Day: 8/3/2012

Put Up Or Shut Up: That Goes For Mitt Romney Too

Posted by on August 3, 2012 at 11:27 am. 2 Comments :

The feud between Mitt Romney and Harry Reid continues to escalate. What began as a provocation by Reid is developing into a major skirmish, mainly because a thin-skinned Romney was dumb enough to take the bait.

So Reid announces that he has a source who asserts that Romney didn’t pay taxes for ten years. Reid carefully noted that it was not his speculation, but the testimony of a Bain Capital investor who had cause to know what he was talking about.

OK. So Romney is understandably perturbed. But rather than release his taxes and making a fool of Reid, Romney gets huffy and says…

“It’s time for Harry to put up or shut up. Harry is going to have to describe who it is he spoke with because that’s totally and completely wrong. It’s untrue, dishonest, and inaccurate. It’s wrong. So I’m — I’m looking forward to have Harry reveal his sources and we will probably find out it’s the White House.”

For Romney to demand that “Harry” (an intentionally disrespectful way of referencing the Senate Majority Leader) “put up or shut up” is laughable considering the whole controversy exists because Romney refuses to “put up” his tax returns as almost every presidential candidate has done for the last 40 years. What Romney is asking is for Reid to prove that Romney has paid taxes for the last ten years. Reid cannot prove that. Only Romney can. What’s more, Romney inserts an unsupported accusation that Reid’s source is the White House. If Romney has any evidence of that he should put up or shut up.

Yesterday Reid got some support from CNN’s Dana Bash who reported that she has a source who corroborates Reid’s source. So this is getting stickier by the hour for Romney. The bottom line for this affair was best articulated by conservative George Will, who is one of many Republicans calling on Romney to come clean. Will said…

“The cost of not releasing the returns are clear. Therefore, he must have calculated that there are higher costs in releasing them.”

That about sums it up. Romney clearly knows that there is something in his returns that would be more damaging to his campaign than the beating he is taking from both Democrats and Republicans for being obstinate. So, What’s he hiding?

Mitt's Maxim

The Duh Report: Study Finds Hate Speech On Conservative Talk Radio

Posted by on August 3, 2012 at 1:29 am. 14 Comments :

A study conducted by the National Hispanic Media Coalition and UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center has uncovered evidence that “conservative talk-radio programs contribute to increasing hatred against certain minorities.”

No…really?

The researchers analyzed the themes and content of “The Rush Limbaugh Show,” “The Sean Hannity Show,” “The Glenn Beck Program,” “The Savage Nation” and “The John and Ken Show,” and produced a report titled “Social Networks for Hate Speech.” They concluded that the content and the guest lineups promoted hatred against ethnic, racial, religious groups and the LGBT community.

Despite the fact that a Fox News personality, Sean Hannity, featured prominently in the study, Fox News neglected to do a report on it. Fox News Latino did carry a story posted by the Spanish news agency EFE, but you would have had to dig to find that.

Interestingly, it didn’t take any effort at all to find out that Hannity had done his own examination of talk radio’s hateful rhetoric a few months ago, and guess where he found all of the caustic talk.

Sean Hannity Hate Talk

The program was a one-sided harangue against liberals with Hannity’s guest, the notorious and unapologetic racist, Pat Buchanan. It’s safe to say that this program may not have been as rigorously academic as the study by the NHMC and UCLA.