Obama
Campaign Offers Deal on Romney Tax Returns
Obama
campaign manager Jim Messina sent a letter to the Romney campaign
offering to stop demanding more disclosures if the Romney campaign
would consent to providing five years worth of Romney's tax returns.
The Romney campaign has rejected the offered deal.
Romney
campaign manager Matt Rhoades explained that “given President
Obama's lengthy list of broken promises we have no confidence that
any offer coming from his campaign can be trusted. To take just one
example, in 2008 he promised voters he would halve the deficit.
Instead he's boosted it by nearly 50%. We're afraid he can't be
counted on to keep his word.”
Messina
characterized Rhoades response as “the kind of self-serving
position we've come to expect from the Republicans. They feel that
they have plenty to talk about in this election with the economy in
the doldrums, unemployment remaining stubbornly high, and so-called
runaway government spending. They refuse to consider that we might
want to talk about other issues. All we're trying to do here is level
the playing field.”
“If
Romney thinks this is the end of it he's sadly mistaken,” Messina
added. “We can still make allegations. How will he disprove them if
he won't release his tax filings? He might also want to keep in mind
the fact that the President can look at any taxpayers' files he
wants. If he feels that voters need to see Romney's records he can
issue an Executive Order mandating their release. Romney's people
shouldn't forget whose hand holds the whip. They can comply as
requested or suffer the consequences.”
President's
Refusal to Help Brother with Medical Bill “a Matter of Principle”
President
Barack Obama's youngest Kenyan half-brother George had to beg for
help from conservative author Dinesh D’Souza because his famous
brother refused him aid. Moved by the man's plight, D’Souza paid
$1,000 to cover the medical bills for the man's son.
The
President's seeming callousness toward his own relative was defended
by Press Secretary Jay Carney as “a matter of principle. Anyone who
knows the President knows him as a man of infinite sympathy for the
downtrodden of the world. Yes, he could easily have afforded the
$1,000. But paying out of his own pocket would've undermined his
belief that the health of every individual is really the government's
responsibility.”
“Under
a properly working health care system the needs of impoverished
people like the President's half-brother would be provided for by the
government,” Carney maintained. “Were the President to undertake
individual action to provide for his own relatives he could be
accused of favoritism. So, much as it saddens him to see anyone
suffer he feels it is a necessary sacrifice that helps build the case
for universal health care.”
Dems
Say Budget Deficit Not Appropriate Debate Topic
Representatives
Mike Honda (D-Calif), Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill)
issued a statement demanding that the issue of the federal deficit be
excluded from any upcoming presidential debates, saying it would give
the Republicans an unfair advantage.
“The
President has been forced to take actions that those outside of
government, like Mitt Romney, have been able to avoid,” Nadler
pointed out. “For him to be called upon to defend those actions at
this time would present a fundamentally unbalanced tenor to those
debates, especially when Mr. Romney has continued to refuse to
disclose all of his personal tax records.”
Nadler
went on to assail the broader notion that “fiscal responsibility
and economic success ought to be used as some sort of measure of
whether the President's policies are appropriate. Not everyone is
fiscally responsible or economically successful. If I had to guess,
I'd say that a majority of Americans are not. Shouldn't a
democratically elected government carry out policies that are more
suitable for this majority?”
Democrat
Says Vets' Criticism of President “Close to Treason”
Long time
Democratic partisan Bob Beckel said recent criticisms of security
leaks in the Obama Administration by retired veterans of the Special
Operations communities of all the Armed Forces “is close to
treason.”
“First,
this is disloyalty of the most egregious sort,” Beckel argued. “The
President is this nation's Commander-in-Chief. As former military men
these people ought not be casting aspersions on him. It's
insubordination.”
“Second,
their characterization of the information revealed as 'leaks' is out
of line,” Beckel said. “Come on, he's the C-in-C. He can reveal
anything he wants if he thinks it is in the country's best interest.
Surely, the President is in a much better position to make that
judgment than the bunch of 'has-beens' that are criticizing him.”
