And god.

Don't forget that the GOP is on a mission from god to deny rights to minority groups.

Tomorrow is Ed Schultz birthday!!!!

NO == THEY Will Support It = Cuz Thats What THEY ALL Can Get Away With !!!! Pres. Obama = Shut These Loopholes OFF !!!!!!

Happy Birthday To Ed.

Yes Happy Birthday Ed and many, many more!

The Republicons of today eat money, dream money, love money, bathe in money, steal money, covet money, stockpile money, measure everything by money . . . so Romney is right in line with them in that respect . . . it wont keep them from voting for him.

Happy Birthday Ed Schultz !!

I said no because I have a low opinion of Republicans now for the way they have been behaving in blogs and even their leaders are less than civilize let along having concern for other. But, It really will depend on the decency of the GOP base. If their have some quantity of decency they will not vote GOP at all.

If American GOPers really believe that hard work is what can get a person to be wealthy, then they should explain why a waitress, custodian, store clerks, nurses, secretaries and teachers are not really wealthy or belong to the top 15% where the wealth is concentrated. These people work hard along with factory workers.

The Republicans of today eat their young.

MsT = And That IS ALL That THEY Respect IS MONEY !!!!!! Pre=Happy Birthday ED == Hey ; Happy Birthday To The State Of MICHIGAN - 175 Yrs. TODAY !!!!!!!

Sorry, a correction, it is "let alone" not "let along". it is not the first time I have made the same error.

Good Lord people.

Do you honestly think that there are democrats without BIG money. Are they all catching the bus from thier apartment out behind the Super 8 motel to get to the office to vote on laws? Did they not get a visit from the same guy on K street?

Exactly MD/ MI and all ! Repblicons = money madness !

There is such a big difference from earning a living and wanting to improve one's lot in life from what today's Republicons do . . . which is cheat, lie and steal what ever they can from whomever they can to get money ( not earn it but GET money ) . . . after they Praise the Lord of course . . . we cannot forget priorities for heaven's sake !

Wealthy democrat politicians are able to understand what people mean when they explain they don't have enough money to buy food and shelter.

Wealthy republican politicians are not.

Wealthy Democratic politicians want to raise their taxes for the good of America. Wealthy Republican politicians just want more money.

@Crackhead Awards

Last May in Louisiana a young woman who was running for secretary of state there said that republicans'eat their young' in a speech she was forced to apologize.

On another note I recently moved to Las Vegas and today while I was out running errands I found myself at the very airport Obama was speaking. I FORGOT my cell phone I am still kicking myself in the keister. No I did not see him I did not even get to take a picture.

Happy Birthday Ed - may you have many many more.

NO , They are BEYOND RHYPOCRITS !!!!! They say they are the MORAL EVANGELICALS ??? But DONT care ABOUT CHEATING ON SPOUSES , OR PAYING FAIR SHARE in TAXES !! Even with RO-MONEY , they DONT care about HIDING MONEY OFF SHORE and DOING it WHILE RUNNING for PREZ !!! They are AGAINST ETHNIC GROUPS !!! They think that PEOPLE of COLOR are the ones WHO USE FOOD STAMPS !!! WE KNOW its ACTUALLY WHITES who use it MORE !! OCCUPY THE VOTE !!!! There are MORE DEMS than other PARTIES , NO REASON TO EVER LOSE !!! WE the 99% must VOTE , EVERY ELECTION !!! ALL MATTER !! Lets shoot for 99% of VOTES IN !!!!! cafepressDOTcom/THE99percentSTRONG cafepressDOTcom/RHYPOCRIT

Hi Ethelouise,

Last May in Louisiana a young woman who was running for secretary of state there said that republicans'eat their young' in a speech she was forced to apologize.

Oklahoma Republicans are voting to stop people from eating stem cells from fetuses.

• http://ed.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/26/10244516-feedus#comments

Democrat states do not seem to have a problem with this.

Mitt is not making investment in this Country, so why should he be president of it?

