SUMMING UP THE CASE AGAINST ROMNEY THE LIAR: WILLARD'S LIES ABOUT THE ECONOMY, PART TWO

A compendium of Willard's lies on the economy, Part Two:

ROMNEY THE LIAR'S RUNNING MATE, LYIN' RYAN, HAS ***ALWAYS*** BEEN A LIAR http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/09/romney-liars-running-mate-lyin-ryan-has.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR ***STILL*** LYING ABOUT THE AUTO BAILOUT! http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/09/romney-liar-still-lying-about-auto.html 

LYIN' RYAN, ROMNEY THE LIAR'S RUNNING MATE, ***STILL*** REFUSES TO EXPLAIN TAX PLAN! 
http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/09/lyin-ryan-romney-liars-running-mate.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR's MOST ABSURD LIE YET 
http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/09/romney-liars-most-absurd-lie-yet.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR CLAIMS THAT OBAMA VOTERS ARE ALL DEPENDENT ON THE GOVERNMENT!! http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/09/romney-liar-claims-that-obama-voters.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR'S TRADE LIES ***DESTROYED*** BY THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/09/romney-liars-trade-lies-destroyed-by.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR'S CLEAN ENERGY LIES FROM THE DEBATE http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/10/romney-liars-clean-energy-lies-from.html 

THE ECONOMIC FUTURE IF ROMNEY THE LIAR SUCCEEDS http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-economic-future-if-romney-liar.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR'S MAGICAL PLAN TO FIX THE ECONOMY http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/10/romney-liars-magical-plan-to-fix-economy.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR POURING OUT THE LIES AT A ***TORRENTIAL*** PACE http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/10/romney-liar-pouring-out-lies-at.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR ***ON VIDEO*** ATTACKING THE AUTO BAILOUT http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/10/romney-liar-on-video-attacking-auto.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR CLAIMS ALL JEEP PRODUCTION MOVING TO CHINA; CHRYSLER SLAPS HIS LIE DOWN ***IMMEDIATELY*** http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/10/romney-liar-claims-all-jeep-production.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR SLAMS OBAMA FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH ***HIGHER*** THAN MASSACHUSETTS HAD WHEN ROMNEY WAS GOVERNOR http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/10/romney-liar-slams-obama-for-economic.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR ***STILL*** LYING ABOUT CHRYSLER AND JEEP PRODUCTION http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/10/romney-liar-still-lying-about-chrysler.html

SUMMING UP THE CASE AGAINST ROMNEY THE LIAR: WILLARD'S LIES ABOUT THE ECONOMY, PART ONE

The most mendacious, least ethical candidate for public office in my lifetime is Willard Mitt Romney. Since 4 January of this year I have posted every single item I could find about his non-stop, brazen, arrogant, infuriating, insulting, despicable lies. With the election just a week off, and early voting already well underway in many places, it's time to sum up the massive evidence of Willard's shocking dishonesty on EVERY question facing the public. (We'll include the lying weasel-words of Little Paulie Ryan in this indictment as well.) So, without further ado, let's start with the economy. There are so many lies here that I'll do them in two parts. I'll include links to my earlier posts for your convenience, and to help you SPREAD THESE ITEMS AROUND. Here goes:

ROMNEY LIES ABOUT OBAMA'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEBT:

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/01/romney-lies-about-obamas-contribution.html 

ROMNEY LIES ABOUT NOT GIVING THE RICH NEW TAX CUTS: 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/01/romney-lies-about-not-giving-rich-new.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR BLAMES OBAMA FOR ALL JOBS LOST IN THE RECESSION 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/01/romney-liar-blames-obama-for-all-jobs.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR CAUGHT LYING ABOUT HIS OWN WORDS (About the Economy) 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/01/romney-liar-caught-lying-about-his-own.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR CLAIMS THAT OBAMA'S OBJECTIVE IS A SOCIETY OF "EQUAL OUTCOMES" 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/01/romney-liar-claims-that-obamas.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR IS LYING CONSTANTLY ABOUT OBAMA'S TRADE POLICY 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/01/romney-liar-is-lying-constantly-about.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR CLAIMS ANYONE WHO QUESTIONS HIM IS ATTACKING THE "FREE ENTERPRISE" SYSTEM 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/01/romney-liar-claims-anyone-who-questions.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR FALSELY CLAIMS OBAMA INCREASED THE CORPORATE TAX RATE 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/01/romney-liar-falsely-claims-obama.html 

DEBUNKING ROMNEY THE LIAR'S "JOB CREATOR" LIES 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/01/debunking-romney-liars-job-creator-lies.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR CONTINUES TO LIE ABOUT OUR "REGULATORY BURDEN" 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/02/romney-liar-continues-to-lie-about-our.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR IS TRYING TO TAKE CREDIT FOR AN AUTO COMPANIES BAIL-OUT THAT HE OPPOSED 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/02/romney-liar-is-trying-to-take-credit.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR CONTINUES TO TELL THE "OBAMA MADE THE RECESSION WORSE" LIE 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/02/romney-liar-continues-to-tell-obama.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR TRIES TO REWRITE HISTORY ON THE AUTO BAIL-OUT 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/02/romney-liar-tries-to-rewrite-history-on.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR PROPOSING UTTERLY DISHONEST TAX SCHEME 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/03/romney-liar-proposing-utterly-dishonest.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR LIES ABOUT THE MINIMUM WAGE 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/03/blog-post.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR CLAIMS THAT OBAMA "WANTED" HIGH GAS PRICES 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/03/romney-liar-claims-that-obama-wanted.html 

