Mr. Burns Explains The Fiscal Cliff

Romney Campaign Official Says Obama Will Win Florida

Ken O’Brien

Brett Doster, Florida advisor for the Romney campaign, has acknowledged their candidate lost in Florida, according to The Miami Herald.

According to the paper, “The numbers in Florida show this was winnable,” Doster said in a statement. “We thought based on our polling and range of organization that we had done what we needed to win. Obviously, we didn’t, and for that I and every other operative in Florida has a sick feeling that we left something on the table. I can assure you this won’t happen again.”

The numbers in Florida look unlikely to change in Romney’s favor. 

Andrew Sullivan Tells Stephen Colbert: Karl Rove’s “head just exploded” (VIDEO)

Ken O’Brien

Andrew Michael Sullivan is a British-American author, editor, political commentator and blogger. He describes himself as a political conservative, though he has been increasingly at odds with the Republican Party on many issues. His focus is U.S. politics but he frequently writes about culture and society.

Sullivan is a speaker at universities, colleges, and civic organizations in the United States. He has been a guest on national news and political commentary television shows in the United States and Europe. Born and raised in England, he has lived in the United States since 1984 and currently resides in New York and Provincetown, Massachusetts. He is an openly gay Catholic.

Sullivan is a former editor of The New Republic and the author of five books. He is perhaps best known as the author and editor of his blog, The Dish, which mainly focuses on political issues.

JOBS?

Vulture Capitalism: How Romney Profited From The Auto Industry Bailout He Opposed

From The Nation Magazine

Mitt Romney’s opposition to the auto bailout has haunted him on the campaign trail, especially in Rust Belt states like Ohio. There, in September, the Obama campaign launched television ads blasting Romney’s November 2008New York Times op-ed, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” But Romney has done a good job of concealing, until now, the fact that he and his wife, Ann, personally gained at least $15.3 million from the bailout—and a few of Romney’s most important Wall Street donors made more than $4 billion. Their gains, and the Romneys’, were astronomical—more than 3,000 percent on their investment.

Pennsylvania Judge Halts Voter ID Law

Ken O’Brien

Judge Robert Simpson

Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson postponed Pennsylvania’s controversial voter identification requirement today. The law requiring each voter to show a valid photo ID could be appealed to the state Supreme Court. The law could go into full effect next year, under Simpson’s ruling.

Simpson based his decision on guidelines given to him days ago by the high court justices, and it could easily be the final word on the law just five weeks before the Nov. 6 election.

The law, now among the nation’s toughest,  has sparked a divisive debate over voting rights and become a high-profile political issue in the contest between President Barack Obama, a Democrat, and Republican nominee Mitt Romney, for Pennsylvania’s prized 20 electoral votes. 

Is Romney Criminally Liable In Federal Disclosure?

Ken O’Brien

Joseph E. Sandler

On September 27 Justin Ruben, Executive Director, MoveOn.org Political Action sent a legal memo to  Jack Smith, Esq., Chief Public Integrity Section U.S. Department of Justice.

The seven page memo concluded:

“The facts known about Gov. Romney’s role in Bain Capital entities after 1999 strongly suggest that Gov. Romney made a false statement in violation of the False Statements Act in categorically asserting, in 2011, on his Financial Disclosure Form, that since February 1999, he had not been involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way. At a minimum, the facts call out for a full investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.”

Trouble In The Romneyulan Empire?

Ken O’Brien

Gul Destench

Word is filtering out of growing tensions between the Republican running mates.

It was former political director of the Republican Party of Iowa Craig Robinson who said to the New York Times on Sunday, “I hate to say this, but if Ryan wants to run for national office again, he’ll probably have to wash the stench of Romney off of him.”

The remark has been taken up by Paul Ryan as an inside joke on the campaign trail. Politico‘s Roger Simon reported that while Ryan “had already decided to distance himself from the floundering Romney campaign, he now feels totally uninhibited. 

Romney Releases 2011 Taxes – Is He Unqualified To Be President?

Ken O’Brien

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney today released his 2011 tax returns.

From Mitt Romney’s official website.

This morning, Gov. and Mrs. Romney filed their 2011 tax return with the IRS. At 3:00pm today, the Romney for President campaign will be posting the 2011 return online. 

Bill Clinton's Address To The Democratic Convention

It was the moment that brought the voters to their feet and it was the moment that broke Romney's back. 

"This convention is done. This will be the moment that probably re-elected Barack Obama." -- GOP operative Alex Castellanos.

