Maher: The Silliest Part of Putting God on Money is It's Redundant 14SEP12

BLUNT and honest, Bill Maher hits the nail on the head when he discusses the hypocrisy of having God on our money because for so many their god is money. He throws it right in the face of all the religious adherents of the rick warren and pat robertson the mega churches and the hypocritical right wing evangelicals who preach the gospel of greed, not the gospel of Jesus and his teachings concerning the needs of the least among us. As Maher says, mitt romney's (and is supporter's) god can't be found in any American church because it is in the Cayman Islands and Zurich. Check out this video via CrooksAndLiars....

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/maher-silliest-part-putting-god-money-its-r

Romney party yacht ‘Cracker Bay’ flies Cayman Islands flag in Tampa & Cap'n Mitt and the Pirates of Cracker Bay 29AUG12 & 7SEP12

FLAUNTING his wealth and his off shore tax haven bank accounts mitt romney's yacht "cracker bay", a name reflecting mitt's sense of humor referencing all us common people, flies the flag of the Cayman Islands while in Tampa. Those attending the romney fund raiser on board didn't seem to have any problem with handing over their money to purchase their presidential candidate on board his foreign flagged boat, offering proof of whose interest he will represent if elected. 

By David Edwards

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign on Wednesday partied with wealthy donors on a 150-foot yacht that flies the flag of the Cayman Islands, according to an ABC News report.
Members of the Romney Victory Council, who have each raised more than $1 million for the candidate, mingled with Romney’s brother, Scott, and other relatives in Tampa aboard the luxury yacht “Cracker Bay.”
While they waited outside the unadvertised event, ABC News snapped photos of the Cayman Islands civil ensign flag flying on the yacht’s stern.
Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) was reportedly scheduled to speak to the more than 50 people attending.
“It was a really nice event,” billionaire energy industry executive Wilbur Ross told the network. “These are good supporters.”
Romney came under fire earlier this year when it was revealed that he had millions stashed in the Cayman Islands, a notorious tax haven. In August, Vanity Fair reported that Romney still had a personal stake in at least 12 of Bain Capital’s Cayman Island funds, worth up to $30 million.
The candidate recently insisted to Fox News host Chris Wallace that “there was no reduction — not one dollar reduction — in taxes by virtue of having an account in Switzerland or a Cayman Islands investment.”
“I think it’s ironic they do this aboard a yacht that doesn’t even pay its taxes,” a woman who lives at the marina where Cracker Bay is moored told ABC News.
Watch this video from ABC News, broadcast Aug. 29, 2012.
Photo: Flickr/Daniel Cornwall]

[Correction: An earlier version of the report incorrectly identified Fox News host Chris Wallace]
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/29/romney-party-yacht-cracker-bay-flies-cayman-islands-flag-in-tampa/ 

