Flap Your Lips Friday
Posted by Michelle Moquin on May 18th, 2012
Good morning!
Mitt Romney Bain Capital Record Targeted By Obama Campaign
President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign on Monday morning opened a new front in its election faceoff with presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney, releasing documentary-style videos and a full website portraying Romney as a job-destroying corporate takeover artist.
The Obama campaign put out a two-minute video and a six-minute video featuring interviews with former workers at GST Steel, a company acquired by Romney’s private equity firm Bain Capital in 1993. GST shut down its Kansas City plant in 2001, costing about 750 workers their jobs.
The Obama campaign has also launched a website, RomneyEconomics.com, which focuses on GST and two other companies that went bankrupt after Bain acquired them: Dade International, a medical diagnostics equipment firm, and Stage Stores, a chain of small-town department stores.
That means there are likely to be more videos such as the ones released today focusing on GST.
For now, the Obama campaign will be airing the two-minute ad in Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Virginia, the campaign said. The six-minute video can only be seen online.
The campaign describes GST this way on RomneyEconomics.com:
Kansas City’s GST Steel was a successful company that had been making steel rods for 103 years when Mitt Romney and his partners took control in 1993. They cut corners and extracted profit from the business at every turn, placing it deeply in debt. When the company eventually declared bankruptcy, workers were denied their full pensions and health insurance, and the federal government was forced to step in and bail out the pension fund.
When Reuters wrote about GST in January, Romney spokesman Ryan Williams offered this comment: “Bain Capital invested in many businesses. While not every business was successful, the firm had an excellent overall track record and created jobs with well-known companies like Staples, Dominos Pizza and Sports Authority.”
Watch both GST videos here:
UPDATE: 9:05 a.m. — The Romney campaign responded with a written statement:
“We welcome the Obama campaign’s attempt to pivot back to jobs and a discussion of their failed record. Mitt Romney helped create more jobs in his private sector experience and more jobs as Governor of Massachusetts than President Obama has for the entire nation,” said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul.
“President Obama has many questions to answer as to why his administration used the stimulus to reward wealthy campaign donors with taxpayer money for bad ideas like Solyndra, but 23 million Americans are still struggling to find jobs,” Saul said. “If the Obama administration was less concerned about pleasing their wealthy donors and more concerned about creating jobs, America would be much better off.”
UPDATE: 9:55 a.m. — The ads have generated a significant amount of pushback from beyond the Romney campaign as well.
The Daily Caller points out that Romney was no longer “running the day-to-day activities” at Bain Capital when GST Steel went bankrupt in 2001.
A former Obama adviser, Steve Rattner (himself a former private equity executive),says the ads are “unfair” (the RNC pushed this out).
And the Washington Examiner suggests that Romney responds by pointing out that Obama cost tens of thousands of jobs by pushing the auto companies to close dealerships in exchange for a bailout.
UPDATE: 3:45 p.m. — The Obama campaign’s ad buy is only for one day,href=”http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/05/obamas-bain-ad-a-day-engagement-123398.html” target=”_hplink”>according to Politico, making it more of a play to earn media coverage than a real paid ad campaign intended to persuade voters.
*******
Readers: I am in a 2-day seminar so I am going to be brief..but as usual, you are welcome to start flapping your lips. Blog me.
Cuddles: I just had to chime in. LOVE the video of Ms Summer – One of my fave songs. May she continue to showcase her talent wherever she is. Thanks for posting. She will be missed. My condolences to the family.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)
May 18th, 2012 at 8:52 am
Regarding my post (5) of yesterday, I must ‘apologize’ to you haters, racists, bigotists when i recommended reading the book “How To Make Friends and Influence People”. I must not have been thinking clearly..you probably can’t read a book!
Between you guys and those bullies like Romney….we’re on a fast train to hell unless more of us get involved to CHANGE!….just saying….just venting.
W/
May 18th, 2012 at 11:58 am
Anonymous 19, May 16th:
Yes, there is a time and place for everything. But it’s not as hard as it may seem to know at all times what it is you are representing. Let me help you.
Sitting with fantasies is very unsatisfactory. I know from experience. And you need not forsake one vow for another. Let me help you.
Luc is in possession of information of what you are representing. Remind him it is what he was mulling over so he knows where to retrieve it from. Let him help you.