WHY ROMNEY THE LIAR WON'T TELL US HIS TAX AND BUDGET PLANS 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/03/you-gotta-hand-it-to-mittens.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR CLAIMS OBAMA IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL JOB LOSSES AMONG WOMEN 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/04/romney-liar-claims-obama-is-responsible.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR CLAIMS THAT BUSH HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN! 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/04/romney-liar-claims-that-bush-had.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR'S CAMPAIGN AGAIN TAKING CREDIT FOR AUTO COMPANY RESCUE

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/04/romney-liars-campaign-again-taking.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR NAILED ON HIS PATHETIC AUTO BAIL-OUT LIE--AGAIN 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/05/nailing-romney-liar-on-his-pathetic.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR CONTINUES TO REPEAT THE SAME ECONOMIC LIES OVER AND OVER

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/05/romney-liar-continues-to-repeat-same.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR TELLS DESPICABLE, BRAZEN LIE ABOUT AUTO INDUSTRY JOBS

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/05/romney-liar-claims-auto-industry.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR LIES ABOUT PUBLIC SECTOR JOBS--AGAIN 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/05/romney-liar-lies-about-public-sector.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR LIES ABOUT SPENDING--CONSTANTLY 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/05/romney-liar-lies-about-spending.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR NAILED ON HIS "JOB CREATOR" LIE--AGAIN 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/05/romney-liar-nailed-on-his-job-creator.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR CLAIMS STIMULUS "DESTROYED JOBS" 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/05/romney-liar-claims-stimulus-destroyed.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR BLAMES OBAMA FOR STUDENT DEBT PROBLEM THAT ROMNEY HELPED CAUSE 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/05/romney-liar-blames-obama-for-student.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR LIES ABOUT SOLYNDRA 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/06/romney-liar-lies-about-solyndra.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR FALSELY CLAIMS OBAMA TRIED TO DELIBERATELY HURT THE U.S. ECONOMY 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/06/romney-liar-falsely-claims-obama-tried.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR LIES ABOUT OBAMA'S JOBS PLAN

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/06/romney-liar-lies-about-obamas-jobs-plan.html 

A TWO-FOR-ONE LIE BY ROMNEY THE LIAR 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/06/two-for-one-lie-by-romney-liar.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR REFUSES TO LAY OUT HIS SPECIFIC BUDGET PLANS

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/06/romney-liar-refuses-to-lay-out-his.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR SAYS HE DOESN'T WANT NEW PUBLIC WORKERS, THEN LIES AND SAYS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MATTER 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/06/romney-liar-says-he-doesnt-want-new.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR*** STILL***LYING ABOUT THE AUTO INDUSTRY BAILOUT

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/06/romney-liar-stilllying-about-auto.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR CLAIMS THAT HE'S GIVING SPECIFICS, AND THEN HE GIVES VIRTUALLY NONE 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/06/romney-liar-claims-that-hes-giving.html 

LISTEN TO ROMNEY THE LIAR TALKING ABOUT JOB LOSSES WHEN HE WAS A GOVERNOR 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/07/listen-to-romney-liar-talking-about-job.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR: ENEMY OF THE AMERICAN WORKER 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/07/romney-liar-enemy-of-american-worker.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR'S ***DESPICABLE***LIE ABOUT WELFARE REFORM 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/08/romney-liars-despicablelie-about.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR'S CAMPAIGN DELIBERATELY DISTORTING THE WORK OF ECONOMISTS 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/08/romney-liars-campaign-deliberately.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR STRUCK DOWN ON HIS WELFARE LIE 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/08/romney-liar-struck-down-on-his-welfare.html

ROMNEY THE LIAR DOUBLING DOWN ON WELFARE LIE 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/08/romney-liar-doubling-down-on-welfare-lie.html 

ROMNEY THE LIAR CALLED OUT ON HIS WELFARE LIE ***AGAIN*** 

http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/2012/08/romney-liar-called-out-on-his-welfare_27.html

Part Two tomorrow.

ROMNEY THE LIAR CALLS ROMNEY A LIAR

PROMINENT REPUBLICAN PROVES ROMNEY THE LIAR IS LYING ABOUT THE AUTO BAILOUT

Willard continues to go deeper into his cesspool of lies about the auto bailout, claiming, astonishingly, that it was done HIS way and he deserves credit for it!! Well, a prominent New York Republican has nailed that assertion dead. The details are here: 

[Harry]  Wilson appeared on October 23 on Bloomberg News’s In the Loop and was asked by host Betty Liu about Romney’s claims in the last debate that he’d supported a form of federal assistance to GM and Chrysler, namely “post bankruptcy” government guarantees to private lenders. Liu tried to soften the case against Romney in her question to Wilson, asserting that both Romney and Obama “were essentially right” in their bailout comments, but Wilson would have none of it. 

“I’m, as you know, a Republican who supports the governor. But I think on this issue, I think he’s really mishandled it,” said Wilson.

A startled Liu: “Romney has mishandled it?”

“Yes,” continued Wilson. “He came out both in 2008 and earlier in 2012, in a piece in one of the Detroit newspapers, and said he wouldn't have supported any government capital because private capital was available. That’s simply not true. The president said that last night.”

Liu interjected that the unavailability of private money was backed up by a Congressional Budget Office report.