Cap'n Mitt and the Pirates of Cracker Bay

Ever since humans first took to the sea, pirates have inexplicably vanished and reappeared along our coasts and waterways.  Who were those mysterious figures who appeared along the mist-shrouded docks and beaches of Tampa Bay during last week's Republican Convention?  While all eyes were on the Democrats, we decided to find out.
Pirates are often portrayed as a festive lot, so our investigation began with an ABC News report of an event where corporate campaign donors were lavishly entertained by The Commodores, whose hit "Brick House" captivated 70's-era dancers with its hypnotic chorus --
Chick-a-maw, chick-a-maw, chick-a-maw-maw,
Chick-a-maw, chick-a-maw, chick-a-MAW-maw!
-- and the extra syllables and syncopated pauses added to selected word:"She's a ba-rick" --(pause) -- "house/she's mighty mighty just lettin' it all hang out ....
It is a wondrous thing to watch rich white people getting down -- trust me, I know -- and many a groove thing was undoubtedly shaken at the Commodores event, where Sen. John Cornyn of Texas thanked donors from Blue Cross Blue Shield, AFLAC, and AT&T. Each has financial interests affected by the law known as "Obamacare."
But boogieing and piracy are not the same thing, so our search continued. Elsewhere in Tampa a conservative group called the American Access Network sold access to elected officials "advertised the chance to mingle with members of Congress and senior staff at an arena skybox overlooking the convention floor for $30,000," according to ABC. And even better offers were available:
"Full access to the group's intimate luncheons and hot ticket concerts were open to their biggest supporters -- those who gave $250,000."
As the Commodores might say: Yeeowww!
Unethical? Sure. But piracy? We weren't sure. The trail grew warmer when we learned about the yacht party thrown by a Florida developer for "bundlers" who had raised $1 million or more for Mitt Romney's campaign.  ABC reports that more than fifty people were entertained aboard the Cracker Bay, a yacht flying the ensign of the Cayman Islands, where the American-owned vessel was registered.
As the astute reader may have already noted, the boat shares its nationality with a big chunk of Mitt Romney's money.
We wondered at the use of the name "Cracker," a derisive Southern term for white males, since that appeared to be the primary's demographic group represented at these affairs. Were these wealthy men mocking their poorer counterparts, who are sometimes disparaged with the term? But another GOP patron professed ignorance when reached aboard his boat, the SS Peckerwood.
"We let the help name our boats," he explained.  
In true piratical fashion, guests aboard the Cracker Bay attempted to conceal their identity, in this case by covering up their name tags as they boarded the boat. But reporters observed  Texas oil heir Charlie Moncrief, whose family saga would put Dallas to shame.
Another guest was ultra-right real estate investor Melvin Sembler, who earned notoriety for running a sadistic and exploitative string of youth "rehabs."  It would ruin the lighthearted tone of this piece to describe the horrors which STRAIGHT, Inc. inflicted on young people, so we'll leave the  horrifying details to Alternet and the Institute for Policy Studies instead.
Self-respecting pirates would be ashamed to be associated with the likes of Mel Sembler, who bought himself the ambassadorships to Australia and Nauru under George H. W. Bush and the Italian ambassadorship under George W. Bush. Which ambassadorship might Sembler purchase under a Romney Administration? The U.N.? The moon?
Then there's Cracker Bay "captain" Gary Morse. Morse owns the development company behind "The Villages," a string of "master-planned" retirement communities in Florida.   Florida's unusual "special taxing district" regulations allow private corporations like Disney to usurp government functions, including taxation, while exempting themselves from most government regulations. (Mystery writer Carl Hiassen has written a nonfiction book called Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World which addresses Disney's misuse of these laws).
"The Villages" are governed by "Community Development Districts" -- most of which are controlled by Morse himself. From a comprehensive and compelling Bloomberg report:

Morse controls almost every facet of life at the Villages... On a 33-square-mile parcel... he's built and sold more than 44,000 homes... created 39 golf courses and developed 4.5 million square feet of commercial space, including two hotels, 60 restaurants and two movie theaters... Morse owns the local newspaper, a television channel and an AM radio station... (his) commercials have been fixtures on the Golf Channel. His bank lends to retirees fleeing south; his insurance company provides them coverage. He even gets paid to pick up the trash and organize tee times.

