by Greg Palast

He’s kidding, right? Did I just hear Mitt Romney say, “I would do nothing to hurt the US auto industry”

Really? REALLY?

Here’s the facts, ma’am:

As I reported in this week’s Nation magazine cover story “Mitt Romney’s Bail-out Bonanza,” the Romneys are in a special partnership with the vulture fund that bought Delphi, the former GM auto parts division.

The Romney vulture fund investment syndicate shipped every single UAW production job – EVERY job – to China.

Just after The Nation broke the story, Washington newsletter The Hill received the Romneys admission of profiteering:

“Romney’s campaign did not deny that he profited from the auto bailout in an email to The Hill, but it said the the report showed the Detroit intervention was ‘misguided.'”

The truth? On June 1, 2009, the Obama Administration announced that Detroit Piston’s owner Tom Gores, GM and the US Treasury would buy back Delphi. The plan called for saving 15 of 29 Delphi factories in the US.

Then the vulture funds pounced.

The Nation discovered that, in the two weeks immediately following the announcement of the Delphi jobs-saving plan, Paul Singer, Romney’s partner, secretly bought up over a billion dollars of old Delphi bonds for pennies on the dollar.

Singer and partners now controlled the company…and killed the return of Delphi to GM.

These facts were revealed in a sworn deposition of Delphi’s Chief Financial Officer John Sheehan, confidential, but now released on the web.

Sheehan said, under oath, that these speculators threatened to withhold key parts (steering columns), from GM. This would have brought the auto maker to its knees, immediately forcing GM’s permanent closure.

The extortion worked. The government money that was supposed to go to save jobs went to Singer’s hedge fund Elliott and its partners, including the Romneys.

Once Singer’s crew took control of Delphi, they rapidly completed the move to China, sticking the US taxpayers with the bill for the pensions of the Delphi workers cut loose.

Dan Loeb, a million-dollar donor to the GOP, who made three-quarters of a billion dollars off the legal scam, proudly announced that, once he and Elliott took control, Delphi kept “virtually no North American unionized labor”

In all, three hedge funds run by Romney’s million-dollar donors have pocketed $4.2 billion, a return on their “investment” of over 3,000%, all care of the US taxpayer. The Romneys personally earned minimum $15.3 million, though more likely $115 million – a range their campaign does not dispute.

Frankly, I’m no fan of the way Obama handled the Delphi bail-out. Allowing these speculators to crank the US taxpayers for $12.9 billion in subsidies – and losing almost all the auto parts jobs in the process.

But when I heard that Son of a …Detroit, Mr. Romney, tell us, “I would do nothing to harm the US auto industry,” I thought I’d lose my dinner. I suggest Romney repeat this directly to the Naylor family of Kokomo, Indiana.

Bruce Naylor lost his job at Delphi, then his health insurance (terminated by the Romney syndicate) – then his home to foreclosure.

Should Obama have done something about that? You bet. If I were the president, I’d have started with putting the vulture speculators out of business – including Elliott’s silent, hidden partner, one Mitt Romney.

And a question to the US media: HELLO, ANYBODY HOME?

This info on Romney’s profiteering and the shipping of Delphi jobs to China by his cronies is on the COVER of The Nation magazine and in a New York Times bestseller (Billionaires & Ballot Bandits). So, where is the New York ‘Paper of Record’? Or, for that matter, MSNBC?

Bill Press explained it to me when I was on his show this morning, “Sorry, Greg. There’s no more investigative reporting in America. No reporters, just repeaters.”

That’s why I fear Jimmy Carter’s statement that, “The American people deserve a president as good as they are.” Now I’m afraid that’s exactly what we’ll get.

Greg Palast is the author of the recently published New York Times Top 10 Bestseller Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps, which is available via Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Indie Bound. Author’s proceeds from the book go to the not-for-profit Palast Investigative Fund for reporting on voter protection issues.

[..]

by ChrisSick

The final debate, the final days, and all the horror that these things entail.