I voted no also because although I think there are plenty of Repug middle class and working poor who are struggling and do care about Robme's hidden money... many of them will as always vote against their own best interests anyway. Either due to ignorance of the facts or being gullible enough to believe the lies they are told on the Fox propaganda network... and by Robme and Newton. Or because they are in the habit of going into the voting booth and vote mindlessly for the Repug without any thought for the consequences. I know this because I had a friend who used to do just that.

Does anyone know how old Ed will be? Happy Birthday Ed ahead of time.

Ed Schultz was born on January 27, 1954.

Pretty sure he is close to my age - 56 in a few months.

Ooops. He's a couple of years older. Vietnam War era.

against their own best interests anyway.

This is what democrats can't seem to understand about Republicans. We are voting for principals not self interest. If those principals remain in place then we will have opportunity and that is what we want for our selves our kids and believe it or not for you also . When success is penalized then everybody will have no reason to excel. Kids will get a trophy for showing up for a baseball game that has no scores. Everybody gets an A. i myself have only average skill but my son has superior ones. i am not voting for me but for him. What I want is for him to have a playing field that grans only opportunity for success or failure either way it will be his to achieve. Many on the left are union members, on some kind of government entitlement etc and I fully understand that for some out of fear, self interest trumps principle. I don't blame anyone who courts their own self interest but i firmly believe they would do better privately then hoping for government to do it for them. sorry for the bold it ws not my doing.

Ed will be another year older tomorrow. Make a wish. Blow out all those candles, Ed.

Happy Birthday, Ed. You have done so much to help the people's cause in this country, and your tireless efforts have been paying off. Thank you and have another great and productive year!

Don't know if it's true, but I heard it tonight in the debates that if you add Romney's taxes to his charitable contributions, then he contributed 40% of his income to either Government or charities.

On contrast, Joe Biden, who claims to be for the lower class and the poor contributed an average of $369 dollars to charity the ten years before he was elected VP. That's right Joe, just keep them dependent on Government. You'll get re-elected.

What a cogent point, DrillBaby. You should really be a political commentator.

You're every bit as on target as Rush Limbaugh.

That's a tough one. I think some of the cloth coat republicans are looking at these taxes with horror, but the rich ones are just going, "way to go Mitt!!"

Actually , He is in THE TOP % of 1%s !! He is 0.006% !!!!!!! He is WHATS KNOWN as UPPER CRUST !!!! He has NO IDEA what life is like for the 99% !!!!!

Just remember, the upper crust is just a bunch of crumbs sticking together.

TheRealChris, that would make a crumble! LOL!

This was a letter to the editor in my local paper. Thought it was appropriate here.

Editor,

The numbers for 2007 are the most recent available. The top 1 percent: Americans who earned an adjusted gross income of $410,096 or more accounted for 22.8 percent of all wages. But they paid 40.4 percent of total reported income taxes, an increase from 39.9 percent in 2006, according to the IRS.

The top 5 percent: Americans who earned $160,041 or more accounted for 37.4 percent of all wages in 2007. But they paid 60.6 percent of the country’s total reported income taxes, up from 60.1 percent a year earlier.

The top 10 percent: Americans who earned at least $113,018 paid 71.2 percent of the nation’s income taxes, up from 70.8 percent a year earlier.

The top 25 percent: Americans who earned at least $66,532 paid 86.6 percent of the nation’s income taxes, up from 86.3 percent a year earlier.

The top 50 percent: Americans who earned at least $32,879 paid 97.1 percent of the nation’s income taxes, up from 97 percent a year earlier.

The bottom 50 percent: Americans who earned less than $32,879 paid 2.9 percent of the nation’s income taxes, down from 3 percent a year earlier.

These numbers do not include the fact that the bottom 35 to 40 percent of wage earners actually receive more money back from the federal government in tax credits than they pay in every year.