“Absolutely,” added Wilson. “We tried everything we could to find private money. I personally would have dramatically preferred private money. It just wasn’t available because of the crisis we were in. And the greatest thing about this point is that it is the easiest thing in the world to prove or disprove. All you need is one person to come forward and say, ‘Oh, I would have provided private capital, and here’s an example of where I said that in 2009.’ And no one has said that in three years, cause it’s just not true.”

There is no subject about which Willard has lied more relentlessly than the auto bailout. He's now running, as I have noted, a commercial that contains the DESPICABLE LIE that Chrysler is moving all Jeep production to China. It will take every bit of energy the forces of decency can muster to defeat Willard.

But for the sake of the truth, and our nation's future, we MUST prevail.

MORE EVIDENCE THAT ROMNEY THE LIAR IS A ***TAX CHEAT***

I've been saying it for months: the stench of corruption surrounds Willard, and clings to every aspect of his life. Now we have more evidence of Willard's willingness to bend or even break the law right here: 

...University of Texas Law School Professor Calvin Johnson...focuses on two trusts Romney has set up: one for his children, which is worth over $100 million, and an $87 million retirement trust. These trusts have grown at an enormous rate -- Johnson notes that they have been more than 10 times as profitable as Warren Buffett's investments over the same time frame. [My emphasis] Johnson writes that Romney may have played fast and loose with the law by undervaluing Bain Capital assets that were contributed to the trusts. By undervaluing the assets, Romney could avoid paying gift taxes.

Check out the rest and place it in the whole picture that has emerged about Willard: 

---the shadowy financiers of Bain Capital; 

---the association with Junk Bond King/Criminal Michael Milken; 

---the ugly business tactics used by Bain in acquiring companies, loading them with debt, and then leaving them to die;

---the phony tax shelter Romney helped the Marriott Corporation use;

---the amazing amount of money that seemed to end up in the hands of Willard's friends in connection with the 2002 Olympics;

---Willard's lies UNDER OATH to the state of Massachusetts claiming he was a resident when in fact he paid state taxes in Utah;

---the fundraiser in LONDON sponsored by Barclays Bank, the bank at the epicenter of a raging financial scandal in Europe;

---Willard's shady Cayman Islands and Swiss holdings;

---Willard's REFUSAL to show us more than two years of HIGHLY EDITED and HIGHLY SELECTIVE tax information and the possibility that Willard participated in the 2009 tax amnesty the IRS offered.

I've reached my own conclusion:

Willard is a crook--plain and simple. A thief. A tax cheat. A liar. A fraud. Someone who games the system mercilessly and relentlessly, and steals whenever he has a chance.

If you know someone who might vote Democratic but is apathetic this year, show them this.

And remind them of what's at stake.

ROMNEY THE LIAR ***STILL*** LYING ABOUT CHRYSLER AND JEEP PRODUCTION

Even though Chrysler has already flatly denied Willard lying assertion that all Jeep production is moving to China, Willard is STILL RUNNING commercials in Ohio claiming that very thing! Incredible. Oh, and by the way, in response to Willard's fantastic lie that he of all people (!) saved the auto industry, the CEO of GM, when asked about the matter by reporter Dean Reynolds,  made the following statement:

"Did President Obama save General Motors?" Reynolds asked

"Without the money, without the funding, it would have been very problematic," said Akerson. "At the risk of alienating a whole lot of potential customers, I would say the Obama administration did a good job."

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and other critics have argued the bailout was unnecessary, and that the regular bankruptcy process would have made GM and Chrysler stronger companies.

"Would that have happened?" Reynolds asked.

"Not in my opinion," asked Akerson. "It would have been in bankruptcy for years and I think you could have written off this company, this industry and this country."

And right-wingers are STILL arguing that it was a bad idea!!

That's why the forces of sanity--mostly the Democrats--have to win over the forces of ideological fanaticism--the Republicans.

Get Out the Vote!!

ROMNEY THE LIAR ***STILL*** ENDORSING ANTI-ABORTION, RAPE-APOLOGIST CANDIDATE MOURDOCK

And Lyin' Ryan is just as bad.

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

ROMNEY THE LIAR'S ***LOUSY*** RECORD AS MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR

So how did the Massachusetts economy do under Willard when he was governor from 2003 to 2007? The brutal details are here:

1. Ranked 47th in job growth: Despite Romney’s professed expertise in creating jobs, Massachusetts ranked 47th in job growth during his time as governor. The state’s total job growth was just 0.9 percent, well behind other high-wage, high-skill economies in New York (2.7), California (4.7), and North Carolina (7.6). The national average, meanwhile, was better than 5 percent. 

2. Suffered the second-largest labor force decline in the nation: Only Louisiana, which was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, saw a bigger decline in its labor force than Massachusetts during Romney’s tenure as governor. The US Census Bureau estimated that between July 2002 and July 2006, 222,000 more residents left Massachusetts for other states than came to it. That decline largely explains the state’s decreasing unemployment rate (from 5.6 to 4.7 percent) while Romney was in office, according to Northeastern University economics professor Andrew Sum. At the same time, the nation as a whole added 8 million people to the labor force. 

3. Lost 14 percent of its manufacturing jobs: Massachusetts lost 14 percent of its manufacturing jobs during Romney’s time in office, according to Sum. The loss was double the rate that the nation as a whole lost manufacturing jobs. In 2004, Romney vetoed legislation that would have banned companies doing business with the state from outsourcing jobs to other countries. 

