• Sesame Street: Share It Maybe – Cookie Monster spoofs Carly Rae Jepsen’s song “Call Me Maybe.”
Not a real radical concept but one which seems to elude the right wing. Share. Something we all learned as kids. Something we could all use more of now. Nuff said.
Everybody’s got a secret bank account offshore edition:
• Romney: “There’s nothing hidden there.” – I think the whole point though, is that he’s hiding the tax returns which totally have nothing hidden in them?
• The name of one of President Obama’s top advisers, Valerie Jarrett, appears on a financial disclosure form filed May 4 listing a line of credit from a Bermuda insurance company valued between $100,000 and $250,000. It appears that Jarrett borrowed money from JPMorgan Chase, which has a subsidiary in Bermuda — not unusual for insurance companies that want to lay off some of their risks. It doesn’t mean that Jarrett sought any sort of transaction from Bermuda, but rather that the bank could be using its Bermuda subsidiary on credit forms. In other words, routine credit card statements can include references to Bermuda simply because insurance companies have subsidiaries there.
• Vice President Biden spoke to the National Council of La Raza today, and made a pointed jab at Mitt Romney: “He wants you to show your papers, but he won’t show us his.” Ouch.
Taxes and stuff:
• According to the latest data from the Congressional Budget Office, tax rates under Obama hit a 30-year low in 2009, in part because of the tax cuts he implemented in response to the country’s economic downturn.
• Responding to a We the People petition, White House policy advisor David Plouffe said that the President would veto any effort to extend tax breaks for wealthy individuals, one of the more forceful promises made in the tax debate. This goes further than the President’s speech yesterday announcing his support for extending the Bush tax cuts only on the first $250,000 of income.
• A household that’s making $250,000 today is making about five times the median. In fact, as this chart shows, only 2.476 million U.S. households, the top 2.1 percent, had income greater than $250,000 in 2008… And even if you look at the wealthiest metropolitan areas—Washington ($85,236), San Francisco ($76,068), Boston ($70,334), and New York ($63,957)—a quarter of a million dollars a year dwarfs the median income.
• “Just Die”: Rep. David Dreier thinks that if you have a brain tumor you shouldn’t be entitled to “millions and millions and millions of health care provided.” Because you are expendable if you can’t afford to pay for that treatment yourself.
• Right Wing Media and Blogs Hype Ridiculous Phony Survey: 83% of Doctors Want to Quit Over Obamacare – Steve M. at “No More Mister Nice Blog” took this one apart; the “Doctor Patient Medical Association” is a Tea Party group, connected to the crackpot libertarian organization called the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, and a member of the far right ALEC.
Vote Suppression – Poll Taxes by any other name:
• “Let me be clear: We will not allow political pretexts to disenfranchise American citizens of their most precious rights,” Holder said in the speech to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “I can assure you that the Justice Department’s efforts to uphold and enforce voting rights will remain aggressive.”
• “Under the proposed law, concealed handgun licenses would be acceptable forms of photo ID, but student IDs would not,” Holder said, referring specifically to the voter ID law passed in Texas. “Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them, and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them. We call those poll taxes.”
• Mitt Romney will host a $60,000 per plate fundraiser in Jerusalem on July 29. The Jerusalem Post reports that “[d]elegates are set to fly in from the US for the event, which a Republican source said would be ‘a small meeting, but a big fundraiser.’”
• OBAMA: …we did say that big Catholic hospitals or universities who employ a lot of non-Catholics and who receive a lot of federal money, that for them to be in a position to say to a woman who works there you can’t get that from your insurance company even though the institution isn’t paying for it, that that crosses the line where that woman, she suddenly is gonna have to bear the burden and the cost of that. And that’s not fair.
• In other words, WorldNetDaily’s darkest, most sinister conspiracy theory is that the future president courageously served as a secret agent for the United States in a dangerous country, and then returned home and successfully graduated with an Ivy League bachelor’s degree after only three years of college.
Just trust us, they said. What could happen, they said:
F.D.Brightly
Share. That is all. [Shorter Question Everything]
• Sesame Street: Share It Maybe – Cookie Monster spoofs Carly Rae Jepsen’s song “Call Me Maybe.”
Not a real radical concept but one which seems to elude the right wing. Share. Something we all learned as kids. Something we could all use more of now. Nuff said.
Everybody’s got a secret bank account offshore edition:
• Romney: “There’s nothing hidden there.” – I think the whole point though, is that he’s hiding the tax returns which totally have nothing hidden in them?
• The name of one of President Obama’s top advisers, Valerie Jarrett, appears on a financial disclosure form filed May 4 listing a line of credit from a Bermuda insurance company valued between $100,000 and $250,000. It appears that Jarrett borrowed money from JPMorgan Chase, which has a subsidiary in Bermuda — not unusual for insurance companies that want to lay off some of their risks. It doesn’t mean that Jarrett sought any sort of transaction from Bermuda, but rather that the bank could be using its Bermuda subsidiary on credit forms. In other words, routine credit card statements can include references to Bermuda simply because insurance companies have subsidiaries there.