You know that feeling you sometimes get, like someone is slowly pushing an ice pick into your forebrain through your temple?

No?

Maybe it’s just me.

This campaign is almost over, now, and if the signs I’m getting from my pounding head are any indication, I’m clearly ready for it to be. Luckily, tonight is the last debate I had to stay up late watching and then writing about. Judging by my Twitter feed, and the various blogs and news websites I follow to get a sense of the media narrative, I’m not the only one who seems to give a much bigger shit about that than who actually won the debate.

If you’re curious, I’m pretty sure it was Obama, mainly because Fox News declared it was a tie and that’s usually a pretty reliable sign that the Democrat won.

More seriously, CBS just released their first snap poll flashing across my Twitter feed, indicating that the President won their survey by a massive, thirty-point margin (53% – 33% – 24% undecided). Just judging by a quick glance around the internets, it looks like this is now the quickly congealing media narrative — Obama won this debate.

In fact, I was struck most by how listless Romney seemed in comparison to previous debate performances. It was as though Ed Gillespie told him his job tonight was not to attack, but to focus on looking presidential. So mostly, he didn’t go after Obama as hard as he had previously, and just smirked a lot.

And agreed. A lot. In fact, both men agreed, with Obama praising previous policy positions Romney had staked out, only to then highlight how Romney had shifted away from them in the primary and general. Romney agreed with the President’s specific policies only to pivot away to attacks on vague and airy concerns about projecting weakness instead of strength, and apologies.

And after reading that paragraph you aren’t thinking of the line “and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom” just go ahead and picture it in your head. The whole thing was a lot like that.

When the dust settles, beyond the instant reaction, the bigger questions that come out of tonight will be how it affects the polls heading into the final two weeks. Given the short span of time between the last debate and tonight, and the overall volatility of the race, a clear consensus never emerged of what — if any — effect last week’s debate had on the electoral race.

Just today, Real Clear Politics average of polling opened with a 0.2% lead for Obama, that became a tie, then a 0.4% lead for Romney as new polling data came in throughout the day. At no point over the last three days has any candidate lead by more than half-a-point.

Fivethirtyeight, on the other hand, is showing Obama regaining ground very slowly, but steadily, now giving him a 69% chance to win the election. That’s up significantly from the immediate reaction after the debacle in Denver, but much reduced from the point when the prediction was edging towards a 90% certainty.

One of the most interesting polling results — widely touted by Republicans — from the previous debate was that, although Obama won, voters shifted towards thinking Romney was better suited to handle the economy and the Federal budget. Combined with the messiness of the polls in the wake of the Long Island debate, it’s hard to see what the President necessarily won by winning.

If the previous debates have taught us anything, it’s that the media narrative following the debate is going to be more important than the actual debate. This is an important topic that’ll see deeper consideration in later posts starting this week. These last two weeks will grind out, as the candidates go back to stump speeches and hold as many events as they possibly can in the final days. We might even get lucky and hear some more ridiculous stories about how badly members of Romney’s family want to beat up the President.

As in any election, though, the most interesting day is the next one. The President won tonight, and if the media narrative shapes up the way it looks like it’s headed right now, he may see a bounce that could sustain him all the way up to a win on Election Day. But given where his numbers were just thirty days ago compared to where they are now, I’m reminded of William Gibson talking about how he would feel now if he were to meet his younger self:

“I’d buy him a drink, but I don’t know if I’d loan him any money.”

Barack Obama will probably still be your President three weeks from now, but the getting there stopped being any fun quite some time ago. Which is usually a sign that it’s time to go to bed.

Meme @DellCam

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by Lee Camp

Have you been abducted by ET’s? Have you spotted Bigfoot? Then you might have more than you realize in common with Paul Ryan and Michelle Bachmann. Check out the video to see what I mean.