“Finally,
even if we accept their premise that the intelligence information was
disclosed for the purpose of aiding the President's reelection, it
does not follow that it was improper,” Beckel concluded. “The
contention that ensuring the reelection of the President isn't a
matter of national security is an assertion without foundation. I
think we can trust that the President's access to classified
information may make him privy to knowledge that supports his
actions. Otherwise, I'm sure he wouldn't have authorized the release
of that information.”
Jersey
Legislators Take Stand Against Voter ID
New Jersey
State Assemblyman John McKeon (D-Essex) called on Governor Chris
Christie to break ranks with fellow Republicans who are drafting a
voter ID law for that state. McKeon says he wants Christie to use his
allotted speaking time at the upcoming GOP Convention to denounce
voter ID laws.
“These
voter ID laws are clearly aimed at disenfranchising the illiterate,
lazy, and undocumented persons who comprise a significant portion of
the Democratic Party's constituency,” McKeon complained. “These
people already have a hard enough life without having to endure the
additional effort required to get a photo ID. The state ought not to
be burdening them with tasks they can't handle.”
McKeon
called the proposed voter ID law “a solution in search of a
problem. Thus far only a handful of so-called fraudulent voters have
been caught. The implication that this is just the tip of an ice berg
with the vast majority lying unseen below the surface is unproven. In
fact, I'd even go so far as to say that research showing that the
vast majority of non-voters are Democrats raises the question as to
whether these so-called fraudulent votes are in any meaningful sense
wrong. Someone needs to speak for the interests of these people. Is
casting votes on their behalf really so bad?”
State
Senator Calls for Tougher Gun Penalty
New York
State Senator Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans) says the state's current
penalty of two years in prison for possession of a firearm is
insufficient deterrent. He wants to quadruple the sentence to eight
years.
“The
fact that people in this state continue to own unnecessary weapons
despite the risk of going to jail for a couple of years if caught
shows that the penalty is not severe enough to modify people's
behavior,” Smith observed. “We need a punishment harsh enough
that by the time you get out of jail, your kids will have graduated
from high school, maybe gone on to college.”
Smith's
proposal was inspired by a surge in gun violence in Brooklyn that has
been dubbed the “Summer of the Gun.” The shootings occurred
despite New York having one of the country's strictest gun-control
regimes. Research indicating that jurisdictions where it is easier
for citizens to obtain and carry firearms have lower rates of gun
violence was dismissed by Smith as “statistical anomalies.”
“Logic
tells us that firearm deaths will be minimized if gun ownership is
restricted to only those whose profession requires their use,”
Smith insisted. “If the civilian population is totally disarmed the
only people who will get shot will be those the police need to shoot
when other means for subduing them have failed.”
President
Victim of “Niggerization” Says MSNBC Host
Co-host of
The Cycle on MSNBC, Touré, accused GOP presidential candidate
Mitt Romney of subjecting President Obama to a process he labeled
“niggerization.”
“There
is no question that Romney is showing disrespect for President
Obama,” Touré said. “I mean, he's flat out telling voters that
they should remove the President from office. This is virtual
insurrection against the nation's sovereign ruler.”
“Then
there is the litany of insults,” Touré continued. “Romney is
saying that the President's policies have failed, that he's wrecking
the economy and bankrupting the country. This is in direct
contradiction to the President's affirmation that his plan has
worked. More disrespect.”
Touré
contended that “Romney would not have done this against a white
president. What we're seeing here is the 'niggerization' of President
Obama"that appeals to racism are what the GOP thinks will win the
election.”
The MSNBC
pundit contrasted what he called the GOP's racism with Vice-President
Joe Biden's “right on the money 'put y’all back in chains'”
comment. “Does anybody doubt the essential truth of Biden's
remarks,” Touré asked. “Isn't it clear that if Romney wins
able-bodied welfare recipients will be pushed into low paying jobs?
They may not literally be in shackles, but they'll still lose the
freedom they would've had under Obama.”
Opinion • More about 
