Eugene Robinson: What America will we pick? - The Washington Post

The intensity of the opposition to Obama has less to do with who he is than with the changes in U.S. society he not only represents but incarnates. Citing his race as a factor in the way some of his opponents have bitterly resisted his policies immediately draws an outraged cry: “You’re saying that just because I oppose Obama, I’m a racist.” No, I’m not saying that at all.

What I’m saying is that Obama’s racial identity is a constant reminder of how much the nation has changed in a relatively short time. In my lifetime, we’ve experienced the civil rights movement, the countercultural explosion of the 1960s, the sexual revolution, the women’s movement and an unprecedented wave of Latino immigration. Within a few decades, there will be no white majority in this country — no majority of any kind, in fact. We will be a nation of racial and ethnic minorities, and we will only prosper if everyone learns to give and take.

Our place in the world has changed as well. The United States remains the dominant economic and military power; our ideals remain a beacon for those around the globe still yearning to breathe free. But our capacity for unilateral action is diminished; we can assert but not dictate, and we must learn to persuade.
Eugene Robinson: What America will we pick? - The Washington Post

How Wall Street Is Still Rigging the Game - TIME

There is a misconception that Wall Street is composed of rich people gambling with other rich people's money. This couldn't be further from the truth. The secret that Wall Street doesn't want anyone to know is that hedge funds comprise less than 5% of assets in the stock market. The real big players in the market are individual households and the pension funds, mutual funds, university endowments, charities and foundations that are entrusted with your savings, donations, retirement funds and 401(k)s--trillions and trillions of dollars that are invested with Wall Street banks. In effect, you are the big player in the market, and when a bank overcharges a teacher's retirement fund or a charity on a complex product; misprices the Facebook IPO, causing billions of dollars of wealth destruction; helps the governments of Greece and Italy cover up their debt; or rigs interest rates, affecting trillions of dollars of loans, it ultimately comes out of your pocket.~Greg Smith-Time Magazine

How Wall Street Is Still Rigging the Game http://ti.me/TCuXcO via @TIME

How Wall Street Is Still Rigging the Game - TIME

‘Everything people think they know about the stimulus is wrong’

Michael Grunwald: Everything people think they know about the stimulus is wrong. It was called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and it did produce a short-term recovery. We dropped 8.9 percent of GDP in Q4 2008. We lost 800,000 jobs in January 2009. We passed the stimulus. And then the next quarter we saw the biggest jobs improvement in 30 years.

The long-term reinvestment part is working. It spent $90 billion for clean energy when we were spending just a few billion a year. It’s doubled renewable energy. It’s started an electric battery industry from scratch. It jump-started the smart grid. It’s bringing our pen-and-paper medical system into the digital age. It’s got Race to the Top which is the biggest education program in decades. It’s got the biggest middle-class tax cuts since the Reagan era. It prevented seven million people from falling behind the poverty line.





‘Everything people think they know about the stimulus is wrong’

Plan to streamline solar development in West OK'd - US News and World Report

The government is establishing 17 new "solar energy zones" on 285,000 acres in six states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. Most of the land — 153,627 acres — is in Southern California.

The Obama administration has authorized 10,000 megawatts of solar, wind and geothermal projects that, when built, would provide enough energy to power more than 3.5 million homes, Salazar said.

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said the effort will help the U.S. stay competitive.
Plan to streamline solar development in West OK'd - US News and World Report

Was Mitt Romney a Good Governor? - The Atlantic

"I think there's really a Romney One and a Romney Two," said Marty Linsky, a lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School and former Republican state legislator. "Romney One really worked very hard to try to do what he thought was in the best interests of the commonwealth; Romney Two worked very hard to position himself to run for president of the United States."
By the end, Linsky said, "People felt they didn't know who he was. The only way to make sense of his trajectory was that he was only about himself."


Was Mitt Romney a Good Governor? - The Atlantic

Campaign 2008: Romney's vetoes seldom stood - Page 2 | Concord Monitor

Romney never had a smooth relationship with the Massachusetts legislature. He campaigned for the governor's office promising to "clean up the mess" in the State House and often criticized the bureaucracy on Beacon Hill. But as Romney's dealings with lawmakers grew frostier, the veto pen quickly became his primary tool.
Massachusetts State Rep. Jim Marzilli, a Democrat from Arlington, said the frequency with which Romney's vetoes were rejected showed "his inability to communicate with members of the legislature from either party."
Marzilli continued: "In the first year, he was willing to talk to us a bit. And the legislature wanted to show deference to the newly elected governor. . . . But it became clear after a few months that he was willing to sacrifice the interests of Massachusetts residents to serve his ego to run for president."
Campaign 2008: Romney's vetoes seldom stood - Page 2 | Concord Monitor

Romney oversaw millions in fee hikes as Massachusetts governor - Boston.com

But others said the fee hikes were simply an attempt by Romney to protect his political reputation as a tax foe for a possible future campaign for president.