[..]

by David Seaman

As I pointed out on my illustrious Twitter stream earlier today, MSNBC has literally gotten to the point where their bottom-of-the-screen Chyron declares that Obama “owned” Romney in the debates (very journalistic, guys!), while a quick pass over to ideological arch-rival FOX News shows basically the exact opposite: Romney. Strong. Leader. Family Man. Whatever.

The cable networks are vampires screaming as the light hits their overly make-upped, ideologically whored out faces.

You can’t avoid the light.

Rather than being lied to by television news “personalities” with little control over their own programming, it’s time to wise up, own up, and pursue those that are committed to telling you the truth. Here are some of my personal favorites. Follow all of them if you prefer truth to lies.

Abby Martin – RT America’s Breaking The Set

This ruthless truth slinger delights in slamming multi-billion dollar biotech conglomerates, corporate corruption, military-industrial complex lies, and everything else wrong with (mostly beautiful) America. With journalists like Martin at the helm of their own TV shows, we might actually be able to reverse the rot and fix some of the problems here at home. Follow @AbbyMartin and watch the show over at youtube.com/breakingtheset, unless your cable provider has RT America, in which case watch her at 6 PM EST on weekdays.

Ben Swann – Fox 19

Ben Swann is the proverbial mainstream media badass. He’s an impeccable broadcaster who has never sold out to hyperbole, lies, or corporate pressure. Follow @Fox19BenSwann and watch his show at youtube.com/user/BenSwannRealityCheck. He is one of the few, if not the only US journalist, to question President Obama on-camera about the NDAA’s imprisonment without trial provisions.

Joe Rogan

A podcast heavyweight and a public intellectual with some interesting day jobs (Fear Factor and UFC host). Subscribe to the nearly 3-hour long “Joe Rogan Experience” on iTunes, Stitcher, or go over to joerogan.net. Seriously one of the better life decisions you will ever make. You’re welcome.

Glenn Greenwald

Well, here’s an excerpt from Greenwald’s bio: “Glenn Greenwald is a columnist on civil liberties and US national security issues for the Guardian. A former constitutional lawyer, he was until 2012 a contributing writer at Salon.” This fearless man of letters is everything right with online media. Follow @ggreenwald and go to guardian.co.uk/profile/glenn-greenwald constantly.

Amber Lyon – Former CNNer

Amber Lyon keeps it real @AmberLyon, championing Freedom of Speech issues and campaigning against the NDAA. A three time Emmy Award winning journalist, Amber is fearless in her protest coverage, be it in Anaheim or Bahrain. She has been crushed, pepper sprayed, and shot at during the course of her work. A media empire is coming soon.

Suicide Girls

But you knew that already.

[..]

by Lee Camp

Could someone who is running for President of the United States, who will be on the ballot in 85% of the nation this November, be arrested AT a presidential debate without you even hearing about it?? Is such a thing possible? And if so, who is it that’s keeping it a secret? Well, it happened on Tuesday night. And if you already know about it, you’re one of the very few.

[..]

by Steven Whitney

As Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan relentlessly pursue further tax cuts for the top 2% and finagle ways to cut back (or completely jettison) Medicare, Social Security, and myriad other services for the 98%, a few facts and common sense correlations should be considered.

According to economists at the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics, in 2007 the six heirs to Sam Walton (founder of Walmart) had a net worth equal to the bottom 30% of Americans. Since then, the rich have gotten even richer. When our economy went into the toilet, average families lost 39% of their wealth while business for discount super-chains like Walmart soared, as did wealth for the 1%. As a result, new data from the Federal Reserve suggests that the six Waltons now hold as much wealth as the bottom 41.2%. With the US population right now at just over 314 million, those 6 siblings combined have more wealth than the bottom 130 million.

Stop for a moment and think about that. Six individual people who didn’t build anything have more combined net worth than 130 million other Americans altogether.

As Bernie Sanders revealed on the Senate Floor, the top 1% now own more than 50% of our nation’s wealth. The next 19% of high earners own more than 44%. That means that the top 20% own more than 94% of all American wealth while the lower 80% of Americans have less than a 6% share of the pie.

