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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LLCF who wrote (56035)	9/18/2012 7:53:32 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 71588

Obama In 1998: "I Actually Believe In Redistribution" youtube.com

To: LLCF who wrote (56035)	9/18/2012 8:00:06 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 71588

The 10 Richest Celebrities Supporting Occupy Wall Street Celebrity Net Worth ^ \| 09-16-2012 \| Brian Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2012 7:30:34 PM by bronxville September 17th marks the one year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. Last year when the protests broke out, we were slightly confused when a barrage of insanely rich celebrities had hypocritically thrown their support behind the movement. Occupy Wall Street’s slogan “We are the 99%” is derived from the idea that the protesters represent the difference in wealth that separates the top 1% of society from every other American citizen. Occupy has defined the top 1% of Americans as anyone who with an annual household income greater than $593,000. So why are multi-millionaire celebrities announcing their support to grab headlines? And why is Occupy Wall Street allowing rich celebrities to co-op their message? For the record, here is a list of the 10 richest celebrities hypocritically supporting Occupy Wall Street. Oh and by the way, these celebrities have a combined net worth of $1.255 billion… Yoko Ono Net Worth - $500 million. In several interviews Yoko Ono has stated “I love Occupy Wall Street! John is sending his smile to Occupy Wall Street. I am sending my love to Occupy Wall Street. We are all working together.” Interesting words for a woman who has essentially done nothing of merit for 30 years except inherit a fortune from one of the most famous singers in music history. Russell Simmons Net Worth - $325 million It should be noted that on top of being a hip-hop mogul, Russell Simmons happens to be the founder of a high fee credit card company called UniRush Financial Services. That doesn’t seem like something Occupy protesters would be happy about. Roseanne Barr Net Worth - $80 million Last year Roseanne Barr famously went on Russian Television and said that she thinks anyone who has more than $100 million should be beheaded. Interesting that her net worth is $80 million. I guess she doesnt make “the cut”. Deepak Chopra Net Worth - $80 million Deepak Chopra stated that #OWS is “turning anger into awareness”. The fortune Chopra has made off his fluff filled books just turns me to anger. Kanye West Net Worth - $70 million Last year when Kanye West showed up to support Occupy Wall Street, he arrived wearing hundreds of thousand of dollars worth of jewelry and clothing. I think Kanye didn’t quite understand the message. Alec Baldwin Net Worth - $65 million I actually love Alec Baldwin, I think he’s great on 30 Rock where he earns $300,000 per episode. But he must understand the irony of making so much money from NBC which is owned jointly by two massive corporate conglomerates, GE and Comcast. Not to mention the fact that Baldwins earns millions each year endorsing a credit card company owned by a Fortune 500 financial services corporation. Susan Sarandon Net Worth - $50 million Michael Moore Net Worth - $50 million Tim Robbins Net Worth - $50 million Nancy Pelosi Net Worth - $35.5 million

To: LLCF who wrote (56035)	9/19/2012 9:59:55 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 71588