4. Experienced “below average” economic growth and was “often near the bottom”: “There was not one measure where the state did well under his term in office. We were below average and often near the bottom,” Sum told the Washington Post in February. As a result, the state was more comparable to Rust Belt states like Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio than it was to other high-tech economies it typically competes with. 

5. Piled on more debt than any other state: Romney left Massachusetts residents with $10,504 in per capita bond debt, the highest of any state in the nation when he left office in 2007. The state ranked second in debt as a percentage of personal income. Romney regularly omits those statistics from his Massachusetts record, instead touting the fact that he balanced the state’s budget (he was constitutionally required to do so). He wouldn't be much different as president: his proposed tax plan adds more than $10 trillion to the national debt.

Gee, I wonder why Romney didn't run for reelection. Oh, and about "Mr. Bipartisan-Work-With-Democrats" Willard? The truth of the matter is this:

Vetoes don’t scream bipartisanship, and Romney had so many of them that it’s obvious he was on bad terms with the legislators from both parties as Governor. All told, Romney issued 800 vetoes in his one term as Governor. 800. Nearly all of them were overridden – 707 to be exact.

And his only positive achievement? The health care system in Massachusetts? Mr. Tea Party Romney has pledged to destroy the national system based on it.

Economic failure. Partisan hack. Repudiator of his own work.

That's Willard all over.

Why does ANYONE think he'd be any different if he were elected president?

(HT: El)

ROMNEY THE LIAR SLAMS OBAMA FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH ***HIGHER*** THAN MASSACHUSETTS HAD WHEN ROMNEY WAS GOVERNOR

That Willard. Isn't he a funny guy? And multitalented, too--liar, fraud, hypocrite, coward, human chameleon. I mean, his repertoire is VAST. Now he is attacking Obama because the 2% rise in GDP in the last quarter was supposedly weak. Here is the growth rate record from Willard's time as Massachusetts governor:

According to data from the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, average real GDP growth was 1.5 percent per year in Massachusetts from 2002 to 2006. For each of the years Romney was in office, the economy grew 1.49 percent, 1.86 percent, 1.14 percent and 1.43 percent, respectively.

And how did Romney assess the economic growth of the state under his leadership? “When we took office, the state economy was in a tailspin. Today, jobs are being created by the thousands and our economy is stronger,” he said in early 2006, his last year in office. So less than 2 percent was good then, but 2 percent is bad now.

And one could argue that Romney had an easier task than Obama. During Romney’s tenure in the governor’s mansion, the national economy grew at a much fast clip than Massachusetts’, staying comfortably above 2 percent every year. National GDP even broke 3 percent one year and doubled the state’s growth another year. On the campaign trail in 2002, Romney promised jobs creation “second to none in the history of the state.” After four years, the state had added 31,000 jobs — a growth rate of less than 1 percent while the country as a whole added 5 percent more jobs.

Willard--your one-stop center for 24/7 lies, deception, and hypocrisy.

ROMNEY THE LIAR CLAIMS ALL JEEP PRODUCTION MOVING TO CHINA; CHRYSLER SLAPS HIS LIE DOWN ***IMMEDIATELY***

Willard, who is desperate to make voters in Michigan and Ohio forget that he wanted the U.S. auto industry to collapse, is now saying that Chrysler will move all Jeep production to China. Chrysler has just destroyed that lie right here:

Despite clear and accurate reporting, the take has given birth to a number of stories making readers believe that Chrysler plans to shift all Jeep production to China from North America, and therefore idle assembly lines and U.S. workforce. It is a leap that would be difficult even for professional circus acrobats.

Let’s set the record straight: Jeep has no intention of shifting production of its Jeep models out of North America to China. It’s simply reviewing the opportunities to return Jeep output to China for the world’s largest auto market. U.S. Jeep assembly lines will continue to stay in operation. A careful and unbiased reading of the Bloomberg take would have saved unnecessary fantasies and extravagant comments.

Gee, I wonder what "extravagant comments" they could be referring to? 

Willard is simply FLAT OUT LYING again, as he always, always does about everything. And do you want to bet that despite Chrysler's statement that Willard will keep repeating the lie?

Count on it.

ROMNEY THE LIAR'S FORGOTTEN SCANDALS

As is the case with SO MANY Republicans and right-wingers in general, the facade of moral rectitude they put up is a pose, a lie, an attempt to gull people into seeing these wingers as ethical models for others. But we are reminded here  that Willard's facade is hiding a particularly corrupt individual. Items:

Profiting From 9/11

Romney’s involvement with an insurance startup called Endurance Specialty Holdings has largely been forgotten among the wave of questionable business deals that have come to light during the presidential campaign.

Endurance Specialty Holdings was designed to purchase debt from insurance companies that suffered huge losses in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. According to a report by Politicker’s Hunter Walker, Romney was invested in the company through Golden Gate Capital — a private equity firm started by one of his former colleagues at Bain Capital — and CCG Investment Fund, LP. By the end of 2003, Endurance Specialty Holdings was reporting a net income of over $263.4 million.

Sensitive to charges that he had profited from the 9/11 tragedy, the Romney campaign insisted that the Republican nominee had no control over his investments, as they were managed by a blind trust — an institution that Romney himself famously described as an “age-old ruse.”

Profiting From Disposal Of Aborted Fetuses

Another of Romney’s questionable Bain deals that has gone underreported is the firm’s profitable investment in the medical waste disposal firm Stericycle. Bain Capital sank $75 million into the company in 1999 — an odd investment for a staunchly anti-abortion Republican to make. After all, Stericyle has long been attacked by right-wing groups for disposing of aborted fetuses.