Even more alarming, right now 93% of all new income in America goes to the top 1%, leaving 310 million citizens to scramble after the remaining 7%.

The fuel accelerating this unjust and massive inequality of wealth distribution is the GOP tax policy from 1981 onward: cut income, corporate, and estate taxes for the rich, raise taxes on and cut services for the poor and middle class, and borrow money for the War on Terror. Do anything at all as long as the rich don’t have to pay for it.

Last year, the top 1% had an average tax base of 16.2% (Romney’s, of course, was lower), compared to the 39% they paid during most of the Clinton Presidency – a Democratic administration that turned a huge Reagan/Bush debt into a surplus largely by taxing the rich a progressive but fair rate.

This frightening gap in wealth distribution widened exponentially during the “W” years, when middle class rates went up, on average, from about 20% to 28% while taxes for the 1% were cut in half and more loopholes were added.

Suddenly, teachers, police, firemen and the entire middle class were paying a higher percentage on their income tax than the 1%. On average, these tax cuts for the rich helped quadruple the wealth of the top 1%. Yet while multiplying their net worth, corporations and the 1% stopped hiring, ostensibly so they would have time to count their money. During W’s last year in office, the nation lost an average of 850,000 jobs per month. None of our nation’s wealth “trickled down.” All of it “trickled up.”

And yet the GOP wants everyone to believe that if only the rich were richer, and the rest of us shared increasingly smaller pieces of the pie, all of America’s economic problems would be solved.

Yeah, right.

The Debt

As of October 12th, the National Debt is just over $16.2 trillion.

The TARP rescue plan gave our six biggest banks over $700 billion. But that’s not all. It was only recently revealed that to stimulate the economy and lower unemployment, the Federal Reserve gave banks another $16 trillion. The banks, of course, got richer, but didn’t free up access to vital consumer loans until the Obama administration pushed them into a corner.

Of course, it was those very banks and their recklessly criminal behavior that caused the current recession, but they were “too big to fail.” Or were they too rich to fail?

Take that 700 billion, add it to the 16 trillion, and give it to our creditors instead and the debt would be completely wiped out. . . with 500 billion, less interest, left over.

Money Politics

Anyone who has been even barely conscious the last six months knows that a lot of billionaires are spending a lot money on SuperPACs in this election. For them, it might not be so much about politics as it is an important part of their overall business plan.

Starting with Charles and David Koch, two of most ethically-challenged men on the planet; The brothers are second-generation oil barons who don’t want any regulatory agency looking over their shoulders, don’t want minimum wage standards, don’t want lawsuits from the toxic damage they spread as casually as farmers toss seeds on their fields, and a lot of other petty nuisances. One can certainly understand their perspective – with rules and regulations in place, the two brothers have made only $45 billion in their family business. And they want, perhaps even need, more. Indeed, Charles has more than once been heard to say: “I want it all.”

In cahoots with Karl Rove and Fox News, they fund SuperPACs and “scholarly” foundations to push their business interests, most often distributing wildly false disinformation. Early on, they secretly funded and helped organize the Tea Party and their extreme ideologies with one caveat: that the wingnuts didn’t oppose or interfere with the billionaires’ business plans.

Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson backed Newt Gingrich’s run in the primary with tens of millions of dollars. Now that Gingrich is gone, he’s doubled down on Romney to the tune of hundreds of millions. When asked why, he answered candidly that he is in both civil and criminal jeopardy for business practices at his Macau gaming properties. A Romney administration, he offers, would be more conducive to helping him escape his legal woes. And besides, he’s so wealthy ($24 billion) the Romney tax decrease for the rich would save him an immediate $2 billion in taxes. So like the Kochs, he gives money – to buy influence and policy, stay out of prison, and make even more money – in the same way Al Capone greased the palms of Chicago police and politicians.