High taxation of the top wage earners has already been tried in many states and the results prove the theory of “foot voting” dramatically. Wealthy New Yorkers fled in droves after Nelson Rockefeller “progressively” increased the New York tax rates to an incredible top rate of 15.37 in the mid-70’s. Bipartisan governors over the next 30 years cut that rate in half and have been credited for fixing the disaster that Rockefeller’s rates caused.

California today has hemorrhaged so many jobs due to businesses fleeing to lower taxed states that it was unable to process 2011 tax refunds for months because it was not able to bring enough money in to pay its bills. Those that don’t move put so much of their money in tax-sheltered accounts that the net result of the increase in practice has always resulted in lower revenues collected.

End of letter.

I'm not so concerned with what the top 1% are contributing. With taxes and charitable contributions, they are paying way more than their 'fair share'. I'm more worried about what the bongo drumming OWS people in Zuccotti Park are contributing. They are the ones yelling that the top 1% aren't paying enough. What are they contributing? The bottom 47% of Americans don't pay anything into the Federal Income Tax. Pretty sad if they're the ones yelling.

Here are some more recent numbers:

Bush tax cuts, stock market widen income gap

By Tami Luhby @CNNMoney January 4, 2012: 12:43 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The rich have gotten richer, thanks to the stock market and the Bush tax cuts, a recent report has found.

Growth in income from capital gains and dividends has widened the divide between the wealthy and the poor in recent years, according to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. It supplanted wage inequality as the primary driver of the growing income gap, which helped spur the Occupy Wall Street movement last fall.

• After-tax income for the top 1% of taxpayers soared 74%, on average, between 1996 and 2006. The top 0.1% benefited even more, nearly doubling their income over that decade.

By comparison, the bottom 20% of taxpayers saw their income fall by 6%, while the middle quintile experienced a meager 10% gain.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/03/news/economy/income_inequality/

AFTER-TAX INCOME GREW MORE FOR HIGHEST-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS

After-tax income for the highest-income households grew more than it did for any other group. (After-tax income is income after federal taxes have been deducted and government transfers—which are payments to people through such programs as Social Security and Unemployment Insurance—have been added.)

CBO finds that, between 1979 and 2007, income grew by:

• 275 percent for the top 1 percent of households,
• 65 percent for the next 19 percent,
• Just under 40 percent for the next 60 percent, and
• 18 percent for the bottom 20 percent.

The share of income going to higher-income households rose, while the share going to lower-income households fell.

• The top fifth of the population saw a 10-percentage-point increase in their share of after-tax income.
• Most of that growth went to the top 1 percent of the population.
• All other groups saw their shares decline by 2 to 3 percentage points.

MARKET INCOME SHIFTED TOWARD HIGHER-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS

Shifts in the distribution of market income underlie most of the changes in the distribution of after-tax income. (Market income—or income before taxes and transfers—includes labor income, business income, capital income, capital gains, and income from other sources such as pensions.)

• Each source of market income was less evenly distributed in 2007 than in 1979.
• More concentrated sources of income (such as business income and capital gains) grew faster than less concentrated sources (such as labor income).

GOVERNMENT TRANSFERS AND FEDERAL TAXES BECAME LESS REDISTRIBUTIVE

Government transfers and federal taxes both help to even out the income distribution. Transfers boost income the most for lower-income households, while taxes claim a larger share of income as people's income rises.

In 2007, federal taxes and transfers reduced the dispersion of income by 20 percent, but that equalizing effect was larger in 1979.

• The share of transfer payments to the lowest-income households declined.
• The overall average federal tax rate fell.

http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=12485

@TheRealChris,

I'm just going to say the following because I have to go to work tomorrow and actually contribute to this Nation. If your arguments are based on the CBO, then you have no argument. The CBO predicted that MediCare when enacted in the mid-1960's would cost 3 billion dollars. They said that 25 years later it would cost 12 billion dollars when in fact it cost over 60 billion dollars. The CBO was only off by a factor of 5. How much do think they are off with ObamaCare?