The investment raises serious doubts about Romney’s stated timeline of his exit from Bain Capital. Before Mother Jones’ David Corn broke the Stericycle story, Romney claimed that he had fully left Bain in February of 1999. The SEC documentation of the Stericycle deal proved that wrong, however, prompting Romney surrogates to explain that he had “retroactively retired” from the company in 2002.

Had the story garnered more attention, it could have irreversibly damaged Romney’s credibility regarding his business record.

Still Hiding Those Tax Returns (And That Over-stuffed IRA?)

The broader story of Romney’s financial history has gone largely unquestioned since he released two years of tax returns and a summary of tax rates from the previous 20 years in late September. The media is wrong to let Romney off the hook on this topic, however: voters still don’t know what rates Romney paid from 1990-2009 (if he paid any taxes at all,) or how his IRA grew to such massive proportions, among many other unanswered questions.

Read them all--and then rededicate yourself to GETTING OUT THE VOTE AGAINST WILLARD.

(HT: D)

LYIN' RYAN, ROMNEY THE LIAR'S RUNNING MATE, ***DELIBERATELY*** SET OUT TO SABOTAGE THE U.S. ECONOMIC RECOVERY

Unbelievable. Despicable. Borderline anti-American. On the night of 20 January 2009, the night Barack Obama had just become president, a group of right-wing Republican saboteurs met to come up with a strategy to destroy Obama and his presidency. Prominent among these saboteurs was PAUL RYAN, whom we fondly refer to as Little Paulie or Lyin' Ryan on this blog. The whole disgusting story is right here. Details:

[Guest List]: 

Frank Luntz - GOP Minister of Propaganda 
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) (My emphasis)
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA)
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), 
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), 
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), 
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) 
Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA), 
Sen. Jim DeMint (SC-R), 
Sen. Jon Kyl (AZ-R), 
Sen. Tom Coburn (OK-R), 
Sen. John Ensign (NV-R) and 
Sen. Bob Corker (TN-R).

Non-lawmakers present Newt Gingrich - Failed GOP candidate for President 

**********

At the meeting, Rep Kevin McCarthy said, "We've gotta challenge them on every single bill." (My emphasis)

"Show united and unyielding opposition to the president’s economic policies."

So they fought against EVERY proposal the president made--EVEN THINGS THEY HAD SUPPORTED UNDER BUSH!

Here's how they had all voted [under Bush]: -- 

"Yes" to Bush/Cheney January 2008 Stimulus -- 
"Yes" to Bush/Cheney bailing out Bear Stern -- 
"Yes" to Bush/Cheney bailing out AIG -- 
"Yes" to Bush/Cheney TARP (Sept 2008) --
"Yes" to Bush/Cheney TARP (Oct 2008)

Supported Bush/Cheney keeping cost of two wars out of the Budget. 

Supported Bush/Cheney spending $4 Trillion while giving Top 1% Tax Cuts; ignoring the fact that taxes pay for wars.

Now, here's what they opposed or did under Obama:

[Opposed] Funding Planned Parenthood,

[Opposed] Raising the Debt Ceiling which, in-and-of-itself, would cause US Economic turmoil. (BTW, Paul Ryan was more responsible than ANY OTHER MEMBER OF CONGRESS for the downgrade of the U.S.'s credit rating).

 - Filibustered more Bills (over 300) than any Congress ... in US History.

 - Voted NO on every single piece of Legislation brought to the Floor including: 

NO on Al Franken's Anti-Rape Amendment, 

NO on Lilly Ledbetter, 

NO on Fair Pay Act, 

NO on Anti-Outsourcing Bill (2010) 

[Opposed] President Obama's American Jobs Act that independent economists claim would create 1.3 million new jobs.

And of course, they voted against the stimulus plan even though they had been granted major concessions and the ACA, where the mandate used was a Republican idea.

Oh, and here's a convenient chart for easy reference:

The Republicans EVEN stated publicly that the did NOT want the Federal Reserve to act to stimulate the economy, in effect THREATENING the Fed if it did so. 

I'm going to be blunt: Paul Ryan and his cohorts didn't give a DAMN about helping this country out of the economic disaster that had been caused by conservative policies and allowed to happen by a Republican administration. They hated Obama more than they loved America. They had one objective, and one objective ONLY: 

POWER. 

And leading the pack was the Republican candidate for Vice President.

You know, the same guy that piously denounced the Obama stimulus.

And then asked for money from it.

ROMNEY THE LIAR ***ON VIDEO*** ATTACKING THE AUTO BAILOUT

Which he has CONSISTENTLY and DISHONESTLY said was done according to his suggestion. No, it was NOT. No matter how many times he LIES about it, it doesn't make it true.

ROMNEY THE LIAR'S ***PHONY*** DEBATE PERFORMANCE EXPOSED

CHARLES PIERCE ***EVISCERATES*** ROMNEY THE LIAR'S LUDICROUS DEBATE PERFORMANCE

Thank heaven for Charles Pierce, one of the sharpest examiners of American politics anywhere. His reaction to Willard's laughable, pathetic debate performance last night is tremendous:

It was purely surreal, and it was not made any less so by the fact that Romney was clearly uncomfortable with his new moderate foreign-policy programming. (That was plain early on, when he completely took a pass on the opening question, which concerned the events in Benghazi.) Romney was sweating and stumbling through enough passages to reinforce the fact that he and his running mate, the zombie-eyed granny-starver from Wisconsin, are going to have to leave anything that happens overseas to their coterie of advisers — if, of course, any of them are still speaking to Romney after he sold them out so egregiously just now.