But Capone was small potatoes compared to the Kochs and Adelson, who use Citizens United – which they also backed – to make unlimited donations solely to give their businesses free and unrestricted reign. For them, mega-donations in the billions are just the cost of doing business.

That they are collaterally supporting the Tea Party and the Religious Right doesn’t matter to them in the least. After all, they don’t have to live with those lunatics or suffer any of the consequences their extreme policies would inflict upon the rest of us. The Kochs and Adelson live in another world that now actually has a name – the Global Superclass, a race of superior beings reminiscent of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses of ancient times, living in the mountains or sky above, looking down at we mere and foolish mortals. It’s a world where money can buy anything and narcissists like these don’t have to abide by any one nation’s laws because they are above the concept of sovereignty. They are an autonomous entity of their own – so why can’t they make up their own rules. . . and have it all?

The Real Miss Moneypenny

Somewhere in the past four years, Sarah Palin picked up a real taste for money. Maybe it was all the designer wardrobes the GOP bought her for the 2008 campaign that apparently started her addiction – like a playground dealer giving kids free tastes of paradise until they’re hooked and have to pay.

And when poor Sarah had to start paying for her luxuries, she attacked the problem like the lipsticked bulldog we all admire – garnering million dollar contracts with Fox for television and HarperCollins for books, and millions more gathered from speaking engagements booked by the Washington Speakers Bureau.

But as her star waned in a night sky filled with new stars, other ventures were needed to keep her in the money. So a SuperPAC was created and raised millions of dollars solely for the greater good of Sarah, who relentlessly teased her admirers with vague but seductive hints at a run for the White House. Some of that money funded her gaffe-filled bus tour. And a little more was spent helping host Tea Party events. But that was pretty much it.

So what happened to the rest of the SarahPAC millions? Was it donated to charitable causes? Did she give it to other GOP candidates?

Or did she keep it?

Under SuperPAC regulations, she could have exercised any of those three options. But we heard not a word about the first two. No charity thanked her for ponying up some needed cash and no other candidates expressed their gratitude to Sarah for bulking up their campaign coffers.

If she took the remaining money, she’s right in step with a GOP that runs both real and false campaigns to dovetail with personal income goals. And according to the very loose rules of SuperPACs, it’s not even illegal.

But was it wrong for Sarah to literally scam her biggest, most misguided fans – the people who believed in her the most – out of so much money?

You betcha!

Related Posts:

Interview: Greg Palast – Billionaires And Ballot Bandits
Non-Chemical Dependency
Political Ramblings And Random Thoughts
From Death And Despair. . . Dreams Can Soar
Modest Solutions To Voter Suppression
Character. . . And The RNC
The Do-Damage Congress: Who’s Responsible?
Worse Than A Do Nothing Congress
Forget The Barbeque On Labor Day – It’s Time To Take Care Of Business
Chicken Shits: The Slippery Slopes of Chick-fil-A
The Vagina Solution
Fighting Back Part 4: The Big Liar, Intimidation And Revenge
Fighting Back Part 3: Fighting Fire With Fire
When The Past Is Prologue
Fighting Back Part 2: Defining Rovian Politics
Fighting Back
The Electoral Scam
Being Fair
Occupy Reality
Giving. . . And Taking Back
A Tale Of Two Grovers
A Last Pitch For Truth
America: Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.
Gotcha!

by ChrisSick

Good news, everybody!

I get to keep my job as SuicideGirls’ resident screaming partisan ax-grinder. In my last post, I predicted that:

“This debate will be interesting, and my prediction…is that Obama will be able to successfully fight Mitt Romney to a draw at the very least. He understands the stakes, and has had ten days to analyze his weaknesses, as well as his opponent’s. Failure to achieve at least a draw could potentially be fatal for his election prospects.”

At absolute worst, the President fought Gov. Romney to a fairly bloody draw on stage tonight. At times, it looked like it might get literally bloody as both men interrupted frequently, spoke over each other, accused the other of lying, and moved quickly towards each other across the open stage to make aggressive rhetorical challenges. On numerous occasions the debate was less like a boxing metaphor and more like an actual match.