It's like something out of The Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan's surrealistic 1960s television series on the BBC. "Be seeing you!"  How does Morse do it?  Bloomberg explains: "Morse... has become one of America's wealthiest real estate tycoons with the help of tax-exempt municipal bonds issued by special government entities he's created to fund the expansion of the Villages."
Traditional pirates operate outside government control, often in self-governed areas which anarchy theorists sometimes describe with the acronym "TAZ" (for "Temporary Autonomous Zone").  But if pirates have typically been "non-state actors," Morse hijacks government itself and exploits them to expand his own wealth.  In other words, he's a lot like Mitt Romney and other wealthy Republicans: They gripe about the cost of government, even as they exploit it to enrich themselves at public expense.
"Special taxing districts" are a microcosm of the para-piratical dystopia Republicans would create for the entire country, where corporate rule is supreme and democracy is as faint a memory as oceangoing corsairs.
Bloomberg reports that Morse's empire includes "four jet planes -- including a 21-seat Dassault Falcon 900 and two 22-seat Dassault Mystere-Falcon 50s, which can fly 3,623 miles without refueling." That sounds like the makings of a fleet.  Was there a secret global flotilla of conservative bandit ships ringing the world's oceans?  To help us find out, local informants arranged a secret meeting with a figure known to us only as "Cap'n Mitt." In the minutes just before dawn, a schooner emerged as if by magic from the mists off Tampa Bay.
The pirate ship's rigging creaked in the salty breezes as an ageless figure, his ample hair and square jaw strangely familiar beneath his eyepatch and sailor's hat, peered at us from the fog-shrouded deck.
"Are you a Republican?" we asked him. "Aye," he said tersely. From the crow's nest high above us, a dog barked. "But are you a pirate?"  He chuckled.  "Well, we don't run from government, we own it. But what do Republicans do then?" he asked rhetorically. "We privatize public services." I waited. "And what's another word for 'pirate'?" He paused for dramatic effect.
"'Privateer,'" he answered himself with a smirk.

"Is the Cracker Bay part of your fleet?" He nodded.
"What part of the Republican Platform appeals to the rich men who fly your flag?" we asked.  "Is it the return to the lawless days of deregulation?" He chuckled. "That pleases them mightily," he said.  "What about taking away government agencies' ability to protect people from corporate predators?"  He smiled. "Aye," he said, "that does too."
"But how do you explain this piracy to the voters?"
He chuckled, then cast off for deep waters. The ghostly ship was already fading back into the mist-shrouded deep as he said "Everybody loves a party." He smiled enigmatically. "So we pretend they're invited to ours." I shouted my final words as the ship began to vanish into the mist: "But they're not!  That's  obvious by now! What can you possibly say to sell a program like that?"

The now-invisible buccaneer chuckled. "With enough money and media power behind me, all I have to say is ... "  The unseen freebooter's voice echoed across the fog-shrouded waves: "... chick  a maw, chick a maw maw! Yeoww!"
And with that his vessel disappeared, never again to be seen by human eyes or revealed by campaign disclosure laws.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/capn-mitt-and-the-pirates_b_1866158.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications

Bermuda, Jamaica...We Demand the Truth Mitt Romney 11JUL12

IF rich people use their money to create jobs in the U.S. why is mitt romney's money in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Switzerland? With the nation struggling to recover from the recession a patriotic American, especially a rich one, ESPECIALLY one who wants to be president, should be investing his money in companies creating jobs in the U.S., not hiding it overseas. mitt romney needs to come clean about his finances and release more than one year of tax returns so the American people can see if the candidate who campaigns for benefits and protections of rich job creators actually practices what he preaches. Click the link to sign the petition...

Pop quiz: Who was the first presidential candidate to disclose their tax records?

I'll give you a hint, odds are you're familiar with his son.

It was George Romney, Mitt Romney's father.

George Romney released 12 years worth of tax returns to the American people when he ran for president. Since then, presidential candidates -- Republicans and Democrats -- have followed his lead and released multiple tax records for public scrutiny.

All presidential candidates, except one.

Mitt Romney has only released one year of records after persistent pressure. It raises the question: What does Mitt Romney have to hide?

Voters deserve to know.

Sign our petition demanding that Mitt Romney release his tax return to the public -- and we'll deliver every signature we gather directly to Romney's campaign HQ in Boston in front of the press.

Romney has some explaining to do:

• Romney admits he has huge amounts of money in offshore bank accounts -- but won't say how much money, how many accounts, or where they all are
   
• Vanity Fair reports that Romney set up shell companies in Bermuda and tax shields in the Cayman Islands and Swiss Bank accounts
   
• And just this week, Romney's campaign said it was "unseemly and disgusting" for people to scrutinize his tax returns and business holdings

Unseemly? Disgusting? It's the same thing every presidential candidate has done since 1968. Everyone except Mitt Romney. So, we have to ask: What's he hiding?