• Mitt Romney Tells America His Finances are None of Our Damned Business
• Vice President Biden spoke to the National Council of La Raza today, and made a pointed jab at Mitt Romney: “He wants you to show your papers, but he won’t show us his.” Ouch.
Taxes and stuff:
• According to the latest data from the Congressional Budget Office, tax rates under Obama hit a 30-year low in 2009, in part because of the tax cuts he implemented in response to the country’s economic downturn.
• Restoring Trust in the American Economy: The Real World v. The Confidence Fairy
• Responding to a We the People petition, White House policy advisor David Plouffe said that the President would veto any effort to extend tax breaks for wealthy individuals, one of the more forceful promises made in the tax debate. This goes further than the President’s speech yesterday announcing his support for extending the Bush tax cuts only on the first $250,000 of income.
• $250,000 a year is not middle class no matter how you parse it.
• A household that’s making $250,000 today is making about five times the median. In fact, as this chart shows, only 2.476 million U.S. households, the top 2.1 percent, had income greater than $250,000 in 2008… And even if you look at the wealthiest metropolitan areas—Washington ($85,236), San Francisco ($76,068), Boston ($70,334), and New York ($63,957)—a quarter of a million dollars a year dwarfs the median income.
Healthcare – yes, still fighting about it:
• Marsha Blackburn (R-OH), who was in the GOP congressional leadership up until this Congress, calls for daily votes to repeal health care reform. Jobs? Economy? Nah.
• “Just Die”: Rep. David Dreier thinks that if you have a brain tumor you shouldn’t be entitled to “millions and millions and millions of health care provided.” Because you are expendable if you can’t afford to pay for that treatment yourself.
• Right Wing Media and Blogs Hype Ridiculous Phony Survey: 83% of Doctors Want to Quit Over Obamacare – Steve M. at “No More Mister Nice Blog” took this one apart; the “Doctor Patient Medical Association” is a Tea Party group, connected to the crackpot libertarian organization called the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, and a member of the far right ALEC.
Vote Suppression – Poll Taxes by any other name:
• “Let me be clear: We will not allow political pretexts to disenfranchise American citizens of their most precious rights,” Holder said in the speech to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “I can assure you that the Justice Department’s efforts to uphold and enforce voting rights will remain aggressive.”
• “Under the proposed law, concealed handgun licenses would be acceptable forms of photo ID, but student IDs would not,” Holder said, referring specifically to the voter ID law passed in Texas. “Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them, and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them. We call those poll taxes.”
R-Money
• Romney Dodges Question On Why He Supports Personal Liberty For The Rich, But Not For LGBT People Or Women
• “You’ve got a few wealthy people lining up trying to purchase the White House for Mr. Romney.” – White House senior adviser David Plouffe
• Mitt Romney will host a $60,000 per plate fundraiser in Jerusalem on July 29. The Jerusalem Post reports that “[d]elegates are set to fly in from the US for the event, which a Republican source said would be ‘a small meeting, but a big fundraiser.’”
• Romney’s Top Six ‘I Know I Am But So Are You’ Moments
2 things Obama’s done, and one he hasn’t:
• OBAMA: …we did say that big Catholic hospitals or universities who employ a lot of non-Catholics and who receive a lot of federal money, that for them to be in a position to say to a woman who works there you can’t get that from your insurance company even though the institution isn’t paying for it, that that crosses the line where that woman, she suddenly is gonna have to bear the burden and the cost of that. And that’s not fair.
• We Got Your Jobs Bills Right Here – First, though, let’s put things in perspective. When John Boehner accuses Democrats of stalling Republicans’ so-called jobs bills, let’s remember that this is the same guy who said “So be it” to reports that the GOP’s job-killing cuts would cost thousands their jobs. When Mitt Romney says the President has not jobs agenda, let’s remember this: Mitt Romney says a lot of things that aren’t true. For example, Romney claim that he has presented a detailed jobs plan while the president has not just isn’t true.
• In other words, WorldNetDaily’s darkest, most sinister conspiracy theory is that the future president courageously served as a secret agent for the United States in a dangerous country, and then returned home and successfully graduated with an Ivy League bachelor’s degree after only three years of college.
Just trust us, they said. What could happen, they said:
• The National Transportation Safety Board blamed multiple corrosion cracks and “pervasive organizational failures” at the Calgary-based Enbridge pipeline company for a more-than-20,000-barrel oil spill two years ago near Michigan’s Kalamazoo River.
• Zombie Attack! Naked man, 22, ‘leaps from roof, dents truck and urinates on floor before biting chunk out of another man’s stomach’
• Rasberry crazy ants starting to appear in Williamson and Travis counties, Texas
Egypt:
• The face-off between Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi and the generals continues with the Egyptian parliament “briefly convened”. Update: “The highest court in Egypt has overturned” President Mursi’s decree convening parliament. Hundreds are now in Tahrir Square in protest.