Go to the IRS website and look at the facts for 2007 Federal Income Taxes collected, not what the CBO says.

You sound like your teabagger politicans. When it's bad news the 'baggers discredit the CBO but when they like the CBO's news it's the word of God to them.

DrillBaby 2.4 : Why don't you go to Zuccotti Park and ask them ?

Robme debating Gingrich is like watching a bad liar debating good liar.

I like your analogy!

Ditto.

Mitt and Newt never heard the one about not arguing with an idiot because most people can't tell the difference.

The only people who could tell the difference are the ones that were old enough to vote at the time and know the truth about it.

Crackhead Awards

Ditto.

Mitt and Newt never heard the one about not arguing with an idiot because most people can't tell the difference.

Wish I said that.

Romney f***** up his political forms so they don't match his IRS filing.

Mitt's going to jail ... Mitt's going to jail ... Mitt's going to jail ...

HA HA HA HA HA HA !!!!!!!!! Thanks CRACKHEAD !!!!!!!

Yep.... the all Holy dollar is their TRUE GOD.

Crackheadawards, #1.1 Don't be too sure that mission is from God!

Good morning, Miss DScully! How are you?

Wow, my thoughts exactly, Nanette. Thanks. Who cares how much Mitt makes? I like Newt because he is a fighter! Crackhead, where do you get:

that the GOP is on a mission from god to deny rights to minority groups(1.1)?

afrommi: why do you "have a low opinion of Republicans now for the way they have been behaving in blogs"? I just haven't see abrasive behavior from most GOPers on this blog. Do you have any examples? Just wondering.

Happy birthday Ed, and thanks for providing this forum!

That's hard saying.If Romney does make the GOP ticket,they will more than likely vote for him.

Hi Capt.

I see you removed your question about my statements.

I got the rights thing from Bush.

• Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006; criminalizes undocumented workers

And Hoover.

• National Origins Act of 1929; outlaws Mexicans

And Ann Coulter.

• "I think there should be a literacy test and a poll tax for people to vote."

And Newt Gingrich

• "Give the park police more ammo." Explaining what to do about the homeless problem a few days after the police shot and killed a homeless person in front of the White House.

And Santorum

• "If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual [gay] sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. Does that undermine the fabric of our society? I would argue yes, it does."

And Ron Paul

• Paul describing black men in Washington, D.C.: "semi-criminal or entirely criminal."

And so on.

Capt, I care about Mitt's finances. I care about he got his money. I care that he off shored his money to avoid paying his share in taxes. I don't like Newt's nastiness at all. I don't think he has one ounce of morals and I don't believe he would even know what ethics even means.

What I wrote is what I think republicans think. I reckon you proved me right!

Oh Capt.

I forgot to remind everyone that these two GOP brain farts collapsed the economy.

• Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006; criminalizes undocumented workers

• National Origins Act of 1929; outlaws Mexicans

Real estate becomes more valuable when the population is increasing. Not the other way round.

Both caused housing abandonment and bank failures when Mexican immigrants stopped paying rent/mortgages after they left the country.

Reducing the population has predictable results.

Not sure why Republicans haven't yet figured that out.

@Capt

In defense of Crackhead Awards he forgot to mention that Santorum actually said "Bla" people should be denied federal money or benifits.

When everybody knows the vast majaority of people who get assistance are White and not 'Bla' people,

Plus let's face it if your a 'bla' person you cannot belong to Mitts chruch which is another reason people are 'distrustful' of Flip Robme.

Crackhead Awards

Reducing the population has predictable results.

Not sure why Republicans haven't yet figured that out.

I can. They're stupid.

Simple. Yet profound.

Nanette: Hi, my friend. You are right, Newt plays into their anger and latent racism and prejudices. He is like nuclear energy to the T-Party.

Newt has always been an inspiration. Trouble is, he mostly inspires opposition!

