Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel, held out as the model of integrity, resigned Monday as the pressure mounted due to a memorabilia-for-tattoo scandal that showed no sign of simmering down. Like all media created heroes, the backlash and piling on has been merciless. Besides the obvious questions about what is true or not, where was the Columbus media when all this was going on?
The start was in December when we all found out that 5 players had traded memorabilia (rings, jerseys, autographs, etc…) for tattoos at a Columbus tattoo parlor. At the time Coach Tressel and Ohio State officials claimed they found out about it in December. The five players were allowed to play in the season ending Sugar Bowl but were suspended for five games to start the 2011 season.
Mitt Romney lies about his support of the health care mandate
On Thursday, Mitt Romney gave a speech about health care reform where he actually lied about his support of a national mandate. Since the tea bagger GOP members hate the mandate, Romney is lying about supporting it back in 2007 to try and make them like him. Kind of like Donald Trump being a birther or Newt Gingrich running for President.
In 2007 Romney said:
Should I feel good that Bin Laden is dead?
I am strongly opposed to the death penalty. It is a waste of time and money and isn’t justice. I strongly support the rule of law, due process, and the criminal court system. I seemed to throw all that out late Sunday evening when I learned that US Special Forces killed terrorist Osama Bin Laden.
I was concerned when the media started to ramp up coverage late Sunday evening for an unusal statement from President Obama about a publicly unknown topic. Such sudden statements either mean a military operation has occurred, there was a death of a significant figure, or a killer asteroid was about to snuff out civilization. None of those are really good news but the President surprised me. He announced that the terrorist Osama Bin Laden had been killed in a raid on a house in Pakistan by US Special Forces (reports say it was a Navy Seal team).
I fully support due process and the legal system but Bin Laden wouldn’t give up so his death is not a problem for me. He was either going to be dead in a shoot out or dead from old age in a dank dark prison and I am slightly happy about it. The man helped plan, fund, and execute terrorist activities including 9/11 that killed THOUSANDS.
But let me be clear I do NOT support an eye for an eye. I would have been just as happy if he was alive and in custody and on his way to Gitmo or wherever the government would put him.
I have never believed that the death of a criminal in response to the deaths of their victims is appropriate. I also disagree with any policy that would call for targeted killing of “bad guys”. I would like to think, short of evidence to the contrary, that President Obama authorized the capture of Bin Laden and that he forced the fire fight that in the end led to his death.
Sunday night, after the statement, the news channels showed crowds in DC and New York celebrating like their favorite team had won the World Cup. I understand the emotion but it was no better than the scenes on 9/11 of Palestinians dancing in their streets.
The death of Bin Laden wasn’t a victory or justice. It was an end to a chapter of our history. It was 10 years in the making.
I also have some friends who are a bit upset at the use of the military and the killing.
I have always been of the mind that sometimes use of the military is necessary. Using the legal system and police work should be the default but sometimes we have to deal with irrational assholes who don’t subscribe to law and order.
I thought the invasion of Afghanistan after the Taliban refused to hand over Bin Laden was the right thing to do and the use of Special Forces to raid Bin Laden’s compound on Sunday without telling Pakistan was also correct. There have been a lot of questions about the Pakistani response to Bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the Taliban. For years it supported Bin Laden and the Taliban as a policy to keep India, their on again off again enemy, off balance.
I also think the burial of Bin Laden within 24 hours of his death as prescribed by Islamic law was much more than he really deserved seeing how his buddies in Iraq and Somalia abused and mutilated dead Americans over the years.
With the final objective of the war in Afghanistan completed with Bin Laden’s death, I would hope we can bring our soldiers home sooner rather than later.
Daily Show gets it wrong, Birther issue is racist
In covering the news last week that President Obama had the State of Hawaii release his “long form” birth certificate, Jon Stewart and the Daily Show took some shots at several talking heads on MSNBC saying the whole birther issue was racist. I love Jon and the show but this time his quest for equivalency led to a false conclusion.
The tag line for the video clip says it all:
Larry Wilmore claims that the birther controversy isn’t racist — it’s just an opportunity for Republicans to scare old people. (05:11)
The problem is that Stewart and Wilmore ignore the 800 lb gorilla in the room. The questions about Obama’s citizenship would have NEVER come up if he was a WHITE MAN named Steve.
If that isn’t pointing out the racism I don’t know what else would. The whole birther farce is as disgusting as the Willie Horton ad used in the 1988 elections or what Karl Rove did to John McCain in 2000 in South Carolina.
Daily Show: Wilmore – Longformers – Scared Old People
60 Minutes carried Big Corp. water on tax rate story
The CBS News show 60 Minutes usually can be counted on for hard news about controversial subjects but a recent story about corporate income tax rates in the US showed how even a once great investigative news show can present a story so lopsided one would think it was repeating a press release.
Correspondent Lesley Stahl had a story about some large corporations who have moved their headquarters out of the country to dodge the US’s 35% tax rate on corporate income. She showed that some of the moves were a sham when she went to talk to the people in charge and they weren’t there.
Next came a short section where Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) complained about the companies that were dodging the taxes and questioned their patriotism.
Stahl then spent the remainder of the time giving big corporations an opportunity to whine and complain about the hardship of paying their fair share even though most don’t actually pay it and when they didn’t back in 2004, it didn’t help the economy.
Economist Martin Sullivan told Congress these patent and profit transfers are accounting tricks that have allowed companies to chip away at the 35 percent and save tens of billions of dollars. He says that from 2007 to 2009 these maneuvers helped lower Pfizer’s average tax rate to 17 percent; Merck to 12.5 percent, and GE to just 3.6 percent.
“It’s really remarkable, as I review the data, is the consistency with which you see this phenomenon. The taxes are going down, the profits are shifting offshore at an accelerated rate over the last few years,” Sullivan said.
So now these companies have profits accumulating overseas in places like Zug.
If they bring the money home, it’s taxed the full 35 percent. If they leave it overseas, the IRS can’t touch it. In other words, the tax law all but forces companies to keep their money out of the country, indefinitely.
“We leave the money over there. I create jobs overseas; I acquire companies overseas; I build plants overseas; and I badly want to bring that money back,” John Chambers told Stahl.
Chambers told Stahl Cisco has almost $40 billion overseas that could be brought back to the U.S.
The total amount of money U.S. companies have trapped overseas is $1.2 trillion. Chambers is advocating for a one-time tax break to allow them to bring that money home at a rate of, say five percent. That would, he says, stimulate the economy and create jobs.
“What is your downside for money that isn’t going to come back anyhow? I’d say your downside is zero,” he told Stahl.
But the Obama administration opposed this idea. When it was tried in 2005, the Treasury did rake in billions of dollars, though very few jobs were created.
John Chambers of Cisco also complains “All we’re asking is: Give us a level playing field. Get us close.”
Of course Chambers doesn’t say that Cisco and others who have operations in Europe don’t have to pay health insurance for workers – the European Union has universal health care and his fellow businessmen fought tooth and nail against the US health care reform efforts that then led to a much watered down “Affordable Healthcare Act”. Also as noted briefly we did try a one time tax reduction and it failed to generate jobs.
The story Lesley Stahl did the other night was about as bad for the middle class as the long wet kiss the entertainment division does with the show “Undercover Boss”.
Sure corporations should have a chance to lower their overall tax rate but it needs to be done with a fair intent – not as a dodge. Average Americans have been though the legal system for less.
I wouldn’t be opposed to a lower tax rate but that then must be balanced with a closing of all the loopholes. Fair is fair.