That is what history always has told us about the career of Willard Romney: sooner or later, he will sell your ass out to the highest bidder and walk away whistling in the general direction of anything to which he feels entitled. In this case, that would be the leadership of the Free World.

Otherwise, it was a dispiriting evening on a great many levels. Clearly, the president had a superior command of the issues under discussion. He finally and thoroughly eviscerated the idiotic talking point about how the Navy is smaller than it's been since 1917. (You may have noticed that rejoinder because it was when the phrase "horses and bayonets" started trending.) He easily parried the hoariest Romney attack of all — that the president embarked on "an apology tour" upon taking office — by shooting back that he'd gone to Israel "without bringing any fundraisers," and talking about his visit to the Holocaust Memorial at Yad Vashem. He forcefully defended all the policies he'd put in place that Romney, on this evening at least, so enthusiastically supported. He made clear from his words and his manner that he has had to make decisions over the past four years that he never dreamed he'd have to make when he was running in 2008 and John McCain was ripping him for his lack of experience, and that those decisions have marked him, whether he wins this election or not, for the rest of his life. On the substance of what came under discussion on Monday night, this was no contest at all. It was an obvious and preposterous mismatch.

Yes indeed, Charles, yes indeed. A bumbling amateur like Romney, whose foreign policy team is stuffed to the GILLS with Neocon/Chickenhawk/Warmonger/Draft Dodger/Coward retreads from the Bush Administration would be a danger to both America and the world at large. Romney in the White House? Only as part of the guided tour.

GET OUT THE VOTE AND SEND WILLARD HOME.

(Whichever home he decides to live in this week.)

ROMNEY THE LIAR'S ***PATHETIC*** DEBATE LIES (THIRD EDITION)

Well, let's see--

• He tried to get away with the "apology tour" lie but President Obama shot him down
• He tried to get away with the smallest (weakest) Navy since 1916 lie but President Obama humiliated him
• He tried to get away with the "weakened military" lie but again Obama tripped him up
• He said that Syria was Iran's "route to the sea", although that may have been mere geographic ignorance on Willard's part
• He tried to get away with the lie that America's prestige in the world has declined when in fact a BBC poll TODAY indicated overwhelming international support for President Obama over Willard
• He managed to work in the auto industry bailout lie AGAIN!!
• He told the lie that the U.S. is becoming just like Greece financially, but alas (from Think Progress):

During his closing statement, Romney said that the U.S. is headed down a path like that of Greece. But Greece, contrary to popular belief, had a revenue problem rather than a spending problem. While its spending was high compared to US standards — 50.4 percent of GDP compared to 38 percent of GDP in the US — its spending was average among European nations. As CAP’s Michael Linden and Sabina Dewan note, “Over the past 10 years, Greece has consistently spent less, as a share of GDP, than the European Union as a whole.” However, it generated less that 40 percent of GDP from revenue — one of the lowest rates in the EU.

In general, however, Willard tried to come off as reasonable, saying, in effect, I'll be just like Obama, only better!

That may have been the biggest lie of them all.

NEW AD FOR ROMNEY THE LIAR: FIVE LIES IN THIRTY SECONDS

The disgusting details are here. Glenn Kessler's introduction:

... a new ad released by the Romney campaign is almost a “greatest hits” version of claims that have been thoroughly debunked by fact checkers, including this column. Let’s spin the record once again! 


Willard is a PATHOLOGICAL LIAR. How ANYONE can think such a person would be anything but a bloody disaster were he to lie his way into power is beyond me.

ROMNEY THE LIAR POURING OUT THE LIES AT A ***TORRENTIAL*** PACE

The heroic Steve Benen at Maddow Blog is now on Volume THIRTY-NINE in his series on Willard's fantastic lies. Here is just a small sampling of the most recent  crop. (You'll need to check Steve's original post for his copious links.)

1. At a speech in Chesapeake, Virginia, Romney boasted, "If I become president ... we finally get America on track to a balanced budget." No we don't. Romney's plan slashes tax rates (which makes the deficit worse, not better), increases defense and entitlement spending (which makes the deficit worse, not better), and every independent analysis reaches the same conclusion: Romney's numbers don't add up. 

2. In the same speech, Romney said Obama only filed "one" action "against China." That's not even close to being true. 

3. In this week's town-hall debate, Romney claimed, "I want to make sure we keep our Pell Grant program growing. We're also going to have our loan program so that people are able to afford school." We know this isn't true, because he vowed to do the exact opposite in March. What's more, Romney also endorsed Paul Ryan's budget plan, which cuts Pell Grants.

4. Romney also argued, "We have fewer people working today than we had when the president took office." No matter when we start the clock, there's a net jobs increase under Obama, both overall and in the private sector. 

5. Romney added, "If the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent when he took office. It's 7.8 percent now. But if you calculated that unemployment rate taking back the people who dropped out of the workforce, it would be 10.7 percent." That's ridiculously untrue. 

6. Romney also said, "I put out a five-point plan that gets America 12 million new jobs in four years and rising take-home pay." This claim was definitely proven false this week. Repeating it only adds insult to injury.