He will never win the candidacy. The base of the GOP is still very much a minority. We will be stuck with the lesser of the two evils: WILLARD the BORING. Well, we've seen "morning in America"; now we're seeing evening. Let's hope we don't see night in November. I think, personally, that reason will prevail and Obama will win.

I don't think the entire country has had a nervous breakdown. Just the fringe elements.

@Nanette

You also have to consider that Repugs are mostly negative and backward thinking, rather than positive forward thinking people like progressives.

Also there is that scientific study that was done that shows the area in the brain which responds to fear is larger in Conservatives than in progressives, which is why the fear-mongering that is so prevalent among the GOP is so effective.

If the GOP wants to motivate their base, they just have to scare the crap out of them with talk of terrorists and Obama leading the country into communism. Their base eats it up like pigs led to the trough.

That's why after that inspirational and upbeat message that President Obama gave on Tuesday which is what progressives respond to, Mitch Daniels followed it up with a scary story to replace any positive feelings their base might have accidentally started feeling with sheer terror for the future.

Let's face it... anyone who would support or vote for any of the losers on the GOP ticket, whether Robme or Newton.... have to be pretty damn dis-spirited with no hope for the future.

I saw that same study the result was that conservatives tend to see a existing threat that progressives don't see. It is an evolutionary trait that kept humans alive.

I cannot imagine having so much money that I wouldn't know where it was. Having that much money is just obscene!

MJB - It's called TAX EVASION !!!!!!

@Ted

That's the nasty little secret here, some billionaires such as the 'owner' of Campbell's soup lives in another country for six months out of the year in order to dodge paying taxes.

Mick Jagger does the same thing, he only spends half the year in England in order to avoid paying taxes to his own country.

There IS like 23 OOPS I FORGOTS !!!!!!! And He is running for PREZ ?!?!?!??? What else is HIDING ?!?!?? It must be HARD to make $57,000 A DAY , and STILL KEEP TRACK of ALL THOSE PESKY $$$$s COMING IN !!!!!!

Ted~ I KNOW it's tax evasion, but I want to know exactly what he did to get the money he's hiding! LOL He gets awfully twitchy whenever his money is mentioned! He couldn't possibly think he could keep it hidden, unless he thinks we're all as stupid as NEWT thinks we are.

ETHELOUISE - I thought MICK JAGGER was a BRIT due to his accent.You mean to tell me that he's an american citizen ?

MJB - He "stole" it from other businesses that were doing good or were they about to go BUST ?

If you mean Bain we know about that, but I just have a feeling it's something else. You can't have that much money and be on the up and up. He says it's all legal, but I'm not buying it.

Quick tally of the broad selection of G.O.P. presidential platforms this fine season.

• Romney == wants to legalize tax fraud like Al Capone
• Newt == unfaithful space cadet with a white-supremacy streak
• Paul == running on the pro-prostitution and pro-dope platform
• Santorum == gives me the creeps because he obsesses about bestiality out loud

Yup, that sums it up!

Anything to get our President out of office.

@Navresgirl

I hope your right, I freverently wish that the guys pumping the campaigns with money will soon run out. If they don't want to pay people a decent wage then they should not have to piss away money on controlling the government either.

The thing that I find so impressive is that wealthy people have not yet finished their calculus homework.

My bet is that it is going to take well over $1,000 per vote to elect a republican president this year by exploiting the P.T. Barnum phenomenon (a sucker is born every minute).

About 200 million voters.

Do the math.

Wealthy people have a total of about $1 trillion of uninvested capitol, and it would take at least 25% of that to accomplish what the GOP is trying to do.

That makes a GOP president possible but not likely.

The money makes this year way more entertaining than anything I've ever seen before.

#8.4: I agree with your analysis, Crackhead Awards. I did the math, too, and it just doesn't add up. It may not be "Morning in America" right now, but it isn't midnight either.

Run little Lemmings.

Run like the wind!

Run for the hills cliff.

Well, I guess we don't need Willard's money here.

We have so much foreign money flooding the Country, who needs it?