Tell Mitt Romney to come clean with the American public.

Thank you for everything that you do.

-Michael

Michael Langenmayr, Political Director
Democracy for America

What Would Jesus Tax? from SOJO 14APR11

JUST imagine if we had elected officials with the courage to present and pass a moral budget, one that required the wealthy and corporate America to pay it's fair share, one that ended corporate welfare and cone that challenged the power of the military-industrial complex and made real, necessary cuts to the Pentagon budget.....

photo © 2011 John Morgan | more info (via: Wylio)In the face of state and federal budget cuts, many of us have been fasting and contemplating the question: “What would Jesus cut?“ In light of tax day, however, we might equally contemplate: “What would Jesus tax?”
After all, a great deal of our budgetary stress is the result of declining revenue, thanks to the economic downturn and decades of tax cuts.
A new report that I co-authored, “Unnecessary Austerity,” argues that before we make draconian budget cuts at the federal and state level, we should reverse huge tax cuts for the wealthy and tax dodging corporations.
The Jesus I know would be concerned about the extreme inequalities of wealth and power that have emerged in our communities. He would rail against principalities and powers that rig the tax rules so the privileged pay less.
He would lament the destruction of God’s creation through excessive consumption and pollution. And, he would be alarmed about financial and commodity speculation driving up the cost of food and worsening hunger. (In today’s world of high finance, someone would be hedging investments on how quickly Jesus could multiply loaves and fishes.)
In my recent Sojourners magazine article, “Taxes and the Common Good“, I argue that new “sin taxes” should focus on discouraging financial speculation and environmental destruction — while reducing the huge canyon between rich and poor. A good first step would be to reverse some of the more irresponsible tax breaks of the last generation.
When we hear our lawmakers lament that “we’re broke,” consider this fact: If corporations and households with $1 million income paid at the same levels they did in 1961, the Treasury would collect an additional $716 billion a year — or $7 trillion over a decade.
There are two important explanations behind our current budget “squeeze.” First, income and wealth have become extremely concentrated in the hands of the super wealthy. The richest 1 percent of households own more than 35.6 percent of all private wealth — approximately $20 trillion. The number of households with incomes exceeding $1 million has grown from 15,753 in 1961 to 361,000 today, adjusted for inflation. Meanwhile, the middle-class standard of living is collapsing and poverty rates are at a 15-year high.
Second, we’ve dramatically reduced taxes on the wealthiest households and global corporations. Congress and special interest lobbyists have made mincemeat of our tax code, losing hundreds of billions in revenue. Worse, lawmakers have averted their eyes as corporate lobbyists drill new tax loopholes and extract new corporate welfare subsidies.
That’s how a profitable company like General Electric legally and aggressively avoids taxes. Since 2006, General Electric has reported over $26 billion in profits, yet paid not one penny in U.S. taxes.
Other huge global companies such as Verizon, Boeing, ExxonMobil, and Federal Express also pay no or very low taxes. In his new book Treasure Islands, journalist Nicholas Shaxson describes how these artful tax dodgers use accounting gymnastics to move money to overseas tax havens like the Cayman Islands or Ireland. They pretend to earn their profits offshore and then report their paper losses here in the United States — reducing their responsibility to the commonweal.
Our “Unnecessary Austerity” report identifies over $4 trillion in potential revenue over the next decade. Closing offshore tax havens could generate an estimated $100 billion a year. Adding new top tax brackets for millionaires could generate another $60-80 billion. Instituting a financial transaction tax could generate $150 billion a year.
No doubt, we will need to reduce government expenditures in a responsible way. There are some farm subsidy programs and military expenditures I have on my list. But if our lens is entirely focused on the expenditure side of the equation, we’re going to miss a huge part of the solution. The prophetic Jesus would turn our head in another direction.
Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies where he directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good. He is co-author, with Mary Wright, of The Moral Measure of the Economy (Orbis Books) and with Bill Gates Sr. of Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes (Beacon).