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ABC: The private equity firm founded by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made use of arcane techniques in several of its Cayman Islands-based funds to avoid U.S. taxes, according to a trove of Bain Capital’s private audit and finance records made public on the website Gawker today.
The audited financial statements of one of the Cayman Islands funds make note of the use of “blocker” entities, which are used to help retirement accounts and nonprofit entities avoid some taxes. Financial statements for another fund note that it “intends to conduct its operations so it will … not be subject to United States federal income or withholding tax …”
Those details emerge on the statements of two funds in which Romney still holds a sizeable investment, according to the financial disclosure statements he filed when he announced his bid for president.
More here
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First lady Michelle Obama greets Sikh temple secretary of the board of trustees Kulwant Singh Dhaliwal, left, and Oak Creek, Wis. Mayor Stephen Scaffidi, before talking to victims of the August 5th shooting in Oak Creek, Wis.
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The Obama Diary 
hello
Helloooooooooooooo Elle!
Thanks Chips! What a great prize, you always choose the type of pics I love, where our handsome President looks adoringly at our beautiful First Lady. They are both so beautiful, inside and out!
Twenty years and he still looks at her like she’s the yummiest cupcake he’s ever seen. I love all the pictures of them together.
That mutual look is part of their gift to America!
don’t give the key back!!
Unfortunately that is exactly what happened in 2010. With the help of the professional left, I might add.
See the compassion in Michele’s face… she is so kind!
Congrats on first, Elle!
Thanks andogriff!
I’m coming! Wait up Elle I 4more. Congrats too!
Thanks vc!
YW. That ‘I 4 more’ was meant to be ‘and 4 more’ who was your photo finish partner.
🙂
4more, you were co-first I think!
I can’t believe it, I’m first! Yippe, I was just taking a break from helping my freshman son move into his dorm, this is the first time I visited the site today. Yay me! Lov you all TOD and love our president, first lady, vp and second lady too! Obama/Biden 2012!
How did that go? I remember those days—exhausting, happy and sad.
A friend of mine and his wife were dropping off their daughter at college one day, and as they departed through the gate, the security guard said to them, after seeing their dejected looks, “Don’t worry, your daughter will be fine.” And he said back to him, “It’s not her we’re worried about.”
Well lookey here:
The private equity firm founded by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made use of arcane techniques in several of its Cayman Islands-based funds to avoid U.S. taxes, according to a trove of Bain Capital’s private audit and finance records made public on the website Gawker today.
The audited financial statements of one of the Cayman Islands funds make note of the use of “blocker” entities, which are used to help retirement accounts and nonprofit entities avoid some taxes. Financial statements for another fund note that it “intends to conduct its operations so it will … not be subject to United States federal income or withholding tax …”
Those details emerge on the statements of two funds in which Romney still holds a sizeable investment, according to the financial disclosure statements he filed when he announced his bid for president.
The publication of the Bain Documents on the Gawker website could rekindle debate about Romney’s role at the company, and specifically about Bain’s decision to domicile many of its funds in offshore locations known as tax havens.
Critics say Romney’s investments in these funds offer just the latest example of how wealthy Americans can shelter their investments to limit the amount they pay in taxes.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/bain-documents-romney-offshore-investments-blockers-avoid-taxes/story?id=17067015#.UDasXFH3Bol
Which means two things:
1. Mitt is a TAX FELON and may or may not have taken advantage of the 2009 Amnesty Program –
abd
2. He owes the Chrurch.
dammit. CHURCH.
anyway….. WTF IS THIS????
2. …(cross between church and crutch).
I’ve been thinking about that for a while, Tally. That maybe the real embarrassment they’re hiding from is that his 10% (of his full earnings) wasn’t paid.
What a surprise…..not!
It’s George Romney who’s responsible for all this. He released 12 years of returns and was the very FIRST presidential candidate to do so. Since then, everyone’s felt obliged to do the same…..that is, everyone but George’s baby boy, Miffins.
Loving this and it’s not EVEN October yet. What did the President say last night at the basketball challenge: ” if you’ve got a little bit of a lead and there’s about seven minutes to go, that’s when you put them away.” Something tells me that Mitt is about to get a good ole fashioned long-over due ASS whooping in politics. Mitt’s in President Obama’s arena and has no hangtime skills compared to our great President.
One of these days more info about Mitt’s taxes will be revealed. All those media jackals who ganged up on Senator Reid will soon eat their words
Hysterical! and there are no words!
In reporting on Obama’s fundraiser last night, FOX identifies Michael Jordan for their viewers as “a failed baseball player”.
Failed baseball player, but the greatest basketball player to play the game. So to hell with Fox.
Sheriff Arpaio will be speaking to Republican delegates at the Tampa Zoo, how entirely appropriate.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/08/23/20120823florida-arpaio-elephants-politico.html#ixzz24PSTPDKr
Entirely.