What Romney Might Have Said Draft remarks for the candidate on taxes, dependency and the 47%. Updated September 18, 2012, 8:09 p.m. ET Mitt Romney has been taking a beating for his remarks, taped at a May fundraiser, that 47% of Americans would automatically vote for President Obama because they are "dependent" on government. We could pile on, but instead we can report that we've been leaked pages of draft remarks that Mr. Romney might have delivered on the same subject but curiously didn't. Maybe he'll deliver them some time before Election Day: One tragedy of the Obama Presidency is how many more Americans have become dependent on the government. I know it's not their fault. Most want to be self-sufficient, to provide for their families, but they can't because there aren't enough jobs. "That's why 46 million Americans are on food stamps now, compared to 30 million in 2008. That's why 10.6 million were on Social Security disability in 2011 compared to 9.3 million three years earlier. That's why 40% of the unemployed have been out of work for six months or more, and the smallest share of the U.S. population is looking for work than at any time since 1981. "This is a national scandal. Not because those fellow Americans are free-loaders, but because they aren't able to get a good job that pays enough to be self-sufficient and lets them fulfill their human potential. "I want Americans to be less dependent on government not because it costs too much. We will always help Americans who need our help. I want Americans to be independent so they can realize the pride of accomplishment and the dignity of work and contribute their God-given talents to build a better country. "I think the success of a Presidency should be measured by how many fewer people need food stamps, how many fewer need disability, not how many more people are added to the rolls. I don't want to take food stamps away from Americans in need. I want fewer Americans to need food stamps. "Sometimes I wonder if President Obama shares that view. He and his economists keep saying that food stamps and unemployment benefits are a form of 'stimulus.' Well, we've sure had a lot of that kind of stimulus, and all we have to show for it are more people on food stamps and more people on welfare and more people looking for work. I think a real stimulus is a job, and I intend to help Americans create more of them. "You've probably also heard some people—some even in my own party—divide Americans between 'makers' and 'takers.' As if half the country wants to live off the other half. I've never believed that. That's no different from the kind of divisive politics that the President practices when he pits the wealthy against everyone else. "We want a society in which one person's success lifts everyone else. The job of government is to create the incentives and opportunity so everyone can become a maker. But too often government wants to take more from Americans so it can make more Americans dependent on government. That's when we lose our way, and too many Americans lose hope that they can work and prosper. "It's the same with our broken tax policy. You may have heard some people say that about half the American people pay no income tax. That's true. But I know millions of those people do pay Social Security taxes, which are a tax on work. They're making their contribution to our government, and I don't want to—and will not—raise their taxes. "In fact, I want to reduce the tax on work by repealing ObamaCare, which will force employers to pay a tax if they don't offer health insurance. That means they'll hire fewer workers, as many companies are already doing. "But I don't want to stop there. I also want to fix our tax code so everyone plays by the same rules, and that includes the richest and most powerful. You know, the President seems to say every day that 'millionaires and billionaires' should pay higher tax rates. "But what he doesn't say is that if you raise tax rates, those millionaires and billionaires will hire lawyers and lobbyists to avoid those rates, to exploit loopholes and tax shelters, or to get special favors. Like Solyndra did. The government will get less revenue, and that means the middle class will end up paying more. The President won't tell you that either. "Think about it. Do you have a lobbyist in Washington? Do you have a guy you can call to get you in to see the Treasury Secretary or the Senators in Gucci Gulch? Of course you don't. But the millionaires and billionaires do. "That's why so many people in both parties support tax reform that lowers tax rates and pays for it by closing loopholes and helping the economy grow faster. "That's what Ronald Reagan did with Democrats like Bill Bradley and Dick Gephardt in the 1980s. That's what Democrat Alice Rivlin and Republican Pete Domenici have proposed. And that's what the President's own deficit commission—led by Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles—proposed. "I don't agree with all of the details in these plans, but I do know they have the right general idea. We have the most complicated tax code with some of the highest tax rates in the world and yet it doesn't raise the revenue we need to fund the government. "We need tax reform to spur faster growth and to make American workers more competitive. But we also need reform to make the tax code fairer, and less open to exploitation by the rich and powerful who have friends in Washington." *** That's where the speech excerpts end. No doubt there's more, sitting in the PC of some young wordsmith in Boston who's working for Mr. Romney. Somebody should sneak it past Stuart Stevens. Surely a man as smart as the former CEO of Bain Capital can give a better speech on taxes and dependency than he delivered at that fundraiser. If he can't, he'll lose, and he'll deserve to. online.wsj.com

To: LLCF who wrote (56035)	9/20/2012 9:11:29 AM
From: Peter Dierks	1 Recommendation Respond to of 71588

Threat to the Government Gravy Train Obama’s moocher culture Dependent voters want to keep the gravy train flowing Tuesday, September 18, 2012 The liberal media went wild over a video of Mitt Romney saying people who pay no taxes and live off government handouts have no reason to vote for him. Left unsaid is that Barack Obama has been running on exactly that platform. When it comes to the culture of dependency, President Obama built that. Mr. Obama views government as a bottomless well of free handouts. Every idea, every proposal, every promise Mr. Obama makes involves the government giving something to somebody. His urgent focus is to expand and strengthen government’s role in everyone’s daily life. This was illustrated in the Obama campaign slideshow “The Life of Julia,” a detailed roadmap for cradle-to-grave dependence on government. Every slide began with, “Under President Obama” — which the White House believes is the proper place for Americans. Mr. Obama said he wanted to spread the wealth around and fundamentally transform America. Unfortunately, he has. There are more Americans in poverty now than when President Lyndon Johnson declared war on it in 1964. Mr. Obama is called the “food-stamp president” for good reason. A record 47 million Americans per month — almost one in six — are on food stamps, which is practically double the number from when Mr. Obama took office. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack posited that food stamps are an “economic stimulus” that actually creates wealth. “Every dollar of [food stamps] generates $1.84 in the economy in terms of economic activity,” he claimed in 2011. The White House also believes in the miraculous effects of unemployment benefits. In 2011, White House spokesman Jay Carney said handouts to the jobless were critical to the economy because “every place that, that money is spent has added business and that creates growth and income for businesses that leads them to decisions about jobs, more hiring.” So unemployment creates jobs — such political doublespeak would make George Orwell blush. The vaunted “stimulus” program was nearly a trillion dollars of giveaways to well-connected insiders. It failed to produce the promised job benefits but did prop up a network of Obama cronies who would have a hard time competing on a level playing field. All Mr. Obama can do is spend other people’s money and run up debt like a teenager with a credit card. He has no concept of where wealth comes from; he just assumes he has a right to appropriate it. The results of his policies have been predictable: a stalled economy, record numbers of Americans not working and astronomical debt. Yet Mr. Obama continues to promise more handouts, more programs, more giveaways, more government. Mr. Obama’s voter base is typified by the euphoric 2008 supporter who said she, “never thought this day would ever happen. I won’t have to worry about putting gas in my car. I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage. You know, if I help him, he’s gonna help me.” There is no reason for the moocher class to vote for someone like Mr. Romney who promises fiscal accountability. He threatens their government goodies. The Washington Times washingtontimes.com