"45 minutes into the speech, a veteran GOP operative conceded, "The Big Dog brought his A-Game -- folksy, fiery and full-throated, right down to the lip bite."  NY Daily News

The Reviews Are In:

Under the headline of Bill Clinton: Trust Me, the Jobs Are Coming, Josh Barro at Bloomberg wrote:

Bill Clinton offered a brilliant and detailed defense of Barack Obama’s record on economic policy tonight. The speech was long and had almost bizarre levels of detail on job training, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare reform, and most every other major area of the federal budget. [...]

The conventional wisdom is that Medicaid is a losing issue for the Democrats. But Clinton’s case for Medicaid is succinct, sympathetic and persuasive, and I expect to start hearing it more often. 

Are We Better Off Now Than Four Years Ago?

Ken O’Brien

Yes, we are.

When Obama took office America was lying in the street dying from a near fatal wound from the last Republican President. The banking system collapsed. We were losing 750,000 jobs a month. Housing collapsed. Construction stopped. The auto industry was in a death spiral. America was in a state of complete panic. Our nation was dying under Bush. 

Taxes The Rich Don’t Pay Could Eliminate The Deficit

Ken O’Brien

While conservatives focus on the deficit issue they ignore job creation, and insist that tax increases on the rich wouldn't generate enough revenue to balance the budget. They're way off. But it takes a little arithmetic to put it all together.

The following analysis was conducted by Paul Buchheit who teaches Economic Inequality at DePaul University. He is the founder and developer of social justice and educational websites (UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org), and the editor and main author of "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" (Clarity Press).

In the analysis data has been taken from a variety of sources, some of which may overlap or slightly disagree, but all of which lead to the conclusion that withheld revenue, not excessive spending, is the problem. 

Chris Matthews Calls Out Hypocrisy of the Right

With Additional Commentary by Jon Stewart

 Ken O’Brien

Yesterday, on his program Hardball, Chris Matthews let loose on the hypocritical hyper-ventilating from Mitt Romney and his campaign accusing the Democratic candidates of conducting a campaign of division and hate.

Matthews, a graduate of Holy Cross and former chief of staff for the late House Speaker Tip O’Neill, tore into the four years of abuse directed against President Obama on everything from the church he attended to his place of birth to his basic patriotism. 

Paul Ryan’s Core Values

Ken O’Brien

The right wing media mill was, and remains, relentless in its attempts to portray Barack Obama as a radical, anti-American, foreign philosophy-based outsider.

Guilt by association conspiracies were spun around his church affiliation with the Reverend Wright. His having met with radical Bill Ayers was considered proof of his fundamental desire to undermine America. His early work as a community organizer proved he had to be a devotee of Saul Alinsky.

Voter Suppression Phase Two (Or Is It Three?)

Ken O’Brien

The O’Zone has received a lot of pushback for the attention we have paid to the voter ID law movement sponsored by Republican legislatures across the country.

Court cases in Texas and Pennsylvania have amply demonstrated the total lack of incidents of voter fraud that have been the justification put forth for such laws.

As Jon Stewart has famously put it, it’s now time to move on to addressing the pressing matter of leash laws for unicorns. As for myself, I think we should first legislate and enforce an extraterrestrial registration act. 

Meet Viviette Applewhite

Ken O’Brien

Viviette Applewhite

Say hello to Viviette Applewhite. Viviette is 93 years young. She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In the sixties Viviette marched alongside Martin Luther King in Georgia. The first time she ever voted in a Presidential election it was for John F. Kennedy.

Viviette is upset with her government. She is mad as hell and she’s not going to take it.

No, it’s not Washington and the Feds that has raised Viviette’s dander. It’s the Pennsylvania state government in Harrisburg. 

Despicable

Ken O’Brien

UPDATE: May 4, 3:30 AM – China Announces Chen Guangcheng Can Apply To Study Abroad (NY Times). Offered fellowship at American university: can be accompanied by wife and children (BBC News, U.S. Dept. of State).

Mitt Romney proved today that he is not qualified to be President. In fact, he proved that he is not qualified to be a Presidential candidate for a major party.

In a totally indefensible effort to score political gains he interjected himself into an extremely delicate international matter.

That is the issue of Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, who was jailed and beaten for his work against the government's coercive family planning policies.

Romney plainly admitted, as the video below shows, that the actual facts of the situation were not known. Nevertheless, he could not refrain from using this opportunity to launch a premature and potentially damaging attack. In essence, he may be throwing Mr. Chen under the bus for his own venal ambitions.