Obama Supporter Suggests Anti-Mormon Whisper Campaign
On Monday, a “team member” named Laurence De Palma, who lists his location as East Nashville, presented volunteers with some talking points to convince Southern Christian voters they shouldn’t vote for a Mormon. The message was available under “Resources” and tagged “persuasion.”
President Obama’s advisers have consistently pledged not to make Romney’s religion part of the campaign, directly or through veiled innuendo.
But Chicago has little control over what messages its grassroots volunteers decide to spread
UPDATE: Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul condemned the posting in an emailed statement: “The news concerning the Obama Campaign’s dashboard containing language based on sowing religious division is deeply disturbing. There is no place in politics for this, and it must be addressed and put to an end.”
I can’t believe the hypocrisy….as I just read on Twitter….the king of the birthers Donald Trump will speak at their convention, how many time he said the President was Muslim?
They’re really annoying with their fake outrage.
How do you have a whisper campaign and then state out loud what you’re whispering about? Who is this numbnut and why would he put PBO in a position to denounce him. With friends like that……
Is there evidence that these are Obama supporters? I am convinced these are paid Karl Rove operatives trying to embarrass the President and garner sympathy for Mitt Romney.
Thisis a HEEEUUUUUGGGGEEEEE story people! We need to be all over it, and tweeting it until our fingers bleed.
https://twitter.com/bardgal/status/238766042665582593
ok – I’m fired.
Good!!! 🙂
😀
“Here is reason number one thousand and forty for releasing your tax returns if you’re running for President of the United States: if you don’t, someone will try to reverse engineer them, using whatever scraps of paper are available, until they have built some sort of structure that may, in your mind, look like a clumsy papier-mâché version of your well-ordered financial house—and you will have no cause to complain; they will be performing a public service. This is the case with the nine hundred and fifty pages related to Romney’s Bain holdings, that Gawker, to its credit, released today.”
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2012/08/gawkers-bain-papers.html#ixzz24P8skouft
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Nate Silver Calls B.S. on U. of Colorado Election Prediction Model
I can’t believe I freaked out about this the other day….well a few minutes at least….
If you were demoralized by news of the recent election model that predicts a Romney victory, don’t be. Turns out it’s bullshit.
Touted as a model “with 100% success rate for the past thirty years”,
This was the part that I didn’t like, the 100% success rate….
Well it turns out….
Touted as a model “with 100% success rate for the past thirty years”, Nate Silver tells us that it is, in fact, a brand new model that has never been used before!
Nate gives the side eye to most, if not all, “fundamentals” models. Good for him. Maybe he’s rediscovering his soul.
Wow….Nate doing some actual reporting.
I just love her so much!!!!
Me? 😆 Love her too Tally! Keep up the epic twittering!!
Me two Tally.
She is such a class act.
She’s a complete treasure UT, grace, compassion, intelligence, empathy, everything. Love her.
FLOTUS is a class act.
She is a sweet and gracious lady who functionsso well in the million ways that a first lady should. How she does it every day blows my mind. She will be blessed.
Ok, I think she really wants to reach out and hug them, but doesn’t want to break any protocol or traditions.
Rev Al conducting excellent interview with Jaime Foxx and Ron Howard.
Hi cookemom, I watched that too…..really really good.
ok – now can I get RT please?
I need to stop trying to multitask on little sleep. 😦
You’re doing well!!! Fired up and getting it done!!!
Wait…Huckabee is speaking at the Pub convention? This, after he just lambasted the entire party leadership? What’s he gonna do…get up there and call them all sonavabiches, and tell them to kiss his elephant trunk?
Don’t expect Romney or Ryan to have the guts to confront him about his insurgency against the GOP that he is leading because they’re cowards #1 and #2 in the party, cookemom. They can only summon up courage when it’s time to lie about PBO and democrats.
Probably much worse than that! He despises #BainMitt and this Akin thing has lit him up like Time Square on New Year’s Eve …
He’s going to do exactly what republicans do, (as Newt and Jon and Santorium etc all did after tearing Mitt down in the primaries) praise the leadership to the skies. Being a fairly literal person, and having a thing for credibility and integrity, I still haven’t quite accepted how they could stand on national TV and call Mitt a lying dickhead one minute , then endorse him two minutes later.
No comment
I don’t blame that baby. If I was being held so awkwardly by Romney, I’d be afraid of him and I’d be crying too. I feel sorry for the little fellow. Babies and kids instinctively know whether an adult is a good/bad person. Babies never react to PBO the way this baby is reacting to Romney. Smart kid!
Mitt never seems to try to interact with any of the babies I’ve seen him with. I like baby’s expression – Help! I don’t want to look at him. Get me out of here.
I would never hand him my baby after watching the way he handles them like a sack of potatoes and not the precious fragile things that they are and the fact so many of the babies appear to NOT LIKE IT…..poor baby. Chips where’s the video of the “Baby Whisperer”?