The r/tp's don't know and/or don't care.

#10.1 Kathe: Wouldn't that be the pits to discover that our GOP president was elected by, say, the Saudis. What a mess. Thank goodness, they will lose to Obama.

If the oil money pours in from overseas, and they would win (God forbid), to whom would the rotters be beholden?

dom335: I agree and that is the part that scares me. They'd actually vote for a man as mad as Newt Gingrich in an attempt to oust a fine president like Obama. The right-wing propaganda machine is really spinning gold these days.

Nancy Pelosi, whom I admire, said that Newt can not be president. She seems so sure and says she "knows" something. If so, I wish she'd spill it out! This political environment is so toxic, we need all the help we can get.

They're actually trying to keep President Obama OFF THE BALLOT in the state of Georgia! Wha..???? Looks like this country's old nemesis, racism, has reared its ugly head again.

ManuelAlvarado: They think they won't care, but once their 1% GOP candidate gets into office and starts to decimate their safety nets and further increase the deficit with tax cuts for their wealthy friends, the other 99% of the GOP will be crying the blues right along with the Democrats!

Vote Obama and get your young friends out with you to do the same. Gracias!

Truthfully,no.I wouldn't believe any of them even if my life depended on them.

They lie so much, a

republican comgresswoman said yesterday that Obama had impossed 4000 regulations last year. another said Obama hadn't put forth a budget in1000 days.

Both are flat out lies.

Last night on the Last Word with Larry - Pawlenty was a guest and he berated Obama for this 'class warfare' and how Obama is dividing the country.

Then Larry brought up how many jobs were saved when Obama bailed out GM and immediately Pawlenty went into this speech about the unions and how they fiancially supported Obama and how 'special deals' were made, I openly wondered if this idiot Pawlenty realised that he was doing the exact same thing he acused Obama was doing - class warfare bad mouthing the 'unions' somehow its wrong for us hardworking hourly wage people to get bailed out but okay for the top earners on wall street.

Pawlenty is a pipsqueak little @ss. I'm glad he ran out of money and dropped out early so we didn't have to listen to his mouth all these months. I can't stand that weasel!

I wish if these MSNBC comentators are going to have Republicans on they would at least call them out for the lies. Why give them an audiance to spread their lies?

They aren't as rude as Cavuto, Megyn Kelly, et al.

Then MSNBC tells its audience the truth....and then *you* decide.

I liked it today when a Republican said that things reported at tp rallies about Obama weren't true. At the conclusion, Chris Matthews said "You can't tell people they didn't see what they saw". A very cool way of saying......liar. <s>

I don't think that the MSNBC hosts let republicans by with anything. The viewers of MSNBC are wise enough to know lies when they hear it. The hosts let these goofballs on their shows just to let us know how ridiculous these people are. When Lawrence asked Pawlenty that question and he went off on the unions we all knew he was avoiding the real question. Lawrence let him show his unethical lies. He sure didn't fool anyone with his republican rhetoric.

larry74

I wish if these MSNBC comentators are going to have Republicans on they would at least call them out for the lies. Why give them an audiance to spread their lies?

I can actually answer that. It's because the network heads want the Republicans on. Olbermann and Uygur were let go because they wouldn't let the Republicans get away with anything.

Uygur was actually offered twice what he was making to just come on twice a week as a consultant, but he said if he couldn't say what he wanted to he wasn't interested.

I would never hold my breath on Romney ever going to jail. The rich never pay the price that an average person does.

baccuss ==He [romney] Will NOT Be Jailed = He Has Tooo Much Money !!!!!!! Therefore He Has An Entirely Different Set Of LAWS - Than WE Do !!!!!!!

Exactly MD/MI!

@Nanette

Republicans NEVER go to jail, but Democrats get unusually harsh sentences really long ones like years, Tom Deley being a prime example all he got was a 'couple ' of years and he has yet to actually go to jail.

Ethelouise I know exactly what you are saying. You are right.