Romney caught in a felony-level lie.

But if it's with John Rhys-Davies, can we have the version also with Kari Wuhrer?

I wish they were that easy to characterize. I know plenty of scientifically literate and numerate pro-evolution Tea Party people.

Too bad none of them seem to be running for office.

We damned well better.

The Tea Party might not, but there is definitely political space in america for a right wing party that does respond to demographic realities so, I strongly suspect, that something will arise to fill that gap. Personally I believe that the current GOP will get fed up of losing and make the necessary adjustments to a world where there are more Latino voters and start acknowledging that black voters exist (and actually have quite socially conservative views). If they don't manage it internally due to primary dynamics then you might get another of America's brief flirtations with a serious third party (that is then subsumed back into the GOP). The least likely outcome of all is that the GOP continues to cling to an ever declining voter base while the Democrats dominate for twenty years, power is just too much of a draw.

Exactly! I still don't see the Republican party as completely synonymous with the tea party. The tea party is a faction that is dominating the party's direction right now, but that won't survive repeated losses. If nothing else, once the Koch brothers decide the tea party is over it will no longer have the funding and organization that it has enjoyed in the last couple years.

If the Republican party had any real leadership they would be able to pull back enough from the tea party's influence to avoid spending an extra election cycle or two in the wilderness. But there are no leaders at the head of the party right now so instead they get a freakshow of a primary where the sycophants like Cain and Trump who toss their name for a laugh are just as serious as the fringe nutters from the party proper.

Hey, at least it's proof that democracy works! They really did end up with the candidate they deserve: Stands for nothing. Incompetent. A campaign of aggressive ignorance. Can you think of anyone better suited to summarize the GOP of 2012? It says volumes that they don't like their own avatar.

Anyway, look at the wilderness that the Democratic party was in through the first half of the 2000's. Not as bad as the GOP now, I think, but same underlying problem of leadership. All Bush/Cheney had to do was threaten to call someone unpatriotic and the dems rolled over en mass. It was frustrating as hell to be a Democrat during that period, embodied by the fucking horrible 2004 presidential campaign they ran. When Obama gave his speech at the 2004 convention I thought "why can't I vote for that guy for President?" Who would have believed it would only take four years?

The public's political memory is usually measured in... ooh shiney! But I imagine people will remember their elderly or disadvantaged family members having difficulty voting because of a concerted effort by one party to disenfranchise them. The Republicans seem to be in a worse position now than the Democrats of 2004 due to the demographics issue, and their "let it all end in fire!" attitude is going to turn that into a lasting disadvantage.

I don't know why there's a big deal being made about this now instead of a month ago, but I guess some people are suggesting that if Romney took any money from foreign donors he's fucked.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/0...rom-foreign-donors-should-he-be-disqualified/

This made me think of a dumb, Citizen's United question. Corporations are legally people, and thus entitled to free speech. However, corporations are also multi-national entities, with foreign shareholders, whom they represent. So when a corporation spends money on political ads, aren't they, in effect, spending in the name of foreign interests, which would otherwise be illegal?

That was one of the arguments made by the dissent, iirc. Not a dumb question at all, but the answer seems to be "well, that won't happen." Hm.

They're not "people", thus getting all the rights of people. They have some abilities/rights as people do. For must jurisdictional issues, if you have an office in the US, the US can get/sue/seize/regulate your corporation (to the extent that it is present), but your corp then gets spending/speech rights.

The author of this article doesn't seem to understand how our legal system works.

Unless that law reverses the burden of proof, it's quite the opposite. Someone would have to prove that Romney "solicit[ed], accept[ed], or receive[d] a contribution or donation" for him to be guilty of anything.

Furthermore, if a foreign national individual who controls a corporation in the US and directs that US corporation to "make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State, or local election", there doesn't appear to be a violation as the US corporation did the action. That might well apply to non-profits as well, making it much messier.

But this allegation isn't going anywhere without evidence.

Actually I brought it up in this very thread. :)

As was also mentioned earlier in this thread one of the attendees of the Isreal fundraiser was Sheldon Adelson. I wouldn't be surprised if the $1M came almost entirely from him.

That addictinginfo.org article is junk. By all means if they have proof that "One table alone gave him a million in cash. None was from American citizens." then they should publish names and let that shit hit the fan.

As I recall from when the tour actually occurred the donations solicited in Israel were from ex-pats, which wouldn't be illegal.

By all means, if they have anything more than conjecture let them bring it forth, because otherwise I'm going with made-up-bullshit on this one.

Don't ignore the possibility of a straight-up party shift, however unlikely. Of course, the last time it happened was when the GOP became one of the two major parties--kind of a long time--but, if the existing parties keep heading in the direction of being ever less able to talk to each other, eventually one of them is going to blow up altogether.

Arise! This seems to be the main thread where that ransom over the tax documents was discussed, and there's now a prime suspect under investigation. It's not conclusive evidence, but the guy is up to his eyeballs in the bitcoin world (he's KnightMB).