I'm tellin' ya, folks, I lived through the Nixon Era. I was firmly convinced that Richard Nixon was the most thoroughly dishonest person I had ever seen, or would ever see, in American politics. I was wrong.

Willard makes Tricky Dick look like George Freakin' Washington.

ROMNEY THE LIAR: THE HEARTBREAK OF ROMNESIA

 Heh-Heh. Thanks to Jed Lewison

ROMNEY THE LIAR'S MAGICAL PLAN TO FIX THE ECONOMY

Are you ready for it?

Are you sitting down.

Good. His magical plan is getting elected. 

Because that will make everything all better. Don't believe it? Neither does Andrew Leonard:

Romney was quite clear on this point in his infamous “47 percent” speech. Romney told his audience that “if we win on November 6th there will be a great deal of optimism about the future of this country. We’ll see capital come back, and we’ll see — without actually doing anything — we’ll actually get a boost in the economy.”

You see, the right-wingers argue that the Big Money Boys are on "strike". Yes, a "capital strike" because they are so scared that Obama might just tax and regulate their poor little selves right out existence. So Willard is pushing this idea that his election would end this "strike" and restore confidence. But...

The funny thing is, the available evidence suggests that Americans are already feeling more optimistic than they've been for a long time. On [12 October], the University of Michigan’s consumer confidence index hit a five year high. Americans are buying cars at a pace not seen in four years. They’re watching their homes appreciate in value for the first time since the bust. Retail sales are growing. Average Americans are doing their part, and the ironic truth is that, most likely, no matter who gets elected president, they’ll probably keep doing so. Neither Romney nor Obama might have to do anything at all in order to enjoy the benefits of a resurgent economy.

Even funnier, the premise that a Romney election will “bring capital back” presupposes that capital has gone away. And despite all those stories about trillions of dollars of “cash on the sidelines” there is scant evidence that a lack of investment opportunities or abundance of regulations is the reason for the hoarding. In fact, it’s not even true that corporations aren't willing to invest in the future.

Quite the opposite. Here’s something you are unlikely to hear during a Mitt Romney stump speech. Business investment has actually recovered to its pre-recession levels. During the Obama recovery, corporate spending on business equipment and software has grown at a faster rate than during any of the last four economic recoveries. (George Bush’s economic recovery, embarrassingly, registered zero net growth in business equipment and software spending.) (My emphasis)

In other words, Willard's whole premise is a CROCK. 

His tax plan is a $5 trillion LIE.

He has NOTHING. Nothing at all in mind, except for one thing:

Lining his own pockets.

That's always the priority. Oh, and by the way...

We still haven't seen his tax returns. I wonder why?

ROMNEY THE LIAR SETS A PERSONAL BEST--31 LIES IN 41 MINUTES!!

You know, when you're a professional, World-Class pathological liar, it's a real milestone when you can break your own records. But Willard pulled it off in the debate Tuesday night! Check out the record here: Examples:

3) “And the president’s right in terms of the additional oil production, but none of it came on federal land. As a matter of fact, oil production is down 14 percent this year on federal land, and gas production was down 9 percent.” 14 percent is a one-year number. “Overall, oil production on federal land under Obama is up from 566 million barrels in 2008 to 626 million barrels in 2011, a 10.6 percent increase.” Compared to the last three years of President Bush, there have been 241 million more barrels of oil produced from public lands in the first three years of Obama.

10) “And I will not — I will not under any circumstances, reduce the share that’s being paid by the highest income taxpayers. And I will not, under any circumstances increase taxes on the middle-class.” As the Tax Policy Center concluded, Romney’s plan can’t both exempt middle class families from tax cuts and remain revenue neutral. “He’s promised all these things and he can’t do them all. In order for him to cover the cost of his tax cut without adding to the deficit, he’d have to find a way to raise taxes on middle income people or people making less than $200,000 a year,” the Center found.

13) “Fifty-four percent of America’s workers work in businesses that are taxed as individuals. So when you bring those rates down, those small businesses are able to keep more money and hire more people.” Far less than half of the people affected by the expiration of the upper income tax cuts get any of their income at all from a small businesses. And those people could very well be receiving speaking fees or book royalties, which qualify as “small business income” but don’t have a direct impact on job creation. It’s actually hard to find a small business who think that they will be hurt if the marginal tax rate on income earned above $250,000 per year is increased.

16) “I’d just note that I don’t believe that bureaucrats in Washington should tell someone whether they can use contraceptives or not. And I don’t believe employers should tell someone whether they could have contraceptive care of not. Every woman in America should have access to contraceptives.” But back in March, Romney expressed strong support for the so-called Blunt amendment, which that would allow employers to deny contraception coverage to women. Romney also wants to defund Planned Parenthood, where 76 percent of the patients seek low-cost birth control options. Defunding the organization would make it much harder for those women to obtain contraceptives.

19) “He keeps saying, ‘Look, I've created 5 million jobs.’ That’s after losing 5 million jobs. The entire record is such that the unemployment has not been reduced in this country.” Job creation is net positive since Obama took office in the middle of the worst recession since the great depression. Economists estimate that up to 3 million jobs were created by the stimulus alone.

30) “And there’s no question but that Obamacare has been an extraordinary deterrent to enterprises of all kinds hiring people.” Under the law, only companies with more than 50 employees must provide health insurance or pay a fine — that’s just 2.6 percent of businesses. If anything, expanding health care coverage to more Americans will actually create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

Read 'em all--AND THEN HELP US GET OUT THE VOTE TO HELP DRIVE A STAKE THROUGH ROMNEY THE LIAR'S POLITICAL CAREER ONCE AND FOR ALL.