Send me information on the name of your exact location. If Luc will assist in getting a body down, I can facilitate the transfer into the body that comes to earth and you can be reunited with who you are seeking.
You have the need to know now. The knowledge is yours if you seek it. Let us help you.
Remember, you are loved too.
PrP
May 18th, 2012 at 12:57 pm
The recording device is at capacity again
PrP
May 19th, 2012 at 7:36 am
The super rich are so afraid that a second term of Obama will be a disaster for their plans to use the ownership of America as a stepping stone to corralling the third world countries under their total control that they are willing to up the ante to 5 billion dollars to defeat him.
They are planning a campaign so nasty in the last few weeks of the election that is geared to spark a race war. They will use attempts to scare the white race into believing that Obama is going to take their control of the country away from the race.
They will use religion to attempt to shake some of the white support form Obama. They will use ads to insinuate that he is pro gay because is he secretly planning to come out as the first gay president.
Fox is geared up to be the spear head of the racial divide. They intend to get real nasty with the Zimmerman issue and to start many racial issues every few months until the election.
Many of the elite know that America is full of white racists that are anxious to start a racial war. They have been stockpiling weapons for just that event and preaching it to their followers.
What they don’t know is that as soon as the race war is over they will be the first rounded up disarmed and sent to camps.
Many of the super rich are sitting on companies that control the water and food supply of most of the third world countries. They need to get America behind wars that will eliminate any force that could organize the people of those third world companies to resist the demands price wise they intend to levy against the people of those countries for their food and water.
The plants inside Obama’s administration has indicated that Obama feels that if he gets in with a slim majority in the House and Senate, he will initiate an overhaul of the Financial Industry.
This overhaul will include legislation to prevent the passing on of billions of dollars to heirs that would deprive anyone of ever being able to gain entry into the new class of born billionaires.
He will force legislation that will break up the monopolies now held by a few billionaires. They are willing to go to a race war that will divide the country into two separate countries one supported by Russia and the other supported by China.
Putin has lined up with the right and is poised to nuke whatever european country that would interfere in the USA civil war.
In return the two new Americas will return to Putin all the countries that were part of the old USSR including Afghanistan and parts of Germany and France.
China has no idea that the off the shelf racist part of the US secret war unit has planted several operatives that will initiate a nuclear attack from India upon Pakistan.
The aim is to control China with the manpower of India backed with enough nuclear power to deter China from retaliating agains Putin’s threat against Europe and the reduction of their access to energy in the Middle East and Africa.
Putin has ceded control of the Middle East oil fields to the racists who will control their part of the New USA. Israel realizing they will be overrun because the new racist USA will offer no help to jews will be forced to use nuclear arms to defend themselves.
Putin will launch his first nuclear attack against Israel after Israel’s nuclear strike against the Middle East. The aim will be to eliminate Israel, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan as countries.
That will leave the way clear for the racist part of the US to move in and take control of the oil fields not destroyed by the nuclear attack of Israel.
Secret satellite reports have shown that any energy lost by Israel’s nuking Iran, syria and Iraq will be more than made up by the huge energy reserves just off the coast of Israel waiting to be mined once Israel no longer exists.
Once Israel is no more Putin will turn that territory over to the new racist US part. China will be forced to move to take over the second half of the divided USA. Looking to gain technological parity with Russia.
The super rich will discover that they have been out maneuvered by Putin who has made alliances with certain members of those billionaires to assist in the rounding up and disarming of those not part of their new criminal enterprise.
This scenario is well known by many in the Obama administration. Few put much credence in it because many in government don’t believe that the US military would fire upon its own people.
But I assure you that the racist will do just that. They look upon those not of their race as less than human and member of their race not of their religious belief as heretics deserving death.
Many of the super rich are more than willing to use race and religion to divide and conquer to preserve and enhance their financial position.
Anonz
May 19th, 2012 at 7:50 am
Wake up people:
=============
The ubiquity of camera-ready smartphones has spawned legions of “live-streamers” who can be found at every large-scale protest streaming a close-up account of almost every arrest. It’s a new form of journalism that’s open to anyone with a mobile phone and the resolve to get between police and protesters.
In the chaos of these events, many live-streamers have been snared in mass arrests. Others are deliberately targeted by officers who aren’t accustomed to the radical transparency of the smartphone era.