"It's a shell game," said Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. "He can still say he didn't raise taxes, but fees are taxes by another name. It's a trick."

Two proposed fees that drew some of the most criticism would have imposed a new $10 charge on those seeking a certification of blindness from the state and another $15 fee for photo identification cards for the blind. They were approved by lawmakers, but later repealed.
Bob Hachey, president of Bay State Council of the Blind, said that while the fees were relatively modest, they could have made life harder on blind individuals on fixed incomes. He said Romney's penchant for fees even earned him a nickname.
"We renamed him 'Fee-Fee.' He was so unwilling to raise taxes that he was wanting to put all these fees in place instead," Hachey said.
Romney oversaw millions in fee hikes as Massachusetts governor - Boston.com

The Daily BanterMitt Romney's Secret Plan to Fix the Economy » The Daily Banter

The number of jobs Romney promised to create would’ve been created anyway, according to Moody’s Analytics and the Macroeconomic Advisors, irrespective of Romney’s secret plan. In other words, those jobs will be created even if Romney isn’t president. So his secret plan is basically pointless. 2) Romney’s tax cuts alone would increase the deficit by $5 trillion over ten years, thus obliterating any savings from increased revenue from all of those jobs (that would’ve been created anyway).

The Daily BanterMitt Romney's Secret Plan to Fix the Economy » The Daily Banter

The Daily BanterMatt Taibbi on why Joe Biden was Right to Laugh at Paul Ryan » The Daily Banter

The Romney/Ryan platform makes sense, and is not laughable, in only one context: if you’re a multi-millionaire and you recognize that this is the only way to sell your agenda to mass audiences. But if you’re not one of those rooting gazillionaires, you should laugh, you should roll your eyes, and it doesn’t matter if you’re the Vice President or an ABC reporter or a toll operator. You should laugh, because this stuff is a joke, and we shouldn’t take it seriously.

The idea that you could run for President on a platform of cutting taxes without actually showing how you pay for it really is contemptible. Biden laughed his way through the debate because his opponent is laughable. How Romney and Ryan can run around the country selling a plan that makes absolutely


The Daily BanterMatt Taibbi on why Joe Biden was Right to Laugh at Paul Ryan » The Daily Banter

Political Animal - Nothing To Say On the Economy

Ezra goes on to discuss Romney’s lurch to the right during the primaries on taxes and the budget, positioning him far beyond the pale in terms of promoting fiscal policies that are both plausible and potentially popular. I’d add that Mitt’s ideological shift is all the more remarkable when you recall he was the preferred candidate of movement conservatives in 2008, before he repudiated much of his own record.


Political Animal - Nothing To Say On the Economy

Frank Rich on Right-Wing Media -- New York Magazine

What did I learn in my week imbibing the current installment of the Reagan revolution? I came away with empathy for those in the right’s base, who are often sold out by the GOP Establishment, and admiration for a number of writers, particularly the youngish conservative commentators at sites like the American Conservative and National Review Online whose writing is as sharp as any on the left (and sometimes as unforgiving of Republican follies) but who are mostly unknown beyond their own ideological circles. What many of the right’s foot soldiers and pundits have in common is their keen awareness that they got a bum deal in Tampa, a convention that didn’t much represent either their fiercely held ideology or their contempt for the incumbent. They know, too, that their presidential candidate is the Republican counterpart to Al Gore—not only in robotic personality but in his cautious hesitance to give full voice to the message of his troops. Even Paul Ryan, the right’s No. 1 living hero, let many of his fans down with his convention speech—not because he fudged facts but because he soft-pedaled his “big ideas” about small government once in the national spotlight. Ryan left some conservatives wondering if the only thing they gained from having him on the ticket was his name on a lousy T-shirt.


Frank Rich on Right-Wing Media -- New York Magazine

Romney's tax-avoiding trust fund earned 1,000%

By Jesse Drucker

Bloomberg News staff

Fri, 09/28/2012 - 5:57am

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

In January 1999, a trust set up by Mitt Romney for his children and grandchildren reaped a 1,000 percent return on the sale of shares in Internet advertising firm DoubleClick Inc.

If Romney had given the cash directly, he could have owed a gift tax at a rate as high as 55 percent. He avoided gift and estate taxes by using a type of generation-skipping trust known to tax planners by the nickname: "I Dig It."

The sale of DoubleClick shares received before the company went public, detailed in previously unreported securities filings reviewed by Bloomberg News, sheds new light on Romney’s estate planning - the art of leaving assets for heirs while avoiding taxes. The Republican presidential candidate used a trust considered one of the most effective techniques for the wealthy to bypass estate and gift taxes. The Obama administration proposed cracking down on the tax benefits in February.

While Romney’s tax avoidance is both legal and common among high-net-worth individuals, it has become increasingly awkward for his candidacy since the disclosure of his remarks at a May fundraiser. He said that the nearly one-half of Americans who pay no income taxes are "dependent upon government" and "believe that they are victims."

Romney's tax-avoiding trust fund earned 1,000%