I, being the reasonable, informed, voting citizen that I am, kept shouting, “FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” until the neighbors called the police.

For openly-partisan hacks like me, there aren’t typically many moments in a tightly-fought debate that you can easily point to and say, “See that? That’s where my guy won.” But when the audience applauded after Obama corrected Romney over his characterization of Libya, it was one such moment.

The big takeaway is that Obama did what he had to do: he showed up. He stopped the damage from the Denver debate cold, and built on the good work Crazy Uncle Joe did last week against Paul Ryan. I don’t want to harp on about what Obama accomplished and leave readers with the impression that Romney didn’t do a fine job in his role.

Gov. Romney continued to look Presidential, and will, of course, continue to benefit from being on stage with the President. As opposed to how he spent most of the last decade, as one of many lunatics on stage being cheered on by rednecks for suggesting that we let people without health insurance die. Oh, did you forget about that?

As it turns out, the President did not. He did all but straight-up ask Romney which Romney would be debating tonight. There were frequent references to positions that Romney has changed, with Obama going back into the far past of the end of summer to remind voters of Romney’s serial flip-flopping.

And if you spent the last debate anxiously lifting a shot glass full of tequila to your lips, only to be disappointed when no one brought up Romney’s 47% line, Obama finally snuck it in during his closing remarks:

“I believe Governor Romney is a good man. Loves his family, cares about his faith. But I also believe that when he said behind closed doors that 47 percent of the country considered themselves victims who refuse personal responsibility, think about who he was talking about.”

It was pitch-perfect timing, and showed great rhetorical skills to bring up the line in a non-accusatory way, surely pleasing the base — who are always looking to see blood drawn — and the more strategic supporters who worry about the President going all-in on class warfare/populist rhetoric. He managed to avoid either extreme yet worked the line, and did it when Romney would have no chance to respond or defend.

Romney, for his part, was at his best when highlighting Obama’s failure to live up to his own promises and when he listed the negative characteristics of the current economy. Mitt loves many things, but he particularly loves lists of how bad Obama is doing. And it was a good moment for him, proceeded directly by him bumbling through foreign policy, getting smacked by Obama. And the moderator. And the audience.

That was the turning point.

When Mitt Romney went after the President on Libya, Obama flipped the switch. He stopped being candidate Obama, and stepped into being President Obama. He answered strong and forcefully, called Romney out on a lie, and wielded the power and dignity of his office. That’s a hard stance for any opponent to attack, but even harder when your aim is to go as low as possible. Romney called the President a liar, and was instantly corrected by Obama, then Crowley, and then the audience, who responded with the aforementioned nominally prohibited applause. Within minutes, Democrats were trending #RomneyExposed on Twitter.

Mitt didn’t really get his grove back after that.

Early polling from CBS News has Obama winning by 7 points, 37% to Romney’s 30%, with 33% undecided. It will not be hard — with a third of respondents unsure — for Republicans to spin this as a close tie. Which is the best you can hope for if you’re a Democrat looking for proof your guy won.

The bigger question is what will this do to the polls. There’s clear evidence that the substantial bounce Romney had gotten from his win in Denver was already starting to flatten out before tonight’s debate. In part, the President can thank his Veep for that, in part a bounce generally remains a bounce, and requires work to build on it, something neither campaign could devote much energy to with all their time focused on the next debate.

Polling being what polling is, we won’t know the effect of the debate until week’s end, and before we even have time to catch our breath, we’ve got the final Presidential debate scheduled for next Monday. In the meantime, Democrats are already seizing on any and all good news they can find, so they’re pointing people to the shift towards Obama on Intrade. Which is also good news for me, since I don’t just write about elections, I bet heavily on them.

There’s twenty days left before we go to vote, and I’m taking any and all action I can get my hands on people. Line forms to the left, have your money at the ready.

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