Find me just one picture of him holding a kid facing toward him, just one. Find me one where the kid seems to enjoy the experience of being held by him, just one. Find me a picture of him interacting candidly with his kids or grandkids. Surely there’s some old family pictures. I don’t know who’s having the worse time in this picture. Babies cry often….adults not so much, Mitt looks miserable.
Cookem, the truth is that even the pics I have seen of Mitt and HIS grandkids show a certain amount of distance between them. I saw one with a granddaughter on his knee and my feeling was she sat there because she was placed there. There was no leaning towards him or anything. I can’t see why any parent would hand their kid to him frankly, photo-op or not.
Is it a GOP thing? Sarah Palin always held babes away from her – and looked seriously awkward. I don’t ever remember holding a babe in that way.
Lord help that little baby. That child will suffer the rest of his/her life for meeting it Mitt.
I’m banking that seeing this pic later in life will lead her to follow her instincts and become a democrat. 😆
Aren’t there ANY pictures of him with a baby who isn’t crying? You just know he had nothing to do with his sons when they were babies. I would never believe that Prince Miffins ever so much as touched a diaper.
And we’ve all see the President with babies and theyall love him. Maybe it’s because he’s actually cared for babies himself and knows how to relate.
The baby is saying please mommy/daddy get me out of here! This man is scaring me.
😆 Nathk, from her face I’d say she omitted the ‘please’ though.
I was watching the 2nd to last feature of the Rev Al Show where he had Ron Howard and Jamie Foxx on. It was just about people and especially our politicians need to come together instead of standing in their cornors and not trying to compromise.
YEA!!! CALIFORNIA!!!!! http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/23/737251/california-edr/
BREAKING: Major Victory For Voting Rights Advocates As California Legislature Approves Election Day Registration
This is apparently a repub post lamenting Tony Horton’s (Ryan’s ‘fitness guru’) donations to PBO and the fact that vetting of Ryan might not have been thorough enough. It’s short so you won’t linger long in strange country..
http://www.eisenstadtgroup.com/2012/08/13/oops-paul-ryans-fitness-guru-gave-4600-to-obama/
Ooooops! Is right, VC. Tony Horton sounds like a smart guy..$4,000 to Obama Campaign! Thx.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/23/734721/big-oil-buys-gusher-5-pro-oil-planks-in-romney-energy-plan/
After raising nearly $10 million in Texas oil money in two days, Mitt Romney announces an energy plan on the Texas-New Mexico border later today that includes billions of dollars in giveaways to industry contributors.
Romney will call for extensive expansion of oil and gas drilling – including along the coasts of Virginia and the Carolinas – and eliminating most federal safety and environmental standards that govern the development of energy resources on our public lands.
This corporate polluter agenda should come as no surprise, as the Washington Post noted:
“Romney’s plan caters heavily to oil and coal interests, and oil executives are some of his biggest benefactors.”
Here’s the list:
1. The Romney-Ryan plan gives the big five oil companies a $2.3 billion tax cut above and beyond existing tax loopholes
2. Romney plan gives Americans’ lands and waters to dirty energy interests
3. Romney and Ryan would cede clean energy innovation, exports to China, Germany, other nations. They outsource energy jobs to our greatest competitors.
4. Romney plan won’t reduce oil and gasoline prices
Romney falsely claims that his energy plan will “lower energy prices.” Oil prices are set on the global market, regardless of domestic production
5. Romney and Ryan support continuing mercury contamination from power plants
The rapist charged a felony, the victim charged with murder for decision to abort result of the rape.
…or the victim keeps the baby, she falls on hard times and needs welfare, prenatal care and under Ryan/Robme is told NO to get a job, then the rapist gets out of jail and sues her for parental rights and shared custody….we live in a messed up world.
Chips, everyone, I think it’s safe to speculate that Mitt & Ann have countless reasons never to disclose their tax returns and, based on the tiny subset of the returns the Gawker release represents, plus McCain’s reaction to the 23 years he saw, they are never going to release tax information. Thus …
OFA really knows how to tug at our heartstrings. Policies matter. Policies help or destroy people and Pres. Obama’s laws are moving this country forward into a brighter future.
Thank you utaustinliberal….I am also a first generation college graduate and will helping the next generation go to college and not end up in debit.
That’s so lovely. I grew up in Southern California and knew lots of families like this one. Wonderful people who worked hard, loved their kids, fed their neighbor’s kids (me, often), and were active in their communities. (I can’t tell you how much it pisses me off to hear politicians give immigrants a hard time.)
Chips, everyone, check the picture in this tweet!!!!
Can’t…stop….laughing…..hahahahahahaha! http://new.hulu.com/watch/363693
but this is the best one yet http://youtu.be/TuiWpUP1nCQ
( I wish I knew how to embed videos)
The president is hilarious. The car metaphor is fun and he can add so much to make the story real.
New post everyone:
http://theobamadiary.com/2012/08/23/president-obama-engages-with-youth-with-disabilities/