ROMNEY THE LIAR FLAT-OUT CONTRADICTED BY THE ***FACTS*** ABOUT LIBYA

Willard, with his typical sociopathic insistence, has repeatedly told the lie that the Obama Administration did not call the Benghazi attack a terrorist attack. The record is set straight here. (I hope the good folks at Think Progress do not mind me quoting Zack Beauchamp's article in full):

During the past several weeks of campaigning, Mitt Romney has argued that President Obama’s supposed failure to label the killing of Benghazi “terrorism” for two weeks was evidence that he had failed to lead on the issue. After Candy Crowley debunked Romney’s claim during the Tuesday debate, the right doubled down on Romney’s argument, suggesting Obama only used the term “act of terror” generally despite clear references to Benghazi on September 12 and 13.

Setting aside the dubious propriety of this semantic standard for leadership, it turns out Romney himself has failed on these terms: Obama managed to label the attacks terrorism twice in the two days following the attacks before Romney used the term once.

The first unmistakable reference to terrorism from the Romney campaign came on September 20, after top counterterrorism officials had publicly described the attacks as terrorism. The first clear statement from Romney himself was on September 25, when he told Fox News that the Benghazi attack was “an act of terror. … But the White House doesn't want to admit it.”

Here is a timeline of the relevant events, starting the day after the September 11th attack:

SEPTEMBER 12: Romney gives a press conference to clarify his initial press release accusing Obama of sympathizing with the attackers.The full transcript of the event shows that he never used the words “terror,” “terrorism,” or “al-Qaeda.” That was Romney’s first statement on the event since the initial release the night before. Roughly 30 minutes afterwards, Obama used the phrase “acts of terror” to describe Benghazi in his Rose Garden remarks.

SEPTEMBER 13: The President used the same phrase to describe the attacks at a September 13 at a campaign event. Romney also addressed the tragedy in Libya at a campaign event, but the on-site reporting (the campaign does not appear to have provided a transcript) does not mention him referring to the attacks as terrorism and, moreover, suggests that Romney did not directly challenge the administration’s approach (semantic or otherwise) to the events.

SEPTEMBER 19: Matt Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, says “[Americans] were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy.”

SEPTEMBER 20: Romney spokesperson Ryan Williams says “Governor Romney believes our immediate priority in Libya is to track down and bring to justice those terrorists who brutally murdered our diplomats. The attack is a clear reminder that terrorists, particularly those linked to Al Qaeda, remain a grave threat and one that is growing in North Africa.” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said “It is, I think, self-evident that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack.”

SEPTEMBER 25: Romney tells Fox that “That’s an act of terror. But the White House doesn’t want to admit it.”

You see, folks, Romney isn't just flat out lying; HE'S THE ONE WHO FAILED AS A LEADER--NOT BARACK OBAMA!

Oh... and just a reminder. This is Willard smirking right after he had issued his vile statement saying the Obama administration was in sympathy with the attackers. You know...the one Willard gave BEFORE ALL THE FAMILIES OF THOSE KILLED IN THE ATTACK HAD EVEN BEEN NOTIFIED: Just makes you want to politically beat this guy like a drum, doesn't it?

ROMNEY THE LIAR GETTING ***CRUSHED*** ON HIS BENGHAZI LIE

ROMNEY THE LIAR'S ***PATHETIC*** DEBATE LIES, PART TWO

They can be found here: 

ROMNEY: "I'm going to bring rates down across the board for everybody, but I'm going to limit deductions and exemptions and credits, particularly for people at the high end, because I am not going to have people at the high end pay less than they're paying now."

THE FACTS: Romney is proposing to cut all income tax rates by 20 percent, eliminate the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax, maintain and expand tax breaks for investment income, and do it all without adding to the deficit or shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to the middle class. He says he would pay for the tax cuts by reducing or eliminating tax deductions, exemptions and credits, but he can't achieve all of his goals it under the budget rules presidents must follow.

The Tax Policy Center, a Washington research group, says in a study that the tax cuts proposed by Romney would reduce federal tax revenues by about $5 trillion over 10 years. The study concludes that there aren't enough tax breaks for the wealthy to make up the lost revenue, so the proposal would either add to the deficit or shift more of the tax burden on to the middle class.

Romney's campaign cites studies by conservative academics and think tanks that say Romney's plan will spur economic growth, generating enough additional money to pay for the tax cuts without adding to the deficit or shifting the tax burden to the middle class. But Congress doesn't recognize those kinds of economic projections when it estimates the budget impact of tax proposals.

ROMNEY: "I know he keeps saying, 'You want to take Detroit bankrupt.' Well, the president took Detroit bankrupt. You took General Motors bankrupt. You took Chrysler bankrupt. So when you say that I wanted to take the auto industry bankrupt, you actually did. And I think it's important to know that that was a process that was necessary to get those companies back on their feet, so they could start hiring more people. That was precisely what I recommended and ultimately what happened."

THE FACTS: What Romney recommended did not happen, and his proposed path probably would have forced General Motors and Chrysler out of business. He opposed using government money to bail out the automakers, instead favoring privately financed bankruptcy restructuring. But the automakers were bleeding cash and were poor credit risks. The banking system was in crisis. So private loans weren't available. Without government aid, both companies probably would have gone under and their assets sold in pieces.

More to come tomorrow. (Very, very tired right now)