=======
This is what is happening to those of us who seek to enlighten the people about police tactics.
==================
The ubiquity of smartphones has contributed to America’s decline as a champion of free speech and freedom of the press. The U.S. dropped to 22nd place on Freedom House’s annual ranking of press freedoms. We’re now tied with Estonia and Jamaica. Our flagging status is due to the “detentions, rough police tactics, and other difficulties encountered [by those] covering protests associated with the Occupy movement,” according to Freedom House.
Many arrests result from snap judgments officers make when encountering a swarm of smartphone-carrying citizen reporters.
People, and even police officers, often don’t understand our rights with regard to public photography. At the local level the newsgathering rights of every individual, whether credentialed as a journalist or not, become even murkier.
============
We need to stand behind our “First Amendment right to record police officers in the public discharge of their duties” and to find that “officers violate citizens’ Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights when they seize and destroy such recordings without warrant or due process.”
Janis
May 19th, 2012 at 7:54 am
What you have written is very scary Anonz. But I remember the night President Obama was elected, I went to different stations to see what was being said.
I checked the Hannity show just to see what he was talking about, and he said to his republican guest ” a terrible thing just happened to this country”!
Now he is encouraging Romney to play the race card in his campaign ads.
Nancy
May 19th, 2012 at 7:56 am
In this post 9-11 environment, many freedoms of press, speech, and assembly, that we thought we had already won, have been taken from us, and often, without a fight. One thing is certain: we will have to fight to get them back.
May 19th, 2012 at 8:04 am
How to Fight for Your Inheritance When a Will Seems Unfair
A woman expects to inherit her widowed mother’s estate…but the bulk of it passes to her mother’s boyfriend instead. A man is left 25% of his parent’s estate…and his sister gets 75%.
People blindsided by uneven, unfair or unexpectedly small inheritances from a loved one’s estate often wonder whether they should challenge the will in court.
The lost assets likely aren’t the only reason they’re upset—distress over the deceased loved one’s choices about how to divide the assets can become intertwined with the hurt and anger they feel at being treated unfairly.
Here are some of the things to think about if you ever consider this course…
HOW TO CHALLENGE
You cannot challenge a will simply because you think that you deserve more or because you didn’t receive an asset that you had been told you would get.
Wills can be challenged for only certain reasons that often are very difficult to prove…
Someone exerted undue influence over the deceased, affecting the distribution of assets. Not all influence constitutes undue influence. Typically, there must be a coercive element.
Example: A home health aide refuses to provide an infirm client with food or medicine until the aide is named a beneficiary in the client’s will.
Your odds of proving undue influence may be improved if the deceased had infirmities that made him/her dependent on a beneficiary who received a surprisingly large inheritance…
if this beneficiary attempted to prevent other potential heirs from seeing the deceased prior to death…and/or if there are any prior wills naming others as heirs before this beneficiary gained control.
The deceased was not competent at the time the will was signed. This might be difficult to prove. Even if there’s no question that the deceased was in a state of mental decline, the will may have been signed years earlier when his mental state was less clear-cut.
Your odds of success are much better if there are medical records and other external evidence from the time period when the will was signed establishing the deceased’s lack of competency.
The will was not executed according to the laws of the state. Each state has detailed laws governing how a will must be signed and witnessed.
Example: A man’s will was successfully challenged and declared invalid because one of his witnesses was not in the room at the moment that the will was signed, as required.
State laws also dictate the minimum share of the estate that a surviving spouse should receive. Generally, states require that one-third of the estate go to the spouse if the deceased has children and one-half if there are no children.
The will is a fraud or forgery. A will can be challenged on the grounds that it is not actually the deceased’s will, it was not actually signed by the deceased or that it was signed by the deceased under false pretenses—for example, if the deceased was told that he was signing something other than a will.
Three scenarios that could improve the odds that a challenge to a will succeeds (or, more commonly, that the executor’s attorney offers a settlement before the case reaches court)…
The will was changed shortly before the deceased passed away from a prolonged health problem. People suffering from debilitating illnesses, especially illnesses with cognitive impact, may be particularly vulnerable. They often are dependent on care providers. That opens the door to challenges based both on incompetence and/or undue influence.
The will is inconsistent with the deceased’s beneficiary designations in a way that favors one particular heir.
Example: The deceased had two IRAs, three insurance policies and a deed to a home that all listed his two sons as equal beneficiaries for many years—yet his recent will lists just one son as the sole heir.
The disinherited son quite reasonably questioned whether his brother had exerted undue influence over his father to alter the will.
The will seems to disinherit a descendant accidentally.
Example: A will divides the estate evenly among a man’s children but is never updated to include a child born after the will is drafted. While the language in most wills is broad enough to address this, sometimes it is not.
WHO CAN CHALLENGE
There also are strict rules about who can challenge a will in court. Generally, you can challenge only if you are a named beneficiary in the will…
or if you would inherit according to your state’s intestate succession laws (the laws spelling out inheritance rules when there is no valid will)—which occasionally means that even distant relatives can challenge if there are no direct descendants or a surviving spouse.
Additionally, you might be able to challenge if you were a beneficiary in a prior version of the will that would once again be valid if the current will were ruled invalid by the court.
However, copies of the prior version often are destroyed to avoid challenges such as these.
DRAWBACKS OF CHALLENGING A WILL
Challenging a will in court is very expensive. Expect attorney fees to start at $10,000 to $25,000 and potentially much more. Thus it may not make financial sense to challenge if the estate is small.
And that’s only half the story—the executor or trustees of the will that you challenge will pay their legal bills out of the estate, reducing the amount that remains for heirs.
Will challenges also can force families to take sides over who should inherit. Family members often end up aligned against the individual who brought the challenge because challenges deplete the size of the estate and delay its distribution.
YOUR ALTERNATIVES
Contact the executor before you challenge a will in court, and calmly say, “I’m not clear about [some element of the estate].
Could you help me understand it?” Even if the answer is not what you’re hoping for, it could reassure you that you’re not being cheated and eliminate the desire to go to court.
Consider paying an attorney on a per-hour basis before you call the executor. This attorney can help you determine whether you’re being treated fairly…lay out your legal options…review letters or e-mails you send to family members or executors about the estate…and assist you so that you don’t miss deadlines if you decide to challenge the will in court.
Downplay the fact that you have hired a lawyer—if other family members learn this, it could ratchet up the tension or encourage them to hire lawyers, too, increasing the odds of a court battle.
You may wish to choose an attorney who is very familiar with wills but who does not litigate, so he has little incentive to steer you into an expensive legal battle if you’re not likely to win.
A probate attorney often is a good choice.
Alternatively, if your family has used the same accountant or financial adviser for years, consider bringing your concerns to him/her.
Source: Martin Shenkman, CPA, JD, an estate- and tax-planning attorney with the law firm Martin M. Shenkman, PC, which has offices in New York City and Teaneck, New Jersey.
He is author of 35 books, including Inherit More (Wiley) and Estate Planning for People with a Chronic Condition or Disability (Demos Health). http://www.LawEasy.com
May 19th, 2012 at 10:27 pm
I am a democrat but I don’t agree with my party 100% of the time. Sometimes I agree with the republicans and sometimes both are wrong. Both sides have problems. I think the democrats are right more often than the republicans. That is why I am a democrat.
May 19th, 2012 at 10:31 pm
Republicans also like to leech off of everyone else’s accomplishments or brighter ideas then do a quick twisting from whom they got it from and claim that their party is the more intellectual ones-LOL!
I bet as conservative(at least that is what they say about themselves; Holier than thou conservatives) that if each and everyone of their personal profiles were dug into…
we’d find the roots to fraud and bad business deals…to a whole lot of other scary aspects as more so those in High Places which were a tag along from the origins of the Book of Secrets…
Roman Empire, Persian Empire, to the Middle East. I still wonder about their names before they were titled as REPUBLICANS…
May 19th, 2012 at 10:34 pm
Who is buying 90% of Mexico’s drugs ? America , who is selling weapons and all sorts of acids to Mexico aehm.. America.
Who enjoys the super cheap labour from Mexico ? aehm.. America
the other 10% goes to canada lol!
Face it, america is the cancer that’s eating Mexico from the inside. whether you like it or not that’s true.
And for the ignorants here. The Italian mafia is known the buy, kill judges, politicians , civilians and everyone who is on their path. Italy is in Europe.
and guess who buys their drugs too ?