or President Obama as they struggled with how America would respond to a cataclysmic terrorist or other disaster that destroyed a significant part of our government, (I don't like the Patriot Act) but I've never suggested that the President was out to overthrow the government.

It saddens me that good folks have gotten so het up over such absolute hogwash.

Comments

John Countryman
I'm surprised that anyone could be so irresponsible and participate in such hysteria. No one in their right mind would find such groundless nonsense persuasive.

Tersi Bendiburg
Sadly, Mr. Countryman, you would be surprised.

John Countryman
Actually, confession: nothing about this election really surprises me anymore! Alice in Wonderland is tame compared with the political narrative unfolding in 2012.

Jared Lathem
http://www.americanthinker.com/.../do_obamas_executive...
Terrell Shaw

Howard Smith
I drop "befriends" who have gone off the deep end...who qualify as "nuts". I like a good argument and certainly one can be made regarding liberal vs. conservative political thought. But I will not submit to "Chicken Little" reasoning...there is no point in arguing with or listening to those who belief the earth is flat, that the United States did not land a man on the moon or that evolution is a myth except to be amused and, after awhile I cease to be amused.

Duane Parsons
I could not get past the first sentence in the “Do Obama’s Executive Orders Reveal A Pattern?” article on the known extreme far right American Thinker. I have written about Executive Orders and American Thinker before. Articles in American Thinker are widely known to give the smear campaign against President Obama an air of respectability from little-known bloggers.

Nevertheless, give me a break. “Over 900 Executive Orders” is outlandish hyperbole. Barack Obama to present has issued 130 Executive Orders. George W. Bush issued 291 Executive Orders.
http://www.archives.gov/.../executive.../disposition.html

Darrell Fedchak
... people said similar things about Bush getting re-elected in 2004. Really not sure how this garbage gets started.

Terrell Shaw
Thank you again, Duane, for introducing calming facts into the wild fray. It looks like FDR, Truman, and Hoover are the champs at exec. orders.

Yes, Davy Jones, all sides are capable of hyperbole and fear-mongering -- of course I believe the other side are the experts. 

Duane Parsons
Thanks Terrell for the kudos. I enjoy research. With more time today, I find it interesting and reveling that the illusive and “right-wing extremist” (his words) Dr. Warren Beatty does not directly disclose his identity nor have any opinions on his blog (rwno.limewebs.com). I can only surmise that this Warren Beatty is a lone wolf that has taken up conspiracy mongering as a pastime in his dotage.

I must admit to digging really deep to discredit Warren Beatty’s Vita. However, I believe I found him at the University of South Alabama where he was an Associate Professor of Management starting in 1980.

“BEATTY, WARREN A., Associate Professor of Management. B.S., Mississippi State University; M.B.A., University of South Alabama; Ph.D., Florida State University”

However, I am always reading between the lines and suspicious of word choice. In the University of South Alabama, Faculty Senate Approved Minutes dated 19 September 2001, there is a Report from Caucus Leaders that says, “elected Michelle Slagle of the Department of Management to fill the Senate position left open when Warren Beatty left the University”. Did Warren Beatty retire? That is, IMO, “left” is a strange and obscure word choice. I dislike being cynical, but “left” conjures up thoughts of “resignation”; possibly from mis-something-or-other allegations. Then there are always those who forfeited position and power with the often unbelievable “to spend more time with my family”.

Anyway, I posted the following link on my FB wall yesterday with the comment: “The Ancient Greek maxim admonishes us to “Know Thyself”. Guess we still lack the motivation to gain knowledge of ourselves.”

Of course we must be careful in pointing fingers and it goes both ways, but perhaps the phrase from the article, “dumb people are too dumb to know it”, will shed some light on the “disconnect” we are experiencing in civil discourse.

http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/2187-incompetent.../ 

Give Till It Hurts

 Sheldon Adelson

I guess I'm a big time political donor. I have given a larger percentage of my wealth to the President's reelection than than the portion of his wealth that Mitt Romney's largest donor has showered so far on the Romney super-PACS.  Of course even the 100 million he has indicated he may give is as nothing to Sheldon Adelson who will have 25 billion or so left. My proportionately larger (so far) donations added to the thousands of other middle class donations cannot match the proportionately smaller donations of the top 20 fat cats.

Yes, that's right, the vast majority of the money spent on this year's campaign will come from less than 20 men - whose donations will hardly be missed by the donors -- just trifles with which they may buy a President or Congress or both.

Oligarchy 1]  a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small number of people.

Thank Justices Scalia, Roberts, Alito, Kennedy, & Thomas who believe corporations are people and that there should be no limits on the influence of money in politics.

Gleaning Facebook: The Closer

 Like we were with Monk, West Wing, and now Downton Abby, Sheila and I are thoroughly hooked on Brenda, and Provenza & all the gang. We'll be sorry to see the last episode end in a few weeks.

The Closer Returns tomorrow at 9/8c! After last week's drama, what do you think the Major Crimes Division will